​How to stay positive in our fight against material nature?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. So, I will begin with questions here.
How to keep ourselves positive-minded against the highly-sounded material nature? So, I think highly-sounded here means very powerful material nature. Usually, actually this is the question that Prahlad Maharaj has asked by Hiranyakashipu that on whose strength are you defying me? So, from the material perspective, Hiranyakashipu is thousands of times more powerful than Prahlad. So, Prahlad’s confidence came from his connection with the Supreme Lord.
So, usually if we think that we are fighting against material nature, that fight may be for either reasons. The fight may be because we want to enjoy material nature or we want to reject material nature. For either purpose, if we think that we are fighting against material nature, we will not be able to sustain ourselves for long.
Because material nature is just too powerful. Krishna uses the word Daivi. He uses the word Divine.
So, but Krishna also uses the same describer, Daivi, which he uses in 7.14. Also, he uses it again in 9.12. Daivim Prakritim Ashritah. So, he is talking about his internal potency which is also Daivi. That means Krishna has the external energy and Krishna has the internal energy.
So, in the internal energy the focus is on serving Krishna. So, it is not on dominating material nature nor is it on renouncing material nature. So, we are, as devotees, we are not primarily concerned with fighting against material nature.
We are primarily concerned with serving Krishna. And when in our service to Krishna, material nature brings some obstacles, then we fight against material nature. But if we keep our eyes fixed on this world, fixed on material nature, then sooner or later we will be overwhelmed.
We cannot stay positive minded. So, it is only when our eyes are raised beyond the world towards Krishna, then we can actually become positive. So, in material nature many different kinds of adversities may come.
But we always have no adversity no matter how big it may be. It cannot take away three powers from us. The first power is our power to decide what we think about.
We may get a terrible disease. We may suffer financially. But no one can force us to think about something.
Now, because of our attachment, say, if I get a terrible disease, I may think, oh, why did I get this disease? Our thoughts may go towards that. But the problem can’t force us to think about it. We always have the freedom to choose what we can think about.
And Krishna Bhakti gives us the most satisfying alternative object to think about. So, when we turn to, when we recognize that nothing can take away our power to think about Krishna. And if we see, most of the times, we have problems and the problems can be very big.
But often, our dwelling on the problem makes the problem even bigger. So, if you don’t dwell on the problem, if you dwell on something else, something which is satisfying, something which is giving, that’s what I mean by raising our eyes beyond the world. So, we always have the power to choose what we think about.
And especially, if we make a habit of practicing Krishna consciousness seriously, chanting, hearing, studying, then we already have developed some attachment to Krishna. And when problems come, thinking about something else becomes easy, relatively easy. Prabhupada writes in his Jaladuta diary that after he had that heart attack and he was in great pain, that time he says, my only solace is the nectar of Chaitanya Charita Amrit.
So, Prabhupada is reading that and he was gaining strength from there. So, we may be in adverse circumstances but we always have the power to choose what we think about. Second is, we decide how we look at the circumstance.
The problem will be there, but how we perceive the problem, our attitude towards the problem is up to us. Often, it is not just the event that causes distress, it is the meaning that we assign to the event that causes distress. So, for example, if a soldier goes on a war field and is shot by the enemy, that’s a matter of celebration because the soldier becomes a war hero, we get an award afterwards because that wound is meaningful, it is in a glorious cause.
But if on the other hand, the soldier is going to the war field and suddenly the soldier tumbles off the tank and breaks his leg, there is no glory in that. So, the wound may be the same but in one case it is a glory, in the other case it is not. Why? Because there is a certain meaning assigned to it.
So, we all whatever events happen to us, depending on what meaning we assign to it, we perceive it as positively or negatively. So, bhakti means we understand that actually nothing that happens is meaningless, nothing that happens is purposeless. Even if I don’t understand the purpose, still there is some plan that Krishna has.
Essentially, if we become fixed in our service to Krishna, not necessarily a specific form of service, but the principle of service. If we want to enjoy, then we need so many conditions for enjoying. But if we want to serve, we can serve in any condition.
We may have particular kind of service we like to do and we may not be able to do that kind of service, but we can always serve in some way or the other. Actually, when our external circumstances limit us, then that is an opportunity to see that as a opportunity for intensifying the spirit of service. Lastly, we can choose our response to our situation.
What we think about, how we look at the particular situation and how we respond to the situation. When a problem comes, some people may just become snappy and irritable shouting at everyone else. Some people may just become depressed, sinking into themselves.
Some people may become atheistic. Basically, we can go in three directions when we face problems. One is blame others.
Second is blame ourselves. Third is blame God. We can blame in these three directions.
Blame others, blame ourselves or blame God. All three are actually unproductive. Instead, if we focus on the point that what can I do in this situation? We will find that if we are attached to doing particular things, we will only be able to see all that I can’t do.
But if we are attached to the principle of service, we will always see that there is something that I can do even in this situation. And by focusing on what we can do, we can actually increase our freedom. We can increase our freedom more and more because we see that bhakti has the potency to focus us and direct us towards what we can do.
So by redirecting our thoughts towards Krishna and then using the Krishna conscious philosophy to see the problem appropriately and then responding positively to that. We can in that way avoid negativity