​Matters that matter more than matter – Origin, value & purpose

​Evening program at ISKCON, Scarborough, Canada

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
So, thank all of you for coming here today evening. And, am I audible behind? Or is it difficult? Can you hear me behind? Okay. So, So, I’ll as I mentioned, Okay.
I’ll be speaking on this topic of matters that matter more than matter. So, here the word matter, we’re playing with the word, matter means, matter as an object and matter as things, material things and matter as a verb, which means that which is important. It doesn’t matter.
It’s not important. So, matters that matter. So, actually the three matters have three different meanings actually.
One meaning of matter is material objects. Another meaning is matter is, which is important. And third meaning of matter is subject.
You know what, so what subject are you going to discuss? So, what is the subject matter? Like that we say. So, matters that matter more than matter. What that means is, subjects that are more important than material subjects.
So, we’ll discuss something about a higher aspect of life beyond the material. This class will be a little philosophical. In fact, I’m building this class.
How many of you were there for the, any of you were there for yesterday’s class on science and religion? Okay. A few of you were there. Okay, fine.
So, of course, those of you can relate with the class. But basically I’m going to speak on how what is it that is non-material and which is important for us. So, broadly speaking.
Next, who’s operating it? Yeah. Okay. So, basically there are three things.
There is origin, value and purpose. Is that right? Wait a minute. Three main things.
Origin, value and purpose. Material things. They provide for our bodily needs.
They provide for our physical comforts. But three things that fundamentally matter to us. Where do I come from? How, on what basis do I make choices in my life? And where am I meant to go? These three things.
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Let’s leave it. Sorry about that. That’s okay.
Leave it. I am spending a lot of time. So, basically origin, value and purpose.
The three things which may not seem to immediately matter to us. But they ultimately are of great importance. Say, when I am hungry, my concern is where did I come from? Where am I going? All those questions do not matter to us.
I need food. I am thirsty. I need water.
I am cold. I need some clothes. So, the fundamental difference between human beings and animals is that we can think beyond our immediate needs.
We need to think about our immediate needs. But we can think beyond our immediate needs. Science began when, say, modern science at least, that when Newton saw the fruit falling, he observed the fruit and asked the question, what made the fruit fall? Now, if instead of Newton, there had been a monkey sitting over there.
The monkey would just have picked up the fruit, ate it and gone away. So, and there are, of course, many people also who are not very thoughtful. They would also have eaten the fruit and gone away.
Millions of people would have been like that before Newton after Newton. But Newton asked the question, what made the fruit fall? Now, this is a question beyond the immediate. It is not of immediate interest.
So, the fruit fell, ate it and go on with life. But we human beings are differentiated from animals by our capacity to think beyond the immediate, immediate needs. So, that means that, say, if the day after tomorrow is Ekadashi.
So, if there is Ekadashi, if a cat sees a rat, the cat can’t think, oh, today is Ekadashi, I should fast. It doesn’t have that intelligence. It is a biological urge to eat and when the food is there in front of it, it will eat it.
It will move on. So, now this is common. The immediate urges, the immediate drives, the immediate needs, they are common to humans and animals.
And we humans also need to satisfy them. We can’t live without satisfying them. If I am hungry, I need food.
If I am feeling cold, I need some warm clothes. But we human beings are capable of thinking about more than the immediate needs. And most of science has developed by this capacity to think beyond the immediate.
As I said, Newton thought, what makes this food fall? And if you see, science also progresses. Often people say, seeing is believing. If you show me God, I will believe in God.
Show me the soul, I will believe in it. But if you have to apply seeing is believing to the various, not just spirituality, to various branches of knowledge, most of the concepts in science are not visible. In fact, scientific progress happens when we move from the visible specifics to the invisible principles.
Newton saw the visible specific of food falling. But from that he moved to the universal, the invisible universal, that is, the principle of gravity. So, again, the same point, from immediate to ultimate, from visible to invisible.
So basically, beyond the immediate when we go, that’s when knowledge progresses. And most of the concepts that today we study in science, they are actually not concepts that we can immediately grasp. Most of the concepts are invisible.
So, this capacity to think of things beyond the immediate, that is what raises humanity above the animal kingdom. We humans, we are differentiated from animals because we can think of deeper things, think of long term things, think of fundamental questions. And, these fundamental questions, when we seek answers, that is how deeper wisdom emerges.
So, we can all live for material things. And we do live for material things, most of the time. But this does not bring any lasting fulfilment.
When we live for material things, we get some pleasure. But that pleasure is very superficial to our being. It is peripheral.
It doesn’t satisfy the heart. Because we, there is more to us than matter. So, when we live at the surface, it is like if there is some delicacy to be eaten.
Sometimes the surface, there is some coating, and inside, maybe inside there is the delicacy. So, if I am just say, taking the delicacy at the surface, I get some taste. When I scrape beyond the surface, go deeper, maybe there is the real nectar inside.
So, like that, when we stick to material things, material things by material things I mean the immediate needs of the body and the comforts of the body. The needs and comforts. So, science, when it progresses, it looks for deeper concerns.
Deeper issues. Now, when science goes deep, and then it comes out as technology. Technology again comes back and looks for immediate concerns.
So, when I was studying my engineering, I had a lot of fascination for science since childhood. I used to read about the biographies of scientists to understand how they explored, how they discovered. And actually I would have been much more comfortable in the fields of science, but because of peer pressure, I got into engineering.
And I was not all that excited about engineering, but still my fourth year, I was studying electronics and telecommunications engineering. So, in my fourth year we studied TV design. At that time in our textbook, I read that this was about, I was educated around 20-25 years ago.
So, at that time, internet and even laptops were not that common, and certainly mobile, smart phones were not there. So, they said that the biggest use of electronics and telecommunications, of electronics technology is to make TVs. So, for me, this was like a big anticlimax.
Here, I thought I am using my best intelligence to make idiot boxes, to make people idiots. Now, TV can be used for purposes also, but most of the times, TV is just used for entertainment, and people become intellectually paralysed while watching TV. It’s just so much visual stimuli is coming, and I watch this, watch this, watch this.
We just don’t really think seriously about it. So, I felt that this is not what I want to use my intelligence for. There is no harm for those who feel inspired to use their intelligence that way, but I didn’t feel inspired.
I felt that, okay, we go so deep into science, learn about electronics, learn about the principles of semiconductor effect, but at the end, I am coming back again to very surface concerns. I want to know more about the nature of life. I want to know more of nature of existence.
So, when we go deep into field, we learn about science, but again we come out, there is technology. Now, if you see, there is a difference between science and technology in the sense that not everyone understands science, but everyone can use technology. How many of us really know how mobile works? When I press a few buttons, I can call my relatives in India.
How does the whole thing work? We don’t know that. We just know how to operate it. So, now similarly, if we consider this relationship between science and technology, similar is the relationship between philosophy and culture.
So, philosophy is like science. Philosophy raises ultimate questions and then it guides us towards the answers to those questions. And the culture, which we have, culture involves, by culture, I don’t just mean any culture, especially spiritual culture, that culture is what is accessible to people.
So, now anybody can come into a temple, anybody can use a mobile and start talking with people. They just need some basic knowledge. Anybody can come to a temple, chant Hare Krishna and experience some happiness, experience some peace.
And they’ll come here, experience happiness and go away. But if they enquire, what is it that made me feel peaceful? What was it about the temple that made me feel peaceful? So, especially in modern India, there’s a lot of propaganda against deity worship. People say, oh, they think that God is there in this idol, in this image.
So, there’s a survey done, they said that even people who don’t believe in deity worship, still, if they come to a temple, they feel peace. But they don’t know where that peace is coming from, and they think this is just a stone, but they experience some peace over there. So, what is exactly happening? So, to understand this, we need philosophy.
Just as not many people can understand science, but many people use technology. Similarly, not many people will understand the philosophy. But many people can benefit from the culture.
So, culture basically makes the fruits of philosophy accessible to people. Just as technology makes the fruits of science, that is scientific knowledge, usable for people. Now, the difference, however, between technology and culture is that culture is often seen as relative.
You have Hindu culture, you have Christian culture, you have Muslim culture, you have American culture, you have Indian culture, you have different cultures. And, in one sense, what is the meaning of the word culture? I’ll take a biological example to start this. Like in biology we may have, you know, yeast culture.
Now, what does yeast culture or bacteria culture mean? It means it’s a biochemical solution or biochemical environment where yeast grows, where bacteria grows. That is bacteria culture or yeast culture. So, like that when we say human culture, what is human culture? Human culture is the environment where humanity grows, where humanity flourishes.
So, it’s not just, you know, any people wear any kind of dress, any people eat any kind of food. This is our culture. Yes, it may be our culture, but it may not really be a culture that is conducive to the growth of humanity.
So, almost every society has a lower culture and a higher culture. A lower culture means just whatever people indulge in, that becomes their culture. But a higher culture means there are people who are thoughtful and they think of ways in which they can live by which they can move towards higher purposes of life.
So, to some extent, you know, culture is like blood. As long as the blood is flowing in the body, we don’t even notice it. But when the blood starts leaking out, we get alarmed.
So, like that, when we are practising the culture, yes, it’s just a normal part of life. But then when somebody starts doing something which is not according to our culture, we start getting alarmed. What is happening over here? You know, we may say, oh, we should not speak like this.
If we are in a cultured society and somebody starts using foul words, you should not speak like this. So, blood gets noticed only when it starts leaking out. So, like that, culture is often not even noticed till it starts getting wounded, till it starts getting aggressively transformed, changed.
But just as blood is necessary for the body’s functioning, similarly culture is necessary for our functioning in the world. So, now the culture is that, as I said, culture is seen as relative. That means, people think, okay, you have your culture, I have my culture.
Yes, we all can have our separate cultures, but the culture should have a purpose. As I said, human culture means the culture which enhances our humanity. That is human culture.
But if the culture actually does not enhance our humanity, it actually brings out our lower side. That is not really human culture. So, if there is a culture which systematically triggers people’s lust, systematically triggers people’s greed, then that culture is actually systematically paralysing people’s capacity to think higher.
And then that is not a culture that is human culture. You could say that is vulture culture. Now, what is vulture culture? Vulture culture means, a vulture goes high up in the sky.
But from high up in the sky, what does the vulture do? It is looking for dead bodies, looking for corpses. So, like that, people may use, may use, you know, advanced technology, advanced means of searching, advanced means of searching, advanced means of assembling, advanced means of production. But if with all they are producing obscenity, they are producing things which bring out people’s lower side, then that is not culture.
So, in a sense, you could say that, that is the way we are living, so we call it culture. But if you think of culture in terms of its purpose, this is defeating the purpose. So, now, matters that matter more than matter.
So, I was talking about three things, origin, value and purpose. When you talk about origin, the first thing, where I come from, this is a question that is answered by philosophy. And that philosophical understanding is ingrained in the culture if the culture and philosophy are harmonised.
So, for example, when we come to a temple, we come and bow to Krishna, bow down to Krishna. Now, why do we bow down to Krishna? You may think, oh, this is part of my culture. But actually, if you understand the philosophy properly, in this cultural activity of bowing down to Krishna, that is because we understand Krishna is my source.
Now, I have come from Krishna. Just as I respect my parents, so Krishna is the Tamev, Mata cha Pita Tamev. He is the source of all of us.
So, we bow down to him. Usually, in bhakti, the philosophy and culture are intertwined together. And to the extent we understand the philosophy, to that extent, we practise the culture with conviction.
Otherwise, our practise of culture remains relative, subjective, and tentative. We give it up sometimes. So, now if we look at, some people will say, you say everything came from God.
I don’t believe that. So, if we consider, we’ll not go into all the cultures. We’ll basically contrast the bhakti culture with the materialistic culture.
Because our topic is matters that matter more than matter. So, if somebody says, I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe that there is a divine source of everything. Then, okay, then what is ultimately when you reduce it to essentials, what is the atheistic explanation for origins? Basically, if you go back to origins, there are only two options.
Everything came from something or everything came from nothing. There are only two options. Now, if everything came from something, and what that something is, if we see this world exists, in this world there is matter, there is consciousness.
So, the origin from which everything came, that must have matter and consciousness. And that is the Bhagavad Gita’s understanding of the absolute truth. God is a person, he is consciousness, and he has material and spiritual energies.
So, from the origin, which has the potential to create, the whole world manifests. If I say that, you know, a human male and a human female can produce a human child. But if I say a tree and a chair and a stone, it produces a human being.
It doesn’t make any sense. There is no potentiality for this to be produced. So, we have two options for origin.
Everything came from something or everything came from nothing. The atheistic idea is that everything came from nothing. Now, if you reduce it down to essentials, what has become, if you consider the biography of the universe from the atheistic perspective, that will be, if everything came from nothing, the question will come, where did that nothing come from? No, nothing existed, nothing existed because of nothing.
Nothing exploded because of nothing and produced everything. So, essentially, this is the story of the universe. Nothing existed because of nothing, nothing exploded because of nothing and produced everything.
So, this is what ultimately boils down. This is the scientist, atheist actually. So, he said that, his book explains how everything came from nothing and starts great scientific bombast.
Obviously, in complicated words, people will get overwhelmed by those words and maybe there is some big wisdom which I can’t understand. But, you know, when we are encountering atheism, which puts on a scientific garb, scientific masquerade, what we need to do is not get caught in the details because the details are many. Go back to the principles.
The principle is what, if you see the whole book, it essentially says that originally there was a quantum mechanical vacuum from which everything came. And that quantum mechanical vacuum is actually so complex that it requires pages upon pages of triple integral calculus to describe. That is definitely not nothing.
Isn’t it? It is quite a something. It requires pages and pages to describe. So, what this atheist does is he differentiates this nothing is not the normal nothing.
It is a special nothing. He italicises nothing. And italicising nothing doesn’t explain how nothing produces everything.
So, if you look at origins from the materialistic perspective, there is no explanation where everything came from. You just have to accept as an article of faith that from nothing, as I said, nothing existed because of nothing, nothing exploded because of nothing and produced everything. This is not at all rational.
Often atheists say that religion is irrational. But atheism itself is founded in irrationality. Because you just have no explanation how everything came about.
What did everything come from? What was the origin? Now, in contrast some people may ask, you say God created everything. Who created God? Now, this is a valid question. But every question requires understanding some definitions.
So, when we talk about who created God, we have to understand the definition of God. If you think of God first as an image in a temple. Who created it? The sculptor created it.
But first we have to understand the definition of God. And the definition of God is the cause of all causes. So, now if I say God means the cause of all causes, then by pure logic, the cause of all causes cannot have a cause.
So, when we go backward, backward, backwards, the point where this backward tracing stops, that is God. Wherever it stops. So, the cause of all causes, that is God.
So, the question asking, like asking who made God? It’s like asking a redundant question like why is a circle circular? The definition of a circle, is it circular? God is the origin of everything. That is the definition of God. So, then another way of looking at this is God, by definition, is the source of everything.
Source of everything means he is a source of time also. If he is a source of time means that he exists outside time. So, if I read a novel, if a child first time reads a novel, maybe Harry Potter novel child reads, so nice characters.
And then afterwards the child comes, oh, Harry Potter novel, it’s written by J.K. Rowling. Then he starts looking, where is J.K. Rowling in this book? Now, J.K. Rowling created the storyline, she created the timeline, she created the characters. But she is not in the story.
She is not in the story. She is different from the story. So, like that this is a novel writer exists outside the novel.
Similarly, God exists outside his creation. And time is a feature of his creation. So, God exists outside.
And if you think ultimately that we think between these two options that everything came from nothing and everything came from something. Both require an element of faith to accept. But to say everything came from nothing requires multiple leaps of irrationality.
First, nothing existed because of nothing. Nothing exploded because of nothing. And then it produced everything.
It requires multiple leaps of irrationality. Whereas, God hypothesis it requires one faith. There is one being who is a source of everything.
And he has the potentiality to produce everything. That’s with respect to origins. Now, we may not be so interested in origins.
But, the next point is value. Value means what is important, what is not important. On what basis do we decide this? Now, science can it help us to decide why is something right, why is something wrong? Science can tell me, tell a person if there is a young man, he has a grandmother and the grandmother has bestowed her inheritance to him.
Science can tell this person studying chemistry or studying biology that if I put arsenic in my grandmother’s breakfast you know, I can get my grand state very soon. But science this is not, I am not criticising science but science itself cannot tell us whether this is right or this is wrong. Why? Because science is neither moral nor immoral.
Science is amoral. Amoral means science does not talk about morality at all. Science basically tells us how material things will interact with other material things.
But whether a particular interaction is right or a particular interaction is wrong, science doesn’t tell us that. As I mentioned in one of my earlier classes that Einstein, he said that, you know, I find the way the Nazis killed the Jews, it’s revolting. And it will be revolting.
Millions of people were killed by the Jews. But he says, if I stick to scientific world view I can find nothing wrong with that. Why? Because, you know, from the scientific world view, I am simply a machine.
I am simply a programmed machine and I act according to the programming of my body. The Nazis acted according to their programming and their programming was such that they killed the Jews. So, are we just programmed machines? If I come to someone and slap him, hey, why did you slap me? My programming told me to slap you.
You were too slapped. My programming told me to slap you twice. So, you know, so, the point I am talking about values is what is right, what is wrong.
If we were, if we just, if I consider myself simply to be a materialistic creature and there is nothing more than matter, then matter simply works according to certain patterns, certain laws. If I drop a glass from here, the glass does not have any free will whether to fall or not. Glass is simply going to fall.
So, like that we will be reduced to simply mechanical creatures meant to function according to certain laws. So, we have no free will, we have no capacity to decide what is important, what is not important. So, Einstein said that, you know, we can talk about the ethical foundations of science but we cannot talk about the scientific foundation of ethics.
We can talk about the ethical foundations of science. Is science being used ethically or is it being used unethically? But we cannot talk about the scientific foundation of ethics. Ethics is something different.
You know, ethics comes from a different sense within us. So, what is of value, what is not of value, that is actually very important for us. But many of you may have in our early classes, is the body more valuable or is the soul more valuable? So, we will give the example that, suppose you know, your friend is driving a new car and you see that that car is met with accident and your friend is lying there inside injured.
So, which would you save? So, which would we save? Friend. So, you know, some people say, no, I will save the car. Now, if some people do this, some people just give answers to the stubborn.
So, you know, if they do like this, they can turn around the question. Suppose your friend is walking on the road and you are in a car and your car meets with accident, you are injured. What would your friend want you, what would you want your friend to save first? Me or my car? Obviously me, I am injured, man.
Come on, take me to hospital, help me. So, the point is, if we again stick to purely a materialistic frame, then the weight, the cost of all the chemicals in my body, it is just a few dozen dollars. Just a few dozen dollars, if I take all the chemicals.
The cost of the car is much, much more. So, what is it that makes us valuable? You know, in whichever culture, even atheistic people, when a person dies, they either cremate the body or they bury the body, whatever they do, that body is valueless. It is treated as valueless more or less.
But, when the person is alive, if one small finger or even one part of a finger is cut, they are ready to spend sometimes thousands of dollars to do some plastic surgery to get that part back. So, what is it that brings value to things? So, there is something non-material that brings value to things. I have to give another example to illustrate this point of value.
This class is a little philosophical. Towards the later part, I will make it a little more lighter. But, a couple of points before that.
When we talk about value, value is something which we experience internally. I may put a particular cost on a particular item. But, actually some things may be so valuable that we cannot actually put any cost on it.
There is the history of science or the history of artificial intelligence. There was Garry Kasparov. He played a chess match against a chess playing computer that was named Deep Blue.
It happened around 10-15 years ago. So, that was the first time when a chess playing computer defeated not just a chess player, but a chess champion. And, after that, all over the world, there were headlines.
Kasparov was holding his head, frustrated. And, the designers of Deep Blue, they were happy. They were jubilant.
Our computer won the match. But, Deep Blue, what was its feeling? It had no feeling at all. So, it actually did not even have the excitement of playing or the elation of winning.
It had simply processed certain moves according to its mathematical algorithm and got a result. So, when we talk about value, value to evaluate something in terms of, it requires consciousness. Without consciousness, there is no value to anything.
So, we may decide, okay, I am staying with my family and I have got this job. If I take this job, it pays me more. But, I will have to go away from my family.
Should I take this job or should I not take this job? This is a matter where we are applying values. Which is more valuable for me? Is it more important for me to stay close to my family? Or, is it more important for me to earn more money? There is no one standard answer. There can be different answers.
But, the point is, this is a matter of evaluation. And, this kind of determining of value, we have to do it ourselves. So, when we have an excessively materialistic worldview, the result of that is that which is valuable becomes valueless.
So, what happened is, when Hitler came to power in Germany, he had this idea that, at that time, the theory of evolution was very popular. It was gaining increasing grip on people’s imagination. And, they were thinking that, you know, evolution can explain everything.
So, their idea was that, oh, the western world, that means European world at that time. Now, west is actually America largely. But, at that time, west was Europe.
So, they thought, you know, there are so many races in the world. So, they thought that there are different species and they said the unfit species are eradicated and the fit species are surviving. So, they applied this theory even to human beings.
And, they said, now this theory has been rejected, but the theory was called as Social Darwinism. And, Social Darwinism was the idea that some races are fit and some races are unfit. And, so, it’s a whole complex theory.
But, they had the idea that there was Aryan race, which was the original race from which all other races came. And, different countries in the world, especially in Europe, started claiming, we are the Aryans. We are the Aryans.
We are the origin of everyone. So, Hitler convinced the whole of Germany that we are the Aryans. We are the original Aryans and we have populated the whole world and we are meant to rule the whole world.
And, he reshuffled history in such a way that he interpreted that we have not achieved our destiny because of the Jews. The Jews have been the villains in the history of Germany. So, he said, anyway, the Jews are an unfit race.
So, his whole idea was, actually when he made all gas chambers and he arranged to have millions of people killed, it was all based on a rationale. And, the rationale was that we are the fittest race and nature by its course will remove the unfit. But, now that we have science, we can help nature on its way.
So, rather than nature eradicating the unfit people, we will eradicate the unfit people. And, his plan was not just to remove the Jews. Jews was one thing.
Eventually, his plan was all people who are physically handicapped, who are anyway physically incapacitated, we should eliminate them. Because the idea was if there are physically blind people, deaf people, lame people, anyway they are physically incapacitated, the result of that will be they are unfit and they will produce unfit progeny. Therefore, let us remove them.
And, it was heartless logic. There is a logic to it. There is a false logic, but it is completely heartless logic.
So, what happens? Here, his own autobiography is Mein Kampf. Mein Kampf is my struggle. And, my struggle was actually a direct derivative from the struggle for existence, which is talked about in Darwinian evolution.
So, there are books written on this topic, you know, from Darwin to Hitler. It’s not a necessary conclusion that from evolution, Nazism will come. But, that’s how it was justified at that time.
And, the result of that was millions of people were killed. And, why were they killed? Because they thought, they made to believe that these people are obstructing us. So, now, normally, when we have to kill a human being, most people would have a lot of hesitation to kill anyone.
But, in this case, when the materialistic world view is too much internalised, so, the idea is that ultimately, I am just a bag of matter. Ultimately, somebody else is just a bag of matter. So, if one bag of matter comes in my way, just remove it.
So, human life becomes terribly devalued when there is a materialistic world view. In the spiritual world view, we understand that life is sacred. All life is a part of God.
We have neither the power to create life nor do we have the power to destroy life. When a man and a woman unite, they are not creating life. They are becoming channels for life to manifest.
And that is why, if man and woman were the creators of life, then anytime they unite, they should be able to produce a child. But, there are so many cases when man and woman unite, but even when they want, they are not able to produce a child. So, we are simply the instruments.
There is a higher being that is the cause. So, when we have this sacred understanding of life, then life is valued. But, when there is a materialistic conception, then life is devalued.
And then, once life is devalued, there is this devaluation of life can happen in various ways. Today’s society is happening at both extremities of life. What Hitler did at that time, that we find revolting.
But, you know, that same thing is happening today at the two extremities of life. When people are old, there is euthanasia. Euthanasia means, they call it as mercy killing.
No, but it’s not mercy killing. No matter how old people are, most old people don’t want to die. It is actually convenience killing.
Convenience killing means that caregivers do not want to let them, want to care for them. At the other extreme of life, in today’s world, abortion has been more or less legalised. But, there are atheistic philosophers who have said, and there are serious papers written about it, in journals of philosophy, they say, just take the logic of abortion forward.
Now, if a mother decides that after a child is born, I don’t want this child, then she should have the right to terminate the child. Now, after the child is born, when this paper was first published, it created an outro, how can you do this? And this person, this atheistic philosopher wrote the paper, he said, don’t be sentimental, be logical. He said, the same logic by which you can kill the child inside the womb, I am simply using that logic forward.
So, if you have issues, then you should not be killing the child inside the womb also. If you are killing the child inside the womb, from the biological point of view, whether the child is inside the womb or outside the womb, it is just a matter of location. Now, most of us find the idea of killing a newborn baby as horrendously revolting.
But, what has happened, if we stick to ultra-logical world, to lose our reason is bad, but to lose everything except our reason is far worse. That means, I have only logic and I have no humanity. So, the idea that we can kill a newborn baby, that is horrible.
But, the same logic that is used to rationalise the killing of a child inside the womb, that can be used to kill the child outside the womb also. Because, essentially from the biological perspective, there is no dramatic difference that happens when the child comes out of the womb. The child is inside, the child is outside.
So, this devaluation of life is inevitable when there is a materialistic perspective. So, what is valuable? What is not valuable? If we stick to a materialistic perspective, we can’t understand this. And most importantly is purpose.
Now, what am I living for? There is a difference between a goal and a purpose. No? Okay. Goal means, when I am travelling, say, after I go from here, I am going from here to Detroit.
So, my goal is to go to Detroit. So, goal is where I am going. Purpose is why I am going there.
So, we all have goals in our life. But, does our life have a purpose? Our goals are usually set by two things. One is our own body.
Our body has needs. I have to have food. I have to have clothing.
I have to have shelter. And for that, I set certain goals. I have to have a job, this, that.
And the second is, our goals are also set by our society. Oh, you should have this kind of car. You should have this kind of house.
You should have this kind of phone. You should have this kind of… All these things, they are the goals set for us. But, what is the purpose of it all? I get this.
I get this. I get this. What after that? There is a rat race going on in society.
But, the problem with the rat race is that even if we win the rat race, we still remain rats. That means that even if I achieve something, something I dreamt about it. I want to get this new car.
Yes! You know, I save money. I take a loan. I get the car.
I am driving in the car. I am happy now. I have arrived.
I want to announce to the world that I have arrived. I am driving in a brand new car. There is nothing wrong about driving cars.
There is nothing wrong in buying gadgets. What is wrong is buying into the underlying definition of happiness. To think that those gadgets will make me happy.
Think that these objects will make me happy. What happens? When I get a particular object, there is a particular amount of pleasure for some time. But, after that, that pleasure goes away.
And then I want something new. I want something new. There is no end to this.
Just keep going on and on, pursuing one thing after another after another. There is such people’s lives are filled with goals and devoid of purpose. People’s lives are filled with goals.
I want to achieve this. I want to get this promotion. I want to get this house.
I want to get this car. But, what after that? What is the ultimate purpose of it all? What are we going to achieve by this? See, you know, in a materialistic worldview, our life story can be summarised in four W’s. W, W, W, W. The first W is want.
I want this. I want that. I want that.
And, whatever we want, all that is aggravated today by the advertising industry. I want one thing and the advertising industry makes hundred things, hundred wants. So, want, want, want, want.
Krishna talks about this. I want, I want, I want. And then, nothing comes free.
So, after that, what happens? Work, work, work. I have to work, I have to work, I have to work. Now, one job is not enough.
I need two jobs. Two jobs are not enough. Both family members work.
And then, we work, work, work. When the machines started coming up, in the start of the 19th century, there is a paper written by a social scientist. And he said, within 50 years, the biggest problem in life is going to be that people will have so much leisure time that they won’t know what to do.
Because machines will do all their work. Now, it is, how it has happened is, machines are doing work and they are making us work. So, we are working to, we are working in three ways.
How our machines are making us work? You know, we work to serve the machines. If somebody is a computer operator or a data operator, they are working to serve the machines. That’s one category of people.
Other category of people are, they are working to make the machines. You know, there are many people inventing new things. And the third category of people, they are working to buy the machines.
So, we have become a machine-centred civilisation. We are working to? Working to serve the machines, working to buy the machines, working to make the machines. So, but people don’t have time.
The time is still very scarce product. So, our lives are filled with goals and we work, work, work. But still, whatever we want, the wants keep increasing, keep increasing.
And then after that, you know, we work, we want and we work. The third W is worry. Will I get this? Worry, worry.
Will I get this? Will I get this or not? I am worried about it. And if I got something, will I be able to keep it or not? I have it, but I have a very good job now. But what if I lose my job? I have got a very good house.
But what if I am not able to pay the mortgage? So, worry, worry, worry. Chintam aparimeyam cha prayantam upashitah. Krishna says, chintam, worry unlimitedly, aparimeyam cha.
And it goes on till the moment of that prayantam upashitah. We keep worrying. And the last W is weep.
Weep. You know, at the end of it, whatever we acquire materially, we lose it. Many times, people in their youth, they lose their health to gain wealth.
They work very hard, take very stressful jobs. They lose their health to gain wealth. And after that, they come to middle age, all kinds of health problems start coming up.
Then they lose their wealth to gain back their health. They spend so much money to try to get the blood pressure down, get the stress down, get the hypertension down. So, we lose our wealth to gain our health back.
And at the end, we lose both our wealth and our health. So, we lose everything. So, from the materialistic perspective, actually, death is a very gruesome, gruesome prospect.
Now, Woody Allen, most of you know, he is a joker. So, he said, he is a comedian, he said, it’s not that I am afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it comes. Now, I may say, I don’t want to be there, but I’ll have to be there.
So, by playing of words, we cannot escape death. And, at the time of death, what is going to happen to us? If I am a materialistic person, then that means that I am going to go into non-existence. I mean, it’s a very frightening prospect.
You know, I exist, one day I exist, next day I don’t exist only. We just can’t digest that idea. And if I have some spiritual conception of life, then I have the fear, what is going to happen to me? Where am I going to go? And, more importantly, if we have materialistic conception of life, then everything that we have worked for, we are going to lose it all.
That causes enormous pain. So, weep. Now, spirituality tells us that this doesn’t have to be a life story.
You don’t have to want, work, worry and weep. We are meant to, our human life, the special prerogative that we have is to worship. That’s the fifth W. Now, worship is not just a set of rituals which we come and do in a temple.
See, we, I’ll conclude with this one point. It’s a little elaborate point but I’ll conclude with this. See, we all have a desire to live forever.
No one wants to die. Even people who commit suicide, they don’t actually want to die. They just feel that my life as it is right now, it is so miserable that maybe death will be preferable.
It’s not that they want to die. It’s just that death seems to be a lesser evil as compared to life for them. We all want to live.
Now, and we all want to live forever. Now, if you look at the world around us, nothing lasts forever. Every single object that we see around us, it is temporary.
So, if the everything material around me is temporary and if I am a material creature, then why do I have the desire to live forever? Where has this desire come from? There’s nothing in my experience which lasts forever. Then why do I have a desire to last forever? Now, if I come in this room and there is this carpet and if on this carpet suddenly I find a gold ring over here, naturally the question will come, there’s no gold around here, where did this gold ring come from? Isn’t it? So, if something is very out of place from its circumstance, you will get the question, where has it come from? So, like that, our very desire to live forever, where has it come from? If we were just material creatures, we would not have this desire to live forever. We have a desire to live forever because at our core, we are meant to live forever.
In fact, not only are we meant to live forever, at our core, we live forever. At our core, we are eternal. We are souls, we are eternal spiritual beings and currently we are identifying with the body.
So, that eternity which is innate to our soul, we are projecting on the body and we are trying to make plans to make the body live longer. I possibly live eternally. So, our very desire to avoid death, our very desire to live forever, that points to something non-material within us.
So, once we understand that I am eternal, what spirituality tells us is that this life is meant to learn to love the eternal. So, if we learn to love the eternal in this life, then the ultimate eternal reality is Krishna. Worship is a process for enabling us to love the eternal and when we love the eternal, then the remaining aspects of our life, they become balanced.
Our want, work, worry and weep, all these, we have our desires, but when we connect with Krishna, when we worship Krishna, we get higher fulfilment and when we get higher fulfilment, we are able to differentiate between what is essential and what is not essential. So, with all my wants, sometimes we want things which actually we don’t need. We don’t use them.
So, there are necessities and there are un-necessities. But the un-necessities seem necessary for me. So, when I have spiritual fulfilment, then I can separate between my wants and my needs.
And that’s where our craving goes down substantially. And secondly, when it comes to work, we work in a mode of worship. We see that my work is a way God has given me talents.
Let me use those talents in a mode of service. So, I mentioned this. What we are is God’s gift to us.
What we become is our gift to God. We have certain talents. We have certain abilities.
They are God’s gift to us. We use them in a service. What we become is our gift to God.
So, our work becomes a way of serving Krishna, of worshipping Krishna. And our worry is we entrust to Krishna. We worry because we think about things that are not in our control and I wonder what is going to happen.
But when we connect with Krishna, we understand that that which is not in my control is still in Krishna’s control. And he will take care of those things. Thus the worry goes down substantially.
And lastly, with respect to weep, yes, when we lose something dear, naturally weep. But for a serious spiritualist, for a serious devotee, when we learn to love Krishna, we understand that at the end of our life we are going to attain Krishna. So, while there is the sorrow of separation from our loved ones, but we understand that is a transition where we will attain our supreme beloved.
Or we will move closer to him, even if we don’t attain him. And in that sense death is not a termination, death is not a deprivation, but death is the transition towards elevation. And thus much of the misery with respect to death is avoided.
So, all this happens when we give due attention to matters that matter more than matter. So, I’ll summarise. I started speaking about what is it that is more important than matter, what are the subjects that are more important than material subjects.
I discussed three things, origin, value and purpose. Where did everything come from? The atheistic story of the universe is nothing existed because of nothing, nothing exploded because of nothing and produced everything. It’s just completely irrational.
The theistic understanding is God is the source of everything and he exists outside time and he creates everything including time. And this, he has the potential to produce everything that’s why it’s a much more logical explanation. And we may say I’m not worried about origins but we are all worried about value.
Value means what is important and what is not important. So, on what basis do we decide that? I discussed several examples from science about how if we have a purely materialistic world view, we have no basis for deciding what is right and what is wrong. So, the Nazis decided that Jews were valueless and they could be eliminated.
Anybody with a materialistic world view can deem some other people valueless and they can eliminate them. And today we see this happening at the two extremities of life. Old people and small people.
They are all babies and newborns and pre-borns. They are considered valueless. So, what is the basis for deciding that what is of value? Science is not immoral.
It is not moral. It is amoral. So, our understanding of value comes from our spiritual side.
The body has value because there is an eternal soul on it. And when we have a spiritual understanding of life, then we can appreciate that which is truly valuable. And we can have our values founded in reality.
And then after that we discussed about purpose. So, we all have goals in our life but what is the ultimate purpose of it all? I started by talking about how what differentiates human beings from animals is that we also have immediate concerns but we can look beyond immediate concerns to ultimate concerns. So, our goals are connected with our immediate concerns.
Whether they may be biological or they may be social. But our purpose is ultimately related with our spiritual essence. So, we use our human intelligence just as we use it in science to progress towards understanding nature and it comes out through technology to benefit people.
So, like that there is philosophy which goes deep and understands the nature of reality. And culture is meant to help us align with that reality. So, human culture is that culture which elevates our humanity.
So, what goes on in today’s culture often degrades our humanity. It is not human culture. It is vulture culture.
So, purpose means what is the ultimate purpose for which we are living. So, without a spiritual purpose no matter how many goals we pursue and no matter how successfully we pursue those goals. See, our life story becomes W, W, W, W. What are the four W’s? Want, work, worry, need.
And spirituality tells us that our purpose is to worship. Worship means it is not just coming into a temple and ringing a bell. It is actually learning to love the eternal.
And why do we love the eternal? Because we have a longing to live forever. And this longing cannot come from matter because in matter there is nothing that lives forever. That longing comes from our spiritual side.
We understand our spiritual side and learn to connect to the eternal spiritual reality. Then all the other things, the wants become regulated. The work becomes spiritualised as a way of worshipping the Lord.
The worries become transcended because we learn to develop faith in Krishna as the controller. And the weeping which comes when we lose everything valuable in our life at the end of life that also becomes minimised because while we are losing some things but we are gaining something far more when we turn towards Krishna and attain Krishna at the end of our lives. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions or comments? Yes, please. Hare Krishna Prabhu. Again thank you for this wonderful, wonderful seminar.
So when you mentioned about the four W’s and then the fifth W which is the worship. So the question is about the first W because I can see most of us are devastated. How do we balance? How do we know how much that we need to do to have this balance in our life? Balance between? Balance between our material life and the spiritual life.
So there is an opportunity to get promotions and things like that. We say none of that might be too much. So where do we draw the line? Okay.
So how do we regulate? How do we determine how to regulate our wants? How to balance between pursuing material progress and then focussing on spiritual growth? Usually there is balance that comes organically through experience. That is the balance that lasts. If somebody else gives me a formula for balance, it doesn’t work.
So I have to learn what works best for me. And balance also is dynamic. Like if say somebody is riding a bike.
The normal balance state of the bike is the vertical state. Bike being vertical and it is moving on. But if they want to turn right, then the vertical state is not the balance state.
At that time, they have to be tilted right. Then they move towards the right. But after they have moved towards the right, if they still stay tilted, then they will go around in a circle.
So then, if now the road, they want to go left, then they have to tilt towards the left. So that means, if the vehicle is moving, the balance state is not a static balance. It’s a dynamic balance.
So when I’m going straight, the vertical state is a balance state. When I’m going right, the right tilted is a balance state. When I’m going left, the left tilted is a balance state.
What is a balance can also change. Now, the broad principle is that all of us ultimately have to make an individual choice to move closer to Krishna. And while moving closer to Krishna, whatever material things we have, different people have, maybe have been born with different levels of material comforts.
For example, traditionally it is a simple living, we talk about it. But if somebody decides to go now and live in villages or live in a eco-friendly community or live in a rural setting, then we find that simple living is not so simple. To live without technology, to live without comforts, may be very difficult.
So, just as there, the simple living, we may find it very difficult. But, when we come to a city and we have some basic level of comforts, basic level of utilities, then we feel comfortable to practise our life. So, it’s for every individual to decide themselves, you know, how much is the level of material progress or material growth they can pursue in a harmonious way.
Again, this is like eating. Nobody else can tell me how much I should eat. I eat and sometimes it’s too much, sometimes it’s too less.
And then we balance. But usually, the chances of eating too less are very less. Most often the tendency is to overeat.
Same applies to the material-spiritual balance. The tendency of, you know, becoming too austere or becoming too negligent about material life, that is quite less. Tendency to overdo material life is more.
But if we consider the various units of our life, you know, I have my job, I have my family, I have my bhakti, how can I pursue all of them properly? In Mahabharata, when Narada Muni comes to meet Yudhishthira, so at that time, Yudhishthira asks for some instruction. Actually, Narada Muni asks questions to Yudhishthira. And what is the question he asks him? That he says you should seek a balance of dharma, artha and kama.
Don’t pursue dharma at the expense of artha and kama. Don’t pursue artha at the expense of dharma and kama. And don’t pursue kama at the expense of dharma and artha.
So, householder life means all these three are there. Dharma, artha, kama, it is balanced. Kama is not just, if the Bhagavad Gita uses the word kama, it is not just a sensual desire.
Kama is holistic, is material well-being basically. Krishna also talks, Bhagavatam also talks about it. sarva-kama-dugha-mahini that the earth is the fulfiller of all desires.
That is, there is desire, kama is used in terms of material needs. The earth provides for our material needs. So, we could say dharma refers to our bhakti, artha refers to our job, kama refers to our family.
So, dharma, artha, kama, all three need to be balanced. So, sometimes in certain situations one may be more. Sometimes our job has a lot of deadlines.
We may increase that more. Sometimes maybe there is a festival in the temple or we go for a yatra. At that time the bhakti becomes more.
At other times, you know, we may have some family necessities, there is a pregnancy in the family, there is some health crisis in the family or there are some other needs. So, at that time, the family aspect may become more. So, this will vary.
So, if we have a time-place circumstance, that will vary. But if we understand that I need to grow in all these three aspects of my life. Now, dharma, artha, kama, the wonderful thing about bhakti is that normally dharma, artha, kama and arthi, three are separate.
But bhakti underlies all of them. Now, our artha is also, we don’t just see as artha, we see that artha is Lakshmi. This is Lakshmi Devi.
She is here and I am going to use the resources that I have in Krishna’s service. My home is like a temple. And I am using this to decorate the temple, to take care of the temple.
Kama, we see, my family is not just my family. These are Krishna’s children. These are Krishna’s family members.
They are in my care. Let me take care of them. So, that way, we can spiritualise all these three.
So, if we understand that I need to grow in all these things, not just in one of them, then which to focus on at what time, that will vary. And there has to be some basic level of practise of bhakti always. But beyond that, sometimes we can do bhakti more, sometimes we may have to pursue our job, our career more.
Sometimes we may have to focus more on the family. That is what I meant by dynamic balance. Sometimes I have to teach, sometimes I have to teach and sometimes I will try it.
So, overall, if we periodically look back at our life, maybe after a month, you know, what did I do in the last month? Maybe I, you know, I did not do adequate bhakti in this life. I got too caught up in this. Then next life I can make some course correction.
Next month I can make some course correction. That way, if we have this broad understanding, these are the three aspects of my life in which I have to move on, then how to, which to focus on more, we can learn through experience. Does that answer your question? Thank you.
People say that we should pursue the need but not the wants. Wants can be unlimited. My question is, how important is the factor of time playing part in differentiating between need and wants? For example, cell phone.
30 years before, I didn’t need it. But now, I need it. It’s not a want.
So, how important is the factor of time in differentiating? Yeah. So, when we differentiate between needs and wants, how important is time to differentiate between the two? Yes. Time makes a big difference because what is necessary, now, it actually varies according to time, place, circumstance.
So, I was once talking with a senior Vaishnava, a sanyasi, you know, he said, he’s also a writer, I’m also a writer. So, he said, what does a sanyasi need today? He needs only two things, prasad and internet. So, actually, yeah, if we are in a particular service, we need to communicate with others.
So, that which was not at all thought of also as a need, but that becomes a necessity now. So, according to time, place, circumstance, things change. So, you know, in differentiating between wants and needs, what we should focus on is our purpose.
What am I trying to do ultimately? So, if I have to serve Krishna, for my service to Krishna, what all do I need? So, some people are, sometimes, even some devotees, sometimes they are very anti-technology. Yeah, if their service doesn’t need technology, if they are living in a, like, they are trying to create eco-friendly living and they are living far away, and if that’s the way they want to, that’s fine. But, you know, we don’t have to be crusaders against technology.
There is nothing material that we have to campaign against or campaign for. We just have to see the material and how important it is for, how useful is it for me. So, if it is useful, I use it in Krishna’s service.
So, keeping our purpose very clear, that my purpose is to serve Krishna, then I see what is my service to Krishna and what do I need for that. That can help us in understanding this. And, when I talk about a purpose, it is not just general, I have to serve Krishna, but you have to see what is my specific service to Krishna.
So, that’s why, based on our situation, then, what will be our need, that can vary. So, keeping the purpose in mind, we’ll be able to decide the difference between what is a want and what is a need. Thank you.
Any other questions? Yes. Prabhuji, can you elaborate worry with respect to Krishna Consciousness and Bhakti? Can I elaborate worry with respect to Krishna Consciousness and Bhakti? See, worry is the interest that we pay on loans that we have not yet taken. That means, quite often I have a problem, but from that problem, I start imagining, this may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong.
Well, none of that has gone wrong till now. You know, I get a small swelling on the body, I start thinking, hey, what if this is a tumour? What if it is malignant? What if I’ve got cancer? What if I have only three months to live? And it’s just one small swelling on the body and from there, oh, I’ve only three months to live. So, we get worried.
So, what happens is that there is a problem, but from that point, we start imagining various things. And that imagination is what causes worry. The problem itself is manageable, but the imagination from the problem, that causes worry and that paralyses us or puts us in a frenzy.
Paralysing means I can’t do anything, frenzy means I just run around doing this, that, and I’m making things worse by whatever I’m doing. Both ways it can act. So, now, when we start practising bhakti, there are two things to it.
First is that we understand that at my core, I’m a soul, I’m indestructible. So, no matter what goes wrong in my life, you know, I, at my core, can never be destroyed. That understanding of our spiritual essence, not just intellectually, but experientially, through chanting, through praying, through coming into the spiritual atmosphere, that itself gives us peace.
And secondly, in any situation that we are in, there are certain things which are in our control and there are large number of things which are not in our control. So, now, if I obsess over the things not in my control, that causes worry. That causes anxiety.
But in that same situation, if I focus on the things that are in my control, that brings intensity. If tomorrow I have an interview, I start worrying, you know, what question will they ask and how will I answer, what if I forget, what if I give a wrong answer. All that will cause me anxiety.
Because, okay, tomorrow I have an interview, I have 24 hours now. Let me prepare. Whatever I have learnt, let me revise.
Let me sharpen my understanding. And that will bring intensity. So, intellectually, we may know, let me focus on that which is not in my control, not worry about that which is not in my control.
But, spiritually, when we are practising Krishna Bhakti, we understand that Krishna is the supreme controller. That means, you know, we think of things are either in my control or they are out of my control. But Bhakti helps us understand that things that are not in my control are still in control.
They are in Krishna’s control. So, when I understand that the things are in Krishna’s control, then I let those things and present those things to Krishna and focus on the things in my control. So, that way, by the faith that develops through the philosophical understanding of Krishna’s position, then we can actually the same situation that causes anxiety, that can bring intensity in our life.
So, by understanding our spiritual identity and understanding Krishna’s controllership, our spirituality can transform our anxiety into intensity. Thank you. Applause Applause Another question? Yeah.
It’s not Okay. It’s fine. Yeah.
Krishna says, when you do devotional services, like charity and all, charity in order, even though you are spiritually adverse enough, the others have to live in this world, so you still have to do like, you are living in this world, you are doing charity. So, can you please explain on that? Okay. Yeah.
I understood. Yeah. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is said that if you do bhakti, then all other activities like charity and yagya, yagya dana tapa, they are all done.
The other hand, Krishna tells Arjuna that you have to do yagya dana tapa because you are living in a society and you have to contribute to society. So, what is it exactly? Actually, the Bhagavad Gita is a very offers a vision of a very dynamic spirituality. It is not withdrawn spirituality.
Not that I withdraw from the world and practise spirituality. The engage in the world, it’s engaged spirituality. The Gita doesn’t talk about renunciation of action.
It talks about renunciation in action. That means, while doing my action, I do it in a renounced mood. So, yagya dana tapa karma na tyajam iti chaapare.
So, Krishna talks about this in the 18th chapter and he says, yagya dana tapa, this should never be given up. So, now, when we start practising bhakti, what happens is we go to the root. See, we live in three levels of encasements in this world.
There is the physical encasement, there is the social encasement and there is the, we could say, natural or cosmic encasement. And we have obligation at all three levels. So, we pay the debts of the physical encasement by doing austerity with the body.
The purpose of austerity is to purify the body. The purpose of the austerity is that the resources that we use for bodily gratification, we use for a higher purpose. That we have a social encasement.
We live in a social circle. We receive so much from the society. So, we repay that debt to society by giving charity, dana.
And then we have a cosmic encasement. The Gita offers the vision of interconnected cosmos where there are higher beings who supervise the universal utilities such as heat, light, air, water, food. And, just as in a state, we pay taxes to the government.
So, like that, in the universal government, the yajna is the tax that we pay to the universal government. So, sacrifice is not just an act of lighting a fire. The essence of sacrifice is that that which we could use for our own pleasure, we offer it for a higher cause.
So, ghee, I would like to eat myself. But I put it in fire. And fire becomes a mystical medium by which that ghee is transported to the higher realm.
So, yajna, dana, tapa, in that sense, are the ways in which we reciprocate with our three encasements. Physical, social, and cosmic. Now, in bhakti, at one level, we go to the root of it all.
The body, the society, and the cosmos, they are all created by Krishna. They are all sustained by Krishna. So, therefore, when we are serving Krishna, it can be said that we are going to the root.
We are addressing the root. And in that sense, we are not obligated to act for reciprocating with these other debts. Because we are going to the root.
Because the bhakti understanding is that there are many people in this world who do things for us. Our parents help us. Our friends help us.
Our relatives help us in many ways. And we are grateful to all of them. But the bhakti understanding is that whatever, whoever is doing for me, it is ultimately Krishna doing for me through that person.
When a mother feeds her newborn baby, it’s an act of very intimate, intense love. She’s offering milk from her own body. That is naturally the mother’s love.
At the same time, it is, the mother doesn’t do anything special to produce the milk at that time. The same God who sent the child into the mother’s womb and brought that child out of the womb, that same God has sent breast in the mother, milk in the mother’s breast so that she can feed the child. So, when we start practising Krishna bhakti, we understand that whatever, whoever is doing for us, it is ultimately Krishna doing for us.
So, from the ultimate perspective, if we are serving Krishna, then we don’t have to serve the others. That doesn’t mean we neglect or disrespect the others, but we are going to the root. So, that’s why sometimes it is said that if somebody is serving Krishna, then all the debts are fulfilled.
And therefore, one doesn’t need to fulfil one’s duties to anyone else. At the same time, when we serve Krishna, what we understand is that it is by reciprocating with these duties, with these particular responsibilities, I can do it also in a spiritual consciousness. So, for example, a mother may love her child, that is natural motherly love.
But another child, this child, the soul is sent by Krishna to me. Then she can spiritualise her love. The child when he grows up, he says, my mother loved me so much.
But my mother, she is, she is actually, through her Krishna manifested her care. So, she is the instrument. I should reciprocate with her also.
The spiritual understanding, it does not mean that we have to reject all other relationships or all other obligations. It is that we are not, we are not, it is not necessary to do this. But a devotee does this, if it is, a devotee needs to stop doing it only when it is unfavourable to bhakti.
But if it is not unfavourable to bhakti, if it is favourable, then a devotee should do it. Because that is also a way in which we can maintain social balance. So, Krishna tells Arjuna, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja.
Give up all varieties of dharma and surrender to me. But after surrendering to Krishna, what does Arjuna do? Arjuna raises his bow and fights. What does that mean? He is actually doing kshatriya dharma.
Isn’t it? So, Krishna told Arjuna, give up your dharma. But then Arjuna is fighting as a kshatriya. So, what is happening here? So, you know, while working in this world, we have to work in some role.
So, but Arjuna is not just fighting as a kshatriya. Arjuna is fighting as a devotee who is doing the role of a kshatriya. So, like that, we may still act in our social roles in this world but we don’t define ourselves by those social roles.
I don’t just see myself as a mother taking care of my child. I consider I am a soul, this child is a soul and I have the role of a mother right now to take care of this soul. So, with that spiritual understanding when we do our social roles, then we bring spiritual growth to ourselves and to those related with us through our functioning in those roles.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Thank you Krishna. Yes, Ram.
So, it is said that whatever we do, whatever we desire in this life, whatever we do in this life shapes our next body. That’s what he said. Now, we also know that subtle body is made up of intelligent mind and positive mind.
Transmigrate, it is the subtle body which carries the soul. Transmigrate from one body to the other. It is comprised of intelligence, mind and positive mind.
Now, I am not able to connect the dots. What is the role of that mind to explain is it that whatever we have desired or done in this life shapes our next body or the mind has got its own memory which will tell which shapes the next body. I am not able to do that.
So, what shapes our next body? Is it our desire that shape it? But then the mind also, the subtle body goes with this body to the next body from this body. So, then does the mind shape it or does our desire shape it? Actually, the two are not unrelated. Our desires they shape our mind and our mind shapes our next body.
That existence is manifested by what? Tantam evaiti kaunteya sadatan bhava bhavita That whatever we remember at the time of death we attain in our next life. So, from the subtle the gross is manifested. So, for every action that I do right now, that is creating impressions in the mind and these impressions will shape our future and actually the impressions in the mind are constantly shaping our future also.
But at the moment of death there is a sudden transition and then a new body is manifested which is shaped according to the kind of mind that we have cultivated now and that mind is cultivated by our desires. It’s like, you know if I have a gmail id and I am working on a particular computer then I have used in that computer my gmail id so now to some extent my bookmarks my search patterns all those are stored on the computer and anytime I type on it all those search patterns, all those bookmarks will come but if I sell that computer I buy a new computer and at that time that computer will be in a different slate but as soon as I log in with my gmail id then automatically those same bookmarks, those same search results they all come back again. So, like that we could say that logging in with the gmail id is like connecting the mind with the body.
So, the body itself is like a clean slate but as soon as the mind gets connected the mind has all the impressions just as Google has its own servers where all the information about the person is stored so like that the mind has its stores in which the related information about us is stored and that becomes manifested and then the thought patterns the inclinations what is called as the nature that we have acquired in our previous life that carries on to the next life. Does it answer your question? Thank you. So, if you understand that the soul is eternal the body is perishable and therefore after death we don’t grieve someone’s death does that devalue life? See, there is a difference between lamenting and grieving Bhagavad Gita doesn’t recommend lamenting but grieving is natural and essential for emotional closure you know, there is physical closure when a loved one or a relative passes away but the emotions are still there and grieving is a way in which we bring about emotional closure so for example in the Ramayana it is described when Dashrath passed away at that time in Ayodhya they declared 10 days of nationwide grieving so it is not that something similar is described when Pandu passes away so the point is that the philosophical understanding has to be sensitively applied to practical life it is not that somebody has lost their loved one and they are crying and say, hey, you are not the body you are the soul have you forgotten that? you know, at that point our philosophy actually is meant to enhance our humanity it is not meant to deny our humanity that means I should be more than human not less than human if I am becoming heartless then I am less than human my spirituality should be making me more than human, that means more than human means I understand I am a human being but I am not just a human being I have a human body, there is more to me than my human side physical or human side so it is not a matter of devaluing life it is not that my love for someone is shown by how loudly I cry after they die it is not so simplistic so some expressions of grief are natural and those expressions of grief will vary depending on the nature of the person some people may cry a lot, some people may shed a few tears some people may be stoic and not show any emotions it is not necessary that the separation of emotions or the absence of emotions is necessarily a correlator of spiritual advancement or lack of spiritual advancement it is just different people have different levels of emotionality even in their normal way of functioning so that variation in the level of emotionality will come out in the time of death also so we should focus more on emotional closure and emotional recovery closure means especially it is said that if a person is going to die then quite often the dying person also needs some emotional closure for example, if an elderly person’s father was going to die and the father had some quarrel the son and father had some quarrel then sometimes the body is almost broken down the elderly person just doesn’t leave the body and then the son comes and talks and they reconcile there is apology, there is forgiveness and then there is emotional closure and the person leaves peacefully so actually when so that is emotional closure for the departing person they should not have any unresolved emotional tensions they should not have any unresolved worries so whatever we will take care of it, we should give them that assurance so from their point of view that is emotional closure I have got on my website a full answer about what all emotional closure involves for both parties for the person who is leaving and the person who is staying but whatever it takes for emotional closure we need to do that sometimes crying helps to helps to by expressing those emotions that helps us to express our love and then that brings emotional closure sometimes crying may actually aggravate the situation so there is no rigid formula in this, what we should say is in our normal life how do we deal with our emotions we need to go beyond, we normally think of two extremes either I express my emotions or I repress my emotions but actually we need to go beyond expressing and repressing emotions to processing emotions I have this emotion right now I have to deal with it I have to process the emotion sometimes the best way to process the emotion is to express it sometimes the best way to process the emotion is to not express it that will vary and love can be expressed in both ways for example say if a if a child if a young boy or young girl is a student they are going to a distant place for their higher studies and the mother may feel oh my child, how is he going to how is he or she going to live alone she may feel like crying at that time but if she starts crying and the child is thinking child may also be insecure, should I go away from my parents, the child is very small and then the child says, oh mummy I will not go only then at that time, the mother may express her love by not showing her emotions so express or it is said especially when warriors are going for fighting in the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is described when Krishna was leaving from Hastinapur at that time the Kuru lady and others, they felt like crying heartbroken that Krishna is going but when a warrior is departing, to see the tears of their loved ones, that is considered auspicious so they all kept their tears inside their hearts, did not let them come out so sometimes love is expressed through, love is conveyed through expressing emotions, sometimes love is expressed through concealing emotions so what is required for us to deal with that situation we should do that does this answer your question thank you what is my level but what is the relationship between Krishna and Arjuna about this or that is just the background Krishna never said that actually in the Bhagavad Gita so there are two different questions here, first is that is there any place where Krishna tells in the Bhagavad Gita that Arjuna you are a Kshatriya but your level is of a Brahmana no, Krishna tells Arjuna very clearly Krishna says that we are all bound by our nature and we have to act according to our nature so Arjuna you may say I will not act like a Kshatriya Kshatriyas are meant to take assertive action when there is wrong doing Kshatriyas are martial guardians of society so Kshatriyas are meant to take assertive action, whereas Brahmanas are generally forgiving, so Krishna is telling Arjuna Arjuna you think you can act like a Brahmana, you are saying that oh these Kauravas have abused us they have stolen our property, I will just forgive them I will not fight Arjuna you will not be able to sustain action like that you may think you will act like a Brahmana now, but later on when a Brahmana goes and asks for charity the difference between Brahmana and Kshatriya is a Brahmana takes charity like this a Kshatriya takes taxes like this so he says that when you are asked you ask for charity and if you are not given charity Brahmana is tolerant, Brahmana goes to the next person but when you are refused charity your hand will go to your bow and arrow do you become angry and Mishra Chakra Thakur the Acharya in his commentary he writes that at that time when you act like a Kshatriya after calling yourself a Brahmana Krishna says I will come and laugh at you basically Krishna is saying that don’t act against your nature Arjuna you are a Kshatriya, act as a Kshatriya by acting as a Kshatriya you will become gradually purified and elevated so in 18.41 to 44 the verses you referred to they are simply a description of the four varnas so he talks about Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, Swabhava and he uses the characteristics of those but he does not tell Arjuna you are a Brahmana he says you are at the Kshatriya level but act on the Kshatriya level but act with a divine purpose you cannot if you are a Kshatriya you act with the Kshatriya nature but for a divine purpose for my service and in that way one can become purified, one can become ultimately liberated that is not exactly Brahmana level that is a Bhakta level so according to Gita verses 41, 42, 43 what is my level well from whatever I have observed I have some level since my childhood I like to study I like to read I was happiest when I was just reading there was nobody to disturb my hobbies, my favourite hobby in my childhood was to one of my favourite hobbies was to open a dictionary and memorise words so I like that so I like to read, I like to think I like to write so you could say that I had some characteristics of a Brahmana but along with that the culture today is very passionate so that passionate culture also had its effect on me so there is the desire for control the desire for prestige that is a Kshatriya tendency Kshatriyas are very image conscious, very prestige conscious that tendency was also there but over a period of time as I observed it that this whole competition for trying to get a position get some fame you know, according to our nature certain problems we feel as challenges and according to if that is not according to our nature we feel that problem as a burden so I was happiest when I was studying, when I was teaching so now that by Krishna’s mercy, I am trying to serve him you know, what I am doing right now, studying, teaching writing, that I am doing for his service, otherwise probably I would have been a scientific researcher writing some scientific papers publishing some journals, maybe going for conferences doing that kind of research so we all have our Swabhava which we learn by gradual experience and actually it is said that Kalau Shudra Sambhava, Kaliyuga everybody is a Shudra so we may have we may have some Brahminical inclinations we may have some Kshatriya inclinations we may have some Vaishya inclinations but all of us in Kaliyuga have at the base a Shudra level of discipline we have very little self-control and that’s how what happens is, even people who are very intellectual, sometimes they are just slaves of their senses they may be intellectual, it is just a capacity that they have, it is a skill that they have but then Shudras mean they have no level of sense control so they have very little sense control and even some of the world’s top scientists Einstein is such a great scientist but Einstein had a prolonged affair with his cousin while he was married to another woman finally he left his wife and married his cousin Stephen Hawking you know he was a very he is a he is a brilliant person intellectually and physically he is terribly paralysed now in spite of that he had an affair with his nurse and his wife was a devout Christian lady who was with him faithfully despite his adversities and still when he was asked she took care of you so well why did you have an affair with someone his answer was, I wanted to prove that I was a man such a pitiable level of understanding that you prove your manliness by having an affair with someone now here I am not here to criticise Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein they are brilliant people in their own ways the point which I am making is that just because we have some Brahminical qualities or some Kshatriya qualities that does not make us a Brahmin or a Kshatriya you know it is a level of self control it is a level of discipline that we have that is also to complement whatever talents or abilities we have so most people in today’s world may have Brahmin Kshatriya Vaishya qualities but if they don’t have, if they have the Shudra level of discipline, Shudra level of self mastery then that is a Shudra level and we need to practise Bhakti by which we can rise from wherever level we are so that’s what causes lot of conflict within people that we have a Brahmana intelligence but then we have Shudra desires and then this was something which I just couldn’t understand I was in college and at that time you know I was as I said I was not really meant for engineering I was meant for science so electronics was as far as engineering I studied I was not could connect with it but I appreciated students who were brilliant so one of the students whom I admired very much was a student who was a university tropper throughout his all 8 semesters and he was he after he graduated he got the highest paying job in the history of our college I was in one of the top colleges in India and then he was a chain smoker so when I first met him I just couldn’t digest the idea you know he is far more brilliant than what I am the way he analyses, the way he understands the way he explains so I was very impressed but then I said why can’t he understand that actually you know he is killing himself I think George Bernard Shaw said that at one end of a cigarette lies fire at the other end lies a fool so I just couldn’t digest, why can’t he understand this and then unfortunately 6 months after he got that record breaking job he was diagnosed with lung cancer and he died so that really jolted me, I couldn’t deny his brilliance intellectually but in terms of behaviourally I couldn’t understand why he is like this so what happens is in today’s culture even if we have brahmana intelligence but we are caught by shudra desires we may have kshatriya intelligence, kshatriya capacities but we are caught by shudra desires so we need to practise bhakti by which our consciousness gets elevated so that our level of functioning becomes compatible with our level of with level of talents that we have and so by Krishna’s mercy I was brought up by very pious parents, protected me from gross bad habits but still I can see from this perspective that although I had brahmanical intelligence before I got Shri Prabhupada’s mercy Krishna’s mercy, I was also caught by shudra desires so now if I have been able to rise above that a little bit that is by Krishna’s mercy Thank you very much Thank you very much