How to participate in God’s plan for us – 3 guidelines. Part 2⧸2

Thank you very much for coming. So this is basically the second part of the class which I had yesterday but it can be understood separately also. But I’ll do a quick recap of what we discussed yesterday and then we’ll move on to what we find yesterday. Can all of you see this projector here? Service TV?

Yep. So you’re writing and doing something good. Yes. I see something. It’s coming?

Yes. Your skin is here. Okay. Good. Do we have copies of that, prayers book available with us?

One copy only. Only one copy? Yes. Okay. Sure.

That’s to be gotten. This is a book inspired by So this is a book where I’ve taken the verses as inspiration for prayers and some key verses from the Gita. So each of these articles is a each of these there’s one spiritual affirmation which is like a prayer. Can you see it from there? Yeah.

Otherwise, you may move a little bit this side. Okay. So we’ve taken words, the poetic rendition of the words, and there’s a prayer reflection based on that. We have a second mic by chance? Yes.

You can read it out. Let’s begin with some prayers. Let my plans not blind me to your plan. So those of you are comfortable you can recite the verse after me. Our forces vast beyond all escape, guarded by Bhishma will not fail.

Theirs guarded by Bhima remains confined for failure. They are surely destined. So Bhagavad Gita, 1.1. So would you like to read the first paragraph? Yes.

You have mic by chance? I can use mic. It’s okay. I haven’t been mic. Okay.

Sure. My dear lord, it is so easy to be meticulous in not missing a single thing at the material level while simultaneously missing the most important thing at the spiritual level, which is you all over. Thank you. So here, this verse is spoken by Duryodhan just before the war is about to begin and he is assessing the forces on both sides and he’s naming who are the primary warriors on the opposite side and the primary warriors on his side but while giving this assessment he completely misses out on one name. Who is that?

Krishna. He mentioned the Bhishma of course here is Bhishma is my commander and so he misses out Krishna completely. Now we could say that the material reason for this, he thinks that Krishna is not going to fight a war, Krishna is a non combatant so therefore Krishna is a non entity but that’s just one level of issue, he does not realize Krishna’s position at war So the theme that we’ll be discussing today is how when we make our plans, yesterday I talked about hold our plans, how was it? Lightly. Hold our plans.

Light. Lightly. And there’s something we should hold tightly. What is that? Krishna.

Yes. Hold our Lord tightly. So hold our plans lightly. Hold our Lord tightly so Just a very quick recap of what was discussed yesterday that you know, if we go through life, we may reduce our entire life to just two set of things that what is done by me and what is done to me and if what is done by me is very good I think life is very great if what is done by me is not so good we become insecure and what is done by to me is bad then we feel resentful, we become victims or we look for villains to blame for our life. Now spiritual life or devotional life is not just adding one component okay once a week I’ll go to temple or in the day I spend some time for doing some mantra chanting or doing some worship, yes those are activities which we add but bhakti is not meant to be another to do in our life, we have so many to do’s, on our to do list we add one more element okay I do some mantra chanting, I do some poocha, I do some poocha, I do go to temple that’s one way to look at it but that’s a very deficient even ignorant way of looking at it.

Bhakti is actually another way to do it is another way to do all things in our life it’s with another vision and what is that bigger vision that Bhakti gives us is that our life is not just about what we do or what is done to us, our that above us is Krishna and the things that are done to us there is some way Krishna’s hand in them and even the things that are done by us there is Krishna’s role in that and that says we are not just all struggling in this big bad world trying to survive or thrive that is our life is a part of a bigger picture. So that’s the theme which I discussed yesterday so today we’ll try to understand this further and we’ll explore it using an acronym ACT. The Gita’s message is a message to act. Krishna is at the end of the Gita, Arjuna acts. Arjuna is not a person who turns away from the world and renounces the world.

He acts. So how does he act? That’s what we will discuss. It is the vision that he gets to act that is what we will try to understand. So the first part is a is appreciate so appreciate that everything that happens is a part of God’s plan.

At the same time, you have a gallery view there. Okay. Next thing I expect somebody is there’s a with a transparent ceiling over here. Somebody looking for a box. I was giving one class where was it?

Silicon Valley. So their whole ceiling was open. So it was like a glass ceiling and people were sitting on top and looking through the glass ceiling. Literally like you felt as if somebody’s supervising you from above. So people there were not able to just they’re not able to see the TV, but they were directly seeing my tablet.

They had to rotate 180 degrees to its size of all that. So now when we say that everything is within God’s plan, this has to be very carefully understood that this raises two major questions. That in general in philosophy or specifically in theology, the study of God, there is what is called the problem of evil. Problem of evil is that if there is a good God then why do bad things happen and there are two aspects to it. I won’t go too much into the philosophy that theology I’m just trying to understand how to I gotta be careful when we say everything is a part of God’s plan that first is people do bad things, say if we are here in the world our problems are brought here three times, now some problems we create in our own lives by our actions, let’s say we give into negative emotions, we give into some destructive habits for example you can say addiction is that negative is created by us then there are people around us and people create some problem for us and then beyond that there is nature, Nature also creates some negatives for us so for example if we live in Canada in winter it becomes freezing cold over here so nature creates some problems for do you know the Sanskrit names for these three kind of problems?

Adi Daivik, which is that one? Adi Daivik is which one? The environmental problems, that’s Adi Bailik, they come from the broader environment through nature and the problem that come through people Adi Bailik, these are all kind of social problems, so there are mosquitoes if you bite us, there is Mujahideen it’s extremist who betrotanas so there are mosquitoes there are Mujahideen and there is mother-in-law and that may seem a little bit trivial problem but for people who are going through it it doesn’t seem like a trivial problem so there are social problems and then there are self created problems these So a simple classification, you know, my point is that some problems come from people and some problems come from our own actions. Now we could go to problems that come from nature also and we could discuss that. But generally when problems come, at that time how exactly are the problems a part of God’s plan?

Say how many of you think that all people are good or how many of you think that all people are bad? So how many of you think all people are good? Okay. How many of you think all people are bad? Okay.

Let me don’t worry. Okay. Okay. I’ll I’ll let’s soften the question. How many of you think that all people are sometimes bad?

Okay. In all human, we make mistakes. How do you think that some people are always bad? No? Okay.

It’s true. I was talking with I was trying to do mediation between two devotees, and I was trying to tell one devotee, and, actually, the other person was not there. I was telling. You know, you know, deep down he’s a very good person. So the subject person said, you know, it’s not what is deep down I’m concerned.

It’s what I’m concerned all around it. That’s terrible. So sometimes it happens then. Okay. I mean, I mean, it’s very difficult for us as human beings to even reconcile the idea that somebody might be in nature bad.

So we would like to believe that people are basically bad. And we would like to believe that even if people do bad things, there’s some reason why they do bad things. But the fact is that people do bad things. The fact is that we ourselves do bad things at times. Now when such bad things happen, are those bad things also God’s plan?

But did God want those bad people to do bad things? What do you think? It’s our karma. Okay. It’s a it’s our karma.

Coming back. And it’s a okay. That’s a serious statement. Let’s come back to that statement right now. We’ll come back to it, but let’s focus on that those people are.

Here. Let’s see there are three factors over here. Say I am here, the other person is here and Krishna is up here somewhere. So now when some people are hurting me, so is there hurting me? Does God want them to hurt me?

No. Okay. Yes. And how many of you feel yes? How many of you feel no?

Okay. So is it this is for yes or no? Okay. How many feel that is that God wanted them to do those things? Okay.

That’s fine. How many feel no? Okay. How many feel you don’t know? Yeah, it’s a difficult question.

But broadly speaking, we could say that. See if you say that if we say that God gets people to do bad things then that would make God a bad person. Now we could say okay we might have deserved it because of our pastor but are those people hurting us because we did some PASCAR? No? Maybe we say I never did anything bad to you why are you treating me like this?

Isn’t it? So are those people using unwitting instruments by God to level the karmic score but then is that person responsible or not to give it a little more provocative spin to it? So say consider the Mahabharata Draupadi is dishonored or attempted to be dishonored and even attempt is a dishonor in itself. She was attempted to be sorrowed. Now who tried to disrobe her?

Dushyas. Dushyas. Dushyas was a vile creature and he tried to horrendously, abuse and violate her. Now did do you think Krishna wanted Dushasana to do that? Yes.

Krishna wanted Dushasana to do that. So in one sense, Krishna only got Dushyasan to do that and then Krishna only came to Telpur. Is it? Yeah. I mean I am not mocking this answer.

I’m just questioning is that what we are implying? So in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says the way karma works is very difficult to understand and what the scripture says that whatever action happens in the world that whatever action happens in the world whether it is say something which somebody else does, let’s focus on that right now. Now what people do it is God filtered, It goes through the filter of God’s sanction. Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita says, I am the overseer and the parameter. So it’s like we filter something.

You know, some things we let out of the filter, something we don’t let out of the filter. Now is it that everything that is out of the filter is something that we want? We may want water to be completely 100% pure. But getting 100 pure water might be next to impossible. We might use some kind of filter that may purify maybe 98% most of the really toxic things are purified.

Some things remain. So whatever happens it goes through the filter of God’s permission But that does not mean that that is God’s intention There are two different things over here that whatever happens whatever happens in life it could be God’s intention that is the most positive that Krishna wanted it to happen but it could also be God’s permission. Permission means that I don’t want you to do it but you want to do it then I’ll let you do it so if we consider when Krishna went as a peace messenger to Duryodhan before the Kurukshetra war to try to prevent the war now was it Krishna’s plan that Duryodhan not listen to him? Krishna tried his best if you read the negotiation that Krishna did, Krishna used every possible strategy and the negotiation failed not because Krishna lacked skin the negotiation failed because Duryodhan lacked conscience. Duryodhan just had no sense of not against a fool.

He was in his own way a perverted intelligent person but he had no sense of right or wrong and he has completely believed that this cause was right. That’s what he rejected Krishna. So now there are some things that God allows to happen And now Krishna is so expert that something might not be what he wanted us to do, but or wanted us to do or wanted someone else to do to us. But Krishna is so expert that he can use those events also in his plan. So now in one sense, let’s take the example of I’ll come back to Bhushasana later.

Let’s take the example of Krishna himself going as a peace messenger. Krishna went to pursue peace and he failed. Now is it God failed? God is supposed to be all powerful. How can God fail?

One of the names of the Lord in the scriptures is ‘Satya Sankalpa’ means whatever He resolves he makes it happen. His resolve turns true. So how could Krishna fail? In his mission to seek peace how could we fail? So that’s where when we talk about God’s plan if you consider Krishna’s plan, it is not one narrow lane that things have to go along this way only and if things don’t go in this way then everything is lost.

It is a broad direction. So Krishna is expert enough that he can make his things move in that direction through plan a or he can have plan b, and he can have z and he can go further also. So Krishna is expert enough to include our use or misuse of free will within this plan. So what does this mean? Before the night when Krishna went for peace negotiations at that time Vidura talked with him and Vidura said, Krishna was staying in Vidura’s house which is not a very opulent house.

Although he was born to royalty, he was a stepson. So he was not exactly given the royal facility. So So I was sitting with Krishna. I just, keshima, why have you come here? You know also you that is not a person to you.

He says, I want a rumors that he’s even planning to arrest you. I have seen one humiliation and dishonor in that assembly. It torments me till this day. If I have to see another humiliation over there, I will not be able to relive. Whose humiliation are you talking about?

Crocodiles. The most traumatic event over there. And now he’s he’s saying, Krishna, why have you come here? So what does Krishna rely? Krishna says, oh, I know that the youth is not universal.

But but while I would like the war to be avoided and things to be settled peacefully, but I also want the world to know that this war is caused not by the Pandavas but by the Kauravas. So Krishna’s plan a was have peace, but if the Kauravas don’t listen, see Krishna’s plan does not necessarily require every single living entity to comply with because he has given us free will and based on our free will we can act in particular ways So when we act in particular ways, sometimes we may a plan a may not work, so the union may not listen to Krishna. What is Krishna’s plan b? Plan b is that I make sure who is responsible for the war becomes very clear. And that is what exactly happened.

When Duryodhan said, I will not give enough land to put even the tip of a needle through. If that had been your social media that would have become a viral insta deal. What a dialogue, isn’t it? Now if you want to understand the contextual impact of the dialogue, then there are different ways of saying no. Say if as, we invite someone to or someone invites us to their home for some ceremony, now we don’t want to go, so we make some excuse.

Now we make an excuse, they know we are making an excuse and we know that they know we are making an excuse. But at least for courtesy, we try to make an excuse. But suppose let’s downward this situation. We invite somebody for a program and we know that they’re making an excuse. But instead of making an excuse, they say, even if I die, my dead body will never talk to your cell.

Now that is not just a note of the invitation. That is a kick in the face of the invite. This is what Duryodhana does. And then on top of that, when Duryodhana tries to anest Krishna, that is against all codes of how these messengers are treated. So by that he makes it clear.

So from Krishna’s perspective Duryodhan’s defiance, his arrogance plays perfectly to Krishna’s plan. And his attempt his rejection of Krishna’s proposal and his attempt to arrest Krishna, Krishna couldn’t have not provided the world better evidence of who is causing this war. Isn’t it? So in that sense, Krishna’s plan does not necessarily depend on each living being acting in a particular way. Krishna is resourceful and Krishna can have a plan a if b thinks well if b act in a particular way.

Krishna can have a plan b if we act in a different way. We means not just you or I. There are no human beings. So that’s why now the Duryodhana did something did Krishna want that to happen? No, Krishna didn’t want Duryodhana to do like that but it was God filtered it was not God intended God filtered means nothing can happen to me which God is not aware of, which Krishna has not allowed to happen.

But Krishna allowing something to happen is different from Krishna wanting something to happen. These are two significantly different things. Now why are we talking about this at this particular point that when we say that this is a part of God’s plan that does not necessarily mean that exactly things are happening the way they are and that’s how we should let them happen faster. There is a part that we also need to play, so I’ll give an example to illustrate this concept. Have any of you heard of this thing?

GPS. I was giving a talk to a youth. Hey, in America, One girl said, have you heard of anyone who has not heard of GPS? So I’m talking here about God’s positioning system. That the God’s positioning system is just like our global GPS but it’s much better.

Now a manager say you wanted to come for this program. And say you this is the first time you’re coming here, the GPS says turn right and you turn left. You know what happens? Does the GPS say you did away me get lost? No GPS doesn’t say that it re rounds and suppose GPS is telling us something when we are not sure so we ask someone and that person had a deliberate intention to mislead us and so we turned in the wrong direction and even then what does GPS do?

They still leave house so whether it is our mistake or somebody else’s mistake or somebody else’s malicious intention whatever it is. So we there is no turn that we may take that will throw us out of the GPS itself. Then Google said now we may lose the connection but GPS has got all the territory mapped out. Now maybe there’ll be something in the Sahara Desert or somewhere maybe the territory is not mapped out with GPS but in God’s positioning system everything is mapped out. So even if we take a wrong turn, Krishna can reroute and can get us to the destination.

So even if somebody does something bad to us, even that Krishna can reroute and get a Sutra destination that’s what I mean by plan A, plan B, plan C now if we are at this place and if we are at place C I want to go to Place B now you could say there is a straight route to go there now there could be some critical detour and come back and we go there now somebody might take many detours and that journey might be a side view and they might come there. Now somebody might just take U turns and they may take many U turns and may take a little more time for them to come there. But no matter what kind of turns they take they can still get there that the whole territory is mapped out and in that sense no one is ever outside of God’s plan neither our own mistakes nor others mistakes or misdeals when they use these two words mistakes and misdeeds, what are the difference? Mistakes and misdeeds, is there any difference? Mistake is a wrong doing done deliberately, misdeed just happens.

Oh sorry. So you could say mistake is often accidental. And a misdeed is intentionally, somebody wanted to hurt us. Now whether it is a mistake or a misdeed, either way Krishna’s plan can still accommodate that. Now this does not mean that the mistakes or misdeeds don’t matter.

This does not mean that we should not learn and try to avoid mistakes and mistakes. This does not mean that if bad people are doing people are doing mistakes or people are doing mistakes we should not try to stop or correct them there is a there is both contention and I’ll talk about that also but my point is whatever mistake or mistake may be done by us or be done to us we are not thrown out of God’s plan, now every mistake on this day will come with a cost, each long turn we take will mean that we may take longer for us to reach the destination, not more time, more price, any more complexity, the route is not that easy so it’s not that mistakes and these things don’t matter, So they matter but they are never fatal. They are consequential but they are not fatal. The consequence is there. So mistakes and misdeeds both of them, they are consequential.

There is some consequence of that. It’s not that whatever mistake I make, I say oh it’s all a part of God’s plan. No, it could be our foolishness. Krishna is so expert that even if it is our foolishness, even if it is our maliciousness whatever it is, Krishna can still keep and make sure that His plan works through it. So the mistakes are never fatal.

They could be they are consequential but never fatal. So this is what we need to appreciate that everything that happens is a part of Krishna’s plan that does not mean so when we talk about God’s plan I’ll conclude this point and we’ll get in the next part God’s plan it is everything that happens everything that happens there are two ways of looking at it. One is that everything that happens, looking is God’s plan. Is within God’s plan which of these you think is more precise? Second one.

When Bhishma is guiding Yudhisthira and that Yudhisthira has got a severe attack of guilt He feels that, so what happened because of me to make me a king? And in that war, he lost so much. He lost all his sons who were brutally killed in the batch of Tamil. He lost Abhimanyu before that and he felt mortally responsible for that because the Chakravyu was made to trap him and he said Abhimanyu, Abhimanyu what trap he said. And then finally when his mother told him that Karna was actually your brother, that was the final blow for him.

He said that my brother had an opportunity to kill me and he didn’t kill me and I longed to kill him and Arjuna came to him I celebrated his death. What kind of person am I? So he gets such we don’t know if everything is God’s plan but everything is within God’s plan so I’ll give another example to complete this point let’s say if in a school so this is there’s a plan and purpose. A slight difference. If you’re not confused then I’ll just make this more confusing now.

But I hope this will clarify. See what is the purpose of a school? The school’s purpose is that students study, students learn, students graduate from one class to next from one class to next class, they graduate from the school. That is the purpose. Now if some students don’t study, if some students don’t become good enough for and get good enough master in the subject they don’t pass the exams then what happens?

Students fail. Now if they fail the school has a plan for those students. Okay, if you fail one subject then you go to the next class, then you do this particular subject again. If you failed a lot of subjects then maybe you will do the same year again. If you are failing repeatedly then maybe you need to go to some other school.

But the education system has a plan so the purpose is that the students we consider the plan and the purpose they are not exactly the same thing the purpose is always positive that is the students make the right choice to study and students go to the next class. So students pass. That is the purpose of the school. But there is a plan for students who fail. Now this does not mean that the school wants the students to fail.

The purpose of the school is not that students fail. The purpose is the students pass, but for students who fail, there is a plan. So like that, Krishna’s purpose is not that we do mistakes or misdeeds or others do mistakes and misdeeds. Krishna’s purpose is that we act wisely, others act wisely. But if we act unwisely or others act unwisely, Krishna still has a plan.

I hope this difference is clear that you will appreciate that everything is God built up. Nothing can happen to us that is not allowed by God realm. But that does not mean that it is intended by Godel. Okay. So can we go ahead and read the next paragraph here?

Yeah. Would like to read? Someone else, if someone the wish list would like to read. Yeah. Either give me the mic then.

Yes. Second paragraph? Yes, please. Can you do the mic then? When I make plans, even if those plans are for your service, I often get so caught up in analyzing strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats at the material level that I forget or overlook one factor that overrides all others, your supreme will.

Yes. So it is that what does Krishna want me to do? There’s one thing is, whatever has happened to us when we look at the past we need to get a sense of calmness and closure that Krishna had some plan only whether it was I who made a mistake it was others who made a mistake so what is the acronym we are discussing? A was what? Appreciate.

So now three is contribute. Contribute means that each one of us has to play our part in Krishna’s plan. Krishna’s plan is not just about things that happen to us. Krishna also wants us to do things. God’s plan can be about things that happen to us but Krishna’s plan can also be about what happens through us what happens to us and what happens through us and in fact the Gita’s focus is this second part what happens through us.

Sometimes in many shops there is this Gita Sai in Hindi, sometimes I see English translation also whatever happened was good whatever is happening is good whatever will happen will also be good Well I have read the Gita dozens of times I have recited the Gita many many times I have not found a single verse in the Gita which comes close to this. It’s a nice sounding thought but it is not the message of the Gita because the Gita’s emphasis is not on what happens to us. It’s more about what happens to us because Arjuna is undecided and Arjuna has to make a decision of what I’m going to do. So to tell somebody from something brutal has happened, that whatever happens is good. No.

Life is terrible. No. Horrible things can happen without it. So the focus is, okay, there is some plan of God in this. Then the question comes, what do I do now?

So maybe I took a long turn and I need to reroute. But how do I how do I lead up? How how does from here, how do I move towards Krishna? So that is the key part. This is contribute.

Now many of you know that, I have polio. I need crutches for walking. So when I was about one I think I mentioned this yesterday. Did I mention this? No?

Okay. So when I was one, my mother took me I’m just seeing a small town in Maharashtra in India. My mother took me to a nearby clinic to get the polio vaccine and among all the vaccine, the polio vaccine is considered the safest most effective, polio is almost eradicated now but the clinic where the where my mother had taken me because it’s small down to the power supply outage and the fridge in which the vaccine had been kept had its temperature raised because there’s no power supply and because of the rising of the temperature the germs in the vaccine multiplied and neither the attendant nor the doctor noticed that and when that vaccine was given to me because the dosage of the germ was too high instead of preventing polio and ended up causing polio. Now I don’t remember any of this. I was about one and I just learned to walk and I found out I could not walk normally thereafter.

But my first memory of this is I was about two and a half or three And at that time, my distant relative had come to meet us, and she was consoling my mother saying, oh, so sad. Your son got polio. And I remember my mother’s voice, Very calm, clear, confident. She said, whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him with the truth. I don’t know why she said that.

Maybe she saw some intellectual bleeding in that time when it was at home. But somehow the statement statement, not the god part, the intellectual part of the shimmy. And as I grew up, I couldn’t play outdoor game that other kids would play. So I could say that life is unfair. And that’s true.

Mhmm. Life is unfair. But then as I started reading and studying, I noticed that I could read quite fast, I could remember well, I could articulate clearly. So somewhere at the back of my mind, I said that, okay, I didn’t do anything to deserve this physical disability, but I didn’t do anything to deserve this intellectual ability either. So life is unfair.

That is true. But in the big picture, life is fairly unfair. Fairly unfair means that sometimes we get worse than what we deserve and sometimes we do get better than what we deserve. We all say that sometimes we have good luck, good fortune. Sometimes things just work out.

So now it is important that we learn to focus. Now if we focus on how life is unfair, basically we are saying life is unfair and if exceeding on that that means either God is unfair or there is no God and life is chaotic. Life is just like a cosmic lottery and we got the bad end of the deal. So is life unfair? Yes.

From this life’s perspective, life is unfair. But is life fair? Yes, both are. If you exceed on how life is unfair, we will be filled with negative emotions, we will become resentful. If you focus on how life is fair, we can become resourceful.

Okay. What is good in my life? What can I make the best out of the situation I am in right now? So when we talk about contributing, how do we contribute? So I don’t know if you mentioned this point that, you know, that if somebody does something bad to us, it is our own karma coming back to us.

And, yes, there is some proof to that. But the Gita’s focus is not so much on karma in the sense of past karma what happened why something happened that is not so much the focus as what we should the Gita’s focus is not so much on karma. By karma I refer to past karma. The Gita’s focus is on dharma. Dharma means what is the right thing for me to do right now?

It’s my present Dharma. Okay, now that this has happened, the philosophy of Karma can be used to come to peace with what has happened but what I am to do right now that requires careful deliberation so I have a maternal uncle in America among the very early Indians who immigrated to America and settled. So when he came to know that I had got polio, he was very angry. And he told my parents, he told my father, you should sue the doctor. My father is a very peaceful person.

His favorite was from the Bhagavad Gita is Titha Prankyo. Like, he’s a very stoic person. He said that the Indian legal system is such that before the court case comes for hearing, probably we’ll have white hair. Now that the pool is already there, what can you do about it? We just accept it.

So, I have a friend in Florida. He’s also a godbrother. I mean, he’s also a disciple of my spiritual master, Radhanath Maharaj. He told me, quite a sad story, but I see my instructive story. Even his wife was pregnant and there’s some complications or things were handled in ICU and the doctors, the the caregivers basically, they made some mess and it’s not malpractice but definite delusions and when the daughter was born, she had cerebral palsy palsy and several other complications.

So then he wrote to the spiritual master and he asked he asked, madam, madam, madam, should I accept this as my karma or should I sue the hospital for what has happened? So Maharaj replied that now, you know, what has happened, you cannot change it. It is your responsibility to take care of your daughter now. At the same time, for discharging this responsibility, if you can get any help, you should seek that help. So America is probably among the most litigious countries in the world.

Canada, as I do some extent, I do not know. But I was in Los Angeles and I saw a big advertisement. And then it typed just three words in that letter. Who hurt you? And then he was hacked up.

You tell us who hurt you and we will sue you. We will get settlement. So he he he sued the hospital and they settled out of court because clearly the day wasn’t their part. And he’s got a fairly good financial arrangement for the lifelong care of his daughter. That doesn’t, of course, change the fact that she will have challenges lifelong and they will have challenges.

But the fact is that even if something is our past karma, maybe we don’t we don’t know what it is, but the focus is not on what is whose past karma. The focus is on what is our present karma and how can we best do that dharma. So thinking that something is past karma does not mean passivity. Oh, you know, everything is past karma. So just like bad people are doing bad things, we’ll just accept it.

No. We have to consider what is my dharma and how can I best do my dharma? So now, dharma can also be context tube. Again, America, the legal systems like that you can easily sue. In India, it could have been very, very difficult.

So that’s why one of the principle that the karma, like, Dharma is not so easy to understand. That when I am, doing something something has happened to me, okay, I can accept I can come to peace with what has happened by understanding this is still a part of Krishna’s plan. No matter how bad something has happened, it’s not gonna throw me off of Krishna’s plan. It’s not that I am all alone abandoned because this person did this to me or because I did this to myself. Whatever it is.

Right? My life is still on Krishna’s plan. But then what am I meant to do? For that, we need to use our God given intelligence. One point I was making yesterday was that when we are trying to respond to life, there is our own buddhi, our intelligence with our intelligence by intelligence I mean not just analytical intelligence but any kind of expertise we may have with our intelligence we get some Shakti and we have our faith that arises from our bhakti so if you consider four quadrants this is the best quadrant to be situated in.

We understand that whatever has happened there is God’s plan, I have that faith but to be within that God’s plan, what am I meant to do? For that, I need to use my intentions, I need to use what abilities I have, so that’s why first part is appreciate then is contribute. So how do I contribute over here? Now when you say how do I contribute what does that mean? Okay.

In this situation, how can I move ahead? How can I make a positive difference? Krishna is our ultimate well wisher. Krishna wants things to be better and what can I do to make things better? So with the principle of determining dharma now how do we as I said the philosophy of the Gita is focused on dharma so we look at karma past karma to come to peace with what has happened but we that doesn’t necessarily mean that we passively accept whatever is happening maybe something need to be fixed and there is a well known verse in the Bhagavad Gita which talks about tolerance that is Krishna is telling you tolerate but what is he telling tolerate?

Is he telling that oh the Kauravas performed so many atrocities towards you and all your past karma is tolerated and don’t fight is that the implication over there? No. His implication, what is he to tolerate? Tolerate the pain of fighting against Bhishma and Drona. This was no small pain for Arjuna because Bhishma and Rona were not just his some elders these were the people from whom he had lured our children These were the people for whose pleasure he had learned archery.

And now he had to use those archery skills against them and not just against them for exhibition or entertainment. There’s a fight till death. They just didn’t want to do that. But Krishna said, it’s a hard decision. You have to do it because they have chosen the wrong side.

And so tolerance, when you say tolerate, okay, what to tolerate, what not to tolerate? That is a decision which requires intelligence. As I said, before Krishna says, in 02/30, he gives intelligence that is dehinos mignata dehin that words essentially what it means is intelligence tells us Shivarupat explains intelligence in a very simple way says to see things in their proper perspective, what that is proper perspective? Perspectives we have a particular vision of creating things, so we understand what are the big things in our life and what are the small things in our life, so intelligence helps us to understand what are the big things and what are the small things and then what does tolerance do? Tolerance helps us to keep big things big and tolerance helps us to keep small things small.

So you wanna keep big things big and keep small things small. Say now you come for this talk, and you prefer to maybe sit on the chair. Maybe it’s a little uncomfortable for you to sit on the floor. Now you might be a little uncomfortable but you think that okay this class is only going to over six hours more. Hello.

You can go up an hour, one hour more. That’s all. I can hear that. This is a small thing. I come here.

I wanna learn something useful. I wanna be part of a spiritual community. So okay, tolerating the discomfort of sitting on the floor is a small thing, I can deal with it. I was in Australia and, basically after my class, I asked the audience what did you like? Anything you are interested?

So there’s some people who give any thoughtful replies. So there’s one person, one young man in Australia, he used thoughtful insights. So he came and he was sitting behind. So that my class was also on tolerance. So I asked him, how would you find the class?

He said, normally your class gives me a lot of intellectual workout. You just gotta think a lot. You need a lot of intellectual simulations. But today, the class gave me an opportunity for practical application also. How?

I started thinking, what do you mean? My class was a tolerance so are you meaning that you had to tolerate my class? So in the Jewish tradition there was a saying have your ears heard what your mouth has said? Sometimes we will not think about what we are saying before we say it. See some people think before they talk and some people talk to think, by talking their thinking starts and that’s why they may change their opinion but anyway when someone feels special expression.

I said oh actually what happened was I came a little late so I was sitting behind and when I was sitting behind at that time the person leading next to me was constantly talking on his phone. And initially, I was very annoyed. I was about to tell that person to if you wanna talk on the phone, please go out and talk. But then I thought, this is a class of tolerance. So I feel tolerant.

And therefore I tolerated. But because I was already in constant, phone call was coming, messages were coming, and the ping was coming, the ring was coming, so I I couldn’t really hear much of the class. So I told him with all due respect, whenever somebody started to send it with all due respect, what is going to come after that is not gonna be very respectful. So I said with all you respect, that is not tolerance. That is importance.

If now if you come for a talk, come to hear a talk, hearing the talk is the big thing. And if somebody’s obstructing you in doing that, then what is the point of coming for the talk? Either you point it somewhere else. Either tell them to go away. There are some things which need to be changed.

So, if we let in the name of tolerance, let small things become big and big things become small, That is not tolerance. That is impotence. So now tolerance is required because sometimes we may overreact. So that will make us intolerant. Small issue, big problem.

It’s not like somebody is, say, say, some a class is going on and some some parents have a young small baby and the baby is crying. If the baby cries, it’s a disturbance for everyone. But even the baby is crying, I yell at the mother control your baby or get out of here now what will happen is even though baby goes away at the end of the class the only thing that the people will remember is the way I yelled at the mother. So obviously it’s a small thing I need to be able to talk to it. Now ideally the mother doesn’t take the baby to another room or whatever.

If she doesn’t then I need to tell gently. Can you take care of your baby? Maybe you need to go to chapter two. I need to be polite. It’s a small thing.

If it’s becoming a big thing, we need to address it. But sometimes in addressing the small thing, we make it a big thing. That is a problem so here we can go to explain that what is not tolerance in tolerance if we make a small thing big that is a problem. Making a small thing big is INTOLENCE. And this is the general problem most of us have life is difficult life is annoying and there are some problems which come and go don’t make a small thing a big thing that’s tolerance but on the other hand if we let a big thing become small then that is not intolerance or tolerance that is impotence so if in the name of tolerance I let a baby cry throughout the class and neither I do anything nor the organizers do anything then the only thing the audience hears throughout the class is the baby cry and something has to be done about it, if I don’t do anything that’s important so in between these two is we act in such a way that we keep the big things big and we keep the small things small.

So this is tolerance. So now what does this mean for how we contribute to Krishna’s plan? See, Krishna’s plan is not one narrow direction. We have free will, and we are meant to use our free will appropriately. So when initially Duryodhana tried to poison Bhima, at that time Bhima survived miraculously came back and he wanted to teach Duryodhana lesson and beat him to pieces.

Now Yudhishthir told him that come down. He said that we are new over here. We don’t know who will believe you or who will not believe you. It’ll just be your word against his word. And if the whole larger family or community goes against us we’ll be spreading the family.

Let’s not do that. Let’s maybe he just feel insecure. Maybe he may be cautious. Maybe this will pass. Now if you look at the Pandavas actually it’s difficult to imagine a set of brothers who are as different as Yudhishthira and Nima.

Yudhishthira both of them were Kshatriyas but but Yudhishthira was more like a Brahman Kshatriya. Brahman Kshatriya means what? He was very pacific. He bent backwards to avoid conflict. On the other hand, when you wish Bhima was Akshatriya Akshatriya.

You could call him Akshatriya squared. So he was itching for fighting to show his prowess. So now who is right? Who is Roog? Now he could, as they say, hindsight is always twenty twenty.

Maybe we could say at that time if Bhima had done with Duryodhan, Duryodhan might not have done all the further atrocity that he did but who knows if Bhima had beaten up Duryodhan, Duryodhan might have done greater atrocity faster so we don’t know in life how do we deal with particular situations so life is complex and we are finite beings we are fallible beings so we can’t always know what is the right thing to do but we use our God given intelligence and we make certain decisions. Even when Krishna was with Arjuna in the Kurukshetra war, it is not that Krishna was microcontouring everything that Arjuna was doing. It is not that before shooting every arrow, Arjuna asked, Krishna, do I have your permission to shoot this arrow? No. It’s not like that.

He was using his intelligence and he was doing the best that he could. Now there are certain major decision points that started in Triveda died. But in general, while being a part of Krishna’s plan, Arjuna was his own person. Yudhishthira was his own person. Viva was his own person.

So we need to use our intelligence to contribute. So when we face a difficult situation, how do we contribute? In general, for all of us, we need to we have a certain set where we belong to. See? Now the word dharma has many different meanings.

I said we focus on Dharma. Dharma one of the meanings of Dharma is harmonious belonging. Harmonious belonging means that each one of us belongs to a larger unit so when we belong to a larger unit each one of us needs to belong properly That means we do our part in the larger unit and the larger unit needs to do its part for us. So for example, you’re sitting for this class right now your dharma in this class is to sit and be attentive as good as possible or at least not be a distraction for others. See every one of you has come for this class.

Do you know your neighbors? The person sitting next to you, you may not know. Yeah. But every one of you is quite confident and the person sitting next to you is not going to turn on you and slap you in the face. Don’t get any ideas.

Now is it possible? Well, anything can be said to be possible. But is it probable? Very unlikely. If somebody has come for a spiritual talk, like this, they we expect that they have that level of impulse control, that they have that level of culture, that they know how to belong to a class like this.

So you as individuals are a part of a larger pole. You need to play your part by belonging harmoniously, but dharuba is not just individual, like I, if I am a part of a larger role, I am representing a tradition and you want to be a part of the tradition, you only learn some wisdom from the tradition, then I have to play my part and I should speak something meaningful, but if you are investing your time in coming here then you are doing your part and I should also be doing my part, so in that sense Dharma is harmonious belonging where the part contributes to the whole and the whole reciprocates by giving something to the part. Like, if you drive on the road, then we are being a part of the road transport system and Aandharma is to follow the rules of traffic so we drive in Canada you drive on this side of the road So America it is also right. Right. Right.

India it is? Left. Left. To the left is right in America. Okay.

But say, now in in India, so left is right in India. Sorry. Mhmm. But, so now whichever what is the road transport system? We need to follow the rules of that.

That is our dharma. Now when we do our dharma, at that time, the larger unit also should be able to reciprocate. If for example, people from certain communities are pulled over more than others that, you know, okay, the they look at the ethnicity and in small crime, they could be a large punishment. Or somebody from particular ethnicity, you commit a big crime also no punishment. Then there will be discrimination.

So dharma means harmonious belonging and Krishna uses the dharma in both senses. In 2.7 the Bhagavad Gita, I will then ask you I want to know what is the right way to belong but then in 4.8 when Krishna says there he is talking about and I come to establish Dharma that means that I come to fix the system that the system itself is wrong where wicked people have grabbed power and Krishna says I come to fix the system. So dharma is both what the individual does for the system and what the system the larger whole does for the individual. So both are parts of dharma. You know, in politics there is right and left.

So in general the political right is more conservative and their focus is individual you take responsibility, you fit into the system and you grow through the system. The left is more liberal, it’s more radical. If a system is a problem, you need to pick the system so that is more about social justice and social change. So the right is more if a person is under crime you are responsible you go to jail, the left is more look at the background with the person, maybe that person didn’t have any good options and that’s why the person became a criminal. Now who is right?

Well, it depends. Sometimes an individual needs to be changed, change himself and sometimes the system needs to change. So this is so why am I talking about this? This is to make a point about how we are to contribute. So if something bad has happened to us, so for example, going back to the example of going back to the incident of what my father did whereas what this devotee did.

Now in that case, in the case of India, the system is such that there’s no chance to fix the system. So, okay, we just put it to it in the best of what I can do. But in the West, when individuals can sue the doctor, sue the hospital, then we can assist in to pay the price. So it depends. So dharma is not one took.

Dharma can mean different things at different times. So now I’ll make a little more subtle point, but it’s not too difficult. This is still is there my problem over here? Yeah. This computer seems to be okay.

So I talked about first is appreciate. Appreciate that nothing that happens is outside Krishna’s plan. And then we talk about how we can contribute that’s what we are talking about right now when we contribute there are different ways we may decide to contribute so broadly there are three ways this is not sequential but this is just analysis, I use the acronym MET, when we meet the situation properly, when you contemplate the situation, we can decide what we want to do it. We can mitigate the situation. Mitigate means like going back to the earlier example, we fix the system.

We fix the system. The second is we may integrate. I don’t want to be a part of the system at all. I just leave it. So the third can be tolerate.

So mitigate and degrade tolerate. All three are possible. So for example if you consider the Pandavas initially when did something to them you initially what was the response? I don’t know it, I don’t know it and yeah sometimes bad things happen they decided you know we still want to be a part of this family we don’t want to make a mess we make a big thing out of it so then the next time unfortunately what happened Turun did something bigger, initially tried to kill Bhima then he tried to kill their entire family, Turun did their mother also, the warriors sometimes fight against warriors, of course warriors are not meant to kill other warriors, they backstab them or kill them in the dark, it’s a fair fight but generally warriors are not meant to kill women or children. So increasingly he was sacked, some of the Pandavas survived over there but they decided it’s a bigger conspiracy.

He could not have done this without his father’s consent so therefore this battle lets leave from here. So they emigrated. What did immigration means? That they had incorporated the Sunbelt until they were able to get the handle Draupadi in Swayambar and now Draupadi was no ordinary girl, she was the sole daughter of a powerful rival king Tripadha and that meant that the But then also there’s unfairness, he give them like a wasteland of overgrown forest. And like a parent has two companies, but they argue one company to each child.

But one company is flourishing, the other is going to go to bankruptcy. They argue one company to both of you. Is that fair? Well, to call that fair is an insult to the world fair. Captured.

So the matter was, okay, we you know, I don’t want to mess with the system. I don’t want to get a big issue. I’ll go somewhere else. But then after that man in the gambling match, they tried to steal away their union. They tried to dishonor Draupadi.

And even after going for exile, when they tried to disarm Krishna also, the pandemas realized enough is enough that these people are not going to change. That’s when they decided to mutilate. So they decided to fight. Now each of these can be done positively or it can be negation. Now mitigate is not the same as retaliate.

In mitigating, the focus is on fixing the issue. In retaliating is it’s getting back at the person. So the Pandavas did not take out their anger of the thrashed afterwards or the thrashed of the panther what Duryodhan did but they understood the thrashed was weak and because the attachment to Duryodhan did something they still respect him as an elder so they didn’t retaliate they didn’t develop a vengeful mentality. Now emigrate is also not run away. When we are running away, the focus is just going away from here somewhere else.

When we emigrate, we have decided I’m going to get involved in this. I have something better to do in my life. If this system doesn’t work for me but I’m not running away from the system I want to go to a better place, I want to lose up the value of my life and maybe I can do it at another place, so immigrate is not running away and tolerate is also not suffocate suffocate means that we are not able to do anything, suppose we are in a job where the work culture is miraculously, maybe the boss is a little over demanding and rude. Now we may decide that, okay, all that is not not good. My mind is staying well.

That actually I can get, I can it is gonna be a good addition to my CV over here. And maybe after a few years after I have worked in this job I will go to another job so we will decide to tolerate it because I will decide that we will decide that time that the fact that I’m working in this company and getting this kind of pay is the big thing for me and the work environment is a small thing for me. But in the work and work culture, the work environment is just leading to stripping away our peace of mind completely and, you know, it’s having peace of mind. Our mind is in pieces And then when we come back home, all those pieces are thrown at everyone else at home. Then maybe it’s not worth it.

Maybe you need to imagine it. Now if somebody wants to say, okay. I’m gonna complain against this. I’m gonna escalate this issue that’s if you want to do it that can also be the option so it is done with a purpose in a purposeful way since psychology there are three terms I use fight flight and freeze. So we don’t want either of these in any of these three.

We are not simply fighting for the sake of fighting. We are not freezing. We are not fleeing. What are we doing is when we appreciate and then contribute There is a greater focus over here Okay, what is the best way? I can do my Dharma in this situation.

What is the best way? I can contribute to make things better What is the best way I can be a part of Krishna’s plan? I can pursue Krishna’s plan over here. Say if we put our child in a top school and the child is repeatedly doing very poorly over there. Now you may decide you push our children on work hard, study, and discipline yourself.

Why does it maybe it is that a child’s IQ level is say one twenty and that is a school for a student’s IQ level 160. It’s like a special school, not a special school, a special school. Then we may decide that pushing our child so much is just not going to work. The child is trying their best but it’s just overwhelming. Then maybe the child is in a more normal school.

So sometimes we need to push our child to be more disciplined and then we tell our child no, we’ll take it to another school where the demand is not so much. So things can be so there’s no one path predictable for dharma. The focus of dharma is that that whatever the situation, I want to make things better. And more importantly, I want to make my consciousness better. And how that can be done?

The dharma can vary from person to person. If you look at Srila Prabhupada’s life, we’ll see the same thing in Srila Prabhupada’s life also. Initially, when he started the he started his outreach, he built an organization called the League of Devotees in a place called Jhansi in India. And he put a lot of efforts in that. And he had a I think the the chief officer of Chasi, with the governor of that particular state, he came for the inauguration of the institution.

So it was quite a grand organization. But somehow, the people who supported him turned against him. They said we want this for some other place. We don’t want this for a temple. Now Ropala would have fought against, Ropala decided he’s not worth it.

See, two reasons, he said that Jhansi is not a very big place and his guru mother wanted him to build centers in big places. And he felt that the people here also not very committed. They have more of a biased sentiment to respect than sadhus, but they’re not least spiritually interested or committed. So he can be created from that place. So when he came to America, he was sponsored by Agarwal family and the cross cultural marriage.

So Sadri Agarwal was American, Gopal Agarwal was Indian. He stayed at their home for a few days. And then they used to eat meat, but they used to eat beef also. And the same fridge that Prabhupada would keep his bhoga, which he would cook and offer to Krishna. Prabhupada has his own if there is the Interactive Socratic Occupational Consciousness established and Prabhupada came to know that in a fridge, in a temple, there was meat, Prabhupada said nothing of it!

Prabhupada said nothing except of it! He looked and he saw he soon saw that these people who are hosting him were not really interested in becoming devotees. They, they hosted him as a courtesy to their father-in-law. And so Prabhupada saw that, okay, I’m gonna be here for some time and let me split it. So he tolerated it.

But later on, when he was building the temple, at that time the owner of the land on which the temple was built was a double BB political anchor person. So he wanted to take the money and not give the land deals And at that time, Shirdropupad wrote to one of his life life supporters, life member. He said, if he wants to steal Krishna’s land, he’ll have to go over my tech body. And if you read the history of the Jira temples, what? Continue with it all.

So Prabhupada thought about this. So then what was he doing? Among these three? Meaning it. Meaning it.

But then also Propa did not retaliate. There was this friend who passed away and then his wife tried to take it further and she sent hugs. But then she realized the whole thing not working. She came and signed the land deed to transfer Propa, give the money, And then she fell at our first speed and says, please forgive me, sir. For whatever reason.

And Prabhupada was so freaking nervous. He says, don’t worry. You’re just like mad off. I’ll take care of you. So Prabhupada was not revengeful.

He was not vindictive. He was not revengeful. So it was more mitigating rather than retaliating. So for all of us, when we deal with situations, dharma is not necessarily a stereotype for everyone. Each one of us in our particular situation, we need to decide how best can I move here?

So it would as I said, Krishna is planning, plan b, plan c. So if somebody decides to mitigate from particulars, mitigate adversity, is that Krishna’s plan? Well, we can’t do for sure. You know, it’s like in when we are working in in choosing to contribute, our contribute contributing should be based on curiosity. Curiosity means with my intelligence, this is what I’m trying out.

You can tell to Krishna. Krishna, this is my understanding over here. And this is understanding. This is what I think I should be doing. We can talk with if we have devotee guides, we can talk with them.

But we are open. This is what I this is my best my best experience is what I’m doing. If it works, well, I’m good. If it not, I am ready to change that also. A devotee does not operate based on certainty.

Some of the worst things in the human history have been done by people who have hurt them bewitched with God’s There are extremists who just kill ruthlessly and they think we are in God’s will. There are people who become very intolerant, maybe not at that extreme level, but sometimes people think that they’re God’s will, and they may become a fool with others. If somebody comes to a temple and, you know, say, sometimes people not even wanna take selfies. So they wanna take selfies with Krishna. And, we normally say don’t don’t turn your back towards Krishna.

You can take a picture of Krishna, but don’t turn your back towards Krishna. So we ask this to in temple and, if people don’t take selfie, what should we do? So he said that, you know, it’s not good that people turn their back, but he said if we tell them don’t take a selfie, you know, we can put a note over there that and we can either know that this is gonna be prominent. But once we start telling people, we can’t control who will tell people how. Some people get a lot of joy in catching people who are not following loose.

Isn’t it? And then telling them in such a way. Right. So that many somehow in India, among Indians outside India also, there’s a resurgence in, spiritual interest among the youth. Young people boys and girls may they may be in a relationship but they also come together to temple they wanna spend some time there so now these people when they come it’s good that they are coming now it’s not good that they turn their back towards the Lord but which is more important and that they come to a temple and they keep coming to a temple or that they come to a temple they get a bad experience and they say I’ll never come to a temple again.

I go from here then I’ll come back. We don’t want that to happen also. So the thing is sometimes if I’m convinced that this is the rule and you are violating the rule, I become certain that I am doing God’s will in telling you go do this. I can become very very self righteous. So to think that I am doing God’s will that can lead to a lot of righteous arrogance.

Mhmm. A person becomes arrogant but become very self righteous. I was in Texas and I was going for a program. I saw a scar ahead of me, it had a bumper sticker and said, oh, god. Please save me from your creatures.

Now in the Christian tradition, the idea is God saves us through his preachers. But if the preachers are very condescending, very ulterior than thou, very judgmental, Helen Brown, very stone speaking kind of preacher, then I don’t want to interrupt you to do with these people. So as devotees, it’s not that we try to operate in the platform of certainty. A devotee has certainty that there is some plan of Krishna. So certainty at the level of appreciating.

Nothing is outside of Krishna’s plan. At the level of appreciating, whatever is happening, it is not just by chance, it is not just by this person did this, but at the level of contributing. We need to have curiosity so when Shlopropathy was writing back to Gordon magazine and distributing in India in 1940s ‘1 postman told him that Swamiji if you write magazine people just throw it away You write books? Now this was an unknown postman. When our devotees were writing a biography of Shivrahupada they tried to find out who this postman was and 25 people clicked I was that postman.

So everybody want that right of association with that celebrity person. I heard is No. I’m a pure devotee. I’m following the instruction of my spiritual master. I know what I’m doing.

Who do you think you’re telling me? I am doing Krishna’s work. Oh, Prapa is open. Yeah. What you’re saying makes sense.

He has curiosity and he can’t. So that’s why when you contribute, it is with curiosity. In this working, it’s working we move forward, if not working then you may have change strategies. And that brings me to the last part of the acronym, what is the acronym? Actually appreciate.

Appreciate, contribute and last is? Transcend. It’s already already over. We talked about being great and already over. Transcend means that this is where that when we make our plans that means okay there is some plan of Krishna and within that plan of Krishna so this is what we understand is that it’s like a this is a bigger Krishna’s plan and we are always within Krishna’s plan.

But now within Krishna’s plan, say if I’m here and say it’s a general direction, the action is that we are from material consciousness, we are from self self centered consciousness or material consciousness, from there we want to develop love for Krishna. We want to go towards spiritual consciousness, we want to develop love for Krishna that’s a broad plan of Krishna. So Krishna wants us to be happy and Krishna wants us to help others to be happy It’s a broader plan of Krishna. Now when we are moving upwards, on this lane, one lane might be mitigate, another lane might be immigrate, another lane might be power cord. So Krishna’s plan can have many meanings and two devotees may choose different lanes also and that’s fair enough.

So when we work in this way, it is important that when we make our plan that ultimately our attachment to Krishna should be more than to our plan. Krishna, I have a plan and I want things to work out in this way but if those things don’t work out then it’s not that we become bitter it’s not that we reject Krishna I worked so hard why didn’t this work out? So actually this is the last visual I can prove with that there is our plan and there is Krishna’s plan. So now if our plan is working and when I say our Krishna’s plan, Krishna’s plan is always working but if we are not aware of Krishna’s plan, we are not Krishna conscious. Let’s put it this way that this is we are Krishna conscious.

If we are not Krishna conscious, our plan works but if we are not Krishna conscious then we will become prideful. Oh, I am so good. I am so great. So you see some people who are very successful, they are they are such arrogance to them sometimes. So now a since Krishna’s plan is awareness of Krishna’s plan.

No? Because even our failure or success are part of Krishna’s plan but are we aware of Krishna’s plan? That’s the question. So now if our plan is not working and we don’t get in the way of God’s plan then we just become frustrated this is where we become resentful. You’ll become very bitter.

Now suppose our plan is working and Krishna’s plan also works that is you plan something it works out wonderfully That’s where we can be grateful. Grateful that things are working out nicely. And if our plan doesn’t work, we know that Krishna’s plan is still working. That’s where we can be graceful. Graceful means yes the external world results are not coming but Krishna I know you are with me and I’m grateful to be with you I know your mercy is with me so we can be graceful.

So if you look at Srila Prabhupada’s life when did he meet his spiritual master? You announced which year? Nineteen twenty two he met his spiritual master and that time his spiritual master told him you are good at English you should share the bhakti wisdom and English language all over the world especially in the Western world since then Rupa started trying in various ways, he tried to build a business by which he would financial support his Micheal Master, he tried to start an organization, he started a magazine, he tried to work with existing institution his God brothers but nothing seemed to work even when he came to America from ’65 nothing worked, ’66 for me already is unfollowed but then also success was very minimal so 1962 to ’68 almost ’68 had a severe health crisis and he had to go back to India and that time everything would have fallen apart but somehow the devotees at that time they they became more serious and when they came back that’s when things really took off and since sixty eight to seventy seven things were quite spectacular here 108 temples were built 70 books were written, Prabhupada traveled 14 times across the world and thousands and thousands of people became devotes and millions became attracted to Krishna Oh, but you say transcend means what?

That our focus needs to be on Krishna’s plan even if Krishna’s plan goes against our plan. So now towards the end, I will recognized this just about five six months ago since then whenever I see Srila Prabhupada this this demise it I’m shaken by this remembrance so do you know when Srila Prabhupada departed from the world? Yes November 14 ’19 ’70 ‘7. Now there is one temple for which the Roopa struggled and endeavored much more than anything else which was that? The Mumbai, the Juhu Temple.

Does anyone know when that temple was inaugurated? That was actually on Sarkranti nineteen thousand four hundred and seventy eight. So just two months after Srila Prabhupada departed this was the project for which Pramupada fought tirelessly. And Pramupada said to Krishna, Krishna, just let me see this group being inaugurated. If Rupa had made a personal promise to Krishna, Krishna, you come and stay in this any gender of the tent.

You come and stay in this tent, and I’ll build a temple for you. But when Rupa saw that his body was falling apart, Rupa felt that Krishna is calling me back. Prabhupada gracefully accepted. There was, one one of his well wishers, he asked his Swamiji, we have any last desires? And Prabhupada replied, Prabhupada replied, ‘Kuch kuchani’ did Prabhupada not desire?

We are not a desire to see the dreamt of course you have but his desire was subordinate to Krishna’s plan Prabhupada had his plan and he tried vigorously to fulfill his plans but Prabhupada never held his plans so tightly that he would let go of his hold on Krishna. He did not become bitter. Why is this happening? Why am I not in the same temple? Pragupa held his plans lightly and he held Krishna tightly.

That means we transcend our own plans. We do our best sometimes whether we choose to mitigate or immigrate or tolerate. Sometimes despite our doing our best, sometimes things may not work out. But if we have an attitude of serving Krishna, then even in the plan in terms of the external results will not work out, but the plan in terms of the internal results, the plan in terms of our attachment to Krishna increasing will surely work out and that is the greatness of Krishna consciousness. Ultimately when Krishna’s plan has an external dimension to it and an internal dimension to it.

The external dimension is that our circumstances improve. Now we all would like to improve our circumstances, we all would like to leave the world a better place than what we were born into or at least we would like to leave our family in a better place we would like to leave our corner of the world better we can try to improve our circumstances we should but more important is our own consciousness Sometimes we may get so many attached, more important, this is important but this is much more important. So we transcend means we transcend our efforts to make our plan work and change our circumstances. We focus on changing our consciousness sometimes some devotees work very hard to try to serve Krishna and when they feel that other devotees are not cooperating temple management is not cooperating or this person not cooperating, they become very bitter. And now it’s understandable, we wanna do something for Krishna and others are not coming in the way other not to understand what you are doing.

Then then some negative feelings will be there, but that should not occupy our consumer consciousness. Yes. It is Krishna’s plan. I will do my service. If I want to mitigate, I can try to mitigate.

If I’m tolerant, I can tolerate. If I wanna immigrate, I can immigrate. But don’t let the situation or circumstance become so big that it consumes our consciousness. In our consciousness, Krishna needs to be the most prominent reality. The circumstances are important and we try to change them, but they don’t become bigger.

So this is our consciousness. In our consciousness, it is Krishna who needs to be the most prominent reality. And even when Srila Prabhupada was the unknown Swami walking in The States of America, you could see his lifetime there’s no noteworthy success for him. Sometimes when you look back at your life and then you’re 50 or 60 and you start going to the second half what did I really achieve in my life? Prabhupada had nothing to show.

He didn’t have a business, he did not have financial security, his family had not been supported in his bhakti, he did not have any disciples. What did he have to show? Was there nothing? But that did not make him better. His circumstances were a small part in his consciousness so he remained happy in serving Krishna.

Sometimes the circumstances can become better that’s wonderful. Sometimes circumstances can become worse but a devotee doesn’t become bitter because of that. So in that way, whatever happens, each one of us can always stay a part of Krishna’s plan. I’ll summarize what I discussed today. Now how to be a part of Krishna’s plan, how to hold our plan tightly, and how to hold Krishna tightly.

So I discussed three points over here. For the first point, you remember this? What are the acronym? Appreciate. Act.

A was Appreciate. Appreciate. Appreciate that Krishna’s plan is always acting. That everything is within Krishna’s plan. Everything means what is done by me and what is done through me to me.

What is done by what is by me and what is done to me. Both are everything is Krishna’s plan maybe we may not but everything is within Krishna’s plan so that nothing happens everything within Krishna’s plan means everything that happens is God filtered it has gone through the filter of God’s if not His intention then His permission is we discussed how Duryodhan’s defiance of Krishna was also incorporated in Krishna’s plan. So his intention could be said plan a. But his permission okay. That’s what he want to do.

That could be plan b, plan c, plan b. Krishna has many ways to make his plan move forward. Let’s have discussed the difference between plan and purpose. Like a school, we are looking at the example of a school. School’s purpose is that students be educated and promoted.

School has a plan for those students to go and study also. Other example, it goes on GPS. That is always a possibility to reroute. So our there is never a possibility that rerouting will never happen. Reducing is always possible and that’s why whatever now whatever we do we are never thrown out of the GPS.

The GPS here is God’s positioning system. So our wrong turns we discussed another icon what was that? Math. Math. When we really come up with the situation we may decide to tolerate it.

Okay. So the tolerance is based on the principle is we keep big things big and and we keep small things small. So now we need to be able to decide what is a small thing and what is the big thing. So tolerance is not the only way to be part of Krishna’s plan. So we could go one extreme is intolerance where we make small things big and the other is impotence when we let a big thing become small but in between is tolerance So sometimes you may tolerate a situation because we’ll okay there’s some bigger good that can come from over here.

So this is called Pandava tolerated initially when Beema was attempted to be kid. The next is immigrate. So we may get so tolerate means okay the system is not really doing good for me but there’s some other usual good so I’ll keep be a part of the system but immigrate we decide I just want to get out of the system I don’t want to be here at all. I want but we are immigrating. We’re not running away.

We’re tolerating. We’re not suffocating. Or we may decide the third thing Mitigate. Mitigate. That I want to be a part of the system and I’ll fix the system.

I’ll do what I can to fit the system. And all these three if you consider Krishna’s plan, you consider in that these three all three could be lanes on Krishna’s plan. So each person based on their particular position, their disposition may decide differently and that’s fair enough. The last part was transcend means that even with our best use of intelligence to make a plan our attachment to Krishna needs to be greater than Krishna needs to be greater than our plan even if it is what? Krishna’s service and that’s how we discuss that how this four quadrants that our that our execution of our plan our plan execution either it works and our awareness of Krishna’s plan.

So sometimes our execution of our plan execution okay. I think my execution of my plan of writing is not quite right. So our execution of our plan may work, may not work. If it works, you’re not aware of Krishna’s plan, then you’ll become prideful. Right.

You’ll become very arrogant. If either our plan is working or our Krishna’s plan, then we become Resent. Resentful. If our plan is working and we are also aware of Krishna’s plan, then what happens is Grateful. We’re grateful.

So if our plan is not working, we are aware of Krishna’s plan then we can be? Graceful. Graceful. Excellent. So discussion of profile is like how twenty two to ’60 ‘8 was graceful even when no results were coming.

Sixty eight to ’70 ‘7, he was grateful but towards the end again in ’77 at the end Krishna, had him his most invested project in network but Prabhupada has not picked that Prabhupada accepted it. Even if this doesn’t work, Krishna’s plan has an external dimension and an internal dimension. External dimension is we want to improve our circumstance and the internal dimension is we want to improve our consciousness. So ultimately so improve our circumstance means that we want to make our conqueror of the world better. Consciousness means we want to make our whole consciousness in the heart more attracted towards Krishna.

So both are important but I mean, you probably want to see this is much more important. That’s how we can hold our plan lightly. Even if my plan is not working, if we consider open we stay open to Krishna’s plan, we’ll find that our heart will be drawn towards Krishna. Krishna will take us to a better place. So life may be unfair, but in the big picture, life will be fairly unfair.

So in this way, we can hold our plans lightly and hold Krishna tightly. Thank you very much. So let us conclude with this prayer, Krishna. My dear lord, My dear lord. Let my plans.

Let my plans. Not blind me. Not blind me. To your plan. So are there any questions?

Or do we have time for questions? Yeah. So in the room, one maybe one of the questions we’ll take. I was doing a youth meeting, and there’s a question. And then the question?

So what you said, okay. The question is when the class were to end. Mind always. Please pardon me if I say something earlier. Though I feel like you connected to, the answer with like Matt and but still if you throw light that would be great.

In our day to day life, what measures would you suggest to a domestic working professional individual on how to tackle the unknown fear of losing one’s spirituality when he ends up being surrounded with people, circumstances, obligations that might push him to jump to the lane of pleasure whether materialistic or physical. Okay. Thank you. It’s a very honest question. I would say that we are all precious individuals and we do need pleasure.

And it is not that, say, our pleasure and Krishna’s pleasure, they are two completely non intersecting circles that we have to give up our pleasure to get Krishna’s pleasure. It’s not like that you know. As in Australia and the one place I go there’s one young man who comes and sits right in front and throughout the class he’s glaring at me not even staring glaring and the only way I can give a class is by looking at everyone except the person. So then I asked the local leader over there is something matter with him? Even if there is some some humor in the class, laughter cannot dare to touch his lips also.

Not even his mind. I asked him, what is the issue? Is that the issue? He said, no. No.

It’s not just with you. It’s always like this only. That increased my curiosity. And then I asked him, so so, is there any reason why you’re so serious in the class? He said, I’m very scared.

Really scared of what? I heard that if we if we seek any pleasure independent of Krishna, that will bind us to the material world. So he said, in the class, I’m afraid to laugh because I will be laughing for my own pleasure and not for Krishna’s pleasure. I told him you don’t have to. Like this is paralysis by analysis.

It’s not that it’s not that you’re watching some vulgar comedy show or something like that. It’s in a spiritual talk in that context there’s something you would love. Krishna wants us to be happy but Krishna doesn’t want us to be bought us to seek our present happiness at the cost of our future happiness. If somebody is dying drink and smoking I enjoy. Well you enjoy now but there’ll be heavy price to pay off tons.

So it’s not that bhakti and principal bhakti are against pleasure. They are against pleasure that comes with a usable cost in the future. So it’s like in with their life is always a negotiation. There is the present me and there is the there is the present me and there is the potential me. This is a very important principle which we can use in guiding our children also especially when infants are growing older that, you know, when we use them some rules, they will not like those rules.

But if we focus on a point that you want to enjoy it that’s fine but imagine say if there were if you were trapped in some storm and we have enough food for ten days. Now we could have a feast on the first day and after six day we’ll have no food for ourselves. So our present enjoyment should not come at the cost of the future. But if you say okay you know we won’t have food in the future so we won’t eat any food at all now then we’ll have food for the future but then we know me in the future to happen. Isn’t it?

So what happens is it is if we seek only the present we then we will degrade or at least we’ll stagnate. So for example, we want to have fun in life. Kids want to have fun for example. They have a party, I want to do this, I want to do that. But if they neglect their studies, they neglect their health, they neglect building good habits, then that will be a problem for the future.

But on the other hand, if you focus only on the future and don’t care for the present at all then what will happen is the person will suffocate. That is not very healthy. I was being driven by one American. I am American driven by an American kid born a devoted family. Children should not feel like that.

So if you care only for the present not for the present for the few if you care only for the future not for the present it will also not work. So each one of us has to find a balance. So try to see within bhakti which are the activities that give us some higher pleasure, which are the activities that give us some calming pleasure. And make sure that we do spend some time doing those activities. And then what will happen is we will be able to resist the temptations.

When there are pleasures other pleasures that come up and other places also not the same. There are some prasadvic pleasures are there. If you want to go for some hiking or somewhere to some place, that’s not necessarily hiking to nature. It’s not necessarily bad thing but by hiking people are going to drink and smoke. That’s not a good thing.

So we can say even pleasures outside Bhakti that will be sattvic, rajasik, tamasik. So we would avoid tamasik pleasures because they will be anti devotional. Sattvic pleasure is not a problem if everyone’s going okay. I’m curious I want to go and see this place or see that place. Entertainment is a part of a human life.

The problem is not with entertainment. Entertainment can be a break from life. But nowadays some people are so infatuated with entertainment that life is a break from entertainment. They work there on your phone, that video game, that TV show watching that’s the most important thing in their life. And real life with all the responsibility and challenges that’s just a break from that.

We don’t want to get that level. Okay? Thank you. So have this in a negotiation so that the present me is not suffocated but the present me’s enjoyment is not at the cost of the future. So Dhruva Maharaj Dhruva Maharaj and Praland Maharaj.

So can we say that Dhruva Maharaj immigrated and Praland Maharaj tolerated? Good. I would say Dhruva Maharaj immigrated because he wanted to mitigate. But he didn’t really want, he didn’t immigrate. He did not mitigate.

Because he didn’t really want his father’s kingdom. He said, I want a kingdom bigger than my father’s kingdom. Yes. He immigrated. And brother Paul.

Yes. I I always wonder, I think I pretty much know what’s right and what’s wrong. But it’s always a struggle because it’s easier to do the not so right things and difficult to do the right things. And and you instead of knowing that, because it’s easy, because it’s more pleasureful, We Yeah. Tend to do the not so right things.

And trying not to do that sometimes becomes a burden. And Okay. You won’t want to suffocate, so you might as well indulge, you know. So that’s why we can have a range. Range is that it’s every area where you want to improve in life.

There can be an aspirational level and there can be a non negotiable level. So for example my aspirational level might be that no matter how anyone provokes me I will not get angry, I will not yell at anyone. That is what I aspire to be. And it’s good to try to go to the aspirational level but we all have different conditionings within us and sometimes it just feels it gets very provoked. So then okay even if I get angry a non negotiable level would be that you know I’m not going to use foul words.

I’m not going to use swear words or but how angry I get I’m I don’t want to physically hit someone. So there is some boundary. So so it doesn’t have to be one zero, then there is success or failure. It has to be sometimes women, okay, I want to go I want to I don’t want to eat so much. I eat this kind of food.

But then I have a craving to eat. Okay. Then if I want to eat that food, let me have some boundaries. Maybe it contains a quantity. Yeah.

I want to eat some food. Okay. I want to eat meat. If you’re serious devotees for that, that’s not negotiable. But suppose somebody likes the taste of something very weak.

Maybe you have some soya bean, soya bean or food or something which has that same feel maybe some same taste. There is some something which is within the non negotiable we can do that. So each one of us can find out. We don’t have to be hard on ourselves and try to stick to the aspirational level all the time. Right?

So again if you can consider the pendulum, if we constantly seek to be at the aspirational level, only aspirational then we will suffocate. This. As our confidence increases our strength increases we can choose the bigger battles also. In the past Pakistan attacked India nearly nothing but now India has dealt with Pakistan more than a couple of times. India has not dealt with China.

We’re not strong enough for that. That doesn’t mean that China will all over us. But you’re not taking the battle to China. Right? So we choose our battles.

So let them go to choose our battles. Okay? Thank you very much.