Faith amid trauma ISKCON Mayapur Bhagavatam class

Hare Krishna Grateful to be here with all of you today To try to speak something on the Srimad Bhagavatam At the lotus feet of their Lordships Radha, Radha, Madhava Vijaya, Tattva and Narasimha Dev. I seek the blessings of all the devotees So that I can speak on this exalted topic So I'll be using this as a whiteboard to write and draw some things so let's try to understand where we are in the Bhagavatam right now In the Bhagavatam, we are right now in the third canto The second chapter and this is called remembrance of Lord Krishna Now here the Bhagavatam is often a set of nested conversations so there is a conversation for example between Suta Goswami and Naimishari messages and then Within that from the second canto starts the conversation between between Shukadeva Goswami and Parikshit Maharaj and here within that we have a conversation between specifically between Uddhava and who is the other person Vidura So Here Uddhava and Vidura have met and Vidura is asking about the well-being of Krishna so Vidura has been out in the forest for a very long time and He is in one sense Unaware of what is happening and in the meanwhile Uddhava has witnessed one of the most devastating things That a human being can ever witness You know when we have distress Distress is just a fact of life That the world is Dukkhaan, everybody has to face distress but There are some forms of distress all distress is painful But there is some distress which is painful not just for the body or the mind but even for our very soul and This is where it is when this happens that our faith Can become very easily challenged And among all the things that a person can witness He suppose somebody is fight a soldier fighting in army Now if a colleague falls If colleague dies, that's painful But if one's say commander dies Hmm That's even more painful Because the colleague dying is one loss commander dying means the the army itself will lose direction now but suppose a commander who is supposed to be very powerful almost infallible undefeatable a Commander who is supposed to be undefeatable like somebody is so good at Sword fighting that nobody can defeat them in sword fighting and that person dies in a sword fight only And the question will come this is our best sword fighter and this person has fallen Then what hope is there? for us to your fight and win So the extent of the morale being not just shaken, but even shattered Can be overwhelming So now Uddhava if you can see the scale Uddhava is similarly experienced Something devastating it is one thing to have his home Dwarka devastated It is another thing to have Dwarka Varsis Fight and kill themselves There's a fratricide among them And it's worse of all is to see Krishna die By an arrow a mere arrow of all things now, of course Krishna doesn't die But he has seen that It's one thing If we live in a particular city and the city becomes flooded or devastated the earthquake It's quite shocking even even one part of our home gets cracked if you pay Entire city is raised. It's horrifying So Here the whole Dwarka is destroyed that's bad enough you saw it's one thing everybody dies sooner or later It's quite another to see People who love each other people whom we love fight like mad and kill each other and Then on top of that the person whom we consider to be the Lord That Lord is failed by an insignificant arrow and That to the arrow is not even shot by any warrior Arrow is shot by whom a hunter a mere hunter and that to the arrow hits merely the leg That Leg wounds are generally not fatal.

They're painful, but they're not fatal so It's we cannot imagine a situation which can be more Challenging or even Confounding for one's feet than what would the wise man missed? So Prabhupada in some ways witnessed this when the Gaudiya mutt fell apart the Gaudiya mutt had many exalted devotees Bhakti sansa Thakur was the founder Bhakti sansa Thakur, relatively speaking departed Somewhat unexpectedly, of course according to the divine plan, but he departed unexpectedly and then after that the devotees Who were supposed to be his leaders started fighting among each other and the preaching mission was completely devastated it was Prabhupada Prabhupada could have said that this mission is so pure Then why is it falling apart like this? It would have been so easy for him Abandon it and Prabhupada was not in one sense very invested in the mission Prabhupada was not like a brahmachari or a sanyasi who was dependent on the mission Prabhupada was a grahastha and he had his own life and his own career and Generally, when there are too many problems in something And we feel that do I need to be very involved in this? I just want to get out of here So like that We see that there are times in our life When our faith will be challenged at its very foundation So any problem can lead us to some sort of negative feeling But having negative feelings is one issue Many of us when we have some problems in whichever temple we are at We may have some questions with some issues with the local authorities local devotees But still we have our faith in Krishna. We have faith in the process of bhakti and we continue on When we find our space and continue on but here at the very foundation Is Krishna really God? If he is God, how did all this happen to his loved ones? How did this happen to him? Such questions could very easily have afflicted Uddhava and could have shaken and shattered his faith and in this series of verses he begins When Uddhava asks him, so Uddhava is asked by Vidhara, what happened? How is Krishna? He says the son of our dynasty has departed. What welfare can I talk about? He's in agony.

The Bhagavatam is described very poetically and when he hears questions about Krishna It's almost as if he gets lost It's like he gets transported to the spiritual world and he's absorbed and after a few moments he comes back to this world After coming back to this world, then he starts speaking. So he does describe what has happened but that Description is very small. Oh that that Krishna has departed from the world and his focus is on the nectarean remembrance of Krishna and He will describe the various pastimes of Krishna and in this particular verse.

He says that Aptakamaha Lakshmiya Swarajya Lakshmiya Aptasamastakamaha that He has just seen the most unimaginable the most unbearable of misfortune Befall everyone including Krishna and still his faith is strong They say Krishna is the lord of all good fortune. He is triyadheesha He's the lord of all threes So, how is he able to maintain his faith? He is talking about the glories of the Lord and in one sense Similar verses glorifying the Lord are found repeatedly in the Bhagavatam But if we look at the context in which these prayers are being said this is remarkable You know, we may say that in a Vyasa Sanni, we may give a class Krishna is the supreme controller Krishna is the well-wisher of everyone But say somebody has extremely painful cancer and they're wasting away and vegetating and they are in a hospital And if at that time they say Krishna is the supreme controller, Krishna is the well-wisher of everyone Now that requires a lot of faith to say that And that will have a much greater impact on us This person is just saying it for the sake of saying it about what are they to gain by that? They're saying if they're saying it conviction that has a much greater impact So Prabhupada himself had a fairly long prolonged sickness in 1977 and Even then he was consistently Glorifying Krishna by speaking the Bhagavatam by talking about do talking about Krishna with devotees And one of the last purport that he dictated says Krishna is the supreme controller Krishna is in charge of everything And that statement has a lot of gravitas lot of weight Because of the context in which is said That's why When you consider the impact of a statement How much impact it has it depends on many things It depends on the content of the statement what is said, but also depends on the context of the statement Who is saying it? When are they saying it? So this particular statement This is as I said it can seem to be a glorification of Krishna that occurs so many times in the Bhagavatam But in the context in which it is being spoken. It is nothing short of utterly extraordinary so how do we Maintain such faith if our faith is challenged God forbid such a challenge may never come to our faith to such a degree But at some time of the other The nature of life is Events will happen that will challenge our faith The key is Buddhi yoga So this is 10.10 in the Bhagavad-gita.

Buddhi yoga comes several times in the Bhagavad-gita, but let's focus on 10.10 Krishna says तेशां सतत युक्तानां भजतां प्रीति पूर्वकं तदामि बुद्धियोगम् तम् एनमां उपयान्तिते So the word Buddhi yoga has many meanings, but one meaning that is relevant for us is the Buddhi to do yoga That the intelligence to connect with Krishna That whatever be the situation we are in we have to Connect with Krishna and we have to see that situation in a way that we can connect with Krishna And in one sense that is the key responsibility of every devotee That the nature of the world is if I am here There is a spectrum of events that will be happening and some will be Positive in the sense that favourable for our devotion some will be negative Now if we look at the evidence at the event that are negative We'll actually start asking where is Krishna? Why is Krishna not helping me? Does Krishna even exist? But if you look at the events that are positive Then I'll explain what positive and negative means shortly, but then we will be able to maintain Our faith not only maintain but strengthen our faith if we consider Prabhupada's own example Let's take three examples We'll start with Prabhupada then we'll move towards we'll go to Vidura who is a second conversationalist here, and then we'll come to So now Prabhupada He met his Guru Maharaj in 1922 and by that time he was already married. He had a child So he said it would be unfair for my wife if I renounce and join the mission my wife and family Then Prabhupada decided that he would work very hard and establish a business and with that business He would fund his Guru Maharaj mission and some astrologer had said that He might become one of the wealthiest persons in the country and if you look at Prabhupada as a grahastha He tried his business at three different places First he started in Kolkata itself Then he went to the opposite of the country in Mumbai Then he went to Prayag Now I have talked with devotees Who have my friend is a scholar of history. They said in 1920s roughly at that time Mobility was not so much People would not travel so much or not certainly not relocate so much And this is not a small relocation and nowadays transporting and relocating people are located from one country to another also But at that time to start an entirely new business in another part of the country if you consider three different parts of the country East, West and North So Prabhupada worked hard And he was working extremely hard and his motive was also pure It was not just that he wanted to become wealthy and enjoy the wealth.

He wanted to serve his Guru Maharaj's mission And what happened somehow? Every single endeavour was frustrated Sometimes a fire broke out, sometimes one of his aides Cheated and took away the wealth. This happened. The time was wrong and not one of those endeavours really worked very well and then at that time Prabhupada came across that verse यस्याः मनुग्रहणामि अरिशेत धनमिषने ततो धनम्त जत्यस्य सोजन दुख दुखिता That for one on whom Krishna shows special mercy Krishna takes everything away Now Most of us when we hear this verse, we say that you know, I don't want such special mercy You know ordinary mercy is good enough for me But the point is that Prabhupada could have been resentful Why is this happening to me? But Prabhupada saw this verse, Prabhupada talked with his godbrother Yudhisthira Maharaj and said yes Yes, Abhay babu, this seems to apply to you and Prabhupada took that as an opportunity to Shift his focus from building a business to direct preaching and there also it was not a success came immediately Success came later.

So but the point was when there were setbacks There were setbacks and severe setbacks but Prabhupada for him that did not lead to dejection From the setback there was a comeback How did Prabhupada come back he tried something else and he was possible to do that Because he maintained his faith in Krishna so It is that Prabhupada was able to see the adversity that he was going through in Devotionally favourable terms and Prabhupada uses the word. He said we should all surrender to Krishna And yes, which is surrender to Krishna but Sharanagati that there are six limbs of Sharanagati The first two and the last four Anukulyasa Sankalpa, Prathikulyasa Varjanam, Rakshishtithi Vishwaso, Gopatrathwe valanam tatha, Atmanikshepa Karpanne, Shadvidaha Sharanagati Now the last four in this are dispositions of the faith that Krishna is the protector Krishna is the maintainer Atmanikshepa, that feeling that one is worthless without Krishna Offering one's complete being to Krishna. These are dispositions.

They will take time to develop You can't suddenly one day wake up and feel Krishna is my protector You know, we say Krishna is my protector and no protection. Krishna where are you? So it's not that simple but the first two are decisions Accept what is favourable and avoid what is unfavourable and that means Surrender is not just like passive. Krishna, I raise my hands and surrender Surrender is dynamic.

It's active. In every situation when we have to surrender we have to see What is favourable for Krishna for my Krishna consciousness and choose that and what is unfavourable for my Krishna consciousness I need to avoid that So for example, if we are sitting in a class with a person sitting next to us And they're distracting us Then surrender doesn't mean okay, whatever Krishna want, let it happen. Krishna doesn't want me to hear this class No, that's not the point of surrender, isn't it? Surrender means what is favourable for me if I come here for what is favourable for my devotion and okay I should actually Hear the class maybe I request that person to go out or if that person are not likely to listen to me Then I move somewhere else So surrender in that not just active these two decisions you could say they are active not passive In fact, we can also say it's proactive Proactive means we should be evaluating what is favourable and what is unfavourable So in the world So the point I'm making is Prabhupada could have seen Everything is going wrong.

And that means Krishna doesn't want me to preach. Why should I preach? Prabhupada saw it as Krishna want me to preach in a different way by not getting into involved in so much in money But focussing directly on direct preaching so similarly We consider Vidura himself now Vidura Has also just subjected to a great failure See Vidura tried lifelong to try to persuade Dhritarashtra to stop antagonising the Pandavas to stop pandering to Duryodhana And there's always some hope that Dhritarashtra might listen, but Dhritarashtra was too attached to Duryodhana So if we consider Vidura, Vidura was virtuous Dhritarashtra was attached. So he was weak and Then there's Duryodhana.

Duryodhana was outright evil vicious So Vidura had a relationship with Dhritarashtra, but Dhritarashtra had a relationship with Duryodhana Which happened to be much stronger? and after trying lifelong Finally what had happened was Duryodhana had publicly in the presence of Dhritarashtra viciously insulted Vidura And at that time What happened? Duryodhana's words did not hurt him very much But it was Dhritarashtra's silence that hurt Vidura much more See in a conflict the harshest words of our critics Don't hurt us as much as the silence of our friends now if we see the situation here, it's like Vidura and Dhritarashtra in one generation and Duryodhana is another generation. So generally with our elders, we should be very polite and respectful as much as possible so imagine if there are two spiritual masters and There's one spiritual master disciple and just deliberately give you a provocative example Hopefully such a thing never happens in real life But just to understand the gravity of the injury say the disciple of one spiritual master Viciously criticises another spiritual master now in the presence of that spiritual master the disciple is Criticising the godbrother of his guru and now okay. Somebody doing like that is bad enough But if this godbrother sees that the other spiritual master, the person is the authority figure, that person also remains silent You know, okay, this person might be immature that kind of behaviour is terrible, but it can be overlooked but your silence It's much more difficult to overlook that.

This is what sometimes Prabhupada had to endure When he brought Krishna Consciousness to Vrindava, here to Mayapur, that apart The point is Vidura could have said all my life's efforts are wasted. I invested so much time in this Dhritarashtra And he can't even speak one word in support of me. What is the use of my entire life? But Vidura saw it differently Vidura saw That While Duryodhana's words are spoken because of his envy, because of his arrogance, he was clearly under Mahamaya But Vidura saw that through his words Yogamaya is acting.

That I am getting a reason to no longer have to stick by Dhritarashtra's side Because if he had stuck by Dhritarashtra's side, then he would have had to fight against the Pandavas so Vidura saw the same words Not as oh, it shows the waste of my entire life's efforts. He saw it as Actually, this is a opportunity for me to become disentangled from this war So again, this is Buddhi Yoga The buddhi to do yoga. Vidura's vision of being insulted by Duryodhana So this is something which we will see all the time My life's efforts are wasted He could have seen like that But he did not.

Instead, what do you see? This is this gives me a reason for Disentangling myself from the war. So This is something which all of us need to do that Whatever situation comes in our life. It is our responsibility To see it in a way that is favourable for our devotion So this is buddhi yoga Now what is if we consider here Uddhava himself? What is he doing? He is remembering He could have remembered the departure of Krishna and That would have been very painful and challenging for the faith, but he is remembering the pastimes of Krishna The pastimes of Krishna and the position of Krishna throughout his life and by remembering this This is favourable for his devotion.

So this is Yoga, now does this mean that if there are problems, we just don't look at the problems No, it's not like that. Uddhava is not denying that Krishna has departed from the world But Uddhava is not focussing on that Yes, however, Krishna may have departed Krishna still remains the Lord and it is on his Divinity it is on his divine position that I am going to focus and he's remembering the Lord's pastimes So Now Jiva Goswami in the Sandarbhas explains that pastimes like the departure of Krishna Are what is called as? Asur Mohan Leela Asur Mohan Leela means that these are pastimes meant to delude those who are those who are Atheistic those who are demoniac now we say why would Krishna want to delude the demoniac? Krishna doesn't Krishna want to enlighten everyone. Yes Krishna does want to enlighten everyone but Krishna is also reciprocating with everyone's desires So it's your Nithyananda Chetanus Chetanana eco bahuna Yo, we did hearty karma So a co-bahuna me of the dharti karma means that that one Lord is maintaining everyone Now that maintenance is not just in the bodies That Krishna is providing people food water air in spite of whether they are these or non teacher that Krishna is the maintainer But he is the maintainer Not just in terms of body needs But he's also the maintainer in terms of beliefs If somebody wants to believe something Krishna will give you that person reasons to believe that thing so I'm talking about the devata and the worship of the devatas Krishna says that that yo-yo yam, yam Tanum bhakta ha Shraddha yarchi to meet Shruti.

That's it. That's it. A chalam Shraddham Tom eva with the dharma so He says if somebody wants to worship the devatas Then Krishna's in 721.

I make their faith strong That's what we want to believe that's what you can believe I'll give you reasons I will direct you to the scriptures of The goddess or the scriptures of glorifying Shiva glorifying this person or that person and that way your faith will become strong so This is a key principle strength of faith Is not necessarily equivalent to the correctness of faith Hmm Somebody may have a very strong faith Because they have a strong desire Krishna gives them faith in that particular thing, but just because their faith is strong Does not necessarily mean their faith is correct Because Krishna is mattah smritya jnanam apohanam cha Krishna reciprocates with our desires and If somebody has a strong desire to believe something that is what Krishna will guide them towards So if we consider say atheism Now if we look at the world around us there is so such extraordinary evidence of so much intricate Coordination and harmony in the world That's almost impossible for any rational person to think that all this could come without any Organising principle now if we consider something simple as clouds now clouds are actually remarkable technology clouds are like mobile Airborne and aircraft proof water tanks Isn't it their airborne now even with the best of technology we don't have anything like this In the twin tower designers could make it aircraft So clouds are a miracle of nature and they are necessary for our sustenance of life and it's extraordinary arrangement by which water from the oceans of the water bodies comes to the land masses and nourishes all livings anna dhavanti bhutani parjanya anna sambhagwa through rains it happens Now atheists will argue if rains are arranged by God Through the clouds to provide humans or provide living beings water Then why does it rain on the oceans? Yes, it rains on the ocean so that atheists can ask questions like this So If that is the evidence you want to focus on there will be evidence for you to focus on Like you come to a building with hundred homes And sorry building with hundred rooms and 99 rooms are very clean and tidy and one room is untidy They can either look at all the 99 rooms that are clean and say there must be some Some person who's in charge of this room somebody's maintaining the house Or you can look at that one room which is untidy and say that nobody's maintaining this house It depends on us so Sometimes I was in America. I was giving a class college student asked me. Why do bad things happen to good people? So I said why should bad things not happen to good people Said what do you mean? He said no good things would happen to good people Why do bad bad bad things should happen to bad people? He says why? If there is no organising principle if there is no God then why should there be any correlation? Between the actions that we do and the results that we get isn't it this question itself presumes an Organising principle and This question troubles us.

Why do bad things happen to good people? because We do generally see a pattern That if say suppose somebody eats healthy it helps them better Somebody eats unhealthy their health gets spoiled if somebody smokes and drinks and indulges in all kinds of measures They have unhealthy habits. They will go down to a poor health So now there will be exceptions Somebody smokes and they get lung cancer Yes, that is that happens most of the times but somebody may smoke and not get lung cancers and Somebody may not smoke and get lung cancer So there are exceptions no doubt But why are these exceptions there? the exceptions serve as excuses Excuses for those who don't want to accept reality for deniers So, yes, some people may not smoke and still get lung cancer does that justify smoking No smoking is harmful So this is even in we see this principle throughout existence that if somebody wants to deny reality They will find reasons for denying reality even fundamental operational reality that even smoking When it initially in the 1940s 1950s smoking was considered very fashionable and all movie stars used to smoke and Then it became more and more clear that smoking was associated with cancer and other diseases So then what happened was there are several of the smoking companies. They funded some highly Influential scientists and they did research and they said actually Actually Smoking is not the cause of cancer they said actually there is some unknown gene and This gene makes people smoke and this gene may causes cancer Nobody found this gene basically, but that was their theory That is why because they're funded By the scientists so Einstein said science is a wonderful thing as long as you don't have to earn money from it So this is not to criticise scientists This is the point is that if somebody wants to deny something can come up with a lot of reasons for denying those things so similarly here each one of us When we face situations in our life, we can look at our own life and it's up to us to decide What evidence am I going to focus on? You could say oh there are so many things going wrong in my life This relationship is not working and this person is like this and my health is going down My finances are problems.

My service is not being appreciated Yes, all those may be true and we could look at that and you could say this Krishna Bhakti doesn't work Krishna Kaushal doesn't work or We could look at the big picture of our life Or when we come to places like my upper visit hundreds and thousands of devotees for the morning programme It's so inspiring to see if most of the other places we go. They're not so many devotees So actually every person here is special is fortunate is blessed If we look at our own lives The chances that we would have come to Krishna are actually Infinitesimal some of the Prabhupada's disciples and some of the stalwart leaders of our movement, but they were already great seekers of God They went out searching for God may be going across the country across the world to find God Now as far as I was concerned, I didn't go out searching for God, you know, God's devotees came out searching for me So Even when we were not practising bhakti when we're not interested in God and bhakti still Krishna Came to our lives and Krishna gave us an opportunity to practise bhakti So if I consider my life journey, I am here right now and I may have some big problems right now We're not denying the reality of the gravity of the problem. See me there either I can I can see we have this capacity We can abstract ourselves.

That means if I am here I can visualise that I am above this situation and I can evaluate look at myself So I can either look at this situation and lose faith Or I can look back at my life and the fact that many times even without our desire without our Searching we were brought to Krishna. We were taken ahead in our journey toward Krishna and that can help us gain faith Krishna has not brought us this far to abandon us now If Krishna had wanted to abandon us, why would he have been brought at this part? We look at our own life journey. So many things could have gone wrong And yes, many things have gone wrong.

But the very fact that we are alive Means that there is more right than wrong in our life And the fact that we are still within the association of devotees to practising bhakti So just that there is definitely much more right than wrong So this buddhi yoga How does it come it is not just by being creative in our intelligence the key is bhajatam preeti purvakam When we are practising bhakti affectionately Then Krishna I am grateful for the opportunity to serve you. I am grateful that I Have an opportunity to chant. I have the opportunity to associate with devotees and we have that preeti purvakam We may not have ecstasy right now, but we all can have gratitude Even if we have this gratitude and Krishna will see that and Krishna will give us the intelligence by which we can come to Him So our part is keep that grateful consciousness So we can't always be When you talk about gratitude, you know, it's very difficult to be grateful for all situations Because some situations are really difficult It's not really easy But we can be grateful in all situations when there are problems There is no evidence that Draupadi was grateful that Dushasan tried to disrobe her It would be inhuman to expect her to be grateful for that, but she was grateful That Krishna was still her lord that Krishna had intervened that her husband's were there with her in the forest She was constantly burning with resentment so Sometimes the situation we are in is so difficult that it's very difficult to be grateful for that situation But if we don't reduce our vision of life to our present situation, we look at the big picture of our life we'll find that each one of us has a lot to be grateful for and If so, even if we can't be grateful for all situations, we can be grateful in all situations By looking beyond that situation and by that gratitude We'll attract Krishna's mercy and that mercy will come in the form of yoga the intelligence By which we can come closer to Krishna even through that difficult situation so I'll summarise I Spoke three main points today first I spoke about distresses and how The most challenging distresses are those which are faith damaging So Uddhava's predicament Was like seeing not just a soldier, colleague die, a commander die But one supreme commander who is supposed to be like a top sword fighter diving in sword fight.

So Dwarka was devastated The Dwarkavasis died in the fire fratricidal fight among themselves and Krishna also departed So it is so easy to lose faith We discussed similarly with Rishweshwara Prabhupada also when his spiritual master's mission Disintegrated. So this can be the extremely difficult Situation and Then we discussed that at such times we need buddhi yoga So buddhi yoga is the intelligence to the buddhi to come to Krishna So that requires us to Use our intelligence in a way to be a devotional reading of the situation So I took three examples like how Prabhupada saw his business setbacks as yasyaaha manukrahanami Then Vidura how he saw Duryodhana's insult as an opportunity to disentangle himself of the world Now Uddhava He saw That rather than focussing on Krishna Krishna's departure he focused on Krishna's Krishna's power styles throughout his life. So when we say surrender It is active proactive where we use our intelligence to focus on the positive so we discussed how last point was And that the evidence of the universe If we want we can have faith we want we can lose faith it's an example of clouds We can discussed example of our own lives We can look at all that is wrong in our life at present and lose faith Or we can look at the big picture and see how there is so much more right in our life So which evidence do we choose to focus on it's our choice of focus of what our focus will be and Then the last in this in this connection is just one last point is that when we choose to be grateful It's difficult to be grateful for all situations, but we can be grateful in all situations Then we will get by Krishna's mercy the buddhi yoga the devotional insight By which we can maintain our faith and come closer to Krishna.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna Anyone have one question? Thank you for a brilliant class on Affirmative psychology. This is a really wonderful counselling session for all of us So I'm very grateful for this My question is about Exactly what you said when our faith is shaken when? we find that those in authority leaders who are supposed to be exemplary in behaviour a Huge scandal breaks out and you realise so many children have been traumatised so many children have committed suicide And then the silence of those who should speak For the victims is much more painful Than what has happened? I mean that's also painful But those who should now make amends or those who should speak in favour of justice When they keep silent, what are we the next generation supposed to do if you can kindly enlighten? Thank you It's a very difficult situation to be in When we see something going wrong around the world and not something like children being abused and it's not being fixed or action not being taken Prabhupada writes in the Seventh canto one of the purpose that one should always keep oneself healthy and stout In mind and intelligence to distinguish the goal of life from a life full of problems So that means say if I am here there will be hundreds of things wrong around One thing wrong is my drawing also, so please excuse me that But it's a life full of problems So Ropa says we need to be clear we should be able to distinguish The goal of life from a life full of problems.

So if you say this is Krishna And is the goal of life now How can I move toward Krishna There are so many problems in the world we cannot fix all of them But does that mean we just neglect the world? No, not definitely That's all what I'm saying that we have to see what is my service in this situation So generally there is guna and karma This applies for varanashram for this side determining our varna, but this can also in general Apply for For us to decide whether I want to take up a particular responsibility I want to fight a particular battle or not. So you could say guna broadly refers to the disposition and Karma refers to the position we are in by which we can do that particular activity. So Generally speaking, you know reform Can happen if you look at broad institutional history look at Gaudiya history also reform can happen from inside It can happen from outside Hmm or it can happen on the margin So, what does that mean if you look at when the Gaudiya mutt broke apart Prabhupada did not enter into Gaudiya mutt to try to reform it Prabhupada created a new system that is he created Gaudiya Vaishnavism, but that was from outside Now if you look at Bhaktivinod Thakur, Bhaktivinod Thakur he was born in Shakta family He was introduced to Gaudiya Vaishnavism a little later and then what did he do? No, actually even before he had taken initiation He had already written several books on Gaudiya Vaishnavism and he was influencing the Bhadraloka the educated elite class of Bengalis at that time But then he recognised that if his words are to have a greater impact Now he took initiation From a person who was considered respectable in the Gaudiya community at that time Although whether that person was really that exemplary is open to question He took formal initiation from him and then he got credibility because of his initiation connection with the Gaudiya Vaishnav community also And then by that his literature was more widely accepted not just by outsiders of the Gaudiya Vaishnav community but also insiders So Bhaktivinod Thakur worked from inside He was an outsider he came inside and from inside he worked for reformation And he considered what Bhaktivinod Thakur did.

Now Bhaktivinod Thakur more or less he worked on the margin That means the same person from whom Bhaktivinod Thakur had taken initiation Bhaktivinod Thakur challenged him in a debate the famous Brahmana versus Vaishnava debate The person on the opposite side was the Guru of was the Diksha Guru the initiating spiritual master of Bhaktivinod Thakur So what Bhaktivinod Thakur did was he challenged the stranglehold that the caste Goswamis had on Gaudiya Vaishnavism so He worked on he didn't really seek their approval authority He rather created the Gaudiya Mart, which is not completely going outside He was a follower of Bhaktivinod Thakur, but he worked on the margins So each one of us has to decide, you know, how we can be a part of the change So some people may say I just don't want to do anything with this. Now Prabhupada didn't generally recommend that Prabhupada said whatever be the problems with our movement you stay inside and try to reform and we see That the service if we say our service to Krishna Is like a relay race In a relay race what happens is each person Has to take the torch from say here or a particular distance the next person takes the torch over the remaining distance so like that Maybe it is our Our responsibility is to do some service, but maybe the results are not going to come in our lifetime But so like we know when the Ganga was brought to the earth the Jalangi over here many many kings performed austerities their entire lifetime and Finally, it was one king who brought the earth Brought the Ganga to the earth. Who was that? Bhagirathi.

So Bhagirathi Ganga is known as. But he gets the credit. He is the person who takes it across the finishing line But that doesn't mean the efforts of everyone else were forgotten If the world may not recognise them, but Krishna recognises them, so So we have to each of us to decide according to our guna and karma According to our dispositional position.

How much do we want to fight a particular battle? there are many things which need to be fixed and Prabhupada's general mood was Instead of expect. Prabhupada did not wait for the Gaudiya Math leadership to change Prabhupada himself became the king and it's significant Prabhupada did not go about criticising the Gaudiya Math leadership also. It was only later When they tried to take Prabhupada's disciples away and confuse them then Prabhupada spoke a little strongly about them But even then Prabhupada maintained respectfulness so so the point is that we all have a Particular Capacity right now and we all work according to that capacity So yes, anybody who has suffered being traumatised, it's horrible We pray that they recover from it and that something like that never happens At the same time, you know, we shouldn't let what is happening in the moment Come between us and Krishna We have to make sure that we are moving toward Krishna and while moving toward Krishna We can see how much we can fix Sometimes fixing things can become such a mission such a fixation with us that that in fixing things We may we may not stay fixed in Krishna ourselves.

We may go away from Krishna So then that is not healthy. I Hope that provides some pointers Yeah, that's very helpful. So what I'm hearing is find your mission within the mission and focus on that Yes, perfect perfect It's like Prabhupada has this huge Umbrella, you can say that is a Krishna conscious moment and within that we can pick our small umbrella and Then try to make sure that we hold it a lot Okay.

Thank you. Yes, sir. There's one question here We'll stop with this Thank you for the wonderful class So to be this verse that you were telling Bhajatam priti purvakam and dadami buddhi, these two part.

What is this buddhi yoga is exactly That means something when we come closer to Krishna that only does it mean buddhi yoga We would come closer to Krishna and bhajatam priti purvakam in simple terms. What is the definition of bhajatam priti purvakam? It's a simply Following what the Prabhupada has given or something beyond bhajatam priti purvakam See words have multiple meanings Now buddhi yoga Krishna himself uses it differently There are three meanings if you look at 239 Isha te abhita sankhi buddhir yogi to imam shuna buddhya yukto yaya partha karma bandhan prahasya So the same term buddhi yoga is used buddhi yoga here In 239 it basically refers to applying atma jnan Because Krishna has said I have told you atma jnan now I will tell you how to apply atma jnan and then what he describes afterwards is karma yoga He doesn't really prescribe bhakti yoga in the second chapter much So you could say buddhi to practise yoga. So the buddhi there is the atma jnan, the yoga there is karma yoga So that is in the second chapter But in the verse that we discussed 10.10 the whole context is devotional jatushyoki bhagavad-gita And then there So we have to look at the context of the world to understand their meanings So that's a buddhi to do yoga.

It can be different yogas Also, it can be the buddhi can be different based on different realities, but in 10.10 it refers to The buddhi that Krishna is our well wisher by which yoga is I want to go to closer to Krishna in whatever situation We are focussing on that meaning in 10.10 now Bhajitam priti purvakam. Does it mean simply doing what Shri Prabhupada has said? Yes, definitely, but you know Prabhupada said many things. For example, Prabhupada said chant and be happy now This is what now you could call this as one instruction Chant and be happy chant and you will be happy But you could also consider them as two instructions the chant and Be as happy as is possible in this world practise happiness as an austerity So even when we are chanting we will have reasons to be unhappy Hmm, you can always find reasons to be unhappy, but then try to be happy the last verse in the dharma series 1 to 22 in the bhagavatam is atavai kavayonityam bhaktim paramayamuda vasudeve bhagwati kurvantya atma prasadinim What that means is that? therefore atavai kavayonityam the wise people practise Bhaktim paramayamuda the process that gives great joy paramayamuda antoham vasudeve bhagwati kurvantya atma prasadinim The process which which gives great joy They practise with great joy as I am just putting the translation slightly Striking way to register the point.

So is it that the process gives joy or do we practise it with joy? Well, it is both It's like suppose somebody is sick and after a long time they have found a cure Now they have found a cure But that doesn't mean They are cured Now we could say they will be cured in due course So while they are not yet cured, they may still have some pain But they can be happy that at least a cure has been found Isn't it? So otherwise they may not have the cure but they can be resentful. I'm not yet cured. I'm not yet cured So chant and be happy means yes when we chant when we remember Krishna and you become Krishna conscious We will ultimately become happy But till that time we can chant and strive to be happy That I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to chant.

I am grateful that I have the opportunity to practise bhakti so Prabhupada says borro krupa koile krishna adhamera prati When Prabhupada came to America he on the American coastline when he's seeing that he's seeing Krishna. You have been immensely merciful to me Now we say what is the mercy Prabhupada is all alone. He has no money.

He has no followers He has no institutional support. The only resource that he had that is his own body That has been struck by two heart attacks What is there to be grateful for? So Prabhupada on Jal Doota, what is he saying? Krishna you are so merciful So, you know for we can have the facility for a service Now Prabhupada had zero facility for service, but Prabhupada was focussing on the opportunity for service That at the fag end of my life at least I have the opportunity to come to the West My Guru Maharaj wanted me to do that. I have come here And I'm grateful for that opportunity So Prabhupada was himself like chant and be happy Prabhupada is demonstrating that he's happy Although he could have seen all that is wrong in his life and felt nothing is going to work At least I have the opportunity He's grateful for that So that's what we should try to do also.