How to stay spiritually strong amidst material difficulties

[Congregation program at Goldcoast, Australia]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
It’s nice to be here, all of you. And I was asked to speak on the topic of how to stay strong in our spiritual life amidst material difficulties. So I would like this to be an interactive talk.
So I’ll speak three points. And after each point, we’ll have some time where you can also give your reflections of something that you found relevant, something which you felt applied to your life or something which struck you as interesting. Something that spoke to you.
So the three points I’ll speak is, the first point is that when we demand the impossible for ourselves, we end up not doing even the possible. The second point is that Krishna is an understanding God, not a demanding God. And third point is, by Krishna’s grace, we can do more than what we think we can do.
So normally, when we have to do anything challenging in life, whether it be in our family, in our profession, in our personal change, whether it is in our spiritual life, at that time, how we start off determines whether we keep going on or not. I write in the Bhagavad Gita every day, a small article at Gita Daily. So one article which I’m writing currently is that, to start in our life, we have to start with our life.
What that means is that if I want to move somewhere, I have to start from where I am right now. So if I think I should be somewhere else and I want to start from there, say from here if I want to go to Brisbane, if I think right now I should be at the Brisbane airport, and from there I’ll go in 20 minutes or 10 minutes. But I have to start from where I am.
So similarly, we all are at different situations in our life. Physically we understand that we have to start from where we are itself. But often, internally or in other aspects of our life, where the distances and dimensions are not so empirically apparent, we often think that we are somewhere else.
So if we demand the impossible from ourselves, then we end up not doing even the possible. One of my main services is writing. So I’ve talked with many different devotee writers as well as other professional writers about how they find time for writing.
So one thing is that if there are two main modes of reaching out to people, one is speaking and writing. So if right now I’m speaking, even if I get a phone call, I will not attend to the phone call because I’m speaking right now. But if I’m writing and I get a phone call, I’ll often pick up the phone call.
In fact, what happens when we are writing, if the ideas don’t come, if thoughts are not moving forwards, then not only do we pay attention to distractions, we actually look for distractions. So now if a writer decides that, okay, I am going to write a thousand words every day, and the writer starts off one day, two day, three day, and afterwards the writer thinks that, actually I have nothing to write. And then the writer just gives up writing.
Why? Because maybe in their particular schedule at that time, writing a thousand words was too big an idea. So sometimes when inspiration strikes, one can write a lot. But if inspiration doesn’t strike, one may not be able to write so much.
So generally those who write consistently, what they do is they just sit and decide, I’ll write for a particular amount of time or a particular quantity. And it’s a reasonable quantity. So if somebody has never written, for them to write a thousand words daily might be quite a challenge.
Maybe a hundred words, fifty words. So it doesn’t take that much time. So for the last three, four years, I have been travelling extensively.
And almost seven, eight months, I’m out of India travelling. And at that time, to keep writing becomes difficult. I’m still writing my Gita daily, but the other books which I want to write, which I don’t get time.
So I recently started a habit that I will write six minutes every day. I’ll write in six minute units. Now six minutes is not so little that I can’t write anything.
And six minutes is not so much that I sit and think, what will I write? If I have to write for one hour, what will I write for one hour? But six minutes, okay, I got this idea, let me just write it down. And then I find it just by writing six, six minutes. So every day I manage to write at least six minutes.
Some days I write four, five times six minutes. And some days what I have written, six, six minutes over various days, I bring it together and it becomes an article. So instead of expecting that I should be able to write a lot every day, just do something and then we move forward.
So all of us, we would like to go whichever direction, we want to go spiritually, we want to become absorbed in love for Krishna. And that is a lofty aspiration, is a worthy aspiration, noble aspiration. At the same time, it may seem not so practical right now.
So if we demand that from ourselves, we end up cutting ourselves off from the very process that will help us improve. So if a child thinks that the first time I draw, my drawing should be perfect. If a baby thinks the first time I walk, I should be able to walk perfectly.
They will not be able to do that. So it’s a normal process of growing that we sometimes do things imperfectly and then gradually we move towards doing them better and better. And the same applies in our spiritual life also.
Whether it is the chanting that we do, whether it is a scriptural study, whether it is a temple worship, whether it is a spiritual programme that we go to, satsang, whatever it is, it’s not always possible to do everything as well as we would like to. And if you make it a precondition, if I do this, I will do this very well. So I want to study scripture, every day I’ll study for one hour.
If we can, wonderful. Can’t study for one hour, study one page every day. Study one page.
And by doing that one page, what will happen? We’ll keep moving forwards. So if we expect I’ll study for one hour, what happens I’ll do for one day, two day, three day, five days and some days my life becomes so busy that I can’t do for one hour and then I start thinking, I can’t do this. Then we either beat ourselves up, I have no will power, I have no determination, I am good for nothing.
It’s not necessarily that we are good for nothing. We may not be good for something which we have set ourselves up for. But that doesn’t mean we are not good for nothing.
So when we demand the impossible from ourselves and sometimes it may be that it’s not we who are demanding, it may be others who may demand from us, you have to do this, you have to do that. And then we, without honestly, candidly explaining our situation, we say I’ll do it. And then when we can’t do it, then they may send us on a guilt trip.
You never keep your promises. And then again we end up feeling bad about ourselves. In the Bhagavatam, there is a story of Dhruva Maharaj.
When Dhruva was a small boy, at that time he went to the forest because he was insulted by his stepmother and he was disregarded by his father. So he felt that I was not allowed to sit on my father’s throne. Although it was on his lap when he was sitting on the throne.
He said, I will get a throne bigger than my father’s throne. And for that he decided to go to Lord Vishnu. His mother told him, I can’t help you in this but Vishnu can help you.
So she went to the Supreme Lord. She guided him to the Supreme Lord. And where do I find Vishnu? He said, in the jungle.
So when he was going to the jungle, at that time Narada Muni met him. And Narada Muni told him, actually, honour, dishonour, these things keep happening in life. Don’t take it so seriously.
And Dhruva said, yes, I know what you are saying is true. Honour, dishonour are not to be taken seriously. But I can’t apply it.
Since the dishonour has hurt me so much that I have to rectify it. And therefore, if you can help me to get honourable kingdom, then please help me. Otherwise, let me go my way.
So he was not dismissive or disrespectful. But he was candid. He said, you were telling me don’t take this seriously.
But this has seriously hurt me right now. I can’t say I won’t take it seriously. I have to take it seriously.
So please help me right now. So he did not, even Narada Muni said, just tolerate it. See, for all of us, different situations may hurt us differently.
Say suppose, there is a boxer who has a broken jaw that has been fixed. And it’s weak. And normally in boxing, if somebody punches, it hurts, but not much.
But if somebody has got a broken jaw and it hits over there, it will hurt them unbearably. So it’s the same blow, but to a different person it will be a minor hurt. But to this person, it will be a much greater hurt.
With respect to physical injury, we can understand this. But similarly, all of us can get emotionally injured. And we may all be carrying some emotional scars, emotional wounds from the past.
And because of that, one emotional blow, somebody might just be able to push it off, doesn’t matter. But for somebody else, it might be just too much. I can’t bear this.
So therefore, if somebody is very disturbed by something, and we tell them, don’t take it seriously. That simply means, we are not taking their feeling seriously. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that whatever they feel like doing, they have to do it immediately.
But everybody is in a different situation. And what may seem very easy, if somebody insults us, just forget it and move on with life. But somebody else, they can’t do it.
I can’t do it. It’s hurt me so much. So we have to begin with where we are right now.
So by expecting the impossible from ourselves, we end up not doing even the possible. So if somebody says that, if you are disrespected, you should just be tolerant like a tree, humble like a blade of grass and continue practising bhakti. Well, I aspire to be like that, but I’m not like that right now.
And whenever I see the person who has disrespected me, who has insulted me, it hurts me so much that I can’t move forwards. Then instead of expecting that I can still be in the presence of that person, I can still be Krishna conscious, but I’m not Krishna conscious. I’m simply anger conscious.
I’m simply hurt conscious. Then maybe better keep a distance from that person. And the world is very big.
Opportunity for serving Krishna is also very big. If we can’t work with someone, we don’t have to work against that person also. We just work separately.
So if we can’t cooperate, we can co-operate. Co-operate means you operate here, I operate here and we operate in our own ways. So that is also one level of cooperation.
So this point I’m making here is that if we expect the impossible from ourselves, then we end up not doing even the possible. So any comments, any reflections about this? Any thought that struck you or it triggered some reflection, something within you? Yes ma’am. You said if we expect the impossible, what if we just expect the possible and even that doesn’t have results? Is it a reflection or is it a question? Because questions we’ll keep at the end.
We’ll do the questions, but we’ll do it at the end, if you don’t mind. We can take questions, but if there is any reflection, I would like to take that first. A long time ago, over 40 years ago, I was still manifesting these pastimes.
A few months afterwards, Prabhupada left and his movement was taken over by these 11 Sangha Acharyas. But again, is this a reflection or is it a question? This is a reflection. Okay, yeah.
People got pushed very, very, very hard for a lot of support. So we went from a movement that was growing, growing, growing even after Prabhupada left to suddenly sort of flaxed inward because people were being pushed more than they could really give of themselves, more than they were really capable of. So they were not getting enough support.
I would count myself in that group. I don’t want to go into a lot of details. But yes, so devotees weren’t mature.
The leaders, they were devotees, whatever, they might have done some bad things, but they were devotees. They only got those positions of authority for serving Prabhupada. But they were trying to be more than they could be and they were asking people in their care more surrender than they were capable of.
So that’s my reflection. Yeah, it’s a good point. It’s a sad part of our history that after Prabhupada departed, both the leaders and themselves and their followers, they expected the impossible from them.
Yeah, I think there are two, three factors in this. One is, in general, when a great, inspirational, charismatic leader is there, they can push people and people get happily pushed because they are inspired and personal inspiration is there and that great leader can also give some divine empowerment. Many even Prabhupada disciples, they told me that what they could do when Prabhupada was on the planet, now they can’t do it.
That some shakti, some strength, empowerment which they had, so others presumed that they have got, but they didn’t have that. So, that’s one thing. The other is also that in some ways, our movement was set up for disaster because nowhere in the history of religious movements till now has ever there been this much of a gap between the founder and his successors.
The founder was at a completely different level spiritually, culturally, philosophically and the successors were just basically in the 20s or at the most the 30s and they are from a very different culture, although they had practised bhakti intensely. But still, so I would say rather than being, we will actually be disappointed, but rather than being shocked at what happened, from the perspective of organisational history, we would say it’s surprising that the movement survived. Rather than saying that why did so many problems come up.
It was set up for failure in a sense. But despite being set up for failure, there were fractures, but we survived. And not only survived, we have grown.
So, Jayadvait Maharaj is one of our leaders. He has given a series of lectures called Unity in Perversity. Not unity in diversity, unity in perversity.
So, what he means over there is that he has looked at the history of all the great religious traditions. Whether it’s Christianity after Jesus departed, Islam after Muhammad departed, Gaudiya Vaishnavism after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu departed, even Gaudiya Math after Bhakti Sadhana Sri Thakur departed. All of them ran into catastrophic problems after the founder departed.
So, in that sense, what happened to us is not exceptional. So, some kind of, after a great spiritual leader comes and goes, some kind of chaos, some kind of perversity happens. So, unity in perversity simply means that it’s in the history repeating itself in some ways.
And yes, I think overall, we are all becoming more realistic, more mature about how we can practise Bhakti sustainably. So, we are growing. Yes, it’s a good example of historically how the unrealistic, the impossible was demanded.
And then, when that was what people thought, this is what we have to do to practise Bhakti. And if they can’t do that, they said, I can’t practise Bhakti itself. And many people went away from Bhakti.
But it’s not that if you can’t practise, I’ll talk about this in the next point now. Can’t practise Bhakti here, we can practise Bhakti here, we can practise Bhakti here. So, it’s a good point.
Thank you for sharing that. It’s a bit more than that. It’s really a case of, you know, if you can’t practise Bhakti here, go away.
Yes, that’s true. If anything, we have lived, you know, at the time, with no chance in the real world, but actually, I’ve lived. One thing in the Bhagavad Gita, in the 6th chapter, Arjuna asks Krishna now, what happens when you’re trying to follow this yoga process or the rotal process? Krishna’s really talking that way.
What happens if, you know, if you try and follow this, but you just can’t make it? Which is, you know, this is a reflection on what you were saying, what you started with. And Krishna, he’s very encouraging. He says, well, don’t think that, you know, you’re thrown on the rubbish heap.
You’re not. If you try to do it good, they will always be supportive. In your next life, but really, in this life too.
So, we’ve both, I think, experienced that, you know, Krishna will come from time to time to try and help us in things, you know, to keep going in some level of ways. Yeah. Beautiful.
So, I’ll lead this to the next point, and I’ll elaborate on that. So, the first point I discussed was that, in our, that even if, even if, that by setting impossible expectations from ourselves, we end up not doing the possible. Then second point I was going to make is that, Krishna is not a demanding God, but an understanding God.
Now, that’s one section in the Bhagavad Gita, as you mentioned, 6th chapter, it’s 37 to 45, where Krishna is asked, if I can’t complete the spiritual journey, what happens? Krishna says, you can continue in the next life. There’s another section in the Bhagavad Gita also, which talks about, even in this life, in 12.8 to 12, Krishna gives multiple levels at which you can connect with Him. So, He’s saying, just first in 12.8, He says, Fix your mind and intelligence in Me.
In this way, you will live in Me. He’s not saying, you’ll attain Me in future. You will live in Me by this.
But, somebody says, this is not possible. My mind and intelligence go here and there. So, He says that, if you can’t constantly, spontaneously fix your mind on Me, then conscientiously strive to fix your mind on Me.
That is Sadhana Bhakti. If you can’t be attracted to Krishna naturally, you strive to fix the mind on Krishna. So, great devotees, when they come in a temple, they come in front of the altar, they see Krishna, they’re so delighted to see Krishna, that they faint in ecstasy and they fall down.
So, for us sadhakas, they say, even if you don’t faint, at least fall down. At least offer obeisances. At least offer your respects.
So, the idea is that, what doesn’t happen conscientiously, what doesn’t happen spontaneously, you do it conscientiously. This is another level, Krishna says. Somebody may say, that’s also good, but I can’t keep chanting and worshipping Krishna all the time.
I say, okay. Then Krishna says, Okay, if you can’t constantly practise bhakti, then you work for Me. Now, work for Ki can mean two different things.
It is that we do seva for Krishna. In the temple, there can be different services. There are prayer projects, there are programmes, there can be services over there.
So, we can do those services. It can be also, whatever work we are doing, we do it in the mood of service to Krishna. We take care of our family, we take care of our job, but we see that this is not just my family, these are Krishna’s parts, who are a part of my family right now.
These are Krishna’s… Krishna has given me this ability and I am doing this job. Let me do it in the mood of service to Krishna. So, we work for Krishna.
In 9.27 Krishna says, whatever you do, you offer it to Me. So, that’s another level. Then He says, if you can’t do that also, sarva karma phala tyagaṁ tatha kuru yatātmavān Krishna says, then at least try to cultivate some selflessness.
That means, instead of just working for your own sake, work for some higher cause. Try to sacrifice the fruits of your work for something higher. So, when the spiritual perfection is to be Krishna centred, just absorb in Krishna, living in Krishna, living for Krishna.
Many people are narcissistic. Narcissistic people are, what are they? They are eye specialists. Not E-Y-E-I, but big eye, eye specialists.
So, actually this narcissist, this word comes from a character in Greek mythology, this narcissist, he was very good looking. And he used to love looking at himself. And once he went to a river, and he wanted to look at himself.
And he peered over to look in the river, and he peered more, and he bent over more, bent over more, and finally he bent so much that he fell into the river. And he didn’t know how to swim. And he drowned.
So, narcissism is the idea that there is so much self-obsession that it leads to self-destruction. So, many people are self-centred. So, Krishna is saying, this is self-centred, this is Krishna centred.
If you can’t be Krishna centred, then at least get out of being self-centred. Try to become selfless. Do something for a higher cause.
So, we see Krishna is giving us multiple levels at which we can grow in the spiritual journey. And so, I put this that Krishna’s mood is that from your place, at your pace, access the grace. From your place, wherever you are, and at your pace.
At your pace, access the grace. So, whatever we can do in our situation, we do that, and we move forward from there. When we have this mood, then we can say that, okay, I am in this situation right now, I can’t do much.
But let me do what I can. And we see that Shri Prabhupada himself, he got the instruction to share Krishna Bhakti in 1922. But for many years, he couldn’t do it directly or immediately.
He was already married, he had a child, and he felt it would be unfair for his family if he just neglected them and started focussing on preaching. So, then he did his family responsibilities. His aspiration was that he would become very successful as a businessman, and then he’d contribute financially to his spiritual master’s mission.
And then eventually, when that didn’t work out, he thought, at least I’ll take care of my family’s needs, and then I’ll focus on spirituality. So, when Prabhupada was in an Indian city called Allahabad, there he had a pharmacy shop. He was a pharmacist before, he was Abhay Babu.
And there’s a doctor, so the doctor would prescribe the medicines, and Prabhupada would give the medicines, make the medicine and give it, like a dispensary. So then, there’s an interview of this doctor in Prabhupada’s biography, the Leela Amrit. And there he says, Abhay Babu was a deeply religious person.
And when you talk with him, was with him for a few moments, you could see that he was a very deeply religious person. But, at that time, the main question in his mind was, how can I earn more money? So, he was devoted to Krishna, but at that time, that was what was required. So, that means that Prabhupada was conscious of Krishna, but he was also conscious of an immediate need that was there.
And he was taking care of that need. So, in order to have fixity in purpose, our idea is that I want to be fixed in moving towards Krishna, in my connection with Krishna. To have fixity in purpose, we need to have flexibility in pace.
Flexibility in pace means that, suppose we are driving a car. And say, we want to get to some destination. Say, from here, I want to go to the Brisbane airport.
Now, if the traffic is very high, we go slowly. We can’t go fast even if we want to. Once the traffic clears, we can go faster.
Now, whether the traffic is high or low, whether our speed is low or high, we are still moving in that direction. So, if somebody says, I want to go at this speed only. And if I can’t go at, say, 70 miles per hour or whatever, then I will not go.
It’s not like that. You can move at whatever pace the situation allows. Similarly, sometimes in our life, in our journey towards Krishna, sometimes the traffic of material things becomes too much.
Say, our health may go down. And then, we may have to pay a lot of attention to recover our health. Say, if we get financially challenged, then we may have to do the needful to earn the money.
If there is a family emergency, if you are working at a job and there is an urgent project deadline, we may have to pay attention to that. If somebody is a student and they have exams coming up, then they have to study at that time. So, the way they are moving spiritually, in terms of externally doing spiritual activities, that might become slower.
But still, they are moving in that direction. And this is when the traffic becomes clear, then we move faster. Now, if even when the road is clear, somebody keeps moving slowly, that means they never wanted to go early.
They never wanted to reach in time. So, similarly, when life becomes a little more orderly, if even after that we keep our spiritual life at a very low track or a low pace, then that will question our spiritual sincerity. If somebody says, no, no, no, actually every day my life is a crisis.
Well, if every day life is a crisis, that means it’s actually our planning about life that is a crisis. Now, crises don’t come every day. They come, we need to have some basic structure, basic plan, basic orientation in our life and sometimes things go wrong.
So, when this thing happens, when the traffic in our life becomes too much, at that time, if we slow down, that’s not a failure. That’s just an adjustment according to time, place, circumstance. And Krishna understands this.
Now, Krishna is in our heart. Krishna sees our situation. Krishna sees what we can do and He accommodates us accordingly.
So, if we see that, as I said, Krishna has given various levels at which we can practise. And Krishna gives us also facility to practise at whatever level we can. If we do this, then we will keep moving forward even if not always at the same pace.
And then, over a period of time, the traffic may become clearer and we’ll move forwards. So, if at a particular situation in our life, we can’t do the same thing which we were doing earlier, that doesn’t mean that we have fallen down. It just means that our situation has changed.
And we have to work with the situation we are in. So, Krishna is an understanding God. And if the traffic in our life is high, we can move slowly.
And Krishna will understand that. Krishna is not a judgemental or a demanding God. So, that was the second point.
Any reflections about this? Anything that struck you? We’ll come to questions a little later. Okay. Then I’ll move to the last point.
Sorry? I’m okay. Thank you. Okay.
I think this is a question, isn’t it? Or is it a comment? You want me to comment whether it is a question? Yeah, it’s a question. Yeah, can I just complete the class? I’ll answer this towards the end, if you don’t mind. We’ll take that as a question.
Any reflection or should I move on? Okay. Okay. So, the last point was that if we that Krishna can often empower us to do more than what we think we can do.
This means that, say, we think in this situation, this is what I can do. You know, I’ve got this job, I’ve got this family, I’ve got this health situation. And I can’t do this now.
So, rather than thinking that I can’t do this, you start doing what we can. And if we start doing what we can, we may surprise ourselves about what we can do or what we can’t do. See, we all have certain conceptions about our capacities.
And those conceptions may be correct also. Say, somebody is told, lift a 50 kg weight. I can’t do that.
I can lift 10 kg, 15 kg, 20 kg maybe. 50 kg I can’t do. That may be true.
But, because if I can’t lift a 50 kg weight, doesn’t mean that I can’t carry that bag only. Maybe I can take out something and carry them one by one from there. So, just start doing what we can.
Then, we often have a static conception of our capacities. I did a parenting seminar and I’m not a parent, but somehow a monk is supposed to know everything. I can talk about some principles.
Sometimes when we do counselling or mentoring, it’s somewhat similar to parenting. But, I studied a little bit about parenting and child development. I talked with some devotees who are also child psychologists, especially.
So, it is said that parents, they can appreciate their children either for their success or for their endeavour. Now, when parents appreciate their children for their success, Oh, you came first in your class. Oh, you won this trophy.
You won this. Then, what happens? Children start thinking that my parents, the parents’ love for me is conditional to my success. And if they don’t get the success, then they feel, the parents don’t love me.
And sometimes it may happen that in some situations, the children may not be able to succeed. So, on the other hand, the parents appreciate the child for the endeavour. Yes, you studied very well.
And that is good. Then, what happens? See, the results are not always in our control. In a small school, the child may come first.
But if the child goes to a big university, there may be far more talented students than that child. He may not be able to succeed over there. So, we can have either a conception of our ability, I can do this or I can’t do this.
And if we can do this, we are wonderful. If we can’t do this, we are useless. That conception can come because even if it is not parents, society often recognises the winners only.
And not everyone else. So, based on whether we have tried something in the past and we have failed, we may have developed an estimate of our capacities. And this I can’t do.
So, this is the idea that our capacities are static. I tried it in the past, I couldn’t do it. I won’t be able to do it now.
But actually, our capacities needn’t be static. They are dynamic. Just like, a child may not be able to lift a 10 kg weight.
But the same child, after 10 years down the line, can easily lift a 10 kg weight. With respect to physical weight, lifting capacity, we easily understand this. But with respect to other activities also.
Our capacities may change over time. And that’s why rather than thinking, I can’t do this. What we can do is, in this, what can I do? It’s a simple shift in question, but it can be profoundly empowering.
I can’t do this, or in this, what can I do? Yeah. This, maybe I don’t know whether I can do it or not. Maybe not.
Maybe yes. But in this, what can I do? Okay, I can do this. I can do this.
I can do this. And if you just take, the key is, small, simple steps. We call this SSS.
Small, simple steps. What can I do? I was at a writing workshop, and online, so I was talking with authors, we were discussing, so there was a very well-published author. So, that author was saying that, we often make a big, I do about writing.
Ultimately, writing is nothing except, putting one word after another on paper. I have to write an article. I have to write a book.
How will I do it? I have to just write one word. And then write another word. And then write another word.
So, if I think that, I just have to write one word. Oh, surely I can write one word. I have to write a big essay.
I have to write my PhD thesis. I have to write a book. How can I do it? Just write one word.
So, what happens is, instead of thinking, instead of assessing ourselves, based on our past assessments, and thinking I can’t do it. It may be true we can’t do it, but it may also be possible that we can do it. So, we just start with, in this, what can I do? And once we start with that, what happens? And we may surprise ourselves.
Even if we don’t reach the destination, we may go a good way to the destination. It’s not just that our capacities grow. Krishna can also empower us.
I’ll conclude with this point in Bhakti, that Krishna is not a static destination. Krishna is a dynamic destination. What does that mean? That means that, say, if I have to walk from one end of Australia to the other end of Australia.
Say, somebody says I want to walk from Gold Coast to Perth. It may take such a long time for me. I can’t do that.
Now, here the distance is fixed, and you have to go a huge journey. You say, I can’t do it. Yeah, it may be very difficult to do it.
Most people can’t. But we may think, oh, Krishna is far away in the spiritual world. How can I ever reach Krishna? But, it’s said that when we take one step towards Krishna, what happens? He takes ten steps towards us.
And his steps are not like our steps. They can be giant steps. You know, in one of his pastimes, Krishna shows his steps can cover the whole universe.
Which is that pastime? Vamana pastime. Vamana Dev pastime, Bali Maharaj. So, instead of thinking Krishna is a destination that is far away, I say that, let me take steps forward.
And Krishna will also come towards me. And in that sense, Krishna is a dynamic destination, not a static destination. And that’s why the things which we thought very difficult or even impossible for us in the past, they may become possible for us now by Krishna’s grace.
And in this way, Krishna can empower us. So, rather than simply thinking too much about what I can do and what I can’t do, let me focus on just doing it. And once we start doing things, we’ll move forward.
We’ll start moving forward. And once we start moving forward, what happens is that, we get a sense of direction, we get a sense of motion, we get a sense of achievement. I achieved this.
So, in this, to keep moving forward, we take a simple small step. Now, we should set the goal also in such a way that it’s a positive goal, not a negative goal. I gave a seminar in Mumbai and I’m doing a retreat in Brisbane and a fortnight on the topic of anger.
So, burn anger before anger burns you. That’s the topic. So, there I spoke one point.
Let me make a resolution. I will never become angry. Now, if I make a resolution like that, I may stick to it for one month.
But on the 31st day, I yell at someone. And then it appears to me as if I failed. I didn’t succeed at all.
But you shift it. You say, I’ll never become angry. Make a positive resolution.
The way I phrased it is that, I will always respect everyone’s right to be spoken to politely. Even if I made a mistake, I would like that other person speak to me politely. I feel at least as a human being I deserve that much that I should be spoken to politely.
Similarly, everybody is a human being. So, everybody deserves to be spoken to politely. Everybody has a right to be spoken to politely.
So, I will always respect everyone’s right to be spoken to politely. That doesn’t mean necessarily I’ll tolerate anything and everything that they are doing. I may have to be strong.
But I can be politely strong also. So, now what happens? If I make this resolution, I will respect everyone’s right to be spoken to politely. And this is slightly more complicated wording.
Because what happens, I will speak politely is good, but it is more self-centred. I will do it, I will not do it. But I think about the other person’s rights.
It makes me a little more mature. It makes me a little more sensitive about how the other person is going to feel about it. So, I’ll respect the other person’s right to be spoken to politely.
And then what happens is, even if I fail one day, it’s not lost. Once I spoke impolitely, but again I can speak politely next day. I can speak politely next day.
So, in each interaction, when we could yell at someone, stay calm and speak politely. That’s a success. So, when we start assessing our performance in terms of small, simple steps, that even if we slip at some step, even if we fall, we can rise and keep taking the steps.
And that way, we can keep moving forwards. And by Krishna’s mercy, whatever we felt was impossible, perceiving in our spiritual life, it will gradually become possible. Not only will it become possible, over time, as we become connected with Krishna, as we become attracted to Krishna, it will become not just possible, but also relishable.
In the Bhagavad Gita, towards the end, it is said that when Sanjay is remembering Krishna’s form and Krishna’s words, he is relishing at every moment. Actually, Prabhupada writes in the Purport over there that one who is Krishna conscious enjoys life with a thrill at every moment. So, we connect with Krishna, we can also attain that state gradually.
So, I’ll summarise what I spoke today. I spoke on the topic of how to stay strong in our spiritual practises even when life becomes difficult, even amidst material difficulties. And I spoke three points.
The first was that by expecting the impossible from ourselves, we end up not doing the possible. So, for all of us, sometimes we expect I should be like this or the world expects us to be like this. And we think of that if I can’t do this, then I become so discouraged that I end up doing nothing.
Talking about writing, instead of setting some lofty goal, just start with something which is simple. So, to begin, to start in our life, we have to start with our life. Where am I right now? I move forward from there.
And when we do this, then we’ll find that rather than becoming discouraged or crushed by unrealistic expectations, we will just start moving forward gradually. Then second point was Krishna is not a demanding God but an understanding God. Talking about Krishna, there are multiple levels that you can connect with Him in the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.
And within that, to have fixity of purpose, we can have, we need to have flexibility in pace. Sometimes, the traffic may be so high that we have to go slowly. So, like that, the traffic in our life, material life will become high.
So, we move slowly. We don’t have to necessarily always go at the same pace. And the test will be that when the traffic clears, we should pick up the speed.
So, if a material life crisis is coming constantly, then we need to organise our priorities better. Organise our life and plan it better. But in general, we can move forward towards Krishna slow or fast.
So, from your place, at your pace, access His grace. And the last point was that by Krishna’s grace, what we thought was impossible may become possible also for us. So, instead of having a static conception of our capacities, we can know that our capacities are also growing.
Just like a child grows and can do things which they could not do earlier, similarly, we are also growing in our bhakti. So, rather than thinking, I can’t do this, we can start with, in this, what can I do? And I talk about how Krishna is not a static destination, but a dynamic destination. Not only do we go towards Krishna, but Krishna also comes closer to us.
And if we just persevere, then Krishna can make what we thought was impossible, possible for us. And that way, instead of setting a negative goal of what I will not do, we can focus on a positive goal that what I will do. If we stick to our, set ourselves that I will live according to some values, then even if I go off course, I can always come back and live according to that value in a positive way and move on.
And in this way, not only will what was thought of as impossible may become possible, but it may even become relishable by Krishna’s grace. Thank you very much. So, questions? You had a question? So, let’s start with that.
Is it that when Krishna says, or it is said that if we don’t do this, we’ll get this result, that is karma, isn’t that God demanding? That was your question? That the karma has its reactions. So, isn’t that God demanding us to do certain things? Yeah. Well, there are two understandings we could have of this.
At one level we could say, karma is not God’s doing. Karma is just the system by which nature works. If, if we step off from a 10-story building, we fall down.
Is that God causing us to fall down? No. Yeah, that’s a rare exception. Generally, but it’s, No, I’m just saying, it’s a different thing.
There are subtleties which we’ll come to. Let’s see. See, there are, there are universal principles and there are specific exceptions.
The point I’m making simply here is that if somebody falls down, is that, if somebody steps off a 10-story building and the person falls down, is that God causing him to fall down? There’s just a natural law of gravity over there. So, No, no, if somebody just, not intentionally to commit suicide, if somebody just steps off a floor, if a child doesn’t know and the child steps off, steps off of a 10-story building, it’s not that Krishna is causing them to fall. The basic point is that there are laws in nature and they are just the way the world functions.
And, in that, Krishna is not directly involved. If we put our hand in fire and our hand gets burnt, Krishna is not involved over there. We put the hand in fire and we got burnt by that.
So, that there is an action-reaction correlation is just the basic way the material world functions. And that is how all science also is able to understand nature. Now, that’s one way of looking at it, that there are certain, that there are certain ways in which the world functions and if we are careless, we are ignorant, we are negligent, then we will get, we will have to get the consequences.
And it’s not that God is directly involved. There is a system over here. Now, of course, when we talk about karma, it’s not just a mechanical object falling down.
It’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a delicate question. Okay. It’s a delicate question.
I would not use the word punishment in a very specific sense. It’s more that see, karma is a system of justice. But, it’s a system of justice.
Now, within justice, there’s sometimes punishment. But if we look at our life, it’s not just that sometimes we get things worse than what we deserve. There are times also when we get things better than we deserve.
That sometimes when we do, yeah, the point which I’m making is, see, let’s start with the empirical and then go to the philosophical. From the empirical perspective, there are laws in nature. That’s a simple observation.
If I step off a 10-story building, I’ll fall down. And, A, if I fall down over there, there is no need to involve God in that. There’s a simple law over there.
When Newton saw the fruit falling, now, he asked, what made the fruit fall? He was not interested in God as the answer. He believed in God. But at that point, he was interested in what is the mechanism by which the fruit falls.
So, let’s start with the empirical first. Now, if we just bring the philosophical into every point, we’ll get confused. I’ll come to the philosophical, but start with the empirical and the logical and then we’ll come to the philosophical.
From the empirical perspective, with logical inferences, we understand that there are laws in nature. But, from the empirical perspective, again with logical inferences, we see that there is not an exact correlation between action and reaction. That means, I may do a little work and I may get a lot of results.
I may do a little mistake and I may get into a lot of trouble. Both ways things happen in life. So, somebody might be driving a car and they just look off, they look at their phone for one moment and somebody comes.
Okay. It’s a good example. So, someone comes along and they knock over that person.
Somebody while driving goes to sleep and somehow the road is very straight and nothing happens. So, they knock off for a few minutes and they wake up and they are still on the road. It happens to me.
You are fortunate. I didn’t have a bad accident. Yeah, you are fortunate.
So, the point is that while we can see that there are action and reaction in life, but also we see that action and reaction are not always equally proportional. The action in this empirical world may sometimes have two bigger reactions or sometimes the action may have a very small reaction. So, there are other factors involved in this.
And what are the other factors? The other factors are that the action A doesn’t lead in itself to result B. Action A combined with our destiny, which is basically a sum total of the actions that we have done in the past. So, action A plus some unpredictable combination of a factor of the actions that we have done in the past, which you can call as destiny, that will determine the result that I will get right now. So, sometimes maybe we are just driving safely on the road, but some drunk driver comes and hits us with his accident.
That means there are practically no actions from our part, but still a big reaction hits us. So, this is just the system by which the world functions. And God, if somebody says that God is causing the suffering, it’s not God who is causing the suffering.
It is more that the world works by a particular system and sometimes we understand the system, sometimes we don’t understand the system. God is not the cause of our suffering. He is the cure for our suffering.
What is the cause? The cause is, as I said, our present action and unpredictable combination of our past actions. It all combined together. In the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a discussion where a cow and a bull are being beaten and Maharaj Parikshit, the king at that time asks, he sees that Kali, who is an atrocious person dressed as a king, beating up the cow and the bull.
And then, at that time, Maharaj Parikshit asks this cow and bull, what is the cause of your suffering? It’s a ridiculous question. Can’t you see? This man is beating us. That’s the cause of our suffering.
The question itself may seem ridiculous. But, Maharaj Parikshit asks that question and the answer that he gives also may seem strange. He says that actually, the cause of suffering is very difficult to determine.
Some people say it is past karma. Some people say it is just the nature of the world. Some people say it is because of our misidentification with the body.
Some people say it is just illusion. Some people say that it is because of a bad phase we are going through in our life. Different people have different reasons of why we suffer.
But, because of these different thinkers, different ideas, we don’t know. Isn’t suffering a sinful reaction? It’s an oversimplification of things. It’s too much of oversimplification.
Yes, suffering, we could say it’s a sinful reaction. But, it is not just that. It is, we don’t know what wrong who has done.
And, I have not seen anywhere in scripture, if somebody is suffering and people come and tell him, it’s your sinful reaction because of your suffering. Say, when Draupadi is dishonoured in the Mahabharata, there is some Kauravas, they try to dishonour her and disrobe her. Nobody goes and tells her that maybe in the past life you were a man and you disrobed a woman.
That’s why you are being disrobed now. Nobody does that. So, at a philosophical level, we understand that actions have consequences.
And, in that sense, but at a practical level, which action is going to give which consequence, we don’t know. He got so annoyed about that, he said, I am going to triple his court. Because, the reason was that Suryajan was insulted in the Indraprastha, the court of the Pandavas.
And, he was so annoyed about having to give up his weapon because he was a warrior. He had to take revenge. So, his idea was to… Yeah, one challenge with any kind of movie depictions of the Mahabharata is that often they don’t reflect the epic accurately.
So, yes, Duryodhana was insulted because he slipped and fell down in the assembly. But, nobody told him that you have to give up your weapons. That’s not mentioned in the epic at all.
Yeah, you think that might have happened in that part of the movie. Yeah. I know it’s shown in the war as well.
Yeah, and nobody told him that he had to give up the weapons. So, this kind of depictions… Yeah. There’s a lot of speculation sometimes on the way things are depicted.
Yes, Chandu, you had a question? Yeah. Yeah. I have a question.
Just a reflection on that suffering. Is that point just… When you were talking about what’s the cause of the suffering, just make it more clear first. Somewhere in the 13th chapter, I can’t remember which one.
It’s just saying, it’s the material nature. It’s the all cause and effects of actions. Beautiful.
It’s nature. But the enjoyment of suffering, that’s all the living entity. It’s how it’s identifying with that situation.
So, one person, you know, something very small might go wrong and they get very angry, road rage and that sort of thing. And another person who’s more elevated may, you know, some terrible thing, thinks and thinks, oh, this is Krishna’s mercy that he’s, you know, that he’s giving me life, or that he’s getting rid of a whole lot of my dead karma quickly for me so I can make faster advancement. So many positive things.
That’s true, yeah. So, in our suffering, is also depend on how we perceive it. So, in the 13.21 in the Bhagavad Gita, कार्य कारण कर्तुत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतुच्यते पुरुष्य सुख दुखाना भोक्तुत्वे हेतुरुच्यते So, what Krishna is saying is, what happens at the material level that is determined by material nature.
But how it affects us is determined by our consciousness. Say, we could start with an example. Say, there’s an India-Australia cricket match.
And, say, India wins. An Australian will lament at that. If Australia wins, an Indian will lament at that.
So, the event is the same. But depending on how our consciousness is invested, we’ll experience something, some emotion over there accordingly. So, it is not so much the event alone that causes the suffering, it is our perception of the event.
We often think of happiness and distress as a one-step process. This happened and this caused me suffering. This happened and this gave me happiness.
It is actually a two-step process. The event happens and then we have a mental conception of what that event means. And based on that, we experience pleasure or pain.
So, that way also, if we can learn to have a more positive conception of things, then, yes, even when we suffer, one way of looking at this principle of karma is that when we are suffering, all our bad karma is getting exhausted. So, we can be happy that all our bad karma is getting exhausted. And when we are happy, when we are in a happy situation, our good karma is getting exhausted.
Then we should be so happy. So, the idea is we look at things in a way that encourages us to move on in life. So, that is a valid representation that sometimes the event may be there, but it is our perception that determines how and how much that event will affect us.
You had a question? Oh, yeah. The question was you mentioned that material nature works in a it is a mechanical way. So, it works according to rules.
Much more than the flexibility of the devotional path. Material nature works according to rules. Now, one thing I have noticed over many years is that some devotees one of the ways they like to preach they like to say material scientists, they don’t know anything, blah, blah, blah, they are all demons, blah, blah, blah.
And probably some material scientists may be demons, but many of them are not. And as you said with Newton, for instance, he was a religious person. Something that maybe people don’t realise is that Darwin was a religious person.
He formed the theory of evolution. He wanted to be a he wanted to be a minister in a Christian religion. But the Christian leaders at the time, they just said, well, they had their own idea of how things worked and they weren’t allowed to they didn’t let him put his ideas forward.
He didn’t want to fight with them. His wife was a bat her whole life. Also, the technology that the scientists, you know, devotees are using technology to spread Krishna consciousness.
Even the even the divine Srila Prabhupada used. You see so many photographs of Srila Prabhupada and there’s a devotee standing next to him with a microphone and he’s holding this dictaphone. So everything Prabhupada’s talking is being recorded and it’s being transcribed and we can now read that or hear it.
And yet that was, you know, that was using a technology transistor technology which was based on modern physics. So is this something devotees should really move away from from getting on their high horse and saying, ah, scientists, ah, rubbish. Because it annoys me.
I remember one class I went to at the Bhakti Centre and this devotee came and he was a guest and he was giving this really nice class about some of the devotees in their history and then at a certain point about two words two thirds of the way through his class he switched and he was just angry there are no scientists they’re saying God is dead he’s not a scientist he said that it was Nietzsche who was a philosopher and not a scientist I just walked out on him I thought, well, you know I didn’t come to hear this you should have stuck to what you were talking about before highlighting all the nice qualities of the class content yeah, it’s true should devotees move away from the idea that from saying things like scientists are demons yes I would say that even Prabhupada himself was very conscious and cautious of what he spoke when I met Swaroop Damodar Maharaj who was one of Prabhupada’s prominent scientific disciples and I was talking to Giriraj Maharaj also that when they were organising this big world conference of science synthesis of science and religion so devotees asked Prabhupada Prabhupada sometimes you refer to scientists as fools and rascals when the scientists come for conferences should we speak to them like that so Giriraj Maharaj says Prabhupada is horrified it’s obviously not you should speak politely with them you should be like gentlemen with them so now what does it mean there is always a time, place, circumstance which is to be considered if science claims to give knowledge of ultimate reality or if people in general think that science provides as ultimate reality then that is where science becomes a competitor to scripture becomes a competitor to spirituality becomes a competitor to bhakti now in some scientists minds in people’s minds it may be like that science is the ultimate source of knowledge so many times when Prabhupada speaks something it is from the ultimate perspective that if anybody is making an ultimate truth claim and that truth claim is contradicted to what scripture is saying then that has to be strongly strongly challenged but as you rightly said yourself that Prabhupada used technology Prabhupada used dictaphone and Prabhupada is appreciative of that there is a same conversation in which people often quote Prabhupada speaking so heavily about scientists Prabhupada said that we are not against the knowings the desire of scientist to know the spirit of scientist wanting to know we are against their atheism so if we look at carefully at what Prabhupada is saying Prabhupada is not so much against science as he is against scientism scientism is the ideology which claims that science can answer all questions it’s ideology it’s not science so sometimes some devotees even in their classes they want something sensational to speak and sometimes Prabhupada’s Prabhupada’s strong sound bites they are taken out of context without nuance and they are replicated and everybody starts saying that this is what it is but any person who carefully studies Prabhupada not just his words but also his life you will see that actually Prabhupada was not at all like that where he was dismissive of everything else there were times in particular context when anything was presented as the ultimate truth which was contrary to scripture Prabhupada was heavy but if something was contextually useful Prabhupada would use it and Prabhupada would appreciate it so he has definitely the idea of condemning science and scientists that is sophomoric that is childish and because in most people’s minds at least now maybe it was a little different a few decades ago now people are interested in science because it provides them technology but very few people actually think that science is a reliable source of ultimate knowledge there may be some atheists who may use science to propagate their atheistic ideology whether it is people who use science or people who develop science for all of them science is primarily an operational tool it’s not a tool to ultimate knowledge it’s a tool for functioning in the world and when it is like that there is no need to criticise that because we are also using it in this world so it is only when science is claimed or portrayed by some people that it is a tool to ultimate knowledge then it becomes a challenge so otherwise certainly we should move away from it and we all have to take the responsibility to find like-minded association even among devotees there may be many different kinds of devotees and some devotees may just not be able to gel with them and then we keep a distance from them and we focus on connecting with those devotees who with whom we can connect nicely and we move forwards we understand that Krishna’s movement is very big and there can be many different people with different backgrounds, different ideas and they may be within the broad rubric of bhakti or they may consider themselves to be in that broad framework of bhakti but I have a responsibility to nourish my spirituality and let me see what association nourishes that अनुकुल्यस्य संकल्प पर तिकुल्यस्य वरुजिनम् except that which is favourable and avoid that which is unfavourable so and that applies not just to material things which are anti-devotional but sometimes even in devotee association some devotees’ presentations we are just not able to connect with them so keep a distance from them and I would say the second generation things are in large way becoming moderated I have not seen practically any second generation devotee scientist on a gung-ho campaign against science and even second generation devotees who are who are who have studied the world a little bit who are well educated they are not so much against science per say so things are changing gradually and we take responsibility to get that association which nourishes our spiritual life and then we try to provide that association to others yes sir, you had a question? yes about the ok if you fall down in sadhana bhakti that may make us feel guilty and feel like I am good for nothing yes, that’s why I gave a class I mean related to the topic I gave a class in New York that even if we fail we can fail in Krishna consciousness not fail out of Krishna consciousness what that means is that Krishna consciousness is not just about adhering to certain standards Krishna consciousness is about cultivating a mood sometimes somebody may live according to the highest standards and they may become proud of that and they may actually not be Krishna conscious somebody may slip and fall but that may create humility Krishna, I am such a fallen soul I need you, please help me that may increase their dependence on Krishna so they may fail but they may fail in Krishna consciousness sometimes we think that success is here, failure is here these are standards and if I am successful in the standard then I am Krishna conscious if I fail, I am not in Krishna consciousness but Krishna consciousness is so inclusive that it includes failure also sometimes somebody may fail in following a particular standard and they may still be Krishna conscious to give a simple example suppose it’s Ekadashi and we want to fast and say I am going to fast even without water and say somebody fasts without water and then they go to the kitchen to see who all are eating what all things so attached sense gratifier hopeless so when they start thinking like that then their body may be fasting but their ego is feasting and they are not really Krishna conscious although they may be fasting on the other hand somebody tries to fast and they have to get too much acidity they feel too weak and they decide to eat something they may eat and then they may continue to chant or do some service and they may be Krishna conscious so Krishna consciousness is so inclusive that failure can also be included in it so even if sometimes we are not able to follow a particular standard then that doesn’t mean that we can’t be Krishna conscious even with that also we can be Krishna conscious so of course we don’t want to use this to legitimise and rationalise wrongdoing as a habitual thing we want to avoid moral wrongs and such things but sometimes as circumstances something goes wrong if we persevere in the practise of bhakti then we are on the progressive path so even if we go even if we go wrong sometimes we can always come back on the right track that’s why the important thing is that to stay connected with Krishna even if you have done something terribly wrong it’s like say it’s rarely the first mistake that gets us into trouble it’s the second mistake what do you mean by the second mistake? say if we are driving along a road and we are using GPS and GPS tells us turn right and somehow we turn left then what does GPS do? GPS reroutes does this GPS say? you didn’t obey me, get lost no GPS reroutes and shows us the way once again so Krishna is like the ultimate GPS he guides us how to act but sometimes he may act in the opposite way but even if we act in the opposite way Krishna still stays in our heart Krishna still guides us he reroutes and shows us the way from there so the first mistake of taking a wrong turn is not a big problem it is when somebody takes a wrong turn and they think I can’t follow this GPS I don’t want to follow this GPS and they turn off the GPS itself that is when they will get lost so similarly even if we do something wrong but because of that we say ok I can’t practise this Krishna consciousness I don’t want to connect with Krishna I just give up this connection then that’s where we fall so taking a wrong turn in life doesn’t cause us to fall down it is becoming disconnected with Krishna that will cause us to fall so if we don’t get disconnected with Krishna we may get circumstantially tempted or whatever we may get disconnected but as soon as we realise we reconnect ourselves and we move on then we will come back on track Krishna says that even if somebody does something terribly wrong but if they stay connected with me then they are well situated just keep moving onwards no matter what happens don’t give up the connection with Krishna ok thank you any other questions you had a question no I am absorbing everything else ok yeah you want to ask something thank you thanks you had a question have you got a question we will ask it later on ask personally we have already got answers totally ok so thank you very much so thank you very much prabhupada ki gaur bhakta bendaki gaur premanand devi