Free will and God’s will 3 – How God helps us free our free will
Hare Krishna. So, today morning, I am discussing the third and the last session of the topic of if God's will is supreme, then how do we have free will? How do we reconcile human will and divine will? So, in the first session, I talked about how Krishna determines, not our actions, but the scope of our actions.
Just as the wind, this area of movement is determined by the sky. So, God is the cause of all causes, but not the cause of all effects. The effects are determined by how individuals use their free will.
And then, in yesterday's session, I talked about when we act, there are three factors involved. That is God's will, free will and evil. Now, evil is not some malevolent being existing outside and independent of God.
Evil is simply the accumulated impressions of the kind of actions that we have done in the past which keep prompting us again and again to repeat those actions. So, today I will focus on the theme of how Krishna frees our free will. How Krishna frees our free will.
We have free will, but in the first session, I differentiated between free will and freedom. Everyone has free will. Even prisoners have free will, but they don't have freedom.
They don't have the scope to execute their free will. Now, most of us are not in physical prisons, but all of us are conditioned and conditioning is like a psychological prison. A psychological prison in which we are impelled to desire and act in particular ways, often ways which are detrimental to our best interests.
So, as souls, we have been given free will, but this free will gets conditioned by how we act. Yesterday, I gave the example of how our mind is like a software and if somebody has repeatedly visited a website, say like Bollywood.com again and again, then even if they now want to visit Bhagavad Gita.com, if they type B, immediately the Bollywood.com comes as a complete in the browser. So, now when we are trying to practise bhakti, but still our worldly impressions keep coming to us as propositions for repeating the acts of worldly indulgence that we have done and the mind's propositions come not only as desires, as temptations to enjoy the world, they also come as fears.
This will go wrong, that will go wrong, that will go wrong. On the spiritual path, when we are trying to move, basically there are two forces which can distract us. One is temptation.
Oh, you'll get so much pleasure, why are you doing this? Just give this up. And the other is tribulation. Now, you'll get so much trouble if you continue this.
Just give this up and then you'll be free from the trouble. This is so, this practising this is causing you so much trouble. So, now when both these are coming, these prompt us, almost we could say push us to act in particular ways.
So, we are discussing this in the context of Duryodhana's defiance of Krishna's will. Time and time he defied Krishna and finally he defied Krishna when he refused to accept Krishna's proposal for peace when he had personally come to Astinapur. Astinapur.
So, now in this particular verse, the genesis of Duryodhana's antagonism towards the Pandavas is being talked about. So, there's a saying, pride comes before a fall. And this is literally illustrated in this particular pastime.
So, for Yudhishthir, the Mayadana now had made a magnificent palace in which there were many illusory displays. So, some places the floor was so smooth, it appeared like there was water over there. And normally if the floor is wet, if our cloth is touching the ground, saree or dhoti or whatever, then we might just lift it a little bit so it doesn't get wet.
So, now Duryodhana is walking along lifting up his cloth and actually there was no water over there. So, when he realised there was no water, he felt embarrassed. And then as he was walking along, he felt his normal ground and there was water and he slipped and fell.
And when he fell, now, yes, falling down in public is not a very pleasant thing. And especially if you fell down because you're not able to pursue things properly, that might be a little funny. But for him, it was not funny.
It was humiliating. You say, okay, sometimes you fall down. Are you hurt? He says, nothing except my pride is hurt.
When you fall down, you may say like that reply. That means, actually, it's just embarrassing to fall down in public. But often, now, the amount of pleasure or pain we experience in an event determines how much we are emotionally invested in it.
Krishna says in the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, 21st verse, that action and reaction happen in the material world, at the material level of reality. But happiness and distress are experienced by the soul. So, action, reaction, they happen in the material realm.
But how much happiness and distress we experience because of a particular action, that is dependent on how much we have the desire to enjoy over it. And how much our consciousness is invested or locked in that particular thing. Maybe a few months ago, there was the Champions Trophy here in England.
And India-Pakistan played the finals. And India was expected to win. But India lost and lost very badly.
So, one boy after that told me that three nights after that, I couldn't sleep. He said, how could India lose like this? So, I told him, probably the cricketers slept. Why couldn't you sleep? So, what had happened, the consciousness was so locked in that, even in the matches long over, still it's being replayed.
How could he play that shot? Why did he bowl like that? Why did this happen? This keeps replaying. So, now, the match is just an event that has happened. But depending on how much consciousness is invested in that event, we experience emotion accordingly.
There are players, Sri Lanka lost a series of finals several years ago, T20, World Cup and some other finals. Then when they lost the third time in the final, there were almost half a dozen youth in Sri Lanka who committed suicide. And we say, okay, the team lost, why do you have to commit suicide? But they were so emotionally invested in that, and they felt, oh, our team lost.
And they were identifying so much with it, that they just ended their life because of that. So, now, what, who is invested in, it's very difficult to know. Invested in is just another way of saying attached.
So, now, Duryodhana, he fell down. But at that particular point, he was hugely invested in trying to prove his prestige and his greatness to everyone. Duryodhana was born slightly after Yudhishthir.
But Yudhishthir lived in the forest with Pandu. So, Duryodhana was expected to become the king because nobody knew whether Pandu was going to come back or not, his sons were going to come back or not. So, he became, in what today's language might call, because he was going to, he was going to be the king, everybody pampered him, he was the centre of the attention.
So, he became what you could call a spoiled brat. And he had an entitlement mentality. Now, I am going to do air, I deserve everything.
But when the Pandavas came back, and Yudhishthir was so cultured, so virtuous, so respectful. So, the Pandavas, they were Kshatriyas, but they grew up, especially in their formative years, in the forest with the sages. So, the oldest among the Pandavas was Yudhishthir.
Yudhishthir lived for the longest among the forest, among the forest sages and brahmanas. So, Yudhishthir had a very brahmanical way of conducting. And naturally, because he was so courteous and polite and respectful, he started winning the hearts of everyone.
And in contrast, Duryodhana was insolent and impudent. And he started saying, all the prestige and attention I was getting, now Yudhishthir is getting that. So, he already had that insecurity and envy towards Yudhishthir.
And now when Yudhishthir performed the Rajasuya Yajna, and he was acknowledged as the emperor of the world, it was, he was already seething with envy. And on top of that, when he was trying to, you think you are so great, I am also great. So, at that time, when he fell down, it was not just a physical fall for him.
That physical fall represented the finality of his humiliation, the completeness. He was humiliated because people loved Yudhishthir more. He felt humiliated because Yudhishthir had more wealth.
He felt humiliated that Yudhishthir had become the, that Yudhishthir and the Pandavas had got the hand of Draupadi. He felt humiliated in many ways. But now, in front of the Pandavas, in their house, when he fell down, it was unbearable.
So, small things are not necessarily small things, if we are hugely invested in those things. So, because of this, what happened was, Duryodhana, he just came, somehow I have to get back at the Pandavas. And that's how he conspired to have all of the property robbed, Draupadi dishonoured.
He felt, I was humiliated, so then I have to humiliate the Pandavas. And for him, humiliating Draupadi, dishonouring her was the way to get back to the Pandavas. It was not just lust over there, it was also a power game, when he tried to dishonour Draupadi.
But, it was not that the Pandavas intentionally were trying to humiliate him. He just fell down over there. So, there is no intention, whereas when he tried to dishonour Draupadi, it was completely intentional and malicious.
So, it is said that hurt people, hurt people. When people are hurt, then they hurt others. But when we are hurt, at that time, if we don't process our emotions properly, then our reactions become excessive.
Yes, Duryodhana was hurt. And, you know, in India, there is a whole school of thought, which tries to overturn the traditional narratives. So, I was in South India, and I met one person, he says, I belong to the RPC.
I said, what is RPC? He said, it's the Ravana Protection Committee. I said, what do you mean Ravana Protection Committee? He said, you know, actually, Ravana was a good person. But somehow, these devotees of Ram have demonised Ravana.
So, we are going to protect the good name of Ravana. So, similarly, there are some people who try to portray that, actually, Duryodhana was not a bad guy. So, now, they try to say that, actually, when Duryodhana fell down, so, there are some dramatised renditions of the Mahabharata, which often spice things up with fictional ideas.
So, in a popular rendition of the Mahabharata, which is not true, there they depict as if, when Duryodhana fell down, Draupadi said, Andhe ka beta andha, and the blind man's son is blind. Now, Draupadi never said such a thing. There's absolutely no mention in the Mahabharata of that.
And if you look at the overall Mahabharata, her character is also not like that. She is an aggressive lady, but she's not a vengeful lady. She's not a woman who takes pot shots at others.
So, there everybody laughed, but it was humorous. It was not malicious. But because he was so insecure, he took that laughter as everybody laughing at his humiliation.
But the point I'm making is, this was a small incident of hurt, but he made it very big. And he used that as the justification for getting back at the Pandavas. So, for all of us, when we feel impelled to do certain things, we all can justify those things.
The human mind, or the human intelligence, we could say, has been given the power by God, or by material nature, whichever we want to say, to justify whatever we want to believe. If I have a desire to believe something, and I strongly want to believe it, then I will find some reason here, some evidence there, and I will somehow justify my belief. Now, whether that belief is based on facts or not, that is secondary.
Even in science, which is considered to be an objective branch of knowledge, actually there is a lot of subjectivity in which theories are accepted as laws and truths, and which are not. Thomas Kuhn is a famous philosopher of science, who wrote a book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. And there he talks about how there is a lot of extra-scientific factors that are involved in which theory gets accepted.
So, another social critic, he said, the theories that we like, we call them facts. The facts we don't like, we call them theories. So, now this is not to demonise science, this is not to minimise science also, but the fact is that even in science, we can believe whatever we want to believe.
And we can come up with evidence to support that idea. So, the human intelligence has been given that faculty. So, actually if we look at the existence of God itself, if we objectively look at the world, the case for God is persuasive.
There is a lot of order and harmony in the universe, and that order and harmony points to some higher intelligence. However, there are also patches of disorder in the world. And somebody who wants to disbelieve in God, they will just look at the things that seem to be disordered.
They'll say, how can God be there? How can God be there? So, if we say that rains are arranged, just see this magnificent system for arranging rains. The sun evaporates water, forms clouds. Now, a cloud is like a mobile, seamless, leak-proof water tank.
Which is made of aircraft-proof technology. And whole aircraft can go through it, nothing happens to it. Even the designers of the twin tower could not make aircraft-proof technology.
But, now somebody… So, this magnificent design is indicative of some higher intelligence. But atheists will say, okay, if rain were designed for us, so that we can have water, then why does it rain on the oceans? Well, it rains on oceans so that atheists can ask this question. So, if we go to a house where there are 100 rooms, and 99 rooms are very clean, and one room is disorderly, then we can look at either the one disorderly room and say, there is nobody looking after this room.
Or we can look at 99 rooms which are orderly and say, there must be someone looking after the room. And there must be some other reason why this room is disorderly. So, the point is that we can look at the order in the universe and take it as pointing towards God.
And it's a persuasive case. But, it is not a decisive case. It's persuasive but not decisive.
Why? Again, Krishna has given us free will. And if the free will to either serve God or to turn away from God. And if he made the evidence for his existence totally intellectually compelling, then we would not have the free will to defy.
We would not have scope to execute the free will. So, there is some justification for people who want to reject God's existence. So, similarly over here, Duryodhana, he got his reason for getting at the Pandavas.
He has justified it. And later on, when Duryodhana is being requested by many of his elders, settle this issue. Agree for a peace proposal.
So, at that time, many people tell him, first they try to tell him, even Krishna also persuades him, very rationally, intelligently, kindly. In Vedic tradition, there is Sam, Dam, Bhed and Danda. These four are used to persuade people.
See, both of us have same interests only. Let's work together. Dam is, okay, you want this, you take this, but let's avoid the conflict.
Bhed is, if in the opposite party, one person is very adamant, then try to get the others on your side. Then that person says, oh, my party is getting weakened, maybe then they will decrease their resistance. Or Danda, you will be punished if you don't agree.
So, Krishna actually used all of these. And Duryodhana, at that time, he says, why are all of you blaming me? After great introspection, I can't find a single fault in anything that I have done. A single fault.
And he was not just, it was a bluff and bluster. He actually believed that he had not done anything wrong. You did this to me, so I did that to you.
So, what happens is, when we are hurt, at that time, if our emotions take over, we lose perspective. And then we get back, because we have been hurt, in a very severe and disproportionate way. So, because of his insecurity, aggravated by his envy, now he felt totally humiliated.
So, Krishna himself came to petition, just avoid the war. But he was not ready to listen. So, actually, this incident is very indicative of how much God wants us to use our free will well.
Although Duryodhana had defied Krishna's devotees repeatedly, still Krishna himself came to Duryodhana. That shows how much God is ready to extend himself to get the soul to use his free will properly. Use their free will properly.
So, imagine that there is some person who is intoxicated, high on, I'll call it the walking-along, and they've got a million-pound cheque with them. Now, they might, because they're so intoxicated, they don't know what they're doing. They might just give that cheque to anyone.
And now, if we are their well-wishers, and at that time, we see, this person's got this million-pound cheque. Then, we will try to talk with them in some way to somehow gently persuade them so that they hand over that cheque to us. And then, if they hand over that cheque, we can keep it safely, and then when they're sober, they can use it productively.
But if we can't persuade them somehow, then they are going to squander that million pounds without even knowing what they've lost. Because they're just drunk right now. So, all of us are conditioned souls, and our conditioning is like our intoxication.
We are like an intoxicated person. And the million-pound cheque is our free will. Our free will is our most valuable possession.
Even if somebody eventually earns a million pounds or a billion pounds or a trillion pounds, it is because they use their free will intelligently to earn money. And ultimately, it is when we use our free will properly, that we attain eternal life, that we attain eternal love for Krishna, and we get eternal joy thereof. And that is far, far more valuable than any treasure of the world.
So, all of us have this treasure of our free will. But with our intoxication, we may just waste it on anything. So, people waste, for example, hours and hours on entertainment.
And people say, I don't have time for spiritual life. But they spend so much time on so many trivial things. So, what has happened? Whatever they feel, this will give me pleasure.
This is good. You start spending hours on it. So, the free will is valuable.
But under the intoxication of our conditioning, we can just use our free will in utterly useless ways or even self-destructive ways. So, Krishna and his representatives come to us and they somehow try to persuade us to use our free will properly, to use it intelligently for growing, growing ultimately in our spirituality, in our relationship with Krishna. So, at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, Vimrishshaitada sheshena yathecchasi tatha kuru and deliberate deeply and do as you desire.
So, Krishna also essentially told the same thing to Duryodhana. Deliberate and do as you desire. But Arjuna and Duryodhana chose opposites.
Duryodhana defied Krishna. Arjuna acceded to Krishna. In 18.73, Krishna tells Arjuna, do as you desire.
In 18.73, 10 verses later, Arjuna says, I will do as you desire. Karishe Vachinam Tava. So, he voluntarily harmonised his will with Krishna's will.
So, to the extent we feel inspired to harmonise our will with Krishna's will, to that extent, we will have auspiciousness in our life. Now, how do we go about, because surrendering to Krishna, doing Krishna's will or making Krishna's will our will. So, for that, basically, there are three steps.
First is intelligence or intellectual conviction. Jiva Goswami says, in the Sandarbhas, that for the pure devotees, for the Siddha Bhaktas, it is their priti that keeps them in Krishna. It is their love for Krishna, because of which they stay in Krishna consciousness.
But for the sadhakas, the priti is not there much. We sometimes feel attraction towards Krishna, sometimes we may not feel attraction. What keeps the sadhaka in spiritual life is buddhi, is intelligence.
Evam buddhe param buddhva samsthabyatmanam atmana. Krishna says, in this way, with your intelligence, understanding yourself to be transcendental, practise spiritual life. This is 3.43 in the Gita.
So, it is our buddhi that is vitally important. If our buddhi is not well nourished, then we will be tempted or distracted by the world. So, that's why the whole philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, the discussion on the Srimad Bhagavatam, they are all meant to nourish our buddhi.
Now, the buddhi alone cannot act, although intelligence is important. It is the first step. It is not the complete solution.
And the second step is actually application in association. We want to, whatever we learn, this is what I meant to do. If the intellectual conviction itself is not there, we will be tempted by the world or we'll be allured by the world, threatened by the world, and we'll give up the practise of buddhi.
So, our free will will tend to be used, go off in an unwanted direction. Just like Bollywood.com pops up on the inner screen. The mind is like an inner browser.
It'll keep popping up. Come on, do this, do this, do that. So, at least we have to have intellectual conviction.
Why I should do this and why I should not do that. So, dadāmi buddhi-yogam tam yena māṁ upayānti te Krishna gives us the intelligence by which we can come to Him. So, intelligence is not simply intellect.
Intelligence that helps us to move towards Krishna is not simply intellectual. That intelligence is also devotional. The intelligence that inspires, I'm convinced now, this is what I'm meant to do.
That intelligence is a gift of Krishna. So, then with that intelligence, we at least know this is what I should do, this is what I should not do. The second step is application.
Application in association. Why application means, okay, I know I should do this, I don't feel like doing it, but still I will do it. So, sometimes Duryodhana himself says this, that jānāmi dharmam na ca me pravṛttim jānāmi adharmam na ca me nivṛttim He says, I know what is right, but I don't feel like doing it.
I know what is wrong, but I don't feel like giving it up. So, at one level, we have our knowledge, but at another level, we have our likes and dislikes. So, rāga-dveṣa-vimuktai sthuṁ viśayān indriyaiścaran ātma-vaścair vidhayātmā prasādam adhigacchati Krishna says, the attachment and aversion will be there, but don't get carried away by it.
So, the application means that once we understand, okay, this is where I'm meant to go, this is what I'm meant to do, then irrespective of how we feel, we continue. Now, how do we do that? So, determination means that we keep our intention above our emotion. Determination means that we keep our intention above our emotion.
So, sometimes our emotion will support what we are doing. Sometimes we feel like, yes, we wake up and we're chanting and we get such taste in chanting. We feel, chanting should never end.
I just want to keep chanting, keep chanting, keep chanting. More often, when we start chanting, we feel, chanting never ends. It's just going on.
Sometimes we take the beads out of the bead bag. Has somebody changed the beads? Instead of 108, are there 1008 beads over here? So, sometimes our emotions will work for us in our bhakti and sometimes our emotions will work against us. So, we keep our intention above our emotion.
How do we do that? Keep our intention. That's the test of application, which requires determination is that we keep our intention above our emotion. So, how do we do this? By seeing that just as we have an outer environment in which the weather is not in our control, similarly, we have an inner environment in which also the weather is not in our control.
Some days, it may be very cold. Some days, it may be very hot. Now, we acknowledge it is cold, it is hot, but it is not that just because it is cold or it's hot, we stop doing the things that are important for us to do.
Just because it is cold, oh, so, I will not cook, I'll not go to office, I'll not do this, now, if we started waiting for the weather to be good to do the things that are important in our life, we would never do them. Most of the time, we would not do them. So, just as we acknowledge the weather, but we don't let the weather alone determine our actions.
Similarly, we acknowledge our emotional weather, but we don't let it alone determine our actions. Krishna equates the environmental with the emotional in 2.14, when he says, matra sparshastu kaunteya sheet ushna sukha dukkhda aagam apayi no nitya stham siddhi shasubharpashyam So, sheet ushna is environmental, sukha dukkha is emotional. Krishna says, both of them are similar.
Tolerate them. Now, how do we tolerate them? By knowing that they are temporary. They are temporary.
When it is extremely cold, when it is extremely hot, when it is stormy, what do we do at that time? You know, if there is a storm, okay, we might slow down, we might temporarily stop, but we know the storm is temporary. We don't have to just give up what we are doing because of the storm. We acknowledge the storm is there, we adjust our actions accordingly, but we keep our purpose going.
So, sometimes we might just feel terribly low down, depressed, demoralised, disheartened. Nowadays, there is a tendency to pathologise all mental problems. So now, depression can sometimes be a clinical condition, but quite often depression is just a response to life's life's distresses.
And so, there was a social scientist who studied how people respond to depression. And he found, he compared four ways of dealing with depression. One was, we take antidepressant medicines.
The second was, people were given placebos, the sugar pills where they told that they are medicine. And they found almost the same percentage of people who got cured by, of depression by taking antidepressants, almost same, but just 0.1% difference was if people just took placebos. So actually, it was not the antidepressant which was curing, just the people's feeling, oh, I'm taking a medicine, now I'll feel better.
That made them feel better. And then they found even psychotherapy. Psychotherapy means no medication, just talking with people.
You go to psychotherapy and talk, that also helped people to improve almost the same degree. But most significantly, it was time. That almost 80% of the people who recovered through these other three methods, a similar percentage of people recovered from depression simply by time.
Because bad things happen, we feel hurt, and life goes on. We say time is the great healer. Things get better.
So basically, tam sthitiksha swabhārata. I feel bad, I feel low, I acknowledge it, but that doesn't mean I stop living the life that I want to live. I perceive that sometimes if there's a lot of fog, we may have to move slowly.
But we keep moving in the right direction. So this application means that we keep our determination, keep our intention above our emotion. And here, association is vitally important.
Because in our association, we get inspired. In whatever association we have, the essence of association is not just physical proximity. The essence of association is the transfer of desires.
When we associate somebody who loves to chant holy names, they are enthusiastic in kirtan. Just by seeing their enthusiasm, we get the enthusiasm. So our desires are not just linear, they are also triangular.
Triangular means that if I'm here and I see some object and I desire it, that's a linear desire. So you may see a new smartphone, I want to buy it. That's a linear desire.
But there are so many new models of smartphones which keep coming in. So then these smartphone companies, they may get a celebrity to endorse the smartphone. I use this smartphone.
Say a sports star, a movie star, they endorse it. And they say, oh, you take it. I also want to take it.
So what has happened? The smartphone is here, we are here, the third person is here. So our desire is not just linear, it is triangular. When we see somebody else doing something, then we desire to do it.
A few years ago, when the first time I had gone to Australia, the devotees there offered me baklava. I had not heard of what is a baklava. It's an Arabian sweet.
I didn't know this. Would you like to have baklava? I said, maybe later. And then there was a devotee with me also who was taking prasad.
He got the baklava and he was eating it. He was eating it with such taste. Okay, give me one also.
So just hearing about baklava or seeing baklava did create the desire. But then seeing somebody taking it, okay, give me also. Similarly for us, how many of us, we just got a Bhagavad Gita and we fell in love with it.
Few of us might be there. There's very special souls. But most people take Bhagavad Gita as it is and keep it as it is.
It is only when we associate with devotees. It is only when we associate with devotees, we hear some class on the Bhagavad Gita. Hey, there is so much in the Gita.
I didn't know. And especially if we associate with some devotees who love to recite the Gita, love to speak on the Gita, have fresh realisations from the Gita, then I want to read it also. So basically, the association is what stimulates our desires.
And especially in spiritual life, this is true because in material life, the sense objects appear attractive. So the desire might get stimulated. But in spiritual life, the sense objects are attractive but they may not appear all that attractive.
The Bhagavad Gita, yes, it's an attractive book but we may not fall exactly in love with it on looking at the book. But by associating with those who are devoted to the Gita, we become devoted to the Gita. So first step is conviction.
Now these are not linear steps because even in association, we can get conviction. But we're talking about there's conviction, then there's application. And then when there's consistent application, there'll be purification.
And purification means that the unwanted impulses, unwanted propositions that keep coming in the mind, they just stop coming. So like if Bollywood.com was popping up on our screen, even if we type B, we want to go to Bhagavad Gita, Bollywood keeps coming on. But if we keep choosing Bhagavad Gita, keep choosing Bhagavad Gita, then afterwards, Bollywood stops coming.
Or sometimes my computer might just go into the settings, look at what are the preferences and just delete Bollywood.com. Now there is no delete button for the mind. We can delete things from our computer browser but the impressions stay in the mind. However, what Krishna does is when we practise bhakti, he gives us such powerful spiritual impressions that the worldly impressions just go so far into the background that they are as if forgotten.
And when purification happens, then there is no proposition, lower proposition coming up from the mind. And that's the time when bhakti becomes joyful. Now when we become pure, when our mind becomes pure, then our spiritual life becomes secure.
Till that point, there's insecurity because the temptations are coming, they will drag us away. But once we become pure, there are no longer the temptations coming. Then we just secure and steadily we march towards Krishna.
And we all have experienced some amount of purification. Some of us might have been eating meat earlier. But now if we are travelling on a train or a plane and we see somebody eating meat, how many of us have to resist the temptation to eat meat? Prasadam is very practically the higher taste.
So although that proposition might have been coming through the mind earlier, now it doesn't come. That means bhakti does work. So right now it may appear as if there is a lot of struggle, but that struggle is not lifelong.
That struggle is not eternal. As we keep practising bhakti, the struggle will keep decreasing. And I talk about these three steps, conviction, application and purification.
These are from our side, we are trying to do it. But from his side, Krishna is also trying to help us. So when these, I'll conclude with two points about how Krishna helps us.
First is that Krishna, he unconditionally is always with us. Even if we make mistakes, even if we do something wrong, even if we fall down, Krishna never abandons us. Krishna is always there with us, with us, eager to help us.
Now Krishna is not a judgemental God who is waiting to catch us when we do wrong. Hey, you did that wrong, I'll punish you. No, Krishna is there to catch us when we fall.
When we fall, he's there to catch us and lift us up and again come back to him. So in the Vishnu Sahasranam, there are two names of Krishna which are given, of Vishnu and Ayodhya that seem to be contradictory. Guru, Guru, Tamodha, Animisho, Nimisha, Swagri, Vachaspati, Rudharathi, Animisha and Nimisha.
So Animisha means one who never blinks his eyes. Nimisha means one who blinks his eyes. So why are two contradictory names used? Baldevidya Bhushan has written a commentary on the Vishnu Sahasranam, this thousand names of Vishnu.
And there he says, Animisha means that if a devotee is trying to serve the Lord, the Lord unblinkingly notes even the smallest service that is being done. And he says if a devotee somehow commits a mistake while doing service, while serving him, then the Lord blinks his eyes and overlooks the mistake. The Lord blinks his eyes and overlooks the mistake.
So he gives the example, that the example is Putana. When she came to kill Krishna, Krishna just saw that, oh she has a maternal mood, she has come to offer her milk to me. Krishna closed his eyes.
Because she had a malevolent intention, she got the reaction, she lost her body. But she got the kingdom of God. Krishna delivered her.
At one time when the Pandavas, when Krishna had come to meet the Pandavas, at that, at Hastinapur, Krishna was cutting some fruits and the knife slipped from his hand, his hand got cut, finger got cut. So Draupadi was nearby. When she saw that, she just came running and she pulled off a piece of her silk saree and started bandaging Krishna.
And she was in anxiety seeing the blood. But Krishna was just calm and smiling. He said, Draupadi, you have given me this saree, I will remember and repay you.
And when did he repay her? He gave her the dishonouring, when he offered her unlimited garments. So Krishna's love for us is unconditional. That unconditional love does not mean that whatever we do, he loves us.
That's one thing. And whatever we do, he loves that. There are two different things.
Whatever we do, Krishna still loves us. But it is not that whatever we do, Krishna loves that. There are right things, when we say Krishna's love is unconditional, that does not mean that whatever we do, he will love that.
There are right things and there are wrong things. There are things which help us spiritually grow and there are things which cause us spiritually to regress. So Krishna doesn't want us to do the things that cause us to spiritually go down.
But even if we do that, he still loves us. So the second example is, of Google Maps. Suppose we are going from, I today morning, I came from Leicester here.
So we use Google Map. So suppose Google tells us turn left. And suppose we turn right at that.
Then what does Google do? Immediately Google reroutes. And it tells us, okay, now you take this path. If again we take a wrong turn, again Google will reroute, again will tell us right path.
So no matter how many wrong turns, Google will keep rerouting and tell us the way from there. So Krishna is like that ultimate Google. So no matter how many wrong turns we take, Krishna will reroute and will give us the path.
Okay, from here, you turn back. From here, you turn back and move on. So we may have committed many mistakes in the past.
And we may even commit mistakes in future. Because we are finite beings, we are fallible beings. But we don't need to beat ourselves up with the mistakes, for the mistakes.
Just start off. Okay, whatever mistake has happened, now let me do course correction and move on. The mistakes are not trivial.
The mistakes will have the consequence. If I take a wrong turn, it will take me that much longer to reach the destination. Every wrong turn means it will take longer to reach the destination.
So in that sense, the mistakes have consequences. But we are never, if we have good Google Maps, then we are never lost. We may not be exactly getting to the destination on time, but there's always a way to the destination.
Similarly, no matter how much our conditioning is, no matter how many past things we have done wrong, we are never lost to Krishna. We are never lost to Krishna. He always has a plan for us from wherever we are to come to him.
So just as physically, if you have taken a wrong turn, then we just start beating ourselves up. You know, why did I take the wrong turn? Why did I take the wrong turn? Why did I take the wrong turn? Some friend with us will say, okay, you took the wrong turn, doesn't matter. Now at least take the right turn and go back.
So similarly for us, even if we have done some things wrong in the past, even if our conditionings will make us do something wrong in the future, but still right now, let us take the right turn. Right now, Krishna has a plan for us. And if we follow his plan, if we just try to serve him to the best of our capacity, he will keep us on the track to him.
And in that way, from wherever we are, we can attain Krishna. That is the meaning of Krishna's inclusive, unconditional love. And even he doesn't want us to commit mistakes, but even if we commit mistakes, still Krishna loves us.
How does Krishna free our free will? By giving us intelligence, intellectual conviction, by giving us the association, the facility to apply what we are doing and by purifying our hearts. And most importantly, by always being with us, pointing to us the right choice. And if we keep making the right choice, even a small way, we keep moving towards Krishna.
And ultimately, these small steps, just keep taking, keep taking. Every day, we just do a little bhakti, little bhakti, little bhakti. The process is evolutionary.
It's a small, gradual process, but the result is revolutionary. The result is dramatic. If you just keep practising bhakti, our heart will be attached to the world, will become attached to Krishna.
And when our love for Krishna becomes greater than the love for the world, then Krishna will take us out of the world to his eternal abode. So I'll summarise. I spoke today about how Krishna frees our free will.
I started by talking about Duryodhana elaborately, how because of his insecurity and envy and his entitlement mentality, he took a small hurt and made it disproportionate. So hurt people hurt people. And when we are hurt, our emotions make us lose perspective and we may become disproportionately malevolent.
So for all of us, Krishna's personally going to Duryodhana to try to persuade him to choose the right course of action. That demonstrates how much God wants each soul to use the free will properly. So the conditioned soul is like an intoxicated person with a billion dollar check.
Somehow the intoxicated person has to be told to give the check to a trustworthy person, a well-wisher. So similarly, somehow Krishna tries to persuade us to use our free will properly. And how can we, if we understand we have conditionings which impel us in the wrong direction, how can we learn to use our free will properly? Right now, our free will is there, but it is conditioned.
We are like in a psychological prison. But how do we free our free will? The first step is conviction. It is the intelligence, buddhi that will keep us on the spiritual platform.
At least the philosophy understand this is what is good. And this is what I should do. This is not good.
This is what I should not do. Then you have to apply it. Application requires determination.
Determination means we keep our intention above our emotion. We acknowledge our emotions. I feel like doing it.
I do not feel like doing it. But we treat our emotional situation like our environmental ecological situation. It is like a weather.
We modify our actions, but we do not let the weather determine our actions. And similarly, emotions do not have to determine our actions. And lastly, there is purification where the unwanted promptings stop coming.
Then when our heart becomes, when our mind becomes pure, our spiritual life becomes secure. And through it all, Krishna is there. Every small service that we do, he unblinkingly notes and rewards.
And the mistakes that we make, he just blinks and overlooks them. So Krishna is like the Google map, no matter how many wrong turns we take, reroutes and gives us the right path. So if we just from wherever we are, whatever we may have done in the past, whatever we may do in the future, right now, we just try to serve Krishna.
And if you keep taking small, small steps towards Krishna, according to what we can do right now, the process is evolutionary, but the result will be revolutionary. When by the steady application of bhakti, our love for Krishna becomes greater than our love for the world. Krishna will take us out of the world to his eternal abode.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. So any questions or comments? Yes.
I guess this is the first time we get a view from the three sessions. I have a question. In the Bhagavatam, we learn that Narada Muni would instruct Dhruva Maharaj about how to approach three different class of people.
The intelligent one, you serve them. The peers, you make friendship. And the less intelligent you are, compassionate.
Yeah. Prabhupada said, we should never divide the less intelligent. We should never? Divide.
That's the mistake we make. The intelligent one, instead of serving you, and you can have the peers, you know, less intelligent. Instead of being compassionate, we divide them.
My question is this. Now, Pandavas, Draupadi, very cultured lady. There is a situation that three, you know, the old Bhaktas of Kurukshetra, he's telling the Mahabharata, that when he fell in the water, Draupadi, instead of showing some compassion, but she laughed.
Even the Yudhisthira didn't like it. Because, you know, Draupadi is my cousin. You know what I mean? They had to stop her from laughing.
And this is the reason why Duryodhana took such an insult. That, you know, he finally, you know, he destroyed the Pandavas. Now, was that Krishna's arrangement, or was just something that, because you said, you know, your class was about always being rational about emotions.
Or was she ruled by emotions? Okay, yeah, good question. So, Draupadi laughed at Duryodhana when he fell down. So, why did she deride him at that time? Yudhisthira didn't like that.
Right. See, there are, everyone has their personality. And there are certain reactions that are just instinctive.
Bhima and Yudhisthira, you cannot have two brothers who are more different than each other. Yudhisthira was very pacific, pacifist, you know, try to have peace. Bhima would be itching for a fight, just itching, looking for an opportunity.
So, everybody has their personality. And now, as I mentioned also, they laughed, but the laughter was not mocking. It is just instinctive.
It was it that it can come off to someone who is insecure as mocking. But we have to look at the overall life of a person to see how they are living. So, that means that in certain situations, certain reactions might just be instinctive.
Say, if we are in a class and we are late at night, we are tired, we might just yawn at that time or we might just nod off. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean we are being deliberately disrespectful to the speaker. The speaker may say, I'm speaking, why are you sleeping? Well, from the speaker's perspective, it's one thing, but there's always a context and a background.
So, we could say that that whole combination was unfortunate. That Durudana fell at that place and Draupadi laughed at him. But if we look at the overall character of Draupadi, she was not a person who, as I said, was malicious.
She had her own life. She didn't. She didn't either way care for Durudana in a negative way or a positive way.
She had her husband. She had a life. She had the children.
At that time, she didn't have it. Later on, she would have. So, it was not that she was deriding.
And even if, for argument's sake, the epics, we can see at different levels. In the Vedanta Ramachutra Bhashya, Madhavacharya says, that the epics, Itihasana and Ramayana, they can be understood at three levels. The literal, the ethical and the metaphorical.
So, literal means just this is a story, hearing it will purify us. Ethical means this is the right course of action. This is the wrong course of action.
And metaphorical means there are deeper significances to it. So, of course, he's careful. The metaphorical is not to be taken at the expense of the literal, but in addition to the literal.
So, from the ethical perspective, we could say that if we want to argue that way, that Draupadi should not have laughed at that point. But again, even if that is a mistake, there is a sense of proportion. Sense of proportion.
See, one of the principles of justice is that the punishment has to be proportionate to the crime, not proportionate to how angry people feel about it. So, if we see Parikshit Maharaj committed a mistake when he put the dead snake around Shamik Rishi. But to be sentenced to die for that, that is outrageously disproportionate.
So, for Draupadi, even if we say that argument is saying that Draupadi committed a mistake, for Duryodhana, what he did was way, way too disproportionate. So, there is this whole system, there is a whole concept of blaming the victim. That, oh, you know, you did that because of which I did this.
I was at one place and there was this temple, the manager was there, he was very domineering and everybody was complaining that, oh, he just shouts at us, insults us. And then when I talked with him, his answer was, if they did what I told them to do, I wouldn't have to shout at them. So, rather than saying that, okay, I should not be shouting, but he said, they are not doing it, that is why I am shouting.
Well, even if they don't do it, there is a way to speak. So, what happens is, sometimes we have our conditionings and other small actions become triggers for us to vent out the way we want to vent out. And then we justify, because they did it, so I did this.
So, yesterday I talked about the trigger and the cause. So, we could say, Draupadi and the Pandavas laughing with the trigger, but the cause was Duryodhana's envy in his own heart. And we can learn from our perspective, rather than, see, generally in scriptures, the characters are exalted.
So, rather than passing a judgement about those characters, a safer stand is that we learn that this is what we should not do. If somebody has fallen down, we shouldn't laugh at them. That's what we can learn.
Now, there's another perspective to this whole thing is, that when, in the Krishna book also, in the Bhagavatam it is said that, when people laughed at Duryodhana's falling, Yudhishthira tried to stop them, but Krishna remained silent. So, Krishna remained silent means what? That, okay, he approved it. So, what this means is that, actually the nature of the world is, as all people surrender to me, I reward accordingly.
So, if we want to go towards Krishna, Krishna will open doors to come towards him. If you want to go into illusion, Krishna will open doors for that also. So, if somebody wants to be tempted, they will see all around them tempting objects.
If somebody wants to be envious, everything around they will see as reason for envy. If I want to hate someone, I will just find out, they did like this, they did like that, they did like that. I just selectively focus on that and I will hate them.
So, Krishna reciprocates their desires. So, we could say that, it was all Krishna's plan, but it was not that Krishna wanted Duryodhana to become malevolent, but Duryodhana had his free will. And because he wanted to be malevolent, because he wanted to be envious, he just took that as justification and he moved forwards.
So, yes, so to conclude this point, that rather than seeing that, we can see at one level, it is Ropali's mistake, another level we see it's Krishna's plan. But for us, for practical application, we can say that, yes, sometimes people may take offence at small things also. So, it's best to try to be careful.
Thank you. I understood by reading the mouth, contributing fact that it was pre-Arya. Okay, this is a, okay, so was it that, okay, this is a good question.
If you look at the next report, okay, okay, I'll come to that. Like, I just want to finish this point, I mean, the meaning of the message, the piece, it's that Duryodhana was very persuasive. Duryodhana, you know, he should not, but the same Krishna, really in the heart, that was entirely new to him, not from Surya, but the heart said, the piece is very persuasive.
But Krishna in the heart, when he was looking, he was like that. Okay, yeah, and he did the same thing in the heart of Ropali. Okay, you know, just few days ago, there was a lady, but, you know, not one in mind, but the Indian girls, who were there for her, you know, it's cultural thing, you know, if someone is in trouble, you don't like, you know, you don't like that person, that you have.
Okay, yeah. So can we say, ultimately, that is Krishna's plan, that he wanted the war to happen? That's why he, he made Draupadi laugh, and that's why, even when he externally went as the shanti doodh, he inside Duryodhana's heart did not let him accept it. So this is one way of looking at it, definitely.
I would say that it is not always true all the time. Is it that Krishna wanted the war to take place? Isn't that Krishna wanted everyone, or the thousands and thousands of people to be killed at that time? Well, Krishna has given every one of us his free will. And we could say, ultimately, that it is not, without Krishna's sanction, nothing happens.
But Krishna's sanction is one thing, Krishna's intention is another thing. So is it that Krishna deliberately wanted Duryodhana to fight and the war to take place? Well, at one level, you could say yes, because the Mahabharata does talk about it. This is a whole subject, I'll just briefly explain it.
That before the Kurukshetra war, Vyasa, Vidura, all of them tell Dhritarashtra that, you know, stop your son from fighting this war. At that time, Dhritarashtra says that, now if the war is destroyed, what can I do? He says, so at that time, Vidura says, destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves. So, destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves.
And he asks Vyasadeva also, is this war destined? So Vyasadeva says, the ways of destiny are very difficult to understand, O king. We should focus on doing what is our duty. But the same Vyasadeva, after the war is over, and Dhritarashtra is in lamentation, all my hundred sons are killed.
At that time, Vyasadeva tells him that, O king, do not lament. This whole war was destined. Now, was the war destined or was it not destined? The important thing is that, rather than thinking of destiny as something absolutely frozen, this is how it has to happen.
We have to see that, destiny is also reciprocal. So, if something has already happened, the philosophy, there is philosophy and there is purpose of philosophy. The purpose of the philosophy is to help us make wise choices, to help us move towards Krishna.
In the 10th canto, when Kamsa is about to lop off the head of Devaki, Vyasadeva tells, Vyasadeva used various arguments to try to stop Kamsa. One of the arguments he uses is, O Kamsa, death is destined and if you are going to die, you are going to die. What will you gain by killing, killing a woman, killing a sister, killing a sister on her wedding day? It's like you can say, sin, sin square and sin cube.
So, now, he could have turned around, Vyasadeva could have turned around the argument and says that, if Devaki is destined to die, then she is just trying to die. Why am I trying to stop Kamsa? He doesn't think like that. Because, for Vyasadeva, as a husband, it is his duty to protect his wife and he will do his duty whatever the destiny may be.
But for Kamsa, he is going completely against his duty to attack Devaki. So, at that time, he is being reminded of destiny. So, the point which I am making is, the whole Vedic culture, Vedic wisdom is duty centred, not destiny centred.
So, we, in retrospect, can say, this was destiny. In retrospect, Dhritarashtra said, it was destiny. Now, don't lament about it.
Now, focus on doing your duty. Now, at least become dharmic. Now, become spiritual.
But in prospect, before the war is going to take place, Vidura told him, now use your intelligence to understand what is your duty and do that. So, before giving a class, if I think, whatever I speak, whatever question answers happen, it's all destiny. Well, then I'll not prepare for the class properly.
I mean, 25 years ago, when I started giving classes for the first time, I was given some guidelines. So, the 10th guideline was, depend on Krishna. But in bracket, depend on Krishna, but only after you have prepared.
So, if after I prepare, I give a class and still some controversy happens, this goes wrong, that goes wrong, then I can say that it was destiny. But before I do that, I don't prepare only. And then I speak something wrong, it causes controversy.
That is not destiny. That is my irresponsibility. So, therefore, we could say in retrospect that it was Krishna's destiny.
That same Krishna within Duryodhana's heart did not let him understand. But I would say that it is not Krishna who is responsible. It is Duryodhana who is responsible.
Because Duryodhana had the desire to defy Krishna, so Krishna reciprocated by giving him that conviction. Oh, no, what you're saying doesn't make sense. If he had even a small desire to know the truth, then Krishna would have given him that.
So, Krishna is the ultimate doer, we could say, but Krishna is not necessarily the immediate doer of everything. It's people who use their free will and they do certain things. One last question, then we can have one-to-one question.
Yeah. Every time in our lives, we have to make choices, and sometimes it's not clear, even though we are trying to follow the path of bhakti, and how do I align myself with Krishna's intention? Okay. So, how do we know what is Krishna's will for us? It is, again, not necessary that Krishna's will is one line.
Krishna's will can also be a broad path, along which there can be different lines. I'll explain what I mean by this, that when we talk about Krishna's will, there are, it is not that Krishna's will means Krishna is like a robot programmer who wants us, this is the programme I've written for you, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. It's not like that.
Krishna has given us free will. And when we are meant to do Krishna's will, that doesn't mean that we have no individuality left. We still have our individuality, we still have our personality, and we also make choices.
But there could be choices, so rather than thinking Krishna's will as one action, we could say Krishna's will is like a circle, within which there could be many actions that could be done, which could be Krishna's will. So we could say that the broad circle of Krishna Bhakti is Krishna's will. Now, in Krishna Bhakti, whether I have some time to read Shastra, whether I read the Bhagavad Gita or I read the Bhagavatam or I read the Chaitanya Charita Amrit.
Now it is not that Krishna has a will that I should read only Bhagavad Gita and not Chaitanya Charita Amrit. Not like that. Even following Krishna's will doesn't mean becoming robots who have to just go along a preordained path.
It means that we stay within the circumference of serving Krishna. And there are different ways of serving Krishna also. So having said that, now it is, how do we know Krishna's will at every moment? It is not so easy to know.
And as I said, it's not that Krishna has a pre-programmed path for each other at every moment. Rather, there are broad things in our life which will direct the trajectory of life towards Krishna. Like for example, associating with devotees, chanting the holy names, practising sadhana, practising bhakti yoga.
If in these big things in our life, we do what Krishna has told us to do through Guru Sadhu Shastra, then by that, we show Krishna that we want to do his will. So if we consider the three situations in our life, one situation where we clearly know what is Krishna's will. Say for example, Krishna wants us to practise bhakti.
Second situation where we're not really sure, should I do this or should I do that? Third situation where nothing is clear, what I should do. So if in the situations where it is clear to us what Krishna would want us to do, and Krishna wants us to practise bhakti. So if in those situations, we do Krishna's will, that we are showing Krishna that we want to follow his will.
And when we show him that, he will reciprocate by guiding us where things are unclear. So it's not that we do whatever we want, whenever we want, and then when we want, we take Krishna's will. Now there is a process.
So rather than worrying about the situations when Krishna's will is unclear for us, we focus on the situation when Krishna's will is clear, and at least do Krishna's will at that time. And then after having said that, in general, if we strive to come to the mode of goodness, then, the mode of goodness gives knowledge. In the introduction to the Nectar of Instruction, Ishwara Prabhupada writes that when we come to the mode of goodness, and how to advance further will be revealed from within.
So when we practise sadhana bhakti and come to the mode of goodness, then our inner compass, we all have an inner compass, which is, do this, don't do this. That inner compass in the mode of passion or ignorance gets distorted. But as we come to goodness, it becomes more and more harmonised with Krishna.
And then we just get, this is what I should do, this is what I should not do. And of course, for major decisions in our life, we need to consult our spiritual master or spiritual guides. And also, the major decision that we are to do in our life, rather than doing them in the mode of passion or ignorance, we try to do them when we are in goodness.
So it is not that when we say that we should follow our duty, we should do our duty or we should serve Krishna, we should do God's will. It is not that there is some exhaustive karma handbook, which is there, exhaustive karma handbook, which tells in every possible situation what we are meant to do. And as soon as the situation comes immediately in our mind, we Google.
Okay, what should I do in this situation? It's not like that. There is no exhaustive karma handbook like that. What is there is that when we practise the principles of bhakti, as we practise them more and more, we internalise them, then our inner compass becomes more and more harmonised with the direction which points towards Krishna.
And in every situation, we will take decisions which are more and more harmonious with Krishna's will. And even if we take some decision which is disharmonious, we will realise it soon and we will do course correction. So if we start thinking that in every situation, I will wait till I learn what is Krishna's will and then I'll act.
Then we will never act totally. So we have to do the best we can with the knowledge that we have in the circumstance that we are in and gradually we learn. Okay, and this was the right decision.
This was not necessarily the right decision. This could have done, we could have done course correction. So basically, first by doing what we can, doing a Krishna's will when we know what it is and overall trying to cultivate the mode of goodness will harmonise our life with Krishna's will.
Thank you very much. Shreela Prabhupada ki Jai Gaura Bhakti Vrindaki Jai Sitai Gaur, Kriyam Anand Dev.