Mother’s day Meditation – Conception Commercialization Spiritualization

[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Connecticut, USA]

Video:

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors. Namaskaram. So, I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you today. So, today is Mother’s Day. So, I’ll speak on this topic of Mother’s Day. I’ll speak in three parts. The conceptual, the conception of Mother’s Day, then the commercialisation that has happened of it, and lastly, I’ll talk about the spiritualization. So, I was born and brought up in India and I came to know about Mother’s Day maybe about 10 years ago or so, after I had been a brahmachari for many years. And in India, the first response of many people towards the idea of Mother’s Day was dismissive. What do you mean by Mother’s Day? You know, why do you need something like a Mother’s Day? So, now, in traditional cultures, we’re going to respect our elders and take care of them. So, we don’t need, that’s what my thinking was, that we don’t need any special day for that purpose. But over the last few years, I’ve been travelling across the world and I’ve been encountering different people in different cultures, different backgrounds, and I have come up with my own understanding of humility. Humility means to acknowledge the complexity of reality. Humility means to acknowledge the complexity of reality. That means that we may think that, what is this? Things are like this. But there may be many more subtleties involved. So, one of the defining differences for me when I interact with people from the West, of course, I interact with many Western devotees in India, because ISKCON has many Western devotees, but when I interact with people from the West, let’s say in colleges and companies, so one of the defining differences is the lack of stability of the family structure. And then, there was one boy whom I met in college, after a college programme, and he told me that, after we got to know each other for some time, he told me that he grew up in a foster home. So, then I asked him, after I got to know him, what happened? Did your parents die in an accident? So, he said, no, actually both my parents are alive. I said, then what happened? Then why did you live in a foster home? He said, when I was five, my parents separated. And when they separated, both of them, they told me that actually this marriage was the biggest mistake of my life. And they told this boy that you remind me of the biggest mistake of my life. So, both the parents told the child, we don’t want anything to do with you. And despite having two parents, the child became homeless. And then he was put in foster homes. So, he was telling me, whenever he comes, he’s now slowly coming to some bhakti programme. So, whenever he hears that Krishna is my mother, Krishna is my father. So, he says, if Krishna is like my mother or father, I don’t want to have Krishna. So, people can get so psychologically scarred that when we have certain reference points by which we convey spiritual truths, those reference points themselves may not be applicable. So, if we look at the broad picture of nature, every living being, most living beings, they have sexual reproduction. A few have a sexual reproduction. And especially among mammals, among all species, when offspring is born, the offspring depends a lot on the parents, especially the mother. Among all the species, it is mammals who breastfeed their offsprings. And among all mammals, it is the human offspring that depends more than all other species on the parents. But nature has arranged in such a way that all other species, the parents have to take care for some time. Hare Krishna Maharaj. Please accept my humble obeisance. So, I seek your blessings Maharaj, so that I can speak something. Thank you. So, among all species, human species is characterised by a greater dependence on the parents than all other species. Now, human children, if they are left by themselves, they won’t be able to take, they can’t survive. And they need care for a significant amount of time, much more than others. So, by nature’s arrangement, there is a strong bond created between the parents and the children in all species. And especially in the human species, it is very strong and it is also required for the survival of the progeny. So, if we consider the way the world has changed over the, maybe since the industrial revolution, 200-300 years ago, and especially in the last few years, that there has been a lot of, what you could say, the atomisation of the family. That means, instead of having integrated unit, see, in the past we would have joint families, then we had nuclear families. Now, there is nuclear fission. And there are electrons and protons orbiting around in the emptiness of the concrete jungles. So, in such a situation, where there are healthy family bonds, they help not just in the physical sustenance, but also in the overall growth. Without these kind of, without healthy relationships, the people cannot grow properly in their lives. And among all the relationships which help us to grow, the mother’s relationship is the most important. So, the mother who bears us in the womb and then she gives her a breast milk, it’s, Prabhupada would say that it is the nearest that we come to selfless love in this world. That where we can experience caring for another human being at a very intimate and at a highly selfless level. So, Prabhupada in the book Second Chance, there he talks about how Ajamila was attached to his son. And there he says that the affection of the parents for their children is natural and necessary. But it is not spiritual. It is natural. Natural means it is produced by nature. And Prabhupada gives the example in his talks over there that if there is a small kitten, and if somebody comes to touch the kitten, the cat will show her claws. She will show her nails and protect the name. So, it’s natural and it’s necessary. But it is not spiritual. Now, it is not spiritual because there may not be any conception of the soul or God in it directly. So, if we consider, say, most of us here are Indians and we are all living in a western world, in a western culture. So, I’ll talk from both perspectives and then we’ll talk from the spiritual perspective. In Indian culture, to some extent, the material piety is equated with spirituality. That means, if somebody is living a good life, doing dharma, artha, kama, that itself is considered to be good enough. So, many of the lectures that Prabhupada gave in Hindi in India, he focused on the theme of how we need to go from aparadharma to paradharma, from material religion to spirituality. And that means we need to centre our life on Krishna. So, there is a lot of focus on that we have to do our material duties. And if we are doing those duties, then that itself is religious. So, there is from the Upanishads, one verse, which people often quote, matru deva bhava, pitru deva bhava. The mother is God, the father is God. Now, if we look at the overall context in which it is said, the sentiment underlying it is valuable. That for a child who is born into this world, the mother and the father are the primary sustainers of life. So, just as God sustains our life, the mother and the father sustain their life. And in that sense, just as we are indebted to God, we are indebted to the parents. Now, this does not literally mean that the mother and the father are God. If it literally meant the mother and father are God, then say, many parents are very ambitious about their children. The ones, mother and the father, they had a quarrel. So, and they went to the court because of the quarrel. So, then the mother wanted that my son should become a doctor. And the father wanted my son should become an engineer. And both of them quarrelling, both came to the court. And then when they came to the court, the judge said, why do you have to come to the court? Just ask the son. He says, no, we can’t ask the son. Why not? He is not yet born. So, sometimes it may happen that the parents may project their expectations a lot on the children. And then, say, if there is a situation where if the mother is God and the father is God. So, the mother God is saying, become a doctor. The father God is saying, become an engineer. So, which God should you follow at that time? So, this statement has a sentiment which is to be appreciated. The mother and the father are represented, the primary representatives of God for us. And we are meant to serve them. In Krishna, in the 10th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, around chapters 40-41, 41st chapter, Hare Krishna, where he kills Kamsa and thereafter, he unites with his parents. So, he also says over there that actually, I, as a child, am meant to serve you. But unfortunately, because of circumstances, I couldn’t serve you. So, now that I am back with you, now I will serve you as well as I can. So, this mood is very valuable. So, in the Indian tradition, what has happened is that the piety is equated with spirituality. So, aparadharma is considered the supreme dharma. So, the mother and father, if we absolutise them as God, then there is a problem because they are not God. However, they are the first representatives of God for a child who comes to this world. And in that sense, they are meant to be venerated. If we consider the western world, because of various factors, the family bonds, they are not very strong, at least in the current or the last generation, we could say. Before that, they were strong. And because of this integration, there is always a generation gap. And because of the generation gap, which is always there in every civilisation, but there is a large amount of fragmentation. So, if we consider the western world, the kids just want to be free as soon as possible and break free from their parents and have their own life. And that way, when they want to live in such a culture to acknowledge that my parents have done a lot for me, especially my mother has done a lot for me, this acknowledgement is itself, to some extent, we could say sattvic. There are three modes of material nature, goodness, passion and ignorance. So, we live largely in a passionate world. In the passionate world, we often become very self-centred. Every relationship that we have, it forces us to come out of ourselves. The self can become like a black hole in which people’s consciousness gets sucked up. I want this, I want that, I want that. Almost everybody in today’s world is a I-specialist. Not this I-specialist, but this I-specialist. So, people just, what I want, what I want, that’s all that matters. So, now, in such a situation, that’s why any relationship that we form, it forces us to come out of ourselves and makes us think of the other person. And one reason, of course, is that because we have such an I-centred culture, that’s why people do not want to form any committed relationships. They don’t want to form any committed relationships wherein they think that, so, aversion to commitment is not actually detachment. Aversion to detachment means, one has understood, okay, these things don’t really give any higher happiness. So, let me look at something higher. So, detachment is in the mode of goodness. But aversion to commitment is in the mode of ignorance. That means, one thinks there are so many enjoyable options. If I choose one, the other doors will close for me. So, let me keep all doors open. So, that is indecision, not because of any realisation or any renunciation. It is indecision because of excessive attachment. So, when people don’t form committed relationships, at that time, people become more and more self-centred. And every relationship that we form, it forces us to come out of ourselves. Let us say that parents make children and children make parents. That means that parents, they may beget children, but when parents have children, having children makes the parents mature. They have to become more responsible. They have to become more concerned about others. So, for the soul to grow from self-centredness towards thinking of something beyond that, every relationship is valuable in that. So, if we consider from the adult’s perspective, relationships are what help us to grow, grow in our self-understanding, grow beyond self-centredness. And when there is no committed relationship, then people just sink into themselves. So, when people are sinking more and more into themselves, as I said, the self can become a black hole and all of people’s conceptions are centred only around them. So, at that time, if there are some expressions, some rituals, some practises, some celebrations that inspire people to come out of themselves, then that is positive. So, when in a culture of Rajoguna, where I just want whatever I want, and Tamoguna means I am not concerned about anything else. So, if somebody is concerned about any other relationship and is willing to acknowledge that, that is to some extent in the mode of goodness. Shrila Bhaktivinod Thakur in the Chaitanya festivals, festivals glorifying Lord Hari. So, Janmashtami, Ghor Purnima, these are the festivals that a devotee delights in celebrating. But then Bhaktivinod Thakur lived at a time in Bengal, when the worship of the goddess, Kali Puja was also very prominent. So, Bhaktivinod Thakur says that there are other kinds of festivals that a devotee, if it is required for deference to social custom, a devotee may participate in that. But when the devotee participates in that, the devotee spiritualises the consciousness. Vishwanath Chakravarthy Thakur describes in his commentary to the fourth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam that Prithu Maharaj, when he was a king, he would perform yajnas. And when he would perform yajna, there were many aspects of the yajna which were meant for the devatas. So, Prithu Maharaj externally performed those practises because people in general may not be at the level of pure devotional service. So, let them at least do some worship of some devatas. But internally, while the yajna of the devatas was going on, internally, he was contemplating that these are actually the representatives of Krishna. Narayana Angaja, that all the devatas are the body of Narayana. And therefore, actually, let me offer my heart to Lord Narayana. So, when this attitude is there, then a devotee can participate in any festival, internally seeing the spiritual aspect of it. So, in today’s world, where there is so much disintegration of the family, any celebrations that affirm the value of the family and help people integrate, when we may not, we may take each other for granted and may not express affection, at that time if we express affection, if there are some special days on which we express affection, that is positive. However, the nature of the material world is that whatever positive is there, there some negativity always becomes associated with it. So, for example, Christmas is a celebration and for most people, especially for most children and most people in the public imagination, Christmas is more about Santa Claus than about Jesus Christ. So, Christmas is about, oh, Santa is going to come and give me some gifts. It is that Jesus sacrifice or Jesus appeared or anything connected with Jesus that goes into the background. Maybe some plays are made in some churches about the nativity scene, but the nature of the material world is whatever is there, it gets dragged down to material consciousness. So, there is a lot of commercialisation and it is not just in Christianity. In India, Diwali is there. It’s a big festival, but in Diwali, I was born in a pious Hindu family, but for us, Diwali meant primarily two things. The one is firecrackers and sweets. Lot of noise and lot of food. The religious significance or the spiritual aspect of it was hardly ever talked about. And Diwali is about buying a lot of things, people have big businesses, people sell a lot of things. So, if the spiritual aspect is lost, then that which is meant even for a good purpose at a material level or some elevation of consciousness could be there, that also gets dragged down. I am from Maharashtra in India, where Ganesha Puja is very popular, worship of Lord Ganesha. So, at one time, I was invited to a Ganesha Utsav, the festival of Lord Ganesha, and there they had asked me to speak on Dharma. So, I spoke based on the Bhagavad Gita. But before that, there is big deities of Ganesha. So, what had happened, I went there to offer my respects, and then I saw that in that same pandal, on loudspeakers, there are Bollywood songs going on. So, then I asked people, I asked the organisers, this is Ganesha Utsav, can’t you have some bhajans related to Lord Ganesha? They said, actually, Ganesha is Bhaktavatsala. He loves his devotees. And therefore, he loves whatever his devotees love. So, the people who come, they like Bollywood songs, and these are not Bollywood religious songs. These are Bollywood romantic songs. So, this is a distortion of what actually the religious festival is meant to be. So, for them, the Ganesha Utsav that happens in Maharashtra, it is huge, and quite often, it is just a competition of the ego. So, there are different people, different wealthy people, say, I want to, I got this big Ganesha. I got this big Ganesha. I got this big Ganesha. And they get huge Ganesha deities, and they all, so many people came to take darshan of our Ganesha. So many people came to our Ganesha Utsav. So, Krishna says in the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita that, Atmasambhavitastabdha dhanmanavidamitah yajante nama yajneste dambhenavidipurvakam. In 16.16 and 17, he says, there are some people, they do sacrifice, yajante, nama yajneste. They don’t do yajna of nama. They don’t chant the holy names. They do yajna for nama. They do the sacrifice so that they can get name and fame. So, sometimes, what happens? The material motive comes up in various celebrations. The same happens with respect to Mother’s Day also. And that it becomes a commercialised festival where, say, all monks or others, they make cards and everybody buys cards and gives those cards. And that way, the commercialisation can also happen. But as devotees, if we are in a culture where this is celebrated, then we can spiritualise it. Now, how do we, with this background, how do we spiritualise a festival like this? Actually, the spiritualization happens when we see that there is a channel of love and there is a source of love. So, in the Bhagavatam, it is said that whatever, that a devotee who surrenders to the Lord, then, for them, there are no debts to anyone. Now, what does this mean, actually? There is a well-known verse in the Bhagavatam, in the Vedic tradition, which also says, Tomeva Mata cha Pita, Tomeva, Tomeva Bandhus cha Sakha, Tomeva, Tomeva Vidya Dravinam, Tomeva, Tomeva Sarvam Mama Deva, Deva. It’s the prayer of the absolute, and it is saying that you are my mother, you are my father, you are my brother, you are my friend, you are my wealth, you are my knowledge, you, O Lord, O Lord of Lords, you are my everything. What does this verse mean? It means that, actually, whatever love we get from anyone, we get it, ultimately, from the Lord. So, when the mother offers her love to the child, it is the mother definitely has, she is offering her own love, but it is not just her own love. The mother offers her breast milk to the child. At the same time, that is a very intimate act of love. At the same time, the mother does not do anything special to manufacture the breast milk, when the child is born. The same Lord, who sends the child through the mother’s womb into this world, also sends milk in the mother’s breast, by which the child can be nourished. So, the mother, through the mother, it is Krishna who is expressing His love for us. Through the father, it is Krishna who is expressing His love for us. So, for me, I grew up in a family where I was very much closer to my mother. My father used to work in a different city. So, when I used to live in a, I lived in a very small town, and when I was about one, my parents took me dutifully to get various vaccinations. So, at that time, polio was very common. So, they gave polio vaccination. And somehow, the doctor who had supposed to, who was in charge of the polio vaccination, he did not keep the, he had not kept the vaccine very well. So, the vaccine, instead of protecting me from polio, ended up giving me polio. So, my parents were devastated at that time. But then, my mother, she would tell me that every single day, I pray to God, please let you be cured. And she went through a lot of sacrifices. She was also a working mother, but she actually tried various treatments. There was one doctor who said that you do some exercise, massage therapy, you’ll get cured. So, my mother took leave for almost one year, and she was staying with me in that small town where we would go and do a lot of exercises. And as I grew up, I could appreciate slowly, initially as a small, when we are small, we just keep demanding, keep demanding from a child. Child just cries and expects the world to come and attend to the child. But as we grow up, we understand we are not, in every relationship, there is some expectation and there is some contribution. In childhood, it is mostly expectation. But as we grow up, there is more of a reciprocation, which we are meant to do. So, contribution is there. So, I started valuing more and more what my parents, how much my parents were sacrificing. Now, to take care of any child is difficult. To take care of a child who is handicapped physically is even more difficult. And they never made me feel in any way that I was a burden to them. So, when I used to go to hospitals and I used to take some treatment, I could see that there are many other kids who were there. And they, for them, just accepting the fact that they couldn’t walk naturally, that itself was so difficult. So, for me, somehow, I am grateful to my parents for that. Because they accepted me as I was, so I also accepted myself. So, although I have, even now I have to use crutches for walking, but I hardly ever think about it. It doesn’t burden my mind at all. And even before I was introduced to Krishna Consciousness, before that it didn’t burden me. And that I felt was a great gift that my parents and especially my mother gave me. So, then my parents would tell me that whatever physical inability you have, God has compensated for that by giving you intellectual ability. And I was reasonably good in my studies. So, in my 10th, I was among the toppers in a particular category. I was the first in the state of Maharashtra. So, my parents were very happy. So, for them, it was their dream come true. There was a top government officer of the city, the district. He came to our home to felicitate me and then a photo of me with my brother and my parents. It all came in the local newspapers. So, they were very proud of that. So, for them, especially for my mother, all the sacrifice that they had gone through, they saw that their son was now growing up and was becoming successful. So, they were very happy with that. But the nature of life is that the very day, this district collector, he came to our house to felicitate me. That very evening, my mother was diagnosed with leukaemia, with advanced blood cancer. And within one month, she passed away. He fought gallantly, but it was a very advanced form of cancer. So, for me, it was devastating at that time. I just, I had, as I said, I was very close to my mother and I had a younger brother. My father was working in a different city. So, I had to take care of my younger brother. That was the time I became spiritual. I started, not became, I started looking for spirituality. And then one of the big difficulties I had when I was eventually introduced to Krishna Consciousness, some classes I heard, they said, all the love in this world is false. The only real love is the love of Krishna. So, this I had a lot of difficulty in accepting. I said, no, I know that my parents loved me, my mother loved me. How can I say that that love is false? So, then when I was reading the Bhagavatam, in the fourth canto, there is a Dhruv Maharaj pastime. And in that Dhruv Maharaj pastime, I came across a very striking verse. So, Dhruv Maharaj say, Dhruv Maharaj, when his mother-in-law insults him and his father neglects him, his brother, Uttama is sitting on his father’s lap, Avadhanapada’s lap, and he also wants to sit on his father’s lap. But his mother-in-law pushes him away. And then he goes crying to his mother. So, Suniti, at that time, she tells him that, you know, I can’t help you. I am helpless. He says, then how can you help me? My father did not allow me to sit on his lap. He says, I want to grow up and I want to sit on a throne bigger than his throne. So, his mother says that, go to Lord Narayan. And there she says that whatever love I can offer you or whatever love millions of mothers like me can offer you, Lord Narayan can offer you more love than that. So, now, when I read that, it was a revelation for me. What it means is that if the love of the mother is false, then if it is zero, a million multiplied by zero would still be zero. So, it cannot be that the love of this world is false. But the love of the world is finite. It is, there are various different kinds of loving relationships we may have. But no matter how much we care for others, the capacity, how much we can express that love and how much we can do for others, that is always finite. So, we have two kinds of relationships in the world. We can say we have horizontal relationship with others and we have a vertical relationship with Krishna. So, here, what is this, what is Sunithi doing when she is telling to Dhruva that I love you, I would give my life for you. But in this situation, I can’t do anything for you. But whatever I can’t do, that and much more Lord Narayan can do for you. So, therefore, what she is doing, she is using the horizontal relationship to inspire him in his vertical relationship. You take shelter of Lord Narayan. So, the ideal situation is where our horizontal relationships and our vertical relationships, they work symbiotically. Symbiotically means our horizontal relationship strengthens our vertical relationship. And our vertical relationship also stabilises our horizontal relationship. So, that’s the mood in the Bhagavatam when it says that one should not become a mother or father unless one can deliver one’s child. What that means is that the horizontal relationship of mother and father and child will be naturally formed. But what will give speciality to that relationship, what will make that relationship human and spiritual is, when that relationship is used as an impetus to form the vertical relationship. So, small children come to the temple, the parents come and bow to the Lord. Children look around, my parent is going down, let me also bow down. So, they get those devotional impressions by that. So, if our horizontal relationships can strengthen our vertical relationship, then that is the way in which the horizontal relationship can lead to their perfection. So, the love that we get from the mother, the love that a mother offers to the child, it is real. And for a child, it is essential, especially for newborns, not just for a child. When we grow up, the mother always has a special place in our hearts. So, that love, if we consider that, if that love is so essential, so valuable, but if that is like a drop, when saying it is like a drop, it is not meant to minimise it. Rather, if that drop, that love is like a drop, it appears so much to us, if there is an ocean of love, how much more would that be? And Krishna is Prema Sagar. He is the ocean of that love. So, whatever love we get from anyone, it is ultimately a drop of Krishna’s love that we are experiencing through them. And we are grateful that we got that drop of love from them. Of course, we don’t want to, again, not minimise by saying it is a drop, but it is a drop only when we compare it with the ocean. So, we are grateful to those who are channels of Krishna’s love for us. And as much as possible, we try to reciprocate with them also. And we try to express our gratitude in the appropriate way to the channels of love also. At the same time, we understand that we will have many relationships in this world. And all relationships are ultimately meant to point us towards our spiritual relationship. Pointing towards our spiritual relationship means that we are meant to help ourselves go towards Krishna and help others move towards Krishna. So, to the extent we can do that, to that extent our relationships fulfil their ultimate purpose. As Prabhupada said, the parent’s love for their children is natural and necessary, but it is not intrinsically spiritual. It becomes spiritual when Krishna is brought into the centre. And the parents can give the children impressions by which the children become devotees. Then they are spiritualising that relationship. And sometimes the children may give their spirituality to the parents. And that may also spiritualise the relationship. So, in my early days of Krishna consciousness, I was very enthusiastic. So, I asked one senior Vaishnava, how do I make my parents into devotees? So, he told me, by letting anyone except you preach to your parents. He said, dad, actually your parents have a particular relationship with you. They will not be able to see you as a teacher. But, so I just did that. I connected my father with other devotees. And it’s amazing how when I had joined the temple, my father came to the temple and met the temple commander. He took out, at that time, the hundred rupee notes and he threw it at him. How much money do you want? Take it and give my son back to me. So, he was furious. But then eventually, as he started seeing that, I was also, parents’ concern is primarily that my child may waste my life. But he saw that I was writing, I was travelling, I was speaking. He started appreciating more and more. Then after many years, I wrote a small book, not yet published. It’s a memoir about my life and why I chose to become a monk. So, when I gave that to my father and he read it, and his whole attitude changed after that. Now, he has written the foreword for that book. So, he has become very, very appreciative, very supportive. So, basically, we all, every single relationship that we have, we accept the value of that relationship. It’s not that we minimise that relationship just because it is material. We accept that it is valuable and we try to spiritualise it. I’ll conclude with one story of how relationships can be spiritualised. So, I joined the Pune temple, Pune Iskcon temple. And there, there were two brothers who both joined and became brahmacharis. So, first one brother became a brahmachari, then after the second brother became a brahmachari. For their parents, it was devastating. Both of them were well-educated, both of them had bright careers. And their mother was especially very disturbed. So, but eventually they started preaching, their parents accepted, their parents also started coming to the temple. So, at that time, so, eventually, as they were practising and preaching, somehow, their mother was diagnosed with cancer. And the doctor told her, you have only a few months to live. And the cancer was very painful. But when that was so painful, at that time, she was so broken down by it, one day she told the doctor, just give me some medicine, I want to die, I can’t bear this pain. So, at that time, her sons were there with her and her sons told her, you are a soul, you are in this body, in this body. At that time, they spoke a little bit philosophy to her. And then she, before she departed from the world, she told her thoughts to her husband. And her husband told him, I wrote an article about it. So, she, when her sons told her, actually, you are a soul and you have an opportunity for eternal life. Whatever pain you are experiencing in this life, if you can take shelter of Krishna, that will give the strength to tolerate the pain. If you try to destroy your body, that will itself involve some further karma. Better not to do that. So, she said that when I heard the children, you know, with their mouths in which I had fed them my breast milk, they are speaking such wisdom. So, I realised, these are not, are these really my children? She was born in a pious culture. So, she knew about Bhagavatam, she knew about Ramayana, Mahabharata. Then she said, are these really my son? They are someone special. And then she said, I remember how Kardam Muni, how Kapiladev instructed his mother. So, then she was so inspired that my children can instruct me spiritually like this. I should be telling them spiritual things, but they are telling me. So, she became very inspired and she resolved to start practising bhakti very seriously. And she said that I would like to come and stay in the temple. Now, at that time, we had a very small temple. She said, I just want to take shelter of Krishna and I want to stay in the temple. I want to take darshan, I want to take charnamrut. So, then the temple management arranged that she would come and stay in the temple. And these two devotees, they were told that whatever services you have, you know, you focus on taking care of your mother. And they would go with her to the hospital, they would go take care of her in whatever way was required. So, eventually, she became a very serious devotee and she started practising. She even got initiation. And actually, before she got initiation, what happened was, she at one time suddenly became very serious and she fell unconscious. And at that time, she was rushed to the hospital. And she was rushed to the hospital. At that time, she told us later, and I wrote that in the article which is there on my website, how my cancer became a blessing. So, she says that she had a near-death experience. And she saw herself from outside her body. She saw that her body is lying on the ground, not on the ground, on the operation theatre, on the bed, operation hospital bed. And she saw all the doctors running around. She says, at that time, I realised, I was convinced, I am not the body. I am something different. I am something higher. And then, as she was there observing, the doctors were rushing around, doing various things, she felt herself propelled down into the body. She said, when I was free from that body, I felt as if there is no pain. I said, I am free. But then it was almost as if I was pulled back into the body. And then I was wondering, why was I pulled back into the body? But then soon after that, she got initiation. She says, when I got a spiritual name, I got a spiritual life. She says, she realised I was given a fresh lease of life so that I could go forward in my spirituality. And when, normally when devotees get initiated, they are expected to fill a form. There was one form, standard form. That’s what service would she like to do. So, she wrote, I would like to preach. The devotees were thinking, how can she preach? She is on the bed. She can’t even walk around. But eventually, what happened was, she was staying in the temple and her consciousness was so sublime that her relatives would come to meet her. And normally if somebody is on the verge of death, her cancer was terminal. So, people, they don’t know what to talk. It’s almost like you have affection for the person, but you don’t know what to do. So, it’s a little difficult for people to come. But whenever they would come to meet her, she would appear so unburdened. And she would tell them, I am chanting, this is giving me so much relief. All of you also please start chanting. And she was a little older. So, she had that age on her side also. So, her relatives were all amazed. Even in such a situation, she is so spiritually conscious. And she started chanting. The doctor, the cancer doctor was treating her. He said that in such a situation, people would be screaming in pain. She also had pain, but she was so much more composed. What do you do? How are you so composed? So, then she told the doctor also about bhakti and about chanting the holy names. And she made so many people attracted towards Krishna by her own composure during that time. And then finally, when her last moments came, she at that time, at that time a youth retreat was going on in the temple. Almost 300 youth were there. And then at that time, early morning around 4 o’clock with both her sons next to her chanting Hare Krishna, doing japa at the Mangal Aarti time, Brahma Murtha time, she departed from the world. And she departed in a very prayerful consciousness. So, at that time when she departed from the world, she told, the previous night she told her husband, actually when my sons left me to go to Krishna, I felt betrayed. I felt as if they had left me and abandoned me. He said that actually, but now I realise that my sons, he had three sons. So, one son was not a devotee who was having his own family and other things. He said that actually these two sons who went to God, actually I thought they had abandoned me. But they did more for me than what any son could have done. And they took care of me practically throughout going to the hospital with me, taking care of all the needs, doing all the tests, getting the medicines. They took care of me materially also better than what a son could have taken care of. But more importantly, they took care of me spiritually. He said that when they became brahmacharis, it was actually, it was the best thing that they did in their life. And although at that time I didn’t understand, I saw that as they were rejecting my love, they were rejecting my dreams for them. But actually they were connecting with Krishna and they connected me with Krishna. So, she was profoundly grateful to her sons. Of course, her sons were grateful for the opportunity to take care of her during the last time, last days of her life. So, she, because she departed when this whole, when this youth retreat was going on. So, all the youth who used to just come, sometimes come to the temple, sometimes not come to the temple, not so serious. When they heard about her consciousness, about her reciprocation to the children, sons’ reciprocation to the parents, they all became inspired. So, Krishna arranged for her desire that I want to preach. That is fulfilled not just by the way she lived before her death, but also by the time when she departed from the world. And ultimately, whatever love we have in this world, if we can reciprocate that love in a way that connects us with the eternal source of all love, that is the purpose and perfection of all relationships. So, a devotee, when it is said that devotees surrender to Krishna, there is no obligation to the parents. That doesn’t mean that a devotee doesn’t care. It means that the devotee understands that the source of all love is Krishna. And if we have got love from certain channels, our mother, our father, our friends, our brothers, then we try to reciprocate with them also. They have given, whatever anyone has done for us, we try to reciprocate. And the best way we can reciprocate is by sharing Krishna, bringing Krishna into that relationship. When we bring Krishna into that relationship, then that is what ultimately spiritualises the relationship. So, for us, as devotees, we recognise the sanctity of all relationships, including the mother-child relationship. And from the sanctity to the spirituality of that relationship, that is the journey which we all would like to go. And on days like Mother’s Day, we can be grateful for whatever our mother has done for us. And we can try to see, if we are mothers, how we can take that relationship to the spiritual level. If we are children, we can contemplate how we can spiritualise that relationship with our parents. So, we can do some things for others while they are with us. But if we connect them with Krishna, then Krishna can be there for all time with them. And therefore, the best thing that we can do for anyone is not just what we do physically for them, not just what we do financially for them, not just what we do for them at the material level. But the best thing that we can do for anyone is that we connect them with Krishna. And the best way we can connect them with Krishna is first by ourselves becoming properly connected with Krishna. Properly connected means that we connect with Krishna in a way that makes us better human beings. Now, if a mother feels that my son, my daughter has become a better son or a better daughter by becoming a devotee, then they want to know what made you better. And that will inspire them to become devotees. If the children feel, oh, that my mother is a better mother because she is a devotee. My mother cares for me in so many ways. My mother does so much for me. And then that will inspire the children also to become devotees. So the more we ourselves connect with Krishna and we broaden our understanding of how we can benefit others by benefiting them not just materially but also spiritually, then all our relationships can become not just sanctified but also spiritualised. So I’ll summarise. I spoke today about Mother’s Day, the conceptualisation, the commercialisation, the spiritualization. I started by speaking about how initially in the traditional culture I felt what is this Mother’s Day? Why do we need something special? But when I came to the West, I observed that families, bonds are not so strong. There is a disintegration of the family. And people are more and more self-centred. So there is aversion to commitment. And this can be quite disorienting for people’s growth. So this is Rajasic and Tamasic where we are absorbing our own lives. So if there are occasions when we affirm the importance of others and we express our affection for them, that can be sattvic, in the mode of goodness. And the purpose, the soul is meant to ultimately become selfless in love for Krishna. But the soul by default, if there is no relationship, will become very self-centred. So every relationship pushes us to come out of ourselves. And parents make children and children make parents. So both ways the relationship helps us to grow out of ourselves. In the human form especially, all species, the parents have to take care of the children. But nature has arranged in such a way that human species, the dependence on the parents is much more. And that is so that affectionate bond is formed and then that affectionate bond can be spiritualised. So everything that is good can become bad because of the materialism of the world. So just as Diwali or Christmas can be commercialised, even Mother’s Day can be commercialised. Wherein we focus only on the, say, giving cards or getting gifts or feasting or blowing firecrackers and we forget the essence. So the essence is not just to acknowledge the value of the relationship and the contribution that others have done in the relationship. Say the mother has done for us in the relationship. But it is also to spiritualise it. So by spiritualization I described how? In Indian culture there is the idea that piety is spirituality. That mother and father are God. But if mother and father themselves are God, then the mother and father desire different things, which God should the child follow. So the mother and father are the first and foremost representatives of God in the child’s world. And both of them are meant to take the child towards God. So whatever love anyone offers to us, it is Krishna offering the love through them. So the love in this world is real in the sense that people have real affection for each other. At least in some relationships. But at the same time it is temporary. So Dhruva Maharaj’s pastime, the mother says that whatever love I can offer, Narayan can offer you millions of times more love. So if the mother’s love is so sweet and so uplifting for us, then we can just envision how much more will Krishna’s love be. So our horizontal relationships with others in the world including our mother and our vertical relationship with Krishna, these are both meant to be symbiotic. So we by practising Krishna Bhakti can become better children or better mothers. And in our relationship as children or parents, we can try to also spiritualise that relationship. So I talked about how these devotees who became brahmacharis ultimately took care of their mother both materially and spiritually. And whatever relationships we have, we acknowledge their value, we acknowledge their sanctity and then we also bring spirituality in those relationships. And that is the purpose and perfection of all relationships. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Any comments, Maharaj? Pyare Mohantrao? Do you have any questions? Yes, please. Some devotees consider Krishna to be like their child. So how is that natural? It’s not a natural relationship. So how do we understand this? Krishna is the source of everyone. In that sense, he is the supreme parent. Pitaham asya jagato mata dhata pitamaha. The Bhagavad Gita also says that I am the father of all of existence, all living beings. So in the sense that he is the source of everyone, that he is the supreme parent is acknowledged. That is, it is universally accepted. At the same time, what the bhakti tradition reveals is what does God do at home. Most of the religions in the world, they talk about God as he relates with us in the world. God does this, God does that. So there is the famous prayer in Christianity, O father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, give us our daily bread. The Prabhupada appreciated that at least we are connecting with God, we are realising that God is the source of our bread. That God is the ultimate provider of whatever we have. At the same time, he said that this prayer focus shows more our love for bread, not our love for God. If we get bread from somewhere else, we feel there is no need to go to God. So the point I am making is that most religious traditions talk about God in his relationship with us and what he will provide for us. The bhakti tradition acknowledges this role of God, there is an aspect of God called as Parmatma, the supreme soul who maintains all of existence. At the same time, the bhakti tradition also talks about God in his self-existence. So we could say God in office is doing his job of taking care of all living beings. But God also has his personal life. So what does he do at home? So that God in home, what at home is Krishna. And it is described that if you look in this world, what is it that we all look forward to the most? It is relationships and the reciprocation of love in the relationships. So God also has relationships in various flavours. So at one level, he is the provider, he is the judge, he is the administrator. But that over a period of time can become a very rapid relationship. One of my friends is a judge in a court. He said that I do my job but if that is all I had to do for the rest of my life, it would be quite a burden and if I had to do it for the rest of eternity, the job of God would be very boring. So God has his own personal life. And in that personal life, he exchanges love with different people in different relationships. So in fact, the relationships in the world we hear, where do those relationships come from? The Bhagavad Gita in the 15th chapter gives the metaphor of an upside down banyan tree. This world is like an upside down banyan tree. So what that means is, where do we see upside down banyan tree? There is a river, a reflection. So the reflection will be, tree will be upside down. That means there is a real tree on the bank which is actually up. So what this metaphor is used is to indicate that this world is a reflection of the spiritual world. So whatever relationships are present in this world, they are present in their originality and purity in the spiritual world. So God enjoys all the various relationships that we enjoy in this world. In fact, we seek to enjoy them because God originally enjoys them. So here we have relationships with parents, we have relationship with friends, we have relationship with brothers, we have relationship with, we may have some admirers, we may have some servants, we may have lovers. Now all these relationships that are there in this world, they are there in their purity in the spiritual world. So those devotees, Yashoda and Nanda Maharaj, they are the parents of Krishna. Now how can anybody be a parent of God? Actually God is the source of everyone. But it is described that there is a divine illusion. There is a material illusion in this world. In the Vedic tradition there is a concept of Maya. Maya is that which is not. It is illusion. So Maya normally causes disconnection from God. Because of the illusions of this world, we start thinking, oh I am this person and I want to form a relationship with that person and we get deluded. But there is, when we want to advance spiritually, we want to go beyond Maya. But in the spiritual world, there is also another kind of Maya. That is called Yoga Maya. So Yoga means connection. Nowadays we think of Yoga as bodily exercises. But those bodily exercises are meant ultimately to connect our consciousness with God. To connect the finite consciousness with the infinite consciousness. So Yoga Maya refers to the illusion that increases the connection with God. Yoga is connection. Maya is illusion. So normally illusion disconnects us from God. But there can be an illusion that increases our connection with God. How is that possible? Say if there is the Prime Minister of a country or the President of a country. Now in their office everybody will be respecting them, treating them very deferentially. But if they go back to their home, if they have a mother or father, they will still treat them like their children. And if they have children, they have grandchildren, their relationship will be, for them, they know that there is a President or the Prime Minister, but for them the defining relationship is, who is my father, who is my grandfather, who is my son. So for them that is the primary flavour of the relationship. So similarly Krishna, in order to have uninhibited reciprocations of love, he has something called Yoga Maya in the spiritual world. It is an illusion which increases the connection with God. That means Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda Mai, they are also great souls. And at a philosophical level, they know Krishna is God. But because of Yoga Maya, so that the relationship of affection can be intensified, that awareness of Krishna’s Godhood goes into the background. And they see Krishna just as their child. And it is not just Krishna who, it is not just they see Krishna as their child. Krishna also thinks I am their child. And in that way, what the Bhakti tradition says is that God does not delight in the display of His Godhood. And I am supreme, all of you bow down to me. God delights in the reciprocation of love. And in the spiritual world, God does not reign as supreme. Rather it is love that reigns as supreme. And for love to be uninhibited, even God’s Godhood gets covered. Not covered in the sense that it’s an illusion, but it is put in the background. So God forgets His Godhood and the devotees forget His Godhood. So that love can move forward uninhibited. So if the devotees always remember He is God, He is God, He is God. Oh then how can they have various flavours of affection? As I said, if I know He is God, how can I consider Him to be my child? But if God cannot experience the love of being a child of someone, then God would be deficient. We can experience the love of parents, but God can’t experience that love. That means God would be lesser than us. How is that possible? So God, the conception of God in the Bhakti tradition is rich, it’s inclusive. So God can actually experience all the relationships that we experience. So in the world when we are living, we could say it is not natural for us to think of God as our child. So when we are serving and practising Bhakti, we do think of God as our father or as our master and we serve Him in a mood of veneration. But as we become purified, when we enter the Kingdom of God, we all have a particular flavour in which we serve Him. And parental flavour is one very intimate form of relationship in which both the devotee and the Lord exchange love with each other. Thank you. Shall we stop here? Any other questions or comments? So yes, thank you very much. Jai. Jai. Jai.

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

So today we will discuss from the Bhagavad Gita. This is a latest book on the Bhagavad Gita called Prayers Inspired by Bhagavad Gita. This is based on one prayer.

So we have the Gita's verses and each Gita's verse, each key verse, what we do is, we have a beautiful picture of a deity of Krishna, and then there is the verse translated into English poetry, and then there is a prayer inspired by that. So let us look at this verse. If you like, you can repeat after me.

My dear Lord, the impossible becomes possible in you and through you. So let us recite this verse. The ancient sage, the supreme controller, smaller than the smallest, let one remember him.

Sustainer of all, of form inconceivable, with radiant hue beyond darkness impenetrable. The attributes of Krishna with which the Bhagavad Gita is saying, we can't remember him. This is Bhagavad Gita 8.9. Let us recite some prayers.

My dear Lord, please guide us all so that we can find shelter and strength in you always. So let us read the prayer. I request different participants to get in this.

Would anyone like to read one more paragraph? Is it visible? Yes. Who would like to read? My dear Lord, you are the reservoir of many attractive attributes that are present in your fullness and perfection in you. Not only that, in you I manifest simultaneously and harmoniously those attributes that seem mutually reconcilable to my finite mind.

Such is your rational vision of supremacy. Yes. So when we turn towards God, some may do it for various reasons.

Broadly speaking, the topic I want to discuss is how bhakti empowers us to face the pains and problems of life. I'll write and draw some things over here. For all of us in our life, we have a range of activities that we do.

And in the range of activities, there are some activities that give strength to us. That when we do those activities, we feel cheerful, we feel enlivened. And there are some activities that require strength from us.

So this applies to people in our life. There are some people who bring happiness wherever they go. And there are some people who bring happiness wherever they go.

So we look forward to meeting some people. And we spend time there and then we become enlivened, cheerful, we feel encouraged. And some people, as soon as they enter the room, it appears as if all the oxygen from the room has been sucked out.

And when that person goes, we feel as if we have just walked out of a minefield. Now this applies to people and this applies to activities also. In general, life is always a challenge of balancing between the things that energize us and the things that exhaust us.

And now when I am saying the things, people who require strength, that does not necessarily mean that they are bad. Sometimes we may have a tough teacher who may actually be wanting our good and be training us for good. But still, because they are demanding, it is uncomfortable being with them.

So it is not those who do strength are good and those who require strength are bad. It's not that simple over here. But the point is, this is always there in our life.

And some people may say, okay, I have my hobbies. I feel good when I engage in those hobbies. I like to go on nature walks, I like to collect stamps.

Nowadays, very few people actually have hobbies. The common hobby is just surfing on the net or surfing on social media. But the point is that there are some things which give us strength and some things which require strength from us.

And in this, the place from which we seek strength, the nature of the world is sometimes that very thing stops giving us strength. Say we have a friend who is very close to us. And that friend, what happens? That friend suddenly goes far away or something happens and the friendship ends.

And that time, it is very difficult to be in that situation. So what do we do at that time? At that time, you can feel shatterless, you can feel strengthless. That is the time when we look upward toward the source of all strength, towards God Krishna.

So Krishna, he falls in this category. But either we don't turn to him for strength or we don't feel strength when we turn to him. Both ways it can happen.

So in life, basically when we go through our life journey, when I am using the word strength over here, this is not physical strength literally. It is when we feel internally strong. Now a child may be scared.

And when the child sees the mother and the mother comforts the child, the child becomes insane. So at that time, the mother is the source of strength of the child. So like that, we all have various sources of strength for us.

So today is Mother's Day. It is widely celebrated. And actually for a newborn child, the mother is the first manifestation of God.

There is a famous verse in the broader Vedic tradition. So you are the mother, you are the father, you are the sibling, you are the friend, you are the knowledge, you are the truth, you are my everything. So what this means is something really deep.

The simplistic understanding would be that the mother is literally God, the father is literally God. Now why is this understanding simplistic? Because the mother and the father, of course for a child they are very important, but they are finite, they are literally God and infinite and God-limited. So the idea is mother and father, they are the first representations of God, foundation for every child who comes into the world.

So we all have different shelters in life. And the shelters that we get, they shelter us, but every, if this is a life journey, I'll come back to this image, if this is my life journey, then in everybody's life there are pains and problems. That is a universal reality.

And as we go through life, we find different shelters. Or we need shelter when these problems come. What do I mean by this shelter? If you consider that rain is coming, then an umbrella is a shelter.

So especially when a problem comes in our life, our energy gets drained. That's a big issue. How am I going to deal with this now? I've dealt with so many things, how long is it going to go on? We feel exhausted.

We feel emotionally drained. And shelter is what helps us feel renewed a bit that day. It's not just when the problem has gone away, but shelter gives us some energy by which we can feel better.

So everybody is looking for some shelter. Because it is Mother's Day, I'll speak a little bit about the theme of Krishna's connection with the shelters we have in this world. Let's start with the shelter of the mother.

So when I was introduced to bhakti, Okay, let me go a little backward in the journey. When I was introduced to bhakti, I was very attracted to the philosophy. I liked the rational, and I was studying engineering at that time.

And when I was studying engineering, I had a very rational approach to life. And I was presented this philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in a very rational, systematic way, and I liked it. But then I had a lot of difficulty with the concept of detachment.

And especially the idea of, not even so much detachment, but the idea of illusion. That the world is mine, that all the relationship in the world is mine, all the love in this world is mine. And I just could not accept this.

Why? Because, as some of you may notice when I came up, I nearly purchased for walking. As I started travelling across the world, I met people across the world. Raising a child is one of the toughest tasks that one can have.

If somebody has a newborn baby, it's a 24 by 7 job. And it's a 24 by 7 job for multiple people. One person can also not do it.

So it's very demanding. Raising any child is very difficult. But raising a child with a physical handicap, I had polio, that's even more difficult.

So when I was about one, I was staying in a small town in India, in Maharashtra, and my mother took me to a clinic to get the polio vaccine. And because that particular disease was quite rampant, we had heard about it, so they decided to take the vaccine. She was quite diligent in that.

But unfortunately, because it was a small town, the place, the clinic, had a power supply outage. And because of that, the fridge in which the vaccine had been kept, had got heated up. And the vaccine got contaminated, the germs got multiplied.

And neither the attendant nor the physician noticed it. And when I was given the vaccine, instead of preventing polio, it ended up causing polio. Now I don't remember any of this.

I was about one. I was just learning to walk. I was told, and I fell down, and I could never walk normally thereafter.

My first memory of this is when I was about two and a half or three. And it is still relating. I had come to our home, and she was consoling my mother, saying, it's so sad your son got polio.

I still remember my mother's words, very calm, clear, confident. She said, whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him with it. I don't know why she said that at that time, whether I had shown some intellectual ability at that age, or whether it was her vote, her prayer, her blessing.

But whatever it was, that stayed with me. And I found that as I was growing up, I did have some intellectual ability. I could read rapidly.

I could remember well. I could articulate clearly. I could analyze deeply.

And I started doing well in my studies. Now while this was happening, as I was growing up, so the point I wanted to make is that although the physical disability was a pain, my mother's words, my mother's guidance was the shadow. So it is not that the problem went away, but through her love, through her faith in me, I was able to grow through it, go through that and grow through it.

As I was growing up, naturally, wherever we get shelter in life, we become deeply connected. We become attached. We become emotionally invested.

My father had a travelling job. So he was not so much at home. So I was much closer to my mother than to my father.

And when I was in my 10th, I gave the 10th exam. And in a particular category, I was first in the entire state of Maharashtra. So at that time, the district collector, the top government officer in India, in the district, he came to our home to felicitate.

And my picture had come in the newspapers. It was a big event. And that, so he came in the morning and that very evening, my mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

And within a month, everything was over. She was very gallant, but the whole disease was too advanced. And that incident shattered my world.

I was not a very emotional person. So it is not that I broke down into tears. But that was the time when I started thinking, what am I living for? What makes life more thrilling? That we love someone, we care for someone, and in one moment, that can go away.

It's not just we love someone. In months, my mother was my shelter. So what brings me to life? And if life can take away our shelter at any moment, then how do we go through life? That's when I started reading more philosophical books, more spiritual books.

Eventually I came to the Bhagavad Gita and then I was introduced to spirituality. So coming from this background, when I found that all the love in the world is maya, let's say, the words say that the mother's love for the child is maya. This was something I just could not accept.

Then, fortunately, whenever we have some questions, sometimes in English, we may use not always the right word. Many Indians after class, they say, I have a doubt. Actually, they have a question.

They don't have a doubt. So doubt in Sanskrit is samshay. Question is prashna.

Now, the difference is a question is driven by curiosity. I wouldn't know. Doubt is driven by cynicism or cynicism.

Both are same, but they are very different. A question is meant to lead us forward. A doubt holds us back.

So we can have doubts also, no problem. But most of the time what we have are questions. How does this make sense? So if we have some questions and if we are diligent, if we are sincere, then Krishna helps us find answers.

So I was reading the Srimad Bhagavatam and when I came to the fourth canto, there is a story of Dhruva. Dhruva was just a small five year old child and his mother was a sheikh. Unfortunately, his father was a bit distanced and cold from him because his father was more attached to his other wife who was more good looking, who was Suniti and Suruchi.

Now, this child, what does he understand? He had once gone to his father's palace and there he saw that his other brother was sitting on his father's lap. So he said, I also want to sit and he crawled on his father's lap. And Suruchi at that time, she just pushed him.

She said, you have no right to sit here. If you want to sit there, you have to do punya and be born through my womb. Then you will have the adhikar, the qualification to sit here.

Now, children, they may not always make sense of things in the world, but they are quite emotionally alert. So, for example, if a child is in a room and two adults start becoming quarrelly imposed, they are not even fighting with each other, they just yell at each other. Then Ramudra arranges, children become tense, they don't care.

So, Dhruva knew that there was some tension between his mother and that particular adhikar, whose stepmother he was, but he expected his father to support him. So, when Suruchi pushed him down, he looked at his father and his father remained silent. That just broke Dhruva.

He ran to his mother and he ran to his mother. Now, already the maids, and Dhruva was a small boy, he ran, he couldn't run very fast. The maid had already informed her what had happened.

So, when Dhruva came, she was herself in tears, but she ran forward and hugged Dhruva and tried to comfort him. He was sobbing, but he was sobbing not just out of grief, but out of anger. He said, how dare my father do like this? He said, what can I do, what can I do? She said, my father didn't allow me to sit on his lap.

He said, I will get a throne bigger than this. Now, it was not greed for a throne. It was just a longing born from me that you think I don't have a right to this? I will get the right to something bigger than this.

So, at that time, when his mother said, I cannot help you. This is one of the most painful things for a parent to say. That a parent would be ready to give up their life for their child.

But if there is something that the child is in pain and the parent cannot do anything. It is extremely painful. So, then, look at it.

She said, Lord Vishnu can help you. And there she says that Vishnu can offer you more love than what millions of mothers can offer you. When I read that statement, it struck me.

Now, her love for his Dhruva is Maya. Maya means it's false, it's zero. Then zero multiplied by millions of times is how much? Zero.

So, she is not saying her love for her child is false. So, what is she saying? That her love for her child is like a drop. Whereas, Lord Vishnu's love is like an ocean.

Sometimes when this metaphor is used, like a drop in an ocean, when you go, drop means it's so small. Now, for us in this world, even a drop can be immense. And a drop should not be even.

But the point is, if a drop feels so good and so great for us, how great and good will the ocean feel for us? So, the idea is, as I talked about, there are these different shelters that we get. In our life journey, all these shelters, they come from the supreme shelter. So, it is Krishna who is giving strength to all these shelters, so that they can shelter us.

So, Tvameva mata cha pita tvameva. What that means is that the mother loves and cares for and sustains the child. But the mother is able to shelter the child because Krishna shelters the mother.

In a very physical sense, the child is sheltered by the mother through her milk. These are the most intimate acts of love. And yet, the mother does not do anything special to manufacture milk when a baby is born.

The same God who sent the child into this world through her womb, also sends milk in her breast. So, Krishna is the shelter of all shelters. And when we understand this, when one shelter is lost, at that time, we can feel bitter, we can feel lost.

Why did this happen to me? And why did God do this to us? And that's a valid question to ask. It is not a sign of atheism or non-devotion to us. And Draupadi meets Krishna in the forest.

Krishna comes to meet the Pandavas in the forest. At that time, Draupadi breaks down. She says, Krishna, I am your friend.

I am your relative. I am your devotee. I called you.

I needed you. Why did you come? Now, of course, we know that when she prayed, her robe became endless. But nobody saw Krishna coming over there.

Now, in some of the movie renditions, we might see that Krishna is smiling over there. And from his hand, a robe is coming. The cloth is coming.

But in actuality, how her cloth became endless, nobody could understand. So, they thought that this is something mystical that has happened. Because she is such a chaste lady that the attempt to dishonor was foiled by the extension of her.

So, she prayed to Krishna and Krishna only reciprocated. That's obvious. But Krishna was not personally present there.

Now, at that time, when Draupadi asks this to Krishna, Krishna doesn't say, I am God. How dare you question my plan? Krishna says, it's your own karma. Krishna says, oh Draupadi, at that time, Dwaraka was attacked by a demon named Shalva.

And Dwaraka is impenetrable because it's an island. It's surrounded by water. But this demon had acquired a huge ship, like a flying ship, a plane, by worshipping Lord Shiva.

And he had attacked and he had caught the defences of Dwaraka by surprise. That's why after the Rajasthani Yajna, I have to rush back to Dwaraka to protect the Dwaraka vassals. And as soon as I came to know what happened, after the war got over, I have come back home.

And he assures her that I have been told how in that assembly where a Dharma prevailed, you remained fixed in Dharma and you reminded everyone of Dharma. Although people acted dishonourably and they tried to dishonour you. It is you who acted honourably.

And you emerged, Draupadi actually emerges as the most honourable character in that whole horrible turn of events that happened in the Soviet incident. So the point is that Draupadi also questions Krishna. So when something terrible happens, when the shelter goes away from us, at that time it's natural that we question.

So when we questioned us, either we think I will never have any shelter in life. And we become cold and scared and fearful. Or we look for some other shelter.

Somebody may say that, you know, one of my relatives, very hard working here, he earned a lot of money. And he said that, you know, if only we had more money, we could have saved your mother. To me there is no cure at that stage.

That's what I talked with him recently. Yeah, that's true. But somebody said that money will solve all problems.

Somebody said power will solve all problems. We all should take shelter of different things. And the idea is the things that require strength, so we could say here on this side, are the pains and the problems of life.

These are always going to be present in life. And when these are present, what happens? We need to have our sources of strength. And we understand that we may have many sources of strength.

But the source of all these sources is Krishna. The supreme source is Krishna. So if we have a friend, we can go to talk to him when we are in trouble.

If somebody likes painting and they feel very calm, somebody likes music. So all these are things from which Krishna is giving us shelter. Now wherever we get that shelter, we are grateful for that.

At the same time, it's important that we remember that Krishna is the shelter of all shelters. So Krishna is not just one being existing somewhere. In the word, I am talking about all these connections, this verse, kavim puranam anusha sitaram anoh enyam samudusvarayah sarvasya dhataram You sustain everyone.

You sustain and shelter even the things that sustain and shelter us. So understanding that role of Krishna is very important. You would like to read the next paragraph? You, O almighty Lord, are the controller and sustainer of all.

And yet you don't need gigantic size to discharge these herculean roles. You are smaller and smaller, for you are the Lord who manifests in every beating heart, human and non-human, and you pervade every atom and indeed the space between every atom. Indeed, such is your transcendental glory that you do not need great stature to have great power.

On the battlefield, Krishna was just one person on one warrior's chariot. Yet, Krishna did not need the first person form, everything was contained in him. So Krishna can give shelter within his power even through small things.

So for us, as we go through life, when one shelter goes away or when one shelter is neglected, at that time it's important to remember that that thing was never our anybody. It was Krishna who was our shelter. And if this shelter has gone away, Krishna will shelter me in some other way.

Now, in between, till I find that shelter, it is important that I remember Krishna and find the shelter of Krishna. So Krishna is the ultimate shelter and Krishna is also the shelter of our immediate shelter. And everything that gives us strength, it comes from Krishna.

So rather than thinking, oh this problem has come, this is my burden. No, Krishna, give me the strength, give me the shelter by which I can face this problem. And help me find that shelter.

If we have that attitude, that shelter will be found. So rather than getting attached to the shelter alone and fearing the loss of the shelter, we appreciate the shelter, but we remember whether it is our family, whether it is our bank balance, whether it is our health, whether it is our reputation, whether it is our talent, whatever it is, all these are shelters. But Krishna is the supreme shelter.

And we want to not lose it. So there are two ways of looking at it. I'll make two more points and then we can open for question answers.

We may not be able to read the full prayer. So we need shelter. So now one extreme is that we look only at the immediate shelter and forget the ultimate shelter.

That means, okay, what is the immediate shelter? It's my family. What is my immediate shelter? It's my talent. What is my immediate shelter? It's my contacts.

And that is all that matters. Now for many people, when the immediate shelter goes off, if it is only immediate shelter, then they become very fragile, very vulnerable, very threatened. So what happens here? This immediate shelter is fragile.

And because the shelter is fragile, it makes us weak. So quite often this is how people degenerate. People go from, say somebody has a job and the sense of identity comes from their job.

And then they lose their job and they are not able to find another job. And they become so distressed by that that they start seeking shelter in alcohol. So now what is happening? It's not that a person is alcoholic because they are uncontrolled or irresponsible.

It is that what was their shelter was lost. And then alcohol becomes their shelter-seeking pathway. So if when the shelter is lost, if we do not have the knowledge or the support to go upward, we tend to go downward.

And this can take people on a very dark path. So if we look at only the immediate shelter, then we are very fragile and we are very vulnerable. On the other hand, if somebody looks only at the ultimate shelter, that Krishna alone matters, I don't care for anyone else.

Now what happens by that is, if we are focusing only on the ultimate shelter, then we become very, we don't become detached. We think we are detached from everything. But we become hard-hearted.

See there is a very big difference. If you forget everything from this class, just remember the difference. There is a difference between being cool and being cold.

So cool is the capacity to stay calm. To not be controlled by emotions. But cold is hard-hearted.

So many times people think that, oh I take shelter of Krishna only. I don't care for anything in the world. They are not becoming cool and calm.

They are becoming cold. And such cold people, their heart becomes cold, they can't connect with others and they can't connect with Krishna also. So we don't want to, in the name of Krishna, become cold and disconnected from everyone else.

So the idea is, for us when we take shelter, it is that we, both the immediate shelter and the ultimate shelter. So we want both. How do the both work? The immediate shelter is often what is accessible for us.

But the ultimate shelter is what is going to last forever. It is what is enduring. It is what is imperishable.

It is what is never going to be destroyed. So for us we need to be able to see the link that it is this imperishable shelter that has given me the accessible shelter. And the accessible shelter should point me to the imperishable shelter.

So what does it mean? That Dhruva, his mother's greatness was, that when she realized that here is a problem in which I can't give shelter to my child, she pointed him to Vishnu. And now it is Dhruva's glory that he went to the forest and took shelter of Vishnu. He got the shelter of Vishnu.

And then when he became an exalted devotee, and then the Vishnu Buddha came for him, what did he do? What about my mother? So the accessible shelter pointed to the ultimate shelter. And then when he got the ultimate shelter, he also remembered the accessible shelter. He didn't become cold now that I have become a pure devotee.

He didn't say, there is a story in Chitra, there is one story I have mentioned, one story I had a big problem with was the story of Chitraketu in the Bhagavad Gita, where there is a character who says, which mother, which father? I have had so many mothers and so many fathers in so many lifetimes. Now this might seem to devalue all relationships. But what is significant is that character, when does he say it? It is when that child, Harshashoka, has left this body and is on a journey to the next body.

That time he is mystically called back. So when he has already left the body, that particular relationship has ended. So that time he can say which mother, which father.

But when we are in a real relationship, you know, husband cannot say to his wife, which wife? Or parent cannot say, which child? It is all temporary. No. Actually the relationships, while they are there, they are important.

So if we go to the extreme of considering only the immediate shelter or only the ultimate shelter, both will be unhealthy. However, when we have the immediate shelter, if it does not remind us, if it does not point us towards the ultimate shelter, then we will make it ultimate. And then it becomes a big problem.

Because something is the ultimate shelter and it goes away. What do we do with it? Arjuna, his greatness was that he was a great archer. But greater than his archery, what was his notion? See generally, how do we know what is the most important thing in our life? That how much do we get disturbed when we lose it? If somebody has a lot of money and they lose some money, they have invested some money somewhere, they lose it.

If the money is important for them, even a little bit loss will disturb them very much. But if they are not very attached to money, okay, they still consider, okay, what happened? Maybe I was not wise enough where to invest. They will be concerned but they will not be disturbed.

They won't be shattered by it. So for us, we all have many shelters in life. You could say our shelters exist in a hierarchy.

So for example, our bank balance, our money could be one shelter for us. Our skills could be one shelter for us. Our experience could be one shelter for us.

Our family could be one shelter for us. So we have all such shelters. But the supreme shelter is Krishna.

And he has to be the supreme shelter. And it's like a staircase. What do I mean by staircase? See, life is like a staircase in which the same step that lifts us up will break under us.

And when it breaks, we don't want to fall. At that time, we need to lift our legs and move to the next step. So during that time, when the very thing that has sheltered us, that is breaking under us.

That time, if that was the ultimate shelter, then we think there is nothing beyond this. And then we miss comfort. But if you remember, it's a staircase.

And what sheltered me is not the ultimate shelter. So Arjuna was extremely dedicated to archery and his archery ability was his shelter. But towards the end of his life, his archery ability deserted him.

He shot arrows and for some great archers, like somebody shoots with a gun, somebody is a sharp shooter. They are sharp and hitting the target. Like somebody is a trained archer and their bullet misses the target.

It's humiliating. Like that for an archer to not hit the target is humiliating. But what is even more humiliating is that you shoot the arrow and the arrow does not even reach the target.

It's one thing to miss the target. Miss the target means what? Your precision is gone. But if the arrow does not reach the target, that means your strength itself is gone.

So that is what happened to Arjuna. It was the ultimate in humiliation. And yet Arjuna, he was shaken but he was not shattered.

At that time he remembered Krishna is the supreme shelter and he took shelter of Krishna. So when if we are on this step and this step starts breaking, it starts cracking and breaking. So then at that time we see this as a test of Krishna.

That the very thing that is sheltering us, that is cracking and breaking, that's a test of Krishna to help us rise to the next step. To move to a higher shelter, to move to a more world understanding of life. Let's read the last paragraph and we will conclude this.

Last two paragraphs, we will read them together. Bless me, O merciful Lord, to have the faith that even when I cannot see you, neither in terms of your presence nor your absence, you still remain present and potent to do what seems utterly impossible to do. Empower me with the openness of heart and head so that I can recognize, realize and relish how you are acting around me and within me and through me.

So now although I have drawn this staircase, a simple staircase, it's often that when we are, when the step under us is shaking, what is the next step up where we are meant to go, sometimes that is not clear. And that is the time when we can become very insecure and panicky. But we need to know that there is a step.

So the key to pass the test of Krishna is that we need, we need taste for Krishna. Taste for Krishna means that when, say, when suddenly somebody is fired from their job or suddenly somebody gets a terrible health diagnosis, suddenly some relationship starts going south, what do I do now? So at that stage when the injured shelter is gone and we don't know what the next injured shelter will be, that time it is our taste for Krishna, it is our remembrance of Krishna, it is our, the strength that we get through the remembrance of Krishna that will help us pass that test. So it's like this, just to make this visually more clear.

If this is one step now and this particular, it starts cracking. So when we are here, so from here to get to here, the next, what will take us here is the taste for Krishna. That means, Krishna, I don't know what is your plan, but I know you have a plan.

I know you are my benediction. I don't know how I will pass through this, but I know you are with me and you will help me pass through this. So then that, we may just speak this, but we need to have some realization of it, some experience of it.

At least in some bhakti activity, we need to have experience of Krishna. So it may be, it may be kirtans we feel, no matter what else is wrong in my life, I come in kirtans and the whole world seems to recede into the background. And I recognize somehow in Krishna.

Krishna becomes real for me. There is a higher reality and all is well in the world. For some people, it may be immersion in philosophy.

You read, some people hear katha, some people may do puja. So in some way, when we are going through our regular activities, bhakti is not simply a ritual that we do. Bhakti is not just another tick that we have to do in our daily guru activities.

We may do it like that, but through our bhakti activities, we want to experience the Shaitra of Krishna. Now we may not experience this constantly, we may not experience this regularly, but at least sometimes we experience it. And when we find out what are the activities that give me strength, then we take shelter of Krishna through those activities.

And although all the activities in bhakti may not give us strength equally, but whichever activity gives us strength, it is Krishna giving us shelter through that. So we take shelter of that. And it is through that that we survive.

So whatever be the test that may be there in our life right now, whatever be the test that may come in future, the taste for Krishna means that when I become absorbed in Krishna, so taste for Krishna means what happens? See, this is my consciousness. In the consciousness, there are many different objects. Say for example, right now you are sitting here, in your consciousness, there are many objects.

You are here in this class, you are thinking maybe this program will go on for so long, when we get over, you are sitting on the floor, you are uncomfortable sitting on the floor, you are hungry, you want food, you are thinking I have to go home, I do so many things. There are many things and among them, Krishna is one thing in our consciousness. Krishna is one thing at least.

This is the stage of attention. We are trying to pay attention to Krishna. But from here, if we keep doing this, what will happen is, Krishna will be revealed as the bigger reality.

And it is as if our consciousness will enter into Krishna. And this is the stage of absorption. This is the stage where we experience Krishna's shelter.

So, if not regularly, if not daily, intermittently, there need to be some activities, some things which give us that experience of Krishna. That Krishna is bigger than me, Krishna is not just real, Krishna is realer than everyday reality. Everyday reality will come and go, but Krishna is the enduring presence in my life.

Once you experience that, then it may feel impossible. With this thing gone, with my job gone, with this relationship gone, with my health gone, with my bank balance gone, how can I live? Facing the situation is impossible. But the impossible becomes possible in Krishna and through Krishna.

Now, when we get the taste for Krishna, that gives us the conviction, the patience to persevere through the dark phase. And Arjuna persevered through that dark phase. Shrila Prabhupada, when he went to America, the first one year was extremely dark phase.

He was getting no response from anyone. It's one thing when you go for a talk and nobody comes or people are not attending. But what happened to Prabhupada was, there was one person who seemed to become serious and Swamiji, I am going to become your disciple.

And then that same person, he took drugs, he went high and he attacked Prabhupada. And Prabhupada was defenseless. It was not that Krishna came miraculously and saved him at that time.

Prabhupada had to leave that home and Prabhupada was homeless on the streets at that time. So Prabhupada could have said, this will not work out. But it was a very dark phase.

If Prabhupada had been sheltered in his home, his reputation as a preacher, I am such a great preacher. If Prabhupada had been sheltered in his stature, I am a sanyasi, I should get some respect. No, Prabhupada's shelter was Krishna.

So even when he was, believe it or not, not respected, he was attacked by the very person who was supposed to respect him. Prabhupada had shelter of Krishna. And that's how he passed that test.

And then eventually, hundreds and thousands and thousands of people, they became inspired and they came to his shelter and took Krishna's shelter through him. So for all of us, the way to pass the test of Krishna is by cultivating the yeast for Krishna. So I'll summarize.

The topic was broadly facing adversities, facing reversals, facing pains through Krishna consciousness, through bhakti. Within this, I talked about three main points. The first point we talked about how? That Krishna is the shelter of all shelters.

Tamevamata capitatam. I started by talking about how my mother helped me see beyond the pain of my polio and to see how I had some shelter. So for us, it is the immediate shelters that will shelter us.

So when life gives problems, we need to know, we need to have our energy balance. So that is, there are things which require strength. Those are the problems.

And there are things which give strength. So our problems will demand energy from us. But our shelters will give energy to us.

And for each one of us, these shelters are important. They are grateful to them. But then when we understand the Krishna shelter of all shelters, how do we take shelter? In a holistic way.

The holistic shelter is that we don't go towards only the immediate or only the ultimate. If we seek only the immediate, then we will be very unstable. We will be very fickle and fragile.

What happens if the shelter goes away? If we go only towards the ultimate, ultimate means? So the immediate shelter is the mother, the ultimate shelter is Krishna, who is the supreme parent. Go only towards the ultimate shelter, we will become cold. We will become cold which is not the same as cool which is calm.

So what happens is, it is the immediate shelter is what is accessible for us. And we value that. And the ultimate shelter is what is imperishable.

It is what will never go away for us. So the ideal situation is the accessible shelter points us to the ultimate shelter, the imperishable shelter. The imperishable shelter then helps us to be connected to the accessible shelter.

So we discussed the story of Dhruva in this connection. How Dhruva's mother pointed him to Krishna and when he reached Krishna, he came, turned back to his mother for a shelter. So this is how we balance our shelters.

The last point is that when there is loss of shelter. Loss of shelter means the loss of the immediate shelter. So we understand that all the shelters are like a staircase.

And Krishna is the supreme shelter. So when a particular limb, it cracks or breaks, so that is when we need to move up to the next shelter. We need to rise up to the next shelter and this cracking is a test of Krishna.

And the way to pass that is, again, taste for Krishna. So taste for Krishna is, going back to the starting point that we find the strength in Krishna. So we discussed the story of Arjuna, his loss of archery ability.

That was a big test. And yet, he did not become shelterless. He took shelter of Krishna.

So when life feels impossible, that means whatever has sheltered us, that has been taken away. How can I survive without this? But that is the time if we immerse ourselves in Krishna, if Krishna becomes the bigger reality for us. Initially, Krishna is one component of our consciousness.

But then Krishna becomes the container of our consciousness. So initially Krishna comes into our consciousness. Eventually, our consciousness goes into Krishna.

This is the state of absorption. This is the state where we experience taste for Krishna. And this is what Arjuna did.

This is what Sri Prabhupada did. And this is what each one of us can do. In this way, whatever test life may set, by immersing in Krishna, we can pass that test.

So let us conclude with the starting prayer once again. Let's repeat. My dear Lord, the impossible becomes possible in you and through you.

Shri Krishna Bhagwan ki, Shri Prabhupada ki, Gaura bhagwan ki, Gaura bhagwan ki. Is there time for questions? Any questions, quickly? So in you means in that phase when one shelter has gone and the next shelter has not come. That is the time we need to be immersed in Krishna.

So it is in you I find shelter. And then the next shelter that comes in my life, that is through you. Good question.

Sharp observation. I would just want to know, in terms of, in the difficult situation we are going through, Shri Krishna, you also mentioned having a taste, what helps us to blossom also. Because I know how it is here, we have to remember and sometimes we share things with other people.

It can make it worse if it is not shared with the right person. So having… Yeah, it's a good question. So the question is that when things have gone wrong and there are problems, how do we take shelter of Krishna? How do we develop that taste and that thing? Sometimes we seek shelter by talking with some people, sharing our problems with them.

And if we share with the wrong person, that can aggravate the problem. Is that right? Yes. So here it's a good question and I was hoping that somebody would ask this question.

So I will talk about one important new concept and then I will answer the question. See there is a difference between spiritual strength and emotional strength. So for each one of us, there are many things that give us strength.

All bhakti activities give us spiritual strength. That means they bring us closer to Krishna. But it is not that all bhakti activities will immediately help us to feel the presence of Krishna.

See it's like Krishna is right now close to us but we don't feel his presence. So now some activities help us feel the presence of Krishna, some activities don't. Although they are bringing us closer to Krishna also.

So emotional strength means that which helps our mind become peaceful. That which makes us mind strong. So there are many activities in that.

Like I said some people have hobbies, people have recreation, somebody likes music, somebody likes to go close to nature, somebody likes cooking. I was in America and I was staying at one devotee's home and I came back from the program that devotee had driven me and I saw that mother had cooked something like 200 cookies. I said is there any program? So this devotee laughed and said this is a stress relief cooking.

So I told her you are blessed to have such a wonderful way to do stress relief, isn't it? Some people may drink, some people may be watching TV. So for all of us our mind is individual and we may get emotional strength. That means our mind feels good.

There is a range of activities through which it can happen. Now some of the activities may be sattvic, some may be rajasic. Sattva means maybe I like to go close to nature, I sit and take some deep breaths, I read some books.

That's sattvic. Some of the activities may be rajasic. I just start gossiping, I just start wasting my time here and there.

Tamasic may be some people just escape from life. So it could be intoxication, it could be binge watching, it could be binge eating, whatever. So now generally these are emotional strength activities.

Many of the sattvic activities they are also very connectable with bhakti. So for each one of us if you consider the areas of emotional strength and the areas of spiritual strength. So spiritual strength is the bhakti activities and emotional strength is the activities which make our mind feel good.

So we need to find an intersection of those two. And where we find the intersection that is where we can get these two. That means say some people like to read and now they can be reading anything but when they read spiritual books they will get spiritual strength.

They will connect with Krishna. For some people reading is not an activity that gives strength. Reading is an activity that requires strength.

And somebody is very emotionally down and if you read Bhagavatam you get strength. What are you talking about? That's crazy. So for each one of us that's why bhakti is a very individual activity.

It is done collectively but it is our individual relationship with Krishna. So for somebody mainly doing puja on Krishna. For somebody going out and talking with others about Krishna.

They are naturally extrovert people. They like to go out and talk with people. If they are not Krishna conscious they would have talked about so many other things.

Now they have something valuable to talk about. So in general we in the normal relatively calmer times of our life we need to do some self-observation and find the intersection. Bhakti Samudra Sindhu calls this as Uddhipan.

Uddhipan is spiritual stimuli. Just like we have material sense objects. There are so many food items but some food items we are attracted to them very much.

So everybody may have their favorite food items. So when those items come then their consciousness gets caught. So just as there are material sense objects like that there can be spiritual sense objects.

So we could say deity is a spiritual sense object. The Bhagavad Gita is a spiritual sense object. Prasad is also a spiritual sense object.

It can be a material sense object also. But it is a spiritual sense object. Kirtan, Kartal, Nidanga.

So among all these spiritual sense objects which our mind gets attracted to. That is the Uddhipan for us. So we find at least one Krishna in the activities primarily that fall at the intersection between the things that make us feel good and the things that are connected with bhakti directly.

Thank you. Any last question before we stop? Thank you very much. Shri Krishna Bhagwan ki Jai.

Shri Prabhupada ki Jai. Jai Gurudev.