Maintaining balance amidst disruptive emotions and situations

[English Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Mira Road, Mumbai, India]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. I am grateful to be here amongst all of you. His Grace Kamalachandru has been a well-wishing friend and mentor for me for many years.
I am happy to be here to try to serve him and serve all of you. So I will speak today on the topic of maintaining balance in life. The Bhagavad Gita in its 18th chapter talks about the three modes of material nature.
Satvaguna, Rajoguna and Tamoguna. And it describes what happens when any particular mode becomes prominent. So 18.22 in the Bhagavad Gita states knowledge in the mode of ignorance.
Knowledge and ignorance, normally we consider them to be opposites. But what do we mean by knowledge in the mode of ignorance? It’s like saying light in darkness or darkness in light. It almost seems opposite.
But what it means is the mode of ignorance, 8, doesn’t completely make us ignorant. We see something but we don’t see a large part of things. So in the mode of ignorance Krishna says, yad tu kruchnavad ekasmin karyesaktam ahaitukam atatvarthavad alpam ca tattamasamudharitam So he says, yad tu kruchnavad ekasmin.
When one sees one thing, ekasmin, kruchnavad, to be everything. When one sees one thing and equates that with everything. yad tu kruchnavad ekasmin karyesaktam ahaitukam And one becomes irrationally attached to that one thing without seeing the proper cause of a connection.
ahaitukam atatvarthavad There is no understanding of the total reality. alpam ca, alpa is meagre, very small. tattamasamudharitam That is knowledge in the mode of ignorance.
So we could say knowledge in the mode of ignorance means to see one thing and to become blinded to everything else. Just like say when a person becomes an alcohol addict. At that time, that person sees alcohol and doesn’t see anything else at all.
And when former Soviet Russia was there, at that time people, even now, but at that time, because of poverty people would try to hide and run away from their problems by taking the Russian alcohol which is called vodka. So they drink. So there was a flyer made for creating awareness.
The vodka prices had gone up. That was the news. And a small son was asking a father timidly.
Father, now that the vodka prices have gone up, will you drink less? The father says, no, you will eat less. So what happens here is that the emotion or the infatuation with alcohol has become so great that that person is sensitised only to the emotion of alcohol. Only to the pleasure that comes from drinking alcohol.
And one has become desensitised to everything else. Even the natural parental instinct of taking care of one’s own children. That also one becomes desensitised.
So how the mode of ignorance affects us can be discussed in various ways. I will talk about primarily how it affects our emotions. How in the mode of ignorance one emotion becomes very prominent and we become desensitised to other emotions.
So somehow for my service in the last one, one and a half years, I have spent almost 180 days in America and maybe some more couple of months in the western world. So I was preaching in colleges, universities, companies. I interacted with a lot of western people.
And this basic point of lack of balance. This is what hit me in the face again and again. I was at a college programme and after that one young boy, one young student, college student was talking with him after the programme.
And we got a little close to each other and he told me that he, normally when we meet some students we ask what do your parents do. So he told me that he grew up in a foster home. Foster home basically means children who don’t have parents.
They are orphans, they are normally put in an orphanage. But if a family is ready to adopt them, then when they go into that adopted family’s house that is called a foster home. So then I asked him, what happened to your parents? Did they die in an accident or something? He said no.
Both my parents are alive. Shocked. I said then why did you live in a foster home? He said that when I was 5, both my parents got divorced.
And when they got divorced, normally when divorces happen, then the spouses often have custody battles. Because both the parents want the child to be with them. But in this case, both the parents said to the child, you remind me of the biggest mistake of my life.
So I don’t want you in my life. Such a horrible situation. Both parents are alive and neither parent wants to have the child with them.
And even with both parents there, the child had to go to an orphanage. So here, it’s tragic to hear this. But what has happened over here? The one emotion of anger, hatred towards one spouse or ex-spouse has become so overwhelming that it has blinded one, it has desensitised one to the other emotions.
The natural emotion of a parent taking care of a child has become desensitised to that. So when one takes one thing to be everything, that is characteristic of the mode of ignorance. यत्तु गृत्सनवद एकस्मिन् In our life, in our relationships, often things go wrong.
Some people can get along with some people, some people can’t get along with some people. That’s just the way people are made. And we can try to analyse and find out whether this person’s fault or that person’s fault or whatever.
And sometimes it’s just no use. Sometimes it’s just move on. But no matter whatever happens, the force of anger and hatred should never be allowed to become stronger than the force of love.
The anger and hatred towards one’s ex-spouse should not be allowed to become greater than the force of love towards one’s own child. So this losing of one’s perspective, when one emotion becomes everything and one becomes desensitised to all other emotions, that is characteristic of the mode of ignorance. And to deal with that, we need to have a healthy sense of perspective.
In the Ramayana, when Mantara poisons the mind of Kaikeyi and has Rama banished to the forest, when Lakshman also goes with him, Dashrath passes away, and when Bharat and Shatrughna come back, and at that time, Bharat is furious with Kaikeyi. He has a triple shock. He says, first, that actually his brother had been exiled.
Second is that his mother had done all this. And third is that his mother thought that he would be pleased by her doing all this. He said, you are not my mother.
You are the goddess of destruction. Mahakali incarnated into our family to destroy our whole family. I disown you as my mother, he said.
He was infuriated. And after Dashrath’s cremation, when they were coming back from the river side, back to the palace, Bharat and Shatrughna were walking together. One courtier approached Bharat and they were talking.
And Shatrughna went ahead. And as they were passing by Kaikeyi’s palace, then they saw Mantra. Shatrughna saw Mantra.
And she was dressed with opulent ornaments, jewels. Kaikeyi had rewarded her profusely. So seeing this, Shatrughna got so angry.
He ran to her. She saw him coming and she screamed and tried to run into Kaikeyi’s palace. But Shatrughna ran fast and caught her.
And he started shaking her violently. He said, you are the cause of the devastation in our entire kingdom. Everybody is drowning in an ocean of lamentation all because of you.
Furiously he was shaking her violently. She called out to Kaikeyi. Kaikeyi came running out of her palace.
And she told Shatrughna, stop, stop. So at that time, Shatrughna was so blinded with anger, Shatrughna paid no attention. Hearing all the commotion, Bharat came over there.
And Kaikeyi turned to Bharat and said, Bharat, tell Shatrughna to stop. Without even looking at Kaikeyi, Bharat told Shatrughna, stop. He says, what you are doing to Mantara, I felt like doing the same to Kaikeyi.
Kaikeyi was shocked of hearing this. He said, but if we do anything to them, Ram will be displaced. Ram will be displaced.
If we hurt them, Ram will not ever listen to our request that he come back to the kingdom. So please stop. So here, if you see, there is a triangle over here.
There is the emotion of Bharat and Shatrughna of anger towards Kaikeyi and Mantara. And there is their relationship with Ram. So in this relationship, the anger was natural.
In a sense, it was justifiable also. What Kaikeyi had done and what Mantara had instigated was horrendous. And that anger was natural, you could say.
It is justifiable. But they did not act only based on that anger. They also saw that they have a relationship with Ram.
And how I act in this relationship is also going to affect my other relationship. So let the anger towards Mantara or Kaikeyi not blind me in my relationship with Ram. So we live in an interconnected world.
And if we let one relationship get such a grip over our mind that the emotions in that relationship blind us to everything else, then we have become obsessive. That is a characteristic of the mode of ignorance. As a British thinker, Oscar Wilde, British playwright, he said that there are two kinds of people.
Some people bring happiness wherever they go. And some people bring happiness whenever they go. Some people bring happiness wherever they go.
This is a radiated joy. And some people, they bring happiness whenever they go. That means, being around them, they are so tense, so nervous.
It is like walking in a minefield. You don’t know what word, what action will cause an explosion from there. Boom! What happened now? So as soon as some people go, we feel relief of that.
Now, for all of us, there are people in both categories. There are some people whose association we look forward to. And there are some people who we just can’t wait to get rid of them.
And it’s not just that these are two different categories of people. Sometimes the same person may move from this category to this category. The same person whose association we may earlier find so wonderful, later on, it will just become dreadful.
So this distortion of our perspective because of our emotions is a result of the modes of material nature. Now, what exactly are the modes? The modes are subtle forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness. Matter is the world outside.
Consciousness is what we have. The soul’s original energy, the sarup shakti of the soul is consciousness, as Baldevita Bhushan explains in the Govinda Bhashya. So now, the soul radiates its consciousness outwards.
Consciousness observes the world and then takes the information inwards. So this interaction of the soul with the world is shaped by the modes of material nature. It’s just like, say, if I have spectacles.
Now, if these are red coloured spectacles, red rimmed, then everything I see will be red. So the spectacles are a physical object outside us, on our eyes. But the modes are subtle forces which are present inside us.
And these modes, each of us is influenced by different modes at different times. So, because of these modes, we all perceive things differently. The three modes can be said that satvaguna, rajoguna, tamoguna.
Now, we can describe them in English as some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen. And some people wonder what happened.
So, those who are in the mode of goodness, they make things happen. They plan it out, do this, do this, do this. This is the mode of goodness.
Some people in the mode of passion, they watch things happen. They want to do a lot, but they do one thing thoughtlessly, impulsively, and it sets off that problem, that problem, that problem. I wanted to do one thing, and what happened? They just watch things happen.
Now, some people speak to express their thoughts. And some people speak to discover their thoughts. They speak, hey, I didn’t want to speak that, what happened? Sometimes, they speak some things, and then, other people get angry, no, no, sorry, I didn’t want to speak that.
The words, when they are spoken, they are spoken. So, they watch things happen. They say one thing, which they really didn’t want to say, something else they wanted to say, but they said it, and that leads to chain reaction, which just complicates things.
So, some people wonder what happened. They are so caught in the stupor of their days, that they are just not aware of anything. So, Krishna talks about prakasha, pravrutti, and moha, as defining characteristics of each of these modes.
sarva-dhaareshu dehesmin prakasha-upjayate jnanam yadadavidyad vivruddham sattva-mintyuta So, he says that, when all the gates of the body, that is the senses, are illumined by knowledge, by prakasha, that is the mode of goodness. So, we could explain the modes in simple terms. For all of us, there is contemplation inside, and there is action outside.
So, when there is contemplation first, and action later, that is the mode of goodness. When there is action first, and contemplation later, that is the mode of passion. And when there is neither action nor contemplation, that is the mode of ignorance.
So, prakasha, you could say, is inner contemplation, illumination, thoughtfulness. Pravrutti is, I have to do things, I have to do things. And moha is delusion.
So now, these modes affect all of us. And these modes, they shape our perception of things. So, in our world today, we live in an increasingly fragmented world.
Fragmented means that, although if we compare the cities to the villages, in cities, many people live crowded together. Say, in a local of Mumbai, in one compartment, there may be a thousand people, may be five hundred people or whatever. They are crowded together.
Bodies may be pressing against each other. But, they are crowded, but they are all disconnected. People are not very well connected with each other.
Because of this disconnection, we are often subjected to wild emotional swings. Usually, all of us get affected by the events that happen in our life. Things go wrong, that leads to us feeling angry.
Now, if somebody speaks something harshly to me, if say, I was supposed to get a promotion in my job, but somebody else gets it. If I was supposed to get some service, somebody else gets that service. We all feel deprived or in some way, treated unfairly by life at some time or the other.
So, in America, I had a series of seminars at a mental health care centre. Now, a mental health care centre, in Hindi, we may crudely call it as a Pagal Khana. But, it’s not exactly like that.
Now, I met one person there, he is a double PhD from an Ivy League University. Ivy League is bigger than the IITs of America. So, he has two PhDs from there.
Now, what they say is, what is mental health care? Who needs mental health care? It’s not that these people are mad in the sense of, which we can call Pagal. But, they say that all of us, when bad things happen to us, nobody is the exception, everybody bad things happen. And, we all have certain impulsive reactions to bad things.
So, we all may get angry because of things. Now, when people become angry, different people retaliate in different ways. So, some people may just start giving others, what they call the silent treatment.
Silent treatment, you just don’t talk with anyone. Anybody who speaks to you, just mumble something and walk away from there. So, they internalise their anger and express it by just being, by not talking with anyone.
Or, some people, when they are angry, they just blast out. Just blast out. They become irritable and snappish, and snap at others.
So, some other people, may not just snap at that one person, they may snap at anyone and everyone because they become angry. Some people may go beyond being verbally aggressive to becoming physically aggressive. They start beating somebody because of their anger.
And, some people, in their anger, may take up weapons and start attacking someone. Especially in America, if you follow the news, there is a big concern that sometimes people just go wild and their gun laws are quite free. So, people, when they get angry, they take guns.
They shoot. So, when we travel and preach in America, often we travel by cars a lot. So, I was talking with one devotee who was driving me.
He had recently got a driver’s licence. He was telling that they were told that when you are driving, if you see somebody who is driving in a very disorderly way, now, generally, in the western world, what happens is, people follow the laws of driving quite well. So, if anybody is not following, it’s quite likely that person is drunk or something like that.
So, in the western world, you normally never honk at anyone. In fact, if honking at someone is considered like insulting that person. Because everybody drives properly.
And, if anybody makes a serious mistake, suddenly change the lane without giving a signal, or suddenly take a wrong turn, you make a serious mistake, then you honk at that person. And honking is considered like insulting the other person. In India, we write, HON.
PLEASE. Why? It’s because, what happens is, in India, practically, nobody follows the rules while driving. So, at least, if you are not following the rules, you blow the horn so that I know that you are not following the rules.
I’ll take care. So, Indians are desensitised to some extent about the rules of driving. The western people are more sensitised.
But the point which I was making is, that there is a phenomenon called road rage. Road rage means, sometimes people just, while driving, they just get so angry. So, A, if you see somebody driving irrationally, just swinging, changing lanes, and then if you get angry, then you honk at them.
That person might just have a gun, pick up a gun, turn around and shoot you. They said, if you see somebody driving very irrationally, just keep a distance and call the police. So, I am giving all this as an example for the point that, everybody gets angry.
But how they respond to their anger, whether it is by just shutting down or snapping at that person or snapping at everyone or physically hitting someone or taking weapons and hitting someone, all these are a wide variety of reactions. Now, this is an impulsive reaction to anger. Now, they say that, if a person’s impulsive reactions to life’s problems become destructive to themselves or destructive to others.
Destructive to themselves means, if they start trying to commit suicide or they start becoming physically violent against others. If our impulsive reactions become destructive, then that person needs mental health care. That’s their understanding.
So, we all face problems and all of us have our way of dealing with problems. When problems come, we will all be shaken by those problems. And it’s not so easy to just stay the same when problems come.
But how much we get weird off track. I just say, I am angry now, don’t talk with me. We will talk about this later.
That’s one way to deal with anger. But if in anger I start hitting someone, that’s something very different. So now, what determines whether a person on becoming angry will simply just shut down and just put things off for the time being.
Or, the person will become destructively violent towards others. There can be many factors, but one major factor is how many other stabilising connections the person has. If, like I gave the example of the Ramayana, there was a natural emotion of anger and outburst because of the actions of Kai Kai and Mantra in Shatrughnan Bharat.
But they had another connection that was stabilising. That stabilising connection was with Ram. So, the more stabilising connections we have, the less we will be destabilised by life’s ups and downs.
When we talk about life’s ups and downs, it’s often people’s ups and downs also. Consider among the three glaciers, Adhyatmik, Adhibhautik and Adidaivik. Yes, we all get sickness sometimes or our health goes down sometimes.
We may sometimes get weather extremities. Now, if you see in the overall course of life, in today’s world, probably the largest number of glaciers come from the Adhibhautik, from relationships. This goes wrong, that goes wrong, that goes wrong.
So, when this happens, we will be destabilised when people let us down, when people disappoint us, when people betray us, people hurt us. And when we are destabilised like that, whether or how far the destabilisation will affect us depends on how many other stabilising connections we have. So, the more we have healthy stabilising connections, healthy relationships in our life, the less we will be destabilised by life’s ups and downs.
And that’s why, Bhakti is not just a process of detachment. Sometimes we talk about the dichotomy, there’s attachment and there’s detachment. They say attachment is bad.
We should not be attached to things, we should be detached. However, Bhakti is not about detachment. There is attachment, there is detachment, and there is commitment.
Bhakti is primarily about commitment. We become committed to our relationship with Krishna. We become committed to how best I can serve Krishna.
And in that commitment, we get stabilisation. That means no matter what happens, I will do my sadhana. No matter what happens, I will do my swadhya, I will study scripture.
No matter whatever happens, I do my puja. So, we all have different strands which connect us with Krishna. We have our japa, we have our puja, we have our satsang, we have our seva.
All these are different ways in which we can connect with Krishna. And we all may have among the various activities in Bhakti, certain things that stabilise us. That means certain things which we like to do.
Somebody would just like kirtans very much. Somebody would like to do seva very much. Somebody would like to hear classes.
So, whatever it is that we feel inspired to do, we become committed at least in that. Bhakti is a big thing and to become committed to everything in bhakti may not be so easily possible. But at least one thing, we become committed in that.
And that commitment will give us stabilisation. And with that stabilisation, when other things go wrong in our life, we will not become so destabilised. If we do not have this stabilising connection with Krishna, then the result will be that we will become very vulnerable to life’s ups and downs.
Now, unfortunately, in our devotional life, also emotions may come up which may destabilise us. That means, the same rajasic and tamasic mentality, the same mindset in the mode of passion and ignorance, because of which, we take one thing and just highlight it so much. This is everything.
So, that may come even in devotee association. Where sometimes, because of someone, this devotee did like this to me, she did like that to me, and we become, we equate that devotee’s behaviour with the whole temple or the whole movement. This kind of people are there.
As long as that person comes to the temple, I will not come to the temple. Well, you know, why should that person become so big in your life that that person is going to block your relationship with Krishna? Okay, if we can’t get along with someone, keep some distance. We do our service, they do their service.
But sometimes what happens in devotional circles, we become, instead of getting a broader perspective, sometimes our bhakti makes us more judgemental. I am right and you are wrong. This is the correct understanding and that is the wrong understanding.
And then, just that one perspective, this, you spoke like this, you did like this, that is so wrong. And we become blinded to everything else that may be good in that person. So, this distortion of perspective, where small things are made very big, and big things are neglected.
So, this is what often in religious circles leads to fanaticism. Fanatics are not people necessarily, you know, who are taking out guns and bombs and killing others. That will be fanaticism expressed through physical aggression.
But fanaticism basically means that we take one thing to be everything. We take one matter which is minor and we escalate it to such a major thing that if you are not doing this right, then you are going to go to hell. If you are doing this wrong, you are going to go to hell.
If you don’t do deity worship like this, if you don’t fast like this, if you don’t make initiation like this, if you don’t do like that, if you don’t do like that, you are going to go to hell. So, in Christianity, there are two main groups. There are Catholics and there are Protestants.
How many of you have heard of these terms by any chance? Catholics and Protestants? Yeah. Thank you. So, there are 100 years of war between the two.
At one time, when Protestants were four. So, once, there was a… Now, Protestants don’t have any renounced order. They don’t have any monks or nuns.
Catholics have monks and nuns both. So, once there was a senior nun. She was training some young girls.
And she asked the young girl, you know, what do you want to become when you grow up? She said, I want to become a prostitute. What? What? Oh, Jesus, Hail Mary. What have I heard? Oh, girl, what did you say? She says, I want to become a prostitute.
Oh, thank God, we have been saved. I thought you said I want to become a Protestant. So, one may become so irrationally obsessed with some doctrinal differences.
Protestants and Catholics have some doctrinal differences. Whether the Trinity is there or not there. Things like that.
But, one may think that just going to some other doctrine, going to some other philosophy, going to some other group, that is worse than doing something blatantly immoral. This is the example of how our perspectives can get widely distorted. So, we need to have a sense of balance.
The sense of balance comes when we are able to see what are the big things and what are the small things in our life. One way to understand this, one way to get this sense of perspective is to think in terms of time. If I am very angry with someone about what they have done right now, I can think say 10 years down the line.
How important is this going to be? If we look at our life, what happens is the emotions that we experience in the present, they appear very prominent. But, if we look at our life, maybe one year ago, somebody else had driven us mad at that time. Two years ago, something else or someone else had driven us mad.
There are always people who want to disturb us. And it’s not just that person alone. Basically, it’s Adi Bhauti Klesh.
That Klesh is going to come through different people. And, we have to, if we see in terms of perspective, that okay, in the long run, I am feeling so angry with this person, but, if I die, at the time of death, instead of thinking about Krishna with devotion, I am thinking with anger about this person. What is the use of that? Do I want to carry this emotion with me throughout my life? No.
Yes, that person did something wrong, it hurt me. And we can’t deny the fact that they did wrong or that they hurt us. But, okay, it’s over now.
Keep small things small. The big thing is that I have my relationship with Krishna. I have my service to Krishna.
And let me focus on that. So, this kind of thought exercise, where we think in terms of future, say 5 years down the line, 10 years down the line, or the moment of death, at that time, what really matters will come into sharp focus. Otherwise, the nature of the mind is, especially the mind affected by remorse, the nature of that mind is that it will make small things appear very big.
And we will just get distracted and frustrated because of these small things. And then we won’t have the energy or the focus to do important things in our life. So, I’ll conclude with one incident and some analysis of that incident.
When I had been in Melbourne a few years ago, I had a question-answer session. So, one devotee asked this question to me. Now, if I have to do a seva with some devotee, but that devotee has told me that he doesn’t like me.
So, how do I do service with that devotee? And, if that devotee is here, what would you like to tell that devotee? So, I explained that for a devotee, any relationship with anyone is never with just that person. In every interaction of a devotee, there is always a third person. Who is the third person? Krishna.
Yes, Krishna’s representative, Prabhupada is there. Krishna is there. So, we have to think how can I best serve Krishna in this situation.
So, suppose there is a cloth attendant in a cloth shop and the customers who come. Now, some customers are extremely fastidious, extremely demanding. They’ll want to see the whole cloth shop and then not take any cloth.
They look at 100, 100, 100, 200 dresses and then they say, no, no, none of this is good. So, then what happens? If some customers have got that reputation, then normally if a customer comes in, all the attendants want to go and attend to that customer. But some customers, when they come, all the attendants go away.
You take care. Suppose there is a very irritable customer like this, very demanding, irritating kind of customer. Now, if there is an attendant who handles that person gracefully, without exploring, and at the end of it, very patiently dealing with that customer also, the customer just goes away.
In a sense, you could say that there is attendant faith. If the definition of success for the attendant is making a sale, then the attendant will have faith. But if the attendant has a bigger understanding, there are cameras everywhere and a boss is watching.
And a boss also knows that this customer is a difficult customer. So, if I deal patiently and gracefully with this customer, the boss will observe and the boss may become pleased. And the boss may say, you are a cool guy.
You know how to deal with love. And the boss may promote this attendant. You become in charge of this whole week and you guide other attendants how to take care of tough people.
So, although in the interaction, in terms of making a sale, there was a failure, in terms of pleasing the boss, there was a success. So, similarly, for us, in our day-to-day interactions with others, people will behave sometimes in outrageous ways. That’s just the way people are.
Of course, we can’t say people only behave in outrageous ways. Once I was giving a class and we were talking about tolerance. How we need to tolerate.
So, I asked devotees, we have to tolerate many things in life. What do we need to tolerate? One devotee very enthusiastically raised his hand. He says, yes, we have to tolerate devotees.
I said, yes, it’s a good realisation. And as we advance, we will also realise that devotees are tolerating us. Others have certain things which drive us mad.
And we are also not perfect. We also have certain things which drive others mad. So, we do have to tolerate each other.
The point is that, if we see that our focus is on how can I please Krishna. Now, pleasing Krishna doesn’t mean that that person can do anything and everything and we just passively tolerate. We respond intelligently based on how we can best serve Krishna.
So, sometimes we serve with others. Sometimes we serve through others. Sometimes we serve in spite of others.
What does it mean? That sometimes we serve with others. That person and I, we have to do a service together. And we do something.
That person does something. We form a team and we work together. We serve with others.
But sometimes, some people may just be very disagreeable. At that time, we see that dealing rightly with this person is itself a service. That we see that dealing with this person, it’s not necessary that I am serving with him, with him or her.
And actually, by tolerating, by being humble, by being mature, that itself is a service. So, we serve with others. Sometimes we serve through others.
That means, we see that by interacting with this person also, I can grow in humility. I can grow in tolerance. I can grow in my relationship with Krishna even when this person is being disagreeable.
And sometimes, we serve in spite of others. In spite of others means that person just doesn’t cooperate. That person obstructs us.
Then, we keep some distance from them. And we keep doing our service. That person may still trouble us.
In some way, but we tolerate that and we go our way. Sometimes, we serve in spite of others. So, the important thing is we keep serving Krishna.
Kunti Maharaj says that Just as Ganga flows always towards the ocean, let my consciousness always flow towards you. So, Bhakti Siddhanta Thakur was once asked when he did this, when he had this huge theistic exhibitions in Kolkata. And his theistic exhibitions were 50% of it was, you could say, at one level mundane.
Mundane means he had educational exhibitions about science and technology, the latest advances in that. And many VIPs from Kolkata and Bengal would come to see that. And the remaining 50% was about Gaudiya Vishnu dioramas and Bhakti principles.
So, people would come to see this part and then they would see this part also. So, some very orthodox, conservative kind of people criticised Bhakti Siddhanta Thakur. And they said, what is this? This is all mundane.
You should focus on spiritual. Why are you doing all this mundane stuff? So, Bhakti Siddhanta Thakur said that the Ganga keeps changing its path. That the Ganga, it may be flowing this way earlier, but now it is flowing this way.
If you want to take a path in the Ganga, you have to go where the Ganga is right now. Not where it was yesterday. So, what does this mean? He says that this is the way people’s consciousness is flowing.
So, he says we have to present Krishna Bhakti in that flow of consciousness so that people can connect with it. So, the Ganga, its path keeps changing. Its direction remains the same.
It needs to go towards the ocean. But it keeps changing paths. Similarly, in our life, when we start practising Bhakti, we may be doing one service, we may be associating with one devotee, we may be having one particular understanding.
And that’s how the Ganga of our consciousness flows towards Krishna. But the nature of life is something will get disrupted. Sometimes that devotee gets some misunderstanding about us.
Or that service is taken away because of some devotees do some manipulation against us or whatever. It may be. So, we have to see that my consciousness has to move towards Krishna.
If we just keep asking, why did he do that? Why did she do that? Well, in general, very difficult to figure people out. And especially in Kali Yuga, people’s minds are so complicated, it’s almost impossible to figure anyone out. And, you know, it’s not just people out there.
Sometimes it’s difficult to figure ourselves out also. We do something and why did you do that? I don’t know. Something came over me.
So, it’s very difficult. The why question, why did he do like that? Why did she do like that? The why question is the express way to frustration. Sometimes, the why question just has no answers.
Just move on in our life. Okay, this happened. That doesn’t mean that we passively accept anything and everything.
If our consciousness is flowing this way towards Krishna, some obstacle has come. Now, okay, we try to deal with it intelligently and we try to resolve it. But if it doesn’t resolve, fine, leave it aside.
Find some other channel by which the Ganga can flow. Keep moving towards Krishna. And like that, as we keep moving towards Krishna, in future, after some time, why a particular thing happened, that will be revealed in new course.
Krishna has his plans. And some plans, their purpose may be revealed immediately, after a few hours, after a few days. Sometimes, for some purpose to be revealed, it may take several years.
We see the present and plan the future. This is how it should be. Krishna sees the future and plans the present.
Krishna sees the future and plans the present. That’s why, when things go wrong, instead of asking why, you should ask, Krishna, how can I serve you? This has happened, this has disturbed me terribly, but I am your servant, Krishna. Krishna, please guide me.
How can I serve you? If we keep this focus, Krishna, how can I serve you? We will find another channel to move towards Krishna. As our consciousness keeps moving towards Krishna, we will eventually find out why this blockage happened and what we were meant to learn by this. So, to illustrate this, I will just tell one more story.
I was speaking this in Florida, in one class, about how Krishna knows the future and plans the present. He sees the future. So, one Russian ma’am came to me after the class and she told her experience here.
She had gone to New Vrindavan. New Vrindavan is a spiritual resort which Prabhupada has created on top of a mountain in Virginia. It’s a very remote, isolated place.
She was there and suddenly she got a phone that she is immediately summoned back to work. But she had no way to get back to work. So, then she enquired among others, there is no public transport so easily available in that area.
So, then she found out there is one devotee who was going next morning at around 10 o’clock. So, she met that devotee and said, yes, I can drop you to the airport. So, she came to the decided spot.
She came at 9.45 there. She was waiting 10.50, 10.30, 10.45, 11, 11.50, 11.30. She was trying to call this devotee because it’s a remote place. The phones did not have such a good range.
And finally, around 11.40, she got that devotee and said, oh, I am very sorry, I forgot completely. She said, I also have to go urgently. I am already half way there.
If I come back, I will miss my flight. So, I can’t come back. She was furious.
She said, you just dropped me like this. She was just seething with anger. And she didn’t know what to do.
So, she found another way to go next morning. And that evening, she had come to the temple. And then another Mataji told her, you know that young man who had come today morning, he left.
She said, yes, what about him? He said, his car was in a terrible accident. He said, he was hit by a drunken driver. And that drunken driver hit him full on the passenger side.
So, he said that he was safe. He was wounded, but he was in the hospital. But if anybody had been sitting on the passenger side, the person would have died instantly.
So, she said, that time I understood why that boy forgot. You could say it was his carelessness, her karma, whatever it is. But whatever it is, Krishna has his plans.
So, bad things happen in life, but Krishna can bring good things out of the bad also. We just have to keep serving him, keep ourselves connected with him, so that when the bad things happen, we don’t become so destabilised, so disoriented, that we end up doing something stupid or destructive. Yes, bad things happen, we will feel bad about it.
Okay, but we stabilise ourselves and keep moving towards Krishna. When we have this stabilising connection, then we will move steadily towards Krishna and eventually we will find that whatever bad things have happened in our life, they all will bring out good for us. So, I will summarise what I spoke today and then we can have a few questions if anyone has.
So, I spoke today about how we can keep a sense of balance. And I started by explaining how sometimes the mode of ignorance means that we see one thing and make it into everything. So, with respect to emotion, so the emotion of hate towards someone can become so great.
Like a parent, the hate towards one’s spouse becomes so great that one becomes blinded to the emotion of parental affection towards the child. Or alcoholic’s addiction to alcohol becomes so great that one becomes desensitised to the fact that one’s loved ones are starving. So, this making of one thing into everything is characteristic of the mode of ignorance.
And when one thing becomes everything, then our reactions to that one thing going wrong become excessive. So, when people need mental health care, when their impulsive reactions to bad things become destructive. So, our when I get angry, whether I just shut down or I fightfully shout at others or I assault physically or I start using weapons to kill.
These are all reactions to anger. But they are increasingly destructive. So, the more stabilising connections we have, the less we will be destabilised by life’s ups and downs.
So, Shatrughna and Bharat’s anger towards Kaikeyi and Mantara was justifiable. But they did not act on that anger because they had the stabilising connection with Rama. What will be is Rama.
So, the three modes basically, they shape our perspective. In the mode of ignorance, we just see one thing and make that into everything and act irrationally, disproportionately. So, mode of goodness means, first there is contemplation, then there is action.
Oh, this has happened, but this is the big picture. And then, how should I act? In the mode of passion, there is first action, then contemplation. Why did I do that? And in the mode of ignorance, there is just delusion.
Just doesn’t even understand what one is doing. So, the modes, they shape our perception and they distort our emotions. And the more stabilising connections we develop, the less we will be destabilised.
So, bhakti is not just about detachment. It is about commitment. Commitment means that we find out how the channel, how our consciousness can be moving towards Krishna constantly.
Sometimes, just like a Ganga, one channel gets blocked. We find some other channel and make sure the consciousness keeps moving. So, whatever it is that we feel inspired by in bhakti, we do that determinately and by doing that determinately, make sure that we move steadily towards Krishna.
And the why question, why people act in which way, if we can find out and resolve, that is good. But rather than just obsessing over that person, we see that it is adhivalti klesh, which is just a feature of material existence and we move on with life. The power of hate or anger towards one person should not be allowed to become so big that it blocks the power of our devotion towards Krishna.
And this distortion is meant to be corrected by our spiritual practises. But sometimes within our spiritual practises also, we may become judgemental. This is right and that is wrong.
And we may again get a distorted perspective. Like a catholic thinking that becoming a protestant is worse than becoming a prostitute. So, like that we may… So, keeping perspective means understanding what things are small and what things are big.
And keeping small things small and focussing on the big things. One way to do that is to see in the future. 5 years down the line, 10 years down the line, especially at the time of death.
How much will this matter? So, when we keep perspective, then we will be able to avoid destabilisation. Rather than letting ourselves get frustrated by asking why, we can change the question to how. Krishna, how can I serve you? And if we keep serving Krishna, then in due course, it will be revealed.
Now, why particular things happened? Like this girl who found out why that boy forgot it. Saved her life actually. So, Krishna sees the future and plans the present.
So, rather than resenting what is happening in the present, we can simply focus on trying to serve Krishna to the best of our capacity. Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? Do we have time for questions? Yes, sir.
How can we differentiate between commitment and attachment? In general, we have to see that we have, our spiritual advancement is our responsibility. Ultimately, it is not at the time of death, it is we who have to remember Krishna. Prabhupada says we all have to fly our own plane.
So, we know our mind, we know our senses, we know our situation, and we have to find out how best I can serve Krishna. At the same time, sometimes our perspective may be distorted because the mind offers one perspective of things and sometimes it may be distorted. So, we need the guidance of others who help us say, I am thinking like this, but I am thinking like this, but this perspective also on this.
So, then we have to get a balanced understanding both ways. One way is to treat the mind like a child. Sometimes when a child starts crying, what does the mother do? The mother is the mother’s responsibility to calm the child.
There may be other mothers who are more experienced, they may tell you can try this, you can try that, you can try this. And it is good to get guidance from others, but ultimately that child is the mother’s responsibility. And the mother has to find the best way the child can be kept quiet.
So, like that, our mind is like our child. And sometimes doing a particular service, others may tell us you do this, but it just doesn’t work for us, it just drives us mad. So, then we have to have some devotee association, some devotee guide, some devotee friend who understands our mind.
The devotee understands our mind and helps us understand our mind. They are two things, different things. It helps understand the mind.
Yes, this child cries so much. But then, acknowledge that the child is crying a lot. Understand that.
Some children are more, some children cry more than others. They understand it, but then they also help us understand our mind. Your mind is feeling like this because of this.
And this what it is saying is right, but this what it is saying is not so right. So, we have to have a healthy discussion between us and others, somebody who we can trust, by which we come to a working relationship with our mind. We don’t want to work for our mind, we can’t work very long against our mind.
We have to work with our mind. For means, we do whatever the mind tells us to do. Against means, if the mind feels like it, I will just not do it.
But we can’t suppress, keep suppressing it forever. So, we work with our mind. That means that, say, if we consider that there is a circle of what my mind likes, and there is a circle of Krishna Bhakti.
Now, there is some intersection point between the two. And that is where we can sustainably practise Bhakti. Sometimes, as a matter of surrender, as a matter of service attitude, we may have to come out of this circle and do some things which we don’t like to do also.
That is our surrender. At the same time, we can’t keep doing that constantly. Like earlier, I gave the example that some people, just working with them is like a walking through minefield.
So now, we all have people like that, and we can’t avoid them. Sometimes, it may not be possible to avoid them. But, if that is the only kind of people we have in our life, life will become unbearable.
We need to have, yes, that relationship is there. In some relationship, we get strength, we get perspective, we get joy. And then, by that strength, we can deal with the other relationships.
So, we need, we may have to do something which are outside the circle of what the mind likes. But, we also need something within that circle of intersection by which we can stay stable. And then, sometimes it may be that the mind may pull us towards things which are outside the circle of Krishna Bhakti also.
Then, you have to see, I have to be cautious about this. How far am I going out of this? Do I need to go out of this? So, it’s very difficult internally to analyse, is this a commitment or is this an attachment? Where something is coming from? Is it coming from our spiritual inspiration towards Krishna? Or, is it coming from the conditioned impulse of the mind? Where something is coming from is very difficult to find out. What we can see is where it is taking us.
Okay, this activity when I do, what is the result? Is it making me more strabler in my bhakti? Or, is it making me more and more one-sided, more and more biassed, more and more self-righteous of what I am doing and how everybody is doing wrong? So, A, we see that. And, if it’s taking us closer towards Krishna, then that is perfectly fine. So, this way, by having association, by learning to work with our mind, not for or against, and by seeing where is it taking us, instead of where it is coming from, we can discern what is favourable for our bhakti and keep to that.
And what is unfavourable, and we can avoid that. Okay? Thank you. Yes, Mataji? Okay.
Okay, the first one was, thank you for the wonderful class programme. It was very interesting. It connected a lot of perspectives.
So, the first question was, in the first instance, the example that you mentioned, that Kaikeyi wanted to please Bharat. So, she did not have any personal motive in actually asking Ram to go to the forest. She actually wanted to please her son.
And she thought that Bharat would be pleased if he was with the king. And Bharat also, while he was very angry with Kaikeyi, he did not go against her, because he wanted to please Lord Ram. Right? So, ultimately, the intention was to please the loved one, while one correctly estimated what would please the other person.
Most of the times, we want to please the other person, but we don’t know what will actually please. So, how do we get the correct intelligence around that? That’s one. Second thing is, you said, action without contemplation is passion.
Contemplation before action is in the mode of goodness, and action without contemplation would be in the mode of ignorance. So, is it right to say that at least you action before contemplation to at least move above ignorance? You know, at least you are a little bit above ignorance, or do you wait? Because sometimes you contemplate, contemplate so much, and before you take an action, it actually is too late. So, do you action without contemplation at least to move above ignorance? That’s my second question.
My third question is, you know, Prabhupada said, just chant Hare Krishna and whatever good qualities you want will automatically come to you, you know. So, you don’t have to separately endeavour to achieve any of these good qualities. So, sometimes we wonder that, you know, we’ve been chanting and doing all this for 10 years, and sometimes even when you go to book distribution, you don’t have the right intelligence to answer the person.
If you just answer, at least I’ve read that 3-4 people, if you just answered correctly to their question, you would have sold the book, you would have given Krishna consciousness to that person, and then later on you regret that, you know, why did Krishna not give me the intelligence to answer that person’s question at the right time and the right manner. So, these are the three questions. Okay.
I think they are three separate questions. I’ll have to answer them separately. So, both Bharat and Kaikeyi wanted to please somebody else.
Bharat wanted to please Ram, and Kaikeyi wanted to please Bharat. But they acted wrongly, because they estimated wrongly, Kaikeyi estimated wrongly what will please Bharat. Yes.
So, see, the intention is good. But they are saying in English that the road to hell is often paved with good intention. That means, sometimes I may do something with good intention, but if I don’t have the proper knowledge, if I don’t have the proper understanding, then I can’t do it.
So, if a person does not know surgery and that person tries to operate somebody else, it will be disaster. So, now, Kaikeyi, actually I have a whole class on comparing mantra with the mind. So, Kaikeyi basically made two mistakes.
First was, she heard very submissively from mantra. And second was, she did not consult anyone else. She came to a decision before consultation.
And after that, whatever everybody else spoke, that only reinforced her perception. Whoever spoke against her scheme, that you are all partial, you are all in a conspiracy against Bharat and me. So, sometimes our mind may pursue something in a particular way.
This person is like this, this person is like this, this person is like this, this person is like this. And it’s not so easy to silence the mind at that time. So, what do we do at that time? We need to consult someone else.
Okay, I am feeling like this, this person did this to me, you know, it’s terrible. But, you know, how do I deal with this? Sometimes that person may actually be wrong. Or sometimes, we may do something which is meant to please a person.
But whether that will actually please the person, we don’t know. So, Kaikeyi’s mind created an imaginary Bharat, who will be very pleased by her actions. But when that imaginary Bharat collided with the real Bharat, when Bharat came back, that time she realised it was just an imagination.
But by that time, it was already too late. So, what we need to do is, have some other friends, some other devotees, some other people who know the situation and consult them. So, the intention to please is important.
It has to be accompanied by the knowledge of how to please and what will actually please. And for that, we need to complement the ideas that are coming internally within us with the ideas from others. With the proper inputs from those who are mature.
Those who will not hesitate to challenge our understanding of things. Not that they will just dismiss us judgementally. But not that they will be yes-men also.
They will objectively and gently explain to us. And then we can form a proper understanding of what to do. The second question was? Yeah.
So, when I said that in goodness, there is contemplation before action. In passion, there is action before contemplation. And in ignorance, there is neither.
So, sometimes, is it better that one do something rather than rather than just staying in the mode of ignorance? So, is getting in the mode of passion better than staying in the mode of ignorance? Yes. Passion is better than ignorance. Definitely.
But goodness is the best. So, basically, it’s not that these three modes are three distinct things. We all go through different situations at different times.
So, there is in English, there are two words impulses and instincts. Impulses are those thoughtless actions which are destructive. So, if somebody speaks hurtingly to me, immediately I get angry and I punch them in the face.
That is a violent impulse. But, if I am sitting here and my hand touches here and suddenly I get an electric shock. Gently my hand moves away.
This is a instinct, a survival instinct within the body. So, in both instinct and impulses, there is no conscious use of the intelligence. It’s unconscious action.
But, instinct is, we could say, programmed intelligence. Whereas, impulse is unintelligent action. Impulse leads to unintelligent action.
So, for us, we all are good at certain things. So, for example, some people, when kirtan is going on and say, the person who is leading the kirtan, they change the tune. How to play the mrudanga, how to play the karta, some people just get it immediately.
They start playing immediately. Some people, you know, somebody has changed the tune but they are playing karta like the previous tune. So, there, they don’t get it immediately.
So, we all, where our instincts are good, we can actually act even without contemplation and we’ll get it right. So, if we are good at certain things and we found, I just figured it out quickly, then we don’t need to keep contemplating because sometimes too much contemplation will be like living in the head and that leads to what is called paralysis by analysis. So, I just keep thinking, thinking and I don’t do anything at all.
So, generally, we need to, first of all, if something is, we have a good instinct towards that, then doing it based on our gut feeling is fine. But we can look back at our own life and see in which areas when we acted without conscious reflection, what is the result? Some places, you know, when we get angry, when we feel depressed, when we feel, we all have our own mental pathways. And we know, on this path, I can move very smoothly.
On this path, when I move, there are a lot of bumps over here. So, by self-observation and by consulting with others who can also help us better understand ourselves, we can decide, this is a path where I have a good instinct, so I just go with my gut feeling. But this is where my impulses go wrong.
So, this is where I will not act. I have to be cautious. And that way, we won’t let overthinking keep us from coming to, from acting practically.
So, we could say, instincts are more like in the mode of goodness. In the sense that we act with our programmed intentions. Impulses, they start with passion, they go towards ignorance.
So, if we find out properly through self-observation and consulting others, then we can act instinctively and also get things done. And some things where our instincts may not be good, we take time for calm reflection and then decide. So, there are some times in life when we have to decide in the heat of the moment.
Now, what do I do? And then we may do something, it may be right, it may be wrong. But we learn from it. And generally, if there are major plans which we are going to make, major policies for ourselves we are going to decide, that we shouldn’t decide in the heat of the moment.
That we sit down calmly when we have done some prayer, done some Shastric study, when we are in the mode of goodness, then we make a plan. This happens, I do this. This happens, I just check myself.
And that way when we act, we will be able to decide naturally. Thank you. And the third question was? Yeah, I got the question.
So, is it that by chanting alone all good qualities will come? There is the principle which operational principle for Bhakti, which Rupa Goswami gives us in Bhakta Samhita. That is, somehow or the other fix the Manakrishna. So, it is our responsibility.
Chanting will lead to purification, it will lead to transformation, no doubt. At the same time, each one of us comes from a different background. And for the medicine of the holy name to work, what will take how much time? We don’t know.
Some people, they just start chanting and their anger goes away immediately. For some people, they are chanting for 40 years and still they get angry. It is not that one person is chanting sincerely, the other person is chanting insincerely.
No, it is just that anger as a samskara, anger as an impression in the mind, may have been very superficial for one person. And for the other person, it might have been very deep rooted. So, there is the ultimate cure that is chanting.
But the ultimate cure may not always be the immediate or the intermediate cure. Immediate or intermediate, we may need other things also. Prabhupada, he said, chanting is everything.
At the same time, he spent so much time writing books. And Prabhupada, in his classes, how often does he say, chant Hare Krishna, chant Hare Krishna? No. Most of his classes are about serious philosophy.
You are not the body, you are the soul. God is not impersonal. This material world is dukkhalayam.
So, what happens is Prabhupada, if we cannot isolate, again, one statement of an acharya from everything else that the acharya has done. So, Prabhupada gave us books. Prabhupada gave us a whole lifestyle.
Prabhupada connected us with the whole bhakti culture that has been going on for millennia. And we have to find out how best we can serve Krishna better and better. How we can become better human beings.
How we can become more responsible devotees. How we can become better family members. How we can become better in our contribution to Krishna.
So, chanting is vital in it. But the transformation is what has to result. And how that will result, we all have to observe.
Certainly, all of us can and should improve our chanting. But at the same time, learning something about our mind, I am acting this way, I should act this way. Especially people who are a little more educated, more analytical, more intellectual.
For them, often, the way to the heart is through the head. It’s when we understand something, when we get convinced, then we feel like doing it. Otherwise, we chant but it becomes very mechanical.
And it is not transformational. So, therefore, studying the philosophy and learning about ourselves is also important. So, bhakti will take us ultimately to transcendence.
And that’s where we want to go. But while we are going towards transcendence, chanting can raise us to goodness. But some other things can also raise us to goodness sometimes.
Suppose, I am chanting and my mind is going very wild. I just calm down and take a few deep breaths. And I take a few deep breaths, I feel calm.
Then I may be able to chant better. Or sometimes, I am just chanting but I am feeling very sleepy. I just wash my face.
That grogginess, that tamoguna mode of ignorance goes off. Then I may be able to chant better. So, the key thing is that we want to connect with Krishna.
And whatever it takes, ये न के न प्रकारे न मनन कृष्ण निवेशेथ So, rather than obsessing over the process, we have to focus on the product. The product is, I should become transformed. My consciousness should become clearer, calmer, better.
And ultimately, the remembrance of Krishna is the most important thing. Immediately or intermediately, if some other things help me to come to the mode of goodness, and that helps me to chant better and serve better, that’s wonderful. Actually, Prabhupada himself told once in an interview, when people asked him, when the interviewer asked him, how do we know you are followers? So, Prabhupada said, they are perfect gentlemen.
Perfect ladies and perfect gentlemen. Now, you may say, what is this perfect gentlemen? Prabhupada could have said, oh, my followers chant Hare Krishna, they follow the four aggregate principles, they believe in Krishna as the Supreme Personality of God. Yes, all that is true.
But this was an interview with somebody who is not a devotee. What are they going to understand about our chanting? They are going to see our behaviour. So, we have to conduct ourselves in a proper way.
There is Siddhanta, there is Sadhana, there is Seva, there is Sadhacharya. Siddhanta is our philosophy. Sadhana is our chanting and other things.
Seva is what we do in the temple. As far as the world is concerned, the world does not want to care about these three things. Okay, what is the difference, what is your philosophical understanding, what time you wake up in the morning, how often you go to the temple? What is the world going to care? The world is going to care about us, Sadhacharya.
How do we behave? So, if some thought exercises, some practical insights can help us to become more gentle, more sensitive, more calm, more tolerant, more respectful, then that can help us also to behave in a more responsible way. Once the devotees were staying at one place, like a two-sided apartment, on the other side, there was a very elderly lady and she just couldn’t digest the idea of these young hippies coming and making so much noise and she complained to the local municipal authorities and the devotees were facing a lot of trouble. So, at that time, when Prabhupada came there and they told, now devotees, whenever anybody troubles them, they say, he is a demon.
We demonise others very easily. He said, she is a demon. Prabhupada did not respond to her.
So, Prabhupada had gone for a morning walk and when he came back, he just went and met her straight. And Prabhupada sat and talked with her. Yes, typical old people talk, you know, okay, where is your daughter? Where is your son? What do they do? Almost half an hour he was talking.
And the devotees were thinking, when will Prabhupada tell her to chant Hare Krishna? Prabhupada did not speak anything at all. And then, when Prabhupada left, the devotees had this question. Prabhupada did not speak anything about Krishna.
So, then, Prabhupada said, sometimes, old people get lonely. And because of their loneliness, they become irritable. So, Prabhupada just connected with her at a human level.
And then, after Prabhupada left, the devotees met her and said, Oh, your Swami is such a nice person. And she became very favourable to the devotees. So, Prabhupada brought her closer to Krishna without speaking one word about Krishna.
It was through actions. So, our actions need to reflect our devotion. And it doesn’t have to reflect our devotion necessarily in our telling everyone, you have to become a devotee.
Our actions can reflect our devotion even in our sattva guni conduct. So, we have to see that chanting Hare Krishna will take me back to Krishna. But while I am in this world, I have to function as much as possible in the mode of goodness.
And if cultivating certain qualities in a conscientious way helps me to come to the mode of goodness, then we can see that as an effort that is uncool to our bhakti. And we can do that. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Last question.
Thank you for this wonderful class. One very basic question. We have Arjuna who was in dilemma that whether he should fight or not.
And he was being told to fight to please Krishna. That is to serve Krishna. At the second sight, Bharat kept quiet because he didn’t want to displease Rama against Kaikeyi.
And at the very same sight, Arjuna was told that you need to fight to please Krishna. Now this is a dilemma, right? And now we as a human being forget Bharat and Arjuna, they were far far higher. Is the question when we should act and when we should stay silent? When and how we should act.
So Bharat restrained himself and Kaikeyi when he felt strongly about acting against Kaikeyi. But Arjuna was impelled to act for the service of Rama. So when do we decide when to act or to stay silent? Yes, the principle is we are meant to serve Krishna.
Now how we serve Krishna will vary depending on time, place and circumstance. Bhakti takes many forms at different times. So for example, one standard example of surrender that we have is Draupadi.
She surrendered to Krishna raising her hands. Total dependence on Krishna. But then Arjuna was also told to surrender to Krishna.
Arjuna said, yes, I surrender to you. Karishchiyavichinamdava, 73. But in how does Arjuna surrender? He is not raising his hands up and down.
Arjuna is picking up his bow in readiness to fight. So there is surrender expressed through dependence on Krishna and there is surrender expressed through diligence for Krishna. Diligence means being responsible and doing what we are told to do.
About 20-25 years ago when I first started giving classes, I was given some guidelines on how to speak in public. And the last guideline was depend on Krishna. But in bracket, but only after you have prepared.
So we all have to, there are times when we need to be dependent and there are times when we need to be diligent. So the broad understanding is that for all of us there are certain things in our control and certain things out of our control. So surrender means we become very diligent about what is in our control.
And we stay dependent about that which is not in our control. So for example, if I am giving a class, then before the class I can be prepared. And that preparation is my diligence for Krishna.
But once I start giving a class or especially after the class when question answers come, I don’t know what kind of questions are going to come. So then it’s dependence on Krishna. Whatever question comes, whatever intelligence I get, I’ll use it for Krishna’s service.
So broadly speaking, bhakti has both these items, dependence and diligence. And we have to see our particular situation and based on that situation we think how best can I serve Krishna in this situation. Is it by fighting on in this situation to make sure that this happens or is it by letting go? Because I have other things to do in my life.
So again if we have a perspective, if something is our vital service to Krishna, then we have to get it done. So we won’t give that up. But sometimes we say, I have to do this service, but it’s not working out over here.
So I’ll let it go and I’ll do it in some other way. Bhakti Sahaja Yoga, I told Prabhupada to preach. Now Prabhupada was trying for 40 years in India.
But he didn’t get much result. So what did he do? He was not just passively dependent on Krishna. Even if people don’t come, don’t become devotees, still I’ll keep preaching.
He had the determination. But he saw people not coming in India, he went all the way to America. That required hard work.
That was diligence to get the contacts, to get the sponsorship, to get the visa, everything. It was diligence for Krishna. So bhakti is a dynamic dance between dependence and diligence.
And initially we take guidance from senior devotees. When we are facing situations, what should I do in this situation? As we come more and more towards the mode of goodness, then we can see the present situation in the light of the broader picture. And then we can understand, okay, this is important.
I have to fight for this. This is not only important. Let me put this aside so that I can fight bigger battles.
So that capacity to choose, to see what is in my control, what is beyond my control, to see what is more important for me and what is not that important for me, that can help us to decide when to act and when to let go. So thank you very much. Shloka