How can we ensure that we aren’t limited by functional vision when things are functioning well?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Question, how can we ensure that we are not limited by a functional vision even when everything is functioning relatively fine? Answer, that is where philosophical knowledge is helpful because it is philosophy that helps us understand the dynamically changing nature of the material world wherein if we want to work for growing in our lives we have to always live at the junction of order and chaos.
Order is where things work the way we expect them to. That means our actions have the desired results. Chaos is where they don’t have the desired results.
So if everything is working just the way we wanted to, that means we are not doing anything new, we may not be growing in our lives and if nothing is working the way we wanted to then that means something is seriously amiss. So we need to balance so that we know what can be done and what can’t be done. What should be done or what is best avoided.
So it’s good that’s why if we live in a world where we are interacting with people we can see always that some things are going wrong in somebody’s life and we can be grateful that that whole disaster is not befalling us but at the same time we can know that it’s not a matter of if but when. We are all going to grow old, all going to go sick. So basically trying to study Shastra regularly and then seeing the world through Shastra Chakshu will help us appreciate that if things are going good in our life that is more an exception than the norm and that exception will end any moment.
So it’s best that we be careful and we take things forward in a mature way. Now should we pray like Kunti Maharani please give me difficulties. Often that prayer is presented in a way that the intention and the intent are not clearly understood.
The point there is not that please give me difficulties. It is that difficulties in the past have given me your association so let difficulties come so that I can have your association. The intent is to get the experience of Krishna and to that the idea is the devotee is so eager for experiencing Krishna that if that experience requires even something as extreme as turning toward getting, inviting, calling for difficulties in one’s life, a devotee is ready to do that.
But the point is not to ask for difficulties. The point is to connect with Krishna. Having said that, what we can also do is that in our particular situation we can take up some service, some assignment that is slightly more challenging than what we feel confident of doing.
So we all have comfort zone, stress zone and panic zone. So if we put ourselves in the stress zone, that will help us by itself to challenge our functional vision and evolve in our consciousness.