Fulfilling our need for progress by becoming committed in bhakti

[Congregation program at Dever, USA] Video:

Hare Krishna. I'm grateful to be here amongst all of you today. And I'll speak today on the practise, on the topic of how we can advance spiritually by taking commitment in Krishna's service.

I think this mic is on. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Is it better now? So, we, living beings, are naturally progress-seeking. Whatever area we work in, we want to improve things. We have birds which have lived for generation after generation, hundreds and thousands of years.

The birds build more or less the same nest. But we humans want to build better and better houses, more facilities, more comforts, more attractive features. So, if we consider cows, they eat the same grass day after day, month after month, year after year.

We humans, when we want to eat food, we create hundreds and thousands of varieties of food items, even within one cuisine. And there are hundreds of cuisines all over the world. So, by our very nature, we want to improve things.

We always like, from whichever situation we are in, we want to move upwards. So, if we consider the defining difference between pre-modern times and modern times. We could divide the recent world history into three phases.

That is, pre-modern, modern and post-modern. So, in the pre-modern times, for most people, the idea of progress was in the spiritual direction. That we are in this world, and this world is a place where there is distress, where the whole idea was, we can't change much over here.

The idea was that, we need to grow upwards, in the spiritual direction. In the 15th, 16th century, the European renaissance took place. Renaissance was a time when humanity started looking at the world to see whether we could create heaven in this world.

In the western world, Christianity was prominent. In India, in different parts of the world, different religions were there. But most religions, they considered progress more or less in the vertical direction.

Whether it is India where we had the stratified caste system, or whether it was Europe where there was a stratified class system. There were the aristocracy, the nobility, the gentry, and the peasants. So, there were different classes.

And more or less, people, they considered that the way they are living is the way they are going to live more or less. And they thought progress primarily in the vertical direction. But since the 16th century, as science and technology started developing more and more, the idea started coming that we don't have to wait for some other world to become happy.

We can become happy in this world itself. And how do we do that? Through our intelligence to develop science, technology, and transform this world. And initially, this was not seen as disharmonious with the spiritual world.

In fact, many of the early scientists were Christians. And they believed that just as religion elevated one spiritually, God's grace manifested through religion in the spiritual direction, and they considered God's grace manifested through science in the material direction, material world. And in this way, they felt we can grow progress both spiritually and materially.

But as science started progressing more and more, the result was that people started feeling that we can improve here itself. Why do we need to consider any other world? We don't need to worry about any such world. Laplace was a famous mathematician and he wrote an elaborate book on mathematics.

And he presented it to the French king at that time. And the French king asked, where is God in your book? He says, I have no need for God. His, I have no need for that God hypothesis.

So this statement actually defines what we could say, slowly they break. As science and technology started developing more and more, people started feeling that we can be happy in this world itself. And we don't need God at all.

We don't need about any other world. The, you could say that from the pre-modern age, the transition to the modern age happened when the idea of any other world receded almost out of people's consciousness. Yes, there may be another world, but the real thing is to improve in this world, to be happy in this world.

And what happens after that? Who knows? Who bothers? So, the result of this was that people started becoming more and more attached to this world. If this is the only life we have, we don't know whether there is any other world or not. This is the only life we have.

And this is where we are meant to enjoy. Then somehow or the other, we have to get as much enjoyment as possible. So, we could say that the pre-modern world view was somewhat characterised by detachment.

We can't improve much in this world. We are born in a particular caste. That's how your future is, more or less, trajectory is made out.

It was in India, it was a caste. In Europe, it was a class. Very stratified society.

So, people thought they were very, not so, it is not that people were detached in the sense of being renounced. But the idea of improving once a lot in this material world was not so much there. But in the modern times, they get tremendous attachment.

We have to improve the world here and now. And this led to several unforeseen and unfortunate consequences. One of the, we have phenomenal technological progress in today's world.

And yet, we have unprecedented psychological distress. Why is it that despite having so much technological progress, where we have more control over the world than what we had in the past? Why is it that there is so much psychological distress? And if we see this idea that we can make things better in this world. Most of America was born from this dream.

Christianity also had two branches. There was Catholicism and Protestants. Catholics and Protestants.

It is the Protestants who came to America. And Catholics were to some extent a little more otherworldly. Catholics had monks, Protestants.

From the beginning they said, this whole idea of monkhood is to be given up. They said, God has given us the gift in this world and we are meant to enjoy this world. So the Protestant ethos was that if we are religious, God will reward us with prosperity in this world.

And with this ethos, America was built. So in the Vedic tradition, there is Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. We do religious activities, then we get material prosperity.

With that we can fulfil our desires. And ultimately, gradually, we can move towards liberation. Now, liberation goes far into the background of most people.

And as America progressed, as the Western world progressed, people started feeling that if we are getting Artha and Kama, why do we need Dharma at all? So we see in today's world, most people are just interested in material things. And material pleasure, material wealth. And that is, even if they consider God, God is not seen as a means to spiritual progress.

God is seen as a means to material progress. If at all people worship God, they worship Him so that He can make life better for us in this world. So, we see that there is so much distress despite so much progress.

There is technological progress, but there is psychological distress. Why is that? Because we human beings, by our very nature, are spiritual. And we need a spiritual dimension to our lives.

Now we may say, is this just a matter of faith that we are spiritual? No, it's not just a matter of faith. It's a matter of just objective observation. If we look at the world around us, nothing lasts forever.

Everything in this world is temporary. And yet, we all long to live and live forever. And no one wants to die.

Now, if we were simply creatures of matter and everything around us in this world, which is material, is temporary, then where would we get the desire to live forever? Suppose there is a small African tribe living in a forest and one day, a child from that tribe went to his mother and said, Mummy, Mummy, give me a pizza. First thing the mother would ask, what would she ask? What is pizza? And even if she knew, she would ask, how do you know about a pizza? So, if there is nothing in her circumstance which will give her knowledge of pizza, she will actually ask the question, where did you know about a pizza? Similarly, there is nothing in our circumstance which is lasting forever. And yet, we all have innate longing to last forever.

Most of the movies are about romance. Most of the novels are about romance. And most romantic novels and movies end in H-E-A, happily ever after.

Now, in real life, we know that nobody is going to live forever. But still, people in millions read such novels and watch such movies. Because they speak to an innate longing of the human heart.

And that longing of the human heart is for lasting life and lasting love. At the material level, there is no rationale why we should want to live forever. Yes, the Darwinian evolution theory says that survival of the fittest.

Prabhupada, in one of his purports, says, okay, we will talk about the survival of the fittest. But the reality is that in this world, even the fittest don't survive. The fittest may survive a little more than the unfit.

But ultimately, everyone perishes. So, where is it that we get this longing to live forever from? It doesn't come from our body which is temporary. It comes from something beyond which is itself eternal.

That is the Atma. And the Atma, the soul, is currently identifying with the body. And because the soul is identifying with the body, the soul wants to have eternal life at the level of the body.

So, how do we get eternal life at the level of the body? We can't. Because the body by nature itself is temporary. Nowadays, gerontology is a huge branch of study.

Gerontology is the study of old age. Now, what all happens in old age? And there are many anti-ageing pills and therapies and treatments and this and that. So, and they all have these magic cures.

So, one of my acquaintances, he is also a devotee and he, as soon as he is in America, and when he became 50, immediately, just without any solicitation, he got a mail. And he says, the mail said, life begins at 50. He says, now we have got such treatments for you that if you have digestive problem, you take this treatment, you'll be fine.

If you have respiratory problem, take this, you'll be fine. If you have very vision diminution, take this, everything will be fine. So, he says, now, life begins at 50.

So, he says, we have a remedy for this, we have a remedy for this, we have a remedy for this. So, the marketing agent who had come for this and tried to solicit, you know, take this, take this, take this. So, the devotee told him, you know, I don't need any of these remedies.

What you need is some illusion remedy. Illusion remedy means that, yes, it's not that if we can get some treatment, we can take some treatment. But the idea that old age can be reversed, that is an illusion.

Shri Prabhupada says in a Hindi lecture that no one wants to get old. Koi budha nahi hona chahata hai. Par prakriti sabko chup chaab budha bana deti hai.

Religion makes all of us old. The World Gerontological Association issued a statement in public interest saying that there is no technology, no medicine, no therapy available which can either reverse, stop or slow the ageing process. And what can you do? You can't reverse that, you can't make an old person young.

Stop means you can't stop a young person from going old. Slow means you can't even decrease the pace of it. So, what can we do? Actually, all that we can do is just cover up.

So, now, why are we talking about old age over here? The point I am making is that in this world there is a particular way things function. Despite however much progress we may make, the way the body ages is something as inexorable, as unstoppable as is the movement of the planets. We may understand the mechanism but we can't do anything about it.

Similarly, the ageing process is like that. So, at the material level, old age, disease and death, they are unavoidable. And Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita in the 13th chapter verses 8 to 12, when he talks about the characteristics of those in knowledge, he says janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadi dukkha-doshana-darshanam He says these are the distresses of life and these we can't avoid them.

So, amidst technological progress, why are we having psychological distress? It is because technological progress has increased the illusion that we can become happy over here. Our frustration is usually a function of expectation. If I go to a party and I expect there to be a 15 course feast and then there is just a 3 course meal over there.

Now, if I am hungry, I may go home and I may cook a 3 course meal only. And I will be happy with the 3 course meal. But, if I were expecting a 15 course meal and then I get only 3 course, even if those 3 items are nutritious, even if they are delicious still, I will feel disappointed.

So, frustration is a function of expectation. The greater our expectation, the greater is the frustration when that expectation is not fulfilled. So, similarly, the whole result of technological progress is that our expectation that we can become happy in this world increases.

And the more we expect to be happy in this world, the more we find it unbearable when we don't get happiness. So, it's not that the problems of life have increased. Problems of life are always there the way it is.

We could say the stress has increased, the work pressure has increased. Yes, relationships are not so strong. All these are true.

But, underlying it all, the very expectation that I should be happy in life, that expectation has increased. And when there is a frustration of that expectation, we just can't bear it. We can't bear it.

So, one of the myths that pervades the world today is that being unhappy or feeling bad is unnatural. Feeling bad is something very bad. And we should not feel bad at all.

So, in fact, if you consider who are the professionals who are paid the most in today's world? What do you think? Who are the professionals who are paid the most? Professional coaches. Okay, professional coaches. Doctors.

Executives. Technical people. Yes, they are all paid handsomely, but some group of people who are paid phenomenally.

Psychologists. Sorry? Lawyers, doctors. It's true.

Therapist. Yeah. Psychiatrist.

Sorry? Swamiji. That's true also. But… Okay.

So, in India, IPL is going on right now. Oh. Cricket.

Not just cricket. If you see, the IPL players, they made scandalous amount of money for just playing for 50 days. Crores of rupees.

What most people may not make in their whole lifetime, they make in just less than 2 months. And it's not just cricketers. It's, in general, entertainers.

Entertainers, like doctors, yes, they make a good amount of money. But, you know, a doctor who can fix a broken leg can't make anywhere near as much money as a footballer who can kick with that leg. Isn't it? So, entertainment has always been a part of human society.

But, in today's world, entertainment is an obsession. And even sports is entertaining, but actually real life sports is also not that entertaining. So, when sports is also depicted in an entertaining way, that's where people get more pleasure.

That means what? There was a maybe a few years ago, a year or two ago, there was a movie about a female boxer from the northeast of India. Now, how she won Maricom. How she won some medals.

How she won Olympic gold or whatever. Now, there was a movie made about her and the Bollywood actress who played the role of that movie of that boxer in that movie, she made more money by acting the role of that boxer than what the boxer made throughout her life. So, now, why is when we say that entertainers are making so much money, where is the money coming from? From the people who are being entertained.

And why are people ready to pay so much money? That's because they feel that entertainment is such a great need. Entertainment is such a great need that I am ready to pay anything for it. So, what we value reflects our values.

So, if we are ready to pay a lot for entertainment, that means we consider entertainment very important. So, entertainment has always been a part of human society throughout history. But this obsession with entertainment, what is the reason for it? The primary reason is that people want to get rid of all bad feelings.

I come from office, I am worried about this, I am worried about that. I am at home, I am just bored with my life, this is not working, that is not working. Just turn on the TV, watch something and forget all the emptiness or distress of life.

There is a survey done in the western world of what are the mental, emotional states of people, especially well-to-do people. They found that 5% of the time people are happy, 5% of the time people are distressed and 90% of the time people are bored. It's bored.

And the whole entertainment industry is actually, we could say, anti-boredom industry. Somehow try to get rid of the boredom. So, again, the point which I was drawing is that we have an expectation that we should be happy, we have an expectation that we should not feel bad and when life does not fulfil that expectation, we go into some illusory world.

We go into a fictional world where we hope to feel good. But the problem is this going into a fictional world is like taking a painkiller. If I am sick and I am in pain, I take a painkiller, the pain goes away.

But the disease has not gone away. The disease is still there and the disease is going to resurface. And when it resurfaces, not only the pain will come but because the disease has gone on, the pain will become worse.

So, similarly, when people get hooked to entertainment, entertainment is like a painkiller. But after some time, the painkiller's effect wears off and we want more entertainment. And not only more entertainment, we want more drastic entertainment.

That's why more violence, more sensuality, more action. If you see even sports, cricket, there are 5-day matches. Then there are 1-day matches.

More excitement, more stimulation. It's like, I am so bored, I need more action for stimulation. And then even 1-day matches are not enough, then we have to have T20 matches.

T20 is also not enough. So, if you consider, Indians had primarily two painkillers. One was Bollywood, the other was cricket.

And a few years ago, both of them got married. And their child was IPL. So, the Indian Premier League is a place where there are cricketers and there are Bollywood entertainers.

And both of them, they worked, just heightening the level of entertainment. Now there is a proposal, we will have T10 matches. Just T10 overmatches.

The whole idea is that people are so bored that the greater the boredom inside, the greater they need the stimulation outside to come out of the boredom. And the result of this, the more stimulation we seek in an artificial or digital world, the more the real world starts seeming more and more pale. We are bored with the real world, so we seek entertainment in the real world.

But when we get habituated to the stimulation level of the entertainment world, then the real world appears again more boring. And then we seek more entertainment. And then further the real world appears even more boring.

And it just goes on and on and on. Now when people go to watch movies in theatres, usually, they take something with them to eat, you know, popcorns or something like that. Now why is that? It's not that 3 hours, it's not that you're going to feel hungry.

It's gone for 2, 3, 2 and a half, 3 hours. But the whole idea is that actually everything is imaginary, something has to be real. Some pleasure has to be real.

Otherwise, it's all just imaginary. It doesn't offer any real pleasure. So therefore, the whole expectation that was set up by technological progress that we can make this world a happy place and we can be happy in this world, that can just not be fulfilled at the material level.

And in denial, okay, I'm not happy here. In denial of that, what do we do? We just dive into entertainment and try to forget the distress of the world. We forget temporarily, but it comes back again and again.

The emptiness, the distress of life, it just comes back. And of course, entertainment may not be that harmful a way. People do many more destructive things also.

People get into smoking, drinking, taking drugs. It's all because of an inability to accept that life is not turning out the way I wanted it to or the way I was told it will turn out, the way I had dreamt it will turn out. So it is the inability to cope with the negativities of life and the resulting negative feelings that come within us that makes us do things such as entertainment or addiction which actually don't solve the problem.

They only worsen the problem in their own way. The problem with trying to avoid or escape from life's negativities and our mind's negativities is that we can't keep avoiding them for long. Now we have more and more entertainment, but we have less and less peace.

Most people speak not because they have something to say, but because they find speech more tolerable than silence. If they are silent, their mind is screaming, this person did like this, that went wrong, this happened like this, that went like that. And the mind's screaming is unbearable.

So to shut it off, either we start speaking something or we turn on some device and start speaking something. And that way we forget what the mind is saying. But this is not a lasting solution.

The mind is there within us and the mind is speaking constantly. And unless we learn to deal with life's negativities and the mind's negativities in a more realistic and responsible way, we will just become more and more dependent on painkillers. If you see, before 1960s, there was no such thing as an anti-anxiety medicine or a tranquillizer or anti-depressant.

Now, those have become the most sold medicines over the counter. So what is happening? Is it that the world has become such a worrisome place? Was it not a worrisome place earlier? It was a worrisome place all the time. We may have some idealistic conception of the past where people are so peaceful.

No, in the past also there were problems. If people live in farms, then sometimes the rains may not come and then there will be distress. So there is distress all the time.

But what has happened in the modern times is that there is the expectation that we should be happy. And when that expectation is frustrated, the negativity that comes is so unbearable that we try to deny that negativity by diving into something which will make us forget it all. So it could be entertainment, it could be addiction, it could be any kind of compulsive activity.

But this is a painkiller and what we actually need is the curative medicine. The curative medicine is actually spiritual growth. There is material growth and there is spiritual growth.

Now, material progress is something which is fine. We all will pursue it naturally in the course of our life and that is fine. But material progress alone cannot bring happiness.

It can provide some pleasure but not any lasting pleasure. In our own lives we can say that life has different dimensions and success in one area of life doesn't doesn't compensate for failure in other area of life. Say somebody is a brilliant professional.

They have won many awards, they are promoted to high level in their companies but if in their family their relations are not good, their marriage is about to break apart, their children have gone off on a wrong track, then no matter how successful can they be turned volume decreased or turned off. So, when if somebody is very successful professionally but their professional success cannot compensate for their failure in family life. Success in one area of life cannot compensate for failure in another area of life.

We need to be successful in both areas. Similarly, both areas that is professional and family life. The same way success in material life cannot compensate for absence of spiritual life.

Material life is one aspect, spiritual life is another aspect. And what does spiritual growth mean? Spiritual growth essentially means that we understand that we are bigger than the world and we are bigger than the mind. Bigger not in size but bigger in constitution.

The world is temporary, the mind's moods are also temporary but we are eternal. And the world is material, we at our core as souls are spiritual. Just understanding this gives us some perspective.

But when we don't have any spiritual dimension to our life, then we identify with our mind's emotions, we identify with our body's possessions and if anything goes wrong over there, we feel as if things have gone wrong with us and our life has broken apart. To understand this, let's consider an example. If we consider the weather.

Now, if we decided to wait, only when there's good weather, then I'll wake up from bed. Only when there's good weather, then I'll cook food at home. Only when there's good weather, then I'll go to my office.

Now, if we made our life dependent on good weather, our life would be chaotic. With respect to weather, if the weather is bad, we wear the necessary clothes, we make the necessary adjustments and move on with life. Now, we would like the weather to be good but we don't stop our life because the weather is bad.

We accept the weather is bad but let me go on with my life. So, just as there is environmental weather, similarly, we need to see that the negativities in our life and the negativities in our mind, they are also a part of the emotional weather. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in 2.14, So, there he considers distress and happiness to be like the change of seasons, summer and winter.

That means he says that just as if it becomes very cold, now, we can't do much about the cold. We can't stop the cold, we can't remove the cold but we can just prepare ourselves and go on with our life. So, the same approach we need to have with our internal weather, with our emotions.

With our emotions, we think I have only two options. Either I have to control my emotions or I have to be controlled by my emotions. I should not feel bad, I should be cheerful, I should be happy, I should feel good all the time.

And if somehow I start, I want to feel good all the time. If I don't feel good, then, if I start some negative thoughts coming in me, this is going wrong, this is problem, this problem, then, I just shudder to it. I start feeling so bad that sometimes, we may have what is called as a pity party.

Pity party means what? One person starts telling you know, this went wrong with me, that went wrong with me, that went wrong with me. Another person, you know, this went wrong with me, that went wrong with me. You know, this person is so bad, that person is so bad.

And both of them agree together, the world is very bad. And, they have a pity party. But normally, party is meant for enjoyment.

A pity party does not give any enjoyment. It only collectively increases everyone's distress. So, what happens? If we let ourselves be controlled by our emotions, then, we become helpless.

So, and, of course, we don't want to be controlled by our emotions. So, I don't want to feel bad. So, what do I do? In order to not feel bad, I seek entertainment, a compulsive way, or I seek addiction in a compulsive way.

There are people, alcoholics, who say, there is no problem in this world, whose solution can't be found at the bottom of a bottle of alcohol. But actually, what is found there is not solution, but illusion. You just think, I've gone high, but after that I've come down, and I'm worse than before.

I've got a splitting headache, I've got a hangover, I've wasted my money, I've wasted my time. There's no solution. So, all this has come because we are unable to cope with life's negativities, and the negative, the mind's negativities, which result from the life's negativities.

But if you understand that I am different from the world, and I am different from the mind, I am a soul. And as this soul, I am beyond both of these. So, my emotions, I may sometimes feel good, sometimes feel bad.

And, I don't have to go out of the way to feel bad, but not do I have to go out of the way to feel good. I have to just stick to my purpose. Just like say, if it's cold, then we have to go to office.

Now, if say, in the opposite direction to our office, it's warm weather. Will we go in that direction just because it is warm? No, even if it is cold, we'll go to our office. Because our purpose is to get to the office and do some work.

Similarly, we, if we focus simply our life on trying to avoid the negative and try to get the positive, then we will become purposeless. It's like in an ocean, if a wave comes, and I want to avoid this wave, so I go in this direction. But I find a wave over there, then I go in another direction.

Another wave comes, I go in another direction. And I will not get anywhere at all. So, just as in an ocean, the captain doesn't go based on where the waves are coming.

The captain goes based on where the destination is. Similarly, for us, if we consider inside us, there are waves of emotions that are coming. And these waves will buffet us here and there and everywhere.

If we don't want to get tossed here and there by the waves of our emotions, then we need a direction. What is life meant for? Where am I meant to go? And that direction is provided by our spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge given in the Bhagavad Gita helps us understand that we at our core are souls.

And as souls, we are part of the whole. We are part of Krishna. And the connection with Krishna is where our longing for lasting love and lasting happiness can be fulfilled.

And it is this longing that we are meant to fulfil by raising our consciousness to the spiritual level. And that is the curative medicine. The process of Bhakti Yoga is the curative medicine which will raise our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level.

bhava-avsheda-shrotra-mano-bhiramaad The Bhagavatam says in the 10th Canto that bhava-avshati for the material world, this is the medicine. And the result of spiritual practise is not just something which we experience in another world. We can start experiencing it even in this world.

The more we start practising spiritual life by chanting Hare Krishna, by studying the scriptures, by associating with devotees, we can start sensing our own spiritual growth. How do we sense our spiritual growth? We'll see that as we practise bhakti more and more, the world's negativities will shake us less and less. The same problem which would have caused me a big anxiety or panic attack in the past.

Now, yes, I do get some anxiety but not that much. I want to cope with it. How does it happen? It happens because our consciousness has risen up.

If I'm in the ocean, I'm just going to be tossed here and there. But if I'm in a ship in that ocean and the ship is huge, then I'll not be tossed so much. So the process of bhakti yoga is like the ship in the ocean.

Without the practise of bhakti, we are like a small person in an ocean. We're just tossed by the waves. But when we're practising bhakti, that's like we're in a huge wave, huge ship and the waves won't shake us so much and the ship will take us towards the destination, the destination of immortality.

And so, when we are practising bhakti, we have to practise bhakti with the right understanding. Like earlier I said, we often do things to… we often do many things to feel good. When I'm feeling bad, I want to feel good.

And so for feeling good, I may watch movies, I may watch a sports match or somebody may take…may smoke or take drugs. Now, if we also come with that idea that I practise bhakti to feel good. So, what is happening? This conception, it is good at least we are practising bhakti, but this conception that bhakti is meant to make me feel good, that conception will not allow us to grow spiritually.

Because what is happening? By this, we are not letting our consciousness rise upwards. We are thinking where I am, things should become better here itself. They may become better, they may not become better, but we will grow better by rising spiritually.

So, sometimes in the process of bhakti, we may have to do certain things which may not feel so good. But they are like a medicine which will elevate our consciousness. So, what is it that in bhakti that may not make us feel good sometimes? Say, if we are chanting Hare Krishna.

We start chanting, initially we chant, it may feel good. But if we start doing chanting regularly, you know, regular daily chanting, it's too much of a burden. I don't feel like doing it.

So, when we don't feel like doing it, sometimes, some days when we chant Hare Krishna, we just feel so good at that time. We feel that, oh, let me keep chanting. Chanting should never end.

And some days we feel, chanting never ends only. Now, what is happening? I thought I will chant one mala, 108 beads, what is it? Somehow they got 1008 beads over here. It's not getting over at all.

So, when we have to do something in a disciplined way, mind just rebels against it. I don't feel like doing it. So, but if we do it, that is going to connect us with Krishna.

That is going to purify us. And that will raise our consciousness upwards. So, if I chant only to feel good, then tomorrow while chanting, if I don't feel good, I'll give up the chanting.

But, feeling good is one thing, realising good is another thing. So, this is the physical level of reality, this is the mental level of reality, this is the spiritual level of reality. So, the mental level of reality, sometimes we feel good, sometimes we feel bad.

But a spiritual level of reality, if we understand I am a soul, and the soul is by nature sat, chit, ananda. The soul is eternal, it is conscious and it is joyful. So, if we rise to the spiritual level, there naturally we will experience joy.

So, if we think bhakti is meant to make me feel good at the level of the mind, then sometimes it may not make us feel good. And then we start feeling, why should I practise bhakti? But if you understand, bhakti, it can make us feel good at the level of the mind, but primarily it is meant to make us realise the good that is there at the spiritual level. That we are ourselves spiritual, and Krishna is the supreme spiritual reality, and there is an eternal relationship between us and Krishna.

And that relationship is the source of the supreme peace and the supreme joy. So, unlimited good feeling awaits us at the spiritual level. And that's why we need to raise ourselves to the spiritual level.

Similarly, when we are studying bhakti, when we are practising bhakti, sometimes we have classes. We study the philosophy, we read the scriptures. Sometimes we just like to hear stories.

Some nice katha, I get some entertainment by that. That is good. Sometimes we come for classes also, we want to hear a lot of jokes.

It's good to have some humour, but the point is that we come to spiritual, we study scriptures to understand the philosophy so that we understand that this mental level is one level, the spiritual level is another level. In the Chaitanya Charitamruta it is said that, It says, don't be lazy, I don't want this philosophy kind of stuff. I just want some rasa, I want some story, katha.

So, Chaitanya Charitam said, don't be like this, don't be lazy about understanding the philosophy. Why? Because if you understand the philosophy, then you will understand that Krishna is the supreme reality. And in absorption, Krishna is the supreme happiness.

And then you will get the determination to fix your mind on Krishna. So, sometimes philosophy may seem a little difficult, but if you study it, we will understand that life has an entirely higher dimension that we knew nothing about. And we can start getting the conviction to connect with that dimension.

Similarly, in bhakti, we do many services. Now, sometimes there may be services say like, now we are having this programme. So, for the programme, hosting a programme, arranging for the prasad for the programme, tomorrow we have a festival.

There are a lot of services to do. Sometimes the services, sometimes they feel good, but sometimes you know, I have to do this also, I have to do that also. Too much it is becoming.

So, in the early days of our movement, in the 1970s, Aishwarya Prabhupada was building the temple in Juhu. And his disciples were mostly from America at that time, and they were trying to get this temple built. And many of the Indian local people, they were just creating a lot of trouble for the devotees.

So, one of the devotees over there, Tamal Krishna Maharaj went to Aishwarya Prabhupada and said that, Prabhupada, this construction business is causing me so much anxiety. That is disturbing my japa. Disturbing my bhakti.

Disturbing my chanting of the holy names. So, Prabhupada said, yes, it is disturbing my japa also. He was taken aback.

He didn't expect a spiritual watcher to say that I was disturbed. But then Prabhupada said, your anxiety for serving Krishna will take you to Krishna. Your anxiety for serving Krishna will take you to Krishna.

What does that mean? That means that bhakti is not just about feeling good. Bhakti is about developing a relationship with the Supreme Person. And in any relationship, we have a whole gamut of emotions.

Now, sometimes when we have children, sometimes children, they don't do something. They fall down. They don't study well.

There is so much anxiety. Sometimes they don't listen to what we want to tell them to do. And that causes irritation.

But if suppose tomorrow we could develop a technology by which instead of having children, we could have perfectly obedient robots. How many parents would want that? We would want that because there is no relationship over there. Isn't it? So, actually a relationship means there is a full gamut of emotions.

Similarly, when we are serving Krishna, when we are practising bhakti yoga, to develop a relationship with Krishna, that means sometimes it may also mean taking up anxiety for Krishna. It may mean doing some responsible services which may force us out of our comfort zone to do this for Krishna. But by doing this, we'll become purified.

By doing this, we'll be rapidly elevated towards Krishna. So, our anxiety for serving Krishna is what will take us towards Krishna. So, in bhakti, we don't focus so much on attachment or detachment.

Don't be attached to worldly things. Now, bhakti, the whole idea of bhakti is that, yes, this world is also coming from Krishna. So, we can work in a mood of worship to Krishna.

So, yes, we can work in this world. We can progress at the material level. That's not the problem.

Bhakti doesn't say that. It doesn't reject attachment nor does it worship detachment. Oh, yes, renounce the whole world.

No, bhakti focusses on commitment. We commit ourselves to serving Krishna. And by that commitment, we will find our way to enlightenment.

We'll find ourselves rising to the spiritual level where there is enduring happiness, where there is the freedom from anxiety, where there is the eternal proximity of our all-attractive and all-loving Lord. And that is life's ultimate perfection. So, to the extent we commit ourselves to the practise of bhakti, to that extent, we can move forward towards Krishna and ultimately attain Krishna.

And this is what Srila Prabhupada, when he came to America, he did that. Prabhupada, when he was in India, in Vrindavan, he was living peacefully. But he was concerned that more and more people should come towards Krishna.

And that's why all alone from India he came to America. And all alone he struggled. Srila Prabhupada, in the early days of his life, early days of his life in America, he was staying at a particular place and the janitor, the watchman over there, himself broke into the room where Prabhupada was staying and stole his typewriter and stole some other things he had.

Prabhupada had no valuables, but whatever he had he stole that. But Srila Prabhupada was determined. He then shifted to the Bowery, the Lower East Side and Srila Prabhupada told him, that's not a place for you to stay.

There are drug addicts over there, there are people who are violent, there are people who are unclean. You cannot stay over there. But Prabhupada was committed.

Wherever people are receptive to Krishna, let me go over there. So Prabhupada was staying at a particular place with one person, David and he seemed very interested. And he seemed to want to become a devotee and a disciple and Prabhupada also had a lot of hope in him.

But one day he just again had a relapse, took drugs and went mad. And with the madness of the drugs he just rushed at Prabhupada to attack him. Now he was a young wild man and Prabhupada was a 70 year old person.

He just couldn't do anything. There was a narrow stairs. Prabhupada was in the upper story of a building.

Just Prabhupada had to just leave that, run out of that place and come out. And when he came out he was on the streets and on the streets he saw many of these hippies were lying on the ground, unconscious just having drunk, having taken drugs and unconscious. He saw the birds fluttering on the roofs of the houses, some pigeons.

And Prabhupada suddenly realised that he was just as homeless as these hippies or as these birds. But Prabhupada, he was physically homeless but spiritually he was always at home in Krishna. Bhagavata Krishna says that for my devotee Aniketa, they have no home but their heart has found its home in Krishna at my lotus feet.

So Prabhupada was fixed. Even in that situation his commitment to serve Krishna remained strong and he had so many discouragements. If you read the Nilamrut, which is the book describing Prabhupada's life biographically, you will see the kind of difficulties he went through were insurmountable.

But if we understand what he went through, why did he go through? Because he was committed to serving Krishna and getting more and more people to Krishna. Not just more and more people out there. He wanted all of us to be spiritually benefited.

He wanted all of us to get the spiritual medicine of Krishna Bhakti. And it is through his mercy that now we have the opportunity to practise Krishna Bhakti. Before Shri Prabhupada started ISKCON, there was not much Bhakti in the West at all.

And now, there are hundreds, I have travelled in various parts of the world and almost every country in the world, there are devotees practising Bhakti. This is a result of Shri Prabhupada's effort. It was his commitment to Bhakti that has given us the opportunity to practise Bhakti.

To understand the Bhagavad Gita and to transform our life with the Bhagavad Gita. So sometimes we feel, oh I have this thing to do, that thing to do, there are so many obligations in my life. Bhakti is just becoming another obligation.

Bhakti is the way which will take us above all these obligations to a higher level of consciousness. But if it starts feeling too much, then we can try to remember Shri Prabhupada and remember his sacrifice, his commitment. Suppose a child is very sick and the child is to be given some medicine and the medicine tastes very bitter.

I don't want this medicine. If the child is focussing only on the taste of that medicine, the child will say, I don't want to take this medicine. But if the child comes to know that actually this is a very expensive medicine and to buy this medicine for him, his mother has sold her own jewellery.

Then the child will not focus on the bitterness of the medicine. He will focus on the love of the mother. And by that focus on the love of the mother, the child will take that medicine.

Similarly for us, sometimes in Bhakti, things may appear to be difficult. But if we look beyond our difficulties to the sacrifice of Shri Prabhupada in giving us the message of Bhakti, then whatever problems I may have, they are not very big problems. Let me commit myself.

There are some problems but I have by the practise of Bhakti the ultimate solution to all problems. I have the opportunity to rise to spiritual life level of reality and experience eternal life and eternal love therein. Thus by commitment to Bhakti, we can rise to the supreme enlightenment.

I will summarise what I spoke today. I spoke on the topic of commitment in Bhakti. I started by talking about how we are by nature progressive beings.

Unlike animals which stay in the same kind of dwelling or eat the same kind of food, we want better homes, better foods. And this tendency to improve things in traditional or pre-modern cultures was primarily in the vertical direction. To go to another better world.

But since science and technology started developing, the idea was we can make this world better. And as technology developed more and more, the idea of some other world became irrelevant for most people. Through technology we can get paradise in this world itself.

But unfortunately, although we have phenomenal technological progress, but paradise doesn't seem to be there anywhere. Internally far from paradise we are having hell. There is enormous psychological distress.

And why is that? That's because the world by its nature is a temporary place. No matter what we do, old age, disease and death are there. No matter what we do, things in this world don't work according to our plan.

Frustration is a function of expectation. If I expect a big feast and get simple food, I'll be frustrated. Similarly, when we expect that this world will be a very happy place and then that expectation is not fulfilled, that causes unbearable frustration.

That unbearable agitation, unbearable frustration. And we are also made to think life will be good and our mind should also be good. Our mind should not have any negative feelings.

And when negative feelings come up, what do we do? We try to get rid of them by seeking entertainment. The whole entertainment industry where entertainers are paid so much, where entertainment has become an obsession, that is because we feel entertainment to be such a great need. And that is because we can't tolerate boredom.

We can't tolerate negative emotions. We want to constantly feel good. But whether it is entertainment or even more destructively whether it is addiction, these are like painkillers.

The more we take them, the more we need them. Underlying the emptiness grows more and more. So, just improving things at the material level will not lead to satisfaction.

Just like painkiller alone will not lead to a healthy body. So, success in one area of life doesn't compensate for failure in another area. Success in professional life doesn't compensate for failure in material life, personal, family life.

Similarly, success in material life or material progress can't compensate for lack of spiritual progress. The spiritual idea is not just some faith. It's just objective observation and inference.

Nothing around us lasts forever but still we want to live forever. This longing is not circumstantial. Just like an African child wanting a pizza, this longing within us comes from the transcendence within us, from the soul within us.

And the soul longs for a connection with the whole, the connection with Krishna. And that connection is what the Bhagavad Gita's directive to practise Bhakti Yoga gives us. So, Bhakti Yoga is the process by which we don't just feel good but we realise the good within us.

That means we start understanding that the soul is eternally joyful and the soul's connection with Krishna brings the supreme joy. So, if we practise Bhakti also as another feel-good activity. Bhakti may make us sometimes feel good but when sometimes it doesn't make us feel good, we will give up the practise.

But if you understand that Bhakti is meant to take us beyond the mental level to the spiritual level. To want to feel good at the material level is like, oh, a wave is coming over here. Let me go over there.

The wave will not be there. By the time I get there, another wave comes over there. I go over there, another wave comes over there.

But Bhakti Yoga means we are not just trying to avoid the waves. We are focussing on getting into the ship and taking the ship to the destination of Krishna. So, when we have commitment, then even if some things don't feel good, we do it.

We do those things because they are important for us. Just as even if the weather is not good, we still do our work. We go for our job.

We do our daily responsibilities. So, similarly, the environmental matter, the environmental weather doesn't stop us. Similarly, we shouldn't let our emotional weather stop us.

So, emotions will come and go. But if we have a higher purpose which comes through commitment, then we will persevere. So, commitment is required for chanting the holy names, for studying scriptures and for taking up responsibility in Krishna's service.

When we have commitment in Bhakti, then commitment raises us to enlightenment. And if the commitment sometimes starts feeling too burdensome, then we can remember Srila Prabhupada's sacrifice in overcoming herculean obstacles, coming all alone to a distant land with no money in old age, being robbed, being attacked, being rendered homeless, and he did it all just to give us the opportunity to practise Krishna Bhakti. So, just as a child doesn't see the bitterness of the taste of the medicine but sees the love of the mother, similarly, if we focus on the compassion of Srila Prabhupada, not the small difficulties we have to practise and we have to go through while practising Bhakti, then we will be inspired with the commitment to move forward steadily and ultimately attain enlightenment.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. So, are there any questions or comments? Yes, please.

But for Vrasta as a spiritual balancing act, what happens is that when you talk about that ship, at what point does that ship arrive? For us, our spiritual practise is so feeble that it's like a little dinghy, you know, boat. And these waves are very strong. Whether it is sickness of a child, whether it is death in a family, whether it is, you know, sometimes not only the stakes but the boat has gone.

We find there is no spirituality around me. The boat has gone and I'm all by myself trying to figure it out. So, in that situation as a neophyte, what should I be doing to get back on track? So, when the life's upheavals, disease or death or say loss of employment, something like this, they disrupt our life.

And how do we move on? First thing is that spiritualising ourselves does not mean dehumanising ourselves. When we become spiritual, we are still human beings but we also understand that I'm more than a human being. So, human problems are going to be there.

And bhakti is not like a magic wand that will change the nature of the world. So, when the problems come, what can we do? See, sometimes we have to live with pain. That's just the nature of the world.

But even if we have to live with pain, we don't have to live in pain. What is the difference between the two? Living with pain and living in pain? Living with pain means pain is our companion. Pain is there.

But living in pain means pain becomes our container. We see nothing except pain in our life. So, for example, say if I have a back ache, it's painful.

But if I'm just constantly thinking about the back, oh this is paining, this is paining, this is paining, this is paining, then I'm living in pain. But if I start finding something which interests me, start doing something which is positive, which engages my mind, I'll still have to live with the pain. I can't suddenly get up.

I can't suddenly bend backwards or forwards. But, so I have to live with the pain, but I don't have to live in pain. So the difference is that living in pain means the pain consumes our whole consciousness.

Whereas, when living with pain means the pain is a component of our consciousness. We are aware that this is there, this has happened, it is painful. So bhakti practise doesn't mean that we should not feel the pain.

It's not that if some bad thing happens, it's bad. Nowhere in the scriptures are bad things, we are told bad things are not bad. When Draupadi is disrobed, it's a terrible thing.

And nobody tells Draupadi that what happened is good. No. Even Krishna himself doesn't play, actually after the whole incident that happens when the Pandavas are exiled to the forest, at that time Krishna comes to meet the Pandavas over there.

And Draupadi is so distressed, mortified. She says, Krishna, I called you and I deserve your help. I am your relative, I am your devotee, I am your friend.

I deserve your help. Why didn't you come? Actually when Draupadi was attempted to be disrobed, her robe became endless. Nobody saw Krishna over there.

Sometimes in Mahabharata movies we see Krishna. So people just thought that somehow by her chastity, her robe got expanded. Nobody saw Krishna over there.

That's why she asked, Krishna, why didn't you come? Krishna doesn't say, I am God, my plan is perfect. Why are you questioning my plan? Krishna doesn't say like that. Krishna doesn't say, I'll drop the bad karma that you had done because of which it happened.

Krishna simply tells her, you know, I didn't know this was happening. No, there was a demon who had attacked Dwaraka, Shalva, and I had to protect Dwaraka. As soon as I came to know about it, I came here.

And I am there with you now. He says, those who have wronged you will be punished. The great grief that you have gone through will never be in vain.

Oh Draupadi, that even amidst such atrocity, you remember Dharma and you try to remind everyone of Dharma. That is to your eternal credit. So Krishna is by her side helping her to deal with the distress.

Similarly for us, when problems come, what is the cause of the problem? What is the reason something happened? That is almost impossible to find. The nature of the world is that, the world is very complicated. And in some situations, why did this happen? That question, the why question is simply the express way to frustration.

Why did this happen? There's just no way, no answer to it. So, in fact, there is a very revealing story in the Srimad Bhagavatam, the first canto, when the there is a cow and a bull who are talking and the bull is being beaten by a black dressed king and that is Kali. And Parikshit Maharaj comes and takes out his sword and this Kali shrinks back and then Parikshit turns towards this bull and asks him what is the cause of your suffering? The question may seem absurd and insensitive.

You saw this guy was beating me. Why are you asking me what is the cause of my suffering? But then, the bull's reply is also very amazing. He says actually, the cause of suffering is very difficult to ascertain.

Some people say that it is just because of Kala. We go through bad phase in life. Some people say it is just the nature of this world.

Some people say all distress is just a product of the mind. Some people say this body is itself made for misery. In this way, different people give different reasons for misery.

It is very difficult to conclude anything. And Parikshit Maharaj's response is even more astonishing. He says, bravo! He says, now by the wisdom of your answer I understand that you must be Dharma who has come here as a bull.

What is the wisdom? You can't see this person beating. Why do you point it out? But the whole point of the Bhagavatam is to take us beyond immediate causes. To look for deeper realities.

The ultimate reality is that it is the disconnection from Krishna that is the cause of all distress. And it is the connection with Krishna that is the source of all relief. So when problems come in our life, when distresses come, if we start looking for the cause, that will simply cause us frustration.

And one thing we should know that Krishna is not the cause of our distress. Krishna is the cure for our distress. The distress that happens in the world, the specific cause it is very difficult to find.

But Krishna is not Krishna is not a sadistic God or arbitrary God who just brings distress in people's life. He is the cure for our distress. No matter what distress comes in our life, Krishna is with us in our hearts.

If we connect with him, if we try to remember him, that distress will go down. That distress will become more manageable. So even if we so if we start asking the why question, then what happens? Because it doesn't give us any answer.

So first of all there is a problem and the why question has no answer. That simply makes the problem bigger. And then we get even more submerged in the pain.

But if we just okay Krishna this has happened what can I do now? How can I serve you now? How should I move forward now? If we change our driving question from why to how why is this happening? No. How can I move ahead now? Then we will find that Krishna is there to give us shelter. When I started practising bhakti about 20 years, 25 years ago one of my friends was an atheist and he would strongly argue with me, there is no God, why are you practising bhakti? And since then he is always looking for an opportunity to find out something wrong to prove that there is to prove his atheism.

So maybe 7-8 years ago I was in Al-Juhu temple and I was doing japa in the morning and I was walking and somebody had spilled some water over there so I just slipped and it was a minor fall but I fell very badly on this leg and the leg got totally fractured. It was almost like the I already had osteoporosis so almost 90% of the bone came off so at that time I immediately had to be rushed to the hospital I had to be treated major surgery was done but so after that this friend wrote a letter to me he said, you were a temple of God, chanting the names of God and still God couldn't protect you what is the use of worshipping such a God? So I told him that actually when I slipped and fell at that time it is the pain that I experienced was something which I have never experienced like that in my life. I just couldn't bear that pain.

But somehow because of my practise of bhakti I love the Bhagavad Gita. I frequently recite the Bhagavad Gita verses. So at that time I just started chanting the Gita verses and I started chanting the Bhagavad Gita verses and it was as if the recitation of those verses lifted me above the pain I could feel, ok, I have fallen over here something has happened but by reciting the verses of the Gita, as my consciousness became absorbed in it I felt as if the pain went away and the moment I stopped reciting the verses I felt like screaming in pain so it was from that time I was taken first to it was a minor fall, the pain was major but I thought it was just a sprain so we just went and rested in the room for some time but then after that I went to a nearby X-ray centre to do an X-ray to check if something is wrong and in the X-ray centre you have to immediately go and do surgery so it was almost 4-5 hours before I reached the surgery it was 4-5 hours continuously I was chanting the Bhagavad Gita verses and when I reached the hospital at that time the doctor said, ok, what is the problem? I told, I have got a fracture so he said, ok let's do an X-ray so I said, no, we have already done an X-ray and he showed it he looked at it and said, this cannot be your X-ray I said, what do you mean? he said, if your leg is fractured this much, you should be screaming you cannot be calm like this so I told him, yes, this is my X-ray, I didn't have time to explain at that time and I am not saying this to say that I am a very spiritually advanced devotee or anything like that I was not chanting the Bhagavad Gita verses out of bhakti for Krishna I was simply chanting them to forget the misery maybe one day I will chant out of love for Krishna but the point I was making is that at that time I could feel Krishna giving me the shelter now why did this happen? maybe I could say it was my own carelessness and I didn't see the water was spilled it was that person who spilled the water over there it was their carelessness maybe it was the person who was meant to clean the room it was his carelessness now if I start getting into the cause I just don't know what is the cause but what I do know is that if we take shelter of Krishna we do get relief from the distress so yes, the life's problems will come and we will feel distressed.

It is not that just because we are devotees problems will not come or it is not that because we are devotees, we should not feel bad when the problems come we can't wish away our bad emotions wish away the grief or the distress it will be there but by the shelter of Krishna we can realise that we are bigger than the distress so the pain will be there, we don't deny the pain, we don't resent the pain, but what we do is we realise that we are bigger than the pain so even if we have to live with pain, we don't have to live in pain and that expansion of our consciousness beyond the pain happens through the practise of bhakti the more we do it regularly the better we will be able to do it in times of distress and then at that time of distress we will be able to go through that pain and not just go through that pain but grow through that pain and distress free life in this world is a blessing a distress free life in this world is a blessing, if this bad thing had not happened, yes my life was going on well but ultimately in this life, bad things are going to happen to all of us, we are all going to go old, get diseased and die, but if we get the realisation through some bad thing happening to us if that bad thing forces us impels us to become spiritualised to take shelter of Krishna and then in that taking shelter of Krishna, we experience the reality of spiritual relief then that realisation is a far greater blessing than simply a distress free life because distresses will sooner or later come avoiding one distress is not a great achievement but if you get the realisation of spiritual reality that will give us the conviction to move forward in bhakti and ultimately attain that spiritual reality so we don't have to deny the distress but we don't have to ourselves stay in the distress by connecting with Krishna we can raise our consciousness so that it becomes bigger than the pain does it answer your question? so what you are saying is the material distress is going to come because you are spiritualist it doesn't matter it doesn't mean that those distresses will go away it's just how you react to that distress what does that do to you versus what it does to a pure materialist that's where the difference is and that's where Krishna comes to your side to basically help you deal with that distress and in fact a lot of good may come out of that that's true so Krishna is it that distress doesn't come for a devotee now Krishna's protection can come at many levels broadly speaking if you consider the problems that we get in our life they can arise from four causes one is our own ignorance see if I am driving on the road and I don't know how to drive I drive on the wrong road, my car meets with an accident or I get a fine my problems can come because I don't know what to do second is my problems may come because I am out of control say somebody has drunk too much and they are driving drunk and they cause an accident, they get into trouble so ignorance could be a cause of problems or we could say an uncontrolled mind where I have knowledge but I can't act on that knowledge that could be a cause of problems third is that I am driving well but somebody has come and hits me then that person is the cause of my problem the fourth is I am driving nicely, I am taking care of my car but suddenly the car breaks suddenly the wheel comes off or the brake fails or whatever, there is an accident so basically in this case there is no personal cause over there it was not that I was careless nor did somebody else was careless this car just malfunctioned similarly we could say suddenly a storm comes and something happens like that, so broadly speaking the problems in our life can come because of some mistake on our part, some mistake on others part or just the way of things in this world so what does bhakti do at the very least bhakti gives us the knowledge to make the right choices that means by my ignorance about the driving laws, I won't cause accident to myself and bhakti also increases our self mastery our capacity to manage our mind and senses so that we won't drive intoxicated, that means we won't act foolishly first of all we know what is the right thing to do and bhakti also gives us the inner maturity by which we can do the right thing so these two things which often aggravate problems these two will at least not happen or they will be decreased substantially but as far as things just going wrong in this world or other people doing something terribly wrong and that hurting us now that we don't know what is the exact situation, why that is happening that is just the nature of this world and those things may happen but as our our response often a problem comes in life but our reaction to the problem makes the problem worse sometimes so bhakti will do two things, bhakti will ensure that we don't do the actions which will create problems and even if problems come on their own our reactions won't make the problems worse rather our responses will be intelligent by which we can manage and minimise the problem if a child is sick should I I understand if a child is sick or distress should we pray to Krishna for removing that distress certainly there is bhakti is a matter of developing a relationship with Krishna and relationship means what is in our heart we share with the one with whom we are developing a relationship if I say that if something is very important for me, a normal relationship you see, say husband and wife or friend and friend, if something is burdening my heart and I don't share it with them then the friendship will stay very superficial so if something is burdening our heart we will share in that relationship similarly bhakti is a matter of developing a relationship with Krishna we want Krishna to come in our heart but if presently my heart is filled with the big burden of some anxiety, some distress if I don't share it with Krishna then my heart will actually not stay connected with Krishna at all it will be a very superficial connection with Krishna so definitely we can and we should pray to Krishna at the same time if you see I talked about feel good of bhakti being practised bhakti being practised at a feel good level and bhakti being practised at a spiritual level so when bhakti is practised at a feel good level, there prayer is seen primarily as a means of getting God to do things for us in the level of material religion we see prayer as a means I want to do this thing but I don't have the power to do it, God has the power to do it, so God you please do it so it's like we are forming a partnership with God the terms of the partnership with God are God, my intelligence and your power so I know how to solve this problem and you use your power and solve this problem so now in bhakti we are not just practising material level of religion but spiritual level of religion, if we are practising bhakti then we understand that God is wiser than us, so at the material level of religion actually we half trust God, half trust means we trust that God is more powerful than us but we think I am wiser than God that means I know how to solve this problem and I am going to tell God do this but if we fully trust God that means we understand that God is stronger than me and he is also wiser than me so then we can pray to Krishna that Krishna, I am in this great distress, this problem is there, my child is sick, please please relieve him of this sickness at the same time Prabhupada writes that a devotee desires but a devotee does not demand when we are relating with the Lord we can certainly pray to Krishna but we see prayer in spiritual life, in bhakti, not as a tool to get God to do things but we see prayer as a means to connect with Krishna, prayer as a means to get our heart closer to Krishna there is a famous prayer by Brahmaji to Krishna Govindam Adi Purusham Tamaham Bhajami, this is Brahma Samhita now if you look at these prayers in most of these prayers there is no request at all the prayer is simply a glorification so in bhakti we see prayer primarily as a means of connection not as a tool to getting things done so of course we pray because we want something this is not going right, please change it Krishna please heal this person so we can pray for that but we don't make the fulfilment of our prayer as a demand in the relationship we don't make the fulfilment of the prayer as a precondition to our devotion we don't make our devotion conditional to the fulfilment of the prayer so this is the mood of devotional surrender so in the bible in the last supper Jesus has, he foresees that the next day he is going to be betrayed and killed so he prays over there oh father let this cup pass cup means at that time when somebody was to be killed at that time they were given a cup of poison Socrates was given a cup of poison cup of hemlock so similarly Jesus let this cup pass let this terrible thing not happen but let thy will be done not mine so he expresses his will and he also says let thy will be done so similarly we can surely pray to Krishna at that time when there is a emotional it is a big emotional burden certainly we should pray to Krishna but our prayer should be it can be two fold, Krishna this is what I feel is the best so please do this but if you feel something is better then please give me the intelligence to understand it please give me the strength to do it which Prabhupada would say what is the best prayer that you can offer to Krishna he said the best prayer is Krishna always give me the strength to serve you so whatever comes in our life please give me the strength to serve you does that answer your question thank you Jai Krishna we should be doing our karmas in materialistic life whatever we need to do but we should not be attached or we should not be kind of obsessed with the things in materialistic life but we should be obsessed with the things on the spiritual world so is that the right answer or is that something else because we have so many materialistic ties family, friends work, employment and everything so I was keeping that balance and feeling that we are in the spiritual world not in the material world yes I got your question so normally we may hear that we can't be in both two worlds we can't be the material and the spiritual world we have to be spiritual but then I also said that we can do our material duties we can seek material progress see the word material is a very broad word and we could say in the material there are some things which are pro-devotional some things which are non-devotional and some things which are anti-devotional so for example if like we have the four regulatory principles no meat eating, no intoxication, no gambling, no illicit sex these things are very spiritually destructive so those things which are anti-devotional those we have to give up definitely so when we talk about the material world it's not that material and spiritual are necessarily two non-intersecting circles there is an overlap also because ultimately how do you decide what is material and what is spiritual material one way to understand it is that if my relationship with someone is it material or spiritual how do I understand it if I see someone and if I think what can this person do for me then that is material consciousness if I think what can I do for this person that is spiritual consciousness so spiritual consciousness is the consciousness of contribution of service, material consciousness is the consciousness of gratification so now when we say that we cannot be in two boards that means that if we are doing material activities that are anti-devotional then it's very difficult to progress spiritually so we need to avoid those activities as much as possible and more importantly we need to do directly devotional activities like chanting the holy names, worshipping the deities, coming to the temple, coming to satsang these are directly devotional activities that we need to do but devotion is not just restricted to a certain set of activities devotion is meant to permeate our entire life so we do our material activities in the sense of our job taking care of our family we do those activities in spiritual consciousness so these activities would be, if you are doing them in spiritual consciousness, they are also a part of our dharma so they are pro-devotional, some of them may be non-devotional but they are not anti-devotional so when we do our duties in a responsible way, in a mood of service to Krishna, that means I don't see my child as my child I see the soul as Krishna's child I don't see my family members as my family members I see them as, they are also souls who are interested in my care and we are all meant to help each other in our journey towards Krishna if I am doing my job, I don't see this is just my job and I am using my talents to do it well, I am using my brains to do it well, I see that yes it is by Krishna's arrangement that I am in this position and Krishna has given me some abilities let me use the abilities and intelligence in His service the Bhagavad Gita says that sva-karmana tam abhyarcha siddhim indati manava that by your work, worship that transcendental Lord and then you can attain Him now the verse is very clear, by your work, worship Him some people translate this as work is worship the Bhagavad Gita doesn't exactly say that if work itself had worship then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper, isn't it so when the spiritual and the material are fragmented, when work is worship when people say, if it is in the sense that no work should be looked down upon, no person should be considered low level in that sense, as a social principle it is good, but when work is worship is made into spiritual principle, that means people say that if I just do my work, I am already doing worship, I don't have to do anything else no, that is not true, we need to also have time for a direct connection with Krishna so then when we are worshipping Krishna with our heart through devotional activities we will get a seva bhav we will get a service attitude and that service attitude we can carry into our work, we can carry into our family and that's how we can spiritualise it all so rather than seeing that the material and spiritual are intrinsically two separate boards we can see material and spiritual are two distinct mentalities one is the mentality of gratification the other is the mentality of contribution and to cultivate the mentality of contribution I need to do direct devotional activities, but once I do those activities, I can bring that attitude of contribution even into my material responsibilities, even into my material career and then it will also become spiritualised does that answer your question? thank you is there a way that we can know we are rising in our consciousness broadly there are two ways it says bhakti is a process which gives us experience of God who is transcendent we cannot experience God with our senses but with the devotion of the heart we can experience it and the result of that is other emotions other sensations other stimulations start becoming not so influential on us so we could say that the internal symptom of bhakti is that we experience Krishna and the external symptom of bhakti is that we don't become so dependent on external influences, external stimulations we can tolerate external negative stimulations and we don't get too excited and keep chasing external positive stimulations so we can look such as Prabhupada gives the example of that if we are eating food then how do we know that our hunger is being mitigated this is just by we can feel it inside ok I was hungry now I am feeling hunger is going and the external result is initially we will just take more and more food, I want it quickly after enough food is taken ok I don't need anymore so similarly we will experience inner contentment we will experience inner satisfaction and the external phenomena their effect on us will go down so broadly speaking our consciousness always goes up and down it's like a sine wave up down up down it always happens so if we go by moment to moment I don't feel so contented I am getting agitated also but there is happiness and there is happiness level happiness level is the state of level where our consciousness goes when there is no stimulation no strong positive stimulation no strong negative stimulation some people they are habitually irritable habitually they just speak criticising, being negative, being gloomy being pessimistic so some people are habitually cheerful that normal level of consciousness is that, now even the cheerful people sometimes may be upset and even the irritable people may occasionally be cheerful but that is ok so there is all of us apart from the ups and downs of emotions that we have we have a normal level where we return when the ups and downs are no longer there so by the practise of bhakti two things will happen this normal level will rise upwards that means when there is no stimulation may be 5 years ago or 1 year ago 6 months ago or sometime we would have felt strong feeling I have to do this, this is not happening right that is not happening right but now these things are ok there is a plan, Krishna will make things I am doing my part in the plan Krishna will do his part there will be calmness that will come that means a normal happiness level will go up and secondly the ups and downs of the emotions will be there but their amplitude will become lesser we will not get so elated nor will we get so rejected so both ways the unsteadiness of the emotions will decrease and the level of positive emotions within our consciousness will increase so when we see this then at a steady level I feel internally contented and at a overall level I am not so shaken by the ups and downs that is how we can gauge that we are actually growing spiritually ok thank you very much we will stop here thank you very much thank you Prabhu for inviting us great thank you.