Free will and God’s will 2 – Understanding the trigger cause and target of our weaknesses
So today morning I'm continuing on the discussion of how if God's will is supreme we have free will. Yesterday I talked about how Krishna's supreme will determines not our actions but the scope of our actions. Just as the sky determines not the movement of the air but the area of the movement.
So the backdrop is that Duryodhana acted repeatedly in defiance of Krishna's will. And the most drastic of this was when Krishna himself came as messenger and Duryodhana rebuffed and rejected that request for peace. So can the soul act in defiance of God? And if the soul can then how exactly is God's will supreme? When bad things happen who is responsible ultimately? So we discussed how God is the cause of all effects.
God is the cause of all causes but not the cause of all effects. When any vegetation grows it is the cause but which specific vegetation grows where that effect is not determined by the rains. It is determined by the particular seeds that have been sown over there.
So similarly all of us have certain seeds sown in our heart the impressions of our past karma and based on our past karma we also have certain Kshetra area of influence externally and that area of influence it is up to us how we act. And some people can use their free will properly and some can misuse their free will. So when bad things happen it is not that God wants those things necessarily to happen.
It is not that Krishna wanted Dushyasana or Duryodhana to conspire to dishonour Draupadi. It was they misused their free will because by their past karma they had been given that area of influence. So everything that happens is not necessarily God's will.
It is with God's sanction. I talked about how everything that happens is not necessarily God's plan but it is within God's plan. That means the school doesn't want the students to fail in the exam.
But if the students fail it is God's plan to accommodate them. Like that if the soul misuses the free will God has the capacity to include that in his plan. So everything that happens is within Krishna's plan but it is not Krishna's plan.
Krishna's purpose is that we all use our free will properly and become elevated and ultimately become liberated. So now this quick recap of what I spoke yesterday. Now when some things go wrong when people misuse their free will why do they misuse their free will? Now there are many objections to the existence of God.
One is we can't see him. The other is that why do bad things happen in this world if God is good? So we discussed it is because people have free will and they can misuse it. Another related question could be that if God is good and we are all parts of God then why do the parts of God ever do bad things? If God is good then why would his parts do evil things? So again this brings us to the point of free will.
Now some religions they propose the existence of some evil being in competition with God. And they say that evil being is what prompts people to do evil. So in the Christian tradition they have the idea that there was Satan who came in the form of a snake and he tempted Eve who then tempted Adam.
And that's why they went against the will of God. And then they consider that since that point because Adam and Eve defied God so sin has been passed down generation after generation something like a genetic defect. So all of us are inherently sinful because we are descended from Adam and Eve.
Now this if it is taken literally not all Christians take it literally if it is taken literally it leads to absurdities such as why do tsunamis occur? Why do hurricanes occur? Why do millions of people die in a war? Because thousands of years ago somebody ate an apple. It's ridiculous. I am not saying that Christians say this but if you take it literally that's what it implies.
There are many Christians who don't take it literally. But the point is that this idea that somebody in the past did something wrong because of which all the problems in the world come this is not a very intellectually satisfactory explanation for why people do evil or people do people get results which are bad in this world. So the bhakti tradition explains that the soul eternally has free will.
And the very nature of free will means that there has to be freedom to execute that free will. Now if a boy say is in love with a girl and boy goes to the flower and falls on her knees and says please marry me. She says no.
The boy takes out a gun marry me. Now that is not love. Is it? So if there is free will there has to be freedom to execute that free will.
So only when there is freedom does free will become meaningful. So Krishna has given us freedom in this world to act the baby moment. Now by using a free will in a particular way we can end up becoming habituated to acting in that way.
So we could say that when people do bad things say Bhagavad Gita says there are three gates to hell. Lust, anger and greed. Now we could say that it's almost every hoarding, every TV, every movie, every most television shows, most movies they are all like gates to hell.
They are all triggering lust, anger, greed within us. But now among these three the blemish weaknesses of the human heart the anarthas now consider anger. Here it is described that Duryodhana was angry and he was shouting at anyone and everyone at the doorkeepers just shouting at them.
So now what had happened he was envious on seeing the prosperity and prosperity the Pandavas. And because he found the prosperity unbearable he was taking out his anger on someone else. Whoever he could find in his way.
So the anarthas are such that if you consider lust, anger, greed there is a trigger for them there is a cause of them and there is a target for them. And the three are different. The trigger means that which activates that within us.
So if somebody sees a sensual image that may make them lusty. Here Duryodhana saw the opulence of some that made him envious. But that is only the trigger.
That is not the cause. There were so many other kings who came to the Rajasuya sacrifice and they went and they were not agitated. They did not become envious.
So it was not Yudhishthira's prosperity that was the cause. That was the trigger. The word trigger how am I differentiating it from a cause? If there is a gun and the gun has a trigger.
We press the trigger the bullet will go and hit the target. But when? If there is a bullet inside. Just pressing the trigger will not wound the target if there is no bullet inside.
So the certain stimuli in the outer world may be triggers. But the triggers are not the causes. The cause of the person being shot by the bullet is not just the pressing of the trigger.
The cause is that there is a bullet present inside it. So in the Bhagavad Gita when Krishna talks about the he talks about kama he uses the word kama not just to refer to lust specifically he refers to any self-defeating desire. Because Arjuna's question in 3.36 is what is it that impels us to act against our best interest? What is it that makes us act sinfully? And then Krishna answers this with his lust.
And then later that is 3.37 and 3 verses later in 3.40 he says that where is this lust situated? He says it is in the indriyani mano-buddhi asyadhisthana mucchati etairvimohayate sa jnanam avrutti denam situated in the senses the mind and the intelligence. It's significant Krishna does not say that lust is situated in the sense objects. Lust is situated in the person who is the observer.
Now it may be triggered by certain sides by certain stimuli. Same with greed. We see something and that may trigger greed within us but that trigger is not the cause.
So the point which so there is a trigger of for Duryodhana the trigger of his envy was the observation that Duryodhana has more opulence than me. The cause of it was what was present in his own heart and then the target was the doorkeepers. Now we all see that sometimes we tell someone can you clean this up and in our home some child or family can you tidy this up and suddenly they start shouting you are always nagging you are this you are that just get very worried irritable angry that the triggers may come on many people but what agitates people is the cause not just the trigger and the cause is what is present in the heart.
So therefore the point I am making here is that although in our tradition we don't consider that there is any particular being called Satan who makes us do evil but that doesn't mean evil does not have an objective reality. If we consider evil as the impressions that make us do wrong things then those impressions are present within us. When Krishna is saying lust, anger and greed are present within the consciousness within the mind, senses and intelligence that means these are not just feelings that we have they are also things.
Of course because they are subtle so they are not things in the physically tangible sense but they also have an objective reality and that is why people get prompted in a vertical way. So, with respect to our question about if the starting question for this class is that if God is good why do his parts do so many bad things the past impressions within the mind become its present propositions. The past impressions become the present propositions.
Say, there is somebody some student staying in a hostel and this is their college and along the way there is a bar. Now, if some students have never drunk, they will pass by the bar they will not even notice it. Somebody else who is drunk repeatedly as soon as they start passing by the bar let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and let's go and let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's let's let's drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's let's go and drink, let's go and drink, let's go and drink, go and drink, let's let's let's We can say that, not just attached to but very strongly attached to, whatever is our foremost attachment, that is like the default homepage of our inner browser.
And that's what opens up automatically. Some people who are just compulsive alcoholics, there can be degrees of alcoholism also, but some people are compulsive alcoholics. From the moment they wake up till the moment they sleep, the thought that is there in the mind is, I want to drink, I want to drink, I want to drink.
The first thing when they wake up, where can I get a bottle? Before sleeping, they drink, sometimes they even sleep with a bottle next to them. So what has happened, that is the default homepage of their inner browser. And that is how they are prompted to do that again and again.
So somebody who is addicted to alcohol, they may just lose all sense of perspective. And they may, in their frenzy to get alcohol, they may just plunder their money, they may just take a huge loan, they may steal money, they may rob. When we get addicted to something, basically addiction can have many, the word addiction can have different meanings.
Somebody says, oh, somebody is addicted to reading. Now that is not a very harmful addiction, and they just like to read again and again and again. But addiction means, broadly it has two characteristics.
There is inability to control use, inability to stop using something, even if one dissolves, I don't want to use it. And using it, even when it is harmful. So when, this is a compulsion that is there within.
So an alcoholic can't stop. Now even among alcoholics, we could say there are degrees. There may be people who go for a party for drinking alcohol.
But if they are going in a car, they may decide, no, okay, now you have to drive back. So, today, in this party, you shouldn't drink. So you do the sacrifice today, next party, I will do the sacrifice.
So they know we shouldn't drive after drinking. So there is some amount of understanding over there. But some people just drink and then drive.
And they may kill themselves, they may kill someone else. So in all these situations, the impression is stored within people. And when the impression is stored within, it prompts them to act in that particular way.
And how did this impression get stored within? So how did Bollywood.com become the preference? It is because of repeatedly choosing it, repeatedly using it, again and again and again, it became a preference. So similarly, if we ask this question, you know, I got a computer, which did not have any preferences. The computer was clean.
But why did Bollywood.com become the preference? Because I chose it again and again. So now, similarly sometimes some devotees ask, if Krishna wants us to practise bhakti, then why did he give us this troublesome mind? The mind is such a big trouble when you want to practise bhakti. And why has Krishna given us that mind? Actually Krishna simply gave us the mind.
We shaped our own mind. The mind itself is an essential tool, which we require for functioning in this world. The mind is the link between the body and the soul.
The inputs from the various senses, they come onto the mind, in 15.9 Bhagavad Gita says, and then they are pursued by the soul. So the mind is a vital tool, which the soul needs for functioning in the world. Just as we need software for operating the hardware of a computer, but it is we who have acted in particular ways, either in this life or in a previous life, because of which certain impressions are stored in the mind.
So our mind is not given to us by Krishna. Our mind is something, which we have shaped by the way we have acted. And so, if somebody, say, repeatedly drinks, drinks, drinks, then what happens? The more they keep drinking, the more that becomes an obsession, and then they start losing perspective.
Somebody who would never have drunk, that person can't live without drinking. What has happened over there? That proposition, drink, drink, drink, it comes very forcefully. So we can say the mind is like an inner screen.
The software, on the computer there is a screen. So there is an inner screen on which certain promptings come up. So like on the browser, at IDB, Bollywood comes up.
So sometimes on a computer, we are working on, say, a word document, but suddenly a pop-up window comes up. You know, your friend has updated their profile photo on Facebook, or there is a software update available. Do you want to update? So these pop-ups come up.
Now similarly in our inner screen, various pop-ups keep coming up. So right now we are sitting and trying to understand the philosophy, and suddenly a pop-up may come up. You know, I'm hungry.
When will you do time for prasad? It's too cold over here. It's too hot over here. Now when these pop-ups come up, we can choose whether to focus on the pop-up, or we can choose to just push them aside.
That choice is always there with us. However, there are some softwares which normally say, do you want to instal this update? So there is yes, no, or later. Now normally, the default may be no, but some softwares it is yes, and unless we consciously choose no, it will do it.
And some softwares, they come with that yes, not only there, but they say within 10 seconds, if you don't click no, it will start installing. Sometimes some pop-ups come up, and normally a pop-up is a small window that comes up on the screen. But sometimes some pop-ups come up and they just fill the screen.
And they fill the screen and then you look. Sometimes some advertisers, they are so insistent, they don't want you to minimise. So you look around, you don't find any cross anywhere.
Where do you minimise it? It just consumes the screen, and you don't know what to do. So similarly, for all of us, depending on how strong a particular impression is, the pop-up will come. So something will be a casual, okay, you know, it's a little cold.
It's manageable. It's a half an hour, I can manage it. So sometimes some pop-up comes up, if somebody has been very habituated to it, then that pop-up just comes and fills the whole screen.
Suppose say, we had a quarrel or argument with someone, and then we are filled with resentment for them. And then, you know, as soon as we, if we come to the temple also, we are thinking, has this person come? And then if we notice that person sitting, then we will be looking at the DTs, but in our pop-up, this person, how did, why did they do like that, you know, this, this, this, this. It's not just on one screen that comes up, but immediately a movie starts over there.
The movie will be like a revenge fantasy, you know, I'll do this, I'll do that. So depending on either how strong the impression is or how strong our emotions are invested in it, the pop-up zooms up and then it occupies the whole screen. So now, if we consider the free will that we have, we're talking about God's will, free will and evil.
So I'm talking about evil as the impressions within us that cause the pop-ups to come up. So if somebody is an alcoholic, immediately, when you see a glass of water, you'll think alcohol. It pops up in them.
So this pop-up will come up based on what impressions we have ourselves put inside us. And our free will is that we can choose whether to accept and focus on what has popped up or we can choose not to do that. But like I said, there are different degrees of pop-ups.
Some may come with the option no or yes, but no click. So if you're very serious about studying for an exam and then some pop-up comes up, your friend has updated their Facebook picture, which is not now, later. But same, we are studying for an exam, but the exam is one month away.
And then, we are already a little bored by studying, and then we are looking for some break. And then, oh, somebody has updated their Facebook picture, okay, let me look at it. So basically, we have free will, our free will, we sometimes, especially when we are very conditioned, we don't have the free will to choose what pops up within us.
Say certain settings might be there on our computer, the software, certain things will pop up. We can't change those settings. We can in the long run, I'll come to that later.
But suppose at this stage, certain things are going to pop up, there are certain settings that are made. So we don't have the free will to choose what pops up. But we have the free will to choose whether we, how we act on that pop-up, whether we start looking at that, or we continue doing what we are doing.
So sometimes, we expect in the sadhaka stage, that purification means that I should be pure, I should be serious, I should be spiritual. That means, nothing unwanted should pop up on my screen. But that is an unrealistic expectation.
We have been conditioned for a very long time, and certain things will pop up. We can't avoid that. So Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, in 5.22, he tells about how worldly enjoyment leads to distress.
ये ही संस्पर्शिजाब होगा। दुख्कयो न यईवते। आध्यान्तबन्तः कौन्ते। न तेशुरमते बुदा। He says, understanding that worldly indulgence leads to distress, wise people don't indulge in it. But then, Arjuna has a question, even if I understand this is distressful, still the desires keep popping up. So then Krishna replies, शक्नोति भईवयसोड़ुं प्राक्षरीर्वेमोक्षनात् कामक्रोधोद्भवंवेगम् सयुक्तः ससुखी न रहा। He says, yes, they will come.
Being in the embodied state means that certain desires will come up, कामक्रोधोद्भवंवेगम् the urges of desire and anger will come. But शोड़ुं, tolerate, and if you can tolerate them, प्राक्षरीर्वेमोक्षनात् तिल्दे मुम्मेंट अव देथ। Then, सयुक्तः ससुखी न रहा। Such a person will be well-situated, युक्तः means engaged in yoga, and सुखी means happy. So that means, Krishna is saying, you are trying to practise spiritual life, but these pop-ups will come.
They will come, just being in the embodied condition, they will come, but शोड़ुं, tolerate them. Tolerate means, don't follow them, don't follow them, don't indulge in them. So at one level, to expect that no unwanted pop-ups come up within me, no unwanted desires come up within me, that is unrealistic.
They will come up. So that is one extreme. Nothing should pop up.
That is not going to happen. The other is, just because something has popped up, I have to do it. Just because a desire has come within me, therefore I have to indulge in it.
So that is also wrong. Something has come up, but we have to choose, we have the capacity to choose whether I act on it, or I just put it aside and do what I am supposed to do. So I write articles on the Gita regularly at GitaDeal.com, so I try to encapsulate Gita verses and their wisdom in some condensed codes.
So for this 5.23, I wrote an article which I titled as, temptations may come, we don't have to welcome. Temptations may come, but we don't have to welcome them. That means the pop-up will come, but it's not that I have to follow that pop-up.
So now this is where our free will comes into the picture. The evil will cause some things to pop up. So in the case of Duryodhana, because of the conditionings within him, because of his envy, he started feeling angry, he started feeling envious, he started feeling wrathful and he acted on that.
How did he act? He could not shout at Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira was the world monarch, so he could not shout at the world monarch. So what did he do? He started shouting at the doorkeepers.
So similarly, for each one of us, we have certain triggers for the weaknesses and then we may target someone else. So if we are in a position of power, we are always in this world in a hierarchy. So hierarchy means we, there are some people below us and some people above us.
So there are some devotees, they are just kind and gentle and caring towards everyone. But there are some who are very, very deferential and respectful to their seniors, but they are just domineering and very uncaring, very demanding of their juniors. So in that case what happens? Humility, of course the way we express humility towards different people may be different.
With our seniors we take instruction, with our juniors we may have to give instruction. But we need to be gentle with everyone. Sometimes what happens, we have the anger within us and we may be angry with our seniors, but because of the culture or because of the power structure, we can't express the anger to the seniors.
Then we vent it out on the juniors. So for some people, humility is a means by which we are meant to go closer to Krishna. But for some people, humility is simply the door, the entry pass for getting one's position in the power structure.
That means I act humble so that I can get my power in this power structure. So I'll be humble with this person so that I can dominate this person. If there is no proper spiritual consciousness, then humility is just a show so that one can gain power.
So then what happens? There is some person who has done something which has made me angry, but then all that anger comes out on my juniors. So my trigger is something else, the target becomes someone else. This is what is happening with Duryodhana here.
He is targeting the doorkeepers. So I'll conclude with one point and we'll continue the discussion tomorrow. So here when I talk about our free will means that something pops up on our inner screen and we choose how to respond.
So with respect to the conditioning, conditioning means we become habituated to choosing a particular response. The more we are conditioned, that means as soon as something pops up, not only does it pop up more frequently, more insistently, but we also go along with that. So there is a stimulus that comes within and there is a response from us.
So the greater the distance between the stimulus and the response, that much is our free will. The lesser the distance between the stimulus and the response, the lesser is our free will. So all of us do have, there is this difference.
But for some people who have become very habituated, then the distance between the stimulus and the response becomes extremely less. It's almost as if it is not there. And then they just indulge in it.
So somebody is an addict, addiction is also a medical condition. It's not just a lack of willpower. Psychologists have that idea.
Now, yes, it is at one level a medical condition, but what is the medical condition? The impression has become so strong that the gap between the stimulus and the response is almost not there. Stimulus comes, the response has to, that's the response that comes. Of course, they always have free will, but that free will can be very, very less.
And then at that time, such good people, good people means everybody as a soul is good because it's part of God. But if they have repeatedly chosen to act in a particular way, that impression has become so forceful within them that they do a bad thing and they don't even have a second thought about doing it. Some people say if they are robbers, they are killers, their conscience, their inner sense of discrimination just died practically.
This stimulus, this response. So it is good people who become evil because they keep doing small acts of evil again and again and again till that evil becomes the default response for them. And that's how they end up doing terrible things.
So for Duryodhana, in a royal assembly where everyone is present to even suggest the idea that he will dishonour Draupadi, that's outrageous. But because that whole idea was that evil propensity was there within him, he just went on and on and on. And at that particular point, it just exploded.
And he proposed a dastardly act at that time. So for us, we all have our particular conditionings because of which this gap between stimulus and response may be very less. For each of us in certain things, we might get angry, we might get greedy, we might get lusty, we might get envious, whatever it is.
So what do we do if this gap is very less? Two main things and I will elaborate on the principle of bhakti and how it helps tomorrow. But the first thing is that sometimes when that impulse pops up, it's almost impossible to say no. Because it's so forceful.
But the key thing is what do we do in between the pop-ups? That means sometimes the desire pops up. Do this, do this, do this, do this. And it may be at that time almost impossible to say no.
But if we consider the graph of our consciousness with respect to time, sometimes the conditionings, the desires, they just come up very forcefully. But it's not that they are that forceful 24 hours a day. They are sometimes very forceful.
So when they are very forceful at that time, it may be difficult to say no to them. But what do we do in between? In between that time, if we are simply lamenting, oh, why did I do that? Why did I do that? Why did I do that? So the mind is a very dangerous creature. Suppose we are living a normal law-abiding, respectful life, law-abiding life and suddenly a friend comes.
You want to make some quick money? He says, I've got an idea. What? He says, let's rob a bank. What? He says, no, no, I've got a foolproof plan.
Rob the bank and nothing will happen. He says, no, no, no, come with me, come with me. And somehow that friend persuades us, we go and rob the bank.
And then as they're robbing, the security alarm goes off. And as soon as the alarm goes off, the friend runs away. And we are caught by the police.
And then we are caught by the police and the police takes us to the court. And we go in the box in front of the judge. And that judge is the same friend.
The same friend who pushed us, tempted us into robbing is now going to judge us as a robber. So the mind is like that. The mind first says, come on, do it, do it, do it, do it.
And then, you fool, when will you learn? You are useless. And the mind beats us up, beats us up. So, in this case, what happens? In the first time, we are conscious of the mind.
Do it, do it. And the second time again, we are conscious of the mind. You fool, why did you do it? Why did you do it? So, what we need to do is that in between, in the graph, sometimes the desire comes up and the mind pushes us and we just can't say no.
But in between, what do we do? In between, instead of simply beating ourselves up, why did I do that? Why did I do it? Instead, let's try to do something positive. Let's try to nourish my intelligence. Let's try to purify myself.
Let me try to practise bhakti. So, to the extent in between those pop-ups, so pop-up comes and certain thing comes on our screen, we can't minimise it at that time. But the remaining time before the next pop-up comes up, what are we doing? If we are again browsing the same site again and again, then that's a problem.
So, if we can choose to act constructively when the mind is not pushing us that much, then that will give us some inner strength. And the second is, we try to avoid the triggers. We can't entirely avoid the triggers.
See, all the kings had come for the Rajasuya sacrifice and Bhishma and others went back. And Duryodhana stayed on over there. He said, I want to look at the Maya Sabha.
Now, why did he have to look at it? He had already seen it. There was already envy in his heart and just staying on to see Yudhishthira's opulence more was simply going to inflame his envy more. So, after all the Kauravas went back, all the guests went back, Duryodhana stayed on.
So, if we know there are certain things which trigger us, it is our responsibility to avoid those stimuli. If somebody is an alcoholic and they want to give up alcohol. Now, if their home happens to be next to a bar, then, you know, willpower is not enough over there.
Willpower is required, but we all have our weak moments. And the bar is right next, they will go and drink. So then, they may say that they have to avoid the trigger.
If they are serious about giving up alcohol, they may decide, you know, I can't stay over here. I have to relocate somewhere else. So, all of us, we, for us, if we have to deal with the evil within us, we have to understand what is it that triggers the evil.
And we can't entirely eliminate triggers in this world, but we can at least minimise those triggers. So, when we do these two things, so that the pop-ups don't come up that frequently. And secondly, in between the pop-ups, we focus on doing constructive things.
Then, the negative things that happen to, the bad things that we sometimes end up doing, the probability of that will decrease. Now, how bhakti purifies and transforms our inner world, that I'll discuss in tomorrow's class. I'll summarise.
I spoke about, if God is good, then why do the parts of that good God do terrible things? So, how we act is determined by God's will, free will and evil. So, evil does not refer to some malevolent being out there who tempts us. Evil refers to the impressions that are stored within us, in our subtle body, which become, the past impressions become the present propositions.
So, I talked about, with respect to the conditionings, lust, anger, greed, there's a trigger, there's a cause and there's a target. So, seeing something may make, seeing Yudhishthira's opulence made Duryodhana envious. So, the opulence was the trigger, the cause was just the envy that was present in his heart and the target was the doorkeepers whom he was shouting at.
So, lust, anger, greed are not just feelings that we have or intentions, they are also dispositions stored within us. Just like, if we have a browser on which we have repeatedly visited Bollywood.com, then that is stored as a preference. So, visiting Bollywood.com is an intention and it's also a preference.
So, for us, based on our conditionings, there are certain preferences that are stored in our inner browser, which is the mind. So, Krishna gave us the mind as a clean slate, as a tool for interacting with the body and the physical world. But we gave ourselves our mind by the kind of choices that we have done in the past.
And depending on the strength of a conditioning, certain things may pop up on our inner screen. And they pop up with either yes, no as a default, yes as a default, or the default is going to act immediately and we have to strain to find a way to stop it. So, basically, we all have, our free will is not about what pops up on the inner screen.
Temptations may come, but we don't have to welcome. So, if I think being pure means nothing bad should pop up on my inner screen, that is unrealistic, that may take a long time to happen. But just because a desire has come, that doesn't mean I have to act on it.
So, the pop-up comes, I say no. And the distance between the stimulus and the response, that is the area of our free will. When that area has become very less because of repeated indulgence in the past, then that person is almost like addicted.
Addiction means that there is inability to stop using even when one decides to and continue to use even when there is harmful consequences. So, then, if some conditioning is very strong, that person may nonchalantly do evil, not because God made them as evil, but because they have increased those negative impressions till they become forceful propositions. So, if that has happened to us, then what we can do is, in between those pop-ups, instead of just beating ourselves up, why did I do that? The mind plays a dangerous double role.
First it makes us rob the bank and then it judges us for robbing the bank. So, instead of being conscious of the mind all the time, okay, this happened, now what can I do positively? So, focus on growing spiritually during the interval between the impulses. And then, when the impulses come, we find out the triggers and try to minimise our exposure to the triggers.
This way, we will be able to curb and combat the evil within us. And then our free will will be able to better act in harmony with God's will. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Are there any comments or questions? Yes. Regarding the evil, you gave the example of let's say killers and things like that, and the result of all the impressions.
So, you know when it comes to capital punishment, so the Pope has said that nowadays they take away the capital punishment, so therefore it prolongs the karma of the people there. Whereas in the olden days, they would have that as an option, and in one sense it would nullify the karma that they accumulate. So, does that mean that when let's say you are a killer who accumulates these things, you get put in prison and you get capital punishment, those impressions, the subtle impressions you accumulate over life after life, they all get nullified.
So, if someone gets a punishment for something wrong that they have done, does that mean the impressions go away? No, no. See, karmic reactions come in two ways. Karmic reactions come as the reinforced inner promptings, and second is the external consequences.
Somebody drinks alcohol. One thing is that the desire for drinking alcohol increases. The second is that also there are health consequences, there are financial consequences, there are social consequences.
So, when it is said that when a criminal is punished for their wrongdoing, that their karma gets neutralised, what it refers is that they have got the external karmic consequences. But the inner prompting may still be there. However, even getting a punishment, a strong punishment, that acts as a deterrent for again doing it.
The impression might be there and it may prompt us. But if I know, if I do this, this is the consequence. Then, we can say no to it.
If somebody has lost anger, greed, anything, I can get away with this. Indulging in it. Then they may not have so much impetus to say no to it.
So, the external punishment doesn't remove the internal impressions. It primarily neutralises the external, it comprises the external aspect of the karmic reaction. But the external punishment can also act as a deterrent for future indulgence.
Because, oh, this is the consequence? Better let me know. It's not worth, this indulgence is not worth this much trouble. Thank you.
Yes. I find it really inspiring. My question is, sir, how do you proceed to solve friends? How do you proceed to solve conflicts? Okay.
So, when Krishna gives remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness, how does that play into this dynamic of free will, evil, God's will? And why can't Krishna make us forget our past habits? We are trying to practise bhakti. So, Krishna can do that, definitely. But Krishna reciprocates with our desires.
So, we may say, right now I have a desire to practise bhakti. Yes, but that is not the only desire within me. Like sometimes we wake up in the morning, night when we are sleeping, when we put the alarm, I want to wake up early.
And when the alarm rings, we wake up and then something within us says, go to sleep. So, now there is a part of us which is saying, I want to wake up. There is a part of us which says, go to sleep.
So, when we say we want to practise bhakti right now, it is that there is a part within us which wants to practise bhakti. It's like, yes, Krishna is good, but Maya is also not bad. So, what happens is that we equivocate.
And then Krishna reciprocates with our desires. So, if a particular desire is very strong, if the desire to serve Krishna is very strong, then we will forget the worldly things. Suppose we have a very important service to do.
And say, if you are coming and we have to give a class, we will be hungry, but giving a class is a serious responsibility, then we forget the food. But if we are not very interested in going for the class, but as a ritual we have to go for the class, then what happens? We are going for the class, but I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry. The remembrance of food keeps coming.
So, now that means what we recollect, our recollections are significantly functions of our intentions. So, we can say that there are multiple levels of desires within us. There is a desire for Krishna and there is a desire for worldly things also.
So, Krishna reciprocates with the sum total of our consciousness. So, when a particular remembrance is coming again and again, that means the desire either we have indulged in the past or we are still entertaining it now. That's why it is coming.
But if we keep firmly practising bhakti, then what will happen? Krishna will give us forgetfulness of those worldly indulgences. Right now, if we entertain the worldly desires so much, then Krishna will see that and he will give us forgetfulness of the principles of bhakti. Then we hear all the philosophy.
And then sometimes when a trigger comes up, then it is like the trigger acts like the F2 button. It just deletes our whole memory. All that we have heard philosophy, sarva dharman parityajya mayam ekam saranam vraja.
Just forget everything and go into illusion. That is because we are still entertaining that desire. So, what do we do? We just try to cultivate devotional desires as much as possible in our situation and as we keep cultivating devotional desires, then Krishna will reciprocate and devotional recollections will come.
So, if we keep showing Krishna, I do not want to focus on this, I want to focus on this, then Krishna will reciprocate and gradually our inner screen will become fulfilled more with devotional remembrances. Thank you. One last question.
Yes, sir. You mentioned that external being that compels us to evil sinful acts, like Christianity, they have Satan. I am just wondering where the personality of Kali then fits into that scenario.
Okay. So, is Kali within our tradition like Satan in the western tradition? Not exactly. Kali is one agent which does prompt us to do wrong.
But Kali is very much within the cosmic hierarchy, a part of the cosmic hierarchy. Kali is not independent of Krishna. Kali is not fighting against Krishna.
It is like Parasharath Maharaj gave Kali the area. So, Kali is also ultimately a servant of Krishna. So, is there an agent which prompts us to do wrong? Philosophically speaking, no.
Practically speaking, we can consider. Why Kali? You can say Maya. Maya prompts us to do certain things.
And for all practical purposes, we can say Maya is equal to our mind. Maya acts on us through the mind. So, we could refer to it Kali or mind or Maya, whatever specific object we want to use it.
But Maya, the Bhagavatam says, Vaishnavi Janmohini. Maya is not somebody who is a demon. Maya is also Vaishnavi.
She is also a devotee. And her service is Janmohini. Her service is to delude the souls.
You say, how is that a service? No, that service is to actually test our desires. Now, I was a few years ago, we had a question and answer session in Melbourne. So, one devotee asked, one person asked, if God wants us to do good, then why are the options for bad so many in this world? The Bible says the path to good is narrow.
And it's steeper. The path to evil is very broad and easy. So, actually, I explained, that's the way it always is in any multiple choice exam.
So, in a multiple choice paper, there is one right option and four wrong options. Now, just because there are four wrong options, does not mean that the student can blame. You gave four wrong options, that's why I chose the wrong option.
If you had given more right options, I would have chosen the right option. No, the exam is meant to test the student's learning. The student has learned properly, then they will not choose the wrong options.
But choosing the right option is not a matter of probability. More right option, then I'll choose the right option. More wrong option, then I'll choose the wrong option.
No, it's a matter of education and intention. So, Krishna gives us the education through the scriptures, through Guru Sadhu Shastra. Not just in our tradition, every tradition, there is some guidance for morality that is there.
So, that education is provided and then our intention is tested. So, to the extent we choose properly, we move forwards. So, it is, so, main difference between Maya or the mind or Kali and Satan is that Satan is seen as a being almost independent of God who acts against God's will.
But Maya is an agent of Krishna who is as a service to Krishna testing the soul's purity. So, in that sense, there is no being independent of God. It is not that Krishna and Maya are fighting.
It is we who are fighting to choose Krishna or to choose Maya. So, Maya, if we start serving Krishna diligently, Krishna will tell Maya to hold back. So, therefore, the conception is significantly different.
And for practical purpose, we can consider that there is something within me which prompts me to do wrong and I have to be careful about it. I shouldn't indulge in it. So, Kali also is present.
Kali may promote Kalaha, conflict between people. It's true. At the same time, it is we who have free will and it's we who have to choose.
So, the main difference is that Kali is not independent of Krishna. Kali is acting within the plan of Krishna. So, thank you very much.
Granthraj Srimad Bhagavatam ki Shrila Prabhupada ki Gaur Bhaktivinoda ki Gaur Premananda ki.