Hanuman’s Journey to Maturity, Part 2 – 4 Characteristics of Maturity – HG Chaitanya Charan Das

This is. This is a book that is, and it’s titled ‘Plays’ inspired by the Bhagavad Gita. For me, among all the scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita is the book which is I have connected with the most. And the Gita’s verses are not just sources of wisdom for me. They are equal friends.

I feel like I have a relationship with all the verses, some more than others. And just like if you have a friend, then you want to know more and more about the friend. And one way you know more about the friend, our friend is by meeting them in different contexts, different places. You know somebody at work, then you meet them at their home, you meet them in some recreational place, you meet them in a temple, you meet them in some high pressure situation. So we learn more.

So like that, I have been when I was writing Gita in the articles and writing books on the Gita, I tried to approach the Gita’s verses from different perspectives. Shriyakopal also said that studying scriptures, cooking lines in the reading, studying from different perspectives. So when I had read Krishna Chitrakar’s commentary on the Gita, that’s one of my favorite commentaries, he approached he shows how the Gita is filled with so much devotion for Krishna. So, I was thinking about how when we approach the Gita’s verses, if we could approach them not just in a mood of understanding, but seeing them as sources of praying. If wisdom can inspire a well informed prayer within our heart.

And then I was going through Gautama Stotra, it’s a composition by Kulusekhar Maharaj, and there I saw something which to me seemed to be a literal application of this. In 12.6seven, Krishna says Desha ma’am samuddhata viptya samsara sahkaranat says, I will lift you out of the ocean of material existence. And, Because you have promised that you will do this, O Lord! So how can we take the Gita’s verses and offer prayers based on that? That’s what I’ve been trying to explore in this book.

So basically, when we have prayers, the prayers can be generally when we sing prayers, we have scriptural or traditional prayers. That means we have mangalati, vihanarsi maati, s o m e, krishna songs. And now these have the weight of authority to them. They are great. It’s coming from scripture.

It’s coming from tradition. And when we sing these, we recite these following the tradition that connects us with the Lord. At the same time, we could offer personal prayers because we all are ultimately meant to develop our relationship with our Sheena. So when you offer personal prayers, that brings authenticity, because this is what we are feeling. We are going through certain situations, we are facing certain challenges, and in those situation challenges, how can we approach the Lord?

So I thought that if we could have prayers that were scriptural plus personal, That means we start with the scriptural words and then compose a prayer based on that that will have the weight of authority and authenticity together. And Rishi Srila Prabhupada does this in his marking in Bhagavad Dharma, the song which he composed when he was approaching America. Then he’s pouring out his own heart, vorokurpa koiye krishna adhale ra prati. But in the middle of that, what he does is, he’s bringing bhagavadam voices. So what he is praying is actually very much based on the bhavatham.

So he prays for example that that if anybody hears Bhagavatam repeatedly, they will become they will become sober. And then Prabhupada is making this statement, but then he’s quoting the Bhagavatam verses where he says Shrutam, Sugata, Krishna, and the whole series of the darajastha mohava how one becomes sober, how one becomes zero? So this is my attempt to do that over here, something similar following with, Krushikar Maharaj and Prabhupada. There are five components in each of the players. The first is that we have the first is we have a beautiful picture of Krishna over here, and then with the picture of Krishna there are different deities from different temples.

Dvds deities they are mentioned at right bottom. Then, the way I am approaching this particular prayer The way I’m approaching this prayer, or this verse of this prayer, that is summarized in one sentence. So please change the memories replaying inside me. And then I’ve taken the Gita’s verse, which which it is based, and then I have translated the verse in English poetry. So, because the Gita is a song, and then when we forget that when we approach a philosophy, we look at a poetic devotional field I have or translate it at the end, based on that there is a prayer that is inspired.

So let’s look at this now. So let’s just recite the words together Most of us know the words, so not responsibly, but let’s do it together. For sense pleasures the wise person abstains, yet the taste in the heart remains, but seeing the supreme sweet and bright even that, craving, loses its might. So, param drishta vivartate. The craving loses its might.

This is Bhavita 2.59. So I would request different devotees to read one paragraph and then we will discuss the topic about Hanumanji today. Who would like to read one paragraph? Do you have a second mic? Or does anyone have a mic in their throat?

Yeah. Here, please. My dear lord, it is impossible to live completely free from exposure to temptation in a world that is filled with temptations. Yes. That’s a basic fact of life.

We can’t really close, guys. You can go ahead. It’s valuable. Yeah, please. Even when I resolve to turn away from them so that the images playing in front of my eyes do not get imprinted in my mind, my mind simply switches gears and replaces them with images from my past, replaying them on an endless loop.

Yes. This is our predicament. We can turn away from tempting objects in the outer world, but those impressions are there inside. And those impressions keep replay. Now temptations interestingly may as early as possible pleasure, but the mind is such that it replays memories not just of pleasure but also of pain.

If somebody has spoken something hurtful to us And they may have spoken it one year ago, but as soon as we see them, those memories get triggered. We start playing. And sometimes we decide, I don’t want to associate with this person also. But still, I’ll keep a distance on that person I feel those memories still stay. So for us, when technology is advancing so much, we have created so many comforts in the outer world, and we are creating more and more comforts.

But what we are terribly lacking in today’s world is the capacity to form healthy memories or the capacity to change the memories that go on ourselves. In fact, many people nowadays grow up with various kinds of trauma. And trauma means what? That some terrible thing happened in the past it may have some physical impact, but more than that, it has an emotional, mental, psychological impact. And, in many ways, the greatest cause of unhappiness in the world at a practical level is not the events that happen in the world.

Yes, there are many distressing, painful events that happen, but actually, it is the memories that are there inside. So the events can cause some unhappiness, but the memories cause far greater unhappiness. And when we say remember Krishna, this might seem just to be like a religious doctrine for those on the path of bhakti and it is true, but it is much much more than that. The process of remembering Krishna is meant to change the memories in our heart, the memories that keep playing inside us. We all seek to create happy memories.

If we go to some nice place, we take some photos. If we have some celebration, we take some photos. One keeps our memories. And those are physical memories. They’re important.

And those physical memories can trigger our internal memories. But irrespective of what triggers are present or not present there are certain memories that are playing inside us constantly. And when Krishna says Janma karmachime devyam he says he comes and performs extraordinary pastimes. One of the things that he does is through these memories, through these pastimes, and through meditating on these pastimes, we have the opportunity to form memories that lift us up, memories that purify and elevate us. So actually recognizing it’s that we have so much technological advancement, but there’s no technology to change memories.

Nothing you can put on your way back. All memories are changed. Now, you can wipe out the memory of a person. You can give them some drugs or you can give them some electric shocks, you can wipe out the memory sometimes. But then that person has become dysfunctional.

Does it change memories? Change memories for the better. Through technology, there’s so much entertainment available. Sometimes some entertainment, maybe they just consume entertainment and they forget it because they consume so much entertainment. Some entertainment may be very active, so it forms some memories.

And how do memories really better memories? So the purpose of performing leela, remembering leela, the lord is performing leela, and for our remembering the leela is to help us change the memories inside us. And among the various things, various pastimes purify us, the pastimes entertain us, the pastimes can captivate us, but through them all, in one sense the purpose of life- I’ll be doing this thing tomorrow also- if you want us from a psychological purpose- perspective It’s not a psychological perspective, no. But the purpose of life is to make our memory our treasury. Right now for many of us our memory might be our prison.

So our memory might be our prison means the memories that are plaguing inside us, they trap us in suffering. Now this person did like this to me. This happened over there, and this mistake happened. Sometimes the memories may be about what others did to us. Sometimes memories may be about what we did to ourselves also.

Mistakes we make. But we need to go beyond these memories. And Srila Prabhupada in Manaprasad Sammita Maunamato Nigra 17.16 Purport, he says the purpose to change the state of the mind is the purpose it is for changing the state of our mind that the Lord performs various pastels and we can turn towards those pastels, remember them and become purified. So with this context we’ll elaborate on this more again later but this just a couple of days ago was Hanuman Jayanti. So we’ll discuss some past tense of Hanuman, but before we go into this let’s get back to this theme of what our purpose is to change our memories.

And how do we change our memories? By finding within the pastimes something memorable. Memorable could be some point, could be some incident, could be some statement, whatever it is. And then that forms fresh impressions inside our mind. So when the lord’s past times are approached, lord’s past times, lord’s devotees past times, I talk about one philosophical thing tomorrow about the way in which you’re approaching the past tense.

But right now, I’m gonna talk about the purpose. So have any of you heard this word? What does it mean? Demigod? Devi and devuddha, yes.

Though I was at one. Actually where was I? Actually I was giving a talk at a, the English department in Cambridge, and there I used the word demigod. I said, this is a wrong using of the word. I said, what do you mean?

Then we had nice discussion on it, but it seems that now Prabhupada uses the word demigod almost in the sense of semigod. Like, somebody who is more powerful than us, but not as powerful as a supreme god. Now in the modern context, in the way the word is used, the word demigod is used in such a different sense. It’s like a demigod is a child of god plus human. That is the main video.

So for example, Arjuna would be considered to be demigod in today’s usage. So Arjuna was born of Indra and Kunti. Mhmm. So somebody who is so in that sense, is a partly god. So that is one way of using it.

So Prabhupada is using it more in the Prabhupada is using it more in the position. A person has a power greater than ours, but not as great as god’s. Now this con con current current usage is in more in terms of origin, that the person is more partly of humans and partly of partly of God. Therefore, not fully God. If a person is born fully of God, then there would be a God directly.

Right? So anyway, Hanuman, in this sense, is a demigod. Who were his parents? Bayu and? Bayu.

Anjina Devi. So now, Anjina was a human lady on the earth, and Bayu was a celestial lady. So now when he was born, there are many stories associated with his past with his past time, and I’ll focus on one particular theme. We’re gonna discuss the topic of maturity. Now children by nature are restless.

Now when she when Anjana was taking care of her child, she just kept her baby down and she went to a nearby room to do some housework. And, children, they’re naturally curious and normally if we have our home, we have a small baby, we’ll baby proof our home. Now Anjana was just sitting around. Anjana had gone next to Anuwa, and he was just lying there looking around. And he looked it up, and he saw, hey, that’s a shiny object, which, I kept by my mother for me.

Now, now, developmental psychology is a fascinating subject. Now, when children understand about things, so some children just don’t have a sense of distance. Not children, small babies. So he nodded. It’s not very far away.

He just jumped up. And he jumped up. He just jumped up and even he didn’t know how much power he had. He just kept streaking through the sky and streaking through the sky and he came closer and closer to the sun. Now this was not the blazing sun of the afternoon.

This was the gentle sun of the morning. So it looked red, but not blazing red. Yeah. It looked really red. And then, initially, when, Suriadev saw this child is coming.

First, he was worried about the for the child. This child would get born. What is the child doing? But when he saw the child kept coming and coming and coming, And the child seems to be charging right towards him. Then initially, he was worried for the child, and he was worried for himself.

You know, if we are going on a if we’re driving a car, and suddenly, you’re driving the car fast, and suddenly, there’s somebody standing in the middle of the road. Get out of the way. But then as, street lights fall, that person has a machine gun pointed at us. Then then from from that person for a hour since. So Surya Dev started increasing his race.

Kept increasing, increasing, but this child seemed unaffected by it. And then he panicked. And now there’s natural rivalry between Surya Devarindra. But in this case, Surya felt the emergency. I need help.

I need help. So he immediately went to Indra Dev. And he said, Indra, what happened? He said, ‘Hey. Look at him.’ So this child is tweeing straight even.

He was surprised. And now for Indra, Surya coming to his help, coming to ask for help was also a special thing he said. I cannot feel you. I have to show you my power. So Indra didn’t think care.

Of me. Just took his wajra and hold it at Hanuman. And Hanuman was a small baby at that time. Now Hanuman was powerful, but when we look at the stories, what happened was he was powerful. He was written on how powerful he was.

So first, this shiny object is coming and see another shiny object is coming. So he didn’t do anything. Now hit him on his face, especially in his jaw, and he reeled back. And he reeled, and he came crashing down on the ground. Now why you saw what was happening?

Like a like a father may see the child’s antics and be happy. So why was happy? Oh, what is that child doing? But then everything happened so fast. Why would it expect that Indra would throw a thunderbolt?

This is a small child. He’s mischievous. He’s not malicious. He’s not destructive. But when the thunderbolt was hit, my unit rushed forward and she softened the fall of the child.

Child fell gently on the floor. And then he became enraged. He said, what did you do with this small child? So Indira said, he was not acting like a small child. He said no, he was just a small child.

You would have stopped him anyway. He said no, this was the only way to stop him. So now what happens is that when some action is performed and that two people may have different evaluations of the nature of that action. Sometimes it’s very dangerous, sometimes it’s not all dangerous, it’s just fun. So Indra felt it was dangerous and why you felt it was outrageous or excessive use of power?

Sometimes it happens here in America, people have guns and there’s a small some stranger comes and somebody takes a machine gun and shoots the stranger. He says, no. Who knows the stranger might have a machine gun that should be? But sometimes the stranger might just be like a a harmless elderly person who is lost and doesn’t know and looking to find the way. So there’s always danger of excessive use of power.

So Indra used power excessively. Why you were then deranged? Why you said? You did this to my child. I’ll punish all of you.

And he suddenly stopped flowing. Now you stopped flowing. Everybody’s very suffocating. When everybody’s very suffocating, then the became allowed. And then they realized this is very serious.

But they all came to pacify you. And they realized the way to pacify you is to profusely bless you. You. And Hanuman seemed to be as if as if lifeless. But by the blessings of the deyotas, we all came back to life.

He came back to life. And of course, the blow that had retreated to my face, it slightly shifted the anatomy of his face. That’s how he got the name Hanuman. His name was Maruti. Now the biggest diktas blessed him.

And now when they blessed him he could do extraordinary things. Even without blessings he could do extraordinary things and now with blessings he became extraordinarily extraordinary and that is not a compliment. What happened is that. We’ll be discussing this broad theme in present world session. There is ability and there is maturity.

And maturity means the ability to use ability wisely. So, now, if you consider four quadrants over here, we have ability and maturity. So we could have ability but no maturity, no ability, no maturity, maturity but no ability, maturity and ability both. Now, which of these is the situation in which Hanuman was now? Sorry?

So which quadrant? Quadrant, yes. So now baby Hanuman was or maybe a child Hanuman was in this quadrant. Now as he grew up he had his extraordinary powers and he started doing mischievous things. So, Vivekanumar, he was mischievous.

But, that mischievous was no longer fun. It was dangerous. It is not dangerous for him, it is dangerous for everyone else. And then that became a problem. Now of course, for many people, if they have ability without maturity, they may go far beyond being mischievous.

They may become malicious. Malicious means they may use that power deliberately to hurt others. And they may not be hateful people, but at that time, a surge of anger, a surge of negative emotion comes and they may do something which they may themselves separate afterwards. So what we will be discussing in the program tomorrow’s session is this journey. So we have from baby Hanuman, the adult Hanuman that we see in the Sundarkandir and especially the Hanuman who goes to Lanka.

Now we could see these are transcendental characters and they’re always all perfect and that is true. But for as far as our learning lessons, we can see how the journey toward maturity happens. The best situation is where a person has ability and ability to use the ability wisely. That is where so we could say ability plus maturity, this is the person who is who is powerful and helpful. Their ability, they know how to use their ability.

Here what happens is, they’re powerful and helpful. Here they become powerful plus maybe helpful, maybe harmful. So we don’t know. Kaleidiasis would have a maturity. They’re powerful plus unpredictable.

Now some people are unpredictable and some people at this level may actually not be they may be predictable but they will predictably distort. That’s also not a good. Now if we have somebody who has no ability and no power, no no ability, no maturity, what happens? They are basically powerless. They may want to harm others, but they are powerless to actually harm others because they don’t have much ability.

Now if somebody has maturity plus no ability, what will happen? They they can do good, but they don’t have much ability to do good. So here, if you want to describe all of these in one word, this will be this person will be under effective because they don’t have some say, suppose a batsman has a very cool head, but the batsman doesn’t have a very good batting talent. So they they do not get hot headed, do not make a rash shot and get out, but the batsman can’t hit very very extraordinary exercise or anything like that. So that password is under effective.

Here it is effective. Here it will be ineffective. And the last will be it is destructive. Destructive in small or big ways. So when Hanuman was growing up, he was mischievous.

And initially his mother tried to restrain him, but soon he outgrew her in strength, in capacity yeah? So as he was growing up, afterwards now children often don’t have a sense of, sense of time place circumstance. You know what to speak when, how to what to do when. So it’s okay to be mischievous with other kids, but thou Hanuman was just mischievous in the forest, and in the forest there were sages. And sages are known for their ages.

Sometimes they get angry. If they get angry, they can be cursed. In the very context, being cursed by a sage is considered one of the most dangerous things. But Hanuman is carefree. Sometimes the sages would go out of their hermitage for some work and he would lock the hermitage.

I mean, they would be inside and he would lock them inside. Sometimes he would just they would be doing the sacrificial, sacrifices and they have to do a pile of wood which would be there for killing the doing the sacrifice and then you just take the whole pile of wood and go somewhere and then we again There’s no hope he left over here. So now he was not malicious, but he was displeased with us. And then the sages decided to what did they do? -Curse him.

-Now the word curse is a little harsh word. So, were they angry with him? Well, yes, they were displeased with him. But they didn’t really want to harm him. So they thought it was a very curious curse.

What was the curse that they gave him? He’ll forget his powers. Not that he will lose his powers. He will forget his powers. And for how long?

That seems very strange. You know? They they they curse someone, they curse him, and then they will have a response for it to rise him. And all the curses gone no longer affected. But the idea was the curse here, the point was that they wanted that Hanuman become mature.

That, so when he was reminded, it is. Somebody has to remind him that reminder has to come at the right time. So, a reminder has to come at a time when the world actually needed this power and needed it very acutely, where it was something which was vital. So normally when you think of the word ‘curse’ -curse it can have two different meanings: curse can refer to external, curse can refer to internal. Normally we think of curses as externs, you know, that if somebody suddenly loses their distance, somebody still gets a sudden sickness, you know, we feel it’s like a curse situation of a curse.

So we have curses where people’s external situation changes in one moment. So Nalukkor and Mani grew very powerful. You know what happened? One curse went just became like trees. Everything was lost.

So curse can be extraneous. So there can be an external loss that can be for the curse. But quite often when there is an internal loss, that can also seem like a curse. I started by talking about memories. Sometimes, if a negative memory just keeps replaying inside us again and again and again, we feel as if I’m cursed.

Something terrible somebody has done something terrible to us. We may go to a beautiful scenic place also. But even at that place, we feel as if that memory if the memory keeps playing inside us, then we think, oh, what happened over here? Why am I remembering this so much? We sometimes feel as if I’m cursed.

We want to sometimes we want to forget something, we want to forgive someone. But it just doesn’t happen. So, in one sense, if you consider memory, many of us think that the loss of memory is a curse. As soon as we are studying for exam, and we forget at the time something, we feel it’s a curse. We meet someone, and that person remembers us and we don’t remember that person.

And it happens very often. It just feels like a curse. And now some people have the they may have an innocent habit but it’s they they may be like, do you remember me? They were just actually anxious. So that’s understandable.

But when that happens, what happens is you feel as if the loss of memories occurs. But sometimes the presence of memory can also be a curse. That if I want to forget something, I just can’t forget it. So conversely, the loss can be a blessing. To it.

And the presence that can also be a blessing. So far, are we getting this? Sometimes we we lose memory of something unpleasant, something unpalatable. That’s a blessing. I was talking with one devotee.

He said he met some devotee recently and that devotee had terribly hurt him. So I told him how was it interesting? He said, it was quite nice. And then no one, nothing unpleasant. He said, no, it’d be nice.

And I said, it’s bumpy. I had forgotten it. So, I said, when he had told this to me, he was very hurt and he needed some counseling. I tried to pacify him. So I said, you know, I don’t know whether to appreciate your forgetfulness or to curse my remembrance.

-So, sometimes loss of memory can also be a blessing. And sometimes the presence of memory can of course be a blessing, that we understand that. So in that sense, memory is a funny thing. So now if we consider that when Hanuman was cursed to lose, you could say there is memory, memory is present, and memory is absent. And it’s a blessing or it’s a curse.

So now, at one level, Hanuman forgetting his power it was a curse. But was it really a curse? No, he was mischievous and his children were mischievous, but in that, that mischievousness, it was no longer having that power by which he would have explored any things. And in that sense his loss of memory Hanuman’s loss was it a curse or was it a blessing? How many of you think it is a loss?

How many of you think it is a blessing? How many of you think it is a blessing? How many of you think how many of you are lost to know whether it is a blessing? -Yeah. -So the point is that sometimes we cannot know in the situation what something is.

And that situation may feel something terrible, but it may not be. So, one aspect of humility, humility especially in bhakti, When something terrible is happening in our life, we feel, you know, why is Krishna letting this happen? Why is Krishna not doing anything to stop this from happening? So humility in bhakti, one way of understanding it is that understand that my finite vision is not the final vision. Humility means that I understand that a finite vision of a situation is not the final vision of the situation.

In my finite vision, this can seem terrible. And, yes, at that level, it may be terrible, but is that the final vision of the situation? Maybe, maybe not. So when Hanuman was cursed to lose something, in that process of losing something, he would end up getting something. So that loss of ability actually fostered his maturity.

It enabled him to grow further. Many of you know that I have polio that I need crutches for walking. So when I was one, my mother had taken me to a physician to get a polio vaccine, and I was very I don’t remember any of this. And we were staying in a small town in Maharashtra, and, unknown to our parents, my mother my father-in-law was stationed at that time, that particular clinic where the poly vaccine must be administered had a power outage the previous night and because of that the fridge temperature had risen and because of the rising temperature the germs in the vaccine had multiplied and then the attendant gave that particular vaccine to the doctor and doctor gave that vaccine And the vaccine, instead of preventing polio, ended up causing polio. Now I don’t remember any of it.

I was just learning to walk and I fell and I could I could never walk normally. But my first memory is about when I was two and a half or three, And at that time a distant relative had come to our place and she was consoling my mother. She said, oh, it’s so sad. Your son got polio.’ And I remember my mother’s voice calm, clear, confident. He said, whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him intellectually.

Now I don’t know why my mother said that. At two and a half or three, what intellectual signs I had see shown. I don’t know. But somehow that stayed with me. Not the God part, the intellectually part.

At least initially, the intellectually part. And as I grew up, I couldn’t play outdoor games like other kids could play. So part of it was part of it felt this is unfair. But then as I started studying, going to school, or even reading books, I found that I could read quickly, I could remember things well, I could articulate things clearly, and then a part of me said maybe I didn’t articulate it like that, but a part of me said that I could say that I didn’t do anything to deserve this physical disability and that is unfair. But then I didn’t do anything to deserve this intellectual ability also.

So sometimes we get less than what we deserve, sometimes we get more than what we deserve. In the big picture, life is fairly unfair. It is unfair, but it is. Sometimes we get more, sometimes we get less. And that’s why at that point, at a particular time, a particular thing might seem to be a curse.

But our finite vision is not the final vision of x. So I’m very grateful to my mother that she expanded my vision at that time. So so now Hanuman has been cursed, but his very curse or rather the loss of his powers whether you want to call it a curse or a blessing the loss of his powers will actually lead him to the development of his character. That when he doesn’t have any extraordinary powers to use, then what happens? Then one has to actually become mature!

To make two points, an actual journey towards maturity we’ll discuss in tomorrow’s session. So now sometime when I started this story, sometime and we talked about Suryadev when a child jumping up to the sun and catching the sun, and we say, oh, this is stupid. This is not unbelievable. These are kids’ stories. Unbelievable stories.

Now, yes, that’s one way of looking at it, and I’ll discuss this more tomorrow, but if you look at these scriptural stories, there are two ways in which you can see them. There are one way, some ways in which they are dissimilar to us. Dissimilar to our situations. And they are primarily in two ways. In the abilities that characters have.

For a kid to jump up to the sky, for somebody to have 10 heads. So all these abilities are extraordinary. And the arenas. Arenas means the places where these things happen. There is heavens, and there is this place, and that place.

We don’t experience those kind of places in today’s world. But there are very important means in which they are similar. And how are they similar? It is similar in that all the characters they have limitations. Every character has nobody they may have extraordinary abilities, but nobody has supreme power.

Now, of course, the god has supreme power, and that’s true. But even when god comes in this world to perform leaders, is it always described as is it always manifest? It’s omnipotence all the time. So just as we have limitations, our particular limitation may be different. So Hanuman, he could go right up to the sun, but he couldn’t counter the wajra of Indra.

So we all have limitations and and the characters in scriptures also have limitations. And the second is that everybody has accountability. Accountability means the actions that they make have consequence. So now the specific actions that they do and the specific consequences they have, they will be different. But these two principles that everybody has to deal with limitations, and everybody will make choices that will have consequences, and they have to deal with those consequences, they have to live with those consequences.

And it is this when you look at this, we can get some entertainment if we wanted, or explore the power someone has, or explore the domains people exist in. But this is where we actually get elevation, we get education, we get understanding of how to live in our life. Now, Rawan had the capacity to change his form and take on the form of a sage and whatever else he could do. But he still could not do everything. He had limitations.

He had wounds, but still he was vulnerable to humans. He was vulnerable to monkeys. And he made certain choices, and those choices had consequences. So you probably know this character Superman. Now, Superman, nowadays, this is the whole movie movie is about superheroes.

Superman was the first superhero. He. There’s some movie some character. Some author who developed in 1929. When America was in a deep depression, they wanted some character who would lift up the spirits of Americans.

And since then, it’s been going on. But around 1950s, something very curious happened. That as these characters are not created by only one person, you know, one person creates another, makes some more comics, and then it goes on and on. So what happened that as time passed, they started making Hanuman not Hanuman, Superman. Okay.

So as time passed, they started making Superman more and more powerful. Mhmm. His power started increasing. At one time, in some of the stories, Anuman Okay. But, you know, at one time, he could just look with his eye, his superman, and just blow up satellites.

He got enormous amount of powers. And what they found curiously, as his power increased, his popularity decreased. Why? Because generally in any story, if there is no tension, then there is no attention. That if if we write from the beginning only no this person is so powerful is going to win now we may know that he was going to win over the period but still we want to know how he’s going to win but if there’s everything is so predictive if superman is so powerful that any nobody can even touch him.

Then what happens is there’s no excitement. There’s no suspense. So when the when the power is enormous, then there’s no attraction left because you can just do anything. So then the hero then the comic creators, they created this whole concept of what is that? Kryptonite.

So Kryptonite by which Superman would become Muslim. And all his enemies would use that. And then that’s where the character’s popularity centralized him once again. So the point is that everybody, when they face limitations, that’s when in those limitations, how they act, how they grow, how they face those limitations, and how they grow beyond the limitations. That’s what makes the character’s story interesting.

So Hanuman had enormous power and his power will come back to him eventually. But when the ability is lost, that’s the time he takes to develop maturity. With limited ability, what can I do? How can I do it?’ And we’ll see in tomorrow’s session how Hanuman is developed through the choices he makes? And then finally, when Jam Bawand reminds him of his power, that’s the time his abilities come back, but he has developed great maturity by that time.

I was, giving a talk a couple of months ago, I was in The Middle East and, and as you know, I was telling a story about how Sita was abducted. And most of us know that story, how Maricha is finally shot by Ram, then he called out exactly in Ram’s voice, say. Lakshman! Sita! And that’s when Lakshman was told and Sita forced Lakshman to go to help Ram.

So one boy asked me this question that I. When Maricha called out. Lakshman, Sita, why did Ram call out? That’s not me. That’s Maricha.

The whole problem could have been avoided. So so I told him that Actually, Lord Ram is all powerful. But although Lord Ram is all powerful, if he simply were all powerful and that’s what he were doing, and he didn’t have to change the deal also, he couldn’t just have been there armed long and caught them here. So men, although the Lord is all powerful, this is the Lord, when he comes to the earthly level, he it’s said that he does naraleela. When he comes to this earth, he acts like a human being.

Now above the humans are the gods, and below the humans are the demons. Now this above and below is in terms of morality. Devatas are supposed to be better than humans, and the asuras are supposed to be worse than humans. But actually both the devatas and the asuras are physically stronger than the humans. And because of that, Marich because Marichya was an asura, his voice was much stronger.

And Rama’s being being, helped play because Rama was playing a human role, at that time his voice was not strong enough. And that’s why he ran back. So the point is even the Lord’s pastimes, they they become suspenseful, they become interesting when the Lord also acts within limitations and within the limitations the Lord does extraordinary things. Now of course the Lord’s limitations are not imposed on him by anyone The Lord is not cursed for anyone. He chooses when he’ll come out there.

Sometimes he acts like a finite being. And sometimes he will show extraordinary power. But when the power is lost at that time, that is when the character is seen. That what does the person do when power is lost? That person just becomes hateful, that person feels sorry for themselves, and they just become bitter.

Understandably, some does that. But it’s not very helpful. So Hanuman will see what he does in tomorrow’s session. The last one, I mean, you know what? Let’s see.

For all of us, if we have power and if we have character, the same one is ability and maturity. And I’ll just focus on something different over here. See, if there’s no power but no character, then the person becomes prideful. Now prideful is the least of the problems. From there, they can become hateful.

They can become vengeful. Because the power, they can use it for bad purposes. Now if somebody has no power and no character, then what happens? They become resentful. Resentful means why does anyone else have power?

Why is this person so good? Why is this person so good? Why is that person so good? It’s, this some people their whole lives are just filled with resentment. When communism started it promised that there’ll be wealth will be distributed, everybody will have equal wealth.

But what happened was that it’s not that everybody became wealthy, It is that communism was actually driven in real life not by compassion for the poor, but envy towards the wealthy. And then there’s some people who said, we will we’ll steward wealth equally. But then they had the power to decide whom to distribute wealth with. And so there’s a social commentator. He said that in communism, all people are equal, but some are more equal than others.

So basically, there’s a lot of worldview that is driven by resentment, and resentment does not do anything good. It just hates those who are doing something good. Those who have something good, those who do something good. That’s not very helpful. Now, if somebody has power and somebody has character, then they are grateful.

They are grateful. Hanuman will say, when he gains power, he never becomes proud, he never becomes arrogant. Hanman is grateful. Now somebody has character and even if they lose power, then they remain graceful. They don’t become resentful.

Yes? It is Krishna, give me power. Krishna took my powers away from me. It doesn’t matter. So, now, among these, if you consider having power without character, Both are harmful.

Being prideful and being resentful, both are harmful. And if we have character, whether we have power or we don’t have power, you know, it is always positive. So sometimes we may feel that some power has been taken away from us. The power could be the power of wealth. The power could be the power of some position.

The power could be the power of, good reputation. I mean, some people may just spread some rumors about us. That power going away is a painful thing. But we can see that power going away as an opportunity to develop our character, to grow in maturity. And that’s what will happen to Hanuman, and that’s what we’ll discuss in tomorrow’s session.

I’ll summarize what we’ll discuss today. Mainly discussed four points. I started to read out how life in one sense is defined not so much by wealth or power or things it is defined much more by memories. The greatest source of unhappiness for most people is not the events that happen in their life, but the memories that keep playing in their life. So, successful life is all about creating positive memories.

That is what the leaders to happiness. And bhakti is what enables us. And bhakti, the remembrance of the real law of the Lord. That is what is meant to help us create these healthy and happy memories. Within that, we discussed Hanuman’s story, and in Anuman’s story we discussed very three stages.

First was his being his his childish attack is okay, let’s put him on this way his infancy. In infancy what happened was, he had as a terror he had great blessings, and those great blessings became mischievous he was hit, and he was blessed further. So he had powers, and from the powers, he became almost lifeless. And after that, he became even more powerful. And that was, in verses, glorious what happened.

And then after that, we discussed about how he, with his ability what he started doing was his ability, and that is maturity. So was he cursed? Well, you could say the journey of Anubhana is from having ability without maturity to having both ability and maturity. It’s the journey we are going to discuss. And then we discuss about the forgetfulness.

Anyways, the series cursed him. So loss of not power, but loss of the memory of its power. So that, was it a curse or is it a blessing? It depends we discussed it. It could mean we have, we remember, and we forget.

And that could be a blessing, that could be a curse. So for us, whenever we look at life situations, we have a finite vision. And that finite vision should probably be seen as the final vision. What is a blessing? What is a curse?

We really told that at our stage that sometimes what seems like a curse could turn out to be a blessing, and what turns out seems to be like a blessing may turn out to be a curse. And then lastly, we discuss how when something something bad happens to us, how do we respond to it? So, Hanuman’s I talk about when you look at these stories, you see how how these stories are dissimilar and how these stories are similar. So dissimilar in terms of the abilities that they have and the arenas, the places that they do it, but similar in the sense that they all face limitations, and within the limitations they are all accountable. Accountable.

You do actions and those have consequences. So Hanuman also faced a limitation he says that his power suddenly went away. And then he was held it was not really cursed but he was held accountable. What you do at that time. So we discussed this journey, we may have power, and we have character.

So if there is power but no character, then what happens? Can you remember? Prideful. And that could be a waste of the problems. It can be much worse.

Is it that power now, character? Presentfulness. Presentfulness. Why should anyone have anything good in their lives? It’s very bitter.

There’s power and character? Then they’re grateful. Of course, they’re powerful naturally they have power, but they’re grateful for the power. Then some of the power goes away, then they are graceful. So in many ways we see that Hanuman’s geodomy will be where he will gain power.

So either way, having power without character is unhealthy and having character with or without power is healthy. But we all would like to go where we have power and character. That’s where Hanuman will, and that’s where how we can go through our life journey, that’s what we’ll discuss in our future session tomorrow. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Is there any question or comment? Yes, sir. Thank you for the very nice presentation. I have two questions. The aspect of, not seeing the finite vision or sorry.

Not, taking the finite vision as the final vision. Where does where does that view our individual actions in the sense that in terms of changing or making events? Like, let’s say, whether it’s, to see the blessing or as it occurs. If you just say, okay, this is just a finite thing. I have not seen the final vision, so let me not do anything.

Would it lead to, like, a complacent attitude like that? Yeah. Definitely. See, there are two different things over here. When he says don’t see the finite vision as the as the final vision, that does not mean that the finite vision is always a wrong vision.

It’s just not the complete vision. So just yesterday, I was in my tomorrow, I had a whole class on this topic about how when some problem comes in our life, how do we see the cause of the problem? If right now I’m speaking, this mic stopped working, then should I think that, okay, why does the mic stop working? Maybe I did some Bhaskar mind in a previous life. No.

Generally, whenever we try to look at causality, say, if somebody eats on a cold night a dozen ice creams, At night they were saying ice cream ice cream I want more ice cream. The next morning they have a terrible throat and they say ice cream. Now now their throat is terrible. Is it because of past karma? Yes.

Well, yes. But it is not past life’s karma. It is past night’s karma. So generally, in Vedic logic, it’s called Nyaya. Whenever we are looking for the cause of something, causality is the principle of looking for causes.

So first we start with visible causes. Then we go toward invisible causes. And within invisible also, first we look at invisible material causes, then we look at invisible spiritual causes. That means that if the finite by the finite vision there is some explanation, then we should look for an explanation. And we should try to fix that.

But if by the finite vision there’s nothing that can be done, then move forward to something bigger. So the point is not so much what, how we look at our finite vision. It is more that how do we respond to it, in the sense that for all of us, it is our dharma, the right thing to do. That is the most important thing. Sometimes the right thing that I do will have an effect and sometimes the right thing that I do may or not have the effect.

So then I may say that okay my finite vision is limited over here but we should not use that as an excuse for not doing the right thing. Say, if we have cooked some food and say the it’s sweet rice but there’s no sweet in the rice Zombie rice. You shouldn’t tell somebody that there’s no sweetness. That’s your finite medium. That’s your finite perception?

No. Fix it right now. When it can be fixed, it should be fixed. But some so when, Ram is exactly the forest, at that time, Kaike, Lakshman is very enbreached by all that’s happening. And he wants to first, he’s angry with Ashwath, then he becomes angry with Kaikeyi.

And at that time, he says that his wife’s speaking very harshly about Kaikeyi, and Ram says, you know how much Kaikeyi loved me.’ Her love was like the flow of the river Dhunba incessant and pure. So that Lakshman is not done, he says. That’s what I can’t understand. How did the Ganga dry up in one night? And then Ram says, that’s why when I heard her speak those words, I understood this is the will of destiny.

When somebody’s behavior has no explanation as far as we can see it, then we can say my final conclusion isn’t complete. There’s something more going on over here. But if I have spoken so hurtfully to someone and then that person is cold with me, and I’m just, you know, this is for the past karma. No, this is not past karma. You did something right, doctor.

So we need to see what is the right thing for us to do, and our vision should be such that it encourages us to do the right thing, not that it justifies not doing the right thing. If a person is if some some person is very sick then if we can help them we should help them at that time. Take them to doctor, give them some treatment. But sometimes despite giving the best treatment, the person will not get cured. That’s when you understand a finite vision is not the final question.

Okay? I have a another question. This is more of a clarification. So Hanuman forgetting his abilities, out of that curse. So if somebody reminds him, is that a one time thing or and then all the memories come back and it will not go away or maybe require frequent reminders.

See generally the exact ways in which curses work and how curses are revoked – that particular mechanism is not talked about much in scripture. There is a mystical element to the curses, to how they act and how they are revoked. So now my understanding is here that the sages had a particular purpose. It was not to punish a numa, not to hurt a numa, not to deprive him. It was to help him grow.

Like sometimes, you know, some kids may just have phenomenal talents. Some kids maybe a three, four year old kid can pick up a musical instrument and be like a genius. Now, on one side, if some parents are gifted with such a child, they say gifted they’re gifted child, then it’s important for the parents to develop the gift of that child. But at the same time, it’s also important while the child is extraordinary and an extraordinary talent has to be developed, it’s just as important for the parents, the child also have a normal childhood. The child will naturally have that talent and will that talent is nourished but that is still a child.

The child’s normal growth also has to happen. Isn’t it so? Now both sides are there the extra the extra the extraverted side has to develop, but that is not if the child is defined only by the talent, then what will happen is that it can have many different psychological effects. The child will just think I am so special and everybody nobody has of any value. Child can become very proud and that’s not very good for that person to know.

All the child is are thinking that you know, I have no value without this dialect. So I was, I was trying to devote his home, and they have this this kid, you know, he was like, he at the year four he started playing chess. His father was playing chess with a friend and he said, ‘Daddy, I want lunch he says no, medium role in Lourdes, I’ll teach you’ he said don’t teach me now’ and he taught us his father taught him the first game as his father repeated all the way the second game he defeated his father And and I went to the eight and a half night and he was like the he was the Canadian under ten champion. He’s a brilliant boy. So I was staying at the home, I was talking with him.

So I my childhood, I also like chess quite a bit, so we were talking about it. So then he told me that out of all my little, I like my grandmother very much. This grandmother has no understanding of chess. So why do you know this? See, she loved me before I was special.

Now, this child is so insightful. So my point here is that sometimes we have to make sure that it’s a holistic growth. Singhs are not really cursing him. His powers were there with him. But he wanted to ensure that it was a holistic growth of the person.

Not we are not just performers, you know, we are persons. And we need to if we have we can perform, that’s wonderful. But we don’t want realignational growth. Thank you so much. And last question or any comment?

Okay. Two questions. That’s good. Okay. That’s good.

Well, thank you, Babaji. Very nice lecture. In the previous slide, you said with limitation, you can go you can get a elevation. Right? How is that possible?

With limitations, we get elevation. Yeah. In previous slide, like, couple of slides. No. I was here with limited how it’s Okay.

I’m saying with limitation and elevation. I was saying that studying scripture and looking at how even there the characters have limitations, and how within those limitations they act wisely. From that we can learn and can grow. Now if the only thing special about Anuman is that he could leap across the river and leap across the ocean, There’s nothing for us to learn from Anima. Because we can’t do that.

If somebody thinks the only thing I have to learn from Anima is one day I have to leap across the ocean. Then that character will become, okay, it’s a superhero character, nothing to learn from us. But even these characters have limitations some way or other. And within those limitations, or because of these limitations, sometimes they also feel they make such choices and they have consequences for the children. They are held accountable.

But in spite of that, they could. So the elevation happens not because of limitations. Elevation happens by focusing on this principle that how these great characters also act wisely. And similarly, we can also learn to act wisely. Okay?

Okay. Yes, please. Can you pass the mic Thank you so much for your wonderful class always. I have a question on the ability to maturity transformations. One of the point you mentioned that ability kind of converted into the powerful and if you do not have maturity, it is unpredictable, Right.

So Hanuman, he when he was an infant, he had the power but he was unpredictable. But in the same past time, if you see Indra and Vayu, right, you can also come to a conclusion that he was powerful, yet unpredictable when he threw the Vayu. Same thing with Vayu. He was powerful, but unpredictable by stopping the flow of the wind, right. Was there any transition for those act between innovative and good question.

YU you move from ability to the materialist? See, within the Vedic tradition, the devtas have a very curious position. Devtas are often objects of worship, but very rarely are the devtas considered to be role models. That often the sijis are considered to be role models. The wise people, the brahmanas, they are considered to be individual.

The kings are said to be the darshayati sreshtas. But often the devtas, they have this curious position within the universe that they are above us humans but they’re not they’re not in the spiritual world. So while they quite often the way they act often shows how even good people may misuse power, may get may get allured by pleasure, may get tempted, may get intoxicated. So, the Detshwar dhyutas, they are worshipped because they can use some blessings, but they are not considered as a whole mortals. And, other dhyutas held accountable for their actions?

Well, there are times when that also happens. It may not happen exactly exactly the same way it happens on Earth. See, one of the things that happens because of karma is that always action will have result. But if somebody has good karma, for example, then what will happen is the action will lead to a result after a very long time. How is that?

It depends. Like somebody is born if somebody wastes money, they’ll become a popper. But if somebody is born in a fabulously wealthy family, and they waste money, they will also become a pauper. They will also become poor. But that may take a long time.

So sometimes, karma can create an intuition between the action and the manifestation of its result. And devatas are beings who have gone to the heavenly domains because of past punya. And because of that past punya, their actions often don’t seem to lead to consequences. The consequences are there, but they take a lot some amount of time to manifest. So sometimes in the Vedic literature it is said that the law of karma doesn’t apply to the dildas.

It’s not that simple. It is the dildas are also held accountable in particular they offend the sages and they are held responsible. They have become reckless and attacked by the asuras. But because of the past phobia, they may not be held accountable immediately for their actions. But the principle of we having agency and we being responsible for our actions is a universal principle.

The exact way when it will manifest, that’ll be very. Say, you know, if to make a comment on the current political situation, somebody may gain power, and they can use that power as much as they want. They may think they’re using it for good, they may be using it for bad. Different people can have different opinions about it. Whatever it is.

But nobody has absolute power. While they have power, they can they can do good, they can do heroic. But then that power is going to end. Maybe the next elections comes up, the next the tenure ends, maybe whatever happens. So during that time, when a person has power, they can do a lot of things without any seeming consequences.

The consequences will be there, but sometimes the power can insulate one from the consequences for some time. So thank you very much.

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
we are discussing on the topic of Hanuman’s journey to maturity, not to a physical place but we are going to talk about how we can grow toward maturity by learning from Hanuman’s example so yesterday we had played a game can you once again raise your hands how many were there yesterday ok, more than 50%, thank you 60-70%, so this game will be for those who were there yesterday so I will give you, yesterday we had played a game where I give a word and then you construct a sentence based on the Ramayana or Mahabharata using that word but today’s game will be a little different little difficult, little easier both ways, I will give you a word and through a series of words that I give, we will construct a summary of yesterday’s class so I will give you a word and you can think of in what context that word can be used to connect with a point or especially a past time an incident that was described yesterday ok mischievous yes Lord Hanuman, he wanted to he thought that the sun god is so he wanted to go and grab so that shows the mischievousness of a child yes, Hanuman was as a child, he was mischievous demigod yeah he said there are two connotations there is a sunny god but the other connotation is that it’s a child of a celestial being and a human so Hanuman falls in that category yeah, actually later I thought about Hanuman falls in both categories he is also a great devotee, he is a celestial being himself he is a devotee, so he is not officially having a position of a devata, so the second meaning is more appropriate, it’s good so then panic panic yes moment when they stop the air after seeing Hanuman in a in a very hurtful state the devatas go to panic mode yes so when they saw Hanuman in a which state hurtful hurtful in a lifeless state we can say, hurt state yeah that’s true they became panicky and then they showered blessings on him very good, thank you good, moving forward nicely now blessing and curse yes whatever Hanuman got blessings from all the devatas because while they were angry correct, yeah at the same time he got blessings from the sages when he was mischievous when he got more power at the same time he got less mischievous he got blessings he got a curse which over time turned as a blessing yes, excellent blessings twice and curse once, that’s good that’s into context, very nice yesterday we were discussing that there is ability or power and there is maturity ok, it seems I don’t have much maturity in using this ok so we have so child Hanuman to adult Hanuman is this journey, he had ability but not maturity and we will today see how he went on this journey and so when he was cursed that curse was not out of hatred, that curse was also not so much out of anger it was more for protection and then we discussed later about graceful and grateful anyone remembers these two words yes, true yeah there is maturity but power is there and one is grateful but when power is not there but maturity is there yes I tried to use rhyming words ability and maturity I had used and later power with character yeah, so if you have character character and maturity are somewhat similar, they are different but we will today explore that yeah, it is the same point so if we can be grateful, so there is four quadrants I discussed, second quadrant it was, so what are the four words over here, if we have power sorry oh if I have power if we have character so we have both then we are grateful, if we have character and lack power then we will be still graceful, yes Krishna accepts gracefully whatever happens and if we have power but no character yes, we will become arrogant, prideful and if neither resentful, this is where why is this happening, from resentful we can also become hateful we can become vengeful why should anyone else have anything good in life then ok so now I will be talking about Hanuman’s journey towards gratitude and not gratitude, towards maturity so here also we will have the same word game but in slightly different way I will be talking about four incidents broadly which indicates Hanuman’s maturity and after each incident I will describe and each feature I will describe, so I will stop and I will use a word which I have used in the previous section that means in that section I have used the word, you can try to spot where I used that word ok so I will be using an acronym care that when we have maturity then we truly care, we care for the things that matter for us now if you see one of the characteristics of maturity is commitment an immature person when the going gets tough, what happens the tough get going but there are other people they get going away they are not so tough they go away from there, they don’t get going so now the test comes, Hanuman’s right entry itself that when we have baby Hanuman, actually this is described later now when we, in the Ramayana’s natural narrative, when Hanuman enters, where is he where is the, in which kanda does the entry happen yes, in the Kishkindha kanda and then after that in the he, like sometimes you know sometimes in a movie or a tv series, there is some character that character comes in and then that character becomes the show stealer that character is so attractive that everybody is talking about that character only so it is Ramayana but in Sundarkand, Ram is absent and like Hanuman steals the show from Ram he doesn’t steal the show, of course, he is serving Lord Ram, but then his character is so captivating and endearing so he enters into the Ramayana in the section before that so we have various kandas in the Ramayana so what is the first kanda Bala kanda, that is where Lord Ram’s childhood pastimes are described, then after that Ayodhya kanda this is where he is returned to Ayodhya especially his marriage and all those are described then Aranya kanda then Kishkindha kanda then Sundarkand then after that Yuddha kanda and after that Uttarkand so now Hanuman enters over here Hanuman enters over here and then he becomes the central character over here he becomes the show stealer over here so interestingly when he enters he is it’s who is he with he is with Sugreev now if you consider there has been a tragic misunderstanding between Sugreev and Vali and if we consider what happened that Vali misunderstood Sugreev and Sugreev misunderstood that Vali is dead and Vali misunderstood Sugreev tried to kill me so that he could take over the power so now Vali attacked Sugreev and Sugreev had to flee to save his life at that time Hanuman had no obligation to go Hanuman was not a blood relative over there Hanuman was one Vanara in the Vanara kingdom, he was powerful in his own right but he did not have to go with Sugreev and going with Sugreev meant that Hanuman lost everything Sugreev could not go back to Kishkindha Hanuman also could not go back to Kishkindha and that choice itself shows his commitment he doesn’t have to be there we could say when Ram went to the forest Lakshman followed him now Lakshman was also, nobody was obligated to go, the sentence was only for Ram, Sita insisted she will go because she is his wife but when Lakshman went we could say that he is his younger brother and so he went and it’s not a obligation but he felt that I am duty bound because I am the younger brother but when Sugreeva went to the forest there is a brothers bond over here but when Sugreeva was sent to the forest Hanuman went with him and that is actually simply a friends and if you see overall it is not even friends it is more of a servants bond the relationship between Sugreeva and Hanuman is not exactly friendship they are always conscious that actually Sugreeva is the king or Sugreeva is a member of the royal family so Hanuman the very fact that he left it all to be with Sugreeva shows that he was a person of principles he could have chosen this is not my fight they have their misunderstanding they resolve it all but he did not do that he stuck with Sugreeva this also shows to some extent Sugreeva forgets his promise and other things but sometimes Sugreeva may not be seen as such a stellar character good character but the fact that Sugreeva could attract friends like this that also shows his character so Hanuman and Jambavan both came with him we will focus here on Hanuman and in general what is the opposite of commitment okay one is abandonment let’s see abandonment sorry in irresponsible if committed is irresponsible right indifference, apathy non-committal not non-committal that’s a synonym that’s antonym basically but how would non-committal be seen in terms of actions wishy-washy wishy-washy we could say some people are like a chameleon with whatever people you are you take that form and it’s basically somebody who does not have commitment for their primary criteria would be convenience whatever is convenient whatever is expedient expedient expedient is whatever is the easiest thing to do so some politicians they will blow whichever way the wind blows whatever position the voters want to hear they will speak those words and by that it is said about politicians before the election they shake your hands after that they shake your feet so what happens is some people just they are expedient so it could have been expedient for Hanuman I don’t want to get involved in this but the fact that he was with Sugriva that itself shows his commitment and commitment is a sign of maturity maturity has many different meanings to it one aspect of maturity now how is maturity related with commitment it requires maturity to understand that good things they take time they cost effort pain good things in life don’t come easy that is commitment it can arise only when we understand this and this is the aspect of maturity a baby who is immature baby is immature not intentionally but they just immature for a baby they feel hungry start crying they expect that somebody else has to come and feed them that’s understandable they can’t feed themselves at that particular point but an adult person understands okay I cannot just depend on others to feed me I have to make some arrangement so for that maybe I have to learn cooking maybe I have to earn money so that I can employ someone who will cook for me or I have to go out and make some arrangement by which I can get some food so that when somebody is immature they just go by the path of least resistance and the fact that Hanuman has chosen this particular option of being with Sugriva itself shows his great maturity and that’s one aspect of maturity and sometimes when we are criticised or we are unfairly accused of something that accusation itself hurts but there are people who we may not want enemies but we all have people who are opposed to us in some way or the other now the harsh words of our opponents it hurts us but what hurts even more is the silence of our friends if at that time those whom we thought we could count on they don’t come and support us and that feels very painful we feel abandoned we feel rejected so that commitment that’s where it’s called fair weather friends as long as the weather is good then I am your friend as the weather becomes bad then good bye so those kind of friends are not the kind of friends that we can count on so commitment is whether it’s friendship or servitorship in the mood of friendship in the mood of servitorship whatever this particular flavour of the relationship that is there Hanuman shows his commitment and to some extent once maturity is seen by how one sticks through the tough times one of the truths that only a mature person understands is about happiness in the mode of goodness what Krishna says in 1837 all the good things in life they take time so the mature person is able to see and push through the poison till they get to the nectar this is a mature person that is somebody immature they look at the poison and they say bye-bye it’s too much I can’t push through this so sometimes it happens in youth sometimes students want to choose a career I was in Stanford couple of years ago there was a young girl and her mother had come and they are telling that this girl obviously in Stanford she is brilliant but she this was her sixth year in the first year I said what happened she has been changing her major for six years and I said I want to find my passion in my life well there is your whole life to find your passion first get a degree now a days this whole idea is that if you can’t find your passion your life has no meaning no, it’s not that you have to find our passion sometimes we have to create meaning in our life so uncommitted means that I am not criticising her in that sense but it is you can’t be so fickle you can’t just keep changing your major from one year to next year commit to one thing sometimes this may not be the best thing for us but let’s do it, let’s learn, let’s grow in character let’s grow in commitment and we can explore other things later so commitment means that sometimes what happens is we ask the question we are all determined to a large extent by the question that we are asking so when it is said that the animals are always asking where is food, where is sex where is strength where is shelter that kind of things we humans can ask bigger questions the question can be what is the meaning of life, what is the purpose of life but even then commitment means that we could ask two questions what is the meaning of life that’s a very important question now that question is a philosophical question and that takes time to find an answer to but we can ask a much more practical question what can I do right now to increase the meaning in my life what can I do right now to increase the meaning in my life what does this mean now we may say the meaning of life is we want to go back to Krishna ok that seems to be a long way away and we have a whole lifetime before that what do I do in that lifetime is there one service I am meant to do how will I find that service well maybe it will take time right now what can I do say all of you you could have stayed home and watched TV you could have done so many things just to come here you hope to learn something meaningful I could have been in India I am travelling here because I feel that sharing the message of the Gita adds meaning to my life and hopefully it adds meaning to somebody else’s life so it is this question how can I add meaning to my life right now what can I do right now maybe I can speak one kind word maybe I can learn this particular skill maybe I can push through this project and complete it just so that I can learn the ethos of responsibility and discipline so commitment is a sign of maturity and Hanuman exhibits that children can be very fickle and that’s why parents have to push children at times parents children may not feel like studying but you have to study so his commitment shows his maturity so this is the first part where Hanuman’s very entry is itself a sign of his maturity where he is so the word here is commitment that’s not the word for a sentence that would be too obvious so misunderstanding misunderstanding where was that word used just now in what was described can you make a sentence this is good duty bound thank you duty bound who was duty bound he was duty no no Lakshmanji thought he was duty bound and he also followed yes very good as contrasted with you are on the right track right in the beginning yeah Hanuman yeah so you could say that Hanuman was not duty bound because he was not a blood relative but still Hanuman went and that shows his character so now after that Hanuman sometimes if you consider a movie analogy I don’t want to remind you of movies there are two ways you become Krishna conscious one is you bring Krishna into your consciousness so we bring Krishna into our consciousness that means we hear Krishna’s pastimes we chant Krishna’s name we behold Krishna’s beautiful pictures the other is we bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna that means whatever things naturally interest us we try to connect them with Krishna so now if you consider most of us have probably watched movies we live in a world which is where the culture is shaped by movies so often the entry of a character is quite dramatic or it signifies how the character is going to be so Hanuman’s entry seems to be a bit undramatic over here when Ram and Lakshman are entering into Kishkindha Ram is in agony and pain crying out where will Sita be is she safe, is she not safe and seeing this Sugriva he is out on top of the mountain and from there he sees he gets alarmed who are these people so when we see someone we want to put people into some identifiable categories so if somebody comes in and is this person Indian, is this person American or is this person Indian, South Indian now somebody looks like an Indian but they have a very much American accent American Indian or Indian American or whatever category you want to put it sometimes we can’t put it in categories then there is a little bit of a concern so if we see somebody coming at night and that person looks like a relative ok this person relative but then we see they have a gun ok this person impersonating my relative who is it, so when Sugriva sees, he sees oh these people are dressed like sages but then they are carrying weapons who are they he becomes alarmed are these people sent by Wali to assassinate me the way Sugriva is living it’s a very fearful state he is constantly worried whether Wali is going to get him and for Wali it is very frustrating it is that Sugriva he wants to punish him he wants to kill him and Sugriva is right next to him but he just cannot go there why because of a curse so when I was in Singapore I was giving this class and I said that Wali felt about Kishkindha Wali felt about this Rishemak mountain and that area where Sugriva was there, Wali felt the way China feels about Taiwan Taiwan so he is going to get there but then Taiwan China is going to attack in some other way so then while Sugriva went to Hanuman he says you find out who are they so then Hanuman went there and now Lord Ram is in agony and the first thing that happens is that as Hanuman approaches them and Hanuman speaks that his words are so sweet so soothing that Hanuman speaks a few words introducing himself asking who they are he does not tell his identity but just speaks very sweetly and Ram turns towards Hanuman so it is Lakshman and he says where this person is this person must be learned in all the Vedas this person must be brought up by wonderful parents this person must have great samskaras from a previous life just by those words he praises Hanuman so much and this is where actually if we consider he talks about two things and the Gopis also talk about the same two things when they talk about Krishna Madhuraya Gira Valgu Vakyaya so Madhuraya Gira is that they have Krishna has a sweet voice and Valgu Vakyaya Valgu Vakyaya means pleasing, touching loving words so the most effective speech is where a person has a sweet voice and speaks very pleasing words some people may have a very sweet voice and somebody might be a great singer and a person may have a sweet voice but if you meet them backstage one devotee friend before he came to Bhakti he was big into music so he told me he was a big fan of a prominent Indian musician and he had a voice which is pure gold so he finally got in that studio and he went on the backstage he wanted to meet them and that same person he when he went on backstage and that person with that same golden voice was literally hurling obscenities at all the studio staff like you might hear on the streets of some of the more violent areas all kinds of obscenities he said it was just the biggest disappointment of my life at that time some people may have sweet voice and they sweetly speak hurtful words laughter so now it’s good to have a sweet voice now some people just they just have a raspy voice their voice is maybe because of some speech deformity or whatever throat problem or whatever we all have a natural voice from birth now we can’t control how sweet our voice is but we can try to speak in a way that is pleasing so Krishna says Anudveg Karam Vakyam he says in 1715 that the character the austerity of speech he doesn’t say speak sweetly that’s not in our control in the sense that our voice is not sweet we can try to speak sweetly in the sense that we can speak words that are pleasing that are encouraging that are appreciative so Hanuman he falls in this category he has sweet voice and he is speaking pleasing words and life is tough we all can find faults with each other and there are many faults to find with each other also but if we can just appreciate and encourage each other now one encouragement can just change the spirit of a person sometimes you know you speak some words of appreciation and other person say you made my day today you know it can one heartfelt appreciation can power a person for a whole day maybe sometimes it can power a person for weeks so Hanuman exhibits this ability that he is he at this particular point is a character interestingly Hanuman was earlier known for power but now he is not his power is not seen only he is subordinate to Sugreev also and Sugreev himself is not the most powerful monkey Sugreev is being persecuted by Vali so that same Hanuman who had such extraordinary blessing in his childhood first we show his commitment see his commitment and then we see his he is praised for his sweet speech and then what Hanuman does is he ensures that there is an alliance formed between Ram and Sugreev so what was the acronym we were discussing care so I am right now discussing about alertness now one aspect of a mature person is they are not just caught in their own head and their own thoughts they are alert ok this is the purpose I am here for and that is the purpose you are supposed to do sometimes we send somebody to ok you go and inform them and get this from that place and they go there and start talking with that person and they get so caught in talking and they come back, oh did you get that oh I forgot they become yoga brushed just get lost so actually being alert to our purpose so he is alert, his speech is there but it is not just his speech he ensures that later on and Sugreev offers a seat to Ram Sugreev neglects Lakshman but you know Hanuman and Lakshman have a special bond and it’s because they are both in similar situations that Hanuman is there in the forest not because of any target on him Lakshman is on the forest not because of any target so he offers a seat to Lakshman and then later on when Sugreev gains the kingdom back then what happens Sugreev has been for years in an area with no wifi and then he comes to an area with full wifi and he goes on a 4 month Netflix binge so he just forgets everything Sarva Dharman Parityajya Maya Mekam Shardam so now as this 4 months go forward come to the end then it is that Hanuman Hanuman alerts him actually 3 people alert him first is Hanuman alerts him then Tara alerts him and then after that Lakshman, Lakshman just alerts him Lakshman agitates him Lakshman is agitated and he agitates him but either way at that particular time the true friendship is when the friend is in trouble we stand by the friend when they are in trouble but true friendship also means when the friend is getting oneself into trouble we don’t stand and go with them into trouble we try to stop them, we try to warn them that is also friendship so his face alertness is seen here I am talking about alertness primarily in terms of his so first when he enters, at this particular point he doesn’t have a relationship with Ram so it is generally a person’s character a person’s maturity, a person’s virtues they are seen in relationships it’s in isolation I can be very humble when there is no one with me what does it require there is an American comedian he said I love humanity it’s only human beings I can’t get along with so most of our virtues are seen in relationships so here first he shows his commitment his alertness is in forging an alliance for Sugriv and then after that in warning so both of these he does and in this way again mature person one of the characteristics is that they are alert they are not just caught in their head for many people there is so much drama going on inside their head only that they are not even aware what is going on in the world what to speak of having an opportunity or noticing an opportunity and tapping an opportunity so he is alert over there so so so here this is the second part with respect to alertness this particular incident agony agony I will be in agony if you don’t remember the word agony who was in agony yes when Hanuman was sent by Sugriv to to find whose two persons were but Ram was in agony yes true good so category category is a little complicated word over here simple word but put in its context yes yes Lakshman and Hanuman were in the same category superb excellent they are in the same category actually I didn’t think of that and we try to put people into categories and we observe them Sugriv was alarmed because he could not put Ram and Lakshman in the category are they sages, are they warriors they are sages but they have weapons like warriors this is brilliant so now the third part we will discuss is responsible now if you see after this what happens is that they decide to go on a search for Sita and this is where Hanuman starts coming into his own that there is this whole concept of like leadership without position leadership without position or influence without authority sometimes somebody may get a position of being a leader now when the vanaras start searching for Sita the group that goes south who is the leader of that group Angad so now it’s interesting that Sugriv and Angad have a bit of a tense relationship although I tried to pacify things I told Angad don’t hold Sugriv responsible for my death it’s my own karma that has killed me and he tells Sugriv please I persecuted you but neither Angad nor Tara had anything to do with it please don’t get back at them for what I did so he tries to create a reconciliation and yet for Angad one day his father is the king and the next day not only is his father dead but the person who was directly or entirely responsible for his father’s death is now the king and he has to serve that person it’s not an easy situation for him to be and because Sugriv also wants to bond with Angad so Sugriv goes out of his way to respect and accommodate him that’s why he makes Angad the leader of the group and this is the most important group because the vanaras have seen Ravan going southwards and they have also heard that Ravan has abode in the south whether he has gone to his abode or gone somewhere else we don’t know but that’s the most clue that they have and that’s why that’s the direction they are likely to find so Sugriv entrusts a big responsibility to Angad and that’s how he wants to have a relationship with him also now interestingly Lord Ram whom does he entrust this particular task of finding Sita Hanuman he calls Hanuman and he gives his own memento by which Sita will be able to identify and remember him Hanuman could have said you are tasking me with this responsibility you make me the leader of the group you make me the official leader see many people when responsibility is given or when responsibility is available they wait first for the position let me get the position so this book which I have written about Mitha for the CEO there I talk about this two things in leadership there is the position of a leader and there is the disposition of a leader now if we see Krishna himself never becomes the official king of Dwarka of course he is glorified as Dwarkadheesh he is the king of all kings but he in the Dwarka’s hierarchy he remains the servant of who is the actual king so Krishna doesn’t take the position of leadership officially but still he is the protector of Dwarka so many of us we feel yes I want to do a lot but I just don’t have the resource I just don’t have the position once I have that then I will do it so now the real test is that if we now we could say if we have position and disposition we can be maximum effective it’s true but sometimes we don’t have that so Hanuman he earns the position of leadership and that is a remarkable journey how he does that so being responsible now we could say sometimes if we are we could be responsible in either of these categories like we have the position and we use the position but even if we don’t have the position we can be responsible and now he is given the special task the Vandhara start off and as they are going they are trying to search and search initially they have huge enthusiasm they are eager to find Sita but then as they keep searching and searching there is no clue of Sita anywhere and then they start getting discouraged and they go into the into a deserted area or it is an area where they can’t even find any water and they start getting what do we do at such a time so this is where Hanuman is observing now Jambavan is there Jambavan has become a little old Hanuman is there Angad is there so Hanuman observes there is a cave and there is a bird coming out of the cave and the bird is dripping water so ok Hanuman points to the Vandharas he points to Angad, Angad says yes let’s go there now by the time they are so exhausted without food without water it is very difficult for them to move on and when they finally come to that particular cave they look inside and the cave seems to be huge they can’t see anything inside and now Angad he is young he is born in royalty and they respect him because he is the prince but still when Bali was the king Bali was so powerful that nobody would dare threaten Kishkindha that’s why Angad does not have much experience of real world war he is very powerful, he is a hero and he has not led anyone on an expedition like this he just doesn’t know what to do so Hanuman without sidelining Angad, without minimising his position gently suggests let’s all hold each other’s hands and go inside so nobody gets lost in the cave and they all start going inside they go in and in and in for a long distance they go into that cave and finally they see a light over there and as they come closer ok what is this light and they see that there is lush greenery and there are fruits and there is a lake and there is wonderful water over there and the Vanaras start running in to try to eat and drink and Hanuman says wait wait wait let’s try to find out what this place is and he keeps everyone to wait and then look around and they see that there is a Yogini sitting over there she is sitting with effulgence coming from her body and she looks very serene and Hanuman goes there and offers her respects gives respects to her who is this Yogini sorry ok Anasuya is whom Ram and Ram, Lakshmi and Sita meet earlier this is Swayamprabha Swayamprabha is a celestial maid she has been Indira long ago had an Apsara for whom he had created a replica of heaven on the earth and then later on that Apsara went with him to heaven and she wanted to have this as a retreat centre she had entrusted Swayamprabha as the person to take care of it and she explains all this you have come here, the servants of Ram you can have whatever you want Swayamprabha has a mystical power she is from the heaven, she recognises who they are and then the Vanaras eat and they drink water and they get rejuvenated and then Angad turns its been a long long way how do we go back from here can you tell us the way Swayamprabha says Indira has arranged so that anybody who comes in here will never be able to go back you are telling this to us now there is so much heavenly wealth over here that there will be many from earth who would come here and plunder the wealth and take it all away therefore its arranged, this path is arranged in such a magical mystical way that anybody who comes in here will never be able to go out, now Angad gets angry, tell us how to go out otherwise Hanuman says calm down, gently Hanuman taps him and says we saw that bird going out birds are no threat to the treasure here we are also not a threat we don’t want any of this wealth we may not be able to go but I am sure you have the power you please help us come out of this and we are only here to serve Lord Ram, we are no interest in the treasure over here, you have helped us you have given us food, you have given us water we are grateful, please bless us so that we can go on our mission so what Ram said earlier Hanuman’s sweet speech, pleasing words that’s not just a one time observation, that is what Hanuman uses over here so sometimes when we have to get things done we can try to use force and that’s required at times but generally trying to force others to do things it over a period of time backfires unless we can actually connect with them and with our earnestness, with our sweetness appeal to them we can’t really push forward so responsibility is like leader is supposed to have power but the biggest power leader is supposed to have is not just over others it’s leader needs to have power over one’s own temper one’s own emotions, one’s own speech and that’s the responsibility that Hanuman shows over here so Emperor says, yes I can help you but he says I have I have to honour Indra’s words, that Indra wants this place to be secret all of you will have to close your eyes close your eyes and then I will take you out they all close their eyes and in one moment Emperor uses mystical powers and she brings them out and then she brings them out not just on the same side of the mountain they come on the other side of the mountain and they are closer to the ocean and in this way, so here we are talking about how Hanuman you don’t have to have a leadership position and the influence without authority comes from capability if somebody has capability they will be recognised they will be able to fix problems and now after this, they keep searching and they search and then what happens is that they here they are searching close to the ocean and they are thinking that ok across the ocean but then as they are waiting they start seeing the huge ocean and they start thinking this ocean is so big, what do we do and now at this point they are not even sure that Lanka is across the ocean they just see this is, we are at end, we don’t even know whether we should go across, if we are going to scale the ocean, they have to have some assurance that Lanka is across the ocean so as they are sitting they have worked very hard and they have not got anywhere closer to finding Sita now one danger has passed they seem to have come out of the danger but then another danger is there this is that Sugriva had told all the Vanaras come back within one month if anybody is later than one month, they will be executed see that’s very harsh, why execute him the point is that he may not have executed them, but that was a way to ensure compliance, that take this mission seriously, as Vanaras you can’t just wander around and eat fruits and not do your mission, so now one month has already passed and the Vanaras are in two minds, when they go into Swayamprabha’s cave and come out they realise that more time has passed now and now some of the Vanaras say that Sugriva told us to come back within one month, it’s over we should go back, we should inform him what has happened other Vanaras say we should keep pressing on finding Sita now the other Vanaras are very discouraged Angad now there is one Vanara who says that actually maybe we should go back into Swayamprabha’s cave and we will hide over there we will live over there only Hanuman says that if you betray Sugriva like this he will be very angry with you and then Angad he becomes, he explodes he says that, but if he go back he will have all of us killed Hanuman says no, why would he kill Hanuman he said he had no hesitation to get his brother killed now if we go back and we have failed in the mission and we are also late in coming back he will have us executed in front of all of our family and friends and we will be humiliated so Angad still has that bitterness and over here this comes the biggest test of Hanuman that is the last part we will talk about what is the acronym? CARE so I will skip the part of the game which you are having because I just want to finish the class in time so E is Empathy generally in an army at one level there is hierarchy where is your leader you have to follow them other level speaking against the king or speaking against the leader that is considered rebellion, that is considered treason, that is considered to be insurrection, very serious crime so now when Sugriv starts speaking, when Sugriv is spoken of negatively by Angad Hanuman faces a test over here, Hanuman could have got angry with Angad but Hanuman understands Angad has been given this huge responsibility this is the new political dispensation like say normally what happens is if one political party is in power, that political party goes, quite often many of the top leaders, even diplomats or bureaucrats, they also resign because they are all associated with the previous party new people come in, if somebody from the old dispensation is there they have to prove their loyalty are you here for this, so Sugriv Angad has been given this assignment and he is not able to fulfil it, he is frustrated so is he really suspicious of Sugriv, does he really think Sugriv is malicious and should Hanuman get on his case, Hanuman just stays calm, Angad is just, at this point he is a teenager, he is a young adult not a teenager, he is interested in this huge responsibility and quite often Angad or even hateful speech or hurtful words they come not from a, they can come from two different places they can come from a place of enmity or they can come from a place of insecurity the two are very different enmity is where that person wants to destroy us and they are just venting it out they are just bringing it out at particular times but sometimes they can come from a place of insecurity somebody spread some nasty rumour about us what kind of person would do something like this it’s a terrible thing to do but they could do it because they hate us, they are enemies or they could do it because I thought that you are so good now if everybody respects you then nobody will care for me and I will be lost and I feel great fear because of that it’s not a good thing to do but some action coming from a place of insecurity is very different from action coming from a place of enmity everybody has insecurities in their life so Hanuman tries to pacify Sugriva is a just ruler and let’s try to stay calm let’s make a decision what to do any big expedition, any big project that we try to do, there will always be differences of opinion and now when there are differences of opinion, there is a problem how do you solve a problem sometimes only way to, sometimes you just can’t solve a problem especially the problem that comes from difference of opinion the only way to solve that is that Krishna sends a bigger problem and that bigger problem forces us to forget our differences and unite to face that problem so the Vanaras some of the Vanaras we are not finding Sita we are searched and searched and we cannot go back we will be humiliated, we will be executed it’s better that we end our life here since we will fast to death and so there is there is this act suicide interestingly everything can be in the three modes so there can be suicide in sattva guna how can suicide be sattva guna normally we think in tamas that’s true, it’s in tamas normally but suicide in sattva guna means that if a person feels that there is no point for me to live anymore then they decide that I will no longer maintain my body just stop eating and stop drinking that can be done out of frustration but that can also be done out of enlightenment some sages this is called as traditionally this is called as prayavrata prayavrata the first sanyasi in ISKCON who got Parkinson’s was an Indian sanyasi named Narmada Maharaj so he went to Vrindavan and it was incurable for him this was many years ago so he just stopped eating food so his god brother said please eat something Maharaj he said you know this body is meant to serve Krishna if I cannot serve Krishna why should I maintain this body and then he fasted for 32-33 days and then he very gracefully left his body so prayavrata is very different from suicide, suicide is often where people use some artificial means to end their life but it is naturally we stop many so the vanaras decide that we are just going to fast to death and as they stand in a row Hanuman is trying to pacify them Hanuman is trying to encourage them but things are just going out of control and not all the vanaras sit there but now Hanuman is torn should I just go back should I keep searching, should I abandon these vanaras and at that time a giant vulture comes over there a giant vulture like being starts walking over there not even walking properly doddering and walking and he starts looking at all the vanaras and licking his lips he says today I am going to feast and the vanaras start panicking they have decided to die but still it is one thing to know that I am going to die, it is another thing to know that as soon as I die my body is going to be ripped apart by someone or before I die only the body is going to be ripped apart who knows so the vanaras start panicking and then Angada speaks alas it seems that we are going to fail in our service to lord Ram despite our best efforts just as the valiant Jatayu fail in his service to Ram now there is this whole thing called coincidence nowadays the word coincidence is not so much common in new age there is another word called synchronicity any of you heard this word synchronicity is where multiple things happen at the same time so sometimes when we coincidences are god’s ways of staying anonymous Krishna does something just by making two things happen at the same time so now Angada why would he remember Jatayu at this particular time and why would he speak about Jatayu that itself shows that how Angada was also dedicated, devoted to Ram’s service Jatayu fought valiantly till his last breath and he was just too much for him because he was elderly and Angada is thinking about Jatayu at a moment when he is about to pass to death and he sees this giant vulture going to eat them up so that phrase, that sentence itself and that memory itself shows his devotion to Ram and Hanuman he could have antagonised Angada, he could have fought with Angada he could have criticised Angada but he saw it, he is frustrated but he basically still has that disposition, he wants to serve he wants to serve Ram he wants to be of assistance, he is just frustrated everybody in life gets angry and sometimes anger is not because the person is short tempered anger is just because the person cares so much our anger shows how much we care, now of course anger is not the only way we show how much we care if that is there, that is not good but Sugriya Hanuman by his empathy he gives Angada although Angada doesn’t stop from wanting to end his life but Angada still his attitude is not lost for him he speaks those words and suddenly then Sampathi freezes she says what did you say what happened to Jatayu oh Vanaras please tell me then Vanaras who are you, you know Jatayu Jatayu is my younger brother, I am Sampathi and I have not seen him for many many years then Sampathi starts telling the story of how he and Jatayu had both tried to rise up high into the sky and go close to the sun and then they both started getting burned so Sampathi and the elder brother spread his wings to shelter Jatayu so his wings got burned and he fell to the ground and since then they have been separated so then Angada tells Jatayu the story of Jatayu and Sampathi starts lamenting Salas I protected my brother at that time from the sun but how unfortunate I am that I could not protect my brother from this demon he said I am old and weak and frail I cannot do anything right now and he requests Vanaras that please take me by the waters and help me to do the last to offer some water for my brother they do that and he is still lamenting alas I cannot do anything for my brother I cannot avenge his death I cannot punish the demon who killed him at that time Angada thinks he says you must have very sharp eyes did you see Ravan going by do you know where Ravan is and hearing this Sampathi perks up yes I can do some service for the cause for which my brother laid his life down and he says although my body has become frail my vision is still sharp he says I can see that across the ocean in Lanka there is Sita and Ravan has her and I feel confident that you will soon go there and find Sita and come back so this is where the Vanaras joint mission finally brings them to a place where now they can leap across Lanka and then all of them are eager to do the service but none of them is capable of doing the service and that’s when everybody is talking and falling silent then Jambavan turns towards Hanuman and that’s when he reminds him of Hanuman and then from here onwards there is Hanuman’s solo mission he is alone going into Lanka and doing extraordinary things in the service of Ram but before he gains his power back he is shown how he has matured so dramatically so that maturity is what will stand him in good stead when he faces the obstacles in the ocean, when he faces the obstacles in Lanka and when he finally meets Sita and is victorious over there also this is the journey of Hanuman to maturity and as he as Jambavan speaks to him Hanuman will just be silent all this time, till now Hanuman has done wonderful things but it is not primarily by his power it is by his intelligence it is by his expertise, by his sensitivity one of the qualities of Hanuman is buddhimatam varishtam among the wise people he is the best so his wisdom, his maturity, his empathy all these are seen over here and then Hanuman will go on his glorious journey to Lanka which will be like a spectacular success for him so we will summarise what we discussed today broadly today we discussed about how Hanuman regains his power before regaining his power that is how his maturity is seen the maturity of Hanuman it is seen in broadly four ways what was the acronym care c was commitment so all the good things in life often require time and effort so the opposite of committed is often fickle like a chameleon a person then things get tough then some people just go away from those things but Hanuman sticks with Sugriv so Hanuman being with Sugriv even when he had no reason to be in terms of a blood obligation that shows that he has become committed that itself is a sign of opportunity of maturity alertness so for all of us we all can think about our maturity in different ways am I committed to things am I ready to persist in something even amid great difficulties committed to sharing Krishna’s mission no matter what happened alert to look for opportunities where can I serve Krishna what can I do to serve Krishna so Hanuman’s alertness is seen in two ways one is his speech by which he forms an alliance with Sugriv and then alliance between Ram and Sugriv and then there is his warning he doesn’t get infatuated like Sugriv does but he keeps he helps Sugriv come to sobriety then R was responsible can mean many different things that you take the service even without waiting for the position so the position may or may not come so a truly responsible person somebody’s leadership quality is that they may have the position or they don’t have the position but they always have the disposition so we discuss how Hanuman especially his responsible nature is seen in his dealings with Swayamprabha in the cave so where he does not lose his cool he does not attack he respectfully acts over them last was empathy so this is especially seen with Angad and Angad starts speaking rebellious words against Sugriv that is so his hurtful words or his harsh words or his aggressive actions you could say his aggressive or rebellious words whatever you want to use those come not from a place of enmity they come from a place of insecurity so sometimes when somebody speaks something which is very shocking you say how can you speak like this you are committing a Vaishnava go to hell because of this instead of that ok try to understand where that person is coming from not that you want to encourage Vaishnava but you want to understand so he see that he is coming from insecurity and he calms him pacifies him and eventually Krishna sends help Lord Ram sends help Lord Ram Lord Ram sends help in the form of Sampathi who comes in the bigger danger from that bigger danger comes opportunity and that’s how eventually Hanuman will be able to go across Lanka and be victorious in a most spectacular way. Thank you very much Hare Krishna Let us pray to Hanuman that by his mercy we all can in our life and in our service we all can stay committed despite temptations, despite the opportunity of shortcuts despite our mind’s tendency to be fickle that we may always be all alert to find better ways to do our Dharma, to do our Seva and to try to improve by finding new ways as well as doing what we are doing better Let us pray that we can be responsible so that we don’t complain that we don’t have the facilities but that we tap whatever opportunities we have without waiting for the position and then when we are working with other devotees with other people, other family members rather than judging them and condemning them we can all have empathy by which we can help them go through difficulties and not just get break down but rise up stronger and better Shri Hanuman Ji Ki Jai Shri Ramachandra Bhagwan Ki Jai Shri La Prabhupada Ki Jai Thank you We have few minutes for questions Any questions or comments Hare Krishna Prabhuji Thank you so much for the wonderful class and enlightenment with all the Hanumanji’s qualities I have a question in one of the slides you mentioned about Krishna consciousness in two ways Can you please go back to that slide and can you please explain the difference between those two Ya I am flattered that you consider these to be slides Ok I can slide through them Laughing So Now Bring Krishna into our consciousness is something which is straight forward we all understand that that it basically means that we come to a temple we go to a holy place and that’s how we bring Krishna into our consciousness So now what does bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna mean It means it can mean two broad things one is that when we live in the world there are certain internal things internally we are attracted to certain things and externally there are some attractive things now we can call the external attractive things as maya as sense objects and that is true but that is one way of looking at it we could call them as external objects we could call them as vishay vishay is sense objects but another way of looking at this is it is vibhuti this is what Krishna talks about in the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita yad yad vibhuti mat sattvam shrimadurjitam eva tat tad evam agacchattam mam dejo amshisam so there are many attractive things in this world and if we can develop the vision to see that the attractiveness of these objects comes from Krishna then this is already in our consciousness and we can connect with Krishna so if somebody has a great interest for art or music or decoration or whatever it is that they have interest in then those things will naturally be there in their consciousness and can they connect that with Krishna ok for them they can remember Krishna in many different ways but if they have to do some art they just get completely immersed if they have like get into some music they get completely transported to another domain so what is naturally in our consciousness that could be because maybe that person grew up in a place where there was a lot of beautiful art, a lot of musical culture was there, whatever it is it could be external, it could be internal so internally when we are internally attracted to something we can say that is, in a negative sense it is our vasana, we all have lust, anger greed, all this but our internal attraction could also be the vritti that we have according to our varna varna means it’s not simply category of brahman, kshatriya, vachitra it is actually the natural attraction of our consciousness to certain things so if we are naturally attracted to some things then we could use those to connect with Krishna and to serve Krishna thereby so what does this mean practically that if we already have some natural interests or talents if somebody has a lot of interest in say architecture then the interest in architecture is mundane or maybe they say, I like to see different architecture but let me look at say architecture that is connected with sacred things what kind of temples were built, what is the architecture in that, so the interest in architecture is already in our consciousness we can bring it to Krishna so to bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna that is also one way to cultivate Krishna consciousness and that way because that thing is already in our consciousness, it will be easier for us, we can very, you could say comfortably and joyfully connect with Krishna in this way so it’s important for all of us to find that, it’s important to help our children find that I was in America and staying at one devotee’s home and I wasn’t, okay America is here only, okay so anyway, so this this devotee, the mother is a double PhD, the father is a PhD they are brilliant, those combined genes are there in the kid, so this kid he was 10 and he was in the, he was in the part of the American National Robotics team, apparently the Robotics Olympiad is there and he was going to represent America and I was talking with the kid he was brilliant and then his mother was telling me till 5 he was very interested in Krishna and then he discovered robots and he forgot Krishna so now he was always talking about robots only so then I was talking to the parents and this boy came and I started talking with him and then I asked him that when you make robots for these competitions what kind of robots do you make, so he said that mostly it’s Amazon which is funding the robotics industry, they want very efficient robots for packing unpacking, transporting they want to replace labour with robots as much as possible, so they are the main driver so robots with efficient movements of body, that’s what we look for, so then when I was asking few questions about robots, it was he was so enthusiastic it was like the Ganga flowing through his mouth when my Pandit asked Kishore Kashmir to glorify Ganga, he spoke 100 verses spontaneously, so I felt he was so enthusiastic I asked him that do you in these robotic competitions do they like innovative ideas he said yeah, innovation is appreciated very much then I said what do you think about making a robot of Krishna speaking the verses of the Gita so he said no, that’s not a good idea and he walked away and I continued talking with his parents then after 5 minutes he came back you know, that’s not such a bad idea nobody else will think like this and then he said nowadays there is this whole emphasis on diversity and inclusivity, so yeah, I’ll think about it then a week later his parents called me and he says you know, he is now reading the Bhagavad Gita and he has to find out which verses will sound cool on his robot so, the idea is that if there are some things which you are naturally attracted to we don’t have to simply dismiss them as mundane sometimes we have to be a little more creative in seeing how those things can be connected with Krishna so let’s bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna Thank you