How free is our free will?

[Congregation program at Oakville, Toronto, Canada]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, thank all of you for coming here today evening. And I’ll speak today on the topic of how free is our free will.
You all say that we have free will. So, what exactly is this free will and how free it is? So, especially in the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna analyses this. He says that, He says the conditioned soul is free, is pure, but it’s covered by ignorance.
The living being is covered by ignorance. So, basically, free will essentially means that there is a situation and we choose. Should I do this or should I do this? Literally speaking, say, if we are driving and we come to a crossroad, we have choice, should I go this way or that way? In life, we are, in a sense, constantly at crossroads.
At each situation, we can decide. So, for example, right now, I decided which topic I wanted to speak on. You decided whether to come for this programme or not come for this programme.
So, now, sometimes some choices are done by our intention. Some choices are simply forced by circumstance. So, for example, there are two roads and this one road is completely blocked.
The other road may be longer, but by circumstance, we just choose that road because that’s the only way we can go ahead. So, like that, some choices are more or less thrust upon us. Some choices are more or less initiated by us.
Now, when we initiate choices at that time, also what happens is that we have our willpower. Willpower basically means that we use the power of our will, our intention to go against either the situation or the emotion. Situation is external.
Sometimes in some external situation, we are pushed to do a particular thing. But say, if a person is riding in a boat and they are rowing the boat and the wind is pushing them in a particular direction, and then they push against it. Sometimes with our willpower, we may push against an external situation and do things in a particular way.
That is an external obstacle we try to overcome. The other is something internal, where we want to do something, but we don’t feel like doing it. The emotion is obstructed and even though I don’t feel like doing it, still I do it.
That is also where willpower is required. So, sometimes when we are not able to do something, we say that I don’t have willpower. So, now, what is the relationship between willpower and free will? See, free will is our capacity to choose our desires, to choose our intentions basically, not just desire, intention.
And willpower is the capacity to execute our intention. So, I will do this, that resolution is my free will. And the capacity to execute that is my willpower.
And in some situations, we may just not have a particular amount of willpower at a particular time. It is not just willpower alone. Circumstances limit us.
So, from the point of view of scripture, the soul always has the capacity to desire. But the capacity to execute those desires, that is determined often by one’s past karma. So, for example, if an elephant wants to destroy something, a tree, the elephant can just go and smash its trunk against a tree, smash its body against the tree.
And it has been given the bodily power to do that. If an ant wants to destroy a tree, the ant just doesn’t have the bodily power. Maybe that ant, if it’s a termite, it might go inside the tree and eat the tree from within.
But that is a very gradual process if the tree is a big tree. So, by the past karma, one soul has got the body of an ant, another soul has got the body of an elephant. And based on that, each of them has a certain capacity to act.
Now, when it comes to animals in different species, the difference is very easy to perceive. Yeah, the ant has such a small body, what can it do? The elephant has such a big body, can do so much. In the human species, however, although there may be many human beings, and all of them have the similar human body, but still they may have different amounts of willpower.
Now, when we say willpower is a result of past karma, what does it mean? When we say past karma, past karma is not just passed from a previous life. Past karma can be passed from this life also. Nobody, say somebody is now an alcoholic, alcohol addict.
Now, nobody is born drinking alcohol, is it? Nobody is born an addict. Now, it may have been that person was alcoholic in the past or that is the past karma or it may be that by their past karma, they are born in an alcoholic family. And both of these situations may make them more vulnerable to taking alcohol.
But still it is their free will they use. Now, we may say in childhood, if somebody’s parents give alcohol to the child, what can the child do? So, that is also, to have that kind of parents is also a result of one’s past karma. But always, so now when a child has grown up and become an alcohol addict, at that time, they have very little willpower left, at least with respect to alcohol, giving up alcohol.
Now, sometimes there are people who are big achievers in their own field. When I was in college, I knew one student who was a university topper, brilliant student and he could just, once you sit down to study, you could study for 12 hours, 16 hours. But, so he had tremendous willpower to study.
But he was also a chain smoker. So, he had willpower to study for hours and hours and hours, but he did not have the willpower to resist the urge to smoke. In fact, he told me by smoking, I get the, when I smoke, I can study.
My brain starts working. There are many, there is a famous Indian cartoonist. And this cartoonist, he, when he would get drunk, then he would get ideas for making cartoons.
And then he would just stay for hours and hours doing that. So, when we talk about willpower, nobody can say that actually, I don’t have willpower. Yes, even if somebody is a good student or whatever it is to study for hours and hours, even if to practise music for hours and hours, to draw art for hours and hours and become good, it requires willpower.
So, what happens is that our willpower is not a uniform thing. That means some of us may have strong willpower in one activity. And in another activity, we may have very weak willpower.
So, why does this happen like this? That somebody can resist the laziness or the tiredness of the body and study for hours, but they cannot resist the urge to smoke. So, this is simply a matter of habituation. The way a person has acted in the past, each action that we do, it creates a groove in our mind.
It makes sure, so if there’s a groove, then water flows through that groove very easily. So, like that, each time we act, even at a neurological level, brain scientists say that whenever we function, whenever we do any action, at that time, the brain connections are formed in a particular way. The synapses are formed between the dendrites, which are a part of the brain cells.
And when we do a same action again and again, and again, then those connections start getting formed more naturally, more instantaneously. And when we do the same action again and again, then those connections get solidified. And then after some time, that action becomes, just with a neurological connection itself becomes a natural action.
So, of course, this neurological wiring can be changed. The connection of the brain synapses are not irreversibly fixed. But basically, the way, just like if a person lifts weights, their muscles become stronger.
So, similarly, when we do a particular activity again and again, that part of the brain which is involved in functioning of that activity, that part of the brain becomes strengthened. So, we are going so much into technicalities of science over here. We are focussing on philosophy.
So, the point is that if a person has repeatedly smoked, and what happens? That is the pattern that is formed in the mind. And then that becomes a strong habit, that that itself becomes irresistible. On the other hand, a person has studied for a long time consistently, again and again and again.
That has also become a habit. So, on one side, we could say there’s a good habit of studying for a long time. On the other side, there’s a habit of smoking continuously.
So, these two are both habits. And in one case, the willpower was used in a particular way, by which, or not the willpower, by which the will was used in a particular way, to smoke, smoke, smoke, by which the willpower shrunk over there. On the other hand, the will was used another way by studying again and again, by which the willpower expanded.
So, I do not feel like studying. No, I am going to study. I want to talk.
I want to come first in my class. And there, what happened? This person resisted the emotion. I do not feel like studying.
No, I am going to study. So, when the emotion is, when the impulse is resisted by the power of intention, the willpower expands. So, basically, willpower is essentially a matter of the battle between intention and impulse.
Intention, this is what, this is what is important for me. This is what I plan to do. Impulse is, this is what I feel like doing.
So, in this battle between impulse and intention, if the intention wins again and again and again, the willpower becomes stronger and stronger. If the impulse wins again and again and again, then the willpower becomes weaker and weaker. So, for all of us, we can see in our own lives, some things are easy to know.
So, some people, they can fast very easily. They decide to fast and fast for one whole day, sometimes two days, three days, they just fast very easily. But the same people, you know, they tell them that, you know, control your anger.
They cannot do that. In fact, or tell them, you know, okay, somebody may be able to control their eating, but they may not be able to control their sleeping. Somebody may be able to control their sleeping, but they can’t control their eating.
So, this is just the way we have acted in the past, the kind of the body that we have, the kind of the use that we have put to our body. Based on that, we have certain starting reservoir of willpower. And based on how we use it, it increases, it decreases.
So, by karma, when I said, by past karma, some of us may have a body like an ant, some of us may have a body like elephants, not just necessarily in terms of size, but in terms of capacity to do things. And based on how we use it, it may increase or it may decrease that capacity. So, broadly speaking, when we talk about our behaviour, there are five factors involved.
Why do we act the way we do? I said, two children born in the same family, one child grows up to be a responsible young man, the two sons say, and the other person becomes like a derelict, becomes a juvenile delinquent, becomes an addict of some things. So, what makes the difference? So, actually, there are multiple factors. One is simply our past karma.
Our past karma comes to us as our psychophysical nature. Each of our body and mind, it naturally does some things, and it finds some things difficult. So, this inclination of the body and the mind, some people, you know, just they hear, they come to a temple, they pick up a kartal, and they start playing.
And they just so nicely they play. First time they come, no training required. And everybody is attracted.
When they start playing kartal, everybody wants to come, oh, how nicely you’re playing. There are others who come and play a kartal, and when they start playing, everybody wants to go away. Stop playing! And no matter how much they try, this doesn’t sink to them.
So, each of us has got a particular kind of body by our past karma. So, our actions are one level determined by our past karma. How we act right now.
Along with the past karma, there is also our upbringing. As I said, if somebody was born with parents who were alcoholics, then drinking alcohol becomes just like a normal part of life. Or somebody is born to parents who are very pious and religious, then going to a temple, worshipping the Lord, this becomes a part of their life.
So, now each of these factors, they shape our behaviour. They don’t determine our behaviour. Shape means they push us in particular ways.
So, our past life karma, which comes as our psychophysical nature is one factor. Second is our upbringing. The third is our association.
The kind of people we associate with. Sometimes, we may be in a very pious and protected environment in our home, but then we go to education, go for education, we go to a college or a university, and then it’s like in the university, a whole universe of temptation opens up before us. And then people may get addicted to some things.
They fall valued by some things, attached to some things, addicted to some things. So, their association shapes a lot. Now, beyond this, beyond these three factors, when we behave, we always have our free will.
So, the first two, our past life karma, which has come as a particular psychophysical nature, that is not changeable. Now, our upbringing also we had whatever we had, it’s not changeable. What is changeable right now is our association.
By changing our association, we can change the force that is influencing us. The force coming from our nature, the force coming from our upbringing, that we can’t change it. It is going to act on us right now.
But the force coming upon us from our association, we can change. So, if we choose good association, now this association alone doesn’t determine how we act. And this is also a shaper, it’s an influencer, it’s not a determiner.
So, it’s like say, something pushes me in this direction, I have the capacity to counter push. So, our free will is always there with us. But sometimes by our past karma, we may have acted in such a way that the free will may get very, very reduced.
As I said, sometimes alcoholic, the alcoholic also has free will. The alcohol may be impelled to drink. But sometimes alcoholics, you know, they spend a lot of time thinking, you know, which brand of alcohol to drink.
So, they have their free will there. But it is, so you could say free will is like, if say there is a pole to which an animal, say a horse or a cow is tied. So, the rope with which the cow is tied, the animal is tied, that is the free will.
So, some animals may be tied with a long rope. In English they are saying also, give somebody a long rope. You know, give them freedom, let them do what they want to do.
So, the idea is that, so if the animal is tied by a long rope, then it can move around substantially. Sometimes some animals may be tethered by a very tiny rope. They can move very little.
So, like that. Now, even if it is a tiny rope, still there is some capacity to move. Within a very small radius.
So, like that, somebody who has become an alcohol addict, for them, they are actually tethered by a very small rope. Their choice is, which alcohol to drink. That’s all.
So, Krishna says, so our free will is never taken away. But the scope of our free will is changed. The scope of our free will is determined by how we have used that free will in the past.
So, we have, we could say at level, we have unlimited freedom within a limited framework. So, within the radius of the rope, the horse can do anything. It can eat, it can neigh and scream, it can pound its legs, it can try to hit against the pole, it can try to strain at the rope.
It can do many things within the radius or within circumference of that rope. So, we have unlimited freedom within a limited framework. Now, how limited that freedom is going to be, that is determined by our past karma, our past choices, we could say.
So, when we start practising bhakti, so these three factors, out of these three, two are not changeable. One, two are the upbringing and the past karma. These two are not changeable.
So, past karma which has resulted in particular disposition that we have, our association is changeable. Beyond this, we have our free will. And our free will is further, can be further empowered.
This fourth factor of free will. The fifth factor is Krishna’s grace, it’s Krishna’s mercy. Krishna’s mercy can counter the influence of all the other factors.
When Krishna manifests his mercy in our life, that mercy is not just sometimes, you know, we go in front of the deities and we take darshan and we feel so good, we feel sometimes we are chanting Hare Krishna and, you know, we feel so happy. If we get such, if we give them, if we get such taste, that Krishna is so merciful. Yes, that is Krishna’s mercy.
It’s wonderful. Sometimes we may chant and during chanting, we just get so much taste, so much strength we feel. We feel as if chanting should never end.
Just keep chanting, keep chanting. And after the next day when we chant, we feel chanting never ends. It is going on.
When will it end? I want to do other thing. The taste come, the taste disappears. So, Krishna’s mercy can come as some sublime pleasure that we get.
That is wonderful if we get that kind of pleasure. Krishna’s mercy which is more enduring and more transformational is not just in terms of the intense joy that we experience at certain moments in bhakti. Krishna’s more enduring mercy, more transformational mercy is when the quality of our desires change.
So, something which you were attracted to earlier, suddenly the attraction disappears. Many devotees have this experience, especially in the early days. We might be having some habits which we wanted to give up, but we are not able to give up.
We start chanting Hare Krishna and suddenly it just goes off. So, what has happened? There is, as I said, willpower. When is it required? When there is a conflict between emotion and intention.
I know I should be doing this. That’s my intention. I want to do it, but I don’t feel like doing it.
So, there is the emotion which is feeling, do this. The intention is saying, no, do that. So, sometimes Krishna’s mercy manifests in two ways basically.
There is buddhi and there is uruchi. Buddhi means our intelligence becomes very strong and then that intelligence strengthens our intention. No matter how I feel, I am going to do this.
I am convinced that this is the best thing to do. I will do it. So, getting the buddhi is also Krishna’s mercy.
But sometimes Krishna’s mercy manifests as uruchi. The desire itself changes. I don’t feel like doing this.
I want to do this. So, when it manifests as buddhi, at that time the struggle is there internally. I don’t feel like doing it, but with my determination, I do it.
But when the Krishna’s mercy manifests as uruchi, when it manifests as taste, as transformed taste we could say, not just an occasional spike of spiritual pleasure. This is a transformed taste. When uruchi comes, then we are no longer attracted and then in one sense, we don’t need willpower at that time because it just becomes natural for us to be attracted to Krishna.
So, we all, if we look back at our life, we will find that maybe some of the things which we were attracted to earlier, we just have no attraction for now. Some of us might have been drinking tea earlier. Now, how many of us, if we see our colleagues drinking tea, oh, I feel I feel without tea, my life is null and void.
I don’t feel like that. But maybe in the past, we might have felt like that. So, it’s just gone.
This has happened to some extent in our life and it will happen more. If you remember this, we see Krishna’s mercy does transform us. And when we are talking about our willpower right now, so, sometimes we may decide, I make a resolution to do this and I fail.
I just can’t do it. Again and again and again, I collapse back. I relapse into the same kind of behaviour which I had earlier and this may discourage us.
What is the use? So, now, our willingness is more important than our willpower. Our willpower is the capacity to do things. Our willingness is our wanting to do something.
Sometimes we may just not be in a situation where we can do certain things. I may want to chant more. I may want to do some more seva.
I may want to do a particular thing. I want to give up a particular habit. I want to do a particular thing.
Sometimes the repeated failures because of an inadequate willpower, they may dishearten us so much that we stop trying. So, our willingness, if we give up, then even Krishna cannot help us. Sometimes we may want to do something, but our willpower may not be there.
So, rather than lamenting that I don’t have willpower, we can focus on doing what we can do. So, how free is our free will? That was the starting question of this class. Answer is that it varies from different people to different people.
From person to person, it varies how free is their free will. But there is always some scope for the free will. And if we use that scope well, by that we show Krishna.
So, what do I want to do? So, for example, when we are chanting. Now, for us, it may not be possible to chant all around attentively. But we surely have the capacity to avoid intentional inattentiveness.
What does intentional inattentiveness mean? Sometimes when some people are chanting, they read the notice board, they look here, they look there. Some people do japa that is called like a radar japa. Radar japa is, while chanting, they don’t miss anything that is happening in the room.
They don’t miss anything except the Holy Name. So, that kind of… In a sense, it’s intentionally inattentive. Just looking all around.
What does everyone else do? So, there are certain activities where we are inattentive. At least that level of inattentiveness we can avoid. So, sometimes, you know, we want to focus on the Holy Name right here.
And it may be very difficult for us to do that. But, okay, if I can’t focus here, it’s like, you know, I have to shoot an arrow and I want to hit the bullseye. Hitting the bullseye, I do not have the skill, the accuracy to hit the bullseye.
But that doesn’t mean I turn around and shoot the arrow here. I can still aim with my capacity. Even if I miss the bullseye, I might hit somewhere on the target.
So, like that, we shouldn’t think of attentive chanting as like a digital affair. One or zero. Now, I’m attentive or I’m not attentive.
It’s analogue. There are degrees of attentiveness. So, even if I can’t hit the bullseye, even if I can’t be fully attentive, at least I’m hitting the target somewhere.
Maybe not in the centre. It’s the first circle, second circle, third circle, fourth circle. So, I’m not thinking about the sound of the Holy Name.
But still, let me think about Krishna. Let me think about something related with Krishna. So, we definitely, we may not have the willpower to hit the bull.
We may not have the skill to hit the bullseye. But we don’t have to hit in the sky somewhere else entirely. We definitely have enough skill to at least aim the arrow at the target.
Whether it hits the target or not, that’s not in our control. So, like that, when we are practising bhakti, whatever freedom we have, we just use it well. Krishna sees that and Krishna appreciates that.
And in due course, Krishna will enable us to increase our willpower, increase our capacity to use our free will properly. And sometimes when we say, you know, Krishna, okay, if Krishna can just give me taste and remove this desire, Krishna can free me from this habit, Krishna can just remove this conditioning from me, why does Krishna not do it? Yes, Krishna can do it in one moment. But then, the problem often is that we are vulnerable to pride.
So, I might just become free from one conditioning and if I become free from it, then we will think, see, I have become so pure. Everybody else is so fallen. So, that purity becomes the cause of impurity for us.
I got purity from desire, but I have got the impurity of pride. So, sometimes we struggle and struggle and struggle and we are not able to do a particular thing. And then finally, we understand, I am not the doer.
And eventually, when we are able to do it, we understand, it is not that I who did it. It is Krishna’s mercy that enabled me to do it. So, that way, the purity, when it comes after some time, then it brings humility.
It is not I who purified myself. It is not just my determination by which I did this thing. Actually, it was the Krishna’s mercy.
So, one of the characteristics of a devotee in the Bhakti Sama Siddhi, we say that, is Asha Baddha. The devotee is always hopeful. Devotee never gives up hope.
And that means that we may try and may not succeed. But Krishna sees not so much whether we succeed or not. Krishna sees whether we are trying or not.
If we are trying, Krishna appreciates that. In fact, the example Rupa Goswami used over there is so extreme. He says, if Krishna himself comes and tells a devotee, you are hopeless.
You are never going to change. He said that a devotee still maintains hope. Now, Krishna will one day be merciful, things will change.
Let me do what I can. So, that willingness to use whatever free will we have, we use it properly. We do what we can.
If we do it, Krishna will expand the scope of our freedom. Krishna will give us more willpower. And by that, our life will become better.
We’ll become better human beings. We’ll become better devotees. We’ll be able to contribute more.
We’ll become more satisfied. All the growth that comes in our life, it’ll happen if we just start with what we can do. Instead of lamenting, oh, I can’t do this, I can’t do that, whether it is because of situation or because of our own emotion.
By past karma, we have desires triggering up in a particular way. We have certain attachments. By past karma, we might be put in a particular situation.
But all that doesn’t matter. What is of essence is, what is the quality of our desire? What is our intention? Are we doing what we can with what we have now? Surrender, I conclude with this point. Surrender means to do what we can with what we have now.
Surrender means to do what we can with what we have now. Somebody says, oh, in future, when I have a lot of time, I will study Shastra. That’s very good.
In future, you can do that. But now, I can open one page. I can read one minute, five minutes I can read.
I can just slip in some time, do what we can with what we have now. That’s the use of our freedom. We do that, Krishna appreciates that and Krishna will reward that.
Gradually, our capacity for freedom will increase. So, just because we can’t make big improvements right now, we shouldn’t delay the journey to improvement. Make a small improvement, whatever we can.
Rather than feeling that, oh, I don’t have willpower. Okay, we have free will. Use it as much as is possible and Krishna will increase it.
So, surrender doesn’t have to be in a very big life-changing way, you know. I just give up my job. I renounce the world.
I just serve Krishna 24 hours a day. That is surrender. Yes, that is one way of surrender.
But that is not the only way of surrender. Okay, within the life that I have right now, how can I serve Krishna? That itself is also surrender. And usually, dramatic forms of surrender are easier to do.
That means, oh, I’ll go on Yatra to Vrindavan. I’ll go here. I’ll go there, you know.
That seems very dramatic in a sense. So, sometimes our mind and senses get related. I’m having a change in my life.
My ego gets related. See, I’m such a sincere devotee. I’ve given up so much for Krishna.
Yes, it’s good if we can do those things. But actually, what will transform our life is not those dramatic acts of devotion. Wonderful if we have the opportunity, we should do them.
But what will change our life is the small changes that we make. Within our situation, we try to maximise. We try to maximise our vakti.
Sanatana goes Swami and Rupa goes Swami. At one time, they were forced to become Muslims by their circumstance. Now, at that time, becoming a Muslim was not just a matter of losing your religion.
It’s a matter of also being ostracised by society. Society was very orthodox at that time. Nawab Hussain Shah at that time told them that, if you don’t do this, we will persecute the devotee community.
They knew that he was a competent brother. Nawab wanted him as ministers. They didn’t want to work under him.
If you don’t work, we will persecute. So, then they decided to become like a buffer, a shock absorber. They decided to convert so that they could protect the devotee community.
Now, within that, they had to externally act like Muslims. But within the facilities they had… Now, if you see in Ramakeli, where they are staying, they go on pilgrimage. There, they created a Gupta Vrindavan.
In their house itself, externally they were Muslim. But they had, internally, they created a place where Radha Krishna could be worshipped. They created a place where they could chant, they could pray, they could practise bhakti.
And they were put in externally very limited circumstances. But within that, they practised. Although, initially, in the community, they came into shock.
How can you become like this? But over a period of time, they saw, they are at heart still devotees. And then, Brahmins also started coming to their place and they would recite Bhagavatam. So, within the limitation that they were put, they used what they had.
Eventually, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu arranged for them. They could just give up everything, surrender to Krishna. And then, they went to Vrindavan and wrote so many books and became completely absorbed in bhakti.
So, it is not that at that time they became surrendered. They were always surrendered. Even when they were externally not being able to do much bhakti practises, still they were surrendered.
Surrender means to do what we can with what we have now. So, I’ll summarise. I spoke today about how free is our free will.
So, we started by talking about how willpower essentially means that there is a conflict between our intention, what we want to do, and our emotion, what we feel like doing or our situation, what we are forced to do by circumstance. So, if I am on the road, I can either choose left or right. But sometimes, the force of the traffic may be such that I am just pushed to choose a particular direction.
So, we have to make choices at all times in our life. Some choices are big, some choices are small. And our willpower is exercised by the kind of choices that we make.
And different people have different willpower. The same person may have a lot of willpower in one activity. Like a student who can study for hours and hours and hours, but very little willpower in another activity.
Where they can’t, they change smokers and can’t resist smoking. Why does it happen like this? It is by past karma. It is like an ant and elephant.
The ant has small influence, the elephant has a large influence. That is by past karma. So, how do we behave? That is determined by many factors.
Determined by our past karma, which is given as a particular kind of psychophysical nature. Determined by our upbringing, by our association, by how we use our free will, and by Krishna’s grace. So, the upbringing and the psychophysical nature, we can’t change.
But our association, we can change right now. And then I focused most of the class on that, on using our free will right now. That our scope of free will may be limited.
Still we always have free will. Alcoholic has a free will to choose which kind of alcohol to drink. Sometimes our past karma may put us in very limiting circumstances.
We have unlimited freedom within a limited framework. Like an animal tied by a rope. So, even if the rope is very small, the animal has some freedom.
So, instead of lamenting that I can’t do this, I can’t do that, just focus on doing what we can do. When we do what we can, then we attract Krishna’s mercy. Krishna’s mercy can come as… we may think certain intense spiritual experiences of joy, they are Krishna’s mercy.
But they may not be even transformational for us, sustainably transformational. Sustainably transformational mercy comes in terms of buddhi, where intelligence strengthens our intention. This is what I am going to do, no matter how I feel, or no matter what the world does.
Buddhi becomes very strong and Krishna’s mercy also comes as rochi, where just our desires change. Certain things which used to tempt us, they don’t tempt us anymore. And certain things which we just feel attracted to so strongly.
So, we needn’t see the improvement of our willpower as a digital thing. It’s like a churning, chanting. You may not be able to chant attentively, but there can be degrees of inattention.
And we can minimise the degrees. I may not be able to hit the bullseye, but still I can try to aim at the target and go as close to the target as possible. So like that, when we do what we can with what we have, now that is surrender.
And Sanatana Goswami, although they externally had to give up Vaishnav Dharma, internally they embraced it. Circumstantially, they created what they could. And eventually, Lord Chaitanya arranged for much greater opportunities for them to serve.
So, we are sometimes attracted to dramatic acts of devotion, where give up everything or go somewhere else. That’s fine, if we can do it. But more important is, within our situation, just try to make incremental improvements.
And by those incremental improvements, Krishna will be pleased and Krishna will change our circumstance. Krishna will increase our willpower and He will bless us. So, Krishna can change our conditioning in one moment.
But sometimes, we may become free from the impurity of desire, we may get the impurity of pride. So, when we are unable to give up our conditionings despite our repeated practise, then that brings humility. And eventually, when we become free, we’ll become free not only from the desires, not only from the bad conditionings, but also free from pride.
And we’ll become completely surrendered to Krishna, absorbed in Krishna. So, our willingness is more important than our willpower. By doing what we can, we increase our willpower because we attract Krishna’s mercy.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Any questions or comments? Next room.
I have a question. You mentioned the word mercy. And the question was, if you said questions about causes of mercy, could you explain what is the cause of mercy? How are the warriors then qualified to get the cause of mercy? And does the cause of mercy come while you are being a Guru or can you get the cause of mercy without having to be a Guru? So, what is causeless mercy and does the causeless mercy through Guru or can it come without initiation also? And then also, how we can qualify ourselves.
Okay. How can we qualify ourselves for it? Prabhupada gave the example of once there was on a morning walk and there were some ducks in a lake and there’s a man who was feeding those ducks and there’s one particular duck which is quacking very loudly. And it’s quacking loudly, quacking loudly.
This man was feeding that duck more. So, Prabhupada said, this is causeless mercy. The man is completely free to give the crumbs of bread or the eatables, food to whoever, whichever duck he wants.
But because this duck is begging so much, man is giving. So, in a sense, if we see the activity of mercy as it’s causeless in the sense that it is nothing within us that makes us qualified for it. See, when we say qualified, by qualified we mean we can demand it.
I’m qualified. You have to give it to me now. But in that sense, we are never qualified because we always follow.
The person is not obliged to give the ducks any bread at all. So, like that, Krishna is not obliged. But when we endeavour, by our endeavour, we show Krishna our desire.
It is not our endeavour which attracts, it is not our endeavour which forces Krishna to give mercy. It is not our endeavour that makes us qualified to get mercy. Endeavour simply attracts Krishna’s attention and Krishna will be inspired to give mercy.
So, in that sense, we don’t qualify, but we do show Krishna our desire through our actions. So, Prabhupada was asked that, do you love all your disciples equally? He said, yes. And he said, but if someone comes forward to take responsibility, I reciprocate.
Like parents, they love all their children equally. But then if in their home, all the home responsibilities, in their work at home, if there’s a child who’s helpful, who takes it, naturally the parents feel more connected with that child. So, there’s a reciprocation over there.
So, Krishna, the mercy is causeless. But by our endeavour, we can attract Krishna’s mercy. We don’t qualify for it.
We can’t demand it, but we can attract it. Now, as far as does mercy come only through a spiritual master, we should see or not come without initiation. Krishna’s mercy is not limited.
It can come through anyone, anytime. And Krishna does not see. Krishna does not have a attendance sheet to see whether you attended the initiation ceremony or not, then I’ll give you mercy.
Otherwise, I’ll not give you mercy. It’s not like that. Krishna is not a legalistic God.
But the point is, initiation is the way we show our commitment to Krishna. It’s a part of our endeavour. So, it’s not that if I’m not initiated, I get no mercy.
And now I’ve initiated, now I’ve got my passport to Vaikuntha. It’s not like that. It’s not like that.
It is, initiation is a external, is a practise, it’s a ceremony, which signifies a commitment to serious endeavour. So, it’s a part of the process. And it’s a commitment to serious endeavour.
That’s what we do at the time of initiation. So, it’s the endeavour which attracts Krishna’s mercy. And Krishna’s mercy comes through the Guru.
But you have to understand, Guru is not one. There are Diksha Gurus, there are Shiksha Gurus. So, in the community of devotees, we can get Krishna’s mercy from various sources.
And we just try to serve Krishna. We try to serve devotees according to and the mercy will come. So, as devotees, we focus not so much on, you know, it’s not that, you know, I serve my spiritual master and neglect everyone else.
My spiritual master calls me. So, when my spiritual master calls me, I just push everyone aside, you know, get out of the way, my spiritual master is calling. It’s not like that, you know.
We have to see that Krishna manifests in various ways. Yes, prominently the manifestation is to a spiritual master. But we can serve Krishna in various ways and we can get Krishna’s mercy from various sources.
So, when we basically have an attitude of service, then technicalities don’t matter so much. The spiritual master also is meant to inspire us, infuse us with the attitude of service. So, if we have the desire to serve, sometimes we may get to serve the spiritual master directly.
Sometimes we may get to serve the spiritual master indirectly to serving other devotees who are associated with spiritual master. Sometimes we may serve the spiritual master or a little more indirectly by serving the community of which we are a part, the organisation of which we are a part. It doesn’t matter so much.
Ultimately, the spiritual master represents Krishna and Krishna can receive our service from any source. But we get special guidance, special connection that happens to the spiritual master. Do you answer your question? Thank you.
Yes. Ten buses are going. It’s hot sun, 40, 50, 100.
No buses stop for villages. There are small ranging villages. I remember once I touched a boy, a small boy, 15, 12.
He’s holding hand. Like this holding. Bus drivers immediately stop.
Come on, sit down. Because we are 50 people. We don’t want to stop.
We want to go home straight after your shift. And we are in good company. Yeah.
We are in good company. So this fellow is a poor guy in hot sun. He’s strong.
Holds his hand and immediately break. Take cover, get in. That’s true.
That’s what we do. Quacks. Thank you.
My question is, how do you control your impulsive behaviour? How do? How do you control your impulsive behaviour? Okay. And I was reading one of the book already. I got the book.
But we are pausing it. And also when we are talking that we are going and you select the direction left or right. That’s come from impulse.
Yeah. So I don’t know. It happens.
Okay. So how do we control our impulsive behaviour? Basically, at the first level, we just have to start with externals. The externals are not enough, but the externals are often essential in the beginning.
Krishna, when he talks about controlling selfish desire, controlling lust, he says, ta smartham inriyan yadav, begin with the senses. So, for example, if I decided that I’m not going to overeat, or I’m not going to eat fatty foods. So if I keep, if I get, if I get a snack attack, I suddenly desire to eat a snack, snack attack.
So when I get a snack attack, now if I have some healthy food, maybe some, some fruit, some vegetable that there in my, I’m working, there’s my drawer, I have that. I also have a fatty snack. If I’m conscious, I will eat that healthy snack.
I resolve to eat that healthy snack. But if I’m talking on phone, I’m reading something, I’m tapping something, suddenly the snack attack comes, my hand will automatically go to the fatty snack. I eat it and after some time, hey, I was not supposed to eat it.
What happened? So what happens is that when we have acted on the impulses repeatedly, then those impulses, they just trigger us towards actions without even our understanding it. So there are some actions which just happen subconsciously. So there is, so now when those actions are happening subconsciously, then to check them becomes very difficult.
That’s why it’s best to create an obstacle externally. That means, you know, don’t keep that fatty snack nearby. Don’t keep that in the home.
So usually when that impulse comes, the force of the impulse doesn’t last for a very long time. But while it is there, it seems irresistible. So when the impulse comes and I desire to eat something, if that food is immediately available, I just grab it and eat it, I won’t even realise it.
But if that food is not available, I have to go somewhere and get it. Then what happens? During that time, the impulse is suddenly spiked up and it’s very strong. But as the time passes, the impulse intensity also goes down.
I don’t want to do this. I don’t really want to do this. So that way, if we can make whatever is our impulsive behaviour, we can make that not so easily available for ourselves, create some external obstacle within us and that external, that impulse, that helps.
It is not a ultimate solution. It is just an initial solution. But an initial solution itself, as they say, out of sight is out of mind.
So that’s one way of doing it. Of course, if we dwell on the impulse, if we meditate on that impulsive desire, then we’ll go wherever we get that object and we’ll get it. That’s possible always.
But much of that battle can be avoided by just not having that object available as much as possible. It is said that the best time to win the war against temptation is before it begins. Before the desire starts growing, just stop it.
It is not available only. No, get out. But now that is not always possible.
So then we can, second thing as I said, association. Association means we could have some friends with whom we make some resolutions. We say, this is what I’m going to do.
And then we share. This is what I plan to wake up in the morning. But I’m not able to wake up.
I just feel like sleeping so much. Then we have some friends with whom we share. This is what I did.
This is what I did not do. And then that is called as not just a general friend, but it’s more like we want to be accountable to someone. It’s accountability partner.
If I decide I want to read, I want to study scripture, but I’m not able to do it. Make a plan with some other people, not just ourselves. And then that can also help a lot.
The third thing is that when the impulse comes, unavailability is not the solution. It is the initial step. What we need is some intelligence.
Oh, this is not what I want to do. So now at that time, when the impulse comes, the intelligence doesn’t work. We don’t just, it’s like, it’s when the impulse comes, it is the impulse comes and presses the delete button of our intelligence.
All that we have learned, we just forget at that time. So at that time, if you know that some person is very forgetful, there are some people who just forget things. And we tell them, you know, when you’re coming there, please get it.
And then they don’t get it. They say, I don’t know, I forgot. Now, why did you forget? If we understand after a period of time that they are forgetful people, then what we have to do is, rather than expecting them to do it, we have to take the initiative.
And we remind them two, three times, and we write it down somewhere so they remember it. And then make sure. So if they are forgetful, then reminding them is our responsibility, telling them is not.
So like that, we find out sometimes that with respect to certain impulses, we become forgetful. Then we have to create reminders for ourselves. Reminders means, if a particular impulse is overpowering us, then if we have heard some philosophical points, if we have done some analysis ourselves, intellectual analysis, heard some verses, heard some quotes about why this particular impulse is bad, why I need to give it up, then we keep that readily available for us.
Write it down. Keep it readily available in a phone or a diary or somewhere, so that at that time, when our intelligence doesn’t work, we borrow intelligence from there. And we use that intelligence at that time.
And it does help. So this is beyond that. We need to pray to Krishna.
At that time, we may not feel like praying. But if we look at our impulses, you know, we often find that there are certain circumstances which trigger them. So for example, if I’m going on the road, there’s a pothole.
Now, if a car goes in the pothole, there’s a bump over there. So there’s a jolt I feel. So what we do is we anticipate, okay, there’s a pothole going to come over here.
So we plan and we take our car from a different direction. Slightly steer it away. So if we look back and find out what are the situations in which we face impulses, and then before that, we pray to Krishna.
Before that happens, we sincerely pray to Krishna. And then, even if that doesn’t help us at that time, somehow, and still we get overpowered. But the fact that we are praying to Krishna at that time will increase Krishna.
And the likelihood of our remembering will increase. So, as I conclude, the last point is that we don’t have to define our bhakti by our capacity to resist impulses. Oh, I made this resolution.
I can’t, I didn’t do it. Again, relapse. I’m good for nothing, useless.
Now, the impulses may come, the impulses may make us do something which we didn’t want to do. But that’s just one part of life. What are we doing? The impulses are not there 24 hours a day.
The impulses come as a spike, and they stay for some time, they go. What we are doing in between the impulses is much more important. If at that time also, if either we are lamenting, why did I do that? Why did I do that? Why did I do that? Or we’re looking for craving.
Next time, I’ll do this. Next time, I’ll do it. Then we’re not Krishna conscious at all.
We’re simply mind conscious. The mind impels us to do something, and the mind beats us up. Why are we doing this? So, okay, whatever has happened, it’s happened in between.
So, during the time of impulse, I’m unable to connect with Krishna. I end up doing something which I don’t want to do. But in between the impulses, what am I doing? If I am wholeheartedly connecting with Krishna, doing things enthusiastically, that itself is purifying.
Sometimes the impulse may be so strong, that despite everything else, despite distancing ourselves from the objects, despite having an accountability partner, despite having a source of borrowed intelligence, despite praying, still we may relapse. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is what are we doing in between.
Doesn’t matter means not that it doesn’t define us as much as what we do in between. If in between the impulses, we are connecting with Krishna, we’ll become purified and gradually the impulses will become more manageable. We shouldn’t make the battle against temptation more important than the war for devotion.
The war for devotion is we are trying to connect with Krishna, doing many things for that. The battle against temptation is one part of that. Sometimes because we are defeated in the battle against temptation, we become so discouraged that we stop fighting the war for devotion.
Okay, something I did which I was not meant to do, but still I can chant now, I can read now, I can do so many things now, now that the impulse is tormenting me. So even if we are defeated in the battle against temptation, doesn’t matter. We fight the war for devotion as much as I can.
We should never be frustrated devotees of renunciation. Okay, I couldn’t do that. I’m frustrated.
No, we always meant to be hopeful devotees of Krishna. Okay, I couldn’t do this. Doesn’t matter.
Next time I’ll try. But in between, now let me connect with Krishna. Thank you.
Any other questions? Okay. So in many stories in the Bhagavatam, it seems as if everything is predetermined. Now Prahlad is already known that he’s going to be a devotee.
They’re already cursed by which they’re going to be demons. So if things are predetermined like then what is the scope for free will? There are two different things over here. Scriptures often talk about pastimes which demonstrate principles in their extreme and the purpose is not to standardise the extreme.
The purpose is to emphasise a principle. Just like we see the Ajamil pastime. He just chants one name of Narayan and he’s saved from hell.
Now, this is not to standardise the extreme. The Bhagavatam’s conclusion is not all of us can just do whatever we want throughout our life. Make sure at the end of your life, you chant Narayan.
That is not the lesson. What Shukadeva Goswami says is that if he chanted once unconsciously, and even that helped him so much. So if we chant regularly consciously, how much more it will benefit us? So the point is not to standardise the extreme, but to emphasise the standard.
So similarly, when we talk about these pastimes, often they demonstrate an extreme level of things being orchestrated by destiny. But within that, there is always free will. That level of… because the Lord’s pastimes are often orchestrated.
In Krishna’s pastimes, who is Yashoda, how is Nanda Maharaj? All that is fixed. There is some variation when he appears at different times and perform different Leela, but much of it is fixed. So that is not the way that things happen all the time.
Even within that, there are different times when different things are emphasised. So for example, when Vidura is trying to persuade Dhritarashtra that stop Durudana. Vidura says, actually, if it’s destiny, then what can I do? Then at that time, Vidura tells him, destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves.
Yes, it may be destiny that Durudana does not listen to you. But your trying to stop Durudana is not destiny. It is up to you.
So sometimes we may do our best and the result may not come. That is destiny. But our not doing our best is not destiny.
That is something which is our responsibility. So this is where he puts the thrust on Dhritarashtra. But after the whole war is fought and all his 100 sons are destroyed and at that time, Dhritarashtra is lamenting very grievously.
At that time, Vyasadev comes and Vyasadev tells him that this war was destined. So now the dynasty is destroyed. Now you just move forward with your life.
So again, the point is what? Vyasadev himself had also come earlier to give Dhritarashtra good instruction. Stop Durudana. Vyasadev was also another person who told him.
The point is, we should always… Why is Vyasadev telling him it was destined? See, the point is that he should not just be living in lamentation. He has to do something positive now. So in that sense, philosophy is there and there is a purpose of philosophy.
The purpose of philosophy is to elevate people’s consciousness. And at different points, at different stages in a person’s life, in different situations, different aspects of a philosophy may be emphasised. So, you know, if somebody is very attached, then they think, I am having a very comfortable life.
You tell them, what is this comfort? You can die at any moment. Everybody’s life is temporary. You may die.
Prabhupada would say that to Americans. You had the example of JFK. He was so popular, so famous and suddenly he died.
So somebody is very complacent, you may tell them, you can die any moment. But say, somebody has lost a loved one and at that time, if you tell them, you have lost one loved one, others are also going to die. It will be monstrously insensitive to do that.
That is the time we are meant to console them. So now it’s true, philosophically speaking, that everybody is going to die. But that is not the time to speak that.
That is the time we speak how Krishna is there with everyone, Krishna is there with you, Krishna is there with your loved one and wherever they are, Krishna will guide you. Pray to Krishna. Take shelter of Krishna.
If we do it that way, then we are not only speaking the philosophy, we are speaking the philosophy in a way that serves the purpose of the philosophy. That is to help people to rise to higher consciousness. So in scripture, Baldevindaya Bhushan talks about this point that if everything is determined by destiny, then scripture itself becomes pointless.
Why? Because scripture tells us do this and don’t do this. If nothing were in our hands, if everything were destined, then what is the point of scripture telling us these things? The very fact the scriptures tell us do this and don’t do this, that means scripture doesn’t implicitly convey that we have free will. Even in past times where there seems to be like past life correlation because of which a person is behaved, meant to be a person behaves in a particular way.
Hiranyakashipu becomes a demon, Prahlad becomes a devotee. So there are lessons drawn from there and those lessons are also given in scripture. You just see Hiranyakashipu who had acquired so much power, so much influence, but still he was never satisfied.
And that is a result of uncontrolled senses. Therefore, don’t do that. Don’t chase after things like that.
Learn to control the senses. So there are lessons given in scripture even in past times where there seems to be high level of predestination involved. So scriptural past times where a high level of predestination is involved, they are, we could say, extreme cases where the Lord orchestrates a lot of things to teach particular lessons.
But one of the lessons taught even in those times is that we should act in particular ways and not act in particular ways. And that implies that there is free will. So we always have free will and we need to present things in such a way that people are encouraged.
So somebody has committed a mistake and they are already very discouraged. And at that time, you are such a fool, why did you commit such a mistake? Then they will discourage them further. So at that time, instead of emphasising the fact that they made a mistake, that they misused their free will, you focus on the fact that Krishna can bring good even out of the bad.
Just surrender to Krishna. Things will work out. So we have to, so scripture sometimes present things contextually and in particular context certain aspects are emphasised.
We have to see the full gamut of scriptural teaching to understand, to get a balanced picture of things. Does it answer your question? Any other questions? My question is that like even in one family, like how we say that when you get certain type of parents, like it is part of your karma. And yet there are so many differences in personality and point of view and understanding.
So why is that, that in a way you are like connected and in a way there is so many differences. You are talking about between parents and children? In a family. So sometimes in a family, if we get a particular family by our karma, then why is it that there are so many differences? Well, sometimes those differences are the way by which we get our karma also.
That means that there are, that the karma can come in different ways. So for example, we by certain karma, there may be certain kinds of connections that is established between some people. But there can also be some amount of differences.
Sometimes the differences may be more, sometimes the differences may be less, because of which certain conflicts may occur. So we understand that when there is interaction between people, the multiple kinds of karma are involved. There are certain amounts of similarity which are there.
But broadly speaking, it is not only similarity that determines whether I’ll be born in this family or that family. Similarity is one thing, but there is also the fact that our karma comes through us to different people around us. So sometimes certain people, they may just be more instruments of karma than instruments of kindness.
Sometimes Krishna exhibits His kindness through some people. Those people may be very kind, but it is not they themselves are kind. It is actually Krishna who is exhibiting His kindness through them.
So sometimes some people may just be very, very harsh, very judgemental. Ultimately, it is our karma coming through them. So that does not mean that we have to put up with abuse, we have to put up with exploitation.
We may have to respond appropriately to that. But it is just that when we come together in a particular set of relationships, it is not necessarily entirely because of compatibility. Such as incompatibility may be a part of the relationship by which certain reactions come up.
But it is not necessary that that means that relationships have to be only for suffering. It can also be that if we are mature, we learn to live with those incompatibilities. And we develop a relationship in spite of those incompatibilities.
There will be differences, but then we learn how to see commonality beyond the differences. And sometimes that can help us to grow also. So rather than seeing that as seeing the presence of differences simply as negative, we can see that as a learning opportunity.
Of course, there are sometimes different things which we can learn in different situations. Sometimes we may just learn that this relationship, we will never come too close. Sometimes the problem comes not because two people are incompatible.
It is not just that their nature is incompatible. But it is also the problem comes that there is mismatching in expectation of proximity. They are saying that good fences make good neighbours.
So if a boundary is not clear, this is my property, this flower came on my land, my land, this fruit came on my land, my land. No, they keep fighting. Sometimes, you know, we may expect too much proximity or intimacy in a particular relationship.
And the other person feels, you know, you’re just divining too much, you’re too, you’re encroaching on my territory. Sometimes if we just, I just moderate that level of expectation. Now we can have a good relationship at a distance with some people.
And if we try to bring that too close, then that creates conflict. So we shouldn’t just because we are biologically or relationally connected with some people, does not necessarily mean that we will be emotionally connected with them the same degree. So we ourselves need to be intelligent and work out.
This relationship works well at this distance. This relationship works well in this amount of proximity. And we will find that if we are just open, Krishna will offer us love through various directions.
Sometimes we expect love and affection in one particular relationship and we just don’t get it. But then Krishna, that’s the problem. And we let any particular relationship in this world define us.
You know, our self-identity, our self-worth, it should come from our relationship with Krishna. If we let any relationship in this world define us, and if we get neglect or rejection in that relationship, it can devastate us. But if we let our connection with Krishna define us, then whatever level of distance or proximity is appropriate for that relationship, we can learn to live with that.
Does it answer your question? Thank you. Thank you, Krishna. Yes, please.
I have a question for the quality of chanting. So there is a specific thing, because the mind is so uncontrollable. So when chanting, then the mind is very quickly thinking different things.
So my question is, is there a specific thing you need to think at that moment, okay, that chant is only concerned with a name, or the deity’s face, or the temple or something? How far we can think? I mean, suppose there’s a programme in France, so automatically mind will go there. So is this acceptable for the chanting or is this acceptable now? And how far we can think about that moment? Okay. So in chanting, you know, the mind goes to, if we can’t focus on the holy name, how far is it acceptable to think about other things? It’s not a matter of acceptable or unacceptable.
It’s a matter of what works and what doesn’t work. The mind is like a child. When a mother is taking care of the child, the mother cannot work with a rigid formula.
You know, sometimes the child is crying and the mother does one thing, the child becomes pacified. Next day the mother does the same thing, the child doesn’t become pacified. So the mother has to be creative with that, whatever works.
So like that, with our mind, we try to focus on Krishna as much as possible. If it doesn’t work, can’t hear on the holy name, we can let it fix on something else. Now we try to have, as I said, the picture of the deities.
We can have the written Hare Krishna Mahamantra in front of us. We can have Tulsi Devi in front of us. We can have some, we can maybe take a pause in our chanting, recite some verses, maybe some shikshashtakam, something about the glories of the holy name.
Sometimes we may just stop and take a few deep breaths. Sometimes we just stand up for a sitting, we can walk. So we have to see what works.
The point is to fix the mind on Krishna and whatever way we can fix the mind on Krishna, we do that. And over a period of time, we will find out what it is that brings our mind back to Krishna. There is a point of concentration, which is the sound of the holy name.
And there is a circle of concentration. If the mind can’t focus on this, then let it go somewhere which is related to the holy name, related to Krishna. That may be any of these things.
The picture of the deities, some verse about the holy name, whatever it is, like that. So if it doesn’t work on the point, it can work on the circle. And how far that circle can extend, we have to see whether that circle, it helps me to come back to Krishna or it takes me further away from Krishna.
So if I’m chanting, I think of a programme, oh, I have to do this thing. I have not done that. I have to do that.
I have to take out my phone. I start doing that. So then what is happening? Then if I think of that programme, that programme, you know, that devotee, he or she is so serious about chanting.
So basically, the idea is when the mind wanders, we let that wander and become in a circle. It goes off there and comes back to the holy name. And that wandering just becomes an endless journey further and further away from Krishna.
It is undesirable. So which kind of scope for wandering for the mind helps it to come back and which causes it to go away? That is something which we have to be vigilant about and we learn by experience. So rather than worrying about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, because we may say this is not acceptable, but the mind does it, what can you do at that time? So we just see what works for the mind.
And what works for your mind may be different, may not, may be, will be different from what works for my mind. So we all have to find it out what works for our mind and adapt that. Shall we stop here? Yes, Prakash.
You said that we are right, but how do we check ourselves? How do we know that we are right or wrong? How do we justify? 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 rarely comes with clear cut paths. So Bhaktivinoda Thakur says one thing that if we 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 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. You just 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 we want to decide whether if it is a major decision, there are three other things we 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 we write things down, the thoughts come out of the head, 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? I am being too extreme over here. This doesn’t make sense to me.
If we find our thoughts are changing, that means that was just a reaction to a particular circumstance. So basically when we write our thoughts down, it is 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 is 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 remains 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? They are 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, they are saying, my mind is saying this, but they are saying this.
It is 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 is why if we have someone whom we trust, then what happens, we do not feel threatened by them.
I know that I trust their judgement, 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 is like this.
So what is the reality? So we can evaluate our mind. That is why even if we have one or one friend like that, that is very helpful. And it may not be the same friend for all situations.
Sometimes for philosophy, 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 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.
So 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 counsellor, 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 what our decisions. So rather than making a big proclamation, this is the right thing and I’m 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 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.
Srila Prabhupada was like that. He tried so many things. He tried opening an organisation, started League of Devotees, started running a Back to World 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 now, this also doesn’t mean that we are constantly changing. Today, I feel like doing this.
Tomorrow, I face 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 evaluate. 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, if this doesn’t work out, we’ll try this. Prabhupada had many projects which he started, but then he felt, you know, 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 criticise anyone.
So Prabhupada was very enthusiastic about a party. And then afterwards, he realised that, actually it’s not just fielding a political party. You have to promote the candidate.
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 said, we’ll not spend any money on this.
We’ll focus our money on direct Krishna conscious activities. Then one of the devotees, I met him, he said that, he says, Prabhupada, you know, you were earlier so enthusiastic about this political party. They had named it In God We Trust, the name of the political party.
This 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 realised 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 that answer your question? Thank you.
So sometimes the way we speak the truth, especially when you speak it harshly, makes it difficult for the other party to receive it. What’s the importance of speaking the truth nicely so that it becomes more receptive? So sometimes speaking the truth harshly can alienate people. So how important is it to speak the truth softly or is it that we should just speak the truth and whatever the result? So basically, we can see that speaking Krishna’s message is like treating a sick person.
The sickness of people is that they’re ignorant. They are having, not just ignorant, they have some misconceptions. Those misconceptions need to be removed.
And while we are doing that, now sometimes surgery is required. So often this example is given in scripture that the sadhu’s word is cut, like a surgeon’s scalpel. They cut and they remove the misconceptions.
That is true. And sometimes we do have to challenge people’s misconceptions. At the same time, if we consider when a surgery is done, surgery is never the first line of treatment or very rarely.
It’s not as soon as the patient comes in the hospital, immediately, tuck, surgery. No. First there’s diagnosis.
Then there is explanation. Then there is most important and when surgery is done is consent. Without a consent, really surgery is not done.
So consent basically means that that person, with respect to our preaching scenario, consent basically means that that person accepts us as some kind of authority. If that person is not accepted as an authority, then our words will not work. They’ll just simply, who are you? Who are you to instruct me like this? So first of all, there are other courses of treatment that are done.
The explanation is given. Consent is taken. Even after that, anaesthesia is given.
So then the surgery is done. So anaesthesia basically means creating a loving relationship, helping people to feel comfortable. So when there is a loving relationship, within that loving relationship, sometimes some strong words are spoken.
People accept it. Even then it is painful. But people accept it.
And then even after surgery is done, pain medicine is given. You know, to help the patient deal with it. So modern psychologists talk about like a sandwich formula, you know, plus minus plus.
You appreciate the person, give some room for correction or tell some point to correct, tell some fault and then again appreciate. So basically, whenever we have to correct a misconception, we have to do it in such a way that the person doesn’t feel rejected or insulted. That, how that we do that, that’s up to, that is, that will vary upon time, place, circumstance.
So if we keep our goal clear, our goal is to help this person come closer to Krishna. Now, sometimes it’s like, say, in some temples, if you go, you know, the step you have to climb up, it’s like, you know, two, three feet tall step only. So you have to do a high jump to get into that step.
Very few people will climb. People will decide, I don’t want to come here. If there is a temple, just small steps, easily people can climb up.
Sometimes for people to give up a particular understanding and take up another understanding, that will be like a big leap for them. They can’t do it at that time. So then we have to create some alternative for them.
You know, have some small steps forward, small steps. It’s not that our, either it is necessary or is it possible. That we can counter people’s misconceptions in the first go or even in a few meetings.
What we need to do is, we need to help them develop faith. And once we have developed faith, then gradually, so it’s like bridge building. So if they are on, it’s like a mountain peak.
They have certain conceptions right now. We are on another mountain peak. We have an understanding based on scripture.
So in between, now we have to get them from there to here. So we build a bridge. Build a bridge means, we speak in a way, conduct ourselves in a way that they start developing some appreciations of me.
It’s an intelligent person, nice person. I would like to know them more. Then they start crossing the bridge.
Now, once they have crossed the bridge and come to this mountain, then you can break the bridge. That means, you know, now they’ve come, then you can challenge their misconception and correct it. But if they just put their first step on the bridge and then you break the bridge, what will happen? Hey, they’ll just go back.
They will say, you people are so fanatical. I don’t want to come here. Or worst is when they are halfway on the bridge.
And then we break. You know, say somebody is worshipping some devta, somebody is worshipping some other spiritual, is following some other spiritual teacher. And he’s saying, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad.
Whatever we have to speak, we speak all that. And what happens? They start thinking, you know, this whole thing is so confusing. People talk about this God, that God.
I don’t want to be in this business only. Just forget it. They become atheistic.
At least they were pious earlier. Now they become atheistic. So we did not do any service.
We actually did a disservice to them. So if we keep our goal that we want to help people come closer to Krishna, then we will speak appropriately according to their level. Now, all this is not to say that we should not speak strongly.
But we should be able to understand what strong speak means. Strong speaking is not just speaking in a way that involves some harsh words or judgemental words. Strong speaking is that speaking strongly transforms people.
So now in some emergency situations, sometimes a doctor may do a surgery without any of the preliminaries. There’s a war field where there are many soldiers who are wounded. Now, there’s no time for seeking consent.
There’s no time even to give anaesthesia. So doctors may do surgery at that time without any of the preliminaries. But that is not the standard practise.
And that is not what everybody needs to do. So there are times when Prabhupada, he was for a very short time with us. And Prabhupada did at times use strong words like fools and rascals.
So Prabhupada was in a sense doing surgery without anaesthesia. But I did once have an elaborate article on this topic. I did a study of Prabhupada’s books.
So Prabhupada uses the word, strong word like fools and rascals, mostly in his conversations which were with his disciples, with people who have already accepted his authority. It’s a closed circle of people who are talking with him. So something like say, Prabhupada may use the word fools and rascals maybe.
Something like 700 times. I don’t remember the exact figure. I have that in an article in his conversations.
But in his books, he uses it barely 50 times. And especially in those which he wrote as books to be published. Some of his books are or articles which are compiled together as books.
Like Bhagavatam, C.C., Bhagavad Gita, N.O.D. Those are books which he wrote. It’s not even 20 times. So Prabhupada had a very calibrated approach.
So for those, it was a closed circle where people had already accepted his authority and they had already crossed over the bridge and Prabhupada, he wanted to break the bridge. So at that time, he spoke those things. So Prabhupada also said that I can do this because he had the advantage of age.
He had the advantage of compassion. He had the advantage of his purity of intention. When we speak strongly, what happens is words that come from the heart touch the heart.
Words that come from the ego trigger the ego. So when we speak, how much is it really, oh, this person is suffering because of the misconception and I want them to be free from suffering. Or how much is it, you know, this person is wrong and I’m going to prove how he’s wrong, how they’re wrong.
We really don’t know. So it’s best to err on the side of caution. Prabhupada had that capacity.
He could just, you know, he had the power that he could get people to take that high leap, that high jump and go up three feet in one go. But for us, we may not have that. So again, we shouldn’t become judgemental of others if they are doing that.
Somebody would feel inspired to speak strongly. It’s up to them. But we have to see whether the effect is there or not.
The point is not strong preaching or soft preaching. The point is effective preaching. Effective preaching means the effect is we want to get people to come closer to Krishna.
So how best can we help people come closer to Krishna that we have to see based on our situation and the results and then we help people to come closer. Does this answer your question? So thank you very much.