Leadership Sutras based on the Bhagavad-gita

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I think the question is this indication of non-leaders. It is said that a leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. A leader knows the way.
What is the way one needs to travel? A leader goes the way, travels himself or herself along that way and then shows the way, shows others what is the way to travel that way. A leader knows the way, goes the way, he shows it. So when Krishna comes to this world, he does all these things.
He is God. He is omniscient. He knows the way.
But when he lives in this world, he goes through all the experiences, the challenges, the problems, the enemies, the rivalries, the criticisms. Everyone has to go through it. But he shows us how to go the way.
And then when Arjuna is in a crisis, he shows Arjuna the way. So many times the best leaders are those who teach, not in a classroom, but who make the world into a classroom. That means they use experiential learning.
So now different settings can be used for experiential learning. To teach students to be taken instead of the classroom, to a farm, to tell them about nature, or to a forest or a garden, or sometimes in a hospital. In medical college, students will be taken to a hospital.
But Krishna uses the most unlikely setting for teaching. And that is a battlefield. Krishna transforms a battlefield into a battlefield.
And although the atmosphere in the battlefield, after the conscious has been blown, that means hostilities have been declared and the war is about to begin. At that time, the atmosphere is bound to be frenzied. But Krishna shows it neither frenzied nor hurried.
His words are carefully chosen, his arguments are perfectly reasoned. By his presence and by his presentation, Krishna lifts Arjuna far away out of the battlefield. And in their conversation, the subjects rise to levels of wisdom that the world has rarely scared ever before or after.
And from those heights of wisdom, Arjuna returns at the end of the omniscience. He is fully equipped. He was always physically, martially equipped.
But he has become emotionally overcome. And Krishna empowered him so that he could bring his emotions under control and act honourably. The battlefield setting of the Bhagavad Gita is not the call for violence.
The Bhagavad Gita is neither a book of violence nor a book of silence. It is a book of transcendence. It helps us rise to a higher reality from which we can perceive things differently and find ways which you would otherwise not have.
So as Albert Einstein said, problems can’t be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them. So Krishna raises Arjuna’s consciousness to a much higher level and thereby enables him to find new solutions. In fact, Krishna doesn’t just give you solutions.
Krishna redefines the problem itself for Arjuna. So we will not look at the intricacies of the Bhagavad Gita. Here we will focus on some important words from the Bhagavad Gita as they apply to our day to day life.
Every scripture is written in a particular culture and particular context. The scripture has an eternal core and a contextual periphery. There is an eternal core that applies to all time, place, circumstances.
And there is a contextual periphery that applies to that particular context and that may or may not apply to our context. So violence is not at all the mystery of the Gita. That is the context.
And this context illustrates that Krishna is an expert teacher that he can transform even a mighty little person. The essential message of the Bhagavad Gita is how we can master ourselves and bring up the greatest divinity within us. For our own good and for the good of the world.
I will discuss five sutras based on the Bhagavad Gita. And after that we will have question and answers. The first is seeing the achievement that misery can’t touch the situation.
This is point 22 in the Bhagavad Gita. So, actually speaking, all of us have different goals in our life. And the goals give life to our life.
Without goals, we will just exist. We give goals to give life. The Bhagavad Gita urges us to find out that goal which once we achieve it, there is nothing greater than it.
Once I have achieved this, that there is nothing greater to achieve. So, once I achieve something, if there is nothing greater than it can cause me dissatisfaction, then that is the greatest achievement. And the second characteristic of this supreme achievement is that no disaster can take it away from us.
So, once one achieves this, even the greatest misery cannot take it away from us. So, what is that achievement? Many people say that if I become spiritual, then I will have to become unambitious. I don’t chase up, I don’t seek goals, I don’t have any drive, I don’t pursue life wholeheartedly.
That is not the truth. The Bhagavad Gita urges us to select the best goal for pursuit. Now, we all have our cherished goals.
And if we think about those goals, do they satisfy this criterion? That there will be no more hankering after I achieve that goal. And once I achieve it, it will never go away from me. That there is no more hankering.
Even if I, people desire to become wealthy, if I want to become the wealthiest person in my community, then the wealthiest person in my city, then the wealthiest person in my country, then the wealthiest person in the continent, then the wealthiest person in the world and then the wealthiest person in the history of the world, then I will become miserable. So, everything is bliss. So, So, actually speaking, whatever goal we achieve in the world, it never satisfies us.
There is always the craving for more, more, more, which keeps us perpetually dissatisfied. And secondly, whatever we achieve, there is always the motive here for creativity. I may become ridiculously wealthy, but if tomorrow the stock market crashes, or tomorrow if the recession hits, all my assets will get devalued, and then I am going to devaluate in return.
So, whatever I achieve, firstly, it doesn’t satisfy me. Secondly, it always gives me the desire to become something greater. So, what is that achievement? That achievement, that one’s achievement, will satisfy us and will never be taken away.
That achievement, the way it has been described, we are all souls. And as souls, our spiritual identity and our spiritual integrity is invaluable. Whatever we achieve on a spiritual level, will never be taken away from us.
And many times, spiritual is a very hazy word. People think that, okay, the external is material, the internal is spiritual. However, this is a very simplistic understanding.
Because, the Bhagavad Gita explains that in the internal also, there is the mind and there is the soul. Our existence is actually three-dimensional. There is physical, the body that we have.
Then there is mental, that is the mind. And then, there is the soul. So, to understand it, if I am seeing a movie, then I, the seer, is like the soul.
Then the picture that I am seeing, that is the physical world. And the screen on which I am seeing the picture, that is the mind. So, from my movie viewer’s point of view, actually, both the screen and the picture that I am seeing on the screen, both are external.
So, from the point of view of, if I think I am the body, then this table is external to me. And then my feelings are in the middle. Right now, some of you may be feeling a little uncomfortable because of the cold, or you may be a little anxious, because you may have so many things to do.
So, these are things. You will always think of them as internal. However, we are also external persons.
Why? Because they are the feelings that are generated by contacting the external world. For me, as a person, when I watch a movie, and in the movie, I see the hero being beaten up by the villain, at that time, I may feel anxiety, I may feel fear, I may feel pain. But even that feeling doesn’t have anything to do with my cold.
I have my own life, I have just temporarily started seeing the movie, and I am experiencing feelings. So, the Bhagavad Gita explains that actually, much of what we consider as internal is also external to us. Much of what we consider internal is external.
So, our real internal is the spiritual side of us. It is not the mental side. In today’s world, spirituality is a catchy word, and most people equate the mental with the spiritual.
What does that mean, equate the mental with the spiritual? We go for a spiritual programme. Before I was introduced to Krishna Consciousness, I was searching through many organisations. So, I had gone to one spiritual teacher’s programme.
And he said, he gave a talk, and he said, Now, I will give all of you a spiritual experience. Close your eyes. Relax, concentrate, and imagine.
All your muscles are relaxed. Imagine that you are a river. Imagine that you are a river.
The river is a river. The river is a river. The river is a stream through your skin.
All your muscles are relaxed. On the other side, you can see a mountain. The clouds are touching the mountain.
You see the birds flying very soon. That is the spirituality. Now, most people, including I myself, what I did very briefly, is a longer experience.
When we are agitated, when we are disturbed by things, when we are projecting our mind and thinking of something, it is peaceful. It may make us nervous. But that peacefulness only lasts for a moment.
Because there is pacification. Without pacification, I am calming myself down. But purification means, I am changing the quality of myself.
So, most people, they think, spiritually, just relax. Just something which calms my mind down. That is spiritual.
Yes, that can be spiritual. But that doesn’t always have to be spiritual. Spiritual essentially means that which connects with spirituality.
That which connects with spirituality. Not just something that makes me peaceful. Many things can make me temporarily peaceful.
In my medicines, there are painkillers. And there are actual medicines they treat and cure. So, painkillers can make me feel good.
But they are not actually healing me. So, most of what goes on today in the name of spirituality, is basically nothing but psychological painkillers. There are physical painkillers to avoid non-physical pain.
And there are psychological painkillers to numb mental pain. So, that is what goes on primarily in the name of spirituality. It may offer some relief to people.
There is no denying that relief is being offered. But the point is, that relief is meant to be offered as healing. The Bhagavad Gita explains, that our identity is our identity.
So, beyond the body, beyond the mind, is the soul. And the soul has the eternal life, resolve, and spiritual. And in loving God, there is eternal life.
And in that eternal life, there is everlasting life. So, real spirituality is that which contains the soul. Spirituality may make me peaceful temporarily.
And that is desirable. But it can give me peace permanently when I redirect my desires. See, our deepest longing ultimately is not just for peace.
It is for love. The patient is sick. And every single movement causes pain.
The patient has got arthritis or some other disease. Just move the leg. At that time, the patient may desire, I just want to stop moving.
If I can just stop moving, I will become peaceful. I will become pain-free. It’s true.
The patient will become pain-free by stopping movement. But, firstly, it is very difficult to stop movement. And secondly, after one stops movement and becomes pain-free, one would want to do something positive.
Because the goal of life is not just to be pain-free. The goal of life is to be joyful. Not just pain-free.
Similarly, the Bhagavad Gita describes, the goal of life is not just to have peace. It is to have a loving heart. And a loving heart that is directed with love towards each other.
So when we learn to love Krishna, that love purifies our emotions. And that love elevates us to a spiritual level of consciousness that makes us beautiful. Love for Krishna is an achievement that, once achieved, is completely satisfied.
There is an ocean of happiness that keeps expanding at every moment. And that is completely satisfied as the Sun is rising slowly. So this is an achievement.
Love of God is something, once we achieve, it becomes completely satisfied. And no matter whatever happens in this world, because the love of God is internal to us, not just in the sense of the mental, internal in the sense of the spiritual. We are in a connection with Krishna.
That is a natural development. And it is not that to achieve love of God, we have to withdraw from the world. We have to reject Him.
There are three broad attitudes towards this world. One is that some people romanticise the world. Romanticising, Oh, this world is a wonderful place.
There is so much pleasure here. And I just want to get my hands in the pleasure and enjoy for the rest of my life. So this is one view.
This is the predominant view today. Romanticising the world. And now, in contrast to that, is the other view, which is considered to be spiritual, but actually it is not spiritual.
It is to demonise the world. Demonise the world means there is such a place in the world. There is a hellish place.
Some terrible place. So, we demonise the world. So now these two are like the extremes of the pendulum of human perception.
The demonising the world is one extreme, which is not very common today, but it happens. When people get very fried out with life, get very frustrated with life, most people romanticise the world. Romanticise means they know that things are wrong in my life, but they think if I just set something right, then everything will become fine.
So, that is the idea. And the whole advertisement, they are just showing this thing. All the advertisements are basically nothing but the fairy tales of materialism.
They are the fairy tales of materialism. Once I was in an airport going to Calcutta. So, I saw an advertisement in the overhead TV when I was in the check-in wards.
So, there was some young man who was just walking along and then some Bollywood star came there. And there were a group of women who just ran to that Bollywood star who had embraced him, hugged him and kissed him. And this poor fellow was just… And then after that, Bollywood star comes to this person and says, You know, one man came to me and he tells about a personal care item.
He tells about a personal care item and then this young boy, he applies that. Then he comes along and next time, there is a wedding of girls. As soon as they see him, they squeeze and they come and hug him.
And start kissing him. So, what is materialism? It is a desire to both male and female intercourse. Why? Because to portray that women will fall for a man just because that person is wearing some cream on the face.
It’s an insult to female intercourse. And the idea that males will believe such a story, it’s an insult to male intercourse. When we romanticise the world, when we romanticise the world, we so desperately want to believe that things will become better, that I will become happier, that we will fall for him.
It’s unfortunate like that. So, there are these two extremes, romanticisation and demonization. The Bhagavad Gita says that both are extremes.
The balance is, don’t romanticise, don’t demonise, utilise. Utilisation. So, utilise means that this world, that will be our next point, this world is not a ghost, it’s a fool.
So, what happens is, when we learn to love God, it is not that we reject the world. Rather, we connect with God’s power and God’s power acts through us. In fact, we are able to do greater justice to our talents and make better contributions to the world when we are interested, when we are spiritually motivated.
So, many times people say that if I’m satisfied, then I will no longer be ambitious. The reality is, you can be ambitious in life. But spirituality offers us a satisfaction that doesn’t intimidate your spirituality.
Because this satisfaction is not the actual satisfaction of peace. It is a dynamic satisfaction of love. Because when we love Krishna, we want to offer the best to him.
We are satisfied in our love for him. At the same time, we also want to offer the best to him. And that’s why, this achievement, if we achieve love for Krishna, we become eternally satisfied.
We are not disturbed by anybody. At the same time, we dynamically and productively want to be next to him. This is the truth.
Before we start our life journey, this is the achievement that I hold as the most sacred, as the most cherished, in the pedestal of my master. That’s what happens. That will decide everything else in my life.
If I put money on the pedestal of my heart, then all my values will become totally up to my feet. But, as we discussed, money doesn’t satisfy. Because there is always someone who has more.
There is always the fear that it will go away. But when we make love for Krishna as the most cherished achievement of our life, then that makes us satisfied even while we are pursuing it. Because love for Krishna is not like digital electronics.
It’s not zero or one. It’s analogue. It’s a process.
And the more we connect with Krishna, the greater is the satisfaction and enrichment that we experience. And the more we experience the satisfaction and enrichment, the more we are able to experience this feeling of not being satisfied and of not being shaken by adversity. And we do all that.
So, this is the first principle. A leader should be able to choose the best goal for himself. And the best goal is that achievement which will not cause us any hankering or any manipulation.
This is the point related to Hidamaveda. Upon hearing this, you think there is no greater reason. These situations and issues are never shaken even in the midst of greatest difficulties.
Have any questions? You can have questions now and complete all four questions and you can have questions at the end, whichever you prefer. After everyone, if you have any questions, you can feel free to ask. Otherwise, we’ll have time again.
The second most important point is the world is a destination. It is a station, not a destination. The world is a station, not a destination.
What does this mean? Actually, life is a journey and nothing in life is permanent. Whatever happens, it will appear, it will be a big reversal and it will appear devastating. This is based on 2.38 in the Bhagavad Gita.
Krishna tells, if you call it happiness and distress, loss and gain, victory and defeat. Now, why does he say something like this? Because, imagine we are going in a train and while travelling through a train, we come to a station that is very unkempt, very smelly, very dirty and we think, when will the train go off the station? And then, later on as the train moves forward, we come to some other station, which is very clean, very hygienic and everything is very elegant towards the end. Isn’t it? But either way, the train is going to be gone and we are not going to be at either station forever.
Similarly, life is like a journey and the train of life keeps moving on. Though the train of life keeps moving on, we often stay on emotionally in the last stations of our life. Somebody may have insulted me or something unfortunate may have happened to me and we stay on in that.
And when we stay on in that, we miss out on the present. We miss out on the growth opportunities in the present and we feel to prepare for the future. So, actually speaking, if we make the world our destination, if we make it, if we have some experience in the world, some experience, that is my ultimate goal in life.
Then, that experience may never come. Even if it comes, it will go. So, most often, if we think, we magnify our problems by eternalising the past or the present.
I’ll explain what I mean by this. We magnify our problems. Problems are all there in life.
Everybody has problems. But we magnify the problems by thinking about them too much. For example, somebody has insulted me in the past.
Yes, that person insulted me. And if I can do something to correct it, I should. But if that event has already happened and gone, when I eternalise the past, eternalise the past means what has happened in the past, it’s over, but I keep thinking about it and mentally, I eternalise it.
I make it as if it is eternal. And therefore, I stay here. And therefore, I keep inflicting unnecessary suffering.
So, when Krishna says that do not be elated in happiness or do not be devastated in distress, it is not a recipe for leading a dry, unemotional life. It is a guideline for not letting transient emotions over-excite and over-agitate us. So, when we eternalise the present or eternalise the past, that means, eternalise the present means I have some big problem facing me right now.
And it may seem to overwhelm me right now. It may be a serious problem also. But, if you look back at our life, many problems have come and problems have gone.
We have dealt with them. Some of them we dealt well. Some of them we did not deal so well.
But in life, oh no, when we eternalise the present, we make the problem bigger than it needs to be. The nature of the problems is that the more we think about them, the more our energy goes into the problem. And the problem becomes bigger and we feel smaller and smaller and smaller.
And that’s why I said that life determines our problems, we determine their size. Life determines our problems. I mean, we can defend any problem, but we determine their size.
The more we dwell, thoughtlessly on the problem, then, it creates further complications in our life. So, when we remember that the world is a destination, not a destination, it can be a station. So, whatever is happening, it is happening.
But, it is important to take note that it can bring tremendous harm in you if it’s not done. Suppose, we go to a market and purchase a vegetable. And then, we come back to home and we find that the vegetable is rotten.
We feel annoyed. I didn’t feel hurt, cheated by that. What do I do? What I do is, I overcook it.
If I overcook it, maybe it will taste better. The vegetable is rotten, but overcooking a rotten vegetable, I’m not going to make a rotten vegetable rice. A rotten vegetable is rotten and it’s best to put it aside, get some other vegetable and cook it and have it.
So, sometimes, similarly, life gives us a roddy. Things go wrong. It’s like we get a rotten vegetable.
And then, when we think too much about it, we are basically overcooking that vegetable, that thought, in the cooker of our mind. Keep cooking it, cooking it, cooking it. What happens? Nothing happens.
What has happened has happened. What has gone wrong has gone wrong. What can’t be changed, can’t be changed.
But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing that can be changed. There is much that can be changed. But if I’ve got a rotten vegetable, put it aside.
Find a newer vegetable. Take a better vegetable, cook it and get it. Similarly, if something has gone wrong, somebody has judged harshly with me, if I can do something to correct it, well and good.
But just dwelling on it, unnecessarily, unproductively, it will be brainwashed. So, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that we should not get over-excited by emotions. The basic point is that emotions, if they are not controlled, if they are not focused, then those, they actually take away from the ritual of life.
If I am constantly caught up in thinking of the past, or I am making the present bigger than what it means to me, then I underutilise my emotions. I can’t do all that I can. So, what about the rest of it? The destination will be fulfilled.
The destination will be fulfilled. It will be crystal clear. And everything that happens in this world is our fault.
Sometimes in the journey of life, we will get to a good station, sometimes to a bad station. And just meditating on the past, because I am doing it right now, it is finished. It’s gone.
It’s finished. Sometimes we live a tremendous amount of time without thinking. It doesn’t solve the problem.
But it frees our energy so that we can solve the problem. When we are caught up in a problem, when we are emotionally caught up in a problem, then our emotions don’t allow us to think about the future. So, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that we should seek deeper emotions, not peripheral emotions.
It’s like a person who is watching a movie, going back to the earlier example, the person, when he or she is watching a movie, will experience emotions. Joy, sorrow, excitement, agony, tension, all those emotions are there. But the person has got a separate life apart from the movie.
So, what the Bhagavad Gita tells us, we have our own life. That is not slave to our present circumstances. We have our own life and that can be richer and deeper, far richer and far deeper than what our present circumstances allow.
So, when we experience Krishna, we start experiencing that richness and depth of inner life. And then that helps us to gain personal freedom. So, the destination, when we make anything in this world the destination, then it comes with all sorts of tremendous emotional perversions.
But I understand it’s not that. Everything in this world is a station. It will come, it will go.
It is a station. My destination is a station. There I have my real life and there is my true emotional freedom.
There is my true eternal life. That comes, comes. So, actually I have repeated in the Bhagavad Gita that don’t get too worked up by emotions that are coming.
The emotions will come and the emotions will go. Don’t get too worked up because they are coming. But when we get too worked up, then the emotions pass but we don’t pass.
We stay on in those emotions and that can often lead to trouble for us. Now, when we say the world is a station, not a destination, that doesn’t mean that we just remain stuck. When we come to a negative destination, we do have to deal with it.
When we come to a negative station, we do have to deal with it. How do we deal with it? Be concerned, not disturbed by change. Be concerned, not disturbed by change.
What does this mean? What is the difference between being concerned and being disturbed? Change is an unavoidable fact of life. Now, whenever change happens, that makes us insecure. So, be used to know how to deal with unchanging, which is your security.
Say, I am working in a job and tomorrow I am fired. I don’t even have a home to fly to with a phone. It’s a big change.
If I know something is unchanging, I have some savings account in which I have some money. So, this source of income has changed. But I have a stock of income that is there.
So, whenever something changes, we leave shelter in something that is unchanging. But unfortunately, in material life, there is nothing that is unchanging. There is nothing that is unchanging.
Because there has never been anything like that. There has never been anything like that. And because of that, I don’t have security.
So, the Bhagavad Gita tells us there is an unchanging dimension to our life. What is that dimension? No external change. Three things will never change in our life.
No external change can harm our essence. Power in this person is lost. We can be in a deadly accident.
We can get a terminal disease. We can have heart-breaking relationship ruptures. All kind of things can affect our essence.
Beyond that, at the level of soul, nothing can stop Krishna from loving us. I think that everybody in the world will understand this. Everyone in the world will understand what Krishna will never be able to do.
Nothing can stop Krishna from loving us. There is not just nothing in terms of revenge. Even if we do something wrong, even if we do something immoral, anti-demotional, even that does not cause Krishna to stop loving us.
That will change the shape of everyone. If the sun is there, then if this light is there, my eyes are open, I can see the light. But if I close my eyes, I can’t see the light.
But my closing my eyes doesn’t stop the light source from giving light. Even if I close my eyes, the sun keeps giving light. Like that, Krishna always keeps loving us.
But when we engage in ritualistic activities, spiritual activities, anti-spiritual activities, then that shuts our eyes to Krishna. So it is not that Krishna stops loving us. We deprive ourselves of experiencing Krishna.
Just like when I close my eyes, I can’t see the light. Similarly, when I engage in wrong activities, I undermine myself of experiencing Krishna. But Krishna never stops loving us.
Krishna is the creator of the universe. No one can take this issue seriously. I am determined to love.
I would like to share with you something. Truly, no external change can stop us from remembering Krishna and experiencing his love. We, external changes, can create a lot of disturbance.
But internally, we really have the power to decide what we want. To decide what we want. But unfortunately, if we are so attached to anything, then those attachments take away our freedom of thought.
When you think about freedom of thought in terms of having access to information, access to education, or freedom of thought, it also depends on the nature of our identity. To understand this point, just consider an addict may be an alcoholic. An alcoholic may be sitting in a room with 100 other people.
But the mind is attached to this room. And what happens is, although in that room, some education might be happening, some entertainment might be happening, some wisdom might be shared, but the mind is focused. So, actually speaking, our attachments can take away our freedom of thought.
But still, our freedom of thought is there. It never goes away completely. We always have some freedom.
So, when we turn to Krishna and think of Krishna, what happens is, we experience energy. Most of us think of shelter or relief largely in physical terms. So, when we go out, when we are in the crowded streets, or the crowded locals, we feel relaxed.
We feel relaxed. We feel peace. So, relaxed, relaxed, what else do we have? Home.
Home. But there is also a home for me. What? What is the home for the heart? The human heart is forever loaded with music and Krishna.
Because, books, letters, and information aren’t 100% linear terms, they are typically three to more than that, because the feet of Krishna are like the homes of the heart. So, Bhagavad Gita also says, that a person who is devoted to Krishna may not have a physical home. You know, these problems in life, it is not poverty, it is not terrorism, it is not disease, it is simply bankruptcy of thought.
What do you mean by bankruptcy of thought? People don’t have anything to define the people of the world. Whatever you think about, it will be agitated by it. Many times, people, when they come home they might turn on a television, because in their mind, there is so many thoughts.
So, we don’t have any satisfactory object for thought. Because we don’t have a satisfactory object for thought, so often, we create some object for thought, which offers short term meaning. However, these objects don’t offer any long term meaning.
These objects, for example, if you watch television, now, it may give us some meaning. But again, that meaning can also be of meaning. Often, when you watch television, then that creates a form of idealism.
Because generally, on the television, there are programmes which show people who are having all sorts of, say, erotic enjoyment, that stimulates the lust in the heart, or we see wealthy people, that stimulates greed in the heart. Or, if we see the news channels, then there is so much, so much misbehaviour here, bad problem there, bad corruption there, that also creates negativity. So, the problem in life is that, we don’t have a satisfying object for thought.
Because there is no satisfying object for thought, there is so much, so many things that happen in life, that we can’t help it, we can’t teach it. So, the thing about Krishna, we can’t help him. What can we do? We have to go ahead for ourselves, but at this point, we can’t help it.
How does that happen? So, Krishna is the answer to that. Krishna is the anchor, that if I am in a, if I am in a boat, and the boat, the boat is always going to move up and down because of the waves. When the boat moves up and down because of the waves, I am going to be shaken because of it.
When I am shaken, the only way I can stay alive, is with Krishna. In that sense, essentially, in the Krishna Consciousness, or Shantiharajasana, there is no need to teach it. There is actually, a middle ground between providing ourselves, satisfying an object for thought.
And that’s why, when we are chanting, if we are not thinking about Krishna, then we don’t get much benefit from Krishna. If we are not concentrating on the holy name, in the middle, actually, this is it. When we do physical exercise, suppose somebody does weight lifting, and the person goes to a gymnasium, and does weight lifting, there is some exertion in that.
But along with the exertion, there is also stimulation of the muscles, and then building up the muscle strength. But suppose, somebody goes to a gymnasium, and then, just prepares to lift. Just moving the hands up and down, up and down, but there are no dumbbells over there.
What is going to happen? There is going to be no stimulation. There is going to be no growth. And there is just going to be boredom.
There is going to be irritation. Why am I wasting my time like this? Similarly, many times, actually, when we practise mantra meditation, when we chant Hare Krishna, we have to think about Krishna. And thinking about Krishna, expands our mind, just as lifting weights, expands our muscles.
But when people practise mantra meditation as a ritual, that means, the tongue is saying the holy name, but the mind is not actually thinking of Krishna. That is like going through the motions of the body. When we just go through the motions, we feel bored, we feel irritated.
So like that, that’s what happens many times, when we don’t understand the essence of meditation. The essence of meditation is not just the repetition of certain sounds. The repetition of the sound is an important essence.
But that is mental. So why does a satisfying object of thought? That will build a resolution in you. That will strengthen your spirituality.
But if you don’t think about that object of thought, then there is no connection. Then there is no transformation. There is no elevation.
So sometimes, especially in a place where there is a religious culture, where the chanting of the holy name is so common, that often the purpose of that chanting is forgotten. And when there is constant chanting, inattentive chanting, distracted chanting, new people also come and they also get irritated. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, what are you doing? You are doing a ritual.
As of today, the principle, the purpose of meditation is to open ourselves up, shelter deep, define the form of the person. We have to think of Krishna. When we think of Krishna, then from there, our inner is being awakened.
We have the whole process of Krishna awakening. So when you talk about the be concerned but not disturbed by the change, that is what Krishna Awakening is. When we talk about the be concerned but not disturbed by the change, what does that mean? That means, if I feel like I have been thrown, buffeted by that change, then I will be disturbed by it.
But if I understand that I have a form that is unaffected by the change, then I will be able to manage it comfortably. This is what is happening, this is how I am dealing with it. Essentially, it is a matter of perspective.
If I am caught up in the situation, if I am mostly entangled in the situation, I will be disturbed by it. But if I understand that I am beyond that situation, then I can deal with it in a ritual way. So we can’t just neglect the change.
The change will happen in life, we have to respond to it. But when we turn inward, when we connect with Krishna, when we remember Krishna, then we can get that inner change. It’s not that everything has fallen apart, it’s not that life is coming, the world is coming to an end.
No. Life and world. And with that inner security, I can turn outward and be mature in the situation.
There is a retreat within to treat without. Retreat within to treat without. When there are external problems, we need to treat those problems.
But to treat without, we need to retreat within. Retreat within means when we go inward, connect with Krishna, then we become internally clear. And then we can deal with the external situation intelligently.
Otherwise, often the way we deal with the problems becomes a bigger problem. It’s like if a snake comes and bites me. And the snake bites me and it’s slithering away.
What I should be doing is, I should maybe just cut that place and let the blood just drain. If I just get so angry, I start running after the snake. You know, I’ll find out and I’ll crush you to death.
Even if I succeed in crushing you to death, in all that hyperactivation, the blood is so poisonous, it’s so close and that’s it. So, like that, when life deals with the state of poison time, our response is very important. If we make a wrong response, then our response becomes a bigger problem than the problem itself.
But when we move inward, connect internally with Krishna, then we can see situations how to deal with that situation. So be concerned, not disturbed by Krishna. There are two points which you have to remember.
That of the non-existence, there is no endurance. And at the internal level, there is no change. That means there is something that is changing, but beyond that there is something that is unchanging.
And when the mind is unchanging, when the consciousness is unchanging, then we can deal with the change. But if we do not have anything unchanging in our life, then dealing with the changes becomes important. Because there is so much, there is no shelter left, there is nowhere else to go, then the problem comes.
Then, the course is Deeksha 16.3, the Bhagavad Gita. Searching for the given can’t help us in finding the given. What does this mean? This means that regular things go wrong in our life.
Our default reaction is to find out who caused this problem. Generally, that problem finding mentality goes in three directions. When something goes wrong, either I can blame others, who did that, who did that, who did that.
So, that can make us vengeful or we can blame ourselves. I am good for nothing. That will make us depressed.
That will make us in a row. Or, we can blame God. God is so bad.
That’s why. Either way, the focus is what? The focus is where it is. When the problem comes, we are looking for a villain to put the blame on.
The villain can be others, the villain can be God or the villain can be me. But either way, searching for the villain can’t help us in finding the villain. If we are just trying to find out someone or something to blame for the problem, then that doesn’t necessarily help in solving the problem.
Because, now certainly, one part of solving a problem is finding out what caused the problem. But, when the problem comes upon us, we are often more concerned with who it is. That’s how, I am not responsible.
I am not somebody else’s responsibility. So, often because of that, we don’t allow ourselves the clarity of God in the solution. Generally, we blame ourselves for the rest.
It happens when we have something very complex or we have chronic depression or something like that. But we often try to blame others. The Bhagavad Gita says that, Avaishyanam.
Avaishyanam is aversion to fault-finding. Fault-finding is this person is that person, this person is that person. So, it says that those who are Godly-minded, those who are Vaani, they are averse to finding fault-finders.
We have aversion to fault-finding. Why is that? It is not simplistically that we whitewash everyone. Oh, everybody is very good.
No, people do have problems. But, actually, nothing goes wrong in that. The important thing is not just to find out what causes the problem.
The important thing is to find a solution. When we are focused on blaming and what happens is, our energy goes in proving that person is guilty. And that person’s energy goes in proving that I am not guilty.
And the whole offensive-defensive mode takes away the focus on solving the problem. So, what the Bhagavad Gita says is, it’s all a question of aversion to fault-finding. So, aversion to fault-finding means that a virtuous person is not interested in fault-finding.
It is said that the only time you can truly find fault is when we don’t get any joint-finding. And as long as we get joint-finding fault, then we are not motivated by the desire either to solve the problem or to benefit that person. We are motivated just by trying to prove how I am right and that person is wrong.
So, there is such an attitude it’s out of the Naldi Vihara. So, our position now means that in general, aversion to fault-finding is a very healthy attitude. And it’s not that we dish away problems either in the situation or we dish away problems in people.
But that we check the default and begin to blame others. So, let’s look at all these three, one by one. And then, the first, when we blame others.
The first thing that happens by that when we blame others for anything is it creates a stream in our relationship. And then, that person goes into defensive, we go into offensive, and then that further, we can rupture the relationship. And finally, beginning to blame on somebody is very rarely a good thing.
Because that person’s interest is not on becoming right, it is on proving I am right. So, that person focusses entirely shift. Now, when we blame God, then that is equally attributed.
When we think that this problem has created God is supposed to help me, God is supposed to protect me, I am doing so much wrong, why is God doing this? So, at that time, what we essentially do is that resentment towards God cuts us off from this. The problems in life are not created by God. The problems that we face in life are the reaction to our own past.
All of us have acted in various ways, but we still don’t react to it. It is difficult. So, when those reactions come, God is not involved in those reactions.
Because it is just a material principle of actual reaction. So, God is there to help us. But when we blame God for the problems that we face, essentially that resentment cuts us away from God.
God is not somewhere out there causing the problems out there. God is right here in the middle, right here in the middle, in our own past. And Krishna, which is right next to me in my past, is very similar with me.
He offers me to be a walker of strength. He offers me grace by which I can deal with the problems in life. But when we blame God for the problems that we face, then it cuts our way forward.
So, the problems that come to us are not because of God. They are because of our own past. And God is there to help us deal with them.
This actual reaction can be the most immediate solution. In all these three directions, when we try to find a reason, the first is I make others the reason. And by that, I immunate those people.
It’s very rare that I help them. When I make God the reason, when I make God the reason, when I saw one social welfare organisation that is run by ethics, their slogan is God in double quotes. God sends calamity, we send relief.
It’s a genius idea. God is not sending calamity. It is our own bad karma that is manifesting itself that is resulting in this.
But when we make God into a reason, then essentially what we do is we cut ourselves off a lot. The third is when there are problems, we blame ourselves. Now, blaming ourselves is also not a good thing.
The one thing is taking responsibility. The other is blaming ourselves. The two are very different.
Taking responsibility for the situation and blaming ourselves for the situation is again the difference between being concerned and being busy. When we blame ourselves for the situation, either it is because of my mistake that I have landed up in a mess. That mistake may be in the past, some unknown half-bad karma that I have done.
Or that mistake may be in the recent past where I only spoke something foolish, I acted in a rash way, and now I have ended up in a soup. But blaming myself means that I just end up beating myself mentally for what I have done. That is the only difference in this world.
So, if I break myself also into a reason, that doesn’t really help me for anything. Because that is the difference. Bhagavad Gita is not talking about actually being blamed.
It is taking responsibility. Taking responsibility means that nothing can be corrected. And whatever can be done to make things better, it is needed.
Blaming ourselves means that we we become the constant who keep missing out on things. We keep missing out on things. And there are some religions in the world which all of us are intrinsically guilty.
All of us are guilty. We rebelled against God and because of that we all have become followers of God. And they say that our inner core itself is guilty.
No. That is not the situation. Our inner core is guilty.
And whatever wrong things we have done, they are not even fractured. They are still there. And the soul is pure.
But around the soul there are intermediaries. The sense of love, of greed, of envy, of arrogance. And they all can be blamed.
It is the concept that we dream of ourselves as a man. We dream of ourselves as a man. But by doing this we become without any guilt.
We are all part of God. And because we are part of God we become we become virtuous. Virtuous qualities come from God.
And that will happen only when we reach those qualities. So what does it mean to let those qualities come out? It’s like if there is this light and if I put some covering on it then the light will not come. Now when the covering is there because of that covering the darkness is there so once I have removed the covering the darkness will no longer be there so the light will come out.
Similarly, we and our core ourselves we are virtuous. But just like that light if it is covered with darkness around similarly it is covered by conditions. And these conditions are the cause of either because of the past wrong deeds that we did or the present mistakes that we did.
So actually in a way it is we can say that Krishna is the ultimate hero. The world is running according to his plot not our plot. We can’t make everything happen the way we want to.
So when we consider Krishna as a hero that doesn’t mean that we are Krishna. We are master Krishna and Krishna is the ultimate hero. You don’t have to waste a lot of time doing the right thing.
You don’t have to find someone to do it. It’s just as good as doing what is good in others. Finding the worst in others can’t help us in finding the best in ourselves.
Even if others are wrong, that doesn’t mean that if others are doing something wrong to me, I would back off and make my life a living hell. Even if there is an abusive relationship, there is no way for that. That doesn’t mean that we have to emotionally stay locked with those abuses and not go for over-hypocrisy.
When we discover the glory in the real world, it’s Krishna. And the more we realise Krishna’s glory, the more that purifies us and brings out, brings forth the glory in the soul. That’s what we are supposed to do.
We are actually by God doing it. We are the men who do it. Each man is meant to be doing it in a sufficient way in his life.
And when we do it, then we remove it from each human being. So, whenever there is a problem, the important point is ask not why there is, but how now. Ask not why there is.
Why there is me? Why is that? Why is that? Why is that she? He and me. I am living a normal life and suddenly I get an accident. I will not try.
I might have forgotten something. And the high question, very high question is one of the ultimate causes. The reason for that is our memories don’t come back.
We don’t remember what all we have done in the past. And if the past reactions have come, they often come. Sometimes one event can be a reaction to many events.
Or some one event from the past can give many reactions to it. So, the high question is often a question in terms of specifics, not in terms of principles. In terms of principles, we understand that every action produces a reaction.
And every event has a cause. But, what exactly that cause is, we are not able to predict. So, rather than dissipating our internal energy, why this? A far more productive argument is, how now? How now means, how should I act now? How can I act now? Shri Ramana Maharshi has asked, what is the meaning of characterisation? Characterisation is these memories these memories of the past, how much the situation has changed, how long it has been.
And, if we put aside that high question, and then we go to the high question, can we prove it? Because our mind will no longer be locked in anything. Because the whole focus of the high question is memory. So, all by Shri Ramana Maharshi’s point finally, is non-discrimination.
If somebody has done something wrong, then we all prevent that person from doing something wrong, some corrective action is required. And that has to be understood. But, that doesn’t mean that we feel the blame in that person and let ourselves get mentally obsessed by that blame, blame-making.
If a person did wrong, that person needs to be corrected, whatever the action was. So, these people are finally making their own decision. Finally, we have to understand how the situation is, how does Krishna want me to solve the problem, how can I answer this situation in a way that doesn’t change anything.
Doesn’t change anything. It’s not changing anything. It’s not suddenly some light will go on in our head and we say, this is Krishna’s plan.
It doesn’t work like that. But, how we learn Krishna’s plan is that there are broad directives in Krishna. We generally make our decisions in life based upon there is tradition, there is culture, there is mood and there is logic.
If tradition is, why do you, why do you, for example, some people have some strange rituals in their life. Whenever they have a yajna, they put a cat in the yajna and watch the yajna. Why do you do that? They have always done that.
It’s a tradition. Why do I do this? Because they have always done it. That’s tradition.
Now, some traditions may be good, some traditions may not be good. Some traditions may be good, some traditions may not be at all good. So, often when we make decisions, one factor is tradition.
We have always done it, the second is culture. Culturally, everyone does it. Why do you wear this kind of dress? Why do you have this kind of hair style? Because everyone does it.
Everyone does it. This especially happens when the TV is here. You call it.
One fashion comes and everybody becomes like a Xerox copy of everybody. Why is that? Because at that time we are very emotionally vulnerable to peer pressure. So, another reason we act is culture.
Why do we act in this way? Everyone does it. That’s why I also do it. Third is mood.
Why do you do that? I think it’s good. You spend hours and hours watching some programme, doing some pictures, doing some gossiping. Why do you do that? That’s feeling.
And of course, it’s logical. It makes sense. It makes sense.
So, these are very valuable parameters for making decisions. But these things tradition, culture, mood, and logic. All of them are helpful.
But there are situations where moods are not helpful. So, there are effects. Tradition can be good.
Culture can also be good. It is a problem how to move it. This makes me feel very angry.
We can’t do that. Our moods, they can vary. And sometimes, that is logical now.
But we can’t do that. Because our perspective is not complete. Our perspective is limited.
So, within a limited framework, you know, if a doctor is giving treatment, if a patient does this, give the full case history, the doctor prescribes this treatment. Then the doctor says surgery. Then you find out the problem.
If the patient has some other complications because of the surgery, you can’t do it. At that point, the surgery may perfect. But all the additional things are not there.
So, in the logic, it would only be the reality. So, beyond all these, we need to think about the culture. The tradition, the culture, the mood, the logic.
We don’t have any scriptures. The scriptures make a lighthouse of energy. It is the lighthouse that always shows us the right direction.
The scriptures give us broad principles. So, when we harmonise ourselves with those broad principles, then, gradually, our inner world becomes free from thoughts. The idea of inner world is free of thoughts.
But the more we live according to the scriptures, we become purified. When we become purified, things become clear. Krishna’s plan is evolving.
That means, at a broad level, Krishna wants us to follow the instruction given in the scriptures. For example, taking the scrolls, carrying the scriptures, chanting the holy name. So, these are the broad parts of our plan.
The more we harmonise in those parts of the plan, the more we show Krishna that I want to live according to your plan. And when we show him that, then, we know how to initiate that he gives us guidance at other times also. He gives us intelligence at other times, how we should act, how we should not act.
So, when we make Krishna our final decision, final decision, in the most important thing in my life, Krishna tells me to make a final decision. And based on that, we can harmonise all the other aspects of the consciousness of Krishna. And we will be able to make a right decision.
So, at this point, if we can internalise this, not why then, but how now. And if this doesn’t happen, how can I do it? Krishna is not causing the problem. Krishna is there to help me deal with the problem.
Then, we can actually deal with it mutually. That’s one of the reasons we call it harmony. So, when we feel tempted to find fault, we can find the fault in fault-finding.
Instead of finding fault, instead of fault-finding, we can find the fault in fault-finding. So, what is the fault in fault-finding? In fault-finding, it simply creates a negative focus for us. It lends a negative gravity towards our thoughts, which only aggravates the problem.
It doesn’t solve those problems. Now, we discussed that the power of love motivates better than the love of thought. The power of love motivates better than the love of thought.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the fourth chapter, it talks about Raja and Rishi. The Raja and Rishi is a compound word. Raja is king.
Rishi is a sage. So, Raja and Rishi is actually a royal sage or a saintly sage, as the Bhagavad Gita says. So, the Raja refers to the outer world.
The Rishi refers to the inner field. When the Raja and the Rishi become divorced, then there is peace. Then there is love.
When the outer ruler is not connected with the inner field, then the outer ruler acts in ways which only creates negative focus. So, what do we mean? Now, when we are talking about the outer ruler and the inner field, they are not two different persons. They are the same person.
So, each of us can either try to be a Raja or we can try to be a Rishi. In the Bhagavad Gita, we should all try to become Raja and Rishi. What does it mean? Raja means we try to control everything in the world.
We do like this. Why? This is love for power. Love for power, love of power, love of power.
It simply exhausts us and irritates us. Because there are so many things to not go according to us. I am trying to make all of them go according to us.
It irritates us. Because nobody wants to be told all that. So, when there is love for power in a leader, then that exhausts the leader and that irritates the people.
So, when there is only the Raja, there is only the outer ruler, then that Raja cannot really abuse us in any way. Either there will be exhaustion, frustration in the part of the leader itself or there will be irritation and rebellion in the part of the subordinates. Then the conflict.
On the other hand, one just becomes a Rishi. He becomes an inertia. Okay, one may be able to become an inertia.
One may be able to see, but one will not do anything about it. So, we don’t want to be inertia, but we also want to be actually we want to act on the world in a way that we can understand the world. So, the inner fear acts on the basis of the power of love.
What does the inner fear mean? The inner fear is the Atman who sees the presence of Krishna. When you understand that Krishna is there with us, then I am acting on Krishna’s will. Whatever be my situation, ultimately, Krishna will always be with me.
And Krishna wants me to act in a way that will bring out my wish, that will help me do it. So, the inner fear has a connection with Krishna. That inner connection with Krishna is the inner Maya initiation.
So, when there is a Rishi, the Rishi is a person who lives with Krishna. He is the spiritual underlying energy. So, the inner fear is able to encourage the connection with God.
Not only the connection with oneself, but also the connection with God. And by that the person is able to help the two of them. We are continuing the thread of God.
So, when the two are married together, they are not divorced. Today in society there are outer rulers, people who are power hungry. And they will do anything and everything to somehow grab power.
Even if they grab power, there are hundreds of other people who are also going to grab power. It is a perpetual power struggle. And it never solves any problem.
And there may be a few Rishis. The Rishis are very few. They are just withdrawn somewhere in the forest, somewhere in the mountains trying to keep their own salvation.
They may get salvation, but they don’t do any big project. The Rajya Rishi is a person who balances the inner life and the outer life. A person who is an inner fear and based on inner fear is an outer Rishi.
We act mostly out of love for power. Love of power means power of love means that actually we need love of Rishis. When we love Rishis, we have love of Rishis.
Rishis love power. Rishis are Rishis. If you look at, for example, when Krishna went to America, he did not even know for whom he was going.
He went all alone and he was telling Krishna, I am going to America. There is no idea of what kind of Rishis he is. And the people he met, Rishis, he was not very interested.
He went to many places. And Rishis were in many ways the most degraded among American society. So from the spiritual perspective, western society itself is morally degraded.
So the hippies were degraded even from the perspective of morality of western society. So, their only regularity principle was to every day break all the regulations. So, that was how they were treated.
If you do not bring them actually, even all the people who went there, they were very respectful. They were very sincere. He had to care for everyone.
If he had the love of power, the Prabhupada could very well have stayed in India. He was not becoming quite famous in India. He had written a few volumes of Bhagavatam.
And the books had been depreciated by the President of India, the Prime Minister of India. There had been Google copied from India. So, by memorising, people had become famous all over India.
Whoever was respectful, was very famous. So, even if those people were not actually very respectful, they had gained so much power without receiving it. They did not become famous.
They did not behave in a certain manner. They did not handle it as it is very different. They did not take any responsibility.
They did not take responsibility. They did not do Bhagavatam. So, all these people had a responsibility.
It was not an energy flow. So, we all want to know, so when the Rajyogis work, how do they work? They have to make a certain decision. But, at that time, there was one king who particularly did not do good.
He did not do good. But that monarch would not let the dictator be free. Instead of a consensual way of suppressing others, the monarch would be consensual with the king.
So, everyone grew in their own station. So, the kings were like father and children. And because they were more involved in the corporate world, they were able to bring out the virtuous side in them.
So, the Bhagavatam was of course not a Rajyog. It was not a holistic kind of practise in the world. It was spiritual teaching.
As a spiritual teacher, he was not just acting as an inner seer. He was also acting as an outer doer. He was managing.
He was making a decision. So, the way he managed it was in the Bhagavatam. So, the Bhagavatam now is not something which we can very conveniently switch on and off like a light bulb.
It’s not that whenever we want people to do something, we naturally manipulate them and act as if we love them. Other times, we act in different ways. So, all of that is something which is nothing but actually truly, truly in our consciousness.
So, Bhagavatam now all of us have horizontal relationship and vertical relationship. Our vertical relationship is Krishna. And our horizontal relationship are you, your family member, your husband, your wife, all these are horizontal relationship.
Now, how will the horizontal relationship and the vertical relationship interrelate? There are three ways. One is the horizontal relationship can drag us away from the vertical relationship. For example, if I am related if I am attached to a person who is atheistic.
Then because of that relationship, I don’t want to disturb that person. So, I listen to that atheistic ramble, atheistic rant. I listen to that rambling.
And I also become negatively associated. In that case, my horizontal relationship takes me away from my vertical relationship. Second is the horizontal relationship is independent of the vertical relationship.
Let me say I am working in a I have some colleagues. I have a relationship with God, but I don’t talk with them about God. They don’t talk about God with me.
So, we just have a horizontal relationship. And it’s unconnected to my vertical relationship. The third is that my horizontal relationship usually is vertical relationship.
Let me, I have colleagues, I have relatives who are also God’s colleagues. And by relating with them, I help bring out the divinity within them and they help bring out the divinity within me. So, these are the relationships where the horizontal relationship nourishes the vertical relationship.
These are the relationships. And the horizontal relationship which weakens our vertical relationship. So, when we talk about the power of love, what are we talking about? Here there are two people, there is A and there is B. So, now A and B are two people.
Now Krishna loves both of them. Krishna loves A, Krishna loves B. So, B and B have either relationship A and B love each other and A and B don’t love Krishna. So, together they move from Krishna to Krishna.
And through the relationship with Krishna they also come closer to each other. So, it works both ways. Now, in this case, when we talk about the power of love, and that means that I don’t just offer my love to others.
After all, my love is finite. I am a finite being. So, the love that I can offer to others is also finite.
But when I become a child of Krishna, that means I connect with Krishna and A and B are Krishna. So, A connects to Krishna and B is Krishna. And A becomes a child of Krishna.
Then when A and B meet each other, B is Krishna and B is Krishna. So, A is Krishna and B is Krishna. And this is how actually the relationship works.
Sometimes, we may be discussing one another and you may speak something or you may say it as a talk on your own. Now, I am not even intending to speak that over directly. But because we are all conscious, we are Krishna conscious, out of that depth of Krishna consciousness, we speak a lot to each other.
And that gives a really great insight of wisdom on enrichment. So, what happens is Krishna knows that it is coming through a person. So, when we want to motivate others by the power of love, it is not just our love and God’s love.
When it is only our love, by which we are trying to motivate others, we are trying to have a love which will not let us fall short. So, who are we? How much can we love? How much can we cherish? What can I offer now? Even now, people are telling me, we should have the power of love. Krishna consciousness is a deep inner meaning.
That’s why we often find that the healthier the devotional life, the healthier the relationship develops. That means if we are practising Krishna consciousness, if we are doing a mental meditation, we are Krishna conscious. We are entirely Krishna conscious.
And that is because of our external relations because they are not just on the platform of if I can be a relative to you, I can be a relative to you. They are on the platform of both of us. Sometimes people have the idea that if I become spiritual, I have to step out.
In fact, we may have to create a mixture between both of us, between us and both of our relationships that ensure our spirituality. But remember, God is of course spiritualising all our relationships. It’s not about rejecting relationships.
It’s about spiritualising the relationship. Is it that by loving my child I will learn to love Krishna? More importantly, by learning to love Krishna, you learn to love yourself. Because the mother naturally has love for the child.
Now, the mother’s love for the child, does that change the mother how to love Krishna? It may or it may not. It doesn’t. But when the mother learns to love Krishna, as I said, when the mother loves her child, it moves her love for the child.
Through her, Krishna goes to the next stage. And when the mother learns to love her child, it moves her love for the child, where Krishna follows. So, both work symbiotically.
Through loving others, you learn to love Krishna. More importantly, by loving Krishna, you learn to love yourself. It’s very difficult, as I said, if you have a horizontal relationship, it is not connected to the vertical relationship.
So, by loving others, we do not always learn to love God. And when we love others, without loving God, that relationship is broken. That relationship is broken.
Because when we love each other without any connection with God, then that love is primarily based on I like you, and you like me. And why is that? Because I find something likeable in you. And you find something likeable in me.
That’s not true. They are individual. And we naturally are attracted towards both.
We find something likeable. But the fact is that everyone has a likeable side, and everyone has an unlikable side. And that includes others.
So, when our relationship without any connection with God, it initially gets attraction because we have a likeable side. I like you, you like me. But as we come close to each other, gradually, the not-so-likeable side also comes forward.
And this is when relationships start getting broken. So, if the relationship is based only on the platform of I like you, and you like me, then when I stop liking you, and you stop liking me, what happens? Then the relationship gets broken. Then we don’t love each other.
So, mankind has a common purpose. That means the purpose is not just I like you, and you like me. There has to be definitely some level of compatibility in all relationships.
The common purpose that combines both you and me, that is higher than both you and me, really, that takes us beyond our likes and dislikes, and makes this relationship beautiful. You say, I’m a man, and you’re a man. They may like each other.
When we stay together, then it starts compromising each other. But then they come in contact. In their childhood, they both love each other.
And that study, if they both love each other, that person will be happy. At a much deeper level than what they were happy about. So, this is, of course, one way in which we can come together, by having some common method.
But when that common method is God, and that common method is Krishna, then because Krishna is in our religious tradition, Krishna is a religious man. And Krishna most important thing is our idea that Krishna is our most ordinary being in a way that no one else is. So, Krishna is ordinary, and when we connect with Him, then Krishna is God, and when we connect with Him, then our God means God.
So, the relationship with Krishna is a beautiful relationship in a way, because Krishna is the creator of the community, and He brings out the community, He brings out the community in the world, and that kind of a positive relationship all other relationships will have. So, if we talk about power of love, that is between Krishna and Krishna. And by coming close to Krishna, we can build our loving relationships with all beings in the world.
And we can understand a cataclysm that happens. And this is the reality we can understand. So, this is how we can realise that in a religious community, there is not a conventional relationship.
So, this is conventional transformation. Conventional means we do a simple conventional relationship. I have a leper person with a leper person and somehow that person doesn’t learn to do that, I get angry, I shout at that person.
It is a relationship with a contraction. What does it mean? When we see a man and he has no attraction, we have no relationship with him. When we do whatever that person wants, not just because we have a relationship, we have a privilege to him.
to be one people. So, our relationships, to the extent they are contractional, there is a similarity. A conventional relationship is an experience where you bring out the best in the human being.
This is called rajasic experience. It is very important. The rajas are called all.
Now, if you feel that you are too old, what is the direction that you need to go? It is evolution. Even as a spiritual the change is evolution in its growth. The change is evolution in its growth.
It is evolution in the growth. So, when we go from evolution to evolution, what is the net result? It is evolution. Every morning, we wake up and we chant and that chanting is dark and it is a dawn, sun is rising.
Now, if we are chanting and there is another chanting, sun is rising, and suddenly one day, not one day, so it is not that the sun rose at that moment. The sun was rising continuously. But, we realise at a particular moment that the sun has risen.
Similarly, our purification is happening at every moment that the Krishna is rising. Every day that we chant Hare Krishna, every day that we practise Krishna Ayurveda, the sun is rising, the Krishna is rising. Our own development is increasing.
But, every day, in times of crisis, the sun is rising. Combined with the crisis, the sun is rising. So, the Krishna is increasing.
So, although the Krishna is increasing, the Krishna is rising. The Krishna is increasing. So, when the time comes, you are called a doctor or a priest? You are called a doctor or a priest? You are called a doctor or a priest? We discussed 55 principles in the Bhagavad Gita.
Go back. Firstly, peace is an achievement that is very non-search. Our life is determined by what we hold as our preference.
So, keep the goal that which one we choose will not keep us craving for more. And which one we choose will never be difficult for us. And that goal is our life.
So, it’s the sorrow. Spiritual is not just spiritual. Spiritual is internal human.
Internal is mind. And mental is spiritual. So, we experience more than we are aware of.
We don’t have to give in to human emotions. As purification, there is a meeting with our inner life of our emotions. So, in that achievement, as a primary goal of our life, we become free and complete for our life.
So again, we get complete. We can never be taken away. We become complete and satisfied.
The world is a station, not a destination. So, when events happen, we don’t stay locked in those events. We don’t internalise the past or the present.
When life goes back to its original, we move ahead with it. This is the example of trying to overcook a rotten potato. What has happened, what has gone wrong, what can’t be changed.
We are dwelling on it. We simply waste everything. We don’t follow it.
Then the answer is, why should we change? Because of the events that happen in this world. Everything that happens in this world is just a station. This is our station.
Relax. Free us from becoming emotionally entangled in the situation that we are in. And then, we can move forward.
So, we can move forward. We can move forward with a change. How can we be concerned not to change? By holding tight to that which does not change.
When we feel I am consumed by that change, we will actually be disturbed. But when I feel that I have a core that is beyond the change, then we can naturally be disturbed without being disturbed. What is it that is not consumed by the change? We at home, we are only harmed by this material.
Nothing can stop Krishna from loving us. And nothing can stop us from remembering Krishna. And we need to change.
We will be discussing about how. Actually, attachments steal our freedom of thought. And when we think about Krishna, we are offering ourselves to Him to define and involve Him on different levels.
So, meditation is like politics. To the extent that we think about Krishna, to that extent, our inner muscles expand and we become stronger. If I just go through the machine of raising my hand without raising the dumbbell, then I will get bored and burdened by what I am doing.
Similarly, even during meditation, we are not thinking about Krishna. It is going through the ritual of attachments and thoughts. And we do not experience that growth of mind and growth of consciousness.
Then we will discuss about searching for the real answer for the mind and the real answer. Whenever things go wrong, we can blame others, we can blame God, we can blame ourselves. But none of these can help actually improving the situation.
So, whatever it is that has gone wrong, we may have been able to correct it. But rather than focussing on why this, we focus on how now. How do we improve the situation? And we don’t need to blame.
If we blame others, we strain our relationship with others. If we blame God, then we deprive ourselves of the help that he is going to offer us. And if we blame ourselves, then we catch ourselves under the feelings of a pseudo-gay.
Rather than that, we understand that we have to condition our creative body, we have to have hope in ourselves. And when we go to Krishna, we should be aware. When we keep on talking to Krishna and ask him, what is this man involved in this situation? Then we also ask what we can do.
And when we understand our role in the plan, then we can act accordingly. So, our acting according to Krishna’s plan and our script how? Scripture is the final basis for our decision making. We can decide according to tradition, everyone does.
We have always done it. Culture, everyone does it. News, it tells the world.
Or logic, it makes sense. But all of these are tangible by us, doable by us. In the extreme, we act according to scripture.
And act according to Krishna’s plan. Krishna guided you and me. And then how now that answers that question becomes clearer and clearer.
So, we can find the fault in the fault line. Last time we discussed about power of love motivating greater than love of power. Greater than how? There is the Rajya Rishi, the outer ruler and the inner seer.
When the two become divorced, then all our endeavour only to increase problem of love. So, when the two are married together, united together, then we can act constructively. What does it mean? We are motivated not by the love of power.
That means we don’t want Krishna to rule us. We want to control others. But we are motivated by the power of love.
We want Krishna, we want to love Krishna. And we want Krishna to love us. We discussed about how our relationship, our relationship with each other, can, if we connect ourselves and others with Krishna, we can enrich each other.
And we can help others to come closer to each other, and to be closer to Krishna. And that way we can bring about how to enhance our relationship, betterment of our relationship. And all this we are talking about, the whole process, it increases, it evolutionizes, and enriches our relationship.
So, otherwise, when it rises, it is an ideal process. When it rises, everything becomes illuminated. We are not able to meditate properly.
So, in meditation, we do this gradually. That means that our mind is basically like a sine wave. It keeps going up and down, up and down, up and down.
And we can expect that sine wave to become flat and steady over time. What we can expect is that the amplitude of the sine wave will slow down. That means, when we are meditating, as we keep trying to meditate in this motion, the frequency and the duration of our distraction will increase.
Sometimes I start chanting, sometimes I stop chanting. And whatever I was thinking, how many rounds I have gone, how many minutes I have gone, this is what I thought about. So, immediately distraction is so much that the distraction is far, far more than the concentration.
But then, as we keep practising, the distraction amplitude, rather distraction duration, and the distraction frequency, that decreases. So, we should expect that distraction will happen. But whenever the distraction happens, we bring it back.
Just like a mother. A mother knows the child is not going to stay calm. Child will go here, do this, do that.
What does the child do? What does the mother do? Mother has to have vigilance and vigilance. Vigilance means, the child goes somewhere, don’t let the child play with some mice, do something else. And then vigilance is required.
Alertness is required. So, long as I do this, again I keep doing this. But why do this? It is not that the mother has to keep doing this.
And the mother keeps doing this in the childhood. The child is also growing, right? And as the child grows, then the child also learns to behave properly. The same way, when we are practising spiritual life, our intention is to act like a mother.
The mind is going to act like a child. So, rather than becoming disheartened, why the mind acts this way? We can expect it. And we be vigilant and diligent.
So, whenever the mind goes, bring it back. Let go, bring it back. Do not get tired out of it.
Because, that is the way the mind is. But through all this, as we keep chanting, the meditative energy is growing. In the same time, the mind base will also change.
And, over a period of time, the mind will start liking you. It is a sign that it will happen. And when that happens, then what to do? So, firstly, we don’t expect overnight change.
What we can expect is, the frequency and the duration of this practise. Second is that we have to be vigilant and diligent. And third is also that, we can have a point of concentration and we can have a circle of concentration.
Point of concentration means, when we are chanting, we don’t hear the holy name. That is the idea. But often, it is difficult to concentrate on the holy name.
So, a point of concentration, around the point, we can have a circle. That means, along with the holy name, other things related to the holy name can also be objects of thought, to bring us back to the holy name. For example, you can have a picture of Lord Adi Shankar.
Or you can have some other spiritual stimuli. You can have some verses, to talk about the glory of the holy name. Some sentences that inspire us for meditation.
It is not that we think of them all the time. But when the mind has to wander, then, instead of the mind wandering all over the universe, we offer the mind a circle of concentration. That means, you want to wander, you can’t say at this point, okay, you wander here.
So, if we have some pocket diary, with our favourite pictures of the deities, or with our favourite quotes about the glories of the holy name, or about the importance of chanting, then, maybe some devotees, for example, they like the Shastrakam prayers very much. Then after every four rounds, they take a break and recite one of the Shastrakam prayers. For example, it is a monument.
It is true. It is very important. So, that way, we can offer the mind a circle of concentration, which can bring it back to the point of concentration.
So, in that way, it will improve our meditation. And, most important meditation is patience. So, it is a gradual process.
So, if you take an exercise, you do it, you know, give yourself a break. You can offer the mind a circle of concentration. You will find that the meditation will stay with you forever.
There is no need to change. There is no need to change. Question from the audience.
Question from the audience. If we write a journal, that offers us a snapshot of our meditation. And, what happens is, we have thought it inside our head.
We just keep going round and round inside it, without any information. You write it on a diary, you write it on a computer. It creates a distance between ourselves.
And, from that distance, we can succeed in life. Now, some devotees will go and talk to that person. And, they may find the other writing more helpful.
Others may not be so helpful. They may not find it so helpful. But, in general, especially when you face big problems, it is really difficult writing.
It is just getting the thoughts out through the head. Now, in general, if you have no problems, no threats, you can consult them. That also gives a sense of relief.
But, often, our lives are so fast, that it is very difficult to make time to meet together, and then to discuss everything in detail. And, often, what all is there in our mind, whether that gets represented properly, when we consult somebody else also. All that, all the complex factors come up.
So, when we do something like this, a journal, and Prabhupada says that, Sadhaka should be able to differentiate by introspection, between the wheels that are growing in the heart, and the Bhakti that are reaching. So, writing is very helpful in that direction. So, actually, writing, our own thoughts and concerns, that gives us a sense of relief, that creates a distance between us, and allows us to observe.
So, by that, we become free to think about things. Because, that thought, it is not the problem we solve, but that thought has been right there. And then, over a period of time, it leaves, and there are still the same items and things in our speech, in the literature.
So, this is the literature situation, this is how I respond, that’s how the problem is. Then, we can find out, I can respond in different ways. So, one way is to internalise the philosophy of criticism.
A, by reading our diary, so, in a way, make our intelligence the counsellor of our mind. Make our intelligence the counsellor of our mind. What does that mean? The mind is like, that mind is happening.
So, that’s okay, let the mind speak it out. And then, the mind becomes calm, and then we all know the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. The mind doesn’t allow us to apply it.
But once the mind has vented out everything, the mind has calmed down. Then, we read through all the literature, and then we ask the literature, how could I have done that? We have to take into consideration the way that person is living. And then, we change the situation.
What happens is, that way, we distance it a lot more. So, different ways of internalising the philosophy. So, different devotees, I know many few devotees who write diaries.
Many devotees write their diaries as a friend. Friend is such a master, friend is such a master. So, there are two ways we can bring Krishna into our heart, two ways we can go closer to Krishna.
One is, we bring Krishna into our heart, and second is, we take our heart to Krishna. Bring Krishna into our heart means, do the pure devotional activities that will invoke Krishna. The second is, we take our heart to Krishna.
That means, that whatever are the concerns that are troubling us, we bring Krishna into our heart. We praise Krishna. Praise is not just something that we deserve when we go to Hinduism.
When we express it, when we write down our concerns in the form of a prayer to Krishna, when we actually say, I am in my home, this is very intense in my heart, unifying in my heart, freeing hope in my heart, this brings us to Lord Krishna. This is of course one way which I have found helpful. Several other devotees also have found this helpful.
But in general, when we are finding that we are becoming more problem conscious than Krishna conscious, then in such situations, it is best to just leave the problem aside and focus on other things which are important. And even if the problem is there, no problem is so bad that it can stop us from practising. So, often the problem consciousness makes us weak and it doesn’t allow us to do things which we could otherwise have done.
So, by doing other activities in the way we do, we get scared a little. We get confused in other activities in the way we do. By other activities, we get scared.
And then when we become stronger, then we can intervene in situations. Generally, in our regular dinner battles, we go through four stages. First is hopelessness.
Second is struggle and defeat. Third is struggle and success. And fourth is effortlessness.
First is hopelessness. In any case, if somebody says, no meeting, no family, no job, no business, no Krishna conscious, then it is impossible. Correct? Hopelessness.
Second is struggle and defeat. Struggle and defeat means, we try to do a particular thing, we struggle, but we are over. Third is struggle and success.
Revolution, we pray, we make money, any amount of money. We know there is temptation. There is some temptation, which we do not want to face.
For example, if I travel in a train or a plane, and then somebody begin meeting next to me. Even I can meet him with a beer, but we don’t feel tempted by it. We all have some temptation, which we just can’t resist.
Now, what happens when there is struggle and defeat or struggle and success? Often, what will make the difference is not just the continuity. It is what we do or what we do not do. Because it is not the battle that makes us two.
There are other devotional activities that make us two. If just we keep on the battle and don’t do the other activities that motivate us, then I am staying with the same level of strength and I am trying to find the cause. So, we continue the other devotional activities and through those other devotional activities, we get stronger.
Then we rise in the stage of struggle and success. Does that