If connection with Krishna makes the inauspicious auspicious then if a devotee gets caught in sinful activities is that also good?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, if sometimes, if connection with Krishna makes the inauspicious auspicious, then if sometimes if somebody gets caught in sinful activities, is that also auspicious? When there are two aspects in our life, there is something which we do and something that happens to us. So, generally what we do, we are responsible for that.
So, everything that happens is not necessarily good. It’s not necessarily good. Bad things also happen in this world.
But everything that happens can be for good. That means Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. So, sometimes, I’ll give two examples from different perspectives.
We know the famous pastime when Durvasa Muni came to the Pandavas when they were in the forest. And he came after they had eaten all their food. So, they had no food available for him.
So, then what happened was Krishna came over there. Krishna told Draupadi, get some, see if there’s any food on the plate, magical plate, Akshaya Patra. There’s a little morsel over there.
And Krishna took that and by that he satisfied everyone. Now, the question may come up, what was that morsel of food doing over there? That is a precious plate. Normally, if we have a golden plate or something like that, we are very careful to clean it.
You won’t keep a morsel of food over there lying over there. And this was not just a golden plate, this was a vital plate needed for them. It was all that Dharma was being done by that magical plate.
The plate was gifted by Surya Dev, Sun God to them. So, how was the morsel left over there? You could say it was somebody’s carelessness, it was somebody’s mistake, Draupadi was overseeing it, so one of her maid servants might have made the mistake, she herself might have left it like that. So, we could say it’s a Leela of the Lord, we could say it is a mistake, but Krishna brought good even out of that.
The point is that Krishna can bring good even out of the bad, if we stay fixed in our service to him. But this is with respect to what happens to us. Now, in contrast, what we do, sometimes if we get caught in something which is mundane, something which is sensual, something which is sinful, then there is a significant element of our free will involved over there also.
And we can’t just simply say that it is good, it is bad, but sometimes through going through that, we get certain essential realizations. So, in a sense, like you had said that the love for Krishna is like a snake, the snake doesn’t move straight, snake moves like that. So, like that, similarly, sometimes, we don’t progress linearly.
Say, if temptation confronts me, and if I say no to the temptation, then I will say I have won. And if I say yes to the temptation, I lose. But, it’s not that simple.
If I say no to the temptation, but that makes me proud, thinking, I am so renounced, then, actually, I may have lost the battle. I have won the battle against lust or greed, but I have lost the battle against pride. On the other hand, when the temptation comes and I succumb to it, but after succumbing to it, I realize desperately my need for Krishna.
And then, that makes me more dependent on Krishna, that makes me take shelter of Krishna more intensely. Then, there is a, we lost the battle against temptation, but we notched a victory in the war for devotion. The two are related, but two are not the same.
The battle against temptation and the war for devotion, the two are related, but they are not the same. Normally, the more we win in the battle against temptation, the more we also win the war for devotion. Because temptation takes us away from Krishna, devotion takes us towards Krishna.
But sometimes the two may work contrary. If, by losing the battle against temptation, if that makes me humble, that makes me more dependent on Krishna, that makes me in a position where I take more shelter of Krishna, then that is like notching a victory in the war for devotion. So, whatever happens in our life, in terms of something beyond our control, just happens to us, or something which we have also done in the past.
We can try to learn from it, but ultimately we have to know that Krishna can bring good out of even the bad. And we try to do the best that we can now. So, even if somebody has done something wrong, something sinful, something very bad, then maybe that can become a means by which they can take more shelter of Krishna.
And going through that experience helps them to become more empathic when they are trying to share Krishna message with others, and how difficult it is to deal with temptation, what are the ways in which temptation attacks, how it overcomes, how we can resist it. So, basically, if we stay fixed in the principle of serving Krishna, then even if bad things happen, whether they happen in terms of things beyond our control happening or some bad things happen by our own doing bad things also, if we can take shelter of Krishna with a consistent attitude, then Krishna will bring good out of the bad. So, Krishna will bring auspiciousness ultimately.
Now, there are three ways of looking at it. One is that, that event that happened itself is auspicious, but I am not able to understand it. Second is that, that event made me take shelter of Krishna and in that sense it is auspicious.
So, it’s like there are two different things. One is, okay, bad thing happened, but I found out later it is not bad. Actually, it was good only.
You know, I was in a particular project and somebody like Prabhupada, he was in the League of Devotees and there was a conspiracy against him and he was driven out of Jhansi. It was a bad thing, a whole conspiracy, but then Jhansi was a small place without much potential. Then Prabhupada came to Delhi, then he came to Mumbai and he came to America.
So, that bad thing itself is turned out, and that time it appeared bad, but later on it was actually good. That’s one level. The other level is, it is bad, it is a bad thing that happened, but that bad thing made me do something good.
One is, the bad thing itself led to something good. In terms of situation, that better plan was revealed. Other is, the bad thing is bad, but it leads me to something good.
Because of that bad thing, I take shelter of Krishna. And a shelter of Krishna, that is good. And, third level is that, actually there is a bad thing that happens, and that makes us do bad things in return.
That makes us do bad things in return. Some people, when adversities happen in their life, they become bitter. Why did this happen to me? Or sometimes even if we do wrong things, sometimes because of some pressure of emotions.
If after practicing bhakti, also such desires are coming in my life, what is the use of practicing bhakti? So the bad things are really bad only when they take us away from Krishna. But if they can take us towards Krishna, then either they themselves are good or they make us do something good. And in that sense they are auspicious.
So that’s why the basic principle of bhakti is that somehow or other fix the mind on Krishna. Sometimes in the force of passion, force of temptation that comes in a particular situation, we may not be able to take shelter of Krishna. But what do we do after that? I’ll conclude with one example.
Say, somebody has fallen in a well and somebody from above has offered a rope and with that rope they are trying to pull this person out and there is some person below who wants to keep this person in the well itself and they are catching the person from below. Now this person is caught in a tug of war. There is someone pulling above and there is someone pulling below.
So that is our condition. Now we are in the middle our own past conditionings, our own mind and senses, they are pulling us down and Krishna is pulling us up. Now sometimes our conditionings may pull us so forcefully that despite our best efforts we are dragged down.
The force is so great we are dragged down. So what happens at that time? There is a force which is pulling us down and when we are dragged down we become so disheartened that we let go of the upper rope. Now actually the upper rope is extendable.
Even when I go down I may be pulled down but I don’t have to let go of that rope. So our conditionings may hold on to us but we can still hold on to Krishna. But unfortunately what happens when our conditionings pull us down we also let go of Krishna.
Because in a sense in the conditionings catches, lust may catch me, anger may catch me, it’s not going to obsess me 24 hours a day. The desire comes, I do something. But what after that? Anger comes.
So it’s after that we become so disheartened because of that that we give up Krishna Bhakti. But if we don’t do that, okay, that thing happened, whatever happened, it’s bad but I’m not going to give up Krishna Bhakti. So I was pulled down, this is the normal level of moral spiritual behavior I was supposed to be at.
But my conditionings pulled me down to this very bad level. But just because I was pulled from here to here doesn’t mean I have to give up the upper rope. The upper rope can extend to here also.
So if I just hold on, if we just hold on to Krishna, even if our conditionings are holding on to us, then what will happen gradually as we keep practicing Bhakti, the conditionings, their force will go down over a period of time. And then because we have held on to the rope, this rope by which we can be pulled out. So as devotees, we can’t predict how temptation is going to attack us in the future.
Today I may say I am very pure and I am not going to fall for temptation, but tomorrow I may not. But what we can do is that, okay, temptation comes, temptation goes. But what do we hold on to Krishna? So if we hold on to Krishna, Krishna will ultimately bring auspiciousness in our life.
So thank you very much.