Gita’s key to happiness

[Talk at Irvine, California, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Thank you very much for coming today evening. And today I’ll speak on the Bhagavad Gita’s key for a happy life. Broadly, there are two kinds of people in the world.
Some people are wise and some are otherwise. It is not just that there are two categories of people. Sometimes we ourselves oscillate between these two.
Sometimes we surprise ourselves by some of the insights that we speak. Especially when we have to give advice to others. We are amazed at how wise we can be.
But sometimes we have to apply that advice ourselves. We sometimes act in such dumb ways. Why did I do that? So, we oscillate between being wise and otherwise.
The whole idea is that we are all seeking happiness but something within us stops us from seeking happiness. From finding happiness, not seeking happiness. So, the Bhagavad Gita shifts our vision progressively higher to understand how we can find happiness.
We’ll try to understand what makes us oscillate between wise and otherwise and how we can become wise in our pursuit of happiness. Most of us think that there are certain things outside which we need for becoming happy in life. We feel that, oh, I want a bigger house.
I want a bigger car. I want a smarter phone. And so many things like that.
I want better looks. All these things are things which are, most of all, fundamentally we all feel, I could do with more money. So, now all these things are important.
No doubt. And if you consider the graph of happiness versus wealth, you consider that actually happiness increases as wealth increases. This has been found all over the world.
But up to a particular point, when people are below the poverty line, when their basic needs are not being met, if somebody is hungry and dying of hunger and they get some money, then money equates with happiness. So, with respect to basic needs, if we move upward in terms of getting resources, we do become happier. But beyond that point, once the basic needs are met, the correlation between happiness and money becomes very hazy.
Making money is important up to a particular point. That is, when our basic needs are met. And then after that, what we are making with money becomes even more important.
What are we using money for? How are we using money to make a meaningful, worthwhile life? That is what determines our happiness. So, the externals are important, but only up to a particular point. Now, Arjuna at the start of the Bhagavad Gita is in a position where he has to fight a war.
The Bhagavad Gita is both historical as well as universal. Historical means, it describes an incident that happened thousands of years ago. But along with that, its setting, it represents something universal.
See, we all have to fight battles in our life. We may not have to fight physical battles, but there are corporate wars, there are domestic wars. And to do anything worthwhile in our life, there is a struggle.
Nothing comes easy in the world. At the very least, gravity pulls everything down. And if we want to do anything, we want to rise up, we have to fight.
So, when we have to fight, at that time, we all have certain goals. This is what I want to achieve. But sometimes, the prize for the goal starts seeming too much.
I am pursuing this, is this really worth it? So, Arjuna has to fight this war, and he is a great warrior, he is the greatest archer of his times, and yet, just before the war is beginning, he is defeated by something inside him, which makes him feel, what you are doing is not worth it. It’s not worth it. What is the point of it all? What is the value of it all? And, actually, to not have our desires fulfilled is frustrating.
But even more frustrating is to feel that there is no desire worth fulfilling. That there is nothing worth doing. That when people go into depression, depression can have many different causes, but depression essentially comes when somebody feels there is nothing worth doing.
Why should I do anything at all? What is the point of it? Nothing makes any difference. Things just remain the same. Life is terrible.
I am worthless. People are bad. The world is bad.
What is the use of doing anything? And, if we start feeling that way, that is actually extremely dangerous. Because, once we start feeling life is pointless, then we stop striving to do anything. And once we stop striving to do anything, then all that pent-up frustration, we can’t stay inactive, then we become destructive.
We can become destructive towards ourselves, wherein people can’t end their lives, or people can become destructive towards others. So, when we start feeling life is meaningless, what happens is, we start thinking, why? Why is everybody happy? Why is their life meaningful? Their life also should not be meaningful. We all want to be happy.
And to be happy is possible. But the problem is, we want to be happier than others. And that is impossible.
Similarly, what happens is that, if we are unhappy, we can’t digest, why should anyone else be happy? So, the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita are demonstrated in the Mahabharata. And the Mahabharata depicts the character of Duryodhana. Duryodhana is, what you could say, a brilliantly foolish person.
Why brilliantly foolish? Because, as far as organising, leading, he was brilliant. If you have one or two siblings, even if you are the eldest of the siblings, to get all of them to listen to you, it’s very difficult. Now, Duryodhana had, how many siblings? Hundred, yeah.
Ninety-nine brothers and one sister. And they all followed him. In fact, his siblings followed him almost as faithfully as Ram’s siblings followed Ram.
So, Duryodhana obviously had something going for him. But, although he had organisational skills, he had certain leadership skills, but what he lacked was a proper understanding of what brings happiness in life. So, he was always centred on the externals.
And what happened was, when somebody is centred on the externals, then they are always very insecure. Duryodhana grew up as a pampered child. The Pandavas, Pandu had retired to the forest, and that’s why the Pandavas, even when they were born, whether they would come back to the kingdom, nobody knew that.
So, everybody thought that he is going to become the prince and he will become the king. So, he became, he was pampered. And when he was pampered, he became spoiled.
And then when the Pandavas came back, in any family, if a new child comes, everybody gets attracted. And when the Pandavas are not only new, the Pandavas are also very courteous. They lived in the forest with the sages, who were all very gentle, refined, cultured.
So, both because of their newness and because of their courteousness, everybody started getting attracted towards the Pandavas. And at that time, Duryodhana started, what’s this? Nobody is respecting me. And the envy started with him.
Now, envy is a terrible thing. Because what is the result of envy? Result is that our happiness depends on others’ unhappiness. And others’ happiness becomes the cause of our unhappiness.
So, envy is the opposite of any kind of cooperation and synergy. And it’s a terrible state to be in. And Duryodhana lived in that state.
And he tried terrible things. He tried to poison Bhima. He tried to burn the Pandavas alive.
He tried to defraud them of their kingdom. He tried to dishonour Draupadi. And one after another, after another, he tried.
And the tragic thing was, even after doing all this, even when the Pandavas were in the forest and he was ruling in the kingdom, he was not happy. He said, I want to go to the forest. And I want to go there with all my opulence.
And I want the Pandavas to see my prosperity and I want to see the misery on their face when they see my prosperity. And seeing that misery will make me happy. So, when somebody is this other-centred, it’s a recipe for misery.
I saw an ad for a car once. Buy this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes. Now, what a terrible standard of enjoyment.
Don’t you enjoy your car? If your neighbour is not envious, then you will not enjoy the car. And tomorrow your neighbour buys a better car than you, then what? Then the neighbour will enjoy the envy in your eyes. So, as long as we are, our, we think that our source of happiness is outside of us.
We will never be happy. We will be always insecure. Now, this, again, this doesn’t mean that externals are not important.
Externals are important, but they are not all important. And when Arjuna is frustrated, what should I do? Is it worth it? So, sometimes in our life, when we are pursuing externals, we pursue some things and we don’t get it. And usually what happens when we don’t get it, we just start seeking something more.
But sometimes we start thinking, is this pursuit of more worthwhile? Is this pursuit of more worthwhile? I was recently speaking in a multinational company. I just spoke at Microsoft and Amazon in Seattle. So, after one such programme, one woman was asking me that, the world is so discriminatory.
So, you look at all the top CEOs, all the highest paid people in the world, they’re all men. This is so discriminatory. I said, it could be, but not necessarily.
I’m not denying the existence of gender discrimination. The point I’m making is that if you want to rise to the top in the world, in any area, you have to be obsessed with it. And I have met some, many people who are, like, phenomenally successful.
CEOs of, CEOs of big, big companies. And the kind of schedule they live, it’s like, most people can’t live like that. They’re crushed under the burden of their responsibilities.
And their health is a challenge for them. Their family is a challenge for them. And that unidimensional pursuit of wealth, pursuit of position of fame, some people can do it.
But in general, women are more intelligent. In the sense that they start thinking, is just this worth it? There are many other aspects to life. There is family, there is a social aspect.
It’s not just the unidimensional pursuit of success. So, for people who pursue that, they may get a big house. But then, in trying to get that big house, they alienate everyone.
They trample on everybody. And then, that big house only gives them the privilege of a lot of space in which to feel lonely. A lot of space in which to feel lonely.
So, we need wealth and we can seek wealth. But it is important that the growth be proportional. We are all unicellular organisms and we have all grown up now.
And we are millions and millions of cells. Every one of us has grown human being. There is not all of us.
So, growth is natural. But, cancer is also growth. Cancer, however, is growth that is disproportionate.
One set of cells in the body start growing so much that it destroys the remaining body. So, similarly, cancer is destructive growth. Similarly, one aspect of life, say the pursuit of wealth, broadly speaking, it is the pursuit of possessions and the pursuit of positions.
These two, if we get obsessed with them, that is a cancerous growth. We may grow in that one area, but all other areas of our life will collapse. And that is a state of misery.
It is, the world may admire the person as an achiever, but that person will be internally miserable. So, this is the irony that sometimes can be, some people can be successful failures. They are professionally successful, but personally failures.
So, the unidimensional idea of success comes when we equate success with only one thing, externals. So, there is something more that is required. So, the Bhagavad Gita starts with the vision on matter and material things.
And it lifts the vision from matter to spirit. There is something inside us that we are spiritual beings. We need more than possessions and positions.
We need two important things. That is, connections and contributions. We want connections.
We want to be connected with people. We want to be valued among people. We want to be valued, respected, accepted.
Without relationships, if we have all the possessions in the world, imagine tomorrow, somebody could invent, say, some kind of weapon of mass destruction. And they got for themselves an armour. And with that weapon of mass destruction, they destroyed everybody else in the world.
All the wealth of the world would be theirs. But if they are alone, would they be happy? What do they do? I want someone. And that’s why solitary confinement is considered to be actually extremely torturous form of punishment.
We all need human connections. There are times when we are fed up with people. They say, just leave me alone.
But if people permanently leave us alone, we say, no, no, no, don’t leave me alone permanently. So what happens? We need connections. And not just connections, we need also contributions.
We need to feel that our existence is worthwhile. That our existence is contributing something worthwhile to our life and not just our life, but to someone around us. And connections and contributions can give a satisfaction that no amount of positions and positions can give.
Now positions and positions are not bad. They are value neutral. Positions and positions, if they are used to increase our connections and contributions, they are wonderful.
But if in the pursuit of positions and positions we forget, we lose our connections and then we are so caught in possessing more and more that we are not giving, we are not contributing, then also we will be miserable. So there are two things, what we live with and what we live for. What we live with is positions and positions.
We need all of them, no doubt. That’s the resources for living. But what we live for is connections and contributions.
Now imagine if you are staying at a house and your neighbour suddenly rushes out of their house and charges towards the car, jumps into the car and revs it and starts racing away. Where are you going? I am going to put gas in my car. Okay.
You are in such a hurry. Where are you going after that? Oh no, after that I will go to another gas station and put gas in my car. Okay.
After that where will you go? After that I will go to the next gas station. No, but where are you going? I am going to put gas in my gas station. Now okay, gas is what we drive with.
But that’s not what we drive for. With respect to car, the difference is so obvious that it’s absurd to think that somebody will be just driving to fill gas. Occasionally we do have to drive to fill gas, but we have some higher purpose.
But just living for positions and positions is like driving for gas. It’s important, positions and positions, no doubt. We cannot, as I said earlier, if you don’t have gas we can’t drive.
So if there are no positions and positions, it’s a miserable state. But if that is all that somebody is living for, that is also a miserable state. So the Bhagavad Gita shifts Arjuna’s vision by explaining to him that he is a spiritual being and as a spiritual being he is connected with everyone.
Everyone of us is a soul. And Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in 15-7 It says All living beings are my followers. So we have many connections.
We have connections with our family, with our friends, with our colleagues, in our social circles. Now all these connections are useful. They are valuable.
They can also be enriching. But none of these connections alone are enough. In the Ishtamad Bhagavatam which builds on many of the things which are given in the Bhagavad Gita, there is a very beautiful section where there is a small child who is very grievously insulted.
Can any of you think who is that child? Rua. The small boy. Rua.
And when he is insulted, it is his stepmother insults him. He wants to climb on the lap of his father who is sitting on the throne. And his stepmother insults him, pushes him away.
And then he is shocked to see his stepmother pushing him away. And then he looks at his father. And his father is more attached to his stepmother.
That wife. Suruchi and Sunithi. Because he is more attached to her.
Sunithi is values. Ruchi is likes. So we all have our likes.
But if our likes overpower our values, then our life goes off track. We need to harmonise our likes and values. So what happened? He was so obsessed with Suruchi.
It is likes. It is immediate impulses and likes. Sunithi forgot the right thing to do.
At that time, Rua felt insulted. Terribly hurt. Not just because of what his stepmother did, but what his father did.
Or rather what his father didn’t do. And the harshest words of our critics don’t hurt us as much as the silence of our friends. And somebody accuses us and the accuser, we understand.
Some people are just inimical to us. But at that time, if somebody whom we expect will defend us, they don’t defend us. They don’t speak in our support.
That hurts us much. That hurts us very much. And then, he runs to his mother.
And his mother says, I am helpless. Who can help me if you can’t? And then she says something very significant. That Vishnu can give you more love than what millions of mothers like me can give.
For a child, especially a small child, the mother’s love is everything. Without the mother’s caring for the child, first when she is in the womb and then afterward with her own breast milk, the child cannot survive. Among all species, the human infants require the longest caring period.
And that’s what creates, you could say, the strongest bonding between human parents and human children. So for a child, the mother’s love is everything. And this time when the mother says that, I can’t help you, Vishnu can help you.
So what is she saying? We all have two kinds of relationships. We have horizontal relationships with people around us. And then we have a vertical relationship with our lord.
With the supreme, with Krishna. And through our horizontal relationships, we often get strength, we often get shelter, we often get pleasure. And these horizontal relationships are important.
We need them. But we can’t always count on them. Sometimes people betray us.
Like it happened for Dhruva, it was not exactly a betrayal, but it felt like a betrayal when his father remained silent. And sometimes people don’t betray us, but people are helpless. Like his mother was.
She couldn’t do anything at that time. So if we count only on our horizontal connections, they’re important, but they’re not sufficient. We need a vertical connection.
That vertical connection is the eternal connection. It is the connection that will always shelter and strengthen us. So his mother, Dhruva’s mother, does not deny her love for him.
She says, Vishnu’s love is millions of times more than my love. Now, sometimes some people, when they come to spirituality, they start thinking that, oh, spirituality means this whole world is Maya. Everything is Maya.
Well, we have to understand carefully what is Maya. Maya, the world is not Maya. Seeing the world as separate from God is Maya.
Our relationships are not illusory. They’re not false. Seeing our relationships as separate from our supreme relationship, that is illusion.
So now, what if she were considering, if she considered her love for her child as Maya, that means it’s false, it’s zero. Now, what is millions of times of zero? Zero. So even Vishnu’s love is zero.
So it’s not like that. Whatever love, whatever joy, whatever shelter we experience in our relationships, that is real. But it is fractional.
It is temporary. As compared to Vishnu’s love, which is like an ocean, this love is like a drop. So we need horizontal connections, but we also need a vertical connection.
So sometime or the other, the horizontal connections will let us down. People may turn against us, or people may just be helpless. Or sometimes people just go away.
Life is such that some relationships end. So, that vertical connection is the eternal connection. And the Bhagavad Gita tells us that we are all parts of Krishna.
So basically, we all need to have this vertical connection, to have stability within us. Otherwise, I started by saying that how? We are wise and otherwise. So what happens? If we are too caught in the pursuit of possessions and positions, then sometimes, if those positions are threatened from us, then we start just going crazy.
And in that craziness, we may do foolish things. So, attachment, if it becomes too strong, it can blind us. Attachment does two things.
It blinds and it binds. It blinds and it binds. Suppose, we are walking along the road and somebody just throws a cloth on our face.
What am I to do? And simultaneously, they throw a lasso on us, a rope, which is tied around us. And then they pull us. We don’t even know where to go, how to fight, what to do.
So, attachments can be like that. They are blinding and binding. We have a path planned.
This is how I want to live. This is what I want to do. But if we are too attached to something, we just get dragged away from that at any moment.
So, we need this vertical connection that stabilises. So, this vertical connection, the world is often compared to an ocean. And in the ocean, waves often come.
When the waves come, sometimes the small waves, we can just stay there or we can keep swimming. But when a giant wave comes, we will get swept away by it. And no matter how strong we are, if we try to resist that wave, we can’t.
But if at that time we have an anchor, if we hold on to the anchor, then the wave will hit us but it won’t hurl us away. So, life’s ups and downs are like waves. Some are small, some are huge.
And our connection with Krishna is like the anchor. So, every relationship helps us, strengthens us, but our connection with Krishna is the greatest strength for us. Because that is an anchor which will never shake.
An anchor which will always stay steady. So, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, you are confused right now. First focus on your vertical relationship.
And in the light of that vertical relationship, you act in the world. So, sometimes some people say, bhakti means you just chant and you don’t do anything in the world. You just become impractical, otherworldly, escapist.
Well, some people might do like that. But the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t recommend that kind of spirituality. The Bhagavad Gita says, our spirituality has two aspects.
There is the internal connection and there is the external contribution. So, Arjuna is told that you are trained, you are talented, you are a warrior, you are a martial guardian of society. Use your ability responsibly to control and curb those who are creating disorder in society.
So, as I said, the Bhagavad Gita is historical and universal. For Arjuna, in his historical context, he had to fight a physical war. For us, we don’t have to fight a physical war, but we all can contribute.
And when we practise bhakti, each one of us can become empowered, not just with our own ability and our own determination, but it is also God’s ability. Now, we all have certain responsibilities in life. And responsibilities and contributions are very related.
We cannot make any contribution unless we take responsibility. As simple as, say, if you are going to cook food. Of course, cooking is not simple, especially when you try to do it.
And if you are not trained to do it, it can be quite complicated. But, if you want to make a contribution by cooking good food, then you have to take responsibility. Responsibility to learn how to cook, responsibility to be attentive while you are cooking.
So, if any of us feels that, my life, does it really count? Is it really meaningful? If we start feeling like that, contribution and meaning in life are proportional to responsibility. Just take up some responsibility. Now, okay, let me do this one thing well.
Now, responsibility, it has two different meanings with which I will conclude this talk and we can have questions. Responsibility can mean response-ability. The ability to choose a response.
That is, when situations come upon us, one person becomes angry and the second person becomes angrier. What happens is, things become worse. Things are never solved.
So, responsibility means we have the ability to choose our response, to regulate our emotions and just feel like quitting. I was once at a conflict, I was at a mediation session and two people, so one of them approached in a reconciliatory mood and said, I know you are angry with me. The other person said, I am not angry with you.
Sometimes some people say, I am not angry with you and that itself indicates anger. I am not angry with you. Anger is an expensive emotion.
You are not worth it. Sometimes some people can be so bitter if you start like that almost any possibility of reconciliation is lost. It’s one thing to express anger towards someone but it’s another thing to devalue the existence of someone else.
So, what happens is no matter how angry we are, there are certain limits that should not be crossed. So, responsibility means, okay, I am angry but even within anger, there are certain civilised limits which I will not cross. So, we need to have that ability to choose a response.
That’s responsibility. But that’s only one aspect of responsibility. There is another idea to it.
Responsibility means, it is our response to God’s ability. Responsibility in bhakti is something different. Now, God’s ability is infinite.
He is all-powerful. And to take responsibility is not just to have the ability to choose our response but to respond appropriately to God’s ability. That means that we all have difficulties, obstacles and sometimes we feel, I just can’t do anything about this.
I was in England a couple of months ago and one devotee came to me and he said, finally I have developed renunciation. Oh, really? What happened? I have developed renunciation toward renunciation. I was trying to give up some habit that you are not able to give up.
He said, I have given up trying to give up. Sometimes, we might just quit because we feel, I just can’t do it. Now, if we consider the problem that we face sometimes the problem is so big we feel my ability is so small.
What can I do? At that time, when we feel dwarfed by our problems, whatever I do is going to make no difference. Then responsibility means our response to God’s ability. Okay, I may be small and this problem may be big but God is bigger than me and God is bigger than the biggest problem that I may face.
And therefore, it is our response to God’s ability. That means I keep doing what I can with faith in God. If we do what we can, God will do what we can’t.
We all face difficulties in life and how God will do what we can’t that is not for us to predict. But when we become discouraged, we all try to take some responsibilities and we struggle and we are not able to do it. We want to make some contribution.
We are not able to do it. We become discouraged. Rather than simply looking at us and the problem, we look at us and God.
And okay, this problem is there. In this situation, what can I do? What can I do in this situation? So, if we have this vision of responsibility, then we will do our best. At the same time, we will leave the rest to God.
Sometimes we try to do our best and our mind says, actually whatever you do, it’s worthless. It’s not going to work. So why do it? So at such times, we need a trick to deal with the mind.
I’ll talk about that trick as the last part of the last point. But this principle of how if we do our best, it’s our response to God’s ability, the responsibility, how God will take care of the rest. This is beautifully illustrated in the Mahabharata itself that Krishna told Arjuna, you fight for a divine purpose.
And yet, that does not mean life was problem free for him. His own son Abhimanyu was killed in a brutal way. And then after that, Arjuna was so, first he was devastated, then he became infuriated.
Then he said, I’m going to bring down that devious Kshatriya, that devious warrior Jayadrath, who was responsible for my son’s death. And then, Arjuna took that vow and the opposite party at that time decided, we’ll fall, make our whole army in such a way, that Arjuna will not be able to reach Jayadrath. And Arjuna fought heroically.
It was like an unending ocean of soldiers against him. Soldiers and warriors kept fighting, kept fighting, kept fighting. It was a desperate race against time.
Arjuna used all the powers terrestrial and celestial that he had, earthly and heavenly. And he came so close to Jayadrath. He could see Jayadrath’s chariot right in front of him.
He could see the standard of flag. And he was charging towards it. At that time, Duryodhana, he was shocked by the sheer ferocity of Arjuna’s attack.
And he said, everything is lost. My whole army couldn’t stop one warrior. But then, he looked up and saw the sun was rapidly sinking towards the horizon.
He said, let’s give one last try. Yesterday for Abhimanyu, I had attacked with how many warriors? Anyone knows? How many warriors attacked Abhimanyu simultaneously? Six warriors simultaneously attacked. So he said, this is Abhimanyu’s father.
He’ll attack with eight warriors. He said, Drona and Krupa, you come from one side. Shalya and Krutavarman, you come from another side.
Karna and Ashwapthama, you come from another side. He said, I and Dushasan will come from the back side. And they all, eight warriors attacked Arjuna simultaneously.
Like Arjuna was covered by arrows. It was like a cloud of arrows all around him. He couldn’t even see anything.
What to speak of move, just countering all the arrows. In a sense, the sun was going down the horizon. So close and yet so far.
And as he started despairing, at that time, Krishna came to his senses. And Krishna just called his Sudarshan Chakra. As Sudarshan Chakra came, he raised his finger and he cast it towards the sun.
As it charged towards the sun. Now, some commentators said, at that same time, an eclipse came. Some people saw that it was Krishna covering the sun.
Some people thought it was an eclipse happening. But either way, suddenly, the battlefield was enveloped with darkness. And the Kauravas thought, oh, the sun has set.
And we have won the war. As they thought like this, we have won the war, Jaidrath had been hiding behind like a coward. We had all those worries.
He came out, oh Arjuna, you are going to kill me? Now you will die. I will light the pyre. And Arjuna was dismayed.
Arjuna was putting down his bow in despondency. And Krishna told him, Arjuna, there is still time. Raise your bow and put the Brahmastra on the bow.
Now, Arjuna knew, there is a time for asking questions and there is a time for not asking questions. So, at the time of Bhagavad Gita, he had asked all the questions. Now, Krishna must be having some plan.
So, he put the bow, put the arrow in the bow and he said, Jaidrath, in such a way that his head is not only knocked off, but his head flies into the mountains nearby. And goes to the lap of his father, Vidakshatra, who was sitting in meditation. And Vidakshatra had got a benediction that anybody who causes my son’s head to fall on the ground, his head will crack into a thousand pieces.
So, Krishna knew about this benediction. So, as Arjuna put the bow, or the arrow in the bow, stretched the bow, Krishna removed his bow. And Krishna said to Arjuna, there is the sun and there is Jaidrath.
Shoot! And right in front of everyone’s eyes, Arjuna shot. Arjuna shot and everybody was watching. He just went and did the head surgery for Jaidrath.
And that head just flew away and went and fell into the lap of Vidakshatra. And he was sitting in meditation and he felt something sit on his lap. He looked at his bloody head, bloodied head.
Hey! Just knock it off. He didn’t even have time to say, what head was it? His own son’s head. To fall on the ground.
And what happened? Bum! By his, the benediction that he had sought, that became the cause of his distress. So, Krishna enabled Arjuna to win. But when? When Arjuna did his best.
When it was not enough, Krishna did the rest. So, Krishna did the rest so that Arjuna’s best could be enough, could be successful. So, for all of us, we all face many challenges in life.
And we all want to do worthwhile things, wonderful things. But if it’s only we pitted against the world, it’s easy to become discouraged. But if we are working, not just for our own glory.
We are working in a mood of service. We are working in a mood of contribution. We are working in a mood of devotion.
God, whatever abilities you have given me, I want to use them. Whatever resources you have given me, I want to use them for good purpose. With that mood if we act, just as Arjuna was empowered, each one of us can be empowered in our own situations.
Bhagavad Gita shifts Arjuna’s vision first from matter to spirit. But then after that it shifts his vision from spirit to the Supreme. So, we look at Krishna and then we act in the world.
It is we act in the world for Krishna’s purpose. When we have that mood, we face problems, we deal with the problems, it’s our response to God’s ability. I’m doing the best that I can, I’ll keep doing the best that I can.
But in God’s time, by His will, things will move. Sometimes we do a little, sometimes we do a lot and nothing happens. And sometimes we do a little and a lot happens.
Have you had this experience sometimes? You try to persuade someone for maybe hours and that person doesn’t listen. And then somebody else, you speak a few words and they say, that’s so brilliant. So, our endeavours are important but they’re not all important.
So, if we see a response not just I have to do this thing but I have to try in a mood of service to Krishna. And I have some ability but God has far greater ability. And by His will, things can move whenever they want.
Whenever He wants. So, let me keep doing my best. And if we work in this way, there are times when we will be able to do wonderful things.
There are times when we will not be able to do wonderful things. We are working in a mood of service to Krishna then even if the contribution doesn’t result at all times, the connection will always result at all times. And even if the contribution doesn’t come and we don’t get satisfaction from the externals, but the connection will always be there.
And there will be times when the contribution will also result. And that will also give us satisfaction. So, this devotion as a combination of these two things, inner connection outer contribution, that the Bhagavad Gita says is the key to happiness.
We use whatever positions we have. We use whatever positions we have. We pursue them also.
We don’t make that pursuit the primary purpose of our life. The primary purpose of our life is developing our inner connection and making an outer contribution. And that way, we will always be connected and satisfied.
Sometimes with external success, sometimes with not so much external success. But our happiness won’t depend on that external success. Our happiness will come from our inner connection with Krishna.
And that is what the Bhagavad Gita demonstrates at the end. It predicts at one level that Krishna is telling, the Bhagavad Gita concludes by saying that where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna, Yatra Yogeshwara Krishna Yatra Partha Dhanurdhara Tatra Shri Vijayoh Bhutir Dhruvani Tirma Tirma Ma. Wherever there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna, there is victory.
And that’s what happens eventually in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Krishna and Arjuna, they are victorious. But the Bhagavad Gita has another setting.
The Bhagavad Gita, does anyone know who has spoken it to whom? It is of course Krishna. Krishna has spoken to Arjuna. But it is also a conversation between two other people who are reporting this conversation.
That is Sanjay and Dhritarashtra. Now Sanjay speaks the same message to Dhritarashtra that Krishna speaks to Arjuna. And Krishna’s message, delivery of the message to Arjuna is enlightening for Arjuna.
And for Dhritarashtra, when he hears the message from Sanjay, what happens? Nothing happens. For some people, spiritual knowledge is like light. For other people, spiritual knowledge is like lightning.
Lightning means a few moments of light and darkness back again. Dhritarashtra’s attachment is so strong that there is not much effect on him. So in a sense, Sanjay’s delivery of that message to Dhritarashtra is not effective.
But the Bhagavad Gita describes that Sanjay is also joyful. 1878 predicts the victory of, 1878 is the last verse of the Bhagavad Gita in chapter 78 verse that predicts Krishna and Arjuna’s victory. But 1876 and 77, the two preceding verses describe how Sanjay is satisfied, is joyful.
He says, So he is saying, that just by hearing and speaking the Bhagavad Gita, my connection with Krishna has been established. So I am remembering Krishna’s message and Krishna’s form. And that is making me rishami, that is making me thrilled and not just thrilled for one moment, it is thrilled constantly more and more.
So for Sanjay, in that context, the contribution was not successful. Dhritarashtra’s heart was not transformed, but the connection was established and the connection gave him satisfaction. So for all of us also, this Bhagavad Gita setting demonstrates that if we pursue devotion, then we will have satisfaction, whether we gain external success in the world or not.
So I’ll summarise what I spoke today. I started, I spoke on the Bhagavad Gita’s key to happiness. I started by talking about how we are ourselves sometimes wise, sometimes otherwise.
There’s something within us that works against us and sabotages our effort for happiness. So Arjuna had to fight and he could gain a kingdom, but is it worth it? So often we live with the idea that externals are the source of happiness. And Duryodhana also lived with that idea.
The problem is that with respect to externals, no matter how many good things we have, someone will always have something more. With respect to externals, if you want to be happy, what happens is we want to be happier than others and that’s impossible. Envy means our happiness depends on others’ unhappiness and others’ happiness becomes the cause of our unhappiness.
And most people live with the idea that wealth will make me happy. And it is true to the extent if our basic needs are not met. The graph is linear till basic needs are met, but afterwards how much money we are making is not as important as what we are making with money.
They talked about Duryodhana was obsessive about wealth and he was miserable even when he had wealth. If people pursue wealth alone, then that growth is cancerous growth. It is destructive.
So people become successful failures. It’s a huge house with the privilege of a lot of space in which to feel lonely. So we want a holistic success.
So people think positions and positions are important and that’s what they make the goal of their life, but that’s like driving to get gas. What we live with is important, but even more important is what we live for. So we live for if you consider what brings satisfaction in our life are two things, other things, not positions and positions.
What are they? Connections and contributions. So it is the relationships that we have with others that really bring meaning and joy to our life. And we have various connections that are important, but the most important connection is our connection with each other.
I talked about the story of Dhruva Maharaj where he realised that connections didn’t support him. His father betrayed him almost and his mother was just powerless to help. So our relationship, our horizontal connections, we sometimes we can’t always count on them.
So we need a vertical connection. The horizontal connections are not false, they are real, but they are like drops. The vertical connection is like the ocean.
And that vertical connection is established by the practise of Bhakti Yoga. So the Bhagavad Gita lifts Arjuna’s vision from externals to internals, from matter to spirit, and from spirit to the supreme spirit. So bhakti is the connection with Krishna is like our anchor.
When life sends stormy waves our way, we can’t resist them on our own. But if we hold on to the anchor, then amid difficulties also we won’t make, we will be able to stay steady. And then it’s not just about connecting with God, it’s also about contributing to the world in a mood of service to God.
So Arjuna is a heroic warrior and he fights heroically. Now if we want to make a contribution, contribution is based on responsibility. And responsibility has two meanings.
One is the ability to choose a response. We don’t give into our emotions and our impulses, but act in a committed way. Another meaning of responsibility is what? Sorry? Yes, our response to God’s ability.
We may feel this problem is so big, I can’t deal with it. But it’s not just you who have to deal with it, God is with you. So in a mood of service to God keep acting.
If we do our best, God will do the rest. And that, I talked about the story of Jaidrath, Arjuna and Deva to the best of his capacity and then Krishna miraculously intervened to take him to success. So for all of us, if we just look at the challenges that we face, we may get overwhelmed.
But bigger than the biggest problem we face is God. And if we fix our vision on God and then act in the world, we will be empowered. And some days, in some ways, we will also be able to do wonderful things when we are empowered by God’s grace.
But even if we are not able to do wonderful things, still, working in a mood of service to God will strengthen our inner connection. And that itself will be the source of satisfaction. So the Bhagavad Gita demonstrates how there was external success for Arjuna when he united with Krishna.
Now Sanjay did not get an external success in terms of transforming Dhritarashtra’s heart. But still he got the inner connection and he got ecstatic satisfaction through that. So the key to happiness is to focus not on positions and positions, but to focus on devotion that leads to connections and contributions and that leads to enduring satisfaction.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna! Any questions or comments? Sorry? Oh, how did I meet the devotees? It’s a long story, but maybe it’s in connection with the class. I could say that I was frustrated with success.
The dream of my life was to be a topper. So I was always among the bright students in my class. I was second, third, sometimes joint first, but never the first.
So my dream throughout my academy was to be the first. And then in my engineering I gave GRE. And as was mentioned, I got 2350.
I was first in the whole state. Not just first in my college, but first in the history of my college. First in the whole state of Maharashtra in that particular exam.
So I was in the 7th heaven at that time. Delighted. But after some time I realised that just looking at the mark sheet doesn’t give you much pleasure.
Is it the position, position of being a topper? It doesn’t give much pleasure unless there’s connection. Somebody appreciates. And somehow it happened that the whole college knew about it.
And it was like a sensational news at that time. But somehow three of my friends, one after another, they forgot to congratulate me. So the first person, first friend forgot, I was annoyed.
Second friend forgot, I was irritated. And the third friend forgot, I was infuriated. But I didn’t want to look pathetic.
Why are you not congratulating me? You can’t ask that. So I was feeling so infuriated at that time. It is almost as if I look at myself from above.
We humans have this capacity that we can look at ourselves. And then when I did that, wait a minute, you thought that becoming a topper will make you happy. You’re a topper now.
But instead of making you happy, it has made you more dependent on others for your happiness. What’s going on? That made me think, that got me thinking, tomorrow I might achieve something else. But that will also, I’ll depend on others for my happiness.
So is there some happiness that doesn’t depend on externals? That’s what got me got me in a more philosophical frame of mind, ready to explore spirituality. And then I had a college friend who had become introduced to devotees and who had become a devotee. And before that, he had been much more materialistic than what I was.
I was always a little bit more intellectual kind of person. But he had become much more spiritual than me. And he came to my hostel and he gave me a Bhagavad Gita.
I said, what happened to you? And he said, it will happen to you also. So he said, I read the Bhagavad Gita. I said, I also read the Bhagavad Gita.
He said, but did you read the Bhagavad Gita? This Bhagavad Gita. This Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita. I said, I read it and it was just like another book.
But then, when I read the Bhagavad Gita, at that time because I was in a searching mood, so, I read 622 in the Bhagavad Gita. 622 is yam labdha cha param labham manyate na dikam tatha yasmin sthito nukhena gurunapi vichalyate That if you achieve absorption in Krishna, devotion to Krishna, absorption in Krishna, that this one achievement, after achieving it, you will not anchor for anything else. Yam labdha cha param labham manyate na dikam tatha.
Nothing more to anchor for. And yasmin sthito, if you are situated in this way, nukhena gurunapi vichalyate. Even if great distresses come, you will not be disturbed by those disturbances.
So, I felt at that time, this is this is real achievement. That if somebody can achieve this, then that is what will really lead to satisfaction. That is what will lead to strength and shelter.
So, that’s how I got inspired and I started trying to live according to Bhagavad Gita. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last two decades now. Any other questions? I was reminded of once when you were here, I told to you that sometimes I have to pick up a dictionary when I’m listening to his lectures.
Your words are so very beautiful, I would say. And he said And he said your words are very beautiful. And he said your words are very beautiful.
I want to do my best to beautify them. I like to beautify God’s words. And I would glorify Krishna by beautifying the words when I speak about him.
So, that reminds me of such a nice thing. Today, also when you were saying that we talk about him so much after the class. But I think that was just a drop in so much knowledge and so much depth that you have in practising also and your experience of being really fortunate.
I just wanted to say that. Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here, happy to be of service.
You have a wonderful community here and you have the opportunity to study the Bhagavad Gita in a very devotional and sweet atmosphere. I have a beautiful altar over here. Nataji is an excellent teacher.
So, wherever you get an opportunity to learn and enrich yourself with the Gita’s wisdom, it’s a wonderful thing to do. Bhagavad Gita, the last word that Krishna speaks is Dhananjaya. Dhananjaya, that is 1872.
The last word Krishna speaks is Dhananjaya. Arjuna, you are the winner of wealth. Have you, by hearing the Bhagavad Gita, won the wealth of wisdom? This wealth of wisdom is the greatest wealth and the Bhagavad Gita can enrich each one of us with that.
So, all of you have the opportunity and enrich yourself and enrich the world with it. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
I say in the tradition, in parampara, there is no copyright. To copy is the right. We have some books.
We have them?