Humble confidence- Prahlada’s prayers 1, Bhagavatam 7.9.8-12, Wellington, New Zealand

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

For the first time, I'm hearing from him for the first time, Prabhuji got introduced to Krishna Consciousness in 1996. So, he has more than, he has spent more than 30 years in Krishna Consciousness practicing the process of bhakti. And as you can see further, Prabhuji is famous for logically presenting Krishna Consciousness philosophy to the scientific minds.

He runs a website called spiritualscientist.com, where he has answered thousands of questions of spiritual seekers. He is the author of world's only daily blog on Bhagavad Gita. And he has more than 4000 articles.

I'm sure that there are more than that now. Prabhuji, how many articles do you have? Around 5000. 5000? Yes.

Yeah, clearly my introduction was quite old. So, more than 5000 articles on that website. Much earlier, Prabhuji has studied electronics and telecommunication engineering from a very reputed college in Pune in India.

Prabhuji travels to many countries like Australia, America, UK, various cities in India. And he gives 400 talks across 100 cities in 4 continents every year. Prabhuji has given talks on spiritual subjects in universities such as Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Cambridge and companies such as Intel, Google, Amazon, Salesforce, Microsoft.

He has also given talks at TEDx, World Peace Conference, UNESCO and in New Zealand as well. He has spoken at BNZ, IAG and of course many times in JUC as well. Prabhuji has written, I have 27 books here, Prabhuji.

But that was in the last introduction. How many now? 31. 31 books.

He has written more than 31. He has written 31 books till now and he is writing few more. So, every year we generally have lots of books for sale as well when Prabhuji is here.

But unfortunately the shipment hasn't arrived. And I don't think that it will arrive while Prabhuji is here. Do you think it will come? No.

But I think we can figure out which those four books are and when they arrive, we will try to distribute here. His introduction is continuing. Prabhuji has published hundreds of articles.

That's enough now. And he is member of ISKCON's leading intellectual body, the Shastric Advisory Council and is the associate editor of ISKCON's global magazine, Back to Godhead. And his glories will continue.

But we want to hear from Prabhuji. So, I will stop here. Please welcome Prabhuji by loudly chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.

Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Krishna Krishna! Hare Hare! Hare Rama! Hare Rama! Rama Rama! Hare Hare! Thank you Prabhuji. Hare Krishna. Om Gyanati Mirandasya Gyananjali Shalakaya Chakshurunmilitam Yena Asmai Shri Gurave Namaha Namah Om Vishnupadaya Krishna Prashtaya Bhutale Shrimate Bhaktivedanta Swami Nithinamine Namaste Saraswati Devi Gauravani Pracharine Nirmishesha Shunyavadi Pashyatya Deshatarine Vancha Kalpataru Vyascha Kripa Sindhu Prevacham Patitanam Pavane Yo Vaishnava Vibhyo Namo Namaha Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda Shri Advaita Gadadhar Shri Vasanthi Gaurav Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Krishna Krishna! Hare Hare! Hare Rama! Hare Rama! Rama Rama! Hare Hare! May the Lord guide us all so that we can understand your words, your heart and be attracted to both.

Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Is this on? So I am grateful to be here with all of you today. Thank you for coming. And it's always a pleasure to come to Wellington.

We have a dynamic new project coming up now. I was talking with one Prabhupada disciple in America. He is a senior devotee.

He was a comedian by profession before. So I asked him, can you teach me some Krishna conscious humour? So he said, yes I will do that. But you will have to pay a price.

I said, okay. He said, what is the price? He said, all my humour will be at your expense. So I said, what do you mean? So he attended, he was there for one of my classes.

And after that I approached him, how did he find the class? He said, I have heard many great classes in my life. This was not one of them. So he was telling that, if somebody introduces that you are a, he is a dynamic leader.

What that means is, he is an exhausting leader. Everybody gets exhausted. He said that if you give dynamic classes, people get exhausted by hearing your classes.

So, but there is, there may be physical and mental exhaustion, but there is spiritual exhilaration when you are able to do some wonderful service for Krishna. So my best wishes and prayers that you are new, when you manifest and Krishna consciousness expands more and more over here. Thank you.

So with Narasimha Chaturdashi coming, I will discuss today from the prayers of Prahlad Maharaj. So today I will discuss and tomorrow evening will be the second part of this. And now there are a lot of prayers of Prahlad Maharaj, but I will discuss two main themes.

So today I will discuss the theme of humble confidence. That quite often what happens is that when we seek humility, often we equate that with not being assertive, not being confident. So often humility is equated with lack of confidence.

And confidence itself or lack of, if not confidence, lack of assertiveness we can say. Oh, I should not put forth my point of view or I should not be so in your face. And confidence is often seen as ego, a presence of ego.

So how can there be humble confidence? That's the theme we will discuss. So now the Srimad Bhagavatam describes the pastime of Prahlad Maharaj in the 7th canto. And the Bhagavatam itself has how many cantos? 12 cantos.

How many chapters? 335 chapters. Out of which the biggest is 90 chapters in the 10th canto. So now right now we are in the 7th canto.

And the 7th canto, a major part of the 7th canto, is actually the pastime of Prahlad. And if we consider it starts from the 1st chapter, goes to the 10th chapter. So the prayers by Prahlad, they come twice.

There are long series of prayers in the 9th chapter, and other series of prayers in the 10th chapter. So the 9th chapter is specifically called as Prahlad pacifies Lord Narasimhadev with prayers. Both these prayers in one sense are the action after the action.

That is the dramatic action is that when Prahlad is about to be assassinated by Hiranyakashyapu, at that time Narasimhadev appears and saves him and liberates Hiranyakashyapu also. After that Prahlad offers prayers. So then after he finishes offering his prayers, then the Lord speaks.

And after the Lord speaks, he again offers prayers. So that is in the 10th chapter. So Prahlad, the best among exalted devotees, that comes in the 10th chapter.

So today we will focus on the 9th chapter prayers and tomorrow we may go to the 10th chapter prayers. So let's look at these prayers now. Now we will look at a little bit of background context before the prayers start.

So who would like to read these translations one by one? The great saint Narada Muni continued the demigods headed by Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva and other great demigods dared not come before the Lord who at that time was extremely angry. Yes. So now this particular story is going on.

Let's try to understand how the story is happening. The Bhagavatam is often a nested conversation. So the big conversation is between Suta Goswami and Naimisharanya sages.

Now within that the conversation that defines the Bhagavatam is between Shukadeva Goswami and Parishit Maharaj. Now within that there are many levels of conversations. So right now we are having the conversation between Narada Muni and Yudhishthira Maharaj.

So this conversation is what is going on and this happens when after the Rajasuya Yajna Narada, Yudhishthira sees that Shishupala has also entered in the body of the Lord. How can this happen? He is a demon. So he explains that the Lord is actually equal to everyone.

Lord is merciful to everyone. So Narada Muni is telling that Lord Narasimhadev has now devoured Hiranyakashipu and still he is angry. And the Devatas are coming to pacify him now.

He has come. Paritranaya sadhuna vinashaya je duskrtam. So now his vinashaya je duskrtam he has done.

But the Devatas neither are they peaceful nor is the Lord peaceful. That paritranaya doesn't seem to be happening. Now why is the Lord angry? The Lord, the threat to his devotee has been destroyed.

But still he is angry. Now his anger is directed actually towards Devatas. He is saying when my devotee Prahalad was in danger, you neither protected him nor protested against it.

And now you are coming and offering prayers. So if our child is in danger and somebody could have helped that child and they don't help the child. And they come and say oh you know I am very close to you, you are very dear to me.

When a child needs help, you need help at that time. So the Lord is still angry. And the previous chapter describes how the various Devatas have offered prayers.

See if somebody is angry and then we go and try to speak something to them. And if we speak one two sentences and they don't seem to be listening at all. They just glance angrily at us and we fall silent.

So like that all the prayers of the Devatas are only one one verse in the previous chapter. One or two, one one verse they offer and they say that the Lord is not getting pacified so they all step back. So that's what is being described over here that none of them could pacify the Lord with prayers.

So this is, So purasara, all of them were there. They were not able to do it. They could not find a means.

So who would like to read the next verse? Yes, you prefer children or anyone is fine. Who because of fear could not do so but even she had never seen such a wonderful and extraordinary form of the Lord and thus she could not approach him. Now this raises an interesting question that how had Lakshmi never seen Narasimhadev? Isn't Narasimhadev in the spiritual world? Isn't Lakshmi with him over there? So how has she not seen him? In this time the adrishta, that which was never seen before.

So adrishta purvam, the word comes in the Bhagavad Gita also where Arjuna when he shows the virata rupa. At that time this has never been seen by anyone before. So adrishta purvam.

And similarly that similar word comes here when when the Lord appears over here. So when the leela is going on over here, Lakshmidevi is here as a part of the leela in the world and as a part of the leela in the world that is yoga maya which causes forgetfulness. So which covers.

So normally maya disconnects us from Krishna. But there is yoga maya which deepens our connection with Krishna. So now the whole purpose of this pastime in one sense is to establish the singular, the distinctive, the unique glory of Prahlad.

And therefore from that perspective all other devotees of the Lord, they are shown to be lacking. They are shown to be not comparable. In general this is the mood of bhakti that whenever a particular form of the Lord is being glorified or a particular dham is being glorified or even a particular devotee is being glorified.

So at that time the focus is simply on glorifying that particular devotee. And that's how this whole hearted glorification happens. So the whole leela is orchestrated here so that nobody else is able to pacify the Lord.

That's what is being shown here. And what happens? Who would like to read the next verse? Anyone? Yeah. Thereafter Lord Brahma requested Prahlad Maharaja who was standing very near him.

My dear son, Lord Nisimhadeva is extremely angry at your demonic father. Please go forward and appease the Lord. So please go forward, he says that.

Swapitre kupitam prabhum. At your father he was angry. Please go and pacify him.

And then what happens? He goes forward. Who would like to read the next verse? Narada Muni continued. Narada Muni continued.

Okay. Although the exalted devotee Prahlad Maharaja was only a little boy, he accepted Lord Brahma's words. He gradually proceeded toward Lord Nisimhadeva and fell down to offer his respectful obeisances with folded hands.

Yes. Although he was a small boy. He went for Mahabhagavato Arbhaka.

So here Arbhaka is a small child. Mahabhagavato. He is still a great devotee.

So, upetya bhuvikayena. He prostrated obeisances. And then, now when, swapadamule patitam tam arbhakam.

When the Lord saw that at his feet, swapadamule, that Arbhakam, that child is there. Vilokke deva krupaya paripluta. Vilokke deva.

When he saw, the Lord became, krupaya paripluta. Compassion, mercy started overflowing from his heart. Uthapeta chirne adhadat karambhujan.

He lifted him up. And then his karambhujan, his hand, he tachchiraj, on his head he placed it. In offering blessing.

Kaala hi vitrasta dhyam krutabhayen. So, by that, all fear, all negativity, all anxiety, whatever might have been there, the Lord's karambhujan, it completely cleansed him. And not only that, that started, satatkarasparsh dhutakilabhusha, dhutakilashubhaha.

All inauspiciousness from the heart became cleansed. And when that was cleansed, rushyatanuklin rudhashrulochana. He was beholding, rudhashrulochana.

With his heart and with his eyes, he was beholding the Lord. Although there were tears, he was completely absorbed in seeing the Lord. So, now, at this point, when he has been raised by the Lord, Prahlad will start offering his prayers.

So, now if you can visualize the setting, that Hiranyakashipu till this point had been the emperor of the universe. And his palace was opulent. And the fight between Hiranyakashipu and Narasimhadeva had been a fierce and ferocious fight.

And the devatas, after long, long periods of living in fear, even terror of Hiranyakashipu, have been relieved. And all the devatas and the rishis, they are all assembled. So, this is like the who's who of the whole universe that is there.

And in that assembly, Prahlad is now getting the foremost attention. He is at the center. Of course, Lord Narasimhadeva is at the center.

He is Vishnu, the Supreme Lord. But to pacify him, he is, say, a Prime Minister of the country or the President or some VIP has come in the other dais. And then somebody else goes on the dais to talk with them or to approach them or to discuss something with them.

Okay, who is this person going on there? So, that person will naturally feel very special. They are special, in fact. So, in many ways, what all the other devatas have failed to do, Prahlad has done.

And Prahlad has done without even speaking a single word. The devatas offered prayers and still they were not able to pacify the Lord. And Prahlad, even without offering prayers has pacified the Lord.

Just by his presence. Just when the Lord saw him, it is described that he was roaring like a lion, started purring like a cat. And he became so sweet and affectionate.

So, Prahlad has already achieved without any effort, what the devatas tried with much effort and failed to achieve. Now, it's natural that when somebody is able to achieve something spectacular, that sense of achievement, that sense of, to some extent, sense of pride, I did something special, that can come. But when Prahlad starts speaking, his heart comes out over here.

What does he say? So, these are little long verses. Let us see if we can try to recite them. दाराधितं पुरुगणेर अधुनापिपिप्रू किम्तोष्टुम अरहति समेः हरिरुग्रजाते किम्तोष्टुम अरहति समेः हरिरुग्रजाते So, he is immediately expressing his humility.

ब्रह्मादय सुरगण मुनयोथ सिद्धा The first line is telling, this is an illustrious assembly of great people. Brahmaji himself is there, Adaya. Apart from him, who are there? सुरगण, the Devatas are there.

मुनय, and then beyond that the Siddhas are there. सिद्धाचरण, the illustrious, all these people are there. And then he contrasts them with himself.

And that, who is he? That he brings in the last line. Last words of the last line. उग्रजाते जाते means to be born.

उग्र means one who is born in a demoniac family. In a fierce family, in a dark family. So, here there are these Devatas, who are extremely glorious.

And he says, I have a fallen birth. And not only are the Devatas glorious, he says, सत्वैकतान्गतयो वच्यसांप्रवाहि They are situated in सत्वगुण. And not only situated in सत्वगुण, वच्यसांप्रवाहि They have spoken beautiful flowing words to glorify the Lord, to pacify the Lord.

नाराधितुम् पुरुगणैर अधुनापिपिप्रु नाराधितुम् Although they have worshipped Him, their worship has not been successful. Then he is asking a rhetorical question, किम् तोष्टुम् अधति तोष्टुम् means to satisfy. Then how can I satisfy हरिल् उग्रजाते How can I satisfy the Lord, who was not satisfied even by these great Devatas with their beautiful words.

So he is starting by expressing his humility. Not saying that I have achieved something so spectacular. How can I do it? How could I possibly have done it? So in Bhakti, there is, in spiritual life in general, there are two different things.

Now the words can be different, but there is self-awareness and there is self-consciousness. So self-awareness and self-consciousness, they are not the same thing. Self-awareness means we are aware of who we are, where we are.

Each one of us has a particular role, particular service. We have particular strengths, we have particular limitations. So that is self-awareness.

Now self-consciousness on the other hand means that our consciousness is caught in the self. That we are thinking about ourselves. If I am giving a talk, are people respecting me, are people listening to me or not? If people are not listening, then you forget the talk and glare at the people.

So what is happening is that self-awareness is favorable to Krishna consciousness. So if I am Krishna conscious, then in Krishna consciousness, self-awareness is one part. So being aware, okay, this is a big kirtan occasion and I can sing but not so well.

Let somebody else sing. We have to cook this particular food item. I am good at this.

I will cook this, let somebody else cook that. So self-awareness is healthy. But when we have self-consciousness, then what happens is that consciousness of the self becomes so big.

So here Krishna consciousness means in our consciousness, Krishna is the central element and self-awareness is there. But here what happens in self-consciousness, the self becomes so big that Krishna goes into the corner. That Krishna, so I am so good or I am so bad.

So the self-consciousness can go both ways. It can be ego or it can also be insecurity, inferiority, both ways. So Prahlad, he is exhibiting here what? Self-consciousness or self-awareness? Self-awareness.

So he is not forgetting himself in the sense that he is aware. In the cosmic hierarchy, he is at a lower position. And while being aware of that, he is now going to talk about, okay, how can I possibly satisfy the Lord when these devatas are in a far higher situation? So that the first prayer is about, he is expressing his humility rising from self-awareness.

Let's go to the next one. Then he says that how is actually the Lord satisfied? Sorry. So he is saying that there are many material qualifications.

But I think that, So Dhan is wealth. Abhijan is having great contacts, being surrounded by aristocratic people. Roop, being very attractive.

Tapaha. Now these are we can say material qualifications, you know, wealth and aristocratic following and attractive features. But what we may consider somewhat spiritual or spiritually conducive.

Tapaha, somebody has great austerity. Shruta, somebody is very learned. Aujasa, somebody who has aujas.

Tejah, prabhava, balapa, urusha, buddhi yoga. Like that he gives a long list of other things. Many of them may be spiritually conducive.

But what he says is, naradhenayahi bhavanti parasyapum. So none of these can help us. None of these can satisfy the Lord.

What satisfies the Lord is bhaktyatu tosha bhagwan gajayuthapaya. The Lord is satisfied only with bhakti. Bhaktyatu tosha.

So, kim toshtu marathi was there in the previous verse. How can I satisfy that? Same word tosha comes over here. And he is giving the example of gajayuthapaya.

That is Gajendra. It is interesting that Gajendra, he had all these things and he lost those things and that's when he prayed to the Lord and then the Lord came to him. So, here he is telling that there are so many material things in the world and so many things which may consider.

So, basically the list that he is giving is generally we understand that there are three gunas. Sattva, rajas and tamas. So, now tamas we clearly understand is anti-devotional.

It is far away from Krishna. But there could be things in sattva and there could be things in rajas. But he says that even these cannot satisfy the Lord.

So, we could say that if having abhijan, having following, having dhana, this is rajas. But having tapa, having shruta, having austerity, having learning, this could be sattva. But there is tapa or dhana.

So, these do not satisfy the Lord. Naradhanayahi. Now, we can use them in Krishna's service.

And if we have them, definitely we should use them in Krishna's service. But the point is that these things themselves don't satisfy the Lord. Why is that? Because these are not ours actually.

If we have these things, it is the Lord who has given us these things. It is by our past karma that we have got these things. So, yes, we have them and what pleases the Lord is what is ours truly.

And what is truly ours is our own heart. Our own heart's love. That is what the Lord does not have.

And that is what the Lord wants. So, all these things, if they are expressions of our heart's devotion, then they will please the Lord. But if they are not expressions of the heart's devotion, then we may offer them to the Lord, but they will not please the Lord.

In the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, there is a description of two kinds of people. There are wise people and there are otherwise people. So, Daiva, Asura, Sampad Vibhaga Yoga.

So, now sometimes when we are having a discussion between two people, so everybody is part of a community, now somebody, some characteristics of some person are described. Now that name is not mentioned, but everybody knows who is being talked about. Because those characteristics typically fit somebody.

So, like that in the 16th chapter, when Krishna describes the Asurasampada, the demoniac nature, he does not even once mention Duryodhana. But it's very clear he is referring to Duryodhana. That Duryodhana is thinking, I have got this much wealth and I will get this much more wealth in future.

And then I will have illustrious people. I will have, he says, who is there like me? I will have wealth, I will have power, I will have great aristocratic people around me and who will be like me? And then one of the things he says is, Yaakshe dasya me modishya, ityagya navi mohitha. He says, Yaakshe, I will give you two yagyas.

Now what happens with Duryodhana when he has exiled the Pandavas to the forest? Now, in one sense, all his dreams are fulfilled. He had a plan to seize the Pandavas' kingdom through the gambling match. But actually, sometimes we make plans and our plan, we make 100% plan and it's 80% successful.

Or 50% successful, 90% successful. Now, in his case, his plan is actually 200% successful. Because he had not expected that actually Yudhishthira will put Draupadi on the stake.

And the humiliation of Draupadi that he was able to do, that gave him great joy. But that was not his plan, in one sense. Of course, he wanted to humiliate the Pandavas.

But specifically, the way in which he tried to humiliate Draupadi. So, his plan was not only successful, it was successful more than he expected. And still he found he was not happy.

So, this is the great mystery that often we think that fulfilling our desires will make us happy. And we have many desires and some desires we fulfill and some desires are unfulfilled. So, when some desires are fulfilled and we do not become happy, we think I have to fulfill some other desire.

So, he is not happy. Why am I not happy? So, he says that, yes, I have got the power. I have got the kingdom.

Now, I want the respect. So, how does he get the respect? He says that, Yudhishthira did the Rajasuya Yajna. I want to do Rajasuya Yajna.

The Brahmanas say that, as long as the previous performer of the Rajasuya Yajna is alive, you cannot perform the Rajasuya Yajna. So, Duryodhana's mind immediately, that can be taken care of. But then, his desire is not just to destroy the Pandavas.

It is to humiliate the Pandavas. So, he wants the Pandavas to stay alive and know that I am as good as you, I am better than you. So, he says.

Now, the Brahmanas, the Brahmanas are also of different kinds. There are Sattvic Brahmana, there are Rajasic Brahmana, there are Tamasic Brahmana also. So, when Ravana was going out to fight with Ram, there were Brahmanas performing Yajna for the victory of Ravana against Ram.

So, Brahmana can be both disposition and Brahmana can also be a profession. So, when it's a disposition, then that is actually Brahma Jana Titi Brahmana. Those who are really interested in spiritual life, spiritual activities.

But otherwise, Brahmana can simply be a profession. That okay, we do some rituals, we do some rites, we do some ceremonies and by that we get Dakshina. So, now the Brahmanas that Duryodhana surrounded himself with, which category do you think they were of? By the way, it is a profession.

So, they said, actually we have a solution for you. You cannot perform the Rajasuya Yajna, but there is another Yajna that is as great as the Rajasuya Yajna and you can perform that. What is the Yajna? It is the Vaishnav Yajna.

So, y'all do it. Now, he had no regard for Vishnu. He had attacked Vishnu's devotees.

But he performed the Vaishnav Yajna. Now, Krishna talks about this mentality in the 16th chapter when he says, yajante nama yajne iste dambhena vidhi purvakam. These people perform Yajna, they don't do Yajna of Naam.

They don't chant the names of God. They do Yajna for Naam. They do Yajna for name and fame.

So, for him, Yajna was not for spiritual purification. Yajna was to gain material glorification, material recognition, material fame. So, why am I talking about this? That here, if you consider that there is Sattva Rajas Tamas, above this is Krishna.

So, now we are here. Now, we may offer these to Krishna and we offer that, that is good. But when we are offering this, what is our purpose? Is our purpose actually to please the Lord? Or is our purpose to exhibit to the world? So, if it is to please the Lord, then that is what will actually please the Lord.

If it is to exhibit the world to the world, then that will not, the Lord will not be satisfied with that. That's why, bhaktya tu toshya bhagwan gajayu tapaya. So, now, when Prahlad, see sometimes, in a particular context, when some statement is being made, it may be a statement of general principle, but if somebody is speaking to us, how does this apply to me? So, if you are talking with someone and we are asking some advice and they start speaking, you know, some people are very arrogant.

And that arrogance gets them into a lot of trouble. Now, if we are having some difference with somebody, now we may be wondering, are you saying that the other person is arrogant or are you saying I am arrogant? So, how does this apply to us? So, now when Prahlad is saying that it is by bhakti that everybody is satisfied, that the Lord is satisfied, then is he saying that the devatas don't have bhakti? And he is saying I alone have bhakti? No, that's not what he is saying. So, he is saying that it is by bhakti that the Lord is satisfied.

He emphasizes this further in the next verse. This is the verse that Prabhupada would often quote. So, he is now giving a very dramatic contrast that those who are at the top of sattva guna, that those who are brahmanas, and they have also the qualities of a brahmana.

Viparad dvishad gunayutad arvindanabha. 12 characteristics of a brahmana, they are present. But if they do not have devotion, padarvind vimukhad, they are turned away from the Lord, then as compared to them a low born person, shvapacham varishtam.

Varishtam is greater. Why? Because if that person is tadarpita, is offering to you manovachane hitartha, that person is offering their mind, their words, their efforts, then that person will pranam punatisakulam. That person will purify themselves and that person will purify even their dynasty.

So, now the next question comes up. So, the question is that, is he saying that he has so much devotion? Now, another question comes up. So, he will address both these questions.

That is it that somebody has great qualities, but they don't have a devotion, the Lord is not pleased by that. Somebody has devotion, the Lord is pleased by that. Does that mean that the Lord is like a person who is pleased by flattery? Isn't it? That some big people, they have big ego.

And if we praise them publicly, they will be our best friends. And if we speak one word negatively against them, then they will just become our enemies. So, we all can think of one person like that in the world today.

So, now, is the Lord like that, that is devotion a form of flattery? When we glorify the Lord, is it that the Lord is a person who likes to be flattered? And by that flattery, the Lord becomes pleased. So, he is saying no. That's what he answers in this verse now.

Let's look at this verse. We will look at this in the next verse. And then I will conclude with our point about what is the theme of humble confidence.

So, how is this confidence? Till now I started talking about humility. And he is thinking about what is my qualification for speaking to you. So, he is shifted from bhakti now to Bhagawan.

And he says, So, he says, This Lord is complete in himself. He is nijalavapurno. He is self-satisfied.

He does not need anything from anyone. So, he is not insecure. He is not in need of praise.

See, sometimes the people who don't respect themselves are the people who get most angry when they are not respected by others. Because they don't have any self-respect. So, if you don't respect me, they get very angry.

But if somebody has self-respect, it is like, what is that saying? The dogs may bark, but the caravan rolls on. The caravan is going majestically and some street dog may bark, the caravan doesn't care. So, those who are secure in themselves, those who are self-satisfied, those who are confident, those who are competent, they don't take criticism personally.

If there is some merit in the criticism, they will take it and they will correct themselves. But if there is no merit in the criticism, then they will neglect it. So, they don't need to be propped up by praise.

They are not insecure and needy. So, the supreme among such people is nijalavapurno. That is, the Lord is complete in Himself.

So, then, why does He connect with people? Manam janat abidusha karuno vrinite. So, abidusha, abidusha is those who are not very wise people. Manam, such people, when they offer manam to Him, karuno vrinite, He accepts it out of His mercy.

Why? Yajjano bhagvate viddhita manam. So, when the manam, when the respect is offered to the Lord, Yathachatmane, that actually reflects back and benefits the person. Pratimukhase yathamukhashree.

So, the example He gives is that if we look at a mirror. Now, when we decorate ourselves, the image in the mirror automatically gets decorated. If we try to separately decorate the image in the mirror, that's a futile endeavour.

Isn't it? We put a tilak on the mirror reflection. And move a little bit, where is the tilak gone? So, now, the example, He is giving this example to illustrate that actually there is an intrinsic relationship between us and the Lord. And we are parts of the Lord.

When the part satisfies the whole, the part also gets satisfied, the part also gets nourished. So, Krishna does not need our glorification. There is a beautiful dynamic in our relationship with Krishna.

Krishna and us. So, if we consider from our perspective to Krishna and Krishna's perspective to us. So, you know, there are two words which we often use.

There are needs and wants. So, now, generally we use need in a positive sense, want in a negative sense. That we should satisfy our needs but not run after our wants.

Because wants can very easily become greeds. And then it becomes endless. That is true.

But in bhakti, it becomes opposite. And what do you mean by it becomes opposite? That actually we, if we consider from this direction, we need Krishna but we don't want Krishna. Without Krishna we cannot survive.

It is Krishna who maintains our breath. It is Krishna who maintains our body. It is Krishna who maintains the world.

We need Krishna but we don't want Krishna. What do you mean don't want Krishna? It is not that we have a special desire for Krishna. For most people, God is, God is like the spare wheel in their car.

What do you mean spare wheel? Yeah, God is like a backup plan. That, oh, when things go wrong, I have God to pray to. Now, God, that this is where, God is like a spare wheel but what God should be is like our steering wheel.

Steering wheel means that everything we do is done through Krishna. So, taking care of family, doing our job, everything. So, Krishna should not be our spare wheel.

He is our steering wheel. So, we don't, we need a steering wheel but we don't really want it. It is not something very important for us.

So, we don't have that longing for Krishna. We may have a need for it. We don't want it.

On the other hand, Krishna doesn't need us but he wants us. So, Krishna doesn't need us. That means Krishna is complete in himself.

Krishna is self-satisfied. It's not that something will be lacking in him if we are not with him. But he wants us.

So, need is a feature of functionality. Whereas want is an expression of love. It's an expression of the heart.

So, when we say the Lord is Nijlabhapurna, he is complete in himself. That means he does not need us. But just because he does not need us does not mean he doesn't care for us.

He cares for us and he wants us. So, therefore, he says Karunobhrinite. Karunobhrinite means out of mercy when we connect with him.

He appreciates it. He accepts it. So, let's try to understand this need and want dynamic with another example.

Say suppose a boy proposes to a girl, please marry me. And then the girl asks, why do you want to marry me? He says, because no other girl in the town is ready to marry me. And now, that is not the most romantic of proposals.

Now, if the girl accepts the boy's proposal, that shows her love for him, not his love for her. Isn't it? That means although she is not his first preference. Nobody else is there, so I am coming to you.

Still she accepts. So, that is her love for him. Now, his love for her will be if he has other options and still he stays with her.

That is his love for her. So, similarly for us in this world, often God is like our last option. When we pray to God, Oh God, I have tried everything, nothing else has worked.

Please help me. So, why have you come to me? Because nobody else is there to help me. So, now Krishna still accepts us.

Karunobhrinite. So, when he accepts us, if the girl accepts the boy at that time, that shows that the girl really cares for him. So, similarly the Lord does not need us, but when we turn towards him, when he accepts us, that is out of his Karuna.

Karunobhrinite. Now, of course, between the girl and a boy, the relationship is mundane and is temporary. Between the soul and the Lord, the relationship is eternal and it is transient.

So, that relationship itself is different, but the principle that the Lord, when he accepts us, that is Karunobhrinite. It is out of his mercy that he accepts us. And when we glorify the Lord, that nourishes our heart, that purifies our heart, that satisfies our heart.

Now, how this happens is from a material perspective of mystery. That why is it when we come in the Lord's Kirtan, when we hear the Lord's Katha, when we just come in atmosphere of the Lord's glories are going on, if we were such just physical creatures or mental creatures, there is no explanation for it. Because we are souls.

Now, we may say, no, no, it's a part of your culture and you grew up in your childhood hearing it and that's why you feel comfortable with it. Well, that may be true for some people. But there are many people who may not have been in that culture.

And for them Krishna is completely unfamiliar. And still they feel extremely contented worshipping Krishna. So, when Prabhupada introduced the worship of Jagannath in Iskcon, he started Rath Yatra.

Anyone knows where the first Rath Yatra happened? San Francisco, yes. In 1968 it happened. Now, at that time, there was a very interesting confusion that was there.

That is, that in Prabhupada's, the books that were available till then, there was no mention of Jagannath. So, Bhagavad Gita was available and some other smaller books were available. Bhagavatam was slowly getting published.

And at that time there was no internet, no AI. So, there was no way to search. So, Prabhupada started doing Rath Yatra and then he also got Jagannath Deities in the temple.

And then in various temples and they were worshipping. So, one disciple wrote to Prabhupada and he says, he told Prabhupada, Prabhupada, I am worshipping the Deities very carefully as per the rules that you have told. Can you please tell me whom am I worshipping? Because externally, Jagannath doesn't look like Krishna.

Isn't it? Jagannath looks very different. They had heard about Krishna, they had heard about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And he is also saying, I am worshipping with following all the rules.

So, why? Because Pratimukhasi Athamukhasri. And when we worship the Lord, culturally the Lord might be unfamiliar, intellectually the Lord might not be understandable for us. But still, at a place deeper than our mind, at a place deeper than our intelligence, at the level of the soul, there is a contentment that is experienced.

So, he is now, in this verse, Prahlad is talking about how the Lord does not need Bhakti. The Lord does not need our glorification. So, that brings us to the last verse we will discuss.

sarvātmanāṁ vikṛṇāmi yathā manīśhaṁ nīcyo jaya guṇa-visargaṁ anupraviṣṭhah pūyet ye nahi pūmānaṁ varṇitena pūyet ye nahi pūmānaṁ varṇitena So, now, the key verse is tasmād. Tasmād is therefore. And when you say therefore means, what has been spoken before as a conclusion of that.

tasmād ahaṁ vigata-viklava īśvaraśya O Lord īśvaraśya, vigata-viklava. Now, viglava can mean doubt. Now, vigata-viklava means to give up doubt.

So, Prabhupāda translates this as, very beautifully, vigata-viklava, having given up contemplation of being unfit. So, he starts by saying that, ugra jāte, I am low-born. So, he is saying that I am unfit.

But he says, now, I will give up contemplation of my unfitness. tasmād ahaṁ vigata-viklava īśvaraśya. Why? sarvātmana mahi-granāmi That sarvātmana, with my whole heart, with my entire being, I will speak the glories of the Lord.

yathā manīśyam That, with my mind, with my intelligence, as I can best understand, nīcyo ajaya Although, I might be low-born, but, guṇa-visarga-manu-praviṣṭhā Caught in the cycle of birth and death, what happens is, pūyet ye nahi pūmān anuvarṇitena That, by glorifying You, I will be purified. So, pūyeta, pūyeta is to purify. So, therefore, for us, so what Prahlāda is saying is, that, I am not qualified.

But, by serving You, by glorifying You, I will be purified. And, although I am not qualified, you are so merciful, that you accept even the service from those who are not qualified. And therefore, I have no doubts.

I am not going to contemplate my unfitness. So, he is not saying, I deny my unfitness. I am not imagining that I am qualified.

Not like that. I know that I am unqualified, but I will not dwell on that. What I can do, I will do.

So, the sequence of thought over here, is that, he starts with, if we discuss, we discuss five verses till now. So, this is part summary and part conclusion. So, first I will talk about the conclusion, then I will do the summary, what we discussed today.

But, the conclusion here is that, in this particular verse when he is speaking, so, this is 12th. So, if we come to 12th verse, 7.9.12. So, here he is saying that, I won't contemplate on my lack of qualification. So, there are three things, that, qualified, glorified, and purified.

So, I am not qualified. That's how he starts it. I am not qualified.

This is a sign of humility. Whenever we do any service, it is important to remember that the Lord is Lakshmipati. The Lord is the Goddess of Fortune.

Now, whatever needs to be done, He has far greater resources than what we can ever offer to Him. So, in that sense, we are not qualified. But, when the Lord is glorified, so, when Krishna is glorified, the result of this is, we are purified.

And, in Krishna, He accepts our glorification and He grants us purification. So, He accepts our glorification and He grants us purification. So, therefore, this, at one level, is the loving exchange in which Prahlad is entering.

Although I am unqualified, so, this is the source of his humility. This is the source of his confidence. That the Lord is so merciful that He accepts glorification from anyone.

He accepts service from anyone. And that service purifies us. So, whatever be our capacity, whatever be our circumstance, whatever be our conditioning, that conditioning should never become a reason to hold us back from serving Krishna.

That Krishna doesn't need our service, but He wants our service. And Krishna accepts our service based on our heart. So, it is not that Krishna needs expertise.

Of course, if we can be expert, we should try to gain expertise. But the point is, that Krishna wants us to offer our heart. And the more we offer our heart to Him, He will become purified.

We will become purified by it. Prabhupada also exhibits this similar humble confidence when he is on the Chaladhoota. He is going to America.

Prabhupada composes a series of prayers called Markini Bhagavad Dharma. And I have written recently a book, one of the books is on that topic. So, initially Prabhupada says that I don't know what is your plan.

I guess you must have some plan. And then he says, I am a fallen person. I have no strength.

So, Prabhupada is at one level expressing his humility. But then, he has the confidence. What is the confidence? That You have the capacity to ornament my words.

You have the capacity to use me as an instrument. Therefore, Make me dance. Oh Lord, make me dance.

As is your wish, I await your glance. So, that is humility and confidence. If you consider, in Ramlila, the greatest devotee is Hanuman.

Hanuman is often depicted with his folded hands and the gada, the mace in between his hands. So, his folded hands represents his humility, his bhakti. And the gada, it represents his confidence, his shakti.

So, that humble confidence is a consistent feature of bhakti. Each one of us, in our particular stage in bhakti, sometimes humility may be lacking for us, sometimes confidence may be lacking for us. One time, one devotee wrote to Prabhupada saying that, Prabhupada, I want to assist you in saving the whole world.

And Prabhupada says, first, it is better to save oneself. But another devotee wrote to Prabhupada saying, Prabhupada, I am such a fallen soul, what service can I do? Prabhupada said, I need many fallen souls like you to assist me in saving the whole world. So, for somebody who is lacking, who is having confidence but lacking humility, Prabhupada is reminding, you are also fallen, first you have to save ourselves.

Somebody who has humility, lacking confidence, Prabhupada is saying, I need many fallen souls like you to assist me in saving the whole world. So, each of us, we may go in one or the other direction. Confidence may erode our humility or humility may erode our confidence.

But if we focus on Krishna, then, if we keep Krishna at the center, yes, I am small, I may be unworthy, but Krishna can make even the unworthy worthy. And therefore, whatever opportunity I have to do seva, to connect with Krishna, I will take that and I will render service to Him. So, I will summarize what we discussed today.

Our theme was on humble confidence in serving the Lord. In bhakti, how can we have humble confidence? We discussed this based on the prayers of Prahlad Maharaj. So, we started with the eighth, what's the eighth prayer? 7.9.8, I think.

Yeah. Harirugrajate. Atau Shidhya.

So, we discussed the context first. The eighth prayer was how he talks about Ugrajate, that I am low born. So, here he starts with his humility, although it is the moment of glory for him that he has been able to do what nobody else has been able to do.

But rather than claiming superiority, he expresses humility. And it is not humility that is at the cost of honesty. He is saying, actually, I am low born.

These people are all high born. They are illustrious people. So, that humility, especially in a person who is glorious, is very endearing.

And his humility in his moment of glory makes it even sweeter. Somebody who is, he is glorious. And then, after that, what does he say? In the ninth verse, he says that actually, it is bhakti that pleases the Lord.

Not material things. And then he gives a, not only material things, he says, even goodness, goodness, sattva-guna means, goodness without bhakti will not please the Lord. Then he talks about a Brahmana.

Viparad-viśata-guṇa-itād arvindanābhā. So, there, we talked about, after that, the eleventh verse was about how? That the Lord is not, the Lord is complete. Krishna is pūrṇa.

It is not that he is, when we do bhakti, we are flattering him. It is that we discuss the relationship between Krishna and us is that we need but don't want. Need is there, want is not there.

In the case of Krishna, need is not there, but want is there. So, the idea is, Krishna does not need our glorification because Krishna cares for us. Therefore, he accepts our glorification.

And that's the way we connect with him. And last, he says, give up, vigata-viklava, give up thoughts of unfitness. But that does not mean, magically I have become fit.

So, it's not that. So, this is the, he starts with humility. But this is where confidence is coming.

So, when that confidence is coming, it is not at the cost of the humility. Rather, it is by focus on the Lord that the cycle we discuss is what? That from our, we may not be, we may be unqualified. Knowing that I am unqualified, that is what brings humility.

But still, the Lord can be glorified. The Lord is so merciful that I can still glorify the Lord and then I will be purified. So, pūyeta ye nahi pūmān anuvarṇitena.

So, with this, that I am unqualified, that brings humility. That the Lord can be glorified and I will be purified, that brings confidence. And in that way, by staying focused on the Lord, we all can manage the balance of humility and confidence.

Life may throw big challenges at us and sometimes we feel I can't face these challenges. But we understand, without the Lord's plan, this would not have happened. Through this situation, I have opportunity to serve the Lord.

So, in this way, through wherever we are, we want self-awareness, not self-consciousness. Self-consciousness can go in both directions. Self-consciousness can go towards ego.

Or self-consciousness can go towards insecurity. I am so great, I am so wonderful or I am so dreadful. But self-awareness is where we are conscious, in our consciousness, Krishna is prominent.

But then our own self-awareness also, what are my strengths, what are my weaknesses. So, this way, self-consciousness will lead us to humility and then our focus on Krishna will give us confidence. So, if you consider, this self-awareness will bring humility and this focus on Krishna will bring confidence.

So, each one of us, by whatever is lacking for us in our particular stage, if we lack humility, then we can think of great devotees who are far more advanced than us and then we can say, okay, whatever service I am doing, whatever qualifications I have there, qualities I have there, they are so small as compared to them. We can get humility by that. But if we are lacking confidence, then we can remember how the Lord accepts service from everyone.

Even a squirrel, who Lord Ram, when He is helping in building the bridge, surely He is not helping anything. But the Lord appreciates their service. So, that way, we can have that empowering combination of humility and confidence as we face life and through life's challenges continue serving Krishna.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Hare Krishna.

Enlightening lecture, Prabhuji. Well, Yudhisthira Maharaj and other devotees were involved with the gambling match, but God still forgave them. They were also involved along with the other people.

Other people means whom are you referring to? Anyway, what is your question? Prabhuji, Yudhisthira was also involved, but Pandavas were also involved in the gambling match. Wouldn't that be an offence to Lord's service because gambling is bound upon by the Supreme Lord? But they were still, they are still devotees. Was that the reason? So, Yudhisthira Maharaj was a devotee and still he got involved in gambling.

So, wasn't that offensive? And is it that because he was a devotee, so he was forgiven? Well, I won't say he was forgiven in the sense that his action had severe consequences. He was exiled by gambling because of gambling. See, the Bhagavatam very categorically differentiates between Dharma and Bhakti.

Dharma is, you could say, moral and virtuous order. Bhakti is devotion to the Lord. Both are important.

Now, the Lord works in such a way that he, if there is Adharma, there will be consequence at a material level. But just because a devotee has done some lack of Dharma, the Lord does not neglect the Bhakti because of that. At the same time, just because somebody has Bhakti, the Lord does not overlook the lack of Dharma.

The material world is a serious place. Sorry, it's a difficult place. It's a challenging place.

So, if we see, when Arjuna hesitates to shoot Bhishma, Krishna says, you shoot him or I will kill him. And he is charging towards him. What does he say? He says, oh Bhishma, you are the root of the cause of this war.

He says, when a king is going on the wrong track, it is the duty of the minister to stop him. You did not stop him. Mahabharata describes that.

Actually, when Krishna went as Shanti Doodh and when that didn't work out, Krishna was disappointed, but he was most disappointed with Bhishma. He felt that Bhishma should have spoken more forcefully to stop the war, to support the peace. Now, as I said that he did not speak, so now Bhishma says, what you are saying is true, but whatever I tried, Dhritarashtra would just not listen to me because of his attachment to Duryodhana.

If you think I have done something wrong, you can punish me, you can kill me. Dying at your hands would be the perfection for me. So, at a public level, Krishna insists that Bhishma be attacked, Bhishma be punished.

Because dharma has to be established. But then after the war is over, at a private level, at an individual level, Krishna takes Yudhishthira and the Pandavas to Bhishma to hear instruction. So, we could say that, if you want to put it this way, that ideally speaking, if there are four quaternions, dharma and bhakti, so dharma can be yes or no and bhakti can be yes or no.

So, Krishna wants us to be in the fourth quadrant. We follow dharma and we follow bhakti also. So, dharma is basically order.

It could be virtuous order, social order, moral order. So, that is important. Krishna did not tell Duryodhana that when he went to Shanti Doodh, it was not a war to establish bhakti.

He did not say to Duryodhana, you start chanting Hare Krishna, then we will stop, cancel the war. That was not the point. It was dharma yuddha.

So, the idea is that dharma is also important. Now, one of the key principles in the Mahabharata is that dharma is very difficult to figure out. Dharma is very gahana.

And the whole Mahabharata is actually a quest for understanding dharma. So, now from our perspective, you may think Yudhishthira gambling like that is just straight adharma. But actually, it's not that simple.

What happens is, if you look at the context, dharma means broadly you can say what is right and what is wrong. So, now this can be determined by three distinct factors. I use the acronym I for it.

How do we know what is the right thing? It depends on intent. What are you doing? What is your intent? If the intent is right, then that is why we say Vaishnavera kriya mudra vigyahana bhujaya. Sometimes Vaishnavas may act in questionable ways, but if their heart is offered to the Lord, don't question their actions.

But then content is also important. What are we doing? What is that? Dharma is what is given by the Lord. And then dharma can also be known by the effect.

Effect Prabhupada would say phale na parichayate. That whether something is right or wrong, you see what is the effect of it. So, dharma can be determined by all these three things.

What is the right thing to do in a particular situation? What was the intent? What was actually done? And what is the result of it? Now among these three, which is more important? It depends. Ideally, if all three are positive, that is a great thing. I had a good intent, I did a good action and there is a good result from it.

Sometimes I may have a good intention, but with good intention I may do a bad action. And it may have a bad result. Sometimes I may have a good intention and I do a good action, but still there is a bad result.

Like somebody is a doctor, they want to treat a patient and they give the right prescription, but then there is some side effect and there is some complication. So, intent was good, content was good, but the effect was bad. And when the intent is right, somebody is a doctor, but they are not specialists in a particular field.

And they have a patient who comes in that critical field and instead of referring to the specialist, they give some treatment. They want to help the patient, but the content cannot be wrong. It's a problem over there.

So, if we consider, when Yudhishthira gambled, his intent, if we consider Yudhishthira's gambling, his intent was eminently positive. What happened after the Kurukshetra, after the Rajasuya Yajna, when everybody was departing, at that time Vyasadev had presided over the whole Yajna. So, Yudhishthira came in front of him, gave him Dakshina and offered his respects to him and said, please bless me, so that I can rule with peace and prosperity and Bhakti.

And Vyasadev became very grave and he said, oh king, I see the dark clouds of a deadly war ahead. There will be a ferocious war in the future and after that war, you will rule in peace. And Yudhishthira started thinking, I don't want a war.

And obviously war was clearly going to be between him and the Kauravas only. Because the Rajasuya Yajna means he had defeated everybody else. So, nobody was capable of a ferocious fight.

So, he thought, how can I avoid a war? So, his reasoning was that war happens because of unresolved conflicts. When the conflicts are not resolved, then war happens. And why are conflicts not resolved? Because authority is not accepted or rejected.

That means two people have a conflict and somebody goes to authority. And they don't accept the authority. I was just talking recently with one senior Prabhupada disciple.

He is a spiritual master, Sanyasi Guru. He was telling me that nowadays the culture of respect is so much lost. His one disciple came to me with a complaint about another disciple.

And he said, if you don't reject him, I will reject you. Directly in the face of his Guru he is saying. So, if we don't accept authority, then conflicts can never be resolved.

So, what he felt is, to prevent this chain from happening, what I will always obey my authority. So, now for him, he was the Samrat of the world. Who is authority for him? Dhritarashtra was like a father figure in the place of his father.

So, he said, I will always obey my elders. Now, his intent was to avoid war. But till this point, Dhritarashtra had not been very nakedly partial against him.

Till this point. See, yes, they had given them half of the kingdom, which was a barren kingdom, but at least it was half of the kingdom. So, how much was Dhritarashtra in the know with the poisoning of Bhima or the burning of Anavarta, that is not clear.

So, he trusted that he will be sufficiently, if not neutral, he will at least be normal. He will not cause, do something which will cause a war. And then, when Shakuni gave the plot of gambling to Duryodhana, Duryodhana pressured Dhritarashtra.

And Dhritarashtra used Vidura. I said, Vidura, you go and call them for gambling. Vidura opposed it.

They gave the gamble, they will fight. He said, no, you have to go and call them for gambling. It is just a friendly competition.

When Vidura came, Yudhishthira did not want to gamble. And Yudhishthira also came to the Kauravas' kingdom and the first thing he said, Duryodhana, why do you want to steal from me the wealth by which I wish to serve the Brahmanas, I wish to serve society. I wish to take care of humanity.

Duryodhana said, who talks about stealing anything? He just wanted to have a friendly competition. So, what happened was, Yudhishthira's intention was very good. But the content of his action, that was questionable.

So, he did not gamble because he liked gambling. He gambled because he wanted to avoid conflict and the way to avoid conflict was obey his elders. So, it was, that's why dharma is very complicated.

Dharma is very gahana. I was giving this class in America and after that one devotee came and said, today's class was very good. I learned a very important lesson.

What lesson? He said, obeying our elders is very dangerous. And that's not the lesson from this. The lesson is that we cannot decide dharma based on one factor alone.

That's why it is complicated. So, Yudhishthira, he made a misjudgment in one sense. Now, of course, through that misjudgment, the Kauravas, how horrible they were, that became exposed to the world.

And through that also Krishna worked so that he intervened and protected Draupadi. So, how Krishna protects his devotees also demonstrated. So, Krishna can do good even through some bad decisions that are made.

But still the bad decisions will also have consequence. The devotees were once doing Ratha Yatra in London. At that time, there was this devotional competition among people, all the devotees.

So, in San Francisco, they had Ratha Yatra, other places they had Ratha Yatra. So, the devotees in London said, we will build the biggest Ratha till now. And they made a giant Ratha.

But they made the upper part of the Ratha very big, but they did not proportionately increase the chassis of the Ratha. And it was not, the build was not strong enough. So, the Ratha card was moving forward and suddenly the Ratha card collapsed in the middle of the way.

At that time, nobody knew what was Ratha Yatra. So, the devotees acted as if the collapse of the Ratha was also part of the festivity. They saved face.

But then the devotees wrote to Prabhupada and they said that, Prabhupada did the Ratha collapse because of our poor devotion. And Prabhupada replied, it collapsed because of your poor engineering. So, good intention might be there.

We want to have the biggest girth for glorifying the Lord. But the content also has to be right. Thank you.

Any last question? Yes, Babaji. Hare Krishna, Prabhuji. I am very new to Krishna consciousness, so please forgive me if this question doesn't come right.

I was just going to ask you this about, you talked about self-awareness and self-consciousness. And in terms of being self-aware, quite often, I guess, how do you remind yourself to understand what your strengths are and how do you sort of play that in your real day-to-day life, factoring ego balances and stuff. So, if you sort of use the example of the doctor, you know, if a patient came, his intention was good, he wasn't a specialist, but he wanted to help and the effect was something else because he wasn't a specialist.

So, how do you remind yourself that, you know, sometimes it could be because of ego or because of, you're just doing it because you want to help, but you're not the right person. How do you constantly try and be in that self-awareness mode? If you could just give us some more tips or direction on that. Yeah.

How do we develop self-awareness about our strengths and limitations? Sometimes a situation may call upon us to do something and when we do it, is it out of concern or is it out of overconfidence or ego? These are difficult to pinpoint or tell precisely and sometimes we have to learn from hindsight. After we do something, we understand, okay, this was not, I couldn't do this. Because see, what is our capacity? If we had to lift some physical weight, you can easily know this is a huge suitcase, maybe I can't lift it, I need somebody else to lift it.

So, physical capacity, relatively it's easier to estimate. But with respect to our inner capacity, in terms of our abilities, in terms of our forbearance, those things are much more difficult to estimate. So, sometimes we do something that sounds seems the best for us in that moment.

And then after that we see the effect and based on that, sometimes we may realize, I thought I had this capacity, but I didn't have this capacity. Sometimes we find that I thought I didn't have this capacity, but actually it turns out I can do this. So, sometimes experience is what teaches us.

So, generally when we talk about self-awareness, there are three things. There is intelligence, there is experience and then there is transcendence. So, transcendence is Krishna.

So, with our intelligence, in one sense intelligence is before the action. With our intelligence we try to assess, can I do this? Can I not do this? Experience is what we get after the action. So, as much as possible, before an action, we try to evaluate.

Will I be able to do it? How well will I be able to do this? And then after the action, we try to review. Now, transcendence is actually throughout. For a devotee, we try to remember Krishna throughout.

Ultimately, my ability also comes from Krishna. And sometimes Krishna can empower with more ability. Sometimes even the ability that I think is mine, Krishna can take it away from me.

Because Krishna may want me to learn some humility at that. That's why all these three factors are involved. And in general, I put this last over here.

But if you put this first, that Maa Manusmara and then Yudhacharya. So, Krishna says, remember me and then do your duty of fighting. So, that's why Bhakti is about, we tie ourselves to Krishna.

Transcendence, intelligence and experience. So, first, Krishna, what a situation I am in. It is not outside your plan.

I am facing this situation. Please guide me. What can I do? Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that if we are prayerful, then dadami buddhi-yogam tam yena mam upayanti te.

I will give you the intelligence how to make good choices. So, as far as intelligence is, so transcendence is when we pray, then by that prayers, praying and remembering Krishna and turning towards Krishna, that gives us a certain level of calmness. Because I am always connected with Krishna.

Whether I succeed in this or I don't succeed in this, Krishna will never abandon me. Krishna will never reject me. If the transcendence is not there, then we get into actions on the platform of I want to prove to this person that I can do it.

Or what if I don't do this, everybody will laugh at me. What will happen to me? So, we don't start from a strong foundation. So, start from that strong foundation of transcendence and then use our intelligence and then learn from experience.

Did I answer your question? I think, sorry, if I could just elaborate on that. When you sort of talk about, you know, I think with the ice concept, where your intent was right, your intention was right and your effect wasn't right. How does that, and sometimes you sort of reflect back and think about the situation.

Yeah, see that is inevitable in the world. The effect comes only after we do an action. So, say, we are raising children.

Now, how much should we discipline a child? Isn't it? There are two parents, one parent may be a little stricter, other parent may be a little more liberal. Now, who is right? Well, there is no right formula over there. Isn't it? Sometimes we may impose a lot of strictness and then feel the child is getting suffocated.

We learn from that. Sometimes we give a lot of space and then we find the child is going wayward completely. So, in many ways, life is an experiment.

And now the intent, generally no parent ever wants anything bad to happen to the child. Parents are always the evaluation of the children. So, intent is always good.

Now, the content of parenting, what to do? At one level, parenting is about guiding the children. But then it is, they have to also have their, they have to stand on their own legs. And if they are going to stand on their legs, sometimes they are going to fall down in that process.

So, that content is always dicey. And that's why sometimes at the end of the day, Krishna says, कर्मण्नेवादिका रस्ते माँपदेशु कदाचेन. Do your part and don't be too attached to the result.

Because the result does not come only by our present karma. Yes, as parents, it's very important, for example, for us to take care of our child. If we are doing a particular project, then in office, it's important that we do our part.

But the fact is that when you say our intent is good, our content is also good, still the effect doesn't come good. So, what does that mean? See, basically, we think that if I had an action, if I put work worth 100, I should get result worth 100. So, this is karma and this is the fun.

While that is true, this is not the complete picture. Because what happens is, this is present karma. And there is also past karma that comes into the picture.

So, sometimes it may happen that I may put in 100 and I get result of 0. Why? Because from the past, minus 100 is coming. That means that I worked very hard, I did the whole project well, but something factors beyond my control. Just came and spoiled everything.

Now, sometimes it may be opposite. We do nothing and still everything works out. One devotee in America told me that he had a late night satsang program next day.

He had to go to the temple for Mangala Aarti for doing the Aarti worship. So, he slept late and then he woke up, got into his car, took a bath and got into his car. And in the car, he fell asleep.

And fortunately, from his home to the temple was a straight road. And he fell asleep and he woke up and he saw he was right next to the temple. He told me, Krishna was very merciful to me.

I said, don't expect that mercy every time. So, the idea is that sometimes we may do something wrong and still things may work out. But we can't count on that.

So, most often it is like, I do something. So, it's like, how much, how much my present karma and how much my past karma contributes, the phala. That we don't know.

Whatever results we get. So, we do our part as well as we can. So, if with our introspection, we understand that my intent was right, my content was also right, and still the result didn't come, that means accept that sometimes this is because of there is some past karma coming over here.

Don't take it too personally. It's not necessarily our personal failure that it happens. So, sometimes, like see, Prahlad is such a great devotee.

Can Hiranyakashipu take any credit for that? Now, Prahlad became a devotee not because of Hiranyakashipu, in spite of Hiranyakashipu. Isn't it? So, that, that's an extreme example. But my point is, point holds that we have to have a holistic picture.

And sometimes, despite our best efforts. So, if you consider Vidura, he was a very virtuous person. And his intent was always good.

He was also giving good wisdom. The content of what he was speaking was good. But Dhritarashtra never listened to him throughout his life.

And then we could say that he had to see the destruction of his own dynasty. But the effect came at the end. After Duryodhana was out of the picture, then when he spoke to Dhritarashtra, at that time Dhritarashtra heard it.

So, if he had considered that, oh, my words have no effect, what is the use of speaking any good wisdom at all? Could have got discouraged. So, sometimes our intent is right, our content is right, but as long as the past karma is there negative, so, the effect may not come. But that past negative karma is not going to be there permanently.

It will also end. And then, if we are perceiving the good intent and good content, the effect will manifest. Thank you very much.

It's great. Thank you very much.