Learning to be kind to ourselves

[Congregation program at Chicago, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
So I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you today. And I’ll speak on the Bhagavad Gita, 6th chapter, text 35, where Krishna speaks about how we should approach ourselves. The topic I’ll speak on is learning to be kind to ourselves.
Learning to be kind to ourselves. So in the 6th chapter, the whole theme is that to grow spiritually, we need to control our minds. And Krishna gives a systematic process from 6.11 to 6.32, describing the process of mind control from the practise stage to the perfect stage.
And then Arjuna expresses his doubts. In 6.33 and 6.34 he says, Krishna, this process seems impossible. He says, this process seems impossible, keeping the mind equipoised, because the mind is restless.
And then he goes on and he further describes. He says the mind is restless, it is obstinate, it is powerful, it is mad. Controlling it is more difficult than controlling the mind.
Sorry, controlling the wind. Now here, when Krishna has recommended something and Arjuna is saying, it’s not practical, I can’t do it. So at that time, what is Krishna’s response? He says, असंशयं महा बाहो, मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलं, अभ्यासेन तु कौंतेय वैरागेन चिग्रुयते.
So he begins, first of all by telling, असंशयं महा बाहो. असंशयं, undoubtedly. It is, मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलं.
The mind is extremely difficult to control. So the first thing that Krishna does with Arjuna is that he accepts Arjuna’s point. Yes, it is difficult.
Sometimes, when two people, they meet each other and they have some differences of opinion. Then when the meeting is happening, if that meeting is to lead to some reconciliation, not further alienation, then even if the two people have 99% disagreement, you need to begin with the 1% agreement. Both of us want the good, want to make the best decision in the situation.
I appreciate your intention to make the best decision. And I am coming from this perspective, you are coming from that perspective. So this coming, suppose say we go to a doctor.
And even before we speak any symptoms, the doctors give the prescription. I didn’t tell my symptoms, I know everything. Now even if the doctor is expert enough to know everything, unless the patient feels understood, the patient will not have the faith to take the prescription the doctor is giving.
Similarly, for us, when somebody else is coming and telling something to us, or we are sharing some concerns with others, if before hearing us they start prescribing, do this, do this, we will just not be able to accept that. Now for practical purposes, it is good to treat the mind like another person. Krishna talks about this in 6.5 in the Bhagavad Gita, when he says, उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानम् नात्मानम् अवसाधयेत् आत्मैवयात्मनोबंधर् आत्मैवर्रिपुरात्मनः He says elevate yourself, actually the word Krishna uses is Atma.
So, उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानम् So elevate the self with the self. नात्मानम् अवसाधयेत् Don’t degrade the self. आत्मैवयात्मनोबंधर् The self is the friend of the self.
आत्मैवरिपुरात्मनः And the self is also the enemy of the self. So it’s interesting, Krishna is using the word self over here. Nowadays, among books, in books there are two broad categories, fiction and non-fiction.
So in fiction, usually it is romance novels that sell the most. In non-fiction, the genre that sells the most is self-help. Now, it’s interesting, self-help.
What does it mean? That the self is helping the self. It’s the idea is that. But this understanding of self-help means that there are actually two selves.
There is a self that needs help and there is a self that offers the help. Unless there are two, how can the self help the self? How is the self going to help the self? So this sort of subjective division between object and subject. When Krishna is saying, elevate yourself with yourself.
What does he mean by this? उद्धरेदात्मनात्मान That means that we human beings have a capacity to look at ourselves. All living beings are aware of their existence. In the sense that all living beings are aware.
So if there is a mosquito over here somewhere, ant over here, the ant will be aware of its surroundings. We human beings are also aware of our surroundings. So all living beings have awareness.
But we human beings have the capacity for self-awareness. Self-awareness means that I can look at myself. So for example, I am sitting here.
You are speaking to me. So if by an act of projection of my thought, I can say conceptually put myself in your place and think, how do I sound to you? I can look at myself. And this is actually what we do when we say introspection.
Introspection means look inwards. So for example, when I am getting angry at someone, then one is that I just get angry and act angry. But another is, oh, you are getting angry now.
I can catch myself when I am doing something also. So basically we have the capacity for self-awareness. That means I can understand that I am feeling angry at them.
Oh, I am just feeling bored. When I say I am feeling bored, but I can observe myself. Okay, I am feeling bored.
So basically this capacity of self-awareness is foundational for self-transformation. Unless I become aware of what I am doing, I can’t change myself. Some people, they are musically tone-deaf.
They can’t make any sense of music at all. If the tune is right or wrong, they don’t understand it. Now even more problematic are people who are tone-deaf and they don’t know they are tone-deaf.
So a nice kirtan is going on, they will come and pick up a kartal and they will start playing the kartal. And they are playing it all wrong. But they have closed their eyes, they are blissful.
And everybody around them is miserable. What are you doing? So what happens over here is that in that particular area, they don’t have that self-awareness. So we do have the capacity for self-awareness.
So for example, if somebody is trained at music and trying to play music, I am doing something wrong over here. Let me do it like this. Now others can help us to become self-aware also.
But we can be self-aware. Okay, I am acting like this, I am acting like that. So our attitude towards ourselves is very important.
Psychologists say that a common problem among people who are not very disciplined is I want to be free. I want to do whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do. I want to be free.
But people who lack discipline, a common problem among them is self-loathing. Self-loathing means I dislike myself. In fact, I detest myself.
I don’t like the way I am. So we all have certain expectations from others. We all have certain expectations from ourselves.
And when somehow if we are not able to live according to our expectations, we do something which we know we should not be doing, and if we keep doing that again and again, then we stop liking ourselves. We start disliking ourselves. Now, should we dislike ourselves? Actually, when I say we start disliking ourselves, what does it mean? Again, there is a sense of two-ness.
I am here and I am here. And I don’t like myself. I feel that I am forgetful, I am irresponsible, I am disorganised, I am lazy and this and that.
And at one level, this may be required self-criticality, I am not doing this right, that is required so that I can improve. But sometimes this can work negatively. If I am constantly beating myself up, why did you do like that? Why did you do like that? Why did you do like that? Then we just become disheartened.
When we want to practise bhakti, we often have certain standards that we want to practise. Say, I want to do my yapa in the morning. I want to do this.
I want to follow this standard. I want to follow this. And sometimes our inability to follow those standards may increase our negative attitude towards ourselves.
And I may start loathing myself. I am worthless, I am useless, I am fallen. Now, again, this could be humility.
But it need not always be humility. It could simply be frustrated false ego. What is the difference between humility and frustrated false ego? In humility, there are two words, you could have humility and humiliation.
Now, in humility, humility is actually false ego rejected. That means I am not dependent on the world’s breeze. Whereas, humiliation is false ego frustrated.
I wanted to be respected, but this person insulted me. I felt so humiliated by that. So, the attitude is very different.
Sometimes when we feel I am useless, I am fallen, I am this, I am this, I am like this, I am like that. I am not doing this well, I am not doing that well. Now, if this, we may think, thinking like this, I am being humble.
But it may not be like that. Sometimes we tend to become internally, we speak about ourselves, our mind is always speaking. It’s constantly passing commentary.
It’s constantly, whenever, whatever is happening, the mind is giving a running commentary of that. Suppose a cricket match is going on. And normally, the cricket match is going on in the stadium, and there is a commentary, the commentator’s box is there, and from the commentator’s box, the commentator is commenting.
And the spectators are watching, they get a better sense of what is happening, the commentator’s commentary. Now, suppose the commentator’s commentary is heard, not just by the spectators, but also by the player. And say, the player is batting, and the player is trying to, the match is in a difficult position, but the player is batting well.
And the commentators are thinking, you know, this match is in a very difficult position. You know, it’s very difficult to win from this match. Even if this player is batting well, it’s a good shot.
He says, yes, you’re batting well, but one wrong shot and you are out. This player is trying to bat well, and the player is batting well also, but the commentator is saying, just a lucky shot. If one thing had gone wrong, you would have got out.
So everything, if the commentator keeps giving a negative spin, the player may be batting well, but what will happen? The player will become distracted. He will become discouraged. So, similarly, the mind is like a commentator inside us.
It’s always commenting. Sometimes the mind’s commentary makes us believe that we are better than what we are. That things are better than what they are.
And sometimes the mind’s commentary makes us believe that we are worse than what we are, and things are worse than what we are. And actually, it is the same mind which gives both commentaries. Suppose we are just living a normal life, and suddenly a friend comes to us and says, I have got an idea to become rich quickly.
He says, what is that? He says, let us go and rob a bank. He says, what? He says, no, no, no, I have got a foolproof plan, don’t worry. Nobody will be able to catch us.
We will be able to rob a bank and we will become rich. He says, no, no, no, come with me, don’t worry. And somehow that friend pushes us, forces us, and we go to the bank.
And we rob the bank, and the moment we rob the bank, the friend runs away. And the police comes and catches us. And then we are taken to the court.
And in the court, when we enter, we are put in the criminal’s box, and we look up, and sitting on the judge’s seat is that same friend. That friend who made us do the wrong thing is now judging us. So the mind is like that.
The mind first makes us do this. Sometimes, you know, come on, eat a little bit more, eat a little bit more, eat a little bit more, little more, little more. After that, you fool, why do you eat so much? Will you never learn? The mind, when you wake up in the morning, the mind says, go to sleep.
Little more, you know. Sleep a little more, little more, little more. And then, finally, after maybe sleeping too much more, you wake up.
You fool, why are you so lazy? When will you learn? So the mind plays this double role. First, it makes us do wrong things, and then it beats us up for doing wrong. And when it beats us up for doing wrong, all that happens by that is we become discouraged.
We become disheartened. So, when this self-loathing is happening, when, say, people feel angry with themselves, feel bad about themselves, dislike themselves, it’s basically their mind telling them, no, you are useless. Nothing is going to work right.
You are never going to do anything right. See, normally, most of us, many of you are parents, and you know that when you are helping the children grow, you have to ensure that we don’t speak casual negative statements about children. Because children are, their minds are, in the formative years, they may shift very much.
So if a child is told repeatedly, say, if somebody was growing up, say, one brother was very good, always at studies, coming first, and the other brother is not that good. So if the parents constantly keep comparing this younger brother with the younger brother, your brother will always get first. You don’t come in the top ten also.
Again and again they keep comparing, and even when that younger brother grows up, always that negative conception will be there in the mind. So normally, when we are interacting with others, we are careful that we don’t casually cast, apply negative labels on others. Because especially if we are responsible for their growth, we know that they should also be encouraged.
Certainly, there is some time when chastisement is required, and some time when encouragement is required. The idea is that people should always feel hope. Nobody should ever be made to feel hopeless.
Say, somebody is very discouraged. Oh, things have gone wrong, that has gone wrong, that has gone wrong. And at that time, actually when we say preaching, preaching means, if you are trying to share Krishna Bhakti, preaching means we should comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comforted.
Comfort the afflicted means, say, if somebody has lost a loved one, and then if you go and tell them, you know, you lost this loved one, actually all relationships in this world are temporary. Everyone else you love, they are also going to die. You are a cable in this world alone, you are going to go alone.
That is violence. At that time the focus should be on speaking. Yes, Krishna is there in your hearts, Krishna is in their hearts also.
You pray to Krishna, your prayers through Krishna will reach them. Wherever they go, you can still pray for their good and bring good in their lives. So, when somebody is distressed, our words should not distress them further.
If somebody is very confident, I am happy, I don’t need anything in life, I am happy, I am successful, I am powerful, then Prabhupada would say, for how long? And so Prabhupada met Ambarish Prabhu, Alfred Ford. So, he was introduced, the devotee was introduced, he is the great-grandson of Henry Ford. So, Prabhupada looked at him, great-grandfather said, Oh, so you are the great-grandson of Henry Ford? Where is he now? So, Ambarish Prabhu, Alfred Ford became later Ambarish Prabhu, so he says that, at that time I understood, Prabhupada is a saint.
He said, he is not impressed by my wealth. When Prabhupada is saying, where is he now? That means, he built this whole Ford empire, but he just left it here and he has gone somewhere, we don’t even know where he has gone. His wealth has not gone with him.
So, Prabhupada is not impressed by material wealth necessarily. If material wealth could be used in Krishna’s service, he would use it. But if somebody is very proud, then you have to point out, everything is temporarily over.
So, we have to give the right medicine at the right time. If somebody is discouraged and we chastise them further, they will become even more discouraged. Somebody is already very proud and we flatter them.
We praise them, they will become even bigger. So, what a person needs, that’s what we need to give. And the same applies to us also, in our attitude towards ourselves.
The mind does exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. When we have some foolish idea, now maybe you can invest money in this. You can go and gamble over here.
You can put a little more money in gambling. Put a little more money in gambling. The mind is saying, you know, you can earn more.
You can make a lot of interest, you can get a lot of money. Mind keeps pushing, do it, do it, do it. So, when there is something foolhardy, something dangerous, the mind encourages.
That time we need cautioning. Come on, do it, do it, do it. And then everything collapses, we lose all the money.
And then we are already depressed. The mind says, fool, why did you put the money? Don’t you have any common sense? So, what happens is the same mind is turning around and beating us up, beating us up. So, when this is happening, when we start beating ourselves up, we may think, you know, by this, by being harsh with myself, being strict with myself, I will become better and I will not commit this mistake in future.
But it may not happen like that. Why not? Because ultimately to do the right thing, we don’t just need the right knowledge. We also need the right inspiration.
In Wisconsin University, there were a group of students who wanted to become writers. And this was an experiment done by sociologists. And they had a group of boys and a group of girls.
So, this group of boys, they thought that in order to help us become better writers, we’ll all write and we’ll submit our writings to each other and we’ll all point out the faults in what we have written, in what others have written. And in that way, we can improve our writing. So, the girls, they thought, okay, boys have done that, we’ll do the exact opposite.
They said, whatever we write, whatever any of us writes, we will find the good in that and appreciate that. And then they followed this, this group of aspiring writers, 10 years down the line. And they found that among the boys, not one of them had become a published writer.
And most of them, if you ask their friends, they said they don’t write very clearly. And if you ask them themselves, they would say that as soon as I have to write something, I start perspiring. I feel worried when I’m writing.
I feel inhibited when I’m writing. On the other hand, among the girls, they found that several of them had become published writers and all of them were considered very articulate by their colleagues. By their colleagues, they were considered very articulate.
So, basically, when encouragement was there, that fanned the good and the person became better. But when constant criticism was there, then it did not fan the good. Whatever good was there, one felt that it’s so much bad.
What is the use of the good? There’s too much bad over there. Just better give it up. So, basically, our attitude towards ourselves should also be such that we feel positive, we feel encouraged.
Even when we commit mistakes, and we all will commit mistakes, even when we commit mistakes, we are not… Okay, one particular mistake is there. Sometimes it may be a serious mistake also. But still, we are never lost.
No. There is always tomorrow when we can improve. We can always change and come back on the right track.
We are our only resource. If I want to become a better person, I am my only resource for self-improvement. Everyone else is an aid.
Even my spiritual master, the holy name, the association of devotees, or whatever techniques we may learn for self-improvement, all of these are aids. But I am my only resource. If I become discouraged, if I start thinking I am useless, I am hopeless, then we are making the only resource that we have unavailable for ourselves.
At one time, we had a group of devotee writers. We wanted to work on an important project. So we had gone to a retreat on a hill station sort of place.
But when we went there, we found that none of our phones was working. There was no range over there. So then, we got one internet dongle.
And we took that with us. And four of us were there. Every time we would go from one place to another, even from one room to another room, one cabin to another cabin, I would say, have you taken the dongle? Have you taken the dongle? Because that was our only connection with the rest of the world.
We had to do some research, we had to find out a synonym for a word, meaning of a word, get some reference. That’s what we needed. So if that is the only resource we have, we’ll keep it so carefully.
If we are in a place where, say, there are no phones available, and we have gone with the phone, if we lose that phone, we won’t get any phone only. We’ll keep that phone very carefully. So if something is the only resource we have, we’ll keep it very carefully.
So, similarly, if we understand that I am my only resource, then we will be careful in our attitude towards ourselves. Now, careful doesn’t mean to pamper ourselves. Careful doesn’t mean that, oh, everything that I’m doing is right.
But I have to have a healthy attitude towards myself. Then we understand that we are our only resource. And by we, I can refer to the help, I’m talking about two selves.
The self that needs help, and the self that offers help. So what does it mean if we consider the Bhagavad Gita’s philosophy? What does a self that needs help, and a self that offers help, what does it mean? Actually, we could say that inside us, the soul is at the innermost level. I am the soul.
But inside me, the mind is also there. So when Krishna says, elevate yourself with the self. So Prabhupada translates, one atma, there is the mind.
That means, he’s saying, elevate yourself with the mind and don’t degrade yourself. So the mind is what we use for directing our thoughts. The mind is our tool for thinking, just as the throat is our tool for speaking, or the ear is a tool for hearing.
So that means, if I want to speak something, so then if I want to speak, I should speak in a way that is constructive, not that it is destructive. Similarly, Krishna is saying, use your mind to elevate yourself, not degrade yourself. So just as we are our only resource, similarly, our mind is the only mind we have.
Even if our mind is conditioned, even if our mind is troublesome, even if our mind is treacherous, still, this is the mind we have. And this is the mind with which we have to work. So, of course, because the mind can mislead us, we have to be cautious.
But at the same time, we cannot afford to hate the mind. And we cannot afford to hate ourselves because of whatever we may have done in the past. We are our only resource.
And therefore, we have to handle this resource with care. As I said, we need hope, always. If we lose hope, then we lose everything.
The Bhagavad Gita demonstrates this right at its beginning that Arjuna was a formidable warrior. He was a warrior who could defeat all other warriors. That’s what he did in the Kurukshetra war eventually.
But even before the Kurukshetra war started, this foremost of all warriors was defeated without a single arrow being shot. Defeated in the sense that he put down his bow and he said, विष्रुच्चिसशरं जापं शोकसं वीग्न मानसः In 1.46, last verse of the first chapter, he puts aside his bow in grief. नयोचेति गोविन्दं उक्त्वातू शीमभभुः In 2.90, he says, I can’t fight Krishna.
He gave up. So, this is the power, we could say, of negative emotions, of negative thoughts. When he lost hope, how can he fight in this war? He lost the war without a single arrow being fought.
Similarly, in the battle of life, we all have various battles which we have to fight during our life. We don’t have to fight physical battles, but we do have to fight in life. But if we lose hope, then we lose everything.
So, maintaining hope is very important. And a consistent negative attitude towards ourselves, loathing ourselves or hating ourselves, that soon saps away our hope. So, how do we get this positive attitude towards ourselves? And how do we maintain a positive attitude in a healthy way that we don’t become unrealistically positive? So, there are vaccines that are given to especially small children or even to people in general if they are in a disease-prone area.
Now, vaccines basically involve a small sample of that same disease germs are put into the void. And if they are put in a small regulated quantity, then the body, notice all these aggressors are coming, and the body equips itself. And when the body’s defenders, the WBCs are activated, then eventually, even if more of those germs come into the body, the body is equipped to defend it.
So now, if somebody’s immune system is good, and then they are given vaccines, the vaccines will ensure that they become stronger. Entry of the vaccine will ensure that the active immune system will begin functioning and will make them better equipped. But if their immune system is already very poor, and then they are given vaccines, what will happen? That very vaccine will cause the disease.
So, we could say, self-criticism is like vaccination. If my morale is very low, it’s like my immune system is very low, and at that time, the vaccine is given, what will happen? At that time when the vaccine is given, that means I criticise myself, others criticise me, I just become totally demoralised. On the other hand, if I am happy, I am confident, and then I realise, okay, I am doing reasonably well, but this is something where I am going wrong, and if I don’t check myself, things will become much worse.
Then I become more careful, let me do this right. So, we need a healthy sense of self-respect or self-esteem. If we don’t have that, then even a small criticism can become big.
And what happens is, when we start loathing ourselves, when we start disliking ourselves, I wanted to do that, but I couldn’t do it, I wanted to do that, but I couldn’t do it, we become angry with ourselves. And quite often, this anger at ourselves gets expressed as irritability towards others. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, lust, anger, greed, these are three inner enemies.
trividham narkasyedam dvaram naśinam ātmanah kāmaḥ krodha-sthālokas asmāleta-trayam tejet In 16.21 he says that. Now among these, if we consider lust, anger and greed, if I am greedy, say I see some object, I want to buy this now, I want to buy it, I start craving, craving, craving for it. Generally, in greed, the trigger of the desire and the target of the desire are the same.
I see an object, I desire, I want it. But with respect to anger, the trigger and the target are two different things. Sometimes we go to office and we may ask our boss something and the boss explodes.
What happened? I just spoke something small, why did the boss explode? So probably at home the boss had a quarrel with the spouse. They come to the office and they blast at their colleagues, blast at their subordinates. So what happens, the trigger of anger and the target of anger are two different things.
So similarly, in our spiritual life, if we want to follow high standards and somehow we are not able to follow those standards or in general we have high expectations from ourselves and if we are not able to stick to those expectations, then we start becoming irritated with ourselves. And sometimes that irritation with ourselves comes out as irritation with others. So when we are anyway annoyed, some small spark causes an explosion.
It’s like say, if there is oil spill somewhere and you light a matchstick, immediately a big fire will come. There is no oil over there, if you light a matchstick, nothing will happen. So sometimes our inner struggles and our inner failures, they are like spilling oil on the floor.
And then somebody comes and does some small thing which is wrong. That’s like the matchstick. Boom! Big fire starts off with that.
So generally, when we start practising spiritual life, actually our spiritual life would make us more peaceful, more mature, more understanding towards others. But sometimes we may find that because of our spiritual practises, or not because, but after starting our spiritual practises, we may end up becoming more irritable. That happens because we have started becoming too harsh with ourselves.
So, be gentle. Be gentle means that we have to understand where we are and from there we take a step forward. I’ll conclude with two points and then if you have any questions, we can discuss.
The first point is that we have to begin from where we are, not where we think we should be. Say, if we are going for an important meeting or a programme, and we’re driving a car, and somehow we take one wrong turn. And then we take a wrong turn, and that sometimes on this big expressway, if we take one wrong turn, it takes a long time to come back on the right track also.
So one wrong turn means it will become 10 minutes delay. After another wrong turn, it may be 20 minutes delay. So now, suppose I have gone off track, and I’m going to be 20 minutes late.
And that time in the car, I start beating myself. You fool, why did you take that wrong turn? Why did you take that wrong turn? Okay baba, you took the wrong turn, now take the right turn and go back. Now, why did you take the wrong turn? Why? Why? So at that time, if I’m thinking, Oh, I should have been there now.
I would be 5 minutes, I would be there for the meeting. But now I’m 25 minutes late. Okay, but if I have to get there, we have to begin from where we are, not where we think we should be.
So, sometimes we have an idea, this is how I should be. For example, if I resolve to do something, then I must do it. If I resolve to say, wake up in the morning, I resolve to do this on time, I resolve to do this, and if I don’t do it, then I just become so angry with myself, that instead of doing it now, I’m wasting my energy.
Why did I do it then? Why didn’t I do it then? Why didn’t I do it then? Okay, couldn’t do it, do it now. So with respect to physical example, it’s easy to understand. If we had gone off track, we would not just sit stationary in our car.
Why did I take that wrong turn? Why did I take that wrong turn? We would not be so foolish, we would immediately start coming back. But with respect to our inner world, because things are not so physically visible, so we don’t understand what we are doing. But sometimes, even if we have taken a wrong turn, it doesn’t matter, take a right turn, and come back on track.
But internally, we just keep beating ourselves. Fool, why did you do that? Okay, I did that, I made a mistake on my part, let me do the right thing. So, if we have an unrealistic conception of where we should be, and this is how I should be, and we live in denial of how we are, I’m not ready to accept that I am here, I think I should be here.
But if I think I should be here while I am here, then all that is going to happen is that the energy which I could use to rise from here to here, I’m just using it to beat myself while I am here. So I stay here itself. So, we need to accept, this is where I am, and from here I can go there.
So, that’s why it’s important for us in our spiritual life, or in our life in general, not to, we all want to improve, we all want to become better human beings, better devotees, better in whatever we are doing in our life, but the journey to improvement has to begin from where we are, not where we think we should be. If I accept I am here, what are the steps that I can take for moving from here to here. And, humility is not seen in beating ourselves up for being where we are, for making a mistake and being there.
But humility is seen there in acceptance. Sometimes I may think that when I am beating myself up, I am becoming humble. No, by beating myself up mentally, I am not becoming humble.
I am simply acting out of my frustrated false ego. My false ego wants that I should be here, but I am here. I am beating myself up, so it’s simply the frustrated false ego acting.
But humility means, okay, I am here, and from here I have to take steps forward. So, accepting that we may not be as good as we imagine we should be, this acceptance is humility. But denying that is actually an act of ego.
So, having said that, if I wanted to be here and if I end up here, now I will feel discouraged. Oh no, I have such a long distance to go. I have not even covered this much distance.
What is the use? But we should know that no matter, even if we have committed mistakes, no matter how many things we have done wrong, Krishna is always with us. Krishna never abandons us. So, Krishna always loves us.
We all have weaknesses such as limitlessness, anger, greed, self-criticality, whatever else. But these are not our biggest weakness. Our greatest weakness is our unwillingness to believe that Krishna loves us, even now.
As we are right now, Krishna loves us. Our greatest weakness is our unwillingness to believe that Krishna loves us. Now, Krishna is there in our hearts.
No matter what we do, we don’t have the power to do anything that will make Krishna say, I am going to quit your heart and go away now. Krishna will always be there with us. He never loses hope on us.
He is always there with us wanting us to become better. So, by fixing our eyes on Krishna, on his untiring, unfailing love for us, which we learn from scripture, by associating with devotees who have faith in scripture, then that can become the enduring source of our hope. And does Krishna love us even when we commit mistakes? Yes.
He still loves us. I was in Raleigh, North Carolina. I gave a series of two classes on are our mistakes part of Krishna’s plan? If I commit a mistake, then is it Krishna’s plan that I commit the mistake? What do you think? Yes and no.
It is a safe answer. Yes. Actually, we need to differentiate between Krishna’s plan and Krishna’s purpose.
So, that we commit mistakes is not Krishna’s purpose. Krishna doesn’t want us to commit mistakes. But Krishna’s plan is so inclusive that even if we commit mistakes, that is included in his plan.
A simple example for this. If there is a school, the school’s purpose is to educate the students so that they rise to a higher standard. But if a student fails, the school has a plan for them also.
So, the failed students are also a part of the school’s plan. Okay, you fail in the exam, now you do the subject again, you do this course, you go and do this tuition, you get this help. So, the failed students are also a part of the school’s plan.
But failing the students is not the school’s purpose. So, similarly, whatever mistakes we make, they are part of Krishna’s plan. That doesn’t mean that Krishna plans those mistakes for us.
But rather, even if we commit mistakes, we don’t go out of Krishna’s plan. No matter how many mistakes we commit, still Krishna has a plan. Sometimes the school might be there, that if you fail once, twice, thrice, four times, they will say that now you can just leave the school.
But Krishna is not like that. No matter how many times we commit a mistake, Krishna, we are still within Krishna’s plan. And from wherever we are, Krishna can help us to rise upwards.
The other example for this, understanding Krishna’s plan and Krishna’s purpose, is, say again, Google Maps. If Google is telling me turn left, and I turn right, now if I turn right, what will happen? Google will quickly recalibrate and give me a path from there. Again if I take a wrong turn, again Google will recalibrate and tell me go this way.
Even if I take a thousand wrong turns, still Google will show me a path back. Now of course, each wrong turn will have a consequence, and from that wrong turn, to come back to the right destination will take more time. But still, the path is there.
Similarly, Krishna is like the ultimate Google guide. No matter how many mistakes we make, Krishna will immediately, Krishna’s plan is so inclusive, that wherever, no matter how many wrong turns we take, Krishna will give us a path to. So in that sense, Krishna’s love and Krishna’s willingness to help us is always there.
So even if we commit mistakes, at a material level the mistakes will have consequences. It will take longer to come back to the right track. But we always have the chance to come back.
And that’s why we needn’t ever lose hope. Sometimes looking at the world may cause us to lose hope. But we look beyond the world to Krishna.
And then we gain back our confidence. We gain back our morale. That’s what happened to Arjuna.
When he heard the Bhagavad Gita, at the start of the Bhagavad Gita he had put aside his bow. He said, I can’t fight. But at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, he had picked up his bow in readiness to fight.
Similarly, the world’s events, the things that are happening in our mind, they may all cause us to lose hope. But if we turn towards the Gita and understand the Gita’s message of Krishna’s unfailing love for us, then we will get that hope. We will get the faith back.
And we can move forwards. In the Vishnu Sahasranam, there are two names which seem to be the exact opposite. So, Animisha, Nimisha, Swagri, Vachaspati, Rudarathi.
So, Animisha and Nimisha. Animisha means one who never blinks his eyes. And Nimisha means one who blinks his eyes.
Sushila Baldevidya Abhishan has explained the various names, the meanings of various names. And he says, Animisha and Nimisha. What does it mean? He says, if a devotee is trying to render service to Krishna, the Lord unblinkingly notes even the smallest service that the devotee is doing.
And if a devotee somehow commits a mistake, Krishna blinks his eyes and overlooks the mistake. And that’s how Krishna is always benevolent, always eager for the devotee to come to Him. And the example for this is, when Putana came to kill Krishna, what did Krishna do? Close his eyes.
Krishna overlooked her malevolent intention. And he saw only her maternal affection. At a material level, because she had malevolent intention, there was a consequence.
She lost her material body. But at spiritual level, Krishna saw her little maternal affection that she had and He magnified that and took her to spiritual level. ahobakiyam yamsthankalakutam That demon who had come with the intention to kill Krishna, Krishna elevated her to the level of the nurse in the spiritual world.
That’s how, even if we have committed a million mistakes, Krishna is ready to overlook those mistakes. Krishna wants us to come to Him. And from wherever we are, if we learn to be kind to ourselves, kind to ourselves means that we act in a way that keeps us encouraged, keeps us hopeful.
Our attitude towards ourselves should be that, you know, I am my only resource, so let me be kind to myself. Kind doesn’t mean to flatter all the time and to imagine nothing is wrong. But no matter what is wrong, let me take the right step and move on.
Even if I again go wrong, let me again take the right step and move on. So when we learn to be kind to ourselves, we will find that much of the negativity within us will go down. And whatever positive opportunities come, we will be able to use them much better in moving forwards in our life, to do the contributions that we can during this life and to ultimately attain the supreme destination of Krishna’s eternal abode.
So I’ll summarise. I spoke today on the topic of learning to be kind to ourselves. And in that I spoke about, first I started by talking about how we, we may have different attitudes towards ourselves.
I talked about how if some doctor gives a prescription without understanding, we will not be convinced about taking the prescription. So Krishna, when Arjuna says, I can’t control the mind, Krishna shows understanding. Yes, it is difficult to control the mind.
And that understanding is what lowers Arjuna’s guards. So even if there is 99% disagreement, begin with the one person in agreement. So similarly for us, sometimes when we are looking at ourselves, we human beings have self-awareness.
That means we can look at ourselves and understand where we are. Self-awareness is the basis of self-improvement. In self-help, there is a self that needs help and a self that offers the help.
So this sort of inner division within ourselves is possible because we have self-awareness. So we often have, we may have negativity towards ourselves, self-loathing, because we want to do certain things and we are not able to do it and we keep beating ourselves with it. So our mind is what acts as the primary agent of self-loathing.
So it is like a person, a friend who tells us to rob a bank and then ditches us when the crime hits us and then actually becomes the judge to beat us up. So to punish. Similarly, the mind tells us to do wrong and then beats us up for doing that wrong.
So when the mind starts taking this double role, we need to understand that this mind is fooling me. So preaching means that when somebody is discouraged, we need to encourage them, to comfort the afflicted. And if somebody is too overconfident, flying in the air, bring them down to the ground to afflict the comforted.
And that applies to ourselves also. When we are discouraged, we need encouragement. When we are overconfident, we need a dose of reality.
So the same situation can act differently. Now vaccine, if somebody is healthy, a good immune system, vaccine will make them stronger. If somebody has poor immune system, vaccine may cause a disease.
Similarly, self-criticism can help us if we have healthy self-esteem. If we don’t have healthy self-esteem, self-criticism can dishearten us even more. So if we lose hope, we lose everything.
Just like Arjuna lost hope and put aside his bow, the warrior who could not be defeated in the actual fight, physical fight, was defeated in the internal mental fight without a single arrow being cast. Like that, we may lose by the constant negativity being bombarded within us by the mind. So to avoid this, what do we do? First thing is that we understand that we are our only resource.
Like if we have only one internet connection, we’ll keep it carefully. If we have only one phone, we’ll keep it carefully. So I am my only resource.
Ever there has to be improvement, it is I who have to do the improvement. And then if we want to actually go about the improvement, we have to begin where we are, not where we think we should be. If I have gone off track, then beating myself up why I am not on the right track doesn’t help this.
Move back and come on the right track. So humility is not beating ourselves, is not humility. That is simply frustrated false ego acting out.
But humility means accepting that I have made a mistake and I am at this place and then working gracefully to move towards a better situation. And we can get our greatest hope by contemplating on Krishna’s unfailing love for us. There is nothing we can do that can make Krishna leave our heart and go away, that can make him stop loving us.
So that we commit mistakes is not Krishna’s purpose, but it is included in Krishna’s plan. Just like a student failing is not the school’s purpose, but the school’s plan includes that. Just as taking a wrong turn is not Google Maps purpose.
But if we do that and still give us the right track, right path back. Similarly, no matter how many mistakes we have made in the past, no matter how many mistakes we will make in the future, still, as soon as we realise we have taken a wrong turn, if we take a right turn and come back, we will steadily move towards Krishna. And Krishna is so compassionate that when we commit mistakes, He overlooks those mistakes by blinking His eyes.
We are doing something good, He unblinkingly notes it and He rewards us. So such is our loving Lord and by trying to stay connected with Him, we can all move towards having positive energy within us which will help us move steadily towards our Lord. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Yes. Prabhu, I think, thank you so much.
This mind, I am just thinking, you know, all these many, many lifetimes we are carrying these issues, but we may not realise or we don’t even think that, you know, it has happened because I cannot remember it. But in the childhood, if somebody discourages, and that actually, I am thinking that, you know, we carry that discouragement even after 30 years or 40 years. And that keeps on coming out, even though if I want to encourage, there is somebody saying, hey, you cannot do that.
That means, I heard from my elders they discourage me, I don’t know how to get up or get out of that, you know. So that’s so much conviction. And I am thinking, I am fortunate I am here, at least at the end of that, you know, this is what I need to do.
But still, that’s not that easy to get out of that discouragement, what I had that is the foundation of my life. That makes it my schedule of my life. I am still in schedule.
So how do I come out of that? Yeah. Actually, so if we have had some childhood expressions, which we have, which keep troubling us right now. So how do we go over this? Actually, I had a whole class on this topic.
It is called how to go past our past. And I had used an acronym past, but I have forgotten that acronym. So I was trying to search for that PowerPoint, so that I could tell that acronym.
But I’d say some broad principles. There is the mind is something which has its own momentum. That we can’t control what comes in the mind.
If something is impressed in it, it is already impressed there. And something is going to come up in it, it is going to come up. Say if you have a computer, which is a company computer, then the company computer, some programmes may just open up in it.
Now you may never want to use that programme, but that programme will just open up. You try to focus on closing that programme, go here, go there, you won’t find any way to close the programme. But if you want to do some work, you can open some other programme and continue your work.
So that programme will be open in the background. It will consume some power, some memory, but you can do your work. Similarly for us, the impressions that were formed in the past, we can’t get rid of them.
And they will open up in our consciousness. But if we have something purposeful to do, something positive to do, then we won’t get so affected by it. That means, you could say that our mind is like a computer screen on which many programmes are open.
So some programmes just open up. So some programmes open up means, now I have given, I don’t know, several thousand classes I have given. I’ve spoken in public.
But even now, every time when I start speaking, a programme opens up. You are going to make a fool of yourself. You are going to forget a verse.
You are going to forget important points. And actually every time the class gets over, you didn’t tell that example. You didn’t speak that.
You didn’t do that. It comes up. So now, at one level, if I try to stop that, I can’t.
But I can choose whether to pay attention to it or not. So the mind, and what happens within it, the mind is like a child. Sometimes the children start making some funny faces.
They start all making funny faces. And if you look at them, they get more animated. They start making more funny faces.
But, if we don’t pay any attention to them, we’ll try to make some more funny faces. But nobody is saying that what is the use of doing the performance. And they’ll become silent.
So the mind is like that. So sometimes, this is what happens that, based on the past impressions, certain things will come up within us. But when they come up, what do we do? Do we focus on them? Or do we focus on something constructive? So, if we think that that programme should not open up on you, this person said this.
That starts playing, you know. This person said you’ll never be successful in your life. That’s what you want to say.
You are a good for nothing person. That script will come up. But, if I don’t pay attention to it, it can’t do much.
We have to understand that our thoughts are themselves not real. Our thoughts are not real. So, I suppose all of you have your phones.
Can you take out your phone? Don’t read the messages there. Just take it out. So now, say to yourself, I can’t lift my phone.
Just say to yourself, I can’t lift my phone. No, just say, I can’t lift my phone. And lift it now.
So, while saying, I can’t lift my phone, you say lift it now. Do the two together. I can’t lift my phone.
Now, when you are saying this, you are also thinking it. I may think I can’t lift my phone, but actually you can lift it. I am giving this as a simple example to illustrate that our thoughts are not real.
They can be real at times, but the thoughts are not intrinsically real. We assume, we take our thoughts sometimes very seriously. We think our thoughts are real, our thoughts are important, our thoughts have to be obeyed, our thoughts are truthful, but they are not.
So, if we just learn to recognise that this is a programme that has opened up within me, but I have the choice whether to pay attention to it or not. And slowly, we can shift our focus elsewhere. And as we do that more and more, then what will happen is that negative focus, negative programme that has opened up, that will stop being so prominent.
So, at one level, it’s a matter of intention. Now, what do I focus on? Is my intention over here or second is over here? And then second is also intelligence. Intelligence means when something, some impression that has been formed in our mind, is it true or is it not true? We have to use our, not at that time when it’s popped up, that time we just redirect our focus, but later on when we are calmer, when we are not so vulnerable, that time we sit and use our intelligence.
Now, this person said this about me 25 years ago. Is it true? Look at our own life. If I have been good for nothing, I have been able to do this, do this, do this.
It’s not that we want to be proud of ourselves, but we have to be realistic in accepting praise and realistic in accepting criticism also. So, then, using our intelligence, we can come up with points. 1, 2, 3, this is why this is not true, this 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and then write it down and keep it accessible.
So, whenever that programme pops up, you are good for nothing, then read this. Basically, when the mind starts going in unwanted directions, we need our intelligence. But the mind is so powerful that the mind just pushes the intelligence behind it and it just becomes inaccessible.
So, if we make sure that the product of the intelligence, that points written down are readily accessible to us, that will help us at that particular time. So, there is intention, there is intelligence, and ultimately, there is purification. Purification means when we keep practising bhakti, when we connect with Krishna, the connection with Krishna simply actually causes these negative programmes within the mind to get eliminated, to go so much into the background that they are no longer there.
By intention, we redirect our focus. By intelligence, we evaluate whether what is being said is true or not. Both of these are meant to manage while that unwanted programme is present.
But purification means the programme itself will go away. That may take time. And how much time it will take will depend on how much we entertain that programme.
Say, some of us, before practising bhakti, might have been eating meat. And after practising bhakti, we decide, I’ll give up eating meat. Now, if we are going in a flight, and then the neighbour is taking meat, how many of us will feel tempted? No, I want to eat meat.
Even if we see, there’s no temptation. They might be eating something else, I also want to eat it. The temptation may come.
But with respect to meat, that programme has just gone out of it, gone away. So, bhakti can eliminate the unwanted programming also. But that may take time.
So, that’s why we have to be patient. It has already eliminated some programmes from within us. Some have not been eliminated.
But with intelligence, intention, and the practise of bhakti leads to purification, that’s how we can go past our past. Yes. Because some people derive inspiration also from the knowledge itself.
And second question is like… One question. Complete this and I’ll say that. So, when I said that we need knowledge and inspiration, but it is sometimes that the knowledge itself gives inspiration.
I would say that knowledge and inspiration are two distinct things in the sense that if I want to travel from place A to place B, I need to have a map of how to get there. But then, if there is heavy traffic, the road is difficult, then I should have some inspiration, some motivation. Why do I want to go there? So, knowledge is how to go there.
Inspiration is why to go there. So, I was speaking that in the context of, say, these students from the school who were participating in writing. They just lost inspiration to write.
They said, I’ll never be able to do it right. The boys were always criticising each other. They felt, we can’t do it.
And then, they just stopped doing it. So, for us, inspiration gives us the why and knowledge gives us, you could say, the how. Second question? The book was about this writing thing.
It was a really amazing example that you gave. So, these people, the scientific people that you mentioned, the boys, they analyse somebody else’s article and they criticise it. Yeah, I found it very interesting because it’s a part of writing.
Writing is so important. I just couldn’t understand that why there are lots of readers because they were so critical about somebody else. Okay, I understood that.
If normally, whenever we write, there is peer review, and in peer review, there is criticism. So then, why would they lose zeal for writing just because they were criticised? I would say there are two different kinds of writings. One is writing which we do because we are inspired, say, somebody wants to become, as a vocation, a writer.
And for somebody, writing is just a professional obligation. We are expected to write. Generally, even if our boss criticises us, even if he discourages us, still we’ll do our work.
Why? Because it’s a matter of bread and butter. We need the pay cheque. So, at that point, in general, even if there is criticism and there is discouragement, there is a feeling that this is essential.
I have to do it. But generally, with respect to voluntary activities, if somebody can choose some other career, writing is a career which they want to choose, or they didn’t choose that, and writing is a hobby. If I feel I can’t do this well, then I should not do this.
Generally, if something is mandatory for us to do, we will do it even if we are criticised and discouraged. But if something is voluntary, then if you are criticised and discouraged, you may just stop doing it. And for us, in our sadhaka stage, bhakti doesn’t appear to be mandatory.
It appears to be voluntary. So, if somebody discourages us too much, criticises us too much, then why should I do this? So, that’s why we have to make sure that we, in our interactions with each other, don’t become too critical. Because otherwise, people will just give up bhakti.
Why do we need to do this? Any other questions? How do we feel Krishna’s love on a day-to-day basis? There are broadly three ways we could say. There is intelligence, there is experience, and there is realisation. What does that mean? That even with our intelligence right now, if we analyse our existence, our existence is dependent on something beyond ourselves.
We may say that I work and I earn my living and I get my food. But actually, even with our fullest measure of hard work, we cannot produce grains. They are produced in nature.
It is said that every morning when birds wake up and they start chirping and searching for grains, the birds have to fly here and there and search for grains. But the birds searching for grains doesn’t produce the grains. Grains are already provided by nature, by God ultimately.
So, the birds’ efforts are secondary. God’s provision is primary. Similarly, for whatever we are, for whatever we are doing right now, for whatever we are able to do, for all that, our efforts are important.
But there is a higher provision that also is important. So, whatever skills we are able to achieve, if we are able to do a job, if we are able to do well in our exams, we are using our intelligence. But you know, we didn’t, we were not, like when we go to buy a computer, we want the specifications, and I get the specifications and I buy the computer.
In our mother’s womb, we did not pay for the specifications that we wanted. We got them. Sometimes we may feel that, oh, I don’t have this ability, that ability, but we have some abilities, and we didn’t produce those abilities.
So, our very existence right now depends on things beyond our control. So, the science magazine at one time, they evaluated that if we had to, like we pay for electricity, power, electricity and other things to the government, if humanity had to pay to nature for all the resources they took, you know, we took timber, we take fuel, we take this, we take that, it would be, it would be, one day’s expenditure would be more than a year’s budget. That’s what you would have to pay.
So, there is something beyond us on which we are dependent. And yes, sometimes things don’t work out the way we want. The problem is that, that higher factor which is there, we don’t think about it normally.
Like every day when we eat food, the food gets digested. The only time when we think of our digestion is when it doesn’t work. So, we assume it.
So, basically, for our day-to-day functioning, right now if we see, with, the Bhagavad Gita uses the word, jnana chakshu, pasyanti jnana chakshushaha, the eyes of knowledge if we see, then, right now also we can see that even at a material level for our existence, we depend on something bigger than us. And that, through scriptures we understand, is God, is Krishna. And secondly, with respect to, that’s intelligence, second is experience.
Experience means, that if we look back at our life, there are often times when things have gone wrong. But, there are also times when things have gone right. And sometimes if we look back at our life, we understand that this terrible thing that happened at that time, because of this, this good came out.
So, there is a fundamental difference between the way we look at life and the way Krishna looks at life. We look at the present and plan the future. Krishna looks at the future and plans the present.
So, what that means is that, let’s say a child has got some stomach pain. The child goes to a doctor. The child thinks, the doctor will give me some pill and I will become healthy.
But the doctor sees this infection is very serious. And in the future there will be big complications. Therefore, the doctor may decide, no, you have to give an injection.
You have to do a surgery also. From the child’s perspective, I had a little stomach pain, now a surgery is a bigger pain. But, that is what is needed to save one from a far bigger pain in the future.
Similarly, now if you take this time scale backwards, then when something happened in the past, at that time you may have felt it was bad. But now, if you look back, that happened for my good. So, everything that happens is not necessarily good.
But everything that happens can be for good. It itself is not good. The surgery is not necessarily good.
It is not that I will enjoy the surgery ever. The surgery will be painful. But, it can be for my good.
So, if you look back at the past and see how good has come out from even the bad, that will give us the experience. This is what has happened. And beyond that realisation, what it means is, that if we start practising bhakti, then by the practise of bhakti, we start experiencing some non-material joy, some non-material strength.
What bhakti does is, that even when problems come in our life, if we remember Krishna amidst those problems, we get relief. So, let’s say outside is very cold, and if I come inside a room, that’s heat conditioning, that relief. So, the material world is like outside.
So many problems, they agitate us. We just bring the mind to Krishna, focus the mind on Krishna, we get relief. What is this relief? Why do we experience it? So, at this stage, because our spiritual eyes are not open, we can’t understand this is Krishna giving us this relief.
But we can realise that at a material level, there is a problem, but somehow I am experiencing some relief. I am experiencing some shelter, I am experiencing some calmness. So, where is this coming from? If we practise bhakti, then we can see that, maybe ten years before, if this problem had come in my life, I might have just crumbled under the problem.
But now, I am able to survive it. I am able to go through it. So, when we experience this non-material security or non-material strength, even amidst material difficulties, then that gives us the conviction that there is a higher level of reality.
That higher level of reality is for real, and the relief that I can experience over there is also real. So, this is a realisation. What does the realisation mean? Realisation means that which is a reality, I accept it to be a reality or I understand it to be a reality.
So, that there is a spiritual side to life, that is for real. That Krishna is our supreme spiritual reality and He wants us to come to that spiritual level is for real. But we don’t have the spiritual vision to perceive it right now.
Although we can’t perceive it, we can experience it. Bhakti is the process which gives us the experience of the Transcendental Lord. And what is the result of that experience? We become detached.
Worldly things don’t affect us so much. So, one concluding example to illustrate this point. When a child is newborn, the child doesn’t even understand that there is someone called my mother.
The child just, oh, there’s some nice liquid coming from somewhere, the child just suckles it and drinks. As the child starts growing, this is my mother, she loves me. Say at night, the child is sleeping.
The child starts trembling because suddenly the temperature goes down, he’s feeling cold. Mother sees my baby is trembling, the mother puts a blanket, a nice comforter, and the child starts feeling comfortable. Now the child has not opened the eyes.
At one moment the child was feeling cold, next moment the child feels cosy and warm. Now the child has grown up a little bit, then the child understands, my mother must have put this blanket. Although the child’s eyes have not been opened, although he’s not seen anything, but just from the experience the child infers, my mother must be here, my mother must have put the blanket around.
Similarly for us, when we experience distress in life, when we experience trouble in life, we start trembling. But if we at that time strive to remember Krishna, chant His holy names, hear His kirtans, pray to the deities, immerse ourselves in Krishna Katha, then that acts like a comforter. We experience the relief.
So although we may not see Krishna right now, but just the relief that we experience in the remembrance of Krishna, in absorption in Krishna, is, we should see with the eyes of knowledge, is the evidence that Krishna loves me, and Krishna is like a loving mother who has put the comforter around me. So through intelligence, through experience, and through realisation, we can perceive Krishna’s love. Okay? Thank you.
How much time do we have? Yeah. So last question. Okay.
So, yeah. So, if we are not the doers, does that mean that we should not do anything? And how do we see our mistakes if we are not the doers? This fact, that doership is a subtle concept. Because, at one level the Bhagavad Gita says one who thinks that he is the doer is an illusion.
That’s 3.27 in the Gita. But then, at the end of the Gita, in 18.63, Krishna says that Deliberate deeply on this message and then do as you desire. So, it’s a variant of the same word.
So Arjuna is saying, do as you desire. So if Arjuna is not the doer, then why is Krishna the doer? Krishna is telling Arjuna, do as you desire. And then 10 verses later, in 18.73, Arjuna tells Krishna that I will do your will.
That means I will be the doer. So if we are not the doers, then what does the conclusion of the Gita mean? Actually, this is explained in 18.60, that we are not the only doers. पश्यत्य अक्रिप्त बुद्धित्वान् नस पश्यति दुर्मति ही That one who thinks, आत्मानां केवलं तुझा One who thinks, I am the only doer.
That person is not seeing properly. That person is an illusion. So right now, I am speaking.
So I am the doer. But I am not the only doer. I want to speak right now, but suppose, I get cough.
I want to speak, but I will not be able to speak. If the cough attack persists, I will not be able to speak at all. I want to speak a particular verse, but if I don’t get the recollection, I won’t be able to recite that verse.
So, we do, we are, we are, we are one of the doers in the action. So to think ourselves as the doer is not the illusion. To think ourselves to be the sole doers is the illusion.
So sometimes, our mistakes are that we do our part wrong. Say if I am driving a car and somehow I am inattentive and the car veers off and goes and hits the curb. So that’s my inattention which causes a mistake.
But circumstantially, if some passerby happens to be on the curb at that time and they get hit, then this mistake will lead to much greater consequence. There’s nobody there, it’s just my car that gets damaged a little bit. So basically, our mistakes also, we are responsible for the wrong that we do.
But beyond that, sometimes circumstances may arise in such a way, may be arising in such a way, that a small mistake may lead to a big consequence. And sometimes a big mistake may also lead to only a small consequence. So that’s where past karma also comes into the picture.
So not acknowledging that there is much more than our action which determines the result. That is the illusion. But our actions are important.
And our actions are something which we are meant to choose. Our actions are not Krishna’s, our mistakes are not Krishna’s plan. Krishna has given us in scripture how we are to act.
And if we don’t act according to the way Krishna tells us, then that is a mistake on our part. So our mistakes are because we do have free will. And we are meant to use the free will properly.
Illusion is to think that we alone are the producers of the results of our actions. Did I answer your question? Does 3.27 mean that I am not the doer? Do we need to add I am not the only doer over there? Let’s look at what the verse exactly is saying. अहंकार विमूर्धात्मा कर्ता अमितिमन्यते So prakriti refers to material nature.
And whatever we are doing right now in this world, we have to do it through material nature only. If I am acting at the material level and I am a spirit soul. So I cannot do it without a material instrument.
And that material instrument may work according to my desire. But I don’t control its working. So right now when I am speaking, some scientists try to simulate the process of human speech.
They try to study how our voice cords work. It’s a very complicated process. So sometimes if you have mechanised voices, they just don’t sound like a human voice.
The computer may have text-to-speech, but it’s just so flat. Because our production of voice is such a complicated process. So anything that is done, when it is done at the material level, the material body is involved.
And we could say the material body is the primary thing that is involved. Just like say, if I use a computer and I say I am chatting with someone on Facebook or on Skype or wherever. Now, I cannot chat with that person without the computer.
So whatever I am doing is through the computer only. So everything that I am doing in that chat is through the computer. But it is not that the computer is doing it and I am not doing it.
So what the Bhagavad Gita is saying is, in this verse, that what material nature is doing, if I take credit for that, ahankar, the word is ahankar. Ahankar is arrogance. We try to sometimes say the body is like a vehicle, it’s like a car.
So ahankar means ahamkar, I am the car. So I am the body. We think that that is ahankar.
So the illusion is to think that what is done by the body is done by me. I am the initiator of the action. But I may write a particular type of a particular message on the phone or on the computer.
But the whole process by which that message goes to the other person in another part of the world, that I am not doing that. The technology is doing that. So just as when we get very habituated to using some technology, we don’t even think there is anything special over there.
No, I just type and go to that person. We are so habituated to using this body that we don’t think there is anything beyond us. But we notice it when we are not able to speak.
So I am not the doer. So when Krishna is saying material nature is doing everything, that is not wrong. Because whatever is done in this material world is done through material nature.
So the illusion is the doership is the thing that what material nature is actually doing to think that I am doing it and to take credit for that. That is the illusion. So thank you very much.
Yes.