Is our attempt to mitigate destiny also determined by destiny?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Could it be that a person who is trying to mitigate destiny, their attempt to mitigate destiny is also determined by destiny? Not exactly. The inclination.
Krishna talks about the inclination is determined by destiny, but the action is not determined by destiny. That means, Krishna talks about, say in the Bhagavad Gita, he talks about brahmanas and kshatriyas in 18.42, 43, 44, that section. So, he says the characteristic of a brahmana is kshama, forgiveness.
Just if somebody insults, somebody disrespects, just tolerate it, forgive it, move on, be peaceful. But in contrast, while talking about the characteristics of kshatriya, it says, that means if there’s a fight, if there’s a conflict, the kshatriya will not back down. Kshatriya will fight.
So, on one side, a brahmana is supposed to be peaceful, but a kshatriya is meant to fight. And that’s just the innate characteristic of a kshatriya. So, what does this mean? That when both, when a brahmana is insulted or a kshatriya is insulted, their innate reaction will be different.
A brahmana is just, forget it, no big deal. A kshatriya will say, how dare you do this? It’s not just an insult, it’s whenever they face any conflicting situation. A kshatriya’s tendency will be to mitigate.
A brahmana’s tendency will be to tolerate. Now, it’s not necessary that in every situation only one is right and the other is wrong. Generally, brahmanas are not rulers.
They’re teachers, they’re guides. So, if somebody has done something wrong at an individual level, a person may decide, I forgive you. I’m not going to press charges.
I’m not going to do anything. But the justice department, which the king is meant to head, the justice department can’t operate only on forgiveness. There are times when people have done such serious wrongs that they have to be punished.
The king has to, sometimes the kshatriyas have to take action aggressively. So, the kshatriyas are Martian guardians of society. Sometimes they may have to fight.
If they don’t chicken out from a fight, which is required, they will act aggressively. So, therefore, it’s not that necessarily one is right and the other is wrong. But even a brahmana, even a kshatriya who is mitigating, kshatriya cannot just be trigger happy.
Every small conflict they make it too big. Kshatriya also has to have a certain level of strategic intelligence, some political savvy and understand which conflicts to take issue with and which conflicts we just let them pass by. So, basically, our inclinations, some people may be more inclined to tolerate and some people may be more inclined to mitigate.
That’s determined by destiny. But that doesn’t mean that we are forced to act in those ways. We can choose to act in a different way also.
So, when we have an attitude of service to Krishna, then we will be able to better choose which would be the healthiest course of action for us. And that’s why we cannot also, we cannot impose our choice on others. You know, I have been tolerating so much for so long.
Why can’t you tolerate a small thing? Well, it doesn’t work like that because my body, mind, machine may be different and your body, mind, machine may be different. So, some people, when they feel cold, just can’t bear the cold. They have to wear one, two, three warm clothes.
And somebody else may just wear one thin cloth and they just don’t feel any cold. If this person says, you know, I am not feeling cold, why are you wearing so many clothes? Don’t feel cold. What do you mean don’t feel cold? I am feeling cold.
Feeling cold is not a choice. It is what happens to us. So, similarly, by our body, mind, machine, the way we, a disposition we have, we will all have certain inclinations, certain ways we feel.
So, just because we feel in a particular way doesn’t mean that we are good or bad. That’s just the way we are. But just because we feel in a particular way doesn’t also mean that we have to act in that way alone.
There are two extremes with respect to emotions. One is to deny the reality of our emotions. Say, I am not feeling anything.
If you are hurt and say, I don’t feel hurt, then that hurt may sometimes simply grow inside. Just like if I am physically injured and we pretend to be tough and say, I am not injured, the injury may grow. So, one extreme is to deny the reality of our emotions.
The other extreme is to make our emotions the only reality. Because I feel like this, that’s why I am going to act like this. No, even if I feel like this, I have to consider the big picture, consider time, place, circumstance and then act.
So, we acknowledge our emotions and all of us will have certain default emotions coming within us. But we also have to consider time, place, circumstance, consider our dharma of service to Krishna and then appropriately choose.