How can we know whether our decisions are right or wrong?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so if we introspect to decide what is right or what is wrong, how can we be sure whether what we have decided is right or wrong life is life rarely comes with clear cut paths you know so Bhaktivinoda Thakur says one thing that if you are going on a path and we find out that path is not taking us towards the destination since you don’t have to go back to the starting point from the point where you are gone you can do course correction so sometimes sometimes our future path is like a well lit path where we can see if I go this way, this is where I am going to go sometimes the future is like a black hole can’t see anything ahead so we just have to feel our way use our intelligence and take one step forward, take one step forward and see what we encounter so broadly speaking we just use our intelligence, we use our good intelligence, try to have a pure intention and do what we can now along with that especially if you want to decide if it’s a major decision there are three other things you can do one is just wait, that means like I mentioned in earlier class that we write things down and let the thoughts get out of the mind and observe them so by that if you write things down the thoughts come out of the head they become there is a greater level of objectivity comes in evaluating it you can get the pros and cons more clear and then if you find that this is how I am feeling one day but after one week how am I feeling you know this is, I am being too extreme over here this doesn’t make sense to me if you find our thoughts are changing that means that was just a reaction to particular circumstance so basically when we write our thoughts down it’s like we get a snapshot of our mind and if we see after one week also the snapshot remains the same that means this is not just a circumstantial feeling I have it’s something which is lasting and if after one month it depends on how grave the decision is after one month, after two months after three months, consistently it’s remaining the same and that means this is what I feel strongly driven, inspired, convinced about doing that means deliberating deeper by getting thoughts out and introspecting second is if we have some trustworthy friend or guide most of the time we look at people through our mind that means if somebody say somebody suddenly starts speaking very nicely to us what does this person want speaking so nicely they must be wanting something from me now so what happens is we evaluate people through our mind but if we have some people who are close to us then we evaluate our mind through them that means you know my mind is saying this but they are saying this it’s not necessary that they are right but at least we get a perspective alternative to our mind now what happens whenever usually speaking if anybody gives us a perspective which is different from our minds we feel as if they are challenging us, they are threatening us and we become defensive that’s why if we have someone whom we trust then what happens we don’t feel threatened by them ok I know that I trust their judgment not that I will just accept what they are saying but let me understand what they are saying, why they are saying this they are saying this is like this, I am feeling it’s like this so what is the reality so we can evaluate our mind, that’s why even if we have one friend like that that is very helpful and it may not be the same friend for all situations, sometimes for philosophy or understanding we may have one friend, for practical managerial dealings we may have somebody else for relationships we may have somebody else that can vary but basically we need some external external external external source which helps us to look at our mind so he says that look at the mind instead of looking with the mind normally we look with the mind through the mind we look at it but instead we look at the mind that is something which helps and if we have a friend like that then we can share with them if we have a spiritual guide, a counselor, spiritual master if they are accessible that’s wonderful but if they are not accessible then we can work with whatever we have the third thing is what I said in the beginning we just feel our way we make a particular decision and sometimes we just can’t be sure about our decisions so rather than making a big proclamation, this is the right thing and I am going to do it with the current understanding that I have this is what I feel is the best course of action and we set up some benchmarks if this is the right course of action then this should work out if this is not working out we can we can readapt it is not that as far as practically executing things in this world we don’t have to we are completely determined about serving Krishna but we need to be very flexible about how we serve Krishna you know Srila Prabhupada was like that he tried so many things he tried opening an organization, started League of Devotees, started running a Back to God magazine, he tried helping his God brothers, he tried writing Bhagavatam he came to America first he was working with some Mayavadi at his house he was staying, first he went to another place, so Prabhupada if we see what all he tried for serving Krishna he was quite flexible if this didn’t work out try this, if this didn’t work out try that so he was fixed in the purpose of serving Krishna but he was flexible in the practicalities of how to serve Krishna so it’s not so now this also doesn’t mean that we are constantly changing today I feel like doing this I faced a problem so I’ll do that no, if we make a plan we can stick to it for a reasonable amount of time maybe one month, three months or whatever is appropriate in that situation and then we value it so we have an irrevocable commitment to the principle of serving Krishna but we can always have a flexibility in how we serve Krishna and experience teaches us this doesn’t work out we’ll try this Prabhupada had many projects which he started but then Prabhupada started a political party In God We Trust and Prabhupada was very enthusiastic he said you know you have a big advantage when you are a politician what is the advantage? you can freely criticize anyone so Prabhupada was very enthusiastic about a party and then afterwards he realized that actually it’s not just building a political party you have to promote the candidates and that requires a huge amount of money and Prabhupada said that the money which we have got for Krishna’s service we can’t use it for politics then Prabhupada Prabhupada did not Prabhupada said we’ll not spend any money on this we’ll focus our money on Krishna conscious activities then one of the devotees I met him he said that Prabhupada you were earlier so enthusiastic about this political party they had named it In God We Trust that was the name of the political party Prabhupada says are you not enthusiastic? Prabhupada says yes I am fully enthusiastic just don’t ask me for money so that means that Prabhupada had the desire to do it but he realized that the practicalities are going to be it will just suck all the resources away from building temples or publishing books or worshipping the deities whatever else Prabhupada said we can’t do this so we have to be fixed in our purpose of serving Krishna but flexible in the practicalities of how we serve him does it answer your question? thank you very much