How small conflicts become big – Daksha pastime analysis 4 – How impulses are shaped by technology, mentality and spirituality

[Bhagavatam class on Srimad Bhagavatam 4.4.32 at ISKCON, Melbourne, Australia]

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So today morning we are discussing the tragic and the violent climax of this Daksha pastime as it is approaching.
So when Dakshayani, Sati immolates herself, at that time the assistance of Lord Shiva who had come with her become infuriated and they charge forward to attack Dakshayani who they feel is responsible for the death of Sati who is the consort of their lord. And seeing this, it is described in this verse that Bhrigu Muni chants mantras by which he evokes mystic powers to stop and slay those who are disrupting the yajna. Now we see that in the Vedic literature often things are described which may seem quite inconceivable for us.
Say for example chanting mantras and suddenly beings coming up or powers being summoned and things being destroyed. In the world there are different times, different places and depending on the kind of knowledge that people have different things are possible. That’s for example 50 years ago, 100 years ago people would not have conceived that you could talk with anyone from anywhere by phone.
In fact the concept of phone itself might not have been known 200-300 years ago. So there is technology, there is mentality and there is spirituality. So technology refers to the outer tools and resources we have for acting in the world.
Mentality refers to the mindset or the attitude, the disposition, the intentions, the worldview that we have with which we operate. And spirituality refers to the spiritual level of reality and the process for attaining that spiritual level of reality. So when we look at the specifics of the Vedic tradition, some of those specifics may seem either unbelievable or inconceivable.
Some of us may use it to say, some people who have a lot of faith in modern science and technology, they may use it to bash the Vedic literature. They are all mythological, just imagination of some sages. Some people may use it to say that those who have faith in the Vedic literature, all that was there in modern science and technology, that was already there in the Vedas.
In fact, it was much better in the past. Now, the important thing is not what resources, what techniques are used to manipulate the outer world. The more important thing is with what intention, with what attitude one is operating, with whatever resources one has.
And ultimately, the purpose of the Bhagavatam is to help us fix our mind in Krishna and to help us attain Krishna. So here we see that impulsive reactions aggravate situations. So at one level, for the followers of Shiva, when they saw that their goddess, she destroyed herself, naturally it was shocking and infuriating.
At the same time, even when we are shocked and infuriated, we need to react, we need to respond in ways that help to make the things better, not make the things worse. And there are certain reactions that pop up within us. Based on our particular nature, the reactions pop up within us.
So if we are in goodness, when something is going wrong, we try to reason and explain. It should not be like this, it should be like this. And we try to arrive at a resolution.
That resolution may mean that the other person has to correct themselves, but we normally deal with reasoning and understand properly. When we are in the mode of passion, we try to use force to control others. I mean, we will use physical force, we will use political force, we will use whatever forces we have at our contact to try to control others.
So, in goodness, we try to make the person voluntarily change. In the mode of passion, we try to get the person to forcibly change. In the mode of ignorance, we want to destroy the person.
You can’t change, you don’t want to change, I just destroy you. Now, it’s not that the actions themselves are wrong. Sometimes, reasoning will not work with some people.
Krishna tried reasoning with Duryodhana when he went as the Shanti Duta. And when reasoning did not work, at that time, he had to take aggressive action. They had a war.
But that war was not due to the mode of ignorance. That war was not even in the mode of passion. It was a war for the establishment of dharma.
So, sometimes, strong action needs to be taken in life. But the key is, in goodness, first, there is contemplation and then there is action. First, I think carefully, what is the situation? What are the pros and cons? What is the best course of action? When there is first contemplation and then action, that is in the mode of goodness.
In the lower modes, there is first action and then contemplation. And then that is often counterproductive. So, when we face provocations, and all of us will face provocations, at such times, there are basically two broad ways in which we may react.
It is said that some people are wise and some are otherwise. That there are two kinds of people. There are godly people and there are ungodly people.
So, those who are wise, they think what is dharma and then they act accordingly. Those who are unwise, they just act driven by their impulses. So, in any situation that we face, we may have certain default instincts that prompt us to act in particular ways.
So, the default instinct is, if somebody shouts at me, I will shout back at that person. Somebody hits me, I want to hit back at that person. And our default instincts, then later on channel or use whatever power we have.
In America, I just came from America about a few days ago. In America, there is a lot of concern about guns. They have much more free access to guns.
And sometimes people get angry. And in a fit of rage, they shoot others. And there is a lot of protest against that.
Why should the audience need to have guns, especially automatic guns? In last few years, there was a disastrous gunman who shot at a concert and killed scores of people. So, now those who are defenders of the gun lobby, they say that actually guns do not kill people. Guns do not kill, it is people who kill.
So, why blame the guns for that? So, actually, yes, at one level, it is true. But guns do not kill, it is people who kill. At the same time, all of us have our impulses.
And the amount of damage that we can do to ourselves or to others, when those impulses shoot up, that depends on how much power we have. If an ordinary citizen gets angry, that person may just shout at some people. But if a gunman gets angry, the gunman can shoot a dozen people.
If there is a head of state of a country that has nuclear weapons, and that person gets angry, he can kill a million people. So, now that the point here is that all of us have impulses. And the external tools that we have, they will get wittingly or unwittingly used whenever those impulses shoot up.
And that is why if there is provision of more and more powerful tools externally, but there is no provision for training people to restrain their impulses internally, then you may see those tools, they are not meant for this purpose, but the tools will get used for that purpose. The internet is a tool with which we can get a large amount of knowledge. The kind of information and knowledge that we can get today, it would have been a matter of dreams even a couple of decades ago.
But what do people use the internet for? They use it for porn, they use it for gaming, they use it for things based on the desire that they have. Of course, people use it for good also. The point is that the technology itself will be used by the kind of mentality people have.
And in our society today, very little energy is provided for people to train their impulses. We have enormous amount of resources provided for people to, for increasing the technology, for increasing the facility by which people can do things in the world. That is important.
The technology that we have is important for us to know, to do things. But what are we going to do with those things? That is determined by our mentality. So, the impulses that we get, often those impulses either hurt us or hurt others.
And say, suppose I am walking along the road and a snake comes and bites me. And if I get angry, how you snake, how dare you bite me? I am feeling the stinging pain in my foot. And then I look at it, how you snake, how dare you bite me? And I, the snake is slithering away, I start chasing after the snake.
You know, I will catch you, I will pound you and I will crush you to death. Now, even if I get to the snake and I destroy it, the blood in my body is pumping faster because I am running and kicking. And the blood will reach my heart, the poison through the blood stream will reach my heart, reach my brain, it will kill me faster.
So, quite often our impulses tend to make things worse. And sometimes even our impulsive actions can get fuelled by our belief that I am right. Sometimes when we are acting, when somebody does something and we do something in response, generally, whenever we are looking at a situation, we think that my perspective is the right perspective.
And other person is wrong, I will prove how that other person is wrong. I saw a cartoon about an angry person, angry and self-righteous person. He says, he is shouting, I am not arguing with you.
I am simply explaining how I am right. So, now what happens over here is that we are often convinced that our way of looking at things is the only way, is the correct way. And the other person is wrong.
It is quite often that sometimes it may be true that we are right and the other person is wrong. Sometimes it may be true that there is some right or something wrong on our side, something wrong on their side. Sometimes we will be completely wrong.
But either way, whether we are right or whether we are wrong, the impulsive reaction is rarely the right reaction. It frequently makes things worse. And quite often, when this conviction that I am right is further fuelled by religious sentiment, you know, this is what my scripture says, this is what my tradition says, this is what I consider right, then we tend to demonise other people.
We tend to demonise other people and we just become so self-righteously confident that I am right and you are wrong. So, now when that happens, things just become terribly conflicting. Sometimes there are conflicts and there will be genuine reasons for the conflicts.
But we, as I said earlier, we carry certain perceptions into every interaction that we, every relationship that we have, we have some filters we bring into that relationship. And because of these filters, we often perceive things in particular ways. So, when this happens, when we are perceiving things in a particular way, when we are, when we feel that by our, it is our moral right that I am right and you are wrong, then we aggravate things further.
And sometimes when we are driven by our own righteous convictions, not just righteous, self-righteous convictions, then even small faults in the other person become very big. And big faults in someone else become small. So, the mind is quite often a distorter of perception.
The mind distorts perception, small fault, it will make it very big and big fault, it will make small. And for a small action, a huge reaction. Now, we can say that in the case of Daksha, Daksha’s daughter being immolated by herself, it was not a small action, it was a big action.
But we will see here, things become worse and worse. So, the impulsive reactions come up. Normally, our religious practises or spiritual understanding is meant to restrain our impulses.
It is meant to help us restrain our impulses so that we respond properly. But sometimes if this, if our religious knowledge, if our spiritual understanding, if that makes us self-righteous, then whatever we do, actually our impulses become stronger because of that. Our impulses become stronger means the impulses get fuelled by the conviction that I am right and you are wrong.
And I am going to put you in your place. Sometimes when we try to put others in their place, what happens is we go out of place. That means we get so angry, we get so irritated, we get so disturbed that we do things which are wrong, which make things worse.
So, the, so I talk about two things over here. One is that our impulses make things worse and second is that when our impulse, when our self-righteousness fuels our impulses, then the impulsiveness gets even stronger. And whatever resources we have, we start using those resources for pursuing what we feel is our right purpose.
The purpose of religious practise, the purpose of our spiritual growth is not to, is not to increase our impulsiveness. It is actually to increase our intelligence so that we can process things properly and then we can respond as is appropriate. Appropriate action can sometimes be strong action as the Pandavas themselves demonstrate.
Krishna tells the Pandavas, fight a war. But it is thoughtful action, not thoughtless action. When, when our self-righteousness or when our conviction that I am right blinds us to everything else.
This person is wrong, I am right and I am going to do what I am going to do. So, here from the perspective of Bhrigu also, when Bhrigu saw that the followers of Shiva are coming to attack Daksha, he felt that this is outrageous. He saw it not just as an attack on Daksha, he saw it as an attack on the Yajna Shala, on the sacrificial arena.
And seeing it that way, he unleashed his mystic power. Yes, Brahmanas are meant to do Yajnas and they are meant to do what it takes to ensure the Yajnas are done properly. But generally speaking, the Brahmanas themselves are not meant to use their mystic powers for violent purposes.
We see in the Ramayana that when some of the associates of Ravana, Subahu, Maricha, Tataka, they were desecrating the sacrifices which Vishwamitra was performing. At that time, Vishwamitra came to Dashrath Maharaj and he said, I want your son Ram so that he can protect my sacrifices. At that time, Dashrath said, who is it attacking? I’ll come myself.
He said, it’s the Rakshasas who are sent by Ravana. Dashrath gets horrified. He says, Ravana is such a powerful demon and even the gods could not defeat him.
Now what can my 16 year old son do fighting against me? He says, please, no, please excuse him, don’t take him. I’ll come. I know I cannot fight him.
I’ll die, but still I’ll go and protect you. So Dashrath said, here you go. Vishwamitra says, you know, I want Ram.
And you promised when you received me that you will do whatever I told. Now you have to honour your word. Dashrath comes at the verge of tears.
He says, no, please don’t take Ram. At that time, as Vishwamitra gets angry, so Vasishta, who is the royal sage of the Raghuvamsa, he takes Dashrath aside. He tells him that Vishwamitra is such a powerful sage that he himself can chant mantras and can destroy the demons.
If he is asking for Ram, he must have some higher purpose. Do not fear. Ram will be safe.
In fact, Ram will be glorified by his serving Vishwamitra. And in fact, before they reach, on hearing this, Dashrath becomes pacified and then Ram goes out. And then before Ram reaches the sacrificial arena of Vishwamitra, the morning before that, early morning after Ram and Lakshman take bath, then Vishwamitra gives them mantras.
These mantras are extremely powerful. You can invoke celestial powers and celestial weapons with these mantras and you can destroy demons. And then when Ram has to confront Subahu, Tataka and Maricha, at that time Ram uses those mantras.
And he destroys Subahu and Tataka and Mahi knocks Maricha with a blunt arrow and Maricha is flung far away. So the point is that the sages have mystic powers. But the sages normally don’t use their mystic powers themselves.
Even when the Yagya Shala, the sacrificial arena is getting desecrated, they actually get the Kshatriyas to do this. So now here, at one level we could say that Guru, he is simply protecting the sacrificial arena. And he said this was an emergency, that because the hobgoblins and others are suddenly attacking, swooping down and destroying things and especially their intention was to attack Aksha.
So he took that as an assault of the sanctity of the sacrificial arena and tried to defend it. Now in this case, each situation, each action, his action makes things worse. We’ll see what will happen is, when all the associates are destroyed by Bhrigu, when this news reaches Shiva, Shiva becomes infuriated.
And then Shiva by pulling a clump of hair from his head creates formidable being, Nirmahamudra. And that being comes and destroys everything. So now here, everything leads to escalation.
Generally, when people are hurt, if I am hurt for some reason, I respond in a particular way. But we should respond in a way that addresses the hurt, not aggravates the hurt. So yes, we see how sometimes, if there is a snowball at the top of a mountain, the snowball at the top of a mountain is just a tiny ball, we can just kick it with our foot, it cracks apart.
And that, it ends over there. But as the snowball goes down, down, down, down, it starts becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. And by the time the snowball has come to the bottom of the hill, the same person who had a small flip of the toe could have cracked the snowball, now gets bowled over by the snowball, can get crushed by it.
So similarly, whenever there is any hurt feeling, whenever there is any negativity, whenever there is any resentment, when it is small, if it is not addressed, it keeps becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. So initially, the Akshaya had the resentment that oh, why did I have to marry my daughter to Shiva. Now that resentment is like a tiny snowball.
But then because of that, what happened, he decided, I will not send an invitation to Shiva and Sati. So that resentment, which was in his heart, it came out in a particular action. When Sati still came there, she was not adequately cognisant of the dynamics that were there, of the animosity that was there.
And she was neglected. So that was like the snowball is going further and further. And she was neglected.
Now she felt so distressed and angered by that, that she immolated herself. The snowball is going down further, it’s becoming bigger. And she immolated herself.
At that time, the followers of Shiva felt that how dare this be allowed to happen. They said Akshaya is responsible for this. Whenever we meet in a group, people are socially constantly observing what is happening.
If we see that one person neglecting another person, everybody also notices that. They noticed it especially. They were angry and they attacked Akshaya.
The snowball has become bigger now. And then, at this point, Sati has voluntarily ended her life. But now it is going to be outright bloodshed because of killing each other.
And Dhrugu’s mystic weapons fell on the followers of Shiva. The snowball has become so big now that it is leading to violence, not just self-destructive violence, suicidal violence, but violence towards others. And then when Veerabhadra comes, it just leads to complete destruction.
So we could say this all started with a small thing, Akshaya’s resentment. Akshaya’s resentment and thereafter it grew further and further. So when things are getting aggravated, we all have a right to our feelings.
Sometimes we feel hurt. And that hurt feeling, when it is there, it needs to be addressed. But unfortunately, we do actions where the hurt feeling is not addressed, it gets aggravated.
So it is often hurt people hurt people. The people who are hurt, they hurt others. And it is not just quid pro quid.
It is not just give and take. If you have hurt me to a degree of 10, I will hurt you to a degree of 50. And then you hurt me back to a degree of 100.
And then I hurt you back to a degree of 500. And then you hurt me back to a degree of 1000. So it just gets worse and worse and worse.
So there has to be, in the material nature, the lower modes, they keep gaining control. In the human mind, there is the force of goodness and there is the voice of Krishna which can raise us upwards. But there are also the forces of passion and ignorance, which drag us downwards.
Now we do have free will. However, the way we use our free will determines how much free will we have to use. The way I use my free will, it determines how much free will I have to use afterwards.
For example, somebody is alcoholic. Alcoholic has free will. A free will is not whether to drink or not.
The free will is whether to drink wine or whisky. The scope of the free will has become constricted. So the more things start off in a particular direction, stopping them becomes more and more difficult.
Once we desire to choose a particular course of action, that sets things off in motion. When we do the actions, that creates a further momentum. So quite often, we are forced to act as we choose to desire.
We are forced to act as we choose to desire. That means once we desire something, then whatever resources we have, we start using those resources to act on that action, to act on that desire. And once we act on that desire, then slowly things start becoming worse and worse.
The aggravation becomes worse and worse. So the momentum is got by that. As soon as I desire something, material nature sees that desire, the super source sees that desire.
And then based on my past karma, whatever resources I have, those resources come to me, I start using those resources. Sometimes I may be abusing those resources. But then by that, I start getting impelled to move in particular ways.
So when, and I’ll conclude with a three point solution, how to ensure that say impulsive actions don’t lead to aggravation of the situations. So I talked about three things. I talked about technology, mentality and spirituality.
So once my impulses come, they come in my mind. And then whatever technology I have, I will use it to act on the impulses. So if I get angry, that’s my mindset, I’m short tempered.
But then if I have a gun at that time, I’ll use the gun to hunt out my anger when I kill people. So first thing is that we have to be very careful about what resources we keep readily accessible to ourselves. External change is almost never enough for internal change.
But at the same time, external change is almost always essential for internal change. External change is almost never sufficient, but it’s almost always essential. It’s like somebody’s an alcoholic.
If they are staying next to a bar, then for them to give up alcoholism is almost impossible. They have to move away from there, get a house somewhere else. Now that physical relocation is never going to be enough.
If they are going to still entertain the desire, then even if they live 100 miles away, they will go to that bar and drink. But the point is, when our impulses come, usually the impulses don’t stay for a long time. In a sense, impulses are like insurgents.
Impulses are like insurgents, criminals, terrorists. In India, Kashmir is a terrorist-stricken area. So there, sometimes terrorists just suddenly swoop in.
They come to a particular place, break havoc, destroy, kill, and then they go back. So our impulses are like that. They suddenly swoop into our consciousness, take control, and make us do things when those impulses attack.
So if at that time, the terrorists may have some weapons, but if they come in and attack the army and they get hold of all the weapons that the army has, then they can cause much, much greater destruction. So first thing is, for us, when the impulses, we all are vulnerable to our impulses. When the impulses come, what resources we have externally, that will determine how much damage the impulses will cause.
So if we have our particular weaknesses, then we need to make sure that we don’t keep the resources that will facilitate those impulses readily accessible. A drunkard who wants to give up drinking cannot have, say, alcohol in one’s house or a stay-in-your-alcohol bar. A person who is short-tempered cannot afford to have any violent weapons with them, any dangerous weapons with them.
So we have to create barriers between us and the external resources which will make us act on our impulses. If somebody has a tendency to abuse the internet, then we need to create some barriers. Many parents have parental control filters so that their teenage children don’t misuse the internet.
So that cannot be our foolproof protection. But that is quite often an important first step, because the impulses don’t stay for long. They come, and during the moment when the impulses are dominating, if the external resources come up, then there is disaster that results.
But if the impulses come, they stay for some time, and then they go away. And then when our intelligence is restored, we fight them back, and not much damage is done. Say, some people tend to get angry.
Okay, I get angry. When I’m angry, I’m not going to speak anything. I’m going to stay calm.
I deal with this anger, I’m going to process it, but I’m not going to lash out. So I may decide, when I’m angry, I will not speak. So something like that, we have to create some external supports, external controls, external barriers, which prevent us from letting those impulses cause inordinate damage.
That’s the level at the external level, at the level of technology, we could say, whatever resources we have. At the internal level, at the level of the mind, the mind is driven by impulses. Suppose an alcoholic reads about the evils of drinking, the alcoholic’s mind will not tell him, stop drinking.
The alcoholic’s mind will say, stop reading. So what happens is, when our impulses have controlled our inner world, they don’t let us do the things which will make the impulses lose their control on us. So that’s why when Krishna says, in the mode of goodness, the happiness is, it tastes like poison in the beginning.
That which tastes like poison in the beginning, will taste like nectar in the end. And this is knowledge, which will lead to spiritual intentions. So internally, our impulses are going to be there.
But what we need to do is strengthen our intentions. Our intelligence can have many different meanings. But one simple meaning of intelligence is, to be able to see the consequences of actions.
Children simply want to play. Parents say, study. I just want to play and enjoy.
But the parents see the result of this will be, the child just keeps playing, the child will not have a career in the future. So intelligence means to see the consequences of our actions. Similarly, intelligence also means to see the consequence of positive spiritual actions.
So we need to nourish our intelligence. And that nourishment of the intelligence happens by the hearing of scripture, by studying scripture systematically, and not just studying scripture as a matter of curiosity. We study scripture as a survival necessity.
There’s an inner war going on, and the war is not simply metaphorical. It has real consequences in the outer world. And we need to strengthen our intelligence so that it can beat back the impulse.
If the impulse is not beaten back, or the intelligence is not strong enough to beat back the intelligence, then we will get wounded, we will get scarred. So hearing scripture is very, very, hearing scriptural wisdom is vital for internally having the resource to fight back the impulse. That’s at the, we could say at the subtle body level.
At the gross body level, we cut off the axis. At the subtle body level, we ensure that we have our intelligence strong so that internally itself the impulses are being battled. And most importantly, in the spiritual level.
At the spiritual level, we need to cultivate attraction to Krishna. It is, the process of bhakti is more and more about cultivating attraction to Krishna. When the attraction to Krishna is developed, at that time, the lower impulses will not only be restrained, they will be removed.
Because ultimately, what is an impulse? An impulse is basically a craving for pleasure, or a fear that pleasure will be lost. Basically two things. Now, when I do something impulsive, oh, this is pleasure, I lose it, let me get it right now.
Or I feel this is a danger. So take away my security, this will take away my pleasure. So I’m going to hit out at it.
But when we connect with Krishna by the practise of bhakti, we get both our satisfaction and our security. When that steady connection with Krishna helps us understand that Krishna is the source of the greatest security, Krishna is the source of greatest satisfaction, then the impulses, they lose their force on us. Because they can’t create the sense of deprivation.
Come on, if you don’t do it, you lose so much pleasure. And they can’t create fear within us. If you don’t do this, there’s such trouble.
So the connection with Krishna, the absorption in Krishna, not just the physical connection or the connection activities, but the connection in consciousness, where we become attracted to Krishna. Krishna says in 7.1, the purpose of practising bhakti is to make the mind attached to Krishna. When that happens, once we become purified, our impulse will, whenever there is any trouble, our impulse will take us towards Krishna.
That means instead of trying to react vindictively or impulsively to whatever comes in our way, our first response will be take shelter of Krishna, remember Krishna. And remembrance of Krishna will remove the insecurity, will remove the agitation. And then with the calmness, we will be able to choose wisely and make the healthiest response to whatever provocative situations we may have, we may be facing externally.
So I’ll summarise. I spoke today about how impulses can lead to destruction, how one thing led to another thing here, and now violence is breaking out, where there is a bloodshed happening because the followers of Shiva wanted to kill Daksha, and Guru is going to kill the followers of Shiva with the mantra chanting. So there is mentality, the technology and the spirituality.
So whatever, we may say that, oh, in the past, there was so much advanced technology, or some people in the past, you had so much mythology, believed in such things. So the specific things that people use, technology, that is not the important thing. The important thing in the Bhagavatam is the change of mentality to take us to spirituality.
So we all have impulses within us, and whatever resources we have, we’ll use them to fulfil the impulses. So guns don’t kill people, guns don’t kill, people do. But when people have impulses, they can do far greater damage when they have guns than when they don’t have guns.
So we may use, sometimes our, we may, so one power which we use is technological power, misuse means technological power, another means political power. Sometimes it may also become the religious power which leads to self-righteousness. I think I am right and you are wrong, and therefore, I will bend my righteous wrath on you.
But sometimes even that sense of self-righteousness ends up making things worse. So, you know, conflict is there at the top. Initially, when the conflict is starting, it’s like a small snowball at the top of a mountain.
A small hurt is there, that is not processed, that hurt person hurts somebody else. And then that hurt person hurts them back again. The snowball keeps moving down and down and down, and by the time that small same snowball, which could be cracked with a foot, it buries, can bury a whole person.
So that snowball needs to be stopped at the top itself, or as early as possible. And how do we do that? I talked about three things. First is, at the external level, we decrease our access to the resources that we may use when the impulses come up.
So, external change is never enough, but it is almost always necessary for internal change. And the second is, at the level of our inner world, the impulses, when they come, they are like insurgents. When they come, if they have, at least if they do not have access to too many dangerous weapons, they cannot cause too much damage.
But if the security forces are very alert, then they will fight and control the insurgents as soon as they come. So like that, if our intelligence is strong, the impulses rise, immediately the intelligence will stop it. So, we work at the level of the mentality to become not impulsive, but more reflective, more intelligent.
And at the highest level, at the level of spirituality, when we connect ourselves with Krishna, and by the steady practise of bhakti, realise that Krishna is the source of our greatest security and greatest satisfaction, then the impulses lose their power on us. And then we can address the hurts, the provocative situations, with intelligence guided by Krishna. Then there will not be aggravation of the situation, but there will be resolution of the situation.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any comments or any questions? Yeah.
So if we see that history repeats itself, what could we, if we understand what went wrong in daksha past time, what could we have done if we were there? And what can we do now if something similar is happening? Generally, whenever we hear a scriptural past time, that is, we look at the specific historical details. From there, we look at the universal principles. And then from there, we look at our situation and how those principles can apply over here.
So, with respect to the historical details, it is a very different situation. So, it depends on if we were there. Now, what is our position? Sometimes we may see a train on a brick, we see a car going off a cliff.
Now, all that we can do is we call the police at that time, call the emergency. But we cannot, if the car is going away, we cannot get into the car. If you are inside the car, we may press a brake.
If you are sitting by the side, we just catch the wheel and stop, press the brake or turn off the engine or whatever. So, it depends on our position. Sometimes we, it is a road work that is happening and we cannot do anything except, you know, alert.
So, at another level, we see that we always would like to, we always may want to help. So, in that situation, we cannot really say because we do not know what position we would be. And it is for us not to judge who is wrong and who is right.
It is more for us to learn how I can prevent such situations. So, when it happens in our observation in the world around us, again, it depends on what our position is. If we are one of the aggrieved parties, where the hurts are leading to bigger hurts again and again, then we may just decide to pause, let the, de-escalate the tensions.
When there is a hurt that is there, the first thing that needs to be done is to decrease the temperature. We just cool down, decrease the temperature. So, that may just, it is very difficult to say no.
This person has done like this, how can I not do anything, to do something. So, to say no is difficult because it feels as if we are being tormented. We are being repressed, our voice is not being heard.
But to say yes means we went out and it makes the situation much worse. So, the best thing is pause, not now, pause. So, when we pause, that slowly allows the intelligence to come up.
And once the intelligence has come up, then we can deal with the situation more wisely. So, pausing is something which you can do if we are among the parties who are having the conflict. If we are just an observer, then if we have the position, we have the trust of both people, then we may offer to mediate.
And we may be able to help resolve the situation. Sometimes mediation can help because the two people do not trust each other, but there is a third person whom they can trust. And that person hears both sides and helps them to arrive at a solution.
That can often help in de-escalating situations. But sometimes we, it is a wreck, we cannot do anything, we just get out of the way. If two people are having a very severe conflict, then it will be best not to take any sides and just pray.
In the fifth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a prayer that Prahlad Maharaj offers to Lord Narasimhadev. Prahlad Maharaj is one of the lokas over there. And he is offering, my dear Lord, let all living beings become peaceful.
So, santu, let all living beings become peaceful. So, that is what we can pray. Bhaktanno Thakur, here, in the last days of his life, he just was chanting constantly.
And he felt that he had done his preaching. Now he felt that just by chanting, he will be sending spiritual potency. And that will attract people to Mayapur, that will attract people to Lord Chaitanya, that will attract people to Krishna’s message.
And that will be the way he was benefiting society. Sometimes, that’s what we can do with our prayers. We pray that Krishna, let the temperatures cool down.
And that’s why sometimes the best way we can serve is by not taking sides and offering our prayers for both sides. So, thank you very much.