Dunki & the dream of a better life_ A Bhagavad-gita perspective

Podcast:

Hi Krishna donkey movie and the dream for a better life the donkey movie has depicted how people often take extremely dangerous and illegal routes to go to countries like UK in the case of the movie the donkey route is also used nowadays more to go to America through either Canada which is extremely cold with often temperatures of minus 30 minus 40 degree celsius or through South America where they go through the Mexico desert and lands which are controlled by the mafia with extreme dangers so today we will talk about not so much the movie as this dream for a better life and what the Bhagavad Gita says about this I’ll talk about in three terms first is aspiration second is action external and third is action internal so aspiration it is natural that we all feel that we should have a better life that the life we have at present is not all that we would like it to be the specific cause of why we might feel like this is widely variable but at the start of the Bhagavad Gita for example Arjuna feels that he is in a terrible situation and he wants to just be anywhere except where he is he says that I just can’t be here because my mind is going everywhere and wanting to be anywhere except here that’s 130 in the Bhagavad Gita and Krishna does not dismiss that particular concern of Arjuna but then Krishna gives him the wisdom by which that aspiration can be channeled constructively that brings us to the second part action external now India is a land where lots of people are still facing immense poverty where after working extremely hard throughout the day they can still barely make ends meet and definitely it is natural for them to want a better life when they are in such situations so broadly speaking when we face extreme difficulty or distress in our life we could try to resolve it in one of three ways we can mitigate the situation we can emigrate from the situation or we can tolerate the situation but let’s begin with emigrate what is depicted in that situation now Krishna does say that there are times when this may be needed so for example in 6, 10 and 11 he says that somebody leaves the world because they want to focus on spiritual growth and the specifics may vary but the principle is not something dismissed by Krishna and similarly he says in 13, 11 that some people may choose to live away from other people also so wanting to move away from an unfavorable situation is one way and many Indians have chosen that way and they have gone abroad and they have settled and many of them have been success stories some of them from material perspective have been spectacular success stories where they have attained phenomenal levels of prosperity or achievement we have many fortune 500 companies their CEOs are from India so the point is that this is one valid way of moving forward emigrate now the other is we may mitigate we may fight and counter the situation so that we can improve it there are many Indians who have also worked in India to reform India and if you consider post independent India and India in 2023 there has been significant improvement in many areas especially acceleration improvement in the last decade or more so the point is that India has not done as well materially as the Singapore or China but India has certainly not done disastrously the way many African countries have gone after they also shook off the yoke of colonialism and certainly India has done better than its next door western neighbor who is obsessed with India’s destruction and dismantling so there are people who have worked from within the system who reformed the system they mitigated the situation and some people may decide that they can just tolerate the situation because they may feel that while I am in the situation the situation is bad but there are things of value over here also India is a place where there is there is a support of extended family and community where there is a vibrant culture and tradition and spirituality and while other things are bad this can be accepted so any of these three options are valid and one has to use one’s intelligence to decide which option to take now with regard to mitigating the situation Krishna tells Arjuna in 1133 he says you should fight to establish Dharma in this world and regarding tolerating Krishna says in 214 and several other places so all these three options could be valid but we have to do some inner work and that brings me to third part action internal if we have not done our inner homework if we have not cultivated a healthy attitude and vision toward our situation then we might choose any of these options with an unhealthy disposition so for example instead of mitigating the situation we may start retaliating in the situation that means we start hating whoever we think has put us in that situation and we make it our life’s mission to destroy those people now when that happens this may be fanciful and entertaining and vengeance movies where Vendetta becomes the mission of the hero but in real life living with a vengeful attitude subjects a person not only to agony throughout their life but it often triggers wars that go on conflicts and wars that go on generation after generation so we want to mitigate not retaliate similarly we may want to tolerate but the point is not to suffocate some people may not do anything about the situation either because they are too lazy to want to do anything to change the situation but they may feel extremely resentful and when that kind of resentment comes in that can lead to mental pathology where they become filled with hate and then they may explode at some time or they simply explode against themselves they implode they have a mental breakdown so tolerating is not meant for causing us to suffocate and similarly when we want to emigrate it should not be running away from the situation when we are running away we are not so much focused on where we want to go as from where we want to go away and we are running away in fear or despair and the situation that we are in that situation continues to haunt us and sometimes because of that we may rush into situations that may even be worse sometimes people have a breakup in one relationship they run away from that and then they rush into some other relationship which may turn out to be god forbid even more toxic so the donkey situation is sometimes like this where people feel that our present life is so desperate that anything is better but no anything is not better there are many things which could be far worse in this world we can never say that we have hit rock bottom we may think it is a rock bottom but the bottom may shift lower further so yes there are opportunities for growth and prosperity in the west but going there can be extremely dangerous and one needs to be aware of those dangers and even for those who are successful in the west it’s not that it’s a completely happy place this world is dukkha layer that means not that we have to always be in distress everywhere but we cannot avoid distress anywhere there will always be something wrong in our life so rather than just rushing away from one particular situation thinking that a future will be better the bhagavad gita guides us to do some inner work and that inner work centers on that is appreciated so the internal action is to appreciate that whatever is happening in our life however distressing it may seem to be it is within the bigger plan of the lord and we are parts of god and each one of us has a part in god’s plan in this world so the gita says in 15.7 that if we try to play our part in god’s plan then our life is constructive otherwise our mind and senses will pull us here and there and subject us to unnecessary misery so if we have a prayerful disposition where we devotionally connect with the lord then Krishna says I will give you not just buddhi but buddhi yoga in 10.10 he says with that buddhi with which we can do yoga that means we can connect ourselves to a higher reality we can choose a path that takes us to a better life not just horizontally in this world but vertically in terms of raising our consciousness upward then whether we tolerate mitigate or emigrate if we have learned to appreciate first that there is a divine plan for our life and then try to discern what is the best way we can cooperate in that divine plan how we can do justice to our god given abilities then we will be able to create a better life without taking risks that get us into unnecessary danger and maybe even lead to permanent disaster we have a right to a better life and the bhagavad gita offers us wisdom by which we can find the right way to a better life thank you Hare Krishna.