GLASS acronym – Five tangible aspects of mercy

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hi, so today morning we will discuss on the concept of Mercy. The title you may have seen is Glass of Mercy. So, Mercy is a word that is very commonly used in spiritual circles and especially in devotional circles.
So, Mercy refers to the blessing, the grace, the kindness of God and that is responsible for the various good things that happen in a person’s life. So, what do we actually mean by Mercy? So, is Mercy something abstract? Many biassed people have an idea that Mercy is something like that. Like Mercy, Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Am I audible? Okay, fine. That sometimes some people may, some teacher may, some guru may touch the disciple on the head and he feels electric current through his body.
Oh, I got some Mercy. There are some other people, they are even more sadly perverse. Some people, some so-called spiritual teachers use all bad words and when they use bad words, the disciples will tell all the guests, Oh, this is Krupa, this is Krupa, this is Mercy.
So, the idea of Mercy can often become very distorted. So, Shri Prabhupada, when he was asked about this, Shri Prabhupada was eminently practical in the presentation of the Vedic teachings. So, some person came to him and told him, Swamiji, my guru is God.
He said, why? He said, he puts his hand on my head and I get electric current through my body. That is the proof that he is God. He said, can you give me an electric shock? Electric current, Swamiji said, yes, come here.
Put your hand in the electric socket, you will get a shock. So, the purpose, the test of a guru and the test of divinity is not to give shocks to people. The material nature is already doing that and doing that very well.
It is giving so many shocks. Guru’s purpose is to help people to go beyond all these things. So, people have a very abstract idea.
So, basically, the idea of Mercy in the materialist circles has two broad classifications. One is that I saw one book by about one spiritual teacher. 101 reasons why so and so is God.
So, now I was wondering whether there were 101 quotes that he is God from scripture. Now, what are 101 reasons? There were 101 cases of somebody who prayed to that person. Oh, my daughter is not getting married.
Please let him get married. Let her get married. And then after the prayer within a month that person got married.
So, like that 101 people whose mannat had been fulfilled, whose desire had been fulfilled. So, 101 reasons why so and so is God. Now, of course, what such a book will not tell is, there might have been 101 people whose prayers have been fulfilled, but there may well be 1001 people whose prayers are not fulfilled.
Those stories will not come in the books like that. So, actually speaking, many people on one side think that Divine Mercy would mean my material problems get solved and my material desires get fulfilled. And they say, yes, this is the proof that this person is God.
They also have the concept of Jagrut Diti. Awake Diti. What is the idea if you go to a temple and we make some prayers, then the Diti is awake.
The prayers are not fulfilled and the Diti is sleeping. No use of praying to say Diti. This is a very materialist and naive idea.
So, one idea of mercy that people have is that my material problems get solved, my material desires get fulfilled. Another idea of mercy that people have is again equally materialist in conception, but slightly different in its application, is that the person is able to do some supernatural miraculous activities. So, somebody can, by the touch of his hands, can cause electric current to pass through the body.
Somebody can just move his hands and chant some mantra and some ashes appear. And that is all. A person can do such things.
Therefore, that person is God. So, this way, when people expect miracles and think that the happening of miracles is the proof of mercy, is actually mercy and it is the proof of divinity, then their understanding of spirituality remains very shallow. Because yes, there are Siddhis, there are mystical Siddhis, which may seem like magic to common people.
And like yesterday when I talked about science and spirituality, I talked about technology. Okay, I did not talk to all of you. I talked in the morning class.
See, the reality has gross matter, subtle matter and spirit. So, modern science considers all of reality to consist only of gross matter. They don’t know much about subtle matter.
There is a lot of debate whether mind exists or what mind is, whether mind is a separate substance or just an epiphenomena coming from the brain. It is a big debate. They are not considered to be separate entities by mainstream science.
Separate objects or entities. So, because modern science reduces everything to gross matter, so anything that cannot be accepted by gross material laws, those who are very scientifically rationally minded, they will see this is all just a sleet of hand. This is just trickery and jugglery.
It is deception. And the other extreme reaction, people who have some faith in religious things, whenever they see something that cannot be explained by scientific principles, Oh, this is the proof that this person is God. So, when so-called Swami does some mantra, they will be able to produce some ash.
The Indian Rationalist Association will make a challenge. You do this in our presence. And we will show how all this is a sham.
And others will say, no, no, no. His followers will say that this is the proof that he is God. That he is able to do all these miracles.
So, actually, both have got the fundamental premise wrong. These things are possible. So, the rationalistic worldview, which reduces reality just to the gross material reality, is very incomplete.
So, these phenomena are possible. Just with the gross material worldview, we cannot understand the mechanism by which it happens. Just like a child who doesn’t know about chemistry, if we mix acid and a base together, and suddenly this one is red, the other is blue, and suddenly we get a green coloured liquid.
As a result of the reaction, one who doesn’t know chemistry will think it is magic. How did two liquids come together and the colour change suddenly? But there is a process behind it. So, when we don’t know the process behind something, we consider it magic.
When we understand the process behind it, we understand that it is not magic. So, there is an explanation for this. But materialist science, by definition itself, rules out the possibility of any process that can act beyond gross material means.
And that’s why, by definition itself, they say this is impossible. But the Vedic perspective explains that this is possible. Some people who are advancing on the spiritual path, actually on the yogic path, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, these are eight stages.
So, the fifth, sixth stage onwards is Dhyana, Dharana, Samadhi. So, from the stage of Dhyana onwards, a paranormal perception starts, and supernatural powers start getting accumulated. So, people can get Siddhis.
And actually, those Siddhis are considered to be distractions, temptations on the spiritual path. Somebody gets attracted by those Siddhis, then he cannot go on towards realising Paramatma. So, the point I am making here is there is a process.
And some people can do it. It’s not that every so-called Swami and Baba who claims to be doing this is actually able to do it. It might well be a jugglery of the words, jugglery and the sleet of the hand, or it might be real.
But even if it is real, it does not prove that the person is divine. It is actually a proof of that person’s Godhood. So, it just indicates that the person has got some mystic Siddhis.
So, Srila Prabhupada would say, that if you say that somebody can produce gold and that proves that he is God, then Krishna has produced so much gold in all the gold mines of the world. Why not accept him as, if this person is God, he is a small God. Krishna is the big God.
The biggest God. Isn’t it? Prabhupada would other times be more heavy. He says, you know, if somebody says that, oh my, my Guru produced ash, so he is God.
Prabhupada would say, yes. So, somebody produces ash, and one who believes that ash is the proof of God is ass. So, Srila Prabhupada would sometimes be quite heavy about it.
Because such gullibility is there among people by which they accept, they accept anyone and everyone to be, anything and everything to be like a proof of divinity. So, you know, there are sceptics, like there is this Bollywood movie, Oh My God. So, what they do is, they show how people are so, are so gullible about their faith.
And they try to prove that actually, everybody who is in their terms in the religious marketplace is simply exploiting the faith of people for their own purposes. Now, it is true that there are many people in the religious marketplace who are exploiting people’s faith. But, just as in the marketplace, there might be false currency.
But that doesn’t mean that all currency is false. That doesn’t mean that everything about religion is false. That doesn’t mean that all saintly, all people who are spiritualists are false.
Certainly, spirituality is one vocation. And, there can be people who are authentic and there can be people who are authentic also. So, one extreme is to reject everybody as bad.
And the other extreme is to accept everybody as good. So, one is blind belief. Except everybody who talks, quotes some Sanskrit and speaks some verses, seems to do some magic, everybody is good.
That is blind belief. And the other extreme is blind disbelief. Now, there is, one is, everybody just do height wash.
Everybody is good. And the other is, do everybody black wash. Everybody is bad.
Both are extremes. Just like, yesterday we were discussing about technology. Even among scientists, there are some people who get into scientific research for the purpose of their own selfish ends.
And sometimes for the purpose, in order to get their papers published, in order to get themselves to advance. They may even cheat and steal other people’s papers. You know, we, in BARC, in Mumbai, this Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, so we preach over there.
So, I was talking with a student. We are telling that almost every year, there are several junior scholars who commit suicide. And what is the main reason? They say these junior scholars work very hard, means those who have not joined, and they work very hard, do research, and they write a paper, and when they submit it to their project guide, the project guide takes the paper and publishes it in their own name.
And now, what can the student do? The student has worked so hard, and he gets completely, the student gets frustrated. It happens once, twice, thrice. Then they get frustrated and sometimes they become suicidal.
So now, surely this happens sometimes. There are many cases of this sort of immorality in theoretical research, that one person takes the credit of another person’s theoretical research. Does that mean that all scientists are bad? Obviously not.
Isn’t it? There are hardworking, diligent, honest scientists also. But, we can’t say that everything that scientists do is good, not that everything that scientists do is bad. Actually, there has to be a proper system of discrimination and evaluation by which we can understand things.
Same way with respect to spirituality. So, before we can understand what, who is bona fide and who is not, we have to understand what should I expect from a spiritual path. So, most people go to spirituality because they are experiencing, expecting some material benefits or some material miracles, which also they expect will eventually lead to benefits.
But, the spiritual, the Krishna conscious understanding is that yes, God has provided for us materially in terms of our basic necessities already. And when we practise spirituality, it is not necessarily just so that we can see some material miracles or we can improve our material life. That may happen as a by-product of the practise of Krishna consciousness.
That is not the focus. So, what do we expect when we practise Krishna consciousness? That is what will be conveyed by the example of glass. Glass is G-L-A-S-S, let’s say.
That’s a acronym I’m using. An acronym is, when we use, when there is a pre-existing sentence or phrase or a name, and we abbreviate it. So, that abbreviation is called an acronym.
But an acronym is, when we take a word and assign meanings to it, by which we can get a mnemonic tool, a tool for remembering things. So, G-L-A-S-S. So, we’ll discuss these five points.
These are the five gifts that we get when we practise Krishna consciousness. And these help us tangibly in life. But they are not necessarily material gifts.
So, once we understand what to expect, then we can see whether this is being fulfilled. So, first G is goal of life. Goal.
So, most people in material life don’t know what is the goal of life, although they all set up their own goals. It’s one thing that I set a goal for myself. My goal is that I want to become an engineer.
I want to become a doctor. I want to become a millionaire. I want to become this.
I want to become that. Okay, these are goals which I have set up for myself. But apart from the subjective goals that I set for myself, does life itself have an objective goal? Is creation itself meant for some purpose? Now, this is a serious question which many people don’t even think about.
This whole world is existing. What is its purpose? What is its ultimate goal? So, that knowledge is what Krishna Consciousness gives us. In modern society, actually, there are weapons of mass destruction and there are weapons of mass distraction.
What is mass distraction? That is actually what can be seen in the whole media. It fills us with so many thoughts and desires that we really don’t think of the long term. We don’t think of the long term.
What is the ultimate purpose of my life? Now, Darwin had the idea of survival of the fittest. He considered fitness to be a great virtue in the struggle for existence in nature. So, whoever is the fittest will survive.
So, Darwin had the idea of survival of the fittest. Prabhupada refuted this in one sentence. He said, even the fittest don’t survive.
Nobody survives in material existence. Ultimately, the death rate is 100%. Everybody has to die.
So, actually speaking, if we look at life from a material perspective, then, life is just a… We work hard to achieve something and whether we get it or not, at the end of it, we just lose everything. One of my friends is a devotee. He knows also astrology.
Many times when he is travelling by train or plane, people ask him, Panditji, do you see the hand? Do you see the hand? So, he uses astrology as a tool to preach Krishna Consciousness. So, he does astrology at a professional level, but especially people are too… They are approaching him in a very superficial way. He says, show me your hand.
He says, yes, your prediction is that you are going to be old, sick, and die. So, people get a little shocked. They don’t know what they expect to hear from astrology.
But, before that, whatever we do, suppose, all of us are going, we have a car, and we are riding in a car, and while we are going in the car, maybe somebody is going to garland us, somebody is going to throw flowers on us, somebody is going to give us nice food to eat and nice scenes to see, but if the car is on a road, which is going to have a end where it is just going to fall off of a precipice of a mountain, then what, if the car is going very fast, what happens in between is not as important as what happens at that point. So, before we grow old, get deceased and die, some person may become a millionaire, some person may become a famous scientist, some other person may become a social celebrity, but at the end of it, what happens? So, certainly, what happens in our life in this span before that matters. Now, all of us would like to do something worthwhile with our life, but what also matters is what happens eventually.
So, the Vedic culture doesn’t say that we completely neglect what happens to us in this life, but we should utilise our this life as a preparation, as a launching pad for a brighter future eternally, in the next life at least. If our next life is not eternal, we don’t attain it, at least you’ll have a better life. So, if we don’t have an understanding of the long-term goal of life, then, it seems very, very meaningless, very meaningless, especially, you know, when the Twin Towers fell in America, actually, it was not just an architectural destruction that happened.
What that represented to many Americans was the great American dream. You know, this tall towers of New York, they represented the security, the glory, and the magnificence of the materialistic way of living. And you just, some planes came and it came falling down.
So, that bubble of security and bubble of safety and glory that was there, that burst. So, essentially, at that time, that was after the post 9-11, that was among the few times on the internet that first time God became a higher search word than sex. Why when such a thing happens, what is the meaning? Why is this happening? What is ultimately of value in life? So, actually, our goal is very important.
And Krishna Consciousness doesn’t tell us that in order to achieve, first of all, Krishna Consciousness tells us that this world itself is not our goal. This world is a station. It is not a destination.
This world is a station. In the journey of life, this world is a station. So, if we are going in a train, some stations may be very pleasant, some stations may be very desolate, but we understand the train is moving on.
So, like that in our life, in this world, sometimes we will get happiness, sometimes we will get distress. But life will move on. So, life moves on, but unfortunately we stay on emotionally with what has happened in the past.
We stay on. In the past, somebody incited me, some suffering has happened. Why did that happen? Why did he do that to me? Why? Why? Why? Or if somebody had a great success and then that person loses that success.
Then that person keeps saying, Oh, I was so happy at that time but now I have lost everything. What to do? So, either way, we just stay on emotionally in the past. But it is very easy to help us understand.
And this is a teaching which is common to all the world religions. That life is a station. It is not the world and life in the world.
This is a station. It is not a destination. The destination is beyond this world.
And that enables us to take the ups and downs of life in this world with a certain level of equanimity and detachment. Because yes, they are important but they are not all important. So, that’s how we can stay equipoised and not get too worked up by pleasures and pains of this world.
So, at the same time, there is an eternal destination. That is supremely glorious. There is eternal happiness in an eternal relationship with an all attractive supreme God.
That is Krishna. So, we understand the goal of life. The goal of life is eternal happiness and this world, we don’t have to reject it to attain that eternal happiness.
But we have to reorient our life in this world so that the way we live becomes a preparation, becomes a launching pad for us to attain that eternal life. So, life in this world means, how do we live it? Our goal here is to use all our God given talents and abilities to glorify Krishna. To do justice to our talents in a way that glorifies Krishna and does benefit for the world.
So, it’s a very fulfilling way of living, understanding what is the purpose of life. Actually, without understanding the purpose of life, life is basically meaningless. And in material life, most of the time, what people call as enjoyment, yesterday I was telling about this big explosions that happen in movies and people say, oh that was fun.
So, in material life, what is enjoyment? Actually, we have this rock music, boom, boom, bang, bang, done, done, done. So, why people need such violent music? Because their idea of enjoyment basically is forgetfulness of the emptiness and boredom of life. So, life itself is empty and boring and when something makes them forget that, they think, oh, this is enjoyable.
But actually, that is not enjoyment, that is just a temporary relief. So, what is ultimately meaningful? Without and having a proper goal for life, all that we do to try to enjoy is so unfortunately empty and hollow. So, this itself creates such a great sense of purpose and meaning in our lives.
Otherwise, for most people, their life, if we don’t have a transcendental goal for our life, life is basically like a firefighting operation. Something goes wrong and I try to solve that. And I think if I do this, maybe things will be better.
But it’s like somebody is in an ocean and in an ocean, all around us, everywhere we see is water only. So, now, the place where I am, say there are turbulent waves. Can’t be this turbulence.
Ocean water over here is very stormy. So, what is my goal? Okay, that area, the ocean seems to be a little calmer. So, let me take my boat over there.
And then when I take the boat over there, I find another wave has come over there also. And oh, here also it is restless. Let me go there.
And then like that, we just keep going round and round in the ocean and never come to any secure place. So, like that, in material life, people think, okay, now I am living in a village, things are not so happy over here. Now, let me go to a city.
But when I go to a city, there is so much congestion in the ocean. Oh, I want to go to a metropolis. A bigger city.
Well, I can go to a metropolis. Oh, I want to go to America. Then, that part of the ocean seems to be more calm, more cosy.
But then when you get there, you find oh, there is so much stress and depression and this and that. Oh, we are not happy in America, we will go to the moon from there. So, what happens, this is just, we are just trying to find a peaceful place in an ocean.
And we will never find it because there is no peaceful place ultimately in an ocean. So, in material life, when people set goals and pursue goals, they may pursue those goals diligently also. And it requires sometimes a lot of hard work and credit.
If the ocean is stormy, if I have to move from here to here, it may require a lot of effort to take the boat there. So, when materialistic people they set goals and they achieve goals, they do work hard to achieve the goals. And that willpower and determination can be appreciated.
But what is the end result of it? Ultimately, wherever they go, at the end, there is only suffering. You know, George Harrison, he was a very famous Beatle, as most of you know, one of the most famous musicians in modern history. And he, how he became spiritually interested, he actually in his youth, he started this rock band, Dadar Beatles, this musical band and they became immensely popular.
And then he found the more he became popular, the more he there was one of us called Joshua Green, Yogeshwar Prabhu. He wrote a biography of George Harrison called Here Comes the Sun. So, he had met George Harrison.
So, he was a very nice devotee, Prabhupada disciple, devotee researcher and scholar. So, he told me that when he talked to George Harrison, this is mentioned in his book also, George Harrison said that, you know, the whole world is like trying to climb up, climb up a wall, climb up a wall, and most, the wall of material success. And he said, everybody is trying to climb up and I found that I had climbed way, way up to the top.
Way, way up to the top, where most people cannot even dream of getting. And he was so famous that in 1983 or 84, when scientists discovered one satellite around Jupiter. So, a popular demand, that satellite was named as George Harrison 8185 or something like that.
So, you know, satellites were named after him. At that time, he was so famous. So, the point was, he had more fame than the President of America even that time.
More fame and followers than anybody else in the world. He said, I climbed up on the top of that wall and what was to be seen on the other side was utter desolation. So, I would feel lonely, I would feel stressed, I would feel empty.
And that was the time when he was introduced first by Ravishankar. Ravishankar was not the current Ravishankar, but Ravishankar was the musician, sitarist. So, he was introduced to Indian culture through that.
And then through that, gradually, he might still have to move up. And then when he started singing devotional songs, he said, this has given me more fulfilment than everything else that I have achieved in my life. So, what basically, everybody is trying to climb up that wall, but after he climbed up the wall, what next? Actually, material life, first of all, the first point I made is that it’s ultimately frustrating because we lose everything at the time of death.
But even when we achieve material success, actually it doesn’t satisfy the heart, because we are spiritual, whereas everything material doesn’t relate with the spiritual soul. So, people set up goals for their lives. And if we look at the way the Beatles attained their success, they worked hard, they practised and they did their hard work.
That is diligence. But even after moving from one part of the ocean to another part of the ocean, that doesn’t make people happy. So, when we come to Krishna consciousness, we are still in the ocean, but we get a compass.
All around is the ocean, but if you go in this direction, there is land. There is land. So, keep moving in that direction.
And as we keep moving in that direction, still the waves will come. But as we keep moving forward, we actually move closer and closer to the land. The ocean starts becoming shallower and shallower.
What does that mean? That means that the material ups and downs don’t disturb us so much, because we have connected with something eternal. The more things change, the more we need to hold on to things that don’t change. The more things change, the more we need to hold on to things that don’t change.
But in material life, there is nothing that doesn’t change. Everything is changing in material life for people. So, where do people get security? It’s practically nowhere.
So, that’s why the goal that we get that itself is a shelter. So, people now have their jobs in their offices, but you can go in office and find out that actually you are fired from the job. So, one devotee in America was telling that in America they have a joke.
If you go to office, you will be lucky to find that you have a job there. If you come back home, you are lucky if you find your spouse still there. So, things keep changing so much, because everything is unpredictable.
So, where do people get security? It’s a situation. Actually, it is only in our eternal relationship with Krishna. So, first is we get a goal.
Then, L, so G is goal, L is lifestyle. It’s one thing to know, many religions talk about yes, you know, we have God is eternal and ultimately we have to go back to God. But how do I live my life here so that I can go back to God? We need practical guidance for that.
And Krishna conscious lifestyle offers us practical guidance by which we can be relatively speaking happier even in this world, in this life. Comparatively speaking, material existence in goodness is much much more peaceful and fulfilling than in passion and ignorance. Krishna describes sattva sattva sanjayate gyanam and he says rajasas tu phalam dukkham agyanam tamasah phalam karmana sukutasyaho sattvikam nirmalam phalam rajasas tu phalam dukkham agyanam tamasah phalam He describes that when people live in the mode of passion, the result is rajasas tu phalam dukkham.
When people live passionate lives then the end result of that is misery. It’s not just the end result but transitionally also it’s just miserable. Because when people are in passion, they’re constantly, there are two things in passion.
One is desire and the other is anxiety. Two things. I wrote a poem long ago.
People, you know, in materialistic movies, they have their cheers. They have their wine bottle and they say cheers. So what is the reality beyond these cheers? Their hearts are filled with fears.
Their hearts are filled with fears. Their minds are pierced by desires. Their minds are pierced by desires.
They are on the verge of tears and they say cheers. So actually this is the reality, unfortunately. Because in material life, these two things are inevitable.
If we are living in passion, there will be desires and there will be fears. Desires. I want this, I want this, I want this.
Aneka chitta vibhranta, Moha jaala samaam utha. This, this, this vibhranta. The mind gets distracted.
So there are so many desires. I want this, I want this, I want this. But along with that, whatever I have, I have so much anxiety.
What if this goes wrong? What if I lose this? What if that happens? So there are desires and there are anxieties. Why? Now we may say that everybody’s life is unpredictable. Even people who are in goodness, their life is unpredictable.
But when people are in passion, people live in rajoguna, then they identify so much with material things that when something goes wrong materially, they think everything has gone wrong with me. So that’s why the lifestyle in the mode of passion is extremely agitating. It agitates because of desires, it agitates because of anxieties.
On the other hand, in Krishna consciousness, relatively speaking, the lifestyle may seem a little more difficult because we have to follow so many rules and regulations. We wake up early in the morning and maybe follow all the regulative principles, chant sixteen rams. All this may seem difficult.
But Krishna describes the key. That yattagagre vishamigo pariname vruto that which tastes like poison in the beginning will taste like nectar. So yes, the rules and regulations are a little difficult to follow.
What happens by following the rules and regulations is that our life and our mind becomes orderly. That our life and our mind becomes orderly. So, the rules which we follow, they bring order in our life.
Otherwise, everything becomes disorder. Without rules, without some guiding framework in life, life becomes too chaotic. Imagine that there is a cricket match playing and there are no rules for cricket.
So, the bowler comes to goal and he goes beyond the bowling crease, goes up to the batsman, knocks him aside and breaks the studs. The batsman will be like, what happened? The batsman hits the ball and the catch is going for the wicket keeper. As the wicket keeper is coming, the batsman swings his bat and hits him on the head.
So, actually, even something as mundane as sports cannot be enjoyed without rules. Doesn’t it? Rules create an overall framework which brings order. Similarly, in life, when there are absolutely no rules, then everything becomes chaotic.
So, the rules bring a sense of framework and order to our lives. Life itself will be disorderly. There is no doubt that life will have ups and downs.
But when we have some framework, this is how I will be living, this is how I will be acting, then that brings order in our life. So, that helps us substantially in keeping ourselves on track in life. So, the lifestyle, when it is in goodness, it is actually much, much more peaceful and productive.
In passion, there is too much agitation, too much agitation and nothing tangible actually happens. So, even materially speaking, over a period of time, we will find that the lifestyle of a devotee is more satisfying internally and in the long run, it is more productive material years. More productive materially, because when the mind is peaceful, we can do so much more in Krishna’s service.
We discussed how sometimes chanting, we say chanting takes so much time, but actually chanting doesn’t take our work time, it takes our worry time. If we are living in a mode of passion, there is so much worry, so much time people spend in. It’s not that people have everyday a time, morning 6 o’clock to 7 o’clock is worry time.
Worry is like a constant background noise, which is distracting the person, distracting the person, constantly sucking the energy. So, all the time and mental energy that goes in worry, that becomes saved when we come to goodness and connect with something eternal. So, the time that we spend in Krishna conscious activities, that doesn’t take away our work time, that takes away our worry time.
And not only worry time, it takes away our waste time. So much time we waste in so many activities. So, what happens in the lifestyle, sometimes people have a fear that if I become spiritual, too spiritual, then I will not be able to be productive materially.
It’s possible that if a person tries to practise spirituality in an unguided, unbalanced way, the person may get affected adversely. But if we are doing it under guidance in a balanced way, we will actually be able to become more productive materially. Why? Because most of us think of time only in terms of activities.
Okay, I have this much time throughout the day, morning I will be doing this, afternoon I will be doing this, evening I will be doing this. So, we think of time in terms of activities. But it is not only activities that take time, even thoughts take time, desires take time, anxieties take time.
If I am sitting in a classroom, and while I am sitting in the classroom, before I came to the class, some other hostile boy, he was watching something nasty on the internet, and I just happened to glance on that. And that image, whatever I saw, it is sticking in my brain. Many of the said about these sexually implicit images.
It takes one moment to see it, it may take one lifetime to forget it. It just stays on and on. There is a mental glue to it.
So, that image is haunting me in the mind, and if I come in the class, I am sitting in front, the professor is speaking something, and I am seeing something else. So, now that thought, it takes so much time. So, our time is not only consumed by activities.
It is consumed by thoughts, it is consumed by desires, it is consumed by anxieties, and we don’t measure or quantify them in our daily life, but it is so much. Time and mental energy goes away by these things. But when we practise Krishna consciousness and come to the mode of goodness, then these don’t affect us so much.
Why? Because I am different from all this. I am not the body. So, all these things, I don’t think so much that these things will give me happiness, or even if these things go wrong, they are going to be the end of the world for me.
No, life can go on. Like I earlier said, it is a destination, not a destination, but a station. So, our mental energy doesn’t get too much invested in material things, and that’s why we have more mental energy available for doing our work.
So, the lifestyle of Krishna consciousness not only enables us to return back to Krishna at the end of our life, if we commit the kind of time and energy that Krishna consciousness expects, chanting regularly for hours, waking up and studying this literature, and associating with devotees, surely we’ll go back to Krishna. But along with that, even in this world, we’ll live more peacefully, more productive, because we have more mental energy available for us. So, that’s the lifestyle.
And A is association. Association. Association.
Association is the friend circle that we have. So, generally speaking, the association that we have is the source of one of the kleshas. That is, I am equal to Krishna.
Isn’t it? Whatever surroundings that we are in, wherever we are, we will find that there will be some people who will not get along with us. Some people will be very irritable for us. And that will create problems for us.
And when we come in the association of devotees, sometimes we may find the same thing over there. So, Shri Prabhupada tells us, we should not have a utopian idea that just because now I have come in the association of devotees, everybody should be living in safety, everybody should be very good, everybody should be very gentle and kind and everything like that. So, you know, we cannot expect anywhere a circle of ideal people.
Because this world is not filled with ideal people. Actually speaking, even if there were some group of ideal people somewhere in the world and we manage to find such a group of ideal people, we would not be allowed entry because we are not ideal. So, we will have to live with real people.
So, firstly, this is the real world. Maybe we should switch it off. So, we cannot expect if we have a utopian idea that in the association of devotees, everyone will be very nice, everything will be very ideal for me, then we will be disappointed.
But, if we have a realistic understanding that there is going to be that even in the devotee circle, just as I am not perfect, others are not perfect. So, with this realistic idea, if we compare devotee association and non-devotee association, we will find that there is a huge positive difference. Basically, non-devotee association is often founded on the platform of mutual exploitation.
Mutual exploitation. What can I get from you? And another person is also thinking, what can I get from you? So, all the relationships that are there are extremely self-centred. And because of this, the relationships, there may be some relationships which are exceptions, but they are rare.
In general, the association that is there in material life, it is either so superficial, you know, like yesterday, one of the devotees in the debate technology, almost one out of two or three people in America go to psychiatrists. Now, it’s not that so many people are mad over there. The point is that, there is so much loneliness in the culture over there.
Everybody is very official and formal in their relationships. They may be very courteous. Relatively speaking.
You know, in India, if 100 people have to get into a bus, they just run into the bus directly. Whereas in America, people will naturally make a queue. So, there may be orderliness over there.
But beyond that culture of orderliness, there is not really much of a culture of caring about each other. So, people feel extremely lonely. They are isolated.
Every person is like an island. So, the whole there is a post-modern ethos coming up. The post-modern idea is it’s obsessive individualism.
Individualism means, I first. Everyone else doesn’t matter. I first.
But obsessive individualism means, I only. Nobody else matters. I only should be able to be happy.
I should be able to enjoy. What happens to others, doesn’t matter. So, that’s why, because of this culture of self-centredness, relationships don’t last.
So, people go to psychiatrists, not because they are so… they are mentally insane or something like that. It’s just so terribly lonely that they just feel like I want to talk with somebody. And even psychiatrists take a huge amount of money to hear one hour.
At least somebody is hearing me for one hour. It’s like that. So, often people are extremely lonely.
And people feel that if I speak something to someone, that person will take advantage of me. And that person will use that secret information about me for his own advantage, for exploiting me. So, when there is no foundation beyond beyond self-centredness, then there cannot be any stability in relationships.
So, I may do some good for somebody else. Why? Because that person will do good for me in return. That’s my expectation.
And if by harming that person I can get along, then why not? Or just ditching that person, then why not? What is the problem? There is, from the materialistic point of view, there is no value in sustained committed relationships. Because ultimately nothing is eternal. Nothing matters from the eternal point of view.
But when we come in the devotee circle, at least in principle we understand that actually the way we deal with devotees is ultimately the way we are going to approach Krishna. So, therefore, devotees will be heated and icy. And warm.
And we will find this warmth more and more in more advanced devotees. So, gradually speaking, we will find that there is a culture of warmth and caring among devotees. And that gives such a stability in the social life of a person.
Because sometimes if we are living in a hostel and most of the people are non-devotees, then we may feel that I am a little isolated because of my devotional practises. But then when we have good relationships with devotees and we are coming in the association of devotees, we understand that there are so many other people with whom I can relate, who care for me and for whom. And for whose values and my values are similar.
So, the association is a great blessing. The association is not just for pursuing our transcendental goals. Yes, certainly in the association of devotees, we can advance towards the eternal goal of life.
That is going back to Godhead. But along with that, even in the journey of life here and now, we are able to gel. We have satisfying relationships.
So, in many temples eventually we have council assistant. So, what is the purpose of the council assistant? Actually, the council group is like an extended family. In the traditional time, there was a joint family where there were so many support groups.
There were husband, wife, children, but there were so many other support groups. But now because we have come to the cities where the nuclear families are there and people just go and get along with intergenerational relatives. The daughter-in-law gets along with the mother-in-law and that becomes the topic of soap operas.
That sort of relationships. So, that is true. But still, people need at one level, we need some sort of family support.
Beyond that, we need a greater sort of social circle to which we belong which cares for us and which we care. So, when we have a devotee circle, especially if you are part of a, we join a mentor group or a counsellor group or a bhaktivruksha or whatever, then that becomes like an extended family where we belong and where we have warmer relationships. So, that’s how one devotee was telling me that in the IITs and IITs if their boy has a birthday, all the other friends come and kick him in the back.
That’s the way of celebrating birthday. But he said, when I came to devotee circle, devotees actually appreciate, encourage, glorify and guide. This is such a different way of celebrating birthdays.
Isn’t it? So, actually even from the material point of view, people can observe the difference in the culture. So, this is association with devotees. Then S is study.
So, study can refer to both. As students, you are studying your academic studies. But study can also refer to the subject for our intellectual engagement.
See, what do ultimately our happiness and our overall state of well-being is determined by the state of our thoughts. And our thoughts primarily come from what we interact with, what we absorb our intelligence in. So, do we have any satisfying object of thought? That is a very, very important question.
Material life doesn’t offer us any satisfying object of thought. All the things that we think about. Most often, material life, people think about sense objects.
They think about members of the opposite sex. They think about a car that I want to purchase, a house I want to have. So, most of the time when we are thinking about sense objects, those thoughts impoverish us.
Impoverish means to make poor. To make me feel as if I don’t have this. So, actually speaking, in material life, our thoughts normally impoverish us.
They make us feel oh, I don’t have this, I don’t have this, I don’t have this. So, whatever I think about, it keeps making me dissatisfied. It keeps making me agitated.
So, I used to write in the Times of India in the speaking tree column. So, I had interacted with the editor about how they started this spiritual column in Times of India. It was several, more than 10 years ago.
So, that editor told me that in the newspaper, basically we have three news. All news fall in three categories. It’s news of death, news of destruction, and news of deceit.
This is the three broad categories of news. There’s death, news of destruction. And then there was such a big scam, so many people where so much money was looted.
Death, deceit, and destruction. All this news, we thought we should have at least one column in our paper which will pacify the mind. That’s how we started this column.
Of course, they have all kinds of philosophies and columns. So, how much people’s mind gets pacified, we don’t know. But, the point is, that was the object in general, in material life.
People may read newspapers or watch TV. People watch TV for the thing, I’ll relax by watching TV. But what happens when we watch TV? Actually, in the TV, the most advertised, the most glamorised part of the television is not the episodes, it’s the commercials in between.
So, what happens? I come back home from office. I work very hard and I’m exhausted. I think I need a break.
So, I come back home and I relax. And the TV, there are advertisements. What is the meaning of advertisements essentially? The advertisements tell me your cell phone, it’s old fashioned.
It’s wrong, change the cell phone. Your shoes, they’re wrong, change them. Your dress, it’s wrong, change it.
Your hairstyle, it’s wrong, change it. So, essentially, what are advertisements? Advertisements are basically telling us, whatever we have is wrong, old fashioned, useless, change it. So, naturally, what happens? People come back from office, they watch the television and they think, oh, I had to purchase new things.
So, then I go to office and I shop. I purchase this, purchase this, purchase this, purchase this. And then, when people go to shop, all the images from the television are there.
I want this, I want this. And then they go into supermarkets. When they go into supermarkets, you know, there is super illusion.
Because you can see so many products over there. I want this, I want this also. But I can’t carry all this.
No problem, we’ll provide you a card for it. I don’t have money. No problem, we can use a credit card.
And then, when we use credit card to purchase all that, then they come back, oh my god, I have to work so much harder. Because all the money I have taken on credit. So, then I go to office and work harder and work harder.
And then, when I come back, I am really drained out. I need to relax. So, I turn on television again.
And then again advertisements are there. So, what happens? People’s life at the material level, because they don’t have any satisfying subject to study and absorb their thought in, is basically work, watch, shop. Work, watch, shop.
WWS. Worldwide stupidity. So, it is unfortunate.
But the thoughts of people keep improvising. So, either they agitate us because of so many things that are going wrong, or they agitate us because so many things I don’t have, which I need to get. So, on the other hand, when we study Krishna conscious philosophy, we hear about the past times of Krishna, we understand the deeper truths of life, this actually enriches us.
When we study material events and material objects and think about worldly things, that sort of exposure to our thoughts impoverishes us. Whereas Krishna conscious input, Krishna conscious study actually enriches us. When we hear about Krishna, when we take the darshan of Krishna, at that time, all that makes our mind peaceful.
It becomes satisfied. So, thinking about Krishna is enriching. Studying about Krishna is illuminating.
So, things start becoming clearer. So, the study in and of itself is very satisfying. In material life, even if somebody studies and like say going to physics or mathematics, sometimes it’s quite intellectually challenging and stimulating to study those things.
But still at the end of the day, we don’t have any direct relationship with those subjects. We don’t have any direct relationship with those subjects. We basically relate with them from a utilitarian perspective.
Okay, I want to get marks in my exam, I want to do my research, I want to get a job done. This information, knowledge that we study is not directly related with us. Whereas, what we study in Krishna conscious philosophy is intimately related with us.
It is about our own inner self. It is about Krishna. It is about the eternal relationship.
So, we might get some intellectual stimulation. So, first I talked about relatively passionate worldly stimuli. They will simply agitate our mind.
If there are little more sattvic stimuli, sattvic objects that we study, we may study philosophy, we may study science, we may study literature, there will be some more satisfaction. But how much is the relation of all those things with us? Not much really. But in Krishna consciousness, we are studying subjects that are deeply intellectually satisfying, at the same time they are deeply, intimately connected with us.
So, that’s why it is far more enriching than even worldly literature. And the last S is service. So, this service is actually related with lifestyle.
The point here is that we all want to do something practically in our life. Lifestyle refers to the broad guidelines about how we will live. But service refers to what are the practical things that we do in our life.
So, actually, irrespective of whether we become brahmacharis or brahastas, what we do, in specific ashrams, Krishna consciousness gives us a transcendental vision of whatever we do in life. If I am a student, I am not just studying to prove to the world how clever I am. I am studying because that is the way I can serve Krishna.
That is the way I can glorify Krishna. If I am a good student, the glory comes not just to me, it comes to Krishna. If I am a businessman, I will be a good businessman and gently glorify Krishna through my business.
So, whatever service we do, we get a high, whatever worldly occupation we are doing, we get a higher perspective. There is a very important thing. I talked about George Harrison earlier.
He said, earlier he used to do music and then he did music for Krishna. There is a big difference between the two. Why? Music itself gives some happiness.
But, actually, when we do Krishna consciousness, there is not just the aspect of music of happiness, there is this eternal, devotional happiness which comes. So, this eternal happiness doesn’t come only when we do explicitly devotional activities. Yes, when we chant, when we study.
Prabhupada was once asked. Prabhupada was, you know, sometimes people say that if everybody just sits down and chants Hare Krishna, then how will the world go on? So, Prabhupada gave different answers at different times. He said that actually, if you think that a devotee just sits down and chants Hare Krishna, then you don’t understand what is a devotee.
He said the two greatest devotees were Hanuman and Arjuna. And they were chanting the names of Krishna, but they were doing so much in the world. Hanuman jumped across oceans.
Arjuna was the best archer of his times. So, we shouldn’t think that devotional life means just we leave everything else and just chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. That is a very important part of our life which connects us with Krishna internally.
But along with that, Krishna consciousness is about a culture that encompasses the world. A culture that encompasses the world. So, we, whatever worldly activities that we are doing, we can spiritualise them.
And when we spiritualise them, then we get a transcendental fulfilment even by doing our worldly activities. The activities that we do, they’ll fall in three broad categories. There is devotional activities, there are anti-devotional activities and there are non-devotional activities.
So, devotional activities means chanting Hare Krishna, studying the philosophy, doing kirtans, these are devotional activities. Then meat-eating, gambling, intoxication, etc. are anti-devotional activities.
So, these have to be given up. But between this white and this black, between the devotional and anti-devotional activities, there is a broad spectrum of grey. These are non-devotional activities.
But they can be devotionalized. They can be spiritualised. So, for example, our college studies.
Somebody is doing a job in a company. Now, that is not anti-devotional nor is that directly devotional. But that can be devotionalized.
How? If I spend adequate time connecting my heart with Krishna, then whatever I do, I will do that as an offering to Krishna. So, even our worldly activities can be spiritualised this way. And that way, our worldly activities don’t just give us a material fulfilment, they become a part of our whole life that gives us spiritual fulfilment.
Otherwise, if we are doing our material activities just for material purposes, then the satisfaction and the enjoyment that we get from that is always very uncertain. Maybe I’ll get it, maybe I’ll not get it. If I get marks, I’m very happy.
If I don’t get marks, I’m not at all happy. If I don’t do well, I’m devastated. But once I connect my worldly professional duties with Krishna, then I understand that whatever I do, actually I’m doing it for Krishna’s pleasure.
And if I do my best, Krishna is pleased. Irrespective of whether I succeed materially or not. Actually, this knowledge brings so much stability to our material life.
Why? Because in material life, the world judges us according to our results. Whereas Krishna sees us according to our endeavours. So, students study very hard but somehow at the time of the exam, something goes wrong and he’s not able to do well in the exam.
The world will think, oh, you are a poor student. And if our sense of self-identity and self-worth comes from the world’s evaluation, we’ll always be so insecure. So insecure.
Actually, you know, it is such a… Sometimes the students, depending on how many marks you get, you are a 4-pointer, you are a 5-pointer, you are a 6-pointer, you are this, whatever. It’s actually so dehumanising to equate a human being with just some pointer marks. Isn’t it? That is the way modern society does.
It’s actually so dehumanising to equate a human being, a living, loving, conscious person with just a statistic. But that’s how it works in modern society. If we get our sense of self-identity and self-worth from that, that particular number, oh, I’m a 4-pointer, I’m a 5-pointer, 6-pointer, whatever it is.
It is so unstable. But if we understand that my sense of self-identity and self-worth is not depending on that particular statistic, not the way the world views it. If I am serving Krishna, I am trying to do my best, my self-identity comes from there.
And of course, because we are internally secure, we will be able to do our work also well. And we will get good results for Krishna also. But we will not depend so much, we will not be so insecure in our worldly life.
So unstable, so dependent on the world’s rules. So, when we transform our worldly profession into a service profession, then our worldly activity becomes a source of transcendental fulfilment for us. And we don’t depend so much on worldly enjoyment.
That’s how we can be stabler and more productive in our life. So, in this way, actually what Krishna consciousness offers us may not sound as sensational as you pray to God and suddenly you win a lottery or some ashes come out. But from a long-term perspective, it is far more meaningful and life-pleasing way.
This is the glass of mercy that all of us need. What is the glass? Genius? No. All of us know that I just don’t have to move from one part of the ocean to another part of the ocean in the hope that that part will be stable.
There is a land over there, I can move to that land. So, L is what? Lifestyle. So, you get an overall framework, a set of guiding rules and principles which bring some order within the disorderliness of life.
And A is association. Now, we come to a circle of people who share our values and who care for us not just because of what we are giving them, but because they understand that we are all eternally connected with Krishna. And our mutual deemings will help us all the time.
And S is study. Actually, our material life it gives us objects of thought and simply impoverishments. Whereas Krishna Consciousness gives us so much intellectually satisfying thoughts that enriches us.
And last S is service. Actually, our worldly occupations can also be spiritualised when we do them as service. And then our self-identity and self-worth doesn’t depend on words as such.
It depends on our Krishna connection. That brings us great stability and productivity in our lives. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions? Please. Why does Krishna allow normal people to acquire Siddhis? Why does Krishna allow normal people to acquire Siddhis? In general, on the spiritual path, we will be tested whether we want anything material. Why are we tested? We are tested because test is the way we purify our desires.
Just like when there is an exam. The teacher teaches the subject and then there is an exam. In the exam, there are multiple choice questions.
So say A, B, C, D, E. Now, the teacher only gives four wrong alternatives. And if the student has 100 questions, as the student goes up, just close your eyes. Pick whatever you like.
So then it’s unlikely the student will succeed. And then if the student fails, the student tells the teacher, you only put all the wrong answers over there, so you have to be blamed. No, it doesn’t work like that.
The teacher did put the wrong answers there, but the teacher also educated the student about what are the right answers. So like that, in material life, Krishna gives us education through the scriptures, through Guru Sadhushastra, of what are the right desires. And then to test whether we have learned the lesson, Krishna presents us life, which offers us multiple choices.
So, in the initial stage of our spiritual life, we have simple, ordinary temptations. Now, there may be wealth, there may be power, there may be opposite sex. These are temptations.
They are not simple in the sense that they are easy to resist. We also have to be determined to resist them. But they are the temptations that come to all people.
In that sense, they are normal. But as we pass through those temptations, resist those temptations further, then we have just like some exams you have it, you get first answer right, second question little more tougher. Get second answer right, third question little more tougher.
Because then they are trying to assess what is the calibre of this thing. So like that, for seekers who are able to go beyond yam, yam, asana, prana and pratyahara, then that means they have rejected most of the cross material religions. Then they are of a higher calibre.
Then accordingly the test comes. So, the supernatural powers are another subtler way by which the soul can claim to be God. In this world, I will claim to be God because I have so much money.
I can enjoy with so many people. I have so much power. That’s how I think I am great.
And I am great is just a disguised way of thinking that I am God. That is why we have come to this world. But when we come to supernatural powers, then it’s a more subtle and more gratifying, egoistically gratifying way of claiming to be God.
I can walk on water. I can do this, I can do that. So, that is also a subtle way of temptation.
And when we pass that no, I don’t want to be God. I want to be devoted to God. When we reject that, then we move on.
So, basically the temptation that we get, whether they are normal or paranormal temptations, they are like the wrong options in a multiple choice exam. When we reject those options, we keep moving forward. Till we return back to Krishna.
Any other questions? Yes, please. You told that by discussing about how Krishna conscious life is I am aware that we get the experience of all the things that we are supposed to. But, I have a nice interpretation of Krishna consciousness.
My life is set. But when things get imbalanced, certain time, imbalanced with this Krishna consciousness. That time, all philosophy is going back around.
That time we don’t feel. So, how to avoid this? So, when things become imbalanced, we start feeling that Krishna consciousness is not so nice. So, how do we move forward? So, actually, we need to have a proper understanding of what balance means.
Because life is dynamic, we can never have a static frozen formula of balance. Life requires not static balance, but dynamic balance. What is the difference between static balance and dynamic balance? If I am going on a bike and if I am going straight, the steady state for the bike is vertical.
But then if I have to turn right, then the bike has to be tilted right. Isn’t it? If I keep going straight, then I will hit the wall. If I turn right, then I can move towards the right.
But if I tilt the bike towards the right, then we are not doing it vertical. Then I just keep going around in circle. Isn’t it? So, depending on where I am going, what is the path, then I have to tilt it.
So, normally, the vertical is going to be straight. And then again, maybe when the road is clear, I may again tilt left and keep going straight. So, in our life, when we seek a balance, we cannot have one fundamental for balance that will work throughout.
Because life makes different demands. Sometimes, our academic demands will be very high. So, at that time, we have to give adequate time to our studies.
Maybe we have exams, maybe we have say college submissions, we have campus interviews. So, of course, we cannot give up our basic devotional commitment of chanting our number of rounds. Some basic commitments are there.
But we may not be able to give so much time. So, if at that time, our material life requires more time, fine. So, then, after that time is over, then we can come back.
At that time, the balance stage will be doing less. Of course, to go on selecting. But later on, when we have more time, say we have vacations, like all of you have come for the camping.
Now, somebody has decided, say, okay, I will balance between my material life and spiritual life. So, maybe 2-3 hours of spirituality I will do every day. But now, when we are in a camp, if I say, I will only do 2-3 hours spirituality.
Nothing more. Here, the balance would be, we have more important routines. It’s just like if I am going on a road, if the road is clear, I will move fast.
If the road is crowded, I will move slow. The point is, I keep moving forward. Sometimes, our material life will congest the roadway.
At that time, we will have to move slower. At other times, in our material life, things will be really clearer. But at that time also, if I keep going slowly, then I will not be able to make up for a lost distance.
So, one of the main problems that comes up is we expect one formula of balance to work at all times. That doesn’t work. So, there has to be dynamic balance.
What will be balanced state will be according to time, place, circumstances. And it’s very helpful to have guidance of senior devotees who will tell us, actually, how can I balance my life? And in general, life doesn’t throw up too many massive unpredictable things every day. Unpredictable things come up, but they are occasional.
Most of the times, there are challenges in life, but they are predictable. Okay, now the exams are going to come up, now this is going to come up. So, we feel planning at once.
Now, planning is an indication of the mode of goodness firstly. In the mode of passion, we let our desire go to do our planning. That means there is no planning.
We just act on the spur of the moment. So, one of the characteristics of goodness is that planning is very important if we want to situate ourselves in the mode of goodness. We don’t imagine that I can be the absolute controller and I can plan everything in my life.
If we try to plan to the last minute in our life, we will be very frustrated. It’s like, if I’m going in a boat, I have to have a general direction, this is the way I will go. But I can’t plan, okay this wave is going to come at this time, then I will deal with it.
I can’t plan to the last minute. But in general, I have to have a broad plan. So, that will help us to prepare.
Okay, I know this time I will be more busy, so maybe let me do some more things earlier and some more things afterwards. So, by recognising that plans will be dynamic and by seeking guidance from devotees to navigate the turbulent times that life will inevitably bring upon us, we can keep moving forward. So, especially one of the problems is, we tend to eternalise the present.
What do you mean by eternalise the present? That means whatever is our present emotion, we are thinking, oh it’s always going to be like this. So, one day I don’t feel like waking up in the morning, then my mind starts saying, no, every day throughout my life I will have to go through this. How will I do this? No, I can’t do it.
Let me just go to sleep. No, it’s not that. Every day the mind is going to be the same.
So, even if there is a problem in the present, we don’t have to eternalise the present by thinking the problem will always be there. The mind gives problem, the problem goes away also. So, that way if we recognise that the mind is affected by the moods and these feelings will come, these feelings will go.
They are like waves in the ocean. So, if we avoid that eternalising the present, then we will not be so affected by the problems that are there. You know, maybe five years ago when we gave our 10th standard exam, there might have been so much anxiety.
Oh, the biggest exam of my life. But now, you know, it doesn’t matter so much. Doesn’t it? So, similarly, whatever is the big problem right now, it will not matter so much.
Not matter so much doesn’t mean that we don’t do it responsibly, but that we don’t take an unnecessary stress about it. So, that’s how we can achieve that balance. Any other questions? What is the relationship between mercy and endeavour and how do we strike a balance between them? Very good question.
Prabhupada explains in 1.4 that to become a devotee, we have to be fortunate and intelligent. So, fortunate and intelligent. So, fortunate means we get the opportunity to practise Krishna Consciousness.
Intelligent means we take the opportunity to practise Krishna Consciousness. So, there are so many colleges all over the country. Very few colleges have any voice centres over there.
So, all of you are in colleges where there is a voice centre. That means all of you are fortunate. But then there are so many students in the college.
Among all those students, all of you are intelligent. Why? Because you took that fortune. So, the fortune is to give us the mercy.
To give us the opportunity to practise Krishna Consciousness. The intelligence, which is like the endeavour part, is to take that opportunity. Is to take that opportunity.
So, if I’m following a river and somebody throws the rope to me, then I have to hold on to the rope. Now, Prabhu, please give me your blessings so that I can hold on to the rope. It’s fine.
You have my blessings. Hold on to the rope. No, you give me the strength also to hold on to the rope.
No. Ultimately, it is we who have to endeavour. So, Krishna will give us the opportunity.
Devotees will make the facilities for us. But it is we who have to practise. So, one devotee who asked, we have to chant 16 rounds every day.
But, you know, I can’t chant so purely. So, what if every day I hear Prabhupada’s japa chanting 16 rounds every day? You know, why chanting? So, you know, actually Prabhupada has already done everything. At least we should chant, isn’t it? So, we can’t say that I will not chant also.
So, there is certainly our endeavour is to take the opportunities to practise devotional service. That means to study the scriptures, to associate with devotees, to chant the holy names. So, Prabhupada did not entertain much abstract ideas of mercy.
Mercy means something tangible. Do devotional service. Prabhupada writes in Nectar of Instruction that devotional service is not imaginative ecstasy or sentimental speculation.
Its substance is practical activity. The substance of devotional service is practical activity. Practical activity.
Yes. I go and I can do various services by which I can assist in Krishna’s mission. So, practical activity.
Imaginative activity. So, our endeavour is to utilise the opportunities in devotional service that we get. Does that answer the question? Correct.
Any other questions? Yes. So, we have after the questions relating to this topic, we can have questions about yesterday’s class also. We have some time today.
So, Krishna Puri, you were mentioning that when we are initially part of this enquiry, that when we are doing a study as a student and apart from that it gives us intellectual engagement to our mind, but we must go for quotas. So, that problem arises. So, even after going there, we should not delay that.
Yes. So, scripture study may stay at the intellectual level and not come to the application level. Even intellectual study of scripture is also painful.
If I have a desire to serve Krishna to this day, if I study Bhagavad Gita just so that I can show the world how learned I am, then maybe that may not purify me so much. Or if I study the Bhagavad Gita, like many of these politicians, freedom struggle and all these politicians, they wrote their commentaries in the Bhagavad Gita. And all their commentaries, at least six of those leaders who wrote commentaries, they wrote their commentaries and the British government had put them in jail.
I think they had nothing else to do, write a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. And they actually proudly said, when we wrote our commentary, we did not refer to any traditional commentaries when writing. So, it’s my own thoughts on the Gita.
And then it’s your own book, it’s not Bhagavad Gita. Prabhupada said, it’s not Bhagavad Gita as it is, it’s Bhagavad Gita as you are. So, now at one level we can say, yes, in the jail also the person utilises time to do something.
Well, that is fine. But if I have the agenda of interpreting according to my own ideas, then that study will not really benefit me much. But if I am studying with the mood of service, and even if I am not able to apply everything that I study, still, even that study will purify us.
So, this study is not jnana. This study is shravanam kirtanam smaranam. It is hearing, speaking and contemplating.
That is the limb of devotional study. That will also purify us. That is the first thing.
Second thing is, in general, when we study, we should be able to select what I can apply in my life. If we try to apply everything, we will end up applying nothing. This also I have to apply, this also I have to apply, better forget everything.
So, we need to select. This is what I am not talking about the basic activities of devotional studies, which all of us have. But say, somebody may feel, I want to control lust, somebody may feel, I want to control anger, somebody may feel, actually I have to cultivate non-offensive attitude.
So, there are so many things that we want to cultivate in our devotional studies. So, we can focus on one thing and maybe focus on that one thing for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and study scripture from that perspective. And even if we read other instructions, we can read them but we may not be able to apply them right now.
We can keep them in the pipeline for applying in the future. So, like that if we take one one thing and internalise it, then gradually we can internalise many things from scriptures. So, application is surely important.
But even this act of study is also an application of Bhagavad Gita. Because Krishna says, In 18.70, Krishna says that, those who study the sacred conversation of ours, they are worshipping me with their intelligence. Just like we can do Aarti with Ghee lamp and Garbhakti.
We can do Aarti with our intelligence, studying scripture. So, even the study is purified and if we select what we apply, then we can also apply things from the scripture progressively one by one. And we can experience the fulfilment that we may feel like we are missing right now.
Did I answer the question? Any other questions? We have to civilise in a way that it is compatible with Dharma. So, if we are not able to complete our rounds in the morning during our exam days, we have to do something later afterwards, then we may feel that is it that I don’t have enough faith in Krishna? That I am not doing this properly? It may be like that. It doesn’t necessarily be like that.
The faith in Krishna is expressed not only through our dependence on Krishna. The faith in Krishna is expressed also through our dedication to Krishna. How is that? It’s just like when I go to a doctor, when I take treatment from the doctor, I express my faith to the doctor in two ways.
One is, okay, doctor is saying, you will get cured, I will get cured. I will not worry too much. This is gorgeous way, this is gorgeous way, this is gorgeous way.
That is one way of expressing my faith. Another equally important way is that I do what the doctor tells me. Okay, doctor, take this medicine morning, afternoon, evening.
Do this, is this. So, both, that means taking the treatment and not worrying about other things. Both are ways in which I express my faith to the doctor.
So, similarly, the faith in Krishna is not expressed only by our dependence on Krishna. It is expressed also by our commitment to ourselves to Krishna. So, why? Because I understand, I do my part and things will work out right.
I also have to do my part. So, that means, we have a public speaking sport for devotees. So, if devotees are to give Bhagavatam class, first time they are to give class, they are told, you know, don’t have too much anxiety, have faith in Krishna.
But only after you have prepared for the class. Isn’t it? If I don’t prepare for the class and I say, so, all of you tomorrow, today, will see my dependence on Krishna. And the dependence is, I have not prepared anything for the class.
Well, that is not dependence, that is irresponsibility. So, ideally speaking, we should plan our studies in such a way that we have done our studies reasonably well and we can manage to do our rounds in the morning before going for our exams. So, if we plan our studies in such a way, it is possible to do that.
But if because of certain reasons, we feel that we have not been able to study sufficiently, then, it’s okay if we do some rounds afterwards. It’s not something which we have to feel guilty about. It’s faith, it’s something which will grow progressively.
It is, at least we are going to chime the round after we come back from the exam. That is good. And over a period of time, if we plan our studies properly, then we will be able to do our studies in such a way that we can do all our rounds before going for the exam.
You know, actually speaking, it is our service that is important. And our chanting is our service, our studies is also our service. It is not that we express our dependence to Krishna only through chanting and our service of studying doesn’t matter.
But if I think, only my studies is my service and because I have to study now my exams are going on, I have no time for chanting. Then what are we doing? We are disconnecting Krishna from our life. So rather than making it like a faith judging issue, whether I chime my rounds in the morning, before the morning programme or not, we should actually see it as an opportunity to holistically plan our life.
That means, what we are saying is that the way we live our life normally, everyday we wake up, we chant our rounds, we should be able to do that even in crisis situations. Because we plan our life in such a way that we are able to do it. But sometimes it may not be possible.
Then let’s try. So, it is not so much of a faith issue, it is more of a practical planning issue. If I do my practical planning myself, then I will be able to study.
And I will be able to have my studies done in a way that I can go for my exams well prepared. And certainly it is true that if we have done our part well, and then we depend on Krishna, things will work out well for us. But we shouldn’t make this too much of a mental burden.
Because I don’t do all my rounds before I go for exam, so I don’t have so much faith in Krishna. Somebody else does all his rounds before going for exam, that person has more faith in Krishna. It could be like that, it doesn’t have to be like that.
You know, we can’t judge the faith in Krishna just by one activity. Okay, apart from that, what does the person do? If the person is dedicatedly serving Krishna all the time, then that is also a discussion of faith in Krishna. So, faith in Krishna has to be judged from a broad spectrum of activities.
It is not just one activity like whether I chant my round before the exam or after the exam. Does it answer the question? The other question is yes. Of course, it is nice if we can chant our rounds, but my point is that there is no need to absolutise that as a test of faith.
It’s not that that is the only test of faith or that is the absolute test of faith. Faith is tested from the overall view. … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … situations.
Now we may create some arrangements for ourselves. So if there are certain situations in which say, you know, if I go home and there is television and there are movies and this and that, I get distracted by that or I go from some place where there is internet connection and I get into wrong sites. To find out what are the areas, what are the ways in which, I’ll say, I fall.
And then create fences by which we don’t have that free access to find out. It’s not that, it’s just a matter of willpower. Willpower has to be coupled with external arrangements.
If we just depend only on willpower, then we will constantly be tormenting others. Willpower has to be coupled with external arrangement. What does that mean, external arrangement? External arrangement means we should not put ourselves in tempting situations as much as possible.
In the Ramayana, there is an example of Sugriva. Sugriva is a devotee. He was living in the forest and then Lord Ram helped him to regain the kingdom of Vishuddhim.
And then what happened? He started living in royal opulence and started engaging in material enjoyment and forgot his commitment to Lord Ram. He, in my sense, fell from his promise to Lord Ram. Sugriva is not a demoniac person, he is a devotee.
But what happened? The circumstances in which, after living in Spartan austerity in the forest, suddenly when he got royal opulence and worldly enjoyment, he just couldn’t restrain himself. So then, his mistake was not that he was living in worldly enjoyment, but what was that? He just disconnected himself from Hanuman, from his ministers and just immersed himself in enjoyment. But then Hanuman came and warned him, Lakshman came and warned him.
He came back to senses. So, actually speaking, if we just throw ourselves in situations where we fall prey to temptation and then we think, oh, last time it happened, again it will not happen. It’s not going to work like that.
There is internal willpower and there is external arrangement. Both are required for protecting us. Now, to some extent, we cannot, if we are going to hostel, if we are living in a college, we cannot avoid, say, boys and girls have co-education.
We can’t avoid that. So, there are many ways in which we cannot avoid temptations. For example, if we are going on the roads, we cannot avoid seeing the hoardings.
The hoardings are there, we cannot walk with closed eyes. But at the same time, we can plan in such a way that our interaction and provocation is minimal. Just like if I am going on a road, if I know that there is a pothole there, then if I am going on a bike, then I will make sure, I know this pothole.
So, if I go this way, I will get a bump. If I just swerve around like this, I will not get the bump. So, like that, it’s similar.
A hoarding is another kind of mental pothole. It gives a bigger bump internally. So, if I know there are hoardings over there, okay, I will plan in such a way that I won’t look in that direction.
So, if there are certain people, when I interact with them, I get too agitated by that, then I will minimise my interaction. So, if you want to protect ourselves from deeply falling down, it’s not just internal willpower. We also have to create an external supporting edge.
And that’s why the voices are so important. In the voice centres, which we have, what happens is they operate in a supportive country. If you are in the hostel, if you don’t wake up in the morning, nobody will save you.
You know, just keep on sleeping. If you are in the voice, and then if you don’t wake up, again, nobody will save us. You will have to write the Baha Mantra.
Actually speaking, a supportive culture is very important. Without a supportive culture, to practise principles, it’s continuous torture. Continuous torture.
In some ways, that torture is unavoidable because we live in modern society. That’s why we just can’t live in a materialistic culture. We have to create a devotional subculture where we can practise these four principles.
Where the struggle will be lessened. So, we should not only, if we are finding it difficult to follow certain standards, we should not only think that my willpower is efficient, but also, you know, external arrangement also has to be made so that I can actually live up to the standards. We may have to consult some senior devotees about how to go about doing these things.
But both are important. The internal resolution and the external arrangement. Then we can move forward to come to higher standards.
Does it answer the question? Any other questions? Mukund ji, let us know when we should stop. How much is the reliability of Pratyeksha and Hanuman, either when scientists propose some theories, or when, if the theories are atheistic or materialistic, when we disprove the theories. So, Pratyeksha and Hanuman are valuable.
They are valid, but they are not conclusively valid. They are not absolutely valid. They have authority.
It is like, there is a hierarchy of Pramanas. Hierarchy is a vertical arrangement. The highest Pramana is Shakti.
But Pratyeksha and Hanuman are also valid Pramanas. And by Pratyeksha and Hanuman, also we can get valid knowledge. But because our material senses and our material intellect is limited, so therefore, the knowledge that we can acquire about the external world, even material world, is going to be limited.
And that is why when new discoveries come up, we find that the earlier one is either incorrect or it is incomplete. Then it is revised. So that is the nature of material knowledge, that it will have to be implicitly revised.
And that is why it will not be perfect. But imperfect is not the same as incorrect. Imperfect is not the same as incorrect.
So, material science is imperfect. And it is not it. To some extent, it works.
And in many ways, it may, for many people, it will appear that it is working in absolutely powerful ways. Like I have typed something on my computer, press a send button and go to somebody in America. So, it does seem to work in very impressive ways.
So, surely scientists through their research have got some inkling of truth. And that inkling of truth is in many ways quite impressive. So, there is no need to deny credit where it is due.
But at the same time, there is no need to extend its credit beyond what is due. What does that mean? No need to deny credit where it is due means to say that everything in science is bogus. That would not be correct.
Because things do work. Things do work and we do use them. But at the same time, if we absolutise this.
So, for example, now we have emails or cell phones. We never have communicated with people in different parts of the world. So, scientists have actually discovered the mechanism by which this happens.
Or this can be made to happen. But they have not made the mechanism. They have just tapped the mechanism.
So, in that sense, it is like there is a farmer. The farmer comes to know somehow that this is a mango seed. And when I put the seed in the ground and I sow it and I fence it and I water it.
It will grow into a tree and it will give a delicious mango. So, now the farmer needs to be given credit for having protected the seed, for it to grow and to make a mango. But then the farmer has not made the seed himself.
The farmer has not made the mechanism by which the seed transforms into a mango. He has only tapped an existing resource and activated an existing mechanism. Two things.
He has tapped an existing resource, that is a mango seed. And activated an existing mechanism, that is transforming the mango seed into a mango tree and a mango fruit. So, similarly, in science, this is essentially what happens.
So, scientists have tapped on an existing resource. What is the existing resource with respect to say, cell phones and emails? It is the whole concept of electromagnetic waves which can transmit information. So, the electromagnetic waves are not created by scientists.
The layer of the atmosphere to which the electromagnetic waves transmit, that is not created by the scientists. These are all existing resources. Now, they have activated an existing mechanism.
The mechanism is what? We can transmit information to these resources. So, we create a cell phone using silicon technology, where there is a transmitter here and there is a receiver there. So, to the extent that we recognise that we have tapped an existing resource and activated an existing mechanism, that much credit is surely due.
But beyond that, we cannot absolutise it and claim that what science says is the ultimate truth. Or because scientists say this, that means whatever that they say, everything must be true. So, science also has categories of knowledge.
And everything in every branch of science is not equally valid. So, when we recognise this, one main problem is that people put science in one broad box and they think that everything in science is equally valid. So, when science deals with structure and dynamics of things as it exists now, it is on much more sounder epistemological footing.
That means the knowledge is much more authoritative. For example, this is how the electromagnetic waves propagated. So, when we discuss the structure and dynamics of matter as it is existing now, science can do experiment, there is repeatability, there is verifiability, there is the capacity for observation experimentation.
But when science goes from the structure and dynamics of matter to the origin of matter, there it is not on very strong epistemological footing. Because the origin is not experimentable, the origin is not repeatable, the origin is not observable, the origin is something which happened long ago. So, this is where actually when we talk about science and spirituality, they collide, they conflict.
It is not science and spirituality conflicting because science doesn’t say how everything came out. It is extrapolation. It is extrapolation that is based on materialist assumptions.
So, therefore, we don’t have to derive science. Pratyeksha and Hanuman had their validity. And because materialistic scientists accept Pratyeksha and Hanuman, so we use Pratyeksha and Hanuman to help them show how their own conclusions are wrong.
So, as I told yesterday, here there is spirituality, here there is science. Sorry, here there is spirituality, here there is materialism and here there is science. So, science has been misappropriated by materialism.
For propagating materialist ideology. Science is a tool for knowledge. It has limited validity.
It has validity. So, instead of allowing materialistic people to use science to propagate materialism, we use the same methodology of science, that is Pratyeksha and Hanuman, to show how, what the materialistic conclusions that scientists have reached, they are not valid. They are not valid not just spiritually or spiritually.
They are not valid. That’s what we use Pratyeksha and Hanuman for. So, those who have taken Pratyeksha and Hanuman, they accept that these are valid.
And according to their own arguments, we can show that yes, you accept science as valid, fine. But then using science methods, you cannot come to the conclusion of materialism. So, we are using science not to refute science.
We are using science as a tool to refute the materialist conclusions that people have assumed that they are right. So, I hope this point is clear. It’s not a conflict between science and spirituality.
Science is a tool for acquiring knowledge. In modern society, materialism has appropriated that tool. So, the conflict is between spirituality and materialism.
And most people think science and materialism is the same thing. We are saying materialistic science, materialism, doesn’t have a monopoly on science. Science is a tool that can be used to arrive at spiritual conclusions.
Does that answer your question? Yes. Yes. So, does misery and mercy have a miraculous aspect, as we see sometimes in the scriptures? And if it has, then how do we understand that? Can you look at that from a practical point of view? Yes.
As I mentioned the point, Srila Prabhupada’s presentation of Krishna Consciousness is important. But Srila Prabhupada also gave us the books where there are miracles, in which he describes miraculous experiences of mercy. So, they are there.
For example, not just talking about say offences, where Indra falls down because of disrespecting Draupadi. We have examples of say Gopalji coming in the dream of Madhavendra Puri. So, we have paranormal dreams also.
So, these are also possibilities. Or we have Vasudev, the leper Vasudev being embraced by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and getting cured. So, there is definitely the possibility of mercy coming in extraordinarily miraculous paranormal ways.
But Srila Prabhupada did not emphasise that. Why? We can’t know Prabhupada. And then Prabhupada also told us that the Bhakti Sannyasi Thakur came in his dream and told him take sannyas.
Prabhupada also said that when we had those two heart attacks on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he saw a vision of Krishna and Krishna told him I have arranged everything for me. But Srila Prabhupada did not consider that these miraculous visions were the sources of his authority for sharing Krishna Consciousness. His authority came from the instruction that his spiritual master gave him and from his delusion that he wants to complete the process or to share the message that his spiritual master gave him.
So, miraculous visions are surely possible. And they may happen in a dream. But they don’t have to be highlighted.
And they don’t have to be expected. Two things. I don’t expect it that some miracles should happen in my life.
And secondly, even if some miracles happen, I don’t have to highlight them. Suppose tomorrow it happens that a devotee comes and says last night Krishna came in my dream. Now, is it possible? We can’t ban Krishna from coming in anyone’s dream.
If Krishna wants, he can come. But how do I know? Somebody says Krishna has come in his dream. So, fine, if Krishna has come in the dream, fine.
That doesn’t mean that everybody starts bowing down to that person to know you are a Mahatma because Krishna came in your dream. No, or everybody else starts feeling inferior. Oh, why did Krishna not come in my dream? No, whether Krishna comes in our dream is not as important as what we do after we wake up.
Isn’t it? Because ultimately, the Bhagavad Gita is not about what Krishna spoke. What Krishna spoke is important. But the essence of the Bhagavad Gita is what Krishna, Arjuna did after that.
Arjuna was, I will do what you say. So, it is not that Krishna coming in my dream is the proof that I have advanced spiritually. It could be that Krishna is giving me special mercy by coming in my dream.
But the real test whether I have advanced or not is do I commit myself to devotional service more? So, my commitment to the normal process of devotional service is the test of my spiritual advance. So, if somebody gets paranormal experiences, that is fine. Somebody may see the spiritual master for the first time and you feel, oh, spiritual master has a ball of white light all around his head.
Now, we don’t have to say that it is false. That is fine. If you have seen it, that is good.
But what is the result of that? Does that make you dedicated to the practise of devotional service? So, it is possible that there may have been miraculous effects, miraculous experiences. But the important thing is the commitment to the process of devotional service. So, Shamsundar Prabhu tells about how he also experienced many times while he was serving Srila Prabhupada.
When he was in London, Shamsundar Prabhu was a disciple of Prabhupada who preached to Jawaharlal Nehru. So, Srila Prabhupada wanted to publish his Krishna book and he needed money. So, Prabhupada told Jawaharlal Nehru, Prabhupada told Shamsundar Prabhu, you go and ask for Jawaharlal Nehru for money.
Shamsundar Prabhu was very hesitant. He said, you know, till now I have kept my relationship with George Harrison completely free of any monetary transactions. Because so many people come and ask him for money.
If I ask him for money, he will start thinking I am like everybody else. And he said, moreover, we are constructing a London temple, so just now he has given a marble slab, it is quite expensive. So, I cannot ask him again.
Prabhupada said, no, you have to publish this Krishna book, it is very important. So, you go and ask him. He said, no Prabhupada, I cannot ask him.
Prabhupada said, don’t worry, tell him that you are not asking, your spiritual master is asking. He put the blame on you. So, then he wondered what to do.
And he said, he went and asked. He went to George Harrison and he was talking with him. And then he asked him.
And George Harrison looked very pained. He said, no, you are just like everyone else. And Shamsundar Prabhu felt like sinking into the ground.
He said, oh, all my relationship is spoiled. And he was in George Harrison’s mansion over there. And as George Harrison was about to speak something, suddenly the power went off.
And out of nowhere a storm seemed to come and there was thunder in the sky. And it went off for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes. And then as suddenly that stopped, the power came back.
And George Harrison was smiling. He said, yes, I will give you the money. How much do you want? So, now Krishna did something miraculous over there.
But the important thing is that actually there is a commitment to the process of devotional service. So, the important thing is not whether something miraculous happens or not. The important thing is whether there is commitment to devotional service.
So, if somebody, if we have some paranormal experiences, then there is no need for us to broadcast them to everyone. Maybe we can share them with some senior devotees with whom we have confidence. But rather than seeing them as proofs of our spiritual advancement, we should see them as some extra encouragement given by Krishna so that we commit ourselves more.
So that we become more devoted to Krishna consciousness practises. So, we should see it that way. And similarly, if somebody else does like, tell that I got some dreams, fine.
We should say, tell them that this is what Krishna gives our encouragement. What will you do for Krishna? That way we can contextualise those experiences within the way of practising Krishna consciousness that Srila Prabhupada is doing. So, thank you very much for your kind attention.
Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai Gaura Bhakta Vrinda Ki Jai Itai Gaura Prema Anandesh