GOD acronym – Reconciling human independence with divine omnipotence

Sunday feast class at ISKCON New Jersey

GOD acronym:

G – Grants free will

O – Offers counsel

D – Delivers consequence

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Are there audible behind? Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Thank you for the kind introduction and for the invitation here. So, let us begin with some prayers. Jai Sri Krishna Chaitanya Jai Sri Krishna Chaitanya Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Hare Krishna So, I will be speaking on this topic today of God Proposes, Man Disposes.
So, this is a, what in English is called the chiasmus. And a normal saying is inverted. So, the normal saying is man proposes, God disposes.
Now, we see this that when Krishna in the Mahabharata goes to Duryodhana to seek peace, to avoid the threat of Kurukshetra war. At that time, Krishna goes with a proposal. And Duryodhana rejects the proposal.
So, this raises a question. If God is supreme, if God is all powerful, then how can God be rebuffed? Can a human being go against God’s will? So, this brings us to a philosophical point which I will discuss in terms of an acronym. The word God, especially how God relates with us human beings who also act according to our will.
I will talk in three terms. G-O-D So, God grants independence, offers counsel, and delivers consequence. So, G-O-D God grants independence, offers counsel, and delivers consequence.
So, the first point is that we all have various needs in life. We have need for food, clothing, shelter. More fundamentally we call water, air.
And there are sometimes things that are necessary but they are not sufficient. In mathematics, often this is something which is used for mathematical reasoning. Something is necessary but it is not sufficient.
So, material things are our needs. Food, clothing, shelter. But they are not all that we need.
So, people can have various material things and still people can be depressed, people can be lonely, people can even commit suicide. So, it is sometimes that people, because they don’t have the basic necessities, they may get frustrated. But quite often, people who commit suicide, they have their other needs taken, basic bodily needs taken care of.
So, below or more fundamental to our need for the bodily needs, care, is our need to love and be loved. Love is a fundamental need of the human heart. And as long as that need is not fulfilled, no matter what else we have, we will not be satisfied.
Like most of the movies and novels usually talk about this longing for love. And they debate its fulfilment in various ways in romantic relationships. So, the Bhagavad Gita explains in a broad philosophical terms that we have two kinds of relationships.
One is a vertical relationship with God and the other is horizontal relationships with others. And our longing for love can be truly fulfilled only in our vertical relationship with God. Because God alone is eternal.
God alone is perfect. God alone is the person who can reciprocate fully with our longing for love. Now, when we try to find in a horizontal relationship, what is to be found only in the vertical relationship? That means, when we try to find the love which is available in a loving relationship with Krishna, when we try to seek that in a loving relationship with someone else, maybe our spouse, maybe our child, maybe our husband, whoever else, it is not a person’s problem.
It is just that no one can act as a substitute for God. Yes, sometimes some people may have more difficult personalities, more difficult natures. So, creating them will be more difficult.
Some people may have greater degrees of compatibility. So, the relationship will be more close and thick. But still, whatever be the dynamics of any particular horizontal relationship, no horizontal relationship can substitute for the vertical relationship.
So, we are meant to have an eternal relationship with God. And the ideal human situation is that in which our horizontal relationships and our vertical relationships is symbiotic. That means, that normally, whatever we do, people will disappoint us.
And if we are honest, we will also admit that we will disappoint people. Now, we are all imperfect. So, if we have shelter in the vertical relationship, then whatever joys we may get in a horizontal relationship, we will be able to tolerate them.
When we don’t have the shelter of the vertical relationship, any joy that we may get in a horizontal relationship, that we may find devastating. So, the vertical relationship brings stability to our horizontal relationship. We can go through whether the ups and downs.
And similarly, if a horizontal relationship is also with those who are also striving to be devoted to God, then their association, their example, that inspires us to deepen our vertical relationship also. So, this is the symbiotic and the best situation in our relationships. Now, any relationship, for it to be meaningful, there has to be voluntary reciprocation of love.
If a man puts a gun at the head of a girl and says, I love you, or I’ll kill you. Now, that is not love. Even if she says, I love you, that’s not love.
So, if the feeling is taken away, there cannot be a meaningful relationship. Or, nowadays we have robos, which can do many things. So, if we make a robo, which says in a very sweet female voice, I love you.
Now, no matter how hungry a man is for a woman’s love, that relationship is not going to satisfy. Because the robot is simply acting according to the programme. So, if there is no free will, or if free will is taken away, then there can be no meaningful loving relationship.
So, the same applies to our relationship with God. Although God is omnipotent, God is all-powerful, He wants He wants He wants loving relationships with all of us. And for the sake of loving relationship, He gives us free will.
So, Krishna, He gives us free will, because that is the only way we can have any kind of loving relationship with anyone, with others, and or, for that matter, with Him. So, it is now God is all-powerful. And by His omnipotent will, He chooses to give us free will.
So, it is not that our free will is against or outside the omnipotence of God. Our free will is within God’s omnipotence, because God grants it. So, in Bhagavad Gita 9, Chapter 6, verse, Krishna says that यिथा आकाशिस्थ तो इत्यम् वा यू यू This is, the wind is always situated in the sky.
Now, what this means is, the wind can move. The wind can move left, right, up, down. But still, the wind is situated in the sky.
If we envision the sky to be like an upside-down bound, then the sky doesn’t limit the motion of the air, the motion of the wind. The sky still limits the scope of the motion of the wind. The scope means within what range the wind will move, that will be determined by the sky.
The motion is not controlled, but the scope is controlled. So, similarly, we all have free will. But the magnitude of our free will is determined by the law.
So, for example, we cannot fly in the sky the way birds can fly. So, although we have free will, we there is limitation to the free will. That we don’t have unlimited free will.
So, God, by His arrangement gives certain scope for our free will. And what determines the scope? That is determined by our past use of free will. Just as a father gives some pocket money to their children.
Actually, the parents would like to give their planning, the whole inheritance is for their children. But they want to see how responsible the children are. The children are squandering the money, the parents will not give the money.
Similarly, God gives us free will and depending on how we use the free will, the extent of the free will that we get increases or decreases. So, for example, an ant, it can move only small, if it is of a small size, it can move slowly over small distances. Whereas, an elephant has a huge body and can crush things under its weight.
So, a similar soul is there in an elephant’s body and a similar soul is there in an ant’s body. So, Krishna says that the wise person sees, in 13th chapter, 31st, 32nd verse, He says that the wise person sees that in all living beings there is a similar spiritual nature, the same soul and their bodies are different. So, now, the soul in an ant’s body, by one’s past karma, is given a smaller scope.
This in Sanskrit is called as Kshetra. The 3rd chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is called as Kshetra, Kshetratya, Nibhava Yoga. Kshetra and Kshetratya.
So, the area over which we have free will, that is called our Kshetra. For example, I have free will. I have control over my body.
So, I can move my hand up, I can move my hand down. And, suppose tomorrow I get paralysis, my hand will be here, I’ll be here, but that will no longer be my Kshetra. So, what is our Kshetra that can change people within this life? And, of course, it changes from one life to the next life.
So, God grants us free will. Similarly, if you look at the Mahabharata setting, Krishna gives free will to everyone, including Duryodhana. So, by Duryodhana, by Krishna’s arrangement, Duryodhana has taken birth in the royal family.
He is the son of Dhritarashtra. And, he has the opportunity to rule half the kingdom. But, depending on how one uses the free will, future things will happen.
So, now, so, G is God grants free will. And, then O is God offers counsel. So, a few months ago, I was in Australia, Melbourne.
I was giving a class. After that, one person asked the question, why is it that in this world, there are always wrong options are so many. The temptations are so many.
And, the right actions are so few. So, isn’t it unfair that if God wanted us to do the right thing, he should not have given so many wrong options. So, I explained that actually, the wrong options are always more than the right option in any multiple choice exam.
So, in a multiple choice exam, you will have usually five options out there. Four are wrong. And, a teacher, a student, well, student teacher, the student would say, you gave four wrong options.
Therefore, you made the probability of my getting the answer right only 20%. And, 20% is me. Therefore, you are responsible for my failure.
Now, what’s wrong with this logic? The teacher doesn’t leave making the right choice on their chance of probability. The teacher gives education. And, after giving education, if the student makes the wrong choice, that means the student has not studied.
And, similarly, Krishna gives us free will. And then, he offers his counsel how to use the free will. So, there are multiple options in this world because the options that are there in this world reflect our desires.
So, the more our desires are independent of God, accordingly, more options manifest in the world for us to act. So, Krishna gives us knowledge in scripture. So, now, some people ask, okay, how do you know that Bhagavad Gita is the word of God? So, yes, you know, we were not there 5,000 years ago when we saw Krishna speaking.
Of course, somebody is sceptical. They can ask, how do I know Krishna is God? You can go back and ask, how does God exist? So, you can go back and back in these questions. But, let’s try to understand this first in terms of principles.
The principle is we see that in this world, our fundamental needs are provided for. We are born in this world. We need heat, light, air, water, food.
These are already provided for in nature. We may have to work to earn money to get food. But, our effort in earning to procure food is secondary.
God’s provision of food through nature is primary. When God had not provided food through nature, then no matter how much hard we worked, we would not be able to have food. Now, even with all our advances in biotechnology and agricultural science, what we can do is, we have food processing units.
We have no food producing units. Food production is still done by nature. We can modify it, play around with it, but ultimately we depend on nature and nature manifests God’s benevolence.
So, every morning when the birds wake up and they start chirping, chirping, chirping, they start looking for food. The birds may have to work hard to find grains, but their effort is secondary. The grains are already there, they just search for it.
If the grains had not been provided already, no matter how much they searched, they would not get the grains. So, we may not just literally fly around searching for grains. We have whole industry and government and jobs and employment.
So, there is a system by which our needs get provided, but still, within that system, God’s provision is primary, our endeavour is secondary. So, God has provided for our needs, basically. Now, one of the fundamental needs for living is knowledge.
Suppose, a friend gave you on your birthday a gift, a very complicated looking new gadget. Now, seeing it, you can understand this must be a very expensive gadget. But, that friend gave you no manual with the gadget and gave you no information about using that gadget.
And that gadget is such that even if you search on Google, you can’t find anything about that gadget. Now, then the friend’s effort in giving that gadget becomes useless. If a friend loves us, has an affection for us, and the friend has gone to the effort of giving us that gadget, then the friend will also make some provision for giving us knowledge about how to use that gadget.
So, similarly, if we see in this world, we have our basic necessities provided for. We could see the world itself is like a gadget which provides for our necessities. Further, our body is also like a complicated gadget.
The more medical science advances, at one level, we get more and more treatments and more and more ways of curing disease or prolonging life. But at another level, we also realise more and more how complex the body is. So, you know, sometimes when a person is very critically sick, then artificial oxygen is needed to keep the person alive.
If a person’s kidney is not working, then also dialysis is done. Heart is not working, pacemaker is used. So researchers try to find out whether none of the bodily systems work.
And if we had to artificially run all the systems in the body, first of all, it’s not impossible. If the brain stops working, there is no way to make the artificial brain work artificially. But whatever we know, making any bodily system work artificially is expensive.
And if all, the whole body is to be made to work artificially, estimates vary depending on the level of machinery used. To maintain a bodily system, whatever bodily systems we can maintain, even for one day, would cost between 20 lakh to 50 lakh rupees. I don’t know how much it is in dollars.
So, it’s a significant amount. Now we are not doing it. The point I’m making is that all our needs are provided for and the body is also a function.
It’s a complex device. So if God is making the body, we are not making the body a function. Normally, when we eat food, nowadays many people have digestive problems.
Just when the heart stops working, we have a pacemaker to help the heart function. So researchers thought that if people have digestive problems, can we put a digestive machine in the stomach so that people can digest food. Then they found that digestion is such a complicated phenomenon that you don’t need a machine, you need a factory.
And not just a factory, a chain of factories. A chain of factories which, even with nanotechnology, would run several metres, hundreds of metres long. So they say that actually, if we consider scientifically, the work is force and displacement.
W is equal to F into S. So the amount of work after we eat food, and then the food goes into the alimentary canal, the amount of work that is done, there is a vertical motion now, but there is also a peristalsis and diastasis. There is a contraction and expansion. So all this causes displacement of the food.
The amount of work that is done in digesting one morsel of food is often more than the amount of work that an average modern human being performs throughout the day. So all that work is only happening automatically. Now, automatically simply means we don’t know how it is happening.
Isn’t it? Or if you say, oh, this toy runs automatically. This computer, this GPS automatically tells me where to go. There is nothing automatic.
Automatic simply means we don’t have to bother about how the mechanism works. But there is a mechanism and someone has set up the mechanism. In the Bhagavad Gita, in the 14th chapter, 15th verse, Krishna says Krishna says, I am the digestifier and I digest the food in the stomach.
So, what it means in simple terms is that Krishna has set up the system by which digestion occurs. Most of the time we eat food and don’t even think about digestion. The only time we think about digestion is when it doesn’t work.
So, God gives and forgives. We get and forget. So God has provided us so much, but we get it and we forget it.
The point I am driving through towards all this is that God has provided the body. It’s a complicated machine. We don’t even know how complicated it is.
The more science advances, the more we realise how complex it is. And it requires elaborate functioning. So, just as a friend, if he gave us a very complex and expensive machine, it would also tell us what it is to be used for.
It would provide us a manual. Similarly, if God has provided us this complex body machine, would he not provide some direction on what we are meant to do in life? Would he not give knowledge about what life is meant for? So, if God has provided food, clothing, shelter, food, clothing, air, water, would he not also provide for knowledge? Now, in fact, we all intuitively recognise that the search for knowledge, the whole process of science has advanced because of the human search for knowledge. Now, before, Newton saw a fruit falling.
Now, before him, millions had seen a fruit fall. Most of them just picked up the fruit and ate it. Newton thought, why did this fruit fall? Now, that he, in answer to that question, came up with the theory of gravity, is his brilliance.
At the same time, his very question, why did this fruit fall? How did this fruit fall? Indicates an assumption. Assumption that things are not just disorderly. There is some order in the way things happen in the nature.
And we can find out that order. So, science is a search for order. And it is a search for order that brings meaning to our life.
So, just as we search for knowledge in one direction through scientific field, the science actually searches for material knowledge of material phenomena. Science doesn’t discuss spiritual subject matters. So, spiritual is not contradictory to science.
The spiritual and the scientific are complementary. It’s like, say, I came just now. I was in New York that afternoon.
I gave a class there. I came from New York to here. So, now, if somebody is observing the car in the check-in, the people may say that, why did this car move? They may start from a material explanation.
The car can move because the wheels started moving. Why did the wheels start moving? Oh, because there is a mechanism, there is an axle, and it gets connected to the piston, and when the piston moves, the wheels move. Okay.
Why does the piston move? Oh, because there is spark in the ignition, and that causes the fuel to combust. And that’s why the car started moving because of that. Okay, but why was there a spark in the ignition? There was a key that was in the vertical position.
The key moved to the horizontal position. So, therefore, why did the car move? Because the key moved from the vertical to the horizontal position. Is it a correct explanation? Yes, it is a correct explanation, but it is not a complete explanation.
That is true, but at a more fundamental level if I go, the car moved because I wanted to come here. Because somebody was driving me here, that person moved the ignition. So, science goes back and looks for explanations, but it stops at the material level.
It does not go beyond material to the spiritual. So, the same search for knowledge which when directed in this realm of science gives us scientific knowledge. When that scientific knowledge is pushed further towards ultimate causes, that gives us spiritual knowledge.
Albert Einstein said that the sciences, the arts, and the religions, they are all fruits of the same tree of the human quest for knowledge. So, God, just as we seek knowledge and what is the knowledge means? We try to find out the orderly patterns in how things happen in nature. Similarly, people look for orderly patterns and they find it through scripture.
So, in principle we understand that God will provide us knowledge for living in this world. Now, how can we know that the Bhagavad Gita is the word of God? We can, just like if I get a I get some post and I get a device and I get another post which has a book in it. Now, how do I know which book is the manual for this? First thing is, we look at the manual and see whether it helps us to make sense of the device.
And second is, if I operate according to manual does it help me to use the device better? So, similarly we can study the Bhagavad Gita and then see if it helps us to make better sense of life. If it helps us to understand the world, to understand our purpose and our place in this world. And then secondly, you can see that if I mould my life according to Gita, does that make my life better? Does that help improve the stability, the satisfaction, the peace in my life? Does it make me happier? And millions of people in the world have experienced this.
So, the Bhagavad Gita, through Bhagavad Gita, God offers counsel. He always counsels. So, I was establishing the rational foundation for the point that God, in principle, would offer counsel.
Just like a teacher will give education about the way the song. To help the student with the right choice. And now, after giving counsel through scripture, then if you see the Bhagavad Gita, in the Bible there are ten commandments.
And they are good ethical principles for helping people to live morally. The Bhagavad Gita is not so much a book of commandments as a book of choices. Choices and consequences.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the vision of God is not of someone high up in the sky casting the sinful down to hell. The Bhagavad Gita’s vision of God is of a dying by the side. God is a dying by the side.
Krishna is right next to Arjuna on the chariot in the battle of Kurukshetra. Similarly, in 15.13 in the Bhagavad Gita, he says that he is there in the heart of all living beings. So, God is a dying by the side.
And he does not give so much commandments as choices. If you do this, this will happen. If you do this, this will happen.
And now, it’s up to you to choose. So, by the time Krishna completes reading the Bhagavad Gita, 18.63 He says that now I have spoken, you can deliberate and then decide what you want. So, Krishna gives free will and then offers choices.
Prior to this, 18.63, in 18.58 he says that he is given the proper choice. If you become conscious of me, if you act according to my guidance, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. If, however, you act out of false ego, not hearing me, you will be lost.
These are choices and consequences. So, when Krishna he comes to Duryodhana, he offers Duryodhana choices. In fact, he tells this.
There are negotiations. Negotiations are of a big art. When two people meet, they try to thrash out an agreement.
So, traditionally, in the Indian knowledge systems, there are four main tools for negotiation. Or for settling of some difference. That is, Sama, Dama, Bheda and Danda.
So, Krishna actually employs all of them. It is a very persuasive case in India. So, Sama, he says, ultimately, all of you are the same family.
The same Guru dynasty. Why should members of the same dynasty fight? And now, Duryodhana is out of prison. So, he appeals to Dhritarashtra.
At least you are the patriarch of the family. Dhritarashtra says, O Krishna, whatever you say makes perfect sense to me. But my foolish son Duryodhana doesn’t listen.
Please persuade him. So, Krishna looks at the Guru and he says, just see, the king is saying that he has no power. Then he turns to Duryodhana.
They are speaking to Duryodhana. And then, he sees that Duryodhana is just not ready to listen. So, he offers a vow.
He says, just give five villages. Five villages. So, five villages.
This is a drastic concession and negotiation. Just give five villages. Duryodhana is still not ready to listen.
Then, Krishna or Danda, he says, O Duryodhana, you are so arrogant thinking that you will be able to defeat the Pandavas. But don’t you remember what the Pandavas were? Just one Pandava. Arjuna defeated all of your warriors together at Virat.
Is your memory so short that you have forgotten it already? He talks about all the demons whom Bhima has killed. Arjuna has in this very body ascended to heaven and has defeated demons which even the gods could not defeat. Duryodhana could not defeat.
But Arjuna had defeated them. And like that, he says, if you fight against the Pandavas, your whole dynasty will be destroyed. You will not live.
And still Duryodhana remains adamant. Then Krishna decides to obey them. And he starts saying that this is a whole elaborate chapter in the Mahabharata.
I am just going to read it to you very briefly over here. And he says, he sees Duryodhana and he turns to the other Kauravas. And he says, if any of you have any intelligence, you should stop the destruction of the Gunda dynasty.
And therefore, if Duryodhana does not listen to the peace proposal which I have brought, then you should have Duryodhana arrested, imprisoned and sidelined. And you should agree to my peace proposal. Now Krishna’s presentation is so persuasive that Dushasan is one of them.
And Dushasan actually says, if Duryodhana does not agree to your Krishna, then I will personally tie him up and put him in jail. And Duryodhana hears this and his mouth falls open in anger. And he just looks at him and walks out.
And he walks out and more than 98 brothers are caught. Duryodhana or Dushasan? Duryodhana or Dushasan? One by one all of them follow Duryodhana. And then, Dushasan is their problem.
He also follows. Now Duryodhana, he was evil but still he was clever, he was cunning. So now he doesn’t want to alienate Dushasan.
Dushasan is one of his primary aides. So he uses his cunning, as soon as Dushasan comes in, see we had discussed earlier that Krishna is very cunning and his speech is so deceptive that he can deceive everyone. Just see Dushasan how he had deceived you.
Isn’t it? Dushasan, he is thinking, you know, I went against my brother, what will my brother say now, how should I know? Oh yes, yes, Krishna, I should not listen to him. You know, he is very deceptive. So Duryodhana knows how to emotionally manipulate people.
And to get him to his side, so actually, how he emotionally manipulated Karna is the defining tragedy of Karna’s life. Karna is an excellent example of how a virtuous person ends up becoming vicious because of bad association. Yeah, he is manipulated.
So, anyway, the point which I am making here is that Krishna offers all possible counsel and finally, Dushasan, Dhritharashtra summons Duryodhana to act. And then he calls his wife Ganga and says, you offer some counsel to Duryodhana. And Ganga offers counsel and still Duryodhana does not listen.
And finally, Krishna comes back and says, now I need to find a proposal. Just give five villages. And Duryodhana replies that I will not give even as much land as is required to put the tip of a needle through.
See, this, as a dialogue, it sounds very impressive. But you know, what does it mean? Anytime if somebody asks us something and we have to say no to that person, saying no generally displeases the other person. And that’s why there is a whole art of saying no.
You can try to say no in a way which minimises the displeasure or the hurt of the other person. But here, Duryodhana says no in a way that is meant to maximise the hurt. It is, basically what he is saying is I will not concede even a little bit.
And in this way, he thoroughly dishonours and disrespects Krishna. First of all, Krishna’s going as a peace messenger itself is a radical proposal. Because, say in India, Pakistan, there are always some border conflicts that keep happening.
And then India may have its defence secretary go to Pakistan for peace negotiations. Or Pakistan’s defence secretary may come. Now, it’s practically unheard of that the Prime Minister of India will go to Pakistan for peace negotiations.
How Krishna’s going is like that. The king of all kings, he is himself going as a peace negotiator. And when he is going, Duryodhana just bluntly rejects him.
It’s a terrible dishonour. On top of that, according to any civilised code of conduct, a messenger is to be treated honourably. Even Ravana, who is vicious, and even when Hanuman has destroyed his Ashoka Vatika, still, when the vicious Ravana, Ravana is so angry, that is his favourite god of Ashoka Vatika, and in the fight that happens, Hanuman destroys the Ashoka Vatika.
So that Ashoka Vatika for Ravana becomes Shoka Vatika. He is distressed by that. And he is so angry at Hanuman’s death, he says, kill him.
And then Vibhishan says, no, a messenger cannot be harmed. Cannot kill a messenger. So even a person as vicious as Ravana agrees, yes, we cannot kill a messenger.
We cannot harm a messenger. That is against all codes of diplomatic conduct. And yet, what does Vibhishan try to do? He tries to arrest Krishna.
Even the concept of arresting Krishna, is a gross violation of all diplomatic protocol. Of course, he didn’t succeed, but still his intent itself indicates the level of his maliciousness. And after that, or rather before that, Krishna has come to Hastinapur.
At that time, he stays in the house of Vidura. And Vidura asks Krishna, Krishna, why? Why have you come here? You know that Vidura is not going to assemble. Vidura has this nightmare that the same assembly, Draupadi had been disordered.
And he had tried vehemently to stop that disorder, but it failed. And he is thinking that Krishna may also be similarly disordered in that assembly tomorrow. And he cannot tolerate that thought.
So, when the Prime Minister of India goes for peace negotiations to Pakistan, and Pakistan arrests that Prime Minister, it would be a total assault on the dignity of the country. Grievous assault. So, even if they don’t succeed, still they will attempt to put the handcuffs on the Prime Minister.
It’s a grievous insult. So, Vidura cannot tolerate this thought. He says, Krishna, why have you come for peace negotiations? Krishna tells Vidura at that time, Vidura, what you are saying is right.
I know that Krishna is not going to listen. But I have come here for only one purpose. That is to demonstrate to the world that my devotees did everything possible to avoid war.
To avoid bloodshed. Normally we say, we have done everything humanly possible. Now here, the Pandavas did not only everything humanly possible, they did everything divinely possible also.
Everything that God himself came and tried. So, Krishna, he, in one sense, anybody who goes for a peace negotiation and still doesn’t succeed, there is a failure. There is a loss of face in that.
But Krishna knows that there is a loss of face and still accepts that. Why? Because of his love for his devotees. To ensure that Duryodhana, that the Pandavas never leave for having instigated violence.
And time and time again, it is not just Krishna who is counselling to Duryodhana. Bhishma, Vidura, Drona, Parashura, Maitreya, all great sages come and give counsel. But he never listens to anyone.
And lastly, the chief Odi. So, God offers counsel to such an extent that even God goes to give counsel. And for all of us also, Krishna gives counsel in the Bhagavad Gita.
And he sends his devotees up to distribute the books, to share the message, by which we can all have the knowledge, by which we can make right choices. Some of us, or very few of us actually, were seekers of God, who went out in search for God. For most of us, it is devotees who came out in search for us.
They gave us their books. So, this is God’s mercy coming to us through his devotees. So, the last Odi is Delivers Consequences.
So, Radha, Shamsa, Bhagavan ki So, Krishna delivers consequences means that once we choose an action, that reaction will come. It’s like we have choice whether to jump from a ten-storey building or not. If we jump from a ten-storey building, then we can’t change.
Gravity will take over. And we can’t break God’s laws. We can only break ourselves against God’s laws.
So, once an action is chosen, the consequence, the reaction will come. Now, Krishna, he, sometimes people say that Pandavas also fought unethically in the Kurukshetra war. Yes.
Whether Pandavas fought unethically or ethically, that is a question. It’s a deep question. I’ll answer it briefly over here.
That the Pandavas are clearly virtuous. Time and time again, they try to resolve things by peaceful means. And time and time again, the Kauravas exploit them.
Abuse them. And the Pandavas are ready for this. Even when Bhima is poisoned, Yudhishthira says, it doesn’t matter.
We’ll tolerate it. Even when the Pandavas have attempted to burn the land, the Pandavas take a low profile and they score. But, when, even when the Pandavas are dispossessed in the gambling match, they are made to lose their kingdom.
They are made to lose everything. And it’s a completely unfair gambling match. Let’s suppose say, India and Zimbabwe are having a cricket match.
And, when India goes to Zimbabwe to play, suddenly the Zimbabwe country brings the South African or the Australian cricket team over there to play. You know, if you are playing Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe’s team has to play. You can’t have Australia’s team playing over there.
So, the gambling match was between Yudhishthira and Duryodhana. So, if Yudhishthira is throwing the dice on one side, Duryodhana should be throwing the dice on the other side. When he is putting Shakuni, he himself, at that time himself, he is cheating.
You know, he cannot have Shakuni playing over there. The whole gambling match was bringer. And, even when everything was lost in the gambling match, still the Pandavas did not take any resolve to retaliate.
But, when Draupadi was dishonoured, then that line was crossed. And then, both, all the five Pandava brothers actually went to Guam. Arjuna said, I will kill Karma.
Bhima said, I will break the fire of Duryodhana. I will I will kill Dushyasana. So, the point is the Pandavas were time and time virtuous and the Garmas were time and time vicious.
So, eventually, when the war took place, Krishna could have arranged for the Pandavas to have won entirely by over-reliance. Now, I have written an article on my website very elaborately, this question about whether Krishna was unfair to Karna or not. Krishna and Arjuna were unfair to Karna.
All the issues are answered. But, I will focus here on Duryodhana. So, morality is not categorical.
It is contextual. Categorical means, this is the category of right, this is the category of wrong. So, some people think this is right, this is wrong.
So, speaking lies is wrong. Speaking truth is right. Yes, at one level it is true.
But, suppose some riots are going on and some person is being attacked by some rioters and a person comes to our house. A person is, say, our friend or relative. He comes in our house and hides in our house.
And the rioters come and knock at our house. Is he there in your house? Should we speak the truth? Actually, being truthful will be being violent. Being truthful is a wrong thing over there.
So, normally, truthfulness is a good thing. But, in this case, being truthful is a bad thing. So, right and wrong is not just categorical.
Being truthful is right. Speaking a lie is false. The right and wrong, morality is contextual.
What can be right in one situation can be wrong in another situation. So, the Pandavas, when they are playing a map, when they are fighting with the Kauravas, the Pandavas, Dushyasana first says, not Dushyasana, Bhishma is the commander on one side, Dushyasana is the commander on the other side. So, they meet.
And at that time, the Kauravas say that remember the codes of war and do not violate those codes. Now, at that time, Dushyasana and Arjuna start thinking, while the Kauravas were talking about the codes of war, they have violated so many ethics. So, Dushyasana says, we will not be the first to violate the codes of war.
But if you violate, then we will not hold ourselves back. And the Kauravas violate the codes time and time again. Most importantly, in the plot of Abhimanyu.
And then again, that line is crossed. Now, finally, when the last battle takes place between Duryodhana and Bhima, at that time, that morning, Gandhari, or the previous evening, she, through her vision, empowers Bhima. Sorry, not Bhima, Duryodhana.
And that no matter wherever he is hit, he will not be hurt. Only alone, wounded or killed. So, Krishna, of course, arranged in such a way that his thigh is covered at that time.
So, now, when the fight starts, Bhima and Duryodhana, both are very strong mace fighters. Bhima has greater strength, Duryodhana has greater skill. In that sense, they are compensated for.
But suppose, now Bhima is fighting and fighting and fights, the best fight of his life. And several times he knocks Duryodhana down. Some of the blows that Duryodhana gives to Duryodhana, they could have ripped apart a small head.
And Duryodhana is thrown far away by the force of the hit. But still when he falls, he is completely unhurt. And he laughs.
And then, he comes and meets Bhima. And he is also skilful and slowly, Bhima finds his strength is eluding. But to understand how this match, this has been rigged now by Gandhari’s work.
It’s like what is it? Say a bowler is a champion bowler and a champion batsman. Now, suppose the rules of umpiring are changed in such a way that no matter if the bowler bowls and clean bowls the batsman, still the batsman is not out. That even if the bowler traps the batsman like before, still not out.
Even if the bowler has the batsman caught, still not out. No matter what you do, the bowler can never make the batsman out. And on the other side, the batsman is hitting the bowler whenever the opportunity comes and the bowler is getting exhausted.
What can the bowler do? The match is rigged over there. The only thing the bowler can do at such a time is bowl body line, make the batsman retire out. So, Bhima has no option over there.
Bhima, he tries every single option over there and still Gandhari’s bow has Gandhari’s power has rigged the match unfairly. And that’s why now Duryodhana has done so many sinful things in the past and eventually he has to be punished. And Krishna tells him, hit him on the thighs.
Bhima notices and Bhima hits him on the thighs. And that one blow on the thigh is enough to finish the match. And Duryodhana gets up and he says, Oh Keshava, I saw that you pointed out to Bhima to hit me there.
He says, you are always unrighteous, you are always vicious and why are you gloating in front of you, one unfairly. And the whole world will condemn you for your unfairness. So, Krishna replies, Oh Duryodhana, now it is that you remember what is fair.
What happened? Was it fair when you had Draupadi disrobed? Was it fair when you and your evil ones, they called Draupadi a prostitute? Was it fair when you tried to burn the Pandavas? Was it fair when you six of you came together and killed Arjuna? Was it fair when you tried to poison the unsuspecting Bhima? Krishna misses all the times when Duryodhana has acted viciously. And Krishna says, if you were fair at that time, Bhima has killed you by that very fairness. By that very fairness.
So, Krishna here, he demonstrates the principle called as Shako Shantra. As I said, the morality is contextual. There are three kinds of morality.
In Sanskrit, it is called as Brahaspati Niti, Shukra Niti and Kanaka Niti. So, Brahaspati Niti is always act right, no matter how the opposite person acts. So, Shukra Niti is that if the opposite person is acting right, you act right.
But if the opposite person is vicious, then you have to pay back in the same coin. And, Kanaka Niti is what? No matter how the other person acts, just act viciously for your good purpose. So, Duryodhana actually uses this Kanaka Niti.
So, Krishna says that Shukra Niti is the best. Brahaspati Niti is the best. But when that doesn’t work, Krishna says, don’t hesitate.
So, what Krishna does is God delivers consequences. The human being can defy the will of God for some time, but in due course consequences will come. And that means that when sometimes in our life suffering comes, even when we are devotees practising, the Pandavas are practising.
They are serious devotees. They are more serious devotees than any of us. And still so much suffering comes in their life.
And, yes, they are distressed, but the Pandavas never blame Krishna. They understand that, yes, this Duryodhana is evil and he is causing the suffering. And similarly in our life, sometimes suffering can come from various sources.
A devotee doesn’t blame Krishna. A devotee recognises that Krishna has given everyone free will and people can disuse that free will. Rather than when we get any suffering from a horizontal source, then, rather than blaming Krishna, we need to take shelter of Krishna.
Absorb ourselves in Krishna. By that, we’ll get shelter, we’ll get relief. And then we’ll be able to find out how best to deal with that horizontal suffering.
So, the conclusion of this whole discussion is that in due course of time, everybody will get consequences. And, as devotees, sometimes even devotees may have to suffer in this world. That is just the nature of this world.
But if we stay devoted to Krishna, then sooner or later, we’ll go beyond this world of suffering. And even now, much of the suffering that we get is more than the physical or external suffering. It’s the mental suffering that comes.
How is it? Now, the problem is out there. But when we resent the other, Why did he speak like this? How could she have done this? How dare they do like this? That resentment, resentment of a problem often hurts more than the problem. So, somebody speaks something to us in one minute.
And then, maybe for one year, we keep vegetating on it. How dare they do like this? That resentment hurts more than the problem. So now, if we understand that everybody, that everything ultimately is under God’s supervision.
So, everybody will get the consequence of their actions. What is important for us is not whether others acted rightly or wrongly. What is important for us, whether we are acting rightly or wrongly.
So, if somebody acted wrongly, by resenting that, by cultivating revenge fantasies, he spoke like this, next time when I see, I’ll speak like this. Now, we are cultivating revenge fantasies. We are acting wrongly.
We are dissipating our mental energy. We are hurting ourselves. This does not mean that we accept all, any insults or any atrocities just passively.
There is different responses in different situations. And we have to use our Godly to make the right choice. But, the point is that when we understand that ultimately everybody will get the consequences for their actions.
So, we can become, we can free ourselves from the resentment. Let me focus, not on paying the other person back, but let me focus on knowing what is the right thing. And if we take shelter of Krishna, we experience higher satisfaction.
Once we experience a higher shelter, higher relief, higher satisfaction, then the resentment will go. Just like if outside is very cold and we come to a well-heated room, immediately we feel relief from the cold. So, like that, when our consciousness is caught in the world, then we feel agitated.
But as soon as we bring our consciousness in Krishna, we take shelter of Krishna, we experience relief. Krishna says, the different miseries will come in life. But, if we take shelter of Krishna, if we absorb our consciousness in Krishna, we will not feel those sufferings.
Just as outside cold may be there, but once you come in a heat-adjusted room, you will not feel that cold. So, like that, the miseries may come, we take shelter of Krishna, we will not feel those miseries. Ultimately, when we devote it to Krishna, we will go for heaven, beyond the world of misery to an eternal life of pure and perfect love with Krishna in His abode.
I’ll summarise. I started by talking about how is it that can man dispose what God proposes. So, the talk was centred on the acronym G-O-V.
G is God grants independence. So, I talked about how love requires independence. If there is force, or there is no freedom, then there can be no love.
And we seek satisfaction in horizontal relationships. Horizontal relationships are required in this world. They are needed, but they are not sufficient.
We need a vertical relationship with God. And the horizontal and vertical relationship is symbiotic. And God gives us freedom so that we can have the satisfaction of voluntarily choosing to love Him.
And God’s omnipotence is not compromised by our independence, because He determines the scope of our independence. Just as the sky determines, does not restrict the air, but it restricts the scope of motion of the air. So, all of us have different Kshetra.
How much control we have depends on our karma. Then, God O is what? Offers counsel. So, I talked about in any multiple choice exam, there are more options in life, but the teacher gives knowledge about what is the right option.
So, similarly, God gives us knowledge of how to act in this world. And we infer how God has provided food, air, water. Then we provide knowledge also.
And just as we find knowledge in science, by studying, enquiring, observing, learning. Similarly, we can learn about deeper subject matter. Science looks for material causes.
Like finding out why the car moves, because the ignition key has been moved. It’s one level of explanation. Spirituality goes deeper and looks at the personal causes.
So, it goes to spiritual explanation. And both our roots are the same tree of human knowledge. So, how do we know that this friend, if he gives us an expensive device, then he will also give us some manual on how to use it.
Similarly, God has given us an extremely expensive and complicated machine, body, which gives knowledge on how to use it. And that knowledge is scripture, Bhagavad Gita. We can know that Bhagavad Gita is the manual for life.
First, by seeing, reading it and seeing whether it helps us make sense of life. Just as a manual will help us to make sense of the device. And then, seeing whether it helps us to make our life better.
Just as a manual will help us to use the device better. And millions have found that Bhagavad Gita does help. And then, D is… So, then I talked about, in offers counsel, I came to the heart of the class, how Krishna, Musaam, Damodaran, in all possible ways, he tried to offer counsel to Duryodhana.
And Duryodhana not only refused, but he refused all his orders. And… Krishna, he knew that he was going to fail, but he accepted failure so that he could show his devotees, show the world that my devotees did everything humanly and divinely possible for avoiding war. And the last D was deliverance consequences.
So, Duryodhana, when he defied Krishna’s order, acted immorally, he got the consequence when he and his everyone’s disciple destroyed. So, morality…was Duryodhana killed unfairly when he was under the waist? To discuss morality is not categorical. It is contextual.
Varieties are coming to kill someone and to say that that person is not there, that is the right thing, even if it is a lie. So, similarly, the Pandavas… the Pandavas had cheated time and time and time again. The Pandavas tolerated.
But finally, when they dishonoured the honourable people, the Pandavas refused to tolerate anymore. And… Krishna in the match had been completely riddled that no matter whatever the bowler does, no matter how well the bowler does, the batsman will never get out. So, like that, Bhima fought the match of his life.
But still, he just couldn’t win. So, then Krishna told him, you have to use whatever ways that you have. And then, we talked about the three Nithis, Brahaspati, Shukra and Kadakanti.
And lastly, we said that, you know, the Pandavas, although they were great devotees, they suffered. And they did not blame God, rather they took Shaitan of God. Similarly, even when we are trying to practise Bhakti, when the sufferings may come because of different people in our lives, and we don’t cultivate revenge fantasy, because resentment of reality often hurts more than reality.
Instead, we take shelter of Krishna, and then that will provide us relief, just as coming in a warm room provides relief from the cold. And then with that relief, our mind becomes calm, our intelligence becomes clear, and then we can decide what is the best way to respond to the situation. So, thank you very much for your kind attention.
Hare Krishna!