Making sense of things in our life | BG 18.14 | HG Chaitanya Charan Pr | 2nd October

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much.
Before I start today, I would like to ask you, What is the problem you talk about? Why should I send you a book? How would you answer it in, say, one sentence? What is the Bhagavad Gita about? What is its relevance? Why should we study it? Any thoughts? I think the Bhagavad Gita can prevent decision making. Can you explain how exactly? So, we have to take decisions on the basis of our values. So, we are confused which perspective or which particular thing we have to give more weightage to rather than something else like kindness or something like that.
It’s a good thought. Decision making is a parallelisation of values. So, which values are being parallelised? That was, in fact, the starting dilemma of Arjuna.
For Arjuna, there were two values. Arjuna, at the start, he had his Kshatriya Dharma. He was a warrior and that brought a value with it that I should fight.
And then, And then, he had his Kula Dharma. Kula Dharma is his dynastic view. Which was telling him, don’t fight.
This is your own dynasty. If you fight against this, the entire dynasty will be destroyed. And he was torn between these two.
He asked the question, If you fight against this, the entire dynasty will be destroyed. What is the right thing to do? These two are going in opposite directions. So, we have to take a decision.
Look up. Realising our identity. What does that mean? Realising our identity.
I have this identity. I am a student. I am an IT graduate.
I have this identity. What do you mean by realising identity? There are many identities. But not all identities.
But there are many layers of all identities. Like, a lot of identities. But not all identities.
Like, I am a student. So, we have many different identities. So, what that tells us is that, We have, what we can call as a, Fundamental or foundational identity.
And then, we have many functional identities. So, our functional identity will be based on our gender, Our age, Our profession, Our nationality, Our… So, based on all these, We have our particular identities. Income, middle class, upper class.
So, these identities change. Our identity chain changes. Our identity based on income may also change.
So, if our identity is reduced to a functional identity, Then we won’t be able to be very stable. So, we need to have an identity that does not change. And based on that identity, Then we can choose.
I am an eternal spiritual being. There is a core of me that is indestructible. And with that understanding, I can move forward, And I can play various roles in my life.
When you give a manual of life, It gives us many insights, right? Like, how do we interact with this material world? How do the modes of material nature make us act in different platforms? So, manual for life. I also used to use the word manual. Now, I stopped using that.
I prefer the word manual. Because life is too complicated to have a manual. A manual like that, You press this button, this will happen.
You press this button, this will happen. Life is too complicated. So, it gives us guiding principles, By which we can understand how the outer world works, How the inner world works.
And then we can make decisions. Anything else? Purpose of life. Yes.
So, you can say, what is the purpose of life? Now, we all have our purposes. But then, is there some ultimate purpose of life? You can say, we all have our individual or subjective purposes. So, I want to become an engineer.
I want to become a millionaire. I want to become an influencer. So, we all have our subjective purposes.
But beyond that, is there an objective purpose of life? Is there a universal purpose of life? So, we learn about it. Anything else? How to act and direction can make us reach towards the goal? So, act here to go there. You can put it that way.
You act in this world, Then you can attain some kind of destination. Good points. And last one.
To understand why certain things happen to us. To understand why certain things happen to us. Yes.
To make sense of life’s events. In fact, One of the simplest definitions of philosophy. Philosophy.
When you say, you study language, you can speak, you study maths, you can do calculations. So many branches of knowledge that have practical value. What is the use of philosophy? Essence of philosophy, The purpose of philosophy, Is to make sense of things that don’t make sense.
Make sense of things that don’t make sense. And that’s why most people don’t turn philosophical unless they come to something that doesn’t make sense. So, the normal way of living is, I do some good, I get some good.
I work hard, I am successful. But then suddenly, you see something promising both times. How can this make sense? Or somebody works very hard and they fail.
They don’t make sense. So, things don’t make sense at that time. At that time, we need a bigger world.
The village took place our experience. And thereby, make sense of things. So, I will focus on one particular aspect of the teaching of Vedanta.
It has many different aspects to it. That is, aspect of making sense of what happens in our life. So, I will speak about one of the most positive verses of the Gita.
This is 18-14. The Gita talks about how actions produce results. I will explain the Gita and then we will write a recital.
Adhishtanam. Adhishtanam is the place, the venue. Katha, karta.
Karta is the venue. Adhishtanam katha karta. Adhishtanam katha karta.
Karanam. Karanam is the senses of the tools which we have. Chak, pruthat, vidham.
Vidham is varieties. So, there are various instruments in pruthat vidham. So, basically, variety of senses that we have, sensory tools.
Karanam chak pruthat vidham. Karanam chak pruthat vidham. Vidhas chak pruthat cheshtam.
That we do various kinds of endeavours. And the endeavours also continue. Vidhas chak pruthat cheshtam.
Vidhas chak pruthat cheshtam. Daivam. Daivam cha eva akram.
Certainly in this. Panchamam. That is the fifth one.
Daivam cha eva akram panchamam. Daivam cha eva akram panchamam. Adhishtanam katha karta.
Adhishtanam katha karta. Karanam chak pruthat vidham. Karanam chak pruthat vidham.
Vidhas chak pruthat cheshtam. Vidhas chak pruthat cheshtam. Daivam cha eva akram panchamam.
Daivam cha eva akram panchamam. Let us recite this together. Adhishtanam katha karta.
Adhishtanam katha karta. Karanam chak pruthat vidham. Vidhas chak pruthat cheshtam.
Daivam cha eva akram panchamam. Adhishtanam katha karta. Karanam chak pruthat vidham.
Vidhas chak pruthat cheshtam. Daivam cha eva akram panchamam. Adhishtanam katha karta.
Karanam chak pruthat vidham. Vidhas chak pruthat cheshtam. Daivam cha eva akram panchamam.
So, education in general has two aspects to it. One is to make the complex simple. And the other is to make the simple complex.
What I mean by that is that which we think is simple may not actually be that simple. One aspect of education is to bring simplicity out of complexity. But the other is, as Einstein said, you make things as simple as possible, but not simpler than possible.
So the idea is to be simplistic where we miss out on, or we overlook the nuance of complexity. So, we are starting the colour education of a child. We start by, the world around us is very complex.
This is black, this is white. These are very easy to identify. It’s essential first step.
So, black and white. But then, as the child grows, it’s good for the child to start identifying black and white. But most of reality is not black and white.
There are many different colours in between. And if you consider black and white in modern categories, there are shades of green between. So there, life is not just going to be in shades of green.
So basically, there are two aspects to education. To see how the complex is simple and how what we think is simple is not that simple. There could be complexity there.
So here, Krishna is actually talking about the complexity of something. There is a basic principle of karma. That is, action leads to result.
I am writing something right now and that is appearing on the screen. So there is action and there is result. And this is how we all operate.
I am speaking, the sound is coming to me. And this correlation, you could say, this connection, this connection between action and result is one of the basic features of truth. When a newborn baby is crying.
Now, the baby may be hungry, the baby doesn’t even know what hunger is. The baby may just feel some discomfort in the belly. And then the mother offers her breast to the baby and the baby drinks whatever it is doing.
But the baby slowly thinks, I have a pain here, what comes in from here will be here. It is not a straightforward correlation. The discomfort is in one place but the comfort is coming from another place.
But the link between cause and result cause and effect or action and result that is a key sign of truth. And as we grow, we understand that the cause and the correlation can be more and more complex. Normally speaking, if I am polite to someone that person is polite to me.
I am nice to you, you are nice to me. So that is how we normally behave. But if I am nice to someone, then that person is rude to me.
It is not a good thing. Then we understand that maybe I was rude to that person in the past and I have forgotten what they remember. Or maybe I belong to some community and somebody from my community treated them badly.
And that is why they are treating me badly. So basically what happens is at a basic level, we understand that action and result is like a frame, a framework in which we put events. But sometimes we understand that the action may not be related to the result in a month to month.
There might be some action from the past which may also be contributing. So right now, say I am being nice to someone and that person is being rude to me. Now that may be because maybe I was rude to that person in the past.
So when I get the present result it is not just because of the present action. It is present action plus past action. So here you could say that maybe I am putting in 100 positive but I am getting 100 negative.
Why? Because I am putting 200 negative in the past. So this is how Krishna says that the movements of karma are complex. Because my action and result are always connected but it may not be a straightforward connection.
Now we also understand this in our day to day life in various other ways. Say two people pick up a piano and start playing or pick up a guitar and start playing or pick up a drum and start playing. Now one person has practised playing for 100 hours and the second person has not practised at all.
Both of them take the same action and both of them start beating the drum. Now one person sees more and the other person no more. So the action is the same but the result is different because there is previous action.
So now with this understanding action result is always there so the connection is there but it may not be just that framework. So now as we learn to expand the framework now the past action can affect us or can appear in our life in many different ways. So let’s see what Krishna is telling in this verse.
If we consider two mountains this is the result and this is the action. So we want to build a bridge between action and result. Krishna is saying this bridge has five planks and these five planks that lead to the result.
The first is the Karta. Karta is the being, the soul, the doer. So without the person doing something nothing is going to happen.
Somebody will be a talented, phenomenal painter but in that case he cannot do anything. The Karta has to be there. Then So then the appropriate Karanam has to be there.
Now Karanam literally refers to the authoritative senses. It is two senses but it is more the tools for action. The tools for action they often contain within them the talents, the abilities.
So if we compare the tool for action of a singer and say we have somebody did an x-ray of her or a MRI scan of her throat and compared all her throat it is not that her throat muscles are made of gold. Is it? But that is metaphorical. The physical organ is the same.
Maybe those muscles have been more developed because of praying and practising. But apart from that when we are talking about the Karanam over here there are lots of physical senses. It is the particular ability that works the best.
Then there is the Adhishthan. Adhishthan is the place. Where are the actions being done? Say when I started travelling abroad around 8-9 months ago when I started going to America when I travelled to Bangladesh I often used to compare them with examples.
So when I was doing programmes for Americans my organisers told me don’t use any cricket examples. I said why? Do they like cricket over here? No. For Americans cricket is an insect.
It is not a game. They have no idea. Now slowly with the Indian diaspora it has become more influential over there.
We have the cricket world cup also over there. Slowly cricket is becoming a little more well known. Suppose there is an American young boy or an American youth who is very talented at cricket.
But there may not be much place over there. The place is not right for him. Or say an Indian who is very good at baseball.
Unless a talent scout from America comes here the other Indians may also go on. They may not know what you are doing. Play cricket.
So even if the talent is there the right place has to be there. Without a place the talent will not be practised. Talent will not be practised.
And then even if the talent is there after that Keshita is there. Keshita is Indian reality. Even if somewhere there is phenomenal talent there at least the talent needs to be there.
Talent is like a seed. A seed can grow but it will not grow. And sometimes all these might be there.
Talent might be there. The endeavour is there. The endeavour we could call as a success.
Inspiration, one person’s perspiration. Nobody can mathematically put the percentage. But the idea is that you need to endeavour.
And sometimes in spite of all these people there some people just don’t succeed. There are many authors. They died unknown.
And after they died their work shot to big. Somebody published them. Somebody read them.
So they are famous now but they never lived. Or they never experienced that. So after that is the endeavour.
The endeavour is destiny. So all these five factors when they work together then the action translates into a success. Let’s take an example.
If we consider gardening. For gardening we need soil. That is among these factors which would be the factors.
We need fertile soil. That is the base. For gardening we need seeds.
What would that be? The talents. And then after that we actually need to garden. We need to water.
We need to fence. We need to have some protective anti-pesticides or whatever. We need to garden.
That is the endeavour. So if all these three work together then the garden that we think will grow. In some cases the land itself the region itself might be so conducive that even if you drop a seed the seed will grow and you will have roses or mangoes or apples or whatever will grow.
Some parts of the world are that fertile. In some places the soil may not be very fertile. So when for example Indians take Tulsi from America.
They try to grow Tulsi in America. It’s a big challenge. Especially in the winter season.
You have to keep idling. You have to create a greenhouse. A lot of complexities involved.
Sometimes some of these factors may be so conducive that they may not even be noticeable to us. Sometimes those factors will be so prominent that a huge amount of endeavour is required to meet that factor. But these three factors are, if you consider Karta the soul is already there.
The doer is there. And the destiny is what it is. Destiny is nothing mystical.
It is basically a stockpile of unprocessed karma from one’s past. When we come into this life we have some karma that is processed in the sense that we are born in a particular family we have a particular complexion. But we all have certain unprocessed karma.
So if you consider our life journey we have like a karma reservoir that is where karma bank or karma reservoir is. This is unprocessed karma. This is essentially destiny.
So we get a big instalment of our destiny at the time of birth. At the time of our birth the country where we are born, the family which we are born the basic genes that we have, whether we have a complexion or IQ all these are fixed. And then throughout our life some amount of karma may come to us.
So for example the pandemic thing that was you could say a mass karma that has been delivered. But then I know a couple of friends in America who had just started a small business before the pandemic. They had invested in getting the property and suddenly it just rolled down.
They had to keep paying and they had no money. Just financially bankrupt. So now the same event happened but they were hit much harder.
I know another friend who was working in business he just shifted to a software job before the pandemic. And he could work from home and generally software companies actually flourish that time. So during the pandemic he paid a lot of money and he grew.
So how karma may work upon a person specifically they have to vary. Basically we have a destiny that is unprocessed karma some of it keeps coming to us during our life. So when we face a particular situation as in I will focus on that last thing how philosophy can help us to make sense when things don’t make sense.
So then our actions don’t seem to reach a result. At that time what do we do? How do we see? So broadly speaking across the world I will make two more points and then we can have some question answers. There are two broad world views.
We call it as broadly as Karmawad and Taigwad. There are many world views not just two but I am talking about two broad categories of world views. Karmawad is our actions alone introduce the results.
So this is broadly the western world view. That we work hard. We are the makers of our destiny.
We are the masters of our destiny. So work hard means you see. And with this understanding in the west a lot of material progress has been made.
If you work hard, there will be industrials, there will be the result of this at a positive level is material progress. But at a negative level the result of this is mental distress. One mental distress sometimes we may work very hard to do actions beyond our control.
So if I have no bigger philosophical picture to make sense of what went wrong in my life then sometimes we may make we may blame ourselves for things that are beyond our control. So loss is something we all experience in our lives. Sometimes you may apply for a company for a job and don’t get that job.
You want to do something for a competitive exam and don’t get that exam. There are so many things we may try and may not go. So when loss happens, we could interpret it in three different ways.
I have lost. This is a straightforward objective. A little more damaging is I have lost.
And I have put all my eggs in this basket. I know where I am going to go. I have lost.
But the most damaging interpretation is I am a loser. So I am a loser. That means that there is something intrinsically wrong with me and that’s why whatever I do, nothing works.
And I am doomed to be a loser. Now we may say this is the opposite of Karma Vata. But that’s what, if a person goes through one, two, three, four efforts and that person doesn’t succeed.
There is something, something is wrong with me. And it could very well be that that person is going through a bad phase of Karma Vata. And because of that, they just don’t make the results.
But if we take, if we blame ourselves for things that are not happening. Somebody started a business in Covid and then founded a business and then what? They won’t sell it and get by. Who could have predicted a pandemic? So there is no need to beat ourselves up for things that are not happening.
Somebody goes into a particular industry at the time that industry is very prosperous. And then the economy changes and that industry does not work. We have a huge potential to become very big.
Now, civil engineering is not that big. So now, like that, somebody enters the industry and the field itself changes in its importance. You can’t improve these things.
So Karma Vata, today, it is an emphasise, it is a very distorted understanding. Now, Daivabha has become the understanding of the industry. Not saying this is the real understanding, this has become our understanding.
So what is the idea? Destiny alone determines results. destiny alone, all the results are determined by destiny. Whatever we do, nothing makes any difference.
Now, significantly, this is not the teaching of the sages. Destiny is one factor, not the other. Before the Tumshetra war, Vyasadeva and Dhritarashtra, both of them tried to persuade Dhritarashtra to stop them from antagonising the Pandavas.
By talking with Dhritarashtra, both of them, Dhritarashtra used the same argument. If it is the will of almighty destiny, then our dynasty will be destroyed. Then who am I, a tiny mortal, to stop the will of almighty destiny? Dhritarashtra said, destiny determines the consequences of our actions.
Not our actions themselves. Destiny doesn’t determine whether I study for the exam or not. Destiny may determine, after I study, how many marks I get.
One of my close friends is a tennis professional. So he told me that there was this age of big teams. Nadal, Jodhpur, etc.
So in the last 20 years or so, they won all the grand slams. During that period, there were other great tennis players also. But these three were so great, nobody else could go to that scale.
So yes, there are sometimes, somebody can be very talented, somebody can be very hardworking, but sometimes it seems, in history also, there are favourites, like the time when Newton was there. It seems that that time, lot of brilliant scientists or brilliant minds appeared one time in one place. In history also, around the time of Bhaskaracharya, lot of brilliant brains appeared in one place.
So maybe some people go to that time, others don’t go to that time. So it’s possible that other scientists may also have done some research at that time, but they couldn’t get recognition. That lack of recognition would have stopped the scientists from doing their scientific research.
So destiny, what it determines is? It determines the results of actions. It does not limit the actions that it does. The child is now studying for the exam.
The mother says, why are you not studying? I know what your destiny is going to be if you don’t study. I’ll punish you later. So destiny is not an excuse for irresponsible.
Now, at a positive side, it can bring mental stability. When things go wrong, understanding destiny can help a person think that sometimes these things have happened and you can’t do anything about it. If destiny is adverse, you have to accept it.
And there is a certain level of mental stability that can come by accepting destiny. But on a negative side, it can bring multiple possibilities. When we are capable of doing some things, we don’t do anything.
When we look at some of the writings about India by the British colonialists, one of the things they say is that India has been so peaceful. It is because of the history, peculiarities, and the British were always a minority. Not only were they a minority, many of them settled in India.
They tried to make India the home. But for the British, they considered India to be a hot, disease-ridden, uncivilised country. And it was for the Britishers who were posted in India, it was a punishment.
Like in India, we posted some Andamanikobars. I don’t know if there are Andamanikobars. It’s also developing.
But in some places, it’s God-posing. India never had the best British people at that instance. Not that they were super-populated.
Some of them were. But how were they able to move India for so long? If we go to geopolitical reasons, on many levels, it was because Indians were getting passive. What is this time going to happen? And the famine came, the Britishers thought, if such a famine had come in the UK, people were rewarded.
Why is India so passive? It’s very interesting. In the British tradition, it is believed to be unnecessary. So that is unbelievable.
In the tradition also, it is not that whenever a bad thing happens, it has to be accepted. It’s a wrong understanding. So what do we do then? It’s karma and time.
They both come together to keep the path. So actually, there is karma, daiva, godly speaking, and karma. We go to multiple analysis over here.
The work has to be done. The destiny has to be there. But the time also has to be there.
And it’s not just a passive passage of time. It starts with the work, and results will come. Basically, how do we know that when I am doing some work, the results are coming or not coming? When do I decide that I have to try more to get this? And when do I decide, this is not destined, it will not happen.
So that is where these five factors that we discussed, they come together. So I will give one example. I am going to take two points.
But this was the broad understanding of karma and daiva. So I will talk about it from the life of Srila Prabhupada. So, Srila Prabhupada, at one level we can say that he is a pure yogi, and in life he is also Srila Krishna’s son.
At another level, we can see him in spiritual books, and acted as his wife also. So, Srila Prabhupada, he liked his guru. Do you know when he was born? In 1986.
So, in 1986. So, after that, in 1965, what happened? He died like this. So, before this, let’s look at a few things.
So, when Srila Prabhupada met his spiritual master, he was very inspired after hearing this question, argument, or whatever you want to call it. You should share the message of the Bhagavad Gita, the rest of the Bhagavad Gita, all of them. He thought that, I am already married, I have a child.
It would be unfair to my family if I announce that. He thought, let me work. Let me work at my business.
Let me make my business today. And that’s how I will contribute financially to my spiritual master. So, now, when he was in India, what is this? Again.
It’s supposed to be in the Bhagavad Gita. So, this is the Bhagavad Gita. So, Prabhupada was born in Lord Sri Lanka.
Now, you see, during his lifetime, he had businesses in 3 places. He had a business in Kolkata, then he moved to Mumbai, then he moved to Trinidad. I have a friend who is a PhD, doing independent history of India.
He told me that at that time, these things were not meaningful. When a government job was able to do, the government would provide all logistics. It was great to do a business.
So, Prabhupada was trying to find a solution. But somehow, things kept going wrong. This went wrong, that went wrong.
Sometimes, the stock got burned. His servant cheated him and robbed the money. Sometimes, the customer would just not come in.
Whatever was happening, his business just went wrong. One reason was, Prabhupada was a scheming cheat. When customers would come, he would preach to them.
And he was just, we can say that from 1935 to almost 1935, Prabhupada could not make a business. This was the phase of his business. So, he was just a Karanam, which is not right.
His natural ability was to do business and he did reasonably well. He took care of his family, his family responsibilities. The kind of prosperity that he got was just not right.
Now, after that, he started focussing on his future. Actually, he started his good life vision from the 50s, 40s itself. In the middle of the Second World War, he started a book.
After 50 Karanam, more or less, his book was in full circulation. So, he started preaching in India. When he was preaching in India, he tried first, he tried to work with his godbrothers, he tried to start his own organisation called the League of Devotees.
Somehow, at that time, India was just not ready. So, it was not that India was not religious at that time, but Prabhupada wanted to speak English. Even now, if somebody tells a Katha in India, local language, a lot of people will come.
But English, not a lot of people will come even now. At that time, it was hard to speak. Because his Guru Mahasaya told him to speak English, he was trying to do it.
So, that philosophical spirituality was not making him very religious. So, at that time, the place, the padishthan, it was not that. Then, from 65 to 66, he was very concentrated for Prabhupada Maharaj.
He tried various things. And, he would go to, at one point of time, one person, he seemed very interested, and Prabhupada Maharaj was saying, he started saying to Prabhupada, and Prabhupada went to this language school in India, and he became the first American devotee. And he seemed very interested.
One day, there was a David Allen, he was taking drugs, he gave it up, he had a relapse, and he took drugs in the bank. And he, the story of when he was in the bank, he was just homeless in the streets. And then, Prabhupada had actually gone to America to get his visa.
And each time, he was extending the visa for a few months. Just before Prabhupada went to America, for 3-4 months, America had actually liberalised its immigration rules. That’s why, Prabhupada would be an extension to the Indian government.
But, Prabhupada, this was not going to work. I’ve given it my time. It’s one thing that somebody doesn’t listen to us, if I’m talking and none of you are listening to me.
And that is discouraging. If I’m talking and none of you come and attack me, I’m never going to go back there. That’s why it was like that.
And still, it didn’t work. And then, from 1960-1977, Prabhupada was declared to be a success. He inspired millions of people to take up writing.
He wrote 70 books. He travelled the world more than 14 times on speaking tours. He inspired 108 temples across the world.
It was a phenomenal success. So, these days, things have to fall into place. Now, still, there is the talent, the place, and the effort.
All these three have to fall into place and make a success. So, for each one of us, we are working hard. And, say, we are finally able to make a success.
So, you can’t just say, still, that’s not going to work. It could be, but it could not be. Maybe, you are in the right place.
So, sometimes you need to find out. I’m in this particular department, I’m in this particular person, I’m in this particular place. This kind of work culture, or this kind of environment.
Exploration of that place. If I go to the environment of the place, if I look at the fields, it’s like, at least, you’re going to get a project. Many Indians, if you’re talented Indians, for a long time, they felt that in India, the talent is not there.
So, they would go to America, and they would work, and they would do well in America. Much of American progress is actually fuelled by Indians and Chinese. But now India is growing, a lot of Americans are now coming back to India.
They have an opportunity to do something of value for the country, and also grow in their country. So, the place itself, am I in the right place? Then, if I am in the right place, do I have the exact talents? So, basically, if there is no success, you can look at three factors. Is the place inhospitable? Is the work infertile? That means, if I have particular talents, then the work I’m doing, the soil will be very fertile.
But, if that soil is not where that particular seed is grown, some seeds grow in a particular kind of soil, some seeds grow in another kind of soil. So, is the work infertile? The work itself, I’m talking about the job. Is the endeavour insufficient? Have I smiled in a problem? So, if we look at these three factors, then, we will be able to gain a more holistic picture.
Now, if we see all these three, we learn. Then, if something is not working, then, we can say that, maybe this is destiny. Maybe this is destiny that I will make it.
So, but, when you’re holding a job, you always have a wife, wife and a son. So, what? So, what do you believe in? So, why is 30 anniversary? Is it not 30 anniversary? I don’t believe in all these things. Absolutely.
I want to see if it is working. But, I don’t want to get married to this girl, I agree. I don’t want to see this kind of relationship.
She is just not happy with me. She is not happy with me. I think this is my destiny.
Krishna has given me a disagreeable wife that I have to detach from her. So, don’t jump the stick at me. So, his wife was also incompetent.
So, I said, I think that she won’t agree with our relationship. And then he started talking with me, and she started saying that she had a basic reasonable expectation of her husband. And her husband, in the name of nothing, was neglecting those things.
Actually, she was upset. I don’t think that if something is important for you, you need to take it seriously. You cannot take everything that is important, right? Some things are good.
Animals are important for her, and you disown it by saying it’s her animals and not my animals. That’s heartless. Is it possible by destiny, somebody might have an incomparable match? Completely possible.
It is also possible that by my behaviour, I have antagonised the other person. So, whenever things are not working out, we jump to destiny as the cause. That simply becomes an excuse for irresponsibility.
For us, yes. There is none of the explanations of why things are not working makes sense. Then we can say that it is destiny.
It is important that we have lost our identity. You didn’t get the kingdom immediately. You had to go through four phases.
But then, even if you say, okay, it’s a destiny, we lost the kingdom, let us say, again the kingdom is lost. He had a very good purpose. He wanted to help Krishna establish the mind of God.
That’s why he was a great fighter. He was a huge endeavour. So, he had talent.
He had a kingdom that he could to service people. But still, there were always opponents. He had to do something.
So, then, the 20 instincts grows too. So, when we are analysing, analysis, I am not getting success. So, there is utthi.
So, utthi means we have different aspects. Intelligence is to see things in their proper perspective. Which is how important? When should I, when destiny takes due importance, when should I not look at destiny as a cause? When should I look at other causes? And then, analysis is also very important.
When we are practising bhakti, when we are doing our sadhana, then that gives us an inner connection. That’s the only good thing about it. So, we do need to use our intelligence to figure out things.
But we don’t just depend on our intelligence. We also depend on intelligence. Then we are guided by the intelligence.
Based on that, each one of us can do our analysis and then decide which is the area in which we can best contribute. And if the contribution is not manifested, what is going to happen? So, this is a broad picture about how to understand. So, we can empower Arjuna, we can empower the children of us to play our parts, to become Arjunas in the battlefield that confronts us.
In daily life, in our inner life, in our professional life, each one of us has been given some karanam, some talents, which is all about the mind. I was among the most gifted students in my entire career. So, how do you get that gift of talent? Find out your right adhishta, good right adhishta, and then try.
Don’t look for results in anxiety. Look for the good in the world. I’ll summarise what I discussed today.
Broadly, I discussed three main points. First, we talked about education. I have two aspects.
What are the two aspects? What is complex, creative, simple? And what is simple? We show the complexity. I talked about this with respect to karma. The basic principle of karma is very simple.
Action leads to result. So, all the complexity of the life results in action. But the problem is that there is also complexity there.
Sometimes, it is not just the present action, but also the past action. So, the present action plus past action comes together to give the result. And this past action comes as history.
So, how will the history play out its role? So, we discussed the factors that from the action to the result. It’s a mountain with five lines. So, the soul, the face, the talent, the endeavour, and finally, the history.
So, each of these needs to work in its proper way. Each of these has to fall in place for us to go from one place to another. And then, we discussed about the two broad philosophies.
Karma-Vaad, everything is going to perish me. And finally, it doesn’t matter how I will live. So, this leads to progress, but also distress.
Progress at the physical level, but distress at the mental level. Karma-Vaad, it leads to a level of stability at the mental level, but also leads to passivity. So, we understand that Karma, Daiva, and Kaala all these play a role.
So, then, we can analyse if my action is not leading to a result, then is my place in hospital is the talent of the work that I do is it incompatible or is the endeavour insufficient. So, we discussed this from the life of Krishna Prabhupada, how for the initial phase, the work of business itself was incompatible. Then, in India, at the just not the right time, for various historical reasons, and then, even in the Americas, there was a problem with that.
And for us, when we are able to do this analysis, we will lose our beauty and we will take guidance and by that, we can come to a greater level of clarity about how we can continue most effective analysis. Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? How to converge our analysis and thinking about making the decision that the place is impossible How to make that decision I can analyse that decision Can we decide? Yeah.
I am not sure Somebody is farming Somebody is farming and nobody has been able to grow a particular crop in a particular place and that place is impossible because nobody is very big on the land Let’s say like America has the biggest tradition So, the south was a little bit more discriminated and the north was not So, now, if somebody was a black and he wanted to succeed then he had to just escape and go from there because the south was not Now, that is not a big issue but like I said, if the place is impossible Do I want to change that place? There is no other place Many Indians left India Right now, there is geopolitics and culture and so on So, I think we need to look around and see whether I have others from similar backgrounds Have they succeeded? Have they not succeeded? In the past, cricket was mostly concentrated in places like Mumbai and a few other places If somebody had to succeed in cricket and they were small town, they would have very little chances of growing Then, as the authorities get stronger, they have more talent scouted in various places It is more of an objective analysis Question from the audience So, is it cowries? Well, I think if our primary focus in our consciousness is to get the point of money away from that place then that is cowries But, generally whenever we face a problem we have three broad approaches Cowries Mithili or anything In fact, cowries for example, we are working in a job and maybe the boss is very disagreeable But, in that career there are good posters and maybe the pay is good and other factors So, it is not that difficult But, if the people constantly have emotions that they can’t handle then there is no way to make money So, the opposite of tolerate is to support The opposite of allegre is to run away The opposite of mitigate is to retaliate Mitigate means, if this is a problem I am going to fix it Retaliate means, you did this to me I am going to do the same So, basically we need a certain level of clarity about what are the big things for me and what are the small things for me Because, somebody the way the boss gives me big things I can’t give him the box once in a while Otherwise, I am going to work So, each one of us will decide what is the big thing and what is the small thing So, if we have the clarity about See, Krishna tells Arjuna to tolerate and what does that tolerate mean? It means the Kauravas committed atrocities to be tolerated If we say that you have to fight between Krishna and Duryodhana It will be difficult for you to fight But, if you have chosen the centre of dharma you have to fight So, although you may feel big but not big enough So, for you, that they are relatives is an important thing But, that you are a warrior for dharma should be much much more important for you So, if we have clarity about what is the big thing and what is the small thing This is the purpose I want to do For some people, the purpose of life may be to change the ethos of business But, for somebody else I am not an engineer, I am not an analyst to change the ethos of business I have to tolerate That is the big thing for them Then, it is not cowardice to run away from that Each person has to find out what is the big thing Yes, I have a question So, my question is We should devote our dharmas to him So, if I want to perform my karmas in sequence So, how does it affect the effect of the dharma in this equation of the dharma So, will it be independent of dharma or I will be unbothered of the results See, how the multitudinous nature will interact is a mystery So, Arjuna is completely related to the father Krishna and here Arjuna lost his son So, what was the destiny See, I can’t say So, it is not that just because we start working for Krishna that means suddenly our life will be mediocre We will be faced with problems that is just the nature of the world Now, is the problem specifically because of destiny or is it because of what happened So, what can we do now The first canto is between dharma and pariksha So, pariksha asks dharma what is the cause of this dharma So, basically we should not have the expectation that just because I am practising bhakti there will be no karma in my life But there will be no problems in my life Are the problems because of karma are the problems because of whatever problems are there and that is just the nature of the world So, it is like there are two people two patients in the hospital for one, the disease has not been diagnosed for the other, the disease has been diagnosed Both of them are in pain right now but both of them are in a very different situation although they are in pain they are in a very different situation So, sometimes even when the medicine is being taken the disease was chronic, sometimes they still can’t get well Although both have been experiencing pain but they are not in the same situation Similarly, somebody who has spiritual knowledge who is practising bhakti practising a good seva devotional that person has the disease has been diagnosed and they have been treated they are definitely in a better situation but that does not mean that they do not have problems So, how can we analyse the situation because some people say that Good question So, generally if we are doing a work that is compatible then we get intrinsic satisfaction So, there is intrinsic satisfaction and there is extrinsic satisfaction or you could say intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction So, for example, somebody just loves music then they like to be music even if they are not realised to music somebody likes writing because people commonly said that I love being read but I love even more having written even if nobody had written still this is what I like If we are doing something according to our subhava, nature, our talents then there will be an intrinsic satisfaction that does not mean that we don’t want the extrinsic of course, we all like to have the extrinsic but it is somebody’s like a doctor doctors they spend so much time and effort and money in becoming a doctor obviously they want money but if a doctor does not get any intrinsic joy in treating a daily patient then a doctor will become a terror for the patients isn’t it? because a doctor will not see the patient as someone who is serving cure and benefit doctor will see the patient only as a source of money and then maybe I can prescribe unnecessary tests I can prolong the medication I can just pander to their imagination and give diagnosis I don’t think if the doctor if somebody is doing some work in which they don’t get any intrinsic satisfaction in that case that is not compatible it does not mean as I said intrinsic intrinsic satisfaction alone may not be completely because we live on livelihood we would like some place of respect in society it’s terrible but if the work is compatible then intrinsic satisfaction will be there you mentioned about in which situation we can ascertain that this is due to destiny or not you gave the three factors we can check whether whatever work we are doing is compatible so my question was when to see the hand of God in some situation and when not to see the hand of God in some situation when not to see the hand of God it’s not that in any situation we should not see the hand of God but the hand of God could be blessing us to face the situation and not that the hand of God is causing the situation they are two very different things so it is Arjuna when he had to fight against the Kauravas you see Krishna does not give Arjuna any esoteric past life explanation Krishna was so and so in the previous life and you were so and so and you did like this and you did like this because of that karma you had to fight against each other Krishna gives a philosophical principle that we all have our past lives Krishna does not give a specific revelation why this situation is happening in this situation now focus on what your dharma is and do it so broadly speaking I would say that don’t get caught in the world of over thinking so God’s will if I am here God’s will can happen to us but God’s will can also happen through us through us means God may want to do something see Draupadi’s surrender is an example of she raised both her hands raised her arms in helpless dependence whatever Krishna you want can happen that is her surrender Krishna at the end of the story told Arjuna surrender Arjuna said yes I surrendered but Arjuna’s surrender was not raising his arms Arjuna’s surrender was raising his arms he picked up his bow and reached Krishna so for Arjuna it is surrender is God’s will happening through him so basically generally when things are beyond our control when something is beyond our control we accept it as God’s will and ok so we had made a big plan to do something and suddenly we get a flu and we can’t get out of it ok this is God’s will but if we are just limited in the area and we can take something to boost our immunity and we don’t do that then whatever God wills will happen but it is God’s will that somebody has told you about this particular situation and has told you about it in future so when things are in our control you should see that as God’s will is happening through you when I started reading spiritual talks so that time I was given a 10 point guideline how do you pass this the 10 point was depend on Krishna but only after you are preparing to pass yes please that’s why it is intelligence to see things with proper perspective so we can sometimes have to decide that this much intelligence is useful like I was in Kota there is one boy who had been trying for IIT for 8 years this is completely stupid you are here, you have graduated and got a job you can try 1 year, 2 years, maybe 3 years if you don’t get into IIT, that’s not the end of the world you can go ahead and try 1 more year so I think even in our endeavour we have to use our intelligence to decide how much endeavour is useful so endeavour could be tonnes of time, could be tonnes of effort somebody can say that I want to succeed in this field so I work for 20 hours every day well, that could be workaholism that could be toxic everybody goes like this you really want to be in that profession or how long is it going to take maybe you have particular phase for 6 months, 1 year that is the way you are going to work your life that’s not good so we have to use our intelligence to decide what is a reasonable amount of endeavour though fixed quantity but it’s something which has to be decided for time basis say somebody wants to have a child and suppose they are not able to do this then they may try, may try for the biology if it doesn’t work, they can try this, try that but if it doesn’t work then everyone keeps trying till they are 40, 45, 50 if you want to have a child maybe you have to adopt something you have to do something else in the big picture, if you look at what intelligence means you see things in that proper perspective so by looking at a bigger picture you can get a sense of how much would be a reasonable rate I have a question you were mentioning about how one takes loss into perspective and it can happen in 3 different ways the way one perceives loss can also depend on the characteristic of that person if someone is introverted by nature it is possible that they take it to the other extreme it is very difficult for them to accept losses and they blame it on themselves in such situations, how do we understand or take all these issues into perspective how do we overcome this we all have a particular kind of mind sometimes the mind is treated like an enemy so you know the mind is not just an enemy because if you treat it as an enemy it is like a handsome enemy if it doesn’t kill you this is what you do with the mind you make it a friend so you can’t just dismiss the mind as the enemy which is something which you have to learn that’s what is beautification not destruction or elimination each one of us has to find out how I can best function with the mind so if some people have a tendency to catastrophise every small thing that goes wrong just comes back to them they don’t have that kind of tendency to be friendly no one can help them find their strengths see things very profoundly that’s why relationships are so important it’s almost the universe of the mental health almost the human universe of formation a person has poor relationships they don’t have any friends it’s almost sure that they will have different friends not always because the mind is telling us a story we need someone to tell us another story people may tell an alternate story but if you don’t trust that person you don’t need to trust that person you need someone who has told us and someone who has proposed that person so that’s why knowing our particular tendencies we need to have friends who can help us on the other hand somebody might be a person who trivialises things somebody has to be within somebody’s life if I am here as a soul the mind will come and say this is a friend generally I look at everyone through the filter of my mind if I have bad experience of people exploiting me mistreating me anytime anybody is sweet to me what does this person want from me generally a kind person some person so if we have a close friend what happens is that friend comes somewhere near so instead of looking at that person through our mind we look at our mind through that person so we need at least one person who is close enough that we can look at our mind through that person we don’t have to implicitly trust that person we don’t have to always say our mind is wrong we need someone implicitly so that we can be better situated to challenge the narrative of the mind that we know when to stop when we are serving or doing any work because by all the discussion I have understood that there is a may or may not thing I meant the exact interpretation of why this is happening may or may not come also I understand there is also a great need that we as individuals have to be detached and also have a broad overview of life can you please elaborate on that so… if you consider in the second chapter 2.47 is if we look at this verse in context 6 verses before is be one pointed in your goal so here it is saying give time to result there it is saying I have one goal so what is going to happen so basically it can happen in different ways but one simple way to understand is goals and results are two different things goals are before the work results are what we get so for us when we set a goal that inspires us endeavour to the fullest capacity endeavour is also a factor that will be critical so setting a goal inspires us to endeavour wholeheartedly at the same time even after we have endeavoured wholeheartedly it may not come to fruition so in that context we need to be detached so that is where detachment comes in so detachment doesn’t mean that we don’t set goals detachment means that we are not excited with the results so okay I did my best over here but it doesn’t come up generally the human mind is quite critical we always remember the time when we worked very hard if we are audience we also now remember that time I didn’t study much so whatever I studied till the exam I didn’t do so it still works both ways thank you very much