Oh My God – Point-by-point response to the movie TV talk show

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Let us start with a few prayers. You can repeat after me.
Hare Krishna. So, this is probably the first time that in a temple we are having a programme about a movie. So, Okay.
How many of you have seen the movie Oh My God? Okay. You don’t have to feel shy. I have also seen it.
Now, if I have to write a book on something or I have to give a talk on something, I have to be aware of it. So, how I will start is, I have written a book on this topic in which I have taken 32 questions from this movie and I have answered them. So, we will show right now one of the most hard hitting clippings from the movie.
That is an interview of Kanji Bhai. And then he gives certain answers in the interview. And we will see how those answers are a part of the story but they are not the complete story.
The movie in many ways is very important and valuable for creating social awareness about the bad that is there in religion. But the error is that it paints all of religion as bad. And we will discuss this.
That’s why I have titled my book and the seminar today as re-answering the questions. Because there is one answer of the questions but there is an alternative answer also. … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … So we’ll discuss this part by part.
So the first point he’s making is that if we want something from our parent, then we don’t chant the names of the parent, we just go and ask for the parent. So this is true, but our relationship with God is not so simple. There are examples, and one of the examples is of a parent-child.
But the ultimate relationship with God is not just to treat God as an order supplier. In general, the various religions that are there in the world, they talk about approaching God at four distinct levels. So these levels are fear, desire, duty, and love.
So at the level of fear, the idea is if you don’t obey God, then you will be punished by being sent to hell. And maybe people have an image of God as some stern-looking judge sitting in the clouds about to throw thunderbolts on the sinful and cast them into hell to burn in the fires forever. Now, this is a very primitive understanding of God.
Yes, there is a system of judgement in the world, but that is not the essential role of God. Now imagine, I have a friend who has become a judge, and he does his duty well, but being a judge is not a very entertaining thing to do. You know, if somebody had to be a judge for all of eternity, that person will go mad.
And if God had to be simply a judge, then that is miserable. So that is a very incomplete understanding of God. Yes, there is a system of action and reaction, but God’s purpose is not to create fear in our hearts.
In the Bible, it is said that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Just as if I am driving a vehicle, and if I am going to take it off a cliff, down into the ground, and I’m going to kill myself, then fear is good. But that is only the beginning of wisdom.
That is not the end of wisdom. So at the level of fear, sometimes in some churches, some temples, some mosques, people may be threatened. If you do this, you will suffer.
Don’t do this. That’s a very beginning level. Then the next level is what is talked about by Kanjibhai in this movie, that desire.
The idea is, I want things in my life, and it’s not in my control to get those things. So therefore, I think maybe there may be some higher power. And if that higher power is asked, then I may get those things.
So this relationship is basically religious business. That I offer God worship, and God gives me certain things in return. And it is valid, God can fulfil our desires, but it is again an incomplete understanding.
In this world, things are limited. If a school, if a class has 30, 50 students, and if all of them pray to God, please let me come first in the class, it’s not going to work. So at the level of desire, when we approach God, then our conception of God is basically like a person who gives us things in exchange for what we give to that person.
Yeah, so there’s a request. Can all of you please come a little forward because there are more visitors and devotees who are outside. So just can move forward a little, please.
Thank you. So, here the idea is, that’s what is being talked about. If I approach God, if I want something from my parents, I just ask them, please give it to me.
But that is also temporary. First of all, even if we get our desire fulfilled, that is not going to solve our permanent problem. Beyond that is the level of duty.
At the level of duty, we understand that God has already done so much for me. Let me take care of him, let me serve him. So you wonder what has God done for me? We think that unless I work and earn my living, I’m not going to get anything.
God is not going to provide food on my dining table. I have to earn it. Yes, that is true at one level, but it’s also true that it is not just our earning that provides food in the dining table.
Why is that? Because ultimately all food comes from nature. And with all our science and technology, we don’t have a single food production unit. All the units that we have are food processing units.
All the food that is produced comes from nature. And we can’t replicate that. So every morning when the birds wake up, and then they start chirping, they are searching where are grains, where is food? Now they have to work hard to search for food, but their searching does not produce the grains.
It is God who provides grains at various places. So the provision of God is primary, their arrangement is secondary, sorry, their endeavour is secondary. Their endeavour is also important, but that alone doesn’t produce the food.
Similarly, with respect to us, actually, we have to work to earn our living, but it is not our working that provides our necessities alone. God’s arrangement is primary, our endeavours are secondary. And not only is it providing food, even digesting food.
Actually speaking, we think of our digestion only when it doesn’t work. We just eat food and enjoy it. But often, there are researchers who are interested in digestion because they want to improve it.
So nowadays there is the age of artificial transplants. So if somebody’s hand is cut off, you can get artificial hand, somebody’s heart is not working and put a pacemaker, kidney is not working, can have dialysis. So researchers are eager to find out if somebody’s digestive system is not working, can we put an artificial digestive machine inside the stomach? So that any problem, just solve it by replacing it.
So they started it and they found that the whole process of chemical reactions that happen within the alimentary canal are so complex that a machine would not be enough, a factory would be needed. And not just a factory, a factory two miles long, a factory two miles long. And even with nanotechnology, it might be a little lesser, but still, it’s a huge factory that’s required.
And surely in terms of the effort that is required to digest food, you know, there’s no mechanics, work is forced into displacement. And in simple terms, if I had to carry a luggage, if it’s a heavy bag and I had to carry it over a long distance, then it’s a lot of work. So when we eat food, it has to go through the entire alimentary canal and the amount of work in terms of the motion of peristalsis that is required to push the food down while churning and transforming it, that work is actually more than the amount of work that a person does in an entire day on an average basis.
So the amount of food, work required to digest one morsel of food is more than the work that an average person does throughout the day. So who is doing the digestion? aham vaishvanarobhutva praninam deham ashritah pranapanasamayuktah pachamyannam chaturvidham So aham vaishvanarobhutva, Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in the 15th chapter, 14th verse, that I arrange for the fire of digestion within the stomach and I digest the food. So it is God’s arrangement and such an extraordinary arrangement that we human beings with the best technology cannot replicate it.
So in this way, if we understand the gifts that God has provided us, then we understand that I have a duty to do something for God. That is religion at the level of duty. And it is said that God gives and forgives, we get and forget.
We often don’t recognise God’s gifts and higher than this is the religion at the level of love. Here, we are not interested in getting something from God, but we want to make God as our supreme object of love. And this is actually the eternal relationship of all of us with God.
All of us are the children of God and we have fallen from his kingdom into this world and we have forgotten our identity. The whole process of religion is meant to help us revive our spiritual identity to remember who we are and to return to where we belong. Imagine there is a child of a millionaire who is driving in a car on a mountainous area and suddenly the vehicle just slides off and it falls from the top of a mountain into a valley and he just jumps out of the car before it hits a rock and explodes and he falls into a pile of hay in the valley, somehow doesn’t die, but falls unconscious.
And there are some tribals living in that valley and the tribals put some sprinkles and water, wake up this person and they ask him, how are you? Are you okay? And then they ask him, what is your name? My name, my name, I don’t know my name. He’s got amnesia and he’s got forgotten who he is. So then the tribals wonder, where do you come from? We don’t know.
Okay, you’re here with us, you stay with us. And then they give him a name, they give him a role and they give him a goal. And then they tell him, give him some name and they tell him, okay, you become a woodcutter and you cut wood and every day you should get 25 logs of wood.
And then this person is a millionaire’s son, but then he is cutting logs, his back is aching, his arms are paining. He doesn’t have to do all that work, but why is he doing all that? Because of forgetfulness. Now imagine the father comes searching, where is my son gone? And then he comes along and he sees his son in the valley carrying this huge log of wood.
He says, my dear son, what are you doing? Come with me. He says, son, who’s son? Who are you? I don’t know you. And then his father realises what has happened.
And then what does the father do? The father goes and gets a doctor. And then one of the ways of treating amnesia is forgetfulness due to brain damage. So one of the ways of treating amnesia is by offering stimuli of one’s previous life.
So you show this person. Do you remember this watch? This watch, this watch. Whose watch is this? Yes, I have seen it.
It looks like this. So gradually, by exposure to the stimuli of one’s past life, the memory starts getting revived. And then the person, when the memory is revived, the person no longer has to struggle as a woodcutter in that dismal valley.
The person can go back and live in prosperity with his father. So all of us are suffering from spiritual amnesia. And Krishna comes to this world to help us return back to where we belong, where we can live eternally with him.
All of us are struggling with various problems in our life. And we may not be literally carrying wood, but we have so many challenges that we have to deal with. And Krishna comes to take us back, to invite us back.
Krishna tells in Bhagavad Gita, just come back to me. Just come to me. We are not ready.
So then Krishna gets a doctor. The doctor is the spiritual master, the spiritual teachers. And they tell us, they give us stimuli.
So one of the stimuli is the chanting of the names of God. So when we chant the names of Krishna, like we chanted the Hare Krishna Mahamantra just now, the primary purpose of that is not to get some sweets like we get from the parents. The primary purpose is to revive our spiritual memory.
To treat our amnesia. But if this child or the son is not ready to participate in this treatment of amnesia, Then he will say, okay. Then the doctor may tell that person, You just spend time with us.
Look at this watch. Look at this pen. Look at this shirt.
Look at this. All these things. Just spend time with us.
And you will get some money. Now for him, his interest is not in the things. His interest is in the money.
But actually the real thing is not the money. The real thing is the revival of the memory. So sometimes in the scriptures also, it may be told that if you chant the holy names this many times, you will get this result.
If you chant the holy name that many times, you may get that much result. But that is secondary. That is just meant to allure the person, somehow persuade the person to participate in the spiritual treatment of reviving one’s memory by chanting the names of God.
So actually when we have an understanding of these four levels and we understand the highest level of love, Then the religious rituals don’t appear absurd. The religious rituals are very purposeful. And what is required to gain this understanding is education.
Education has two parts. To know that we don’t know and to know what we don’t know. To know that we don’t know.
I don’t know certain things. And then what is it that I don’t know? I should get to know that. So the movies like this, they tell us what we don’t know.
Sorry, they told us that we don’t know. I don’t know what is the purpose of these rituals. But when they assume that they know, then that is a mistake.
So actually, yes, it is not that if I go to a parent, I have to chant the names of my parent. But when it comes to Krishna, if that same son has forgotten his father’s name, Then just repeating the name of the father is one way of reviving the memory. The same way is the purpose of chanting the names of God.
That is to revive our spiritual memory. And when we come to temples like this, we take darshan of the deities, we see all these beautiful pictures. And we hear the message of Krishna.
All these combine to cure our spiritual amnesia. That is the actual purpose of religion. So if we treat religion just as a mere business with God, then we have a very superficial understanding.
So let’s move forward. So let’s look at this point. This is a very common idea that if you search for God, there is no need to go to the temple.
God is just everywhere. God, you can perceive him anywhere. Why do you have to go to the temple? So firstly, if God is everywhere, is he not in the temple? Or is he everywhere except in the temple? Which is a very strange idea.
And secondly, even if God is everywhere, yes, that’s true that God is everywhere. But can we perceive him everywhere? Actually, we know from science that water is there everywhere in the atmosphere as water vapour. But when I am thirsty, I cannot just hang out.
I need to go to a place where water is made available to me through a tap or a river. And that’s where I can actually quench my thirst. Similarly, God is present everywhere.
But can we perceive his presence everywhere? Actually, the temples are the places where God’s presence becomes accessible to us. And once we become spiritually advanced, we may come to a level where we can perceive God’s presence at other places also. But just imagining that because God is everywhere, I don’t need to go to the temple.
That keeps us perpetually unaware of God. It’s like, yes, electricity is everywhere. There are electric poles everywhere.
But it doesn’t mean that I can just touch any electric wire and get electricity from there. I’ll get electricity, but in a very bad way. So there is a power socket by which I get electricity.
Similarly, yes, God’s presence is there everywhere. But we need to have proper channels, proper sockets for accessing God’s presence. So it is possible that some people may think that God is present only in the temple.
And they think that I just come to the temple, offer my folded hands to God and then I can go and do whatever I want in life. And then that idea that God is not present anywhere else, that is mistaken. We should be conscious that God is everywhere.
But we also need to go to places where we can perceive God’s presence by which we can come closer to him. And even in the objective observer can sense if you come from the outside, the rustle and bustle of the city to a temple like this, we can actually feel a change in the atmosphere and feel a divine sense of calmness, some healing presence, some soothing serenity that calms our stressed mind. So that is because of the presence of God over here.
And the more we become closer to God, the more we become purified, the more we can sense that presence. So we come to the temples to perceive God’s presence and the more we become tuned to God’s presence, then we can perceive that presence elsewhere also. But it is important to come to places where God’s presence is especially manifest to us.
That is the beginning of God consciousness. Without that we can never advance in God consciousness. I was not getting a good job for two years.
I prayed that if I get a good job, I will donate my hair. And look, I got a job. Oh, you donated all your hair.
Just think, you get ready in the morning and go to the first class office for work. And as soon as you open the door, there is a pile of hair in front of you. Black hair, white hair, some with dandruff, some with hair like this.
There is a buffet of all kinds of hair. So tell me, how will you feel? I will not feel good at all. Isn’t it? So think, how bad God must feel.
God opened the door, hair, hair, hair, hair. This Kanji brother uses the logic correctly. Do you know what happens to these hairs? Okay.
So, the idea that when Balaji opens his door, you know, Balaji sees all this black hair, white hair, dandruff hair. You know, actually speaking this is such a superficial idea. Balaji, this is not hair, this is emotions.
So, actually, love is expressed in two ways. One is by what we do for someone. And second is by what we give up for someone.
Now, if a child wants to show love for the parents, the parents say, please study. One way, the child will say, I love my parents, but I won’t study. And that’s not love.
So, love is expressed by what we do for those whom we love. And it is also expressed by what we give up for the sake of those whom we love. Now, if the exams are coming, as in the child says, parents say, please don’t play at this time.
Right now, you should please focus on studies. So, that giving up something is also a way of expressing love. Now, similarly, with respect to devotion to God, one way we express our devotion to God is doing something for him.
So, for example, we may come to the temple, we may chant his names, hear his message. These are things which we do for God. And the other way we express our love for God is by giving up certain things for him.
So, what are the things that we can give up for him? Those are the things which take us away from him, which cause us to forget him, which make us infatuated with ungodly things. Now, there are many things like that. And it is a tradition that the hair is something which obsesses the mind.
One of my friends told me a story that there was a big high-rise building and the lift was very slow in that building. So, all the clients would complain. Hey, this lift is so slow.
And you should replace the machines and make a faster lift. It takes so much time. So, this client was very conjuiced.
The owner was very conjuiced. He didn’t want to do that. Then he thought and he got an idea.
What he did was, instead of changing the whole machine of the lift, he just changed the walls of the lift and made all three walls into mirrors. And as soon as people came into the lift, they would look at it. Then immediately their hands would go to the hair.
The other hand would go to the comb. And they would start combing. And they would start combing, looking at it.
And all complaints stopped. So, actually hair is something which infatuates us. You know, in the Srimad Bhagavatam it is described that Laavanyam Keshadharanam that hairstyle is considered to be the primary decoration in today’s life.
So, it infatuates us. So, basically all of us are souls. We are not our bodies.
And the more we imagine that we are a body, the more we stay at this material level and we forget God. So, one of the ways which we can go closer to God is by going away from things or doing away with things which make us forget God. So, one of those things which makes us forget God is our infatuation with our hair.
So, that’s why it’s a tradition that when we go to holy places, we shave the hair. So, actually speaking, for people to shave their hair is not easy, especially if they are infatuated with their hair. And when they do shave it, that is an act of faith.
That is an act of sacrifice. That is an act of devotion. And, you know, there is an ordinary swan, a Hamsa.
A Hamsa can see, can separate milk from water. And the Hamsa will just accept the milk and put aside the water. So, Lord Krishna, Lord Balaji is the supreme Hamsa.
He is the Param Hamsa. So, when somebody offers him something, you know, he doesn’t see the black hair, the white hair, the dandruff hair. He sees the devotion that is offered through the hair.
So, if we can’t see the devotion, that is simply because we are not Hamsas. That is simply because we have a very external peripheral vision. So, there are different ways in which love is expressed.
And this is one of the ways. Just a superficial critique of that. It just shows one’s ignorance.
Dhanda hota hai. Business hota hai. Dhanda hota hai.
Business hota hai. Yeh bahar America, London, aise bideshon mein beche jaate hain. In short, aapki shraddha ka wahan dhanda hota hai.
So, shraddha ka dhanda hota hai. That is the idea. Now, the way this is portrayed, it appears as if the whole ritual of cutting the hair is made in such a way that people can earn, that the temple manager can earn money by selling the hair.
So, that whole ritual was made for that purpose. But that is a complete distortion of historical reality. It is only in modern times that wigs have become so fashionable and we have international trade everywhere.
But the ceremony of sacrificing hair is going on for centuries. It is described even in the Srimad Bhagavatam 5000 years ago. So, it’s a time-honoured tradition.
And in today’s culture, because of certain strange values, that which is a waste part of the body, hair may look attractive as long as it is there, but once it comes off the body, we can’t tolerate it. If some hair is in the food, we can’t tolerate it. So, hair is just a waste.
But today, because of today’s distorted values, that hair becomes very valuable because it’s used to make wigs. So, for centuries, the hair that was just brushed away into the dustbin, now, because of today’s socio-economical systems, that can be used to earn money. So, this is not a business of faith, this is a business of waste.
This is actually things that have been wasted, why not use that in God’s service? Why not use that for something good if it can come from it? What’s wrong with that? So, here, the idea is, this is called a dis-analogy, a false analogy. What he is saying is that the money that is used to donate for worshipping God, is donated in temples, if that is used to do some social welfare, to have some God-centred schools, hospitals, orphanages, now, what is that God as a connection with somebody who is selling gutkha and that person is opening a hospital? Is it that religion is making people orphans? Is it that religion is making people educationless and in need of education? Is it that religion is making people hungry? There is no connection between the point and the example. And not only that, if this is the thing to be pointed out, shraddha ka dhanda, now, oh my God was made with a budget of 20 crores and it earned a profit of, it earned 80 crores.
So, out of the 60 crores, how much was used to feed the poor? How much was used to do anything good for anyone? You decide, is it the business of shraddha or the business of shraddha ki ninda? So now, as far as black money is concerned, that is not the fault of those who are doing service to God. If somebody is using black money and somebody is donating that to God, it’s not the problem of the religious authorities to determine the source of the income of every person before accepting the donation. So, in general, what Srila Prabhupada told is that if we are accepting donations from somebody, we should give something to that person.
So, what we give is, we will give some books, we will give some pictures, we will try to give some knowledge by which if that person is doing something immoral, that person will realise that those immoral things should be given up. So, people may use religion for whatever purposes that they want. People may give donations for whatever sources it may be.
But that is not the problem of religion. That is the problem of those people and the whole society has to be reformed to deal with that. Now certainly, the idea is that whatever money comes to God, that should be used for God’s service, for God’s glorification and for sharing God’s love, God’s wisdom and God’s care with the world.
And it’s true that not everybody may be doing that and there has to be discrimination, but that is the purpose and there are many religious institutions and religious leaders who are actually doing that. So, again, this is a disanalogy. So, what is he comparing? He is saying that the goondas come and take hafta.
They show a gun. If you don’t have money, you will be killed. So, similarly, he is saying that religious people come and say that you have got this problem, you have got that problem and do this ritual or you will suffer.
So, actually, there is a fundamental difference between the two. In the case of the goondas, they are creating the trouble. The goondas are going to shoot and beat and kill the people if they don’t give that particular hafta or whatever.
But when it comes to religion, is it if somebody has, for the argument sake, even if you don’t believe that there is some problem, if somebody says that in horoscope there is some problem and because of which you have to do this particular ritual. So, even if you don’t believe that is true, is it that those religious people are going to cause those problems? Is it that those religious people are going to create the disease in the child? No. Actually speaking, the example appropriate for this is different.
If when a child is born, at that time the doctor comes and tells, your child has got a congenital heart problem and for that, to take care of this, you have to do this surgery and for doing that surgery, this is the process, this is the expense and this is what is involved. So, what is the doctor doing? The doctor is not creating the problem. The doctor is helping the patient to solve the problem.
So, similarly with respect to religion. Now, in medical science, there is certain kind of scientific analysis by which people understand that this is the cause and this is going to be the effect. Now, for the ordinary vision, we don’t know.
If somebody says I have got a congenital heart problem, then it’s not that my parents are going to open my heart to see whether there is a problem. Actually, they believe this and they believe the doctors and they do the treatment and it’s quite possible that many doctors may fleece the patients. They may cheat the patients and make them do unnecessary surgeries, not required tests but that doesn’t mean that the medical sciences fall and that doesn’t mean all doctors are bad.
Similarly, there is the law of karma. The law of karma determines that for every action, there is a reaction. Now, the law of karma is basically our day-to-day experience extended over a long term.
Now, if, say, your child comes to your home and you find that there is a burn mark on the child’s hand, immediately we’ll ask, what happened? Isn’t it? That means, as soon as we see an effect, we assume that there is a cause and we try to determine what is the cause. So, we assume implicitly that there is a cause-effect connection between things. So, same way, there is a cause-effect connection which extends to before this life and beyond this life.
There is a cause-effect connection which extends over multiple lifetimes and that cause-effect connection can be perceived by certain subtle means. That means that now, I cannot go into a full class about how astrology is a science, but suffice it to say that the whole mind-brain phenomena is far too complex for any scientist to claim that we have understood it completely. And there are many studies which have observed, which have noted that certain seasonal variations, certain atmospheric variations, certain cosmic variations in terms of phases of the moon and other things, they seem to affect people’s behavioural patterns, especially mental behavioural patterns, in certain ways.
This is not necessarily a well-documented fact, but there are surveys which point towards this. So, the important point here is in medical science, there is a certain level of research which claims that there is a correlation between this and this. Now, we put faith in that.
So, there are other people who put faith in astrology. So, now, we may say that I don’t believe in astrology. That’s true.
But that doesn’t make those who are religious teachers into gundas. There is no correlation between the two. They are also doctors of another kind.
If somebody doesn’t want to believe in those doctors, that’s fine. Don’t believe in it. But to equate that with hooligans who are extorting from others is misleading.
It is manipulation of public opinion. By giving false examples. So, now, how does this law of karma work? Actually, the law of karma, all of us, just as we have certain biological indicators of what is going to happen in future.
A person may have a weak kidney or a less well-formed brain or whatever. So, like that, there are subtle indicators of what may be right and what may be wrong. And they are understood through astrology and through other such subtle sciences.
And based on that, some people may give us some warnings. Now, if we don’t want to believe in them, fine. And we also have to be intelligent.
Just like when I go to a doctor, I have to be intelligent to choose a good doctor. Not a doctor who wants to fleece me, but a doctor who wants to help me. Similarly, if we want to do kundali, we have to see who is doing it in a trustworthy way.
Who is a trustworthy person. And that way, discrimination is required, not rejection. You can’t reject all doctors.
Similarly, if one wants to use astrology, one has to use discrimination. Let’s move forward. So, according to you, what is the definition of dharma? I think there was one more question over here that was left out.
So, saying that they threaten people with next life also. That in your next life, you’ll become like this, you’ll become like that. So, it’s not a threat.
It’s a warning. What is the difference between a threat and a warning? A threat is where I am going to do this to you if you don’t do it. A warning is this is going to happen to you.
Please don’t do this. There’s a difference between the two. A big, big difference.
You know, if on a road, a warning sign says there is a sharp turn. Go slowly. Otherwise, you’ll fall off.
That’s not a threat. That’s a warning. So, similarly, all of us are souls and we have this body right now.
And we have a human body, a male body or a female body. And we, after this body dies, we will get another body. Now, there are many significant studies in near-death experiences, in past life memories done by respected scientific researchers who do indicate that people remember their past lives.
So, if somebody wants to study, then there is evidence that past life memories are scientifically tenable. So, after we die, we are going to get the next body. And what is the kind of body that we are going to get? That will be determined by the way we live this life.
So, Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita in 8.4, 8.456, this principle. He says that it is the law of last thought. Whatever we remember at the time of death, that’s what we will get in our next life.
So, and what will we remember at the time of death? That which we are very attached to in this life. So, if somebody lives, somebody, say, eats a lot of meat. And basically, human body is not really suited for eating meat.
We can’t catch animals of prey with our claws and our nails and our talons, teeth. We have to have slaughterhouses to do that. The body is not suited for eating meat.
But, if we decide to eat a lot of meat, then nature will tell us that if that’s what you want to do, if you want to eat meat, then the human body is not suited for that. We will give you a body that is suited for eating meat. And then somebody may get a carnivorous animal’s body, it may be a tiger’s body, it may be a dog’s body, it may be any kind of animal’s body.
So, that is simply the course of nature depending on the way we live. And it’s just a warning provided over there. It’s not a threat.
So now, here it was asked, what is dharma? She is saying, where there is dharma, there is no truth. And where there is truth, there is no reason for dharma. So, this is just word jugglery without any meaning.
Because, what is the evidence? What is the logic? It’s just a play of words. Now, first of all, the question that was asked is, what is the definition of dharma? And what is given as an answer is just a play of words which doesn’t answer that question at all. So, what is actually dharma? Dharma has various meanings.
I’ll talk only about three meanings over here. So, at a normal conversational level, we use dharma to refer to religions. We talk about, say, there is Hindu religion, there is Christian religion, there is Muslim religion.
So, these religions are basically comprising of culture, comprising of rituals, comprising of some scriptures and people doing certain activities. So, that is the external form of religion. That is one understanding of religion.
Now, if we look at the etymology of the English word religion, the word, it comes from the Latin religio, which means to join together, to bind together. So, religion is that set of principles which joins us with God. So, these are universal principles.
They enable us to reconnect ourselves with God. And that is what God has given through the scriptures of the various religions. And this is what takes us to the highest truth.
We are living this life right now and I may think that I am seeing you and you are seeing me, which is true at one level. But it is a temporary reality. When we die, we are not going to be here.
And even tonight, when we go back to sleep, we are not going to see this world around us. So, it is a temporary reality. But beyond this temporary reality, there is an eternal reality.
And dharma is the means by which we go from the temporary reality to the eternal reality. So, that is the second meaning of dharma. The set of activities that are based on certain set of principles that take us back from temporary reality to eternal reality.
You remember the example of the amnesia? So, in amnesia, the set of treatments by which the person’s memory can be revived, that is essentially dharma. So, the chanting of the names, the worship of the deities, the study of scriptures, all these comprise religion. But the purpose is to revive our memory.
That is the second level meaning of dharma. The third level meaning is the deepest meaning. Dharma comes from the word dhri.
Dhri is dharayate, that which sustains. So, dharma refers to that which sustains our essential nature. That without which we will not be we.
So, what is that intrinsic characteristic of ours? That is love. Love and service. Actually, all of us belong to love and we love.
Love is what underlies all our actions and all our emotions. So, this longing for love, we try to fulfil by directing it towards different people, different things. But all these people and things, our relationship with them are temporary.
But when we direct our love towards the eternal, then that gives us eternal happiness. So, that eternal object of love is God, is Krishna. So, dharma in its innermost or original meaning is our original nature to love God.
And love is expressed through service. So, I’ll repeat these three meanings right now. At our normal day-to-day level, dharma refers to the various religions, Christianity, Islam and all that.
And they may have some good people, they may have some bad people, some exploitative people, all that is there. But at a transformational level, religion or dharma is that set of activities by which we rise from the temporary reality to the eternal reality. And at the highest level, dharma is our nature.
It is our nature to love and to serve. So, this is actually the definition of dharma. So, now the idea that where there is dharma, there can be no truth, this is as I said, it’s just empty claim without any substantiation.
Yes, there may be people who are untrue within the field of religion, but then that is true everywhere, isn’t it? There was this show Satyamev Jayate, which showed how there is so, there are so many malpractices within religion, within medicine. Doctors exploit people. Now, if at the end of the show, you know, Amir Khan had said, you know, all doctors are bad, all hospitals are bad, all medical practises are bad, health is good.
Seek health, but no need for doctors, no need for treatment, no need for medicines, no need for hospitals. What is the practical use of such a message? It’s no use. How will I become healthy without choosing doctors, without going to, taking treatments, without going to hospitals? So, the message that was given over there is that okay, keep your eyes and ears open, discriminate, know that there can be doctors who are bad and there can be doctors who are good.
So, select, choose good doctors. Similarly, in religion, there can be people who are exploitative, there are people definitely, and the kind of godmen that were shown in this movie, they were arrogant, they were hypocritical, they were self-serving, and then there are those kind of people in religion also. But that doesn’t mean that is the only kind of people that there are.
And actually, if you believe like that, first of all, it’s not just an indictment of religion, it’s not just a criticism of religion, it’s a criticism of human nature itself. Think that one particular field, religion, will be filled with all bad human beings. That means that we have just lost faith in the human race itself.
It’s not just losing faith in religion. So, the idea is, if you tell people that God is good, but don’t go to any spiritual teachers, don’t go to any, there’s no need for anything else. No rituals, no practises, just believe in God.
God is good. That’s like saying health is good, but doctors are not needed. It’s not going to work.
There’s no utility, potency, or relevance of such a message. So, the Bhagavad Gita itself gives us teachings by which we can discriminate between who are actually representing God and who are not. In the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about आत्मसंभावितास्तब्दा धन्मान्मदान्विता यजन्ते नाम यज्ञेंस्ते दंभे नामिधि पूर्वकं He says that there are people यजन्ते नाम यज्ञेंस्ते In the scriptures, tell us to do नाम यज्ञा नाम यज्ञा means chant the holy names of God.
But there are people who do यज्ञा for नाम. They do religious sacrifice just for becoming famous, just for getting power and prestige and money. So, Krishna also warns about this in the Bhagavad Gita and it’s true.
So, we have to learn discrimination by which we can choose this is right and this is wrong. The question is what do you think is the role that religion plays in a person’s life? According to me, it does only one thing. Either it makes a person helpless or it kills the soul.
So, just talking about the effects of religion. Does religion make people terrorists? Does religion make people helpless? Now, if, let’s look at the second part, the terrorist part first, what he says again. If it were true that religion makes people violent, if it is true that religion makes people fight wars and kill each other, then the places which are atheistic should be the most peaceful places in the world.
Isn’t it? Now, at a mass level, atheism has been tried as practically never been tried in human history except modern times. In modern times, USSR and China. These were the two countries where atheism was tried for almost 80 to 100 years.
And what was the result? I have got the references in my book, Oh My God. But the statistics show that the number of people who were killed within these countries itself by the government, by the powerful people, by the politicians, the number of people killed within these countries are several times more than the number of people killed in all the wars of the last century including the First World War and Second World War. So, what causes more violence? Is it religion or is it atheism? It’s atheism.
Actually, by atheism, one thinks that there is no intrinsic value to life. Because I am not going to exist afterward. That person is not going to exist afterward.
This life is all that I have. And I have to enjoy in life. If somebody comes in the way of my enjoyment, just push it off.
If I have to kill him, what is the big deal? So, actually, it is religion that talks to us about the intrinsic sanctity of life. And it is religion that helps us value other people. Whereas atheism, what is the consequence of atheism? It just devalues other people.
Now, it is not to deny that there has been communal violence. And there are people because of religion who become terrorists. But, that is a perversion of religion.
That is not the purpose of religion. So, there are people who are power hungry. And they come within religion.
And they instigate people to become violent in the name of religion. So, the counter for this is education. When people become educated to understand what is the actual purpose of religion, then, they will not be manipulated by such people who instigate people, others for violence in the name of religion.
So, what we need is education. It is not that religion causes violence. It is the misuse of religion that causes violence.
And, actually, religion provides us eyes to see beyond the body, to deeper things, to see soul, to see God. And to understand that there are deeper things in life beyond what we can see with our eyes. So, if there are some evil things that have happened because of religion, that is like the cataract in the eye.
So, when I have got a cataract, I have to remove the cataract. Not that I pluck out and throw out the eye. Similarly, there are evil things that have happened in religion and they have to be corrected through education.
Not that we just reject religion per se. I’ll just give one example of where society goes to when religion becomes rejected. Now, there is in today’s society the whole debate about abortion.
Now, medically speaking, there is no doubt that the embryo in the womb is just a human being like us. Like rest of us. So, there are several doctors who were regular abortionists.
In Mumbai, we have in our Bhaktivedanta Hospital, he was associate one doctor. He did hundreds of abortions. And in fact, he made his own method of abortion.
It is called Patel’s method of abortion. So, then when he met devotees, and then he understood actually the embryo in the womb is just life. There is a famous photo which is there on the net also.
There was this probe that was sent in by the doctor to check what is the state of the child in the womb. And this tender child, you know, he thought, what is this? It’s like a parent’s finger and the child is catching the probe. So, just like a small baby may catch a parent’s finger, this infant within the mother’s womb is catching the probe as if it is like a parent’s finger.
So, but the whole idea is because we cannot see it. Atheism makes us think life has no value. So, there is no role of God involved.
See, religion tells us that children are the gift of God. Atheism tells us that children are just tissues. You know, you are just doing some tissue removal.
So, now abortion is bad enough. But recently, maybe six months ago, in the journal of medical ethics, there were two atheist doctors who said that if we are allowing abortion, that actually after a child is born, if the mother doesn’t want the child, then there is nothing wrong in killing the child. After the child is born, you can actually see the baby.
They said, there is nothing wrong. And that created such a furor. What kind of people can think like this that actually you kill a baby like this? And then those doctors said, don’t become sentimental.
He says, if you are going to say that abortion is okay, then all the reasons that allow abortion, from the point of logic, there is no difference whether the embryo is inside the womb or outside the womb. So, if you are going to allow abortion, then why make a big fuss whether the child is inside or outside? So then, once this gets legalised, then the next question will come, till what age? Why only after birth? It’s such a terrible thing that actually mothers are being misled into believing that their tender child is just a tissue. It’s very sad.
So, this Dr. Patel, when I talk with him, he said that what he would do is, whenever some people come to him for abortion. Now, abortion is a difficult problem and sometimes some women are forcibly violated and then they become pregnant. There is a social stigma associated with it and there is no easy solution to it.
So, maybe they have to give for adoption or whatever. It’s a complex issue. But the idea that abortion is a solution is demoniac.
It is very heart-breaking. So, what he would do is, he would just take the mother to a sonography place and he would actually show the mother with high technology the child. And almost more than 90-95% of the people would say, no, we don’t want.
We don’t want to kill. So, actually it is atheism that leads to violence. Hitler was an atheist and Hitler’s time was the time when he said that we want to create a superhuman race.
And what he did was, he said, all people who are not fit, they should be killed. So, in Hitler’s Germany, anybody who was blind, anybody who was deaf, anybody who was mentally retarded, anybody who was physically handicapped, all such people were by government systems killed. And this was called as a branch of science called as eugenics.
Eugenics means good genetics. We select people with good genetics and we remove all others. Actually, it is a defining human characteristic is compassion.
Actually speaking, if a dog is lying on the street, somebody, the dog is going along and a vehicle comes and hits a dog. The dog will lie around there and other dogs, mostly other dogs will not care. If another dog is just passing, they will say, okay, lying there is lying there.
They will not care. But actually, human beings have an evolved consciousness. If we see another human being lying on the street, we will want to help.
And if a person is drowning, there are other people who may jump in to save the drowning person. When the twin tower disaster was there, there are firefighters who went into the burning towers at the risk of their lives to save others. So, the human capacity, the humanness is defined by sacrifice, by doing something good for others.
But atheism makes us do the exact opposite. You know, not just I first, but atheism means I only. It’s I only.
So, it is actually a very dreadful school of thought which leads to disaster. So, that’s why this sort of notion that religion makes people violent is misleading. Very misleading.
Now, does religion make people helpless? How would religion make people helpless? The idea that God is in control and we can’t do anything about it? That is not the teaching of religion. The teaching of religion is that there are higher factors involved in the results that we get. There are basically two schools of thought.
One is called Karmavada and the other is called Daivavada. The idea of Karmavada is Karma is everything. I do my work and I will get the result.
So, the idea is that if I study hard, I will come first in the exam. This is the predominant modern idea. The other idea is Daivavada.
Daivavada means everything is destined. My luck is bad. So, now both are wrong.
The idea that just by my work I will get all the results. That is a very dangerous misconception. Because when I work hard and I don’t get results because of factors beyond my control.
Because I don’t but however, I don’t acknowledge that there are factors beyond my control. So, therefore, I start blaming myself. I start blaming myself.
Okay, I don’t do a particular exam for some reason. I studied but still maybe the examiner was in a bad mood and because of that he didn’t give me good marks. There are factors beyond my control.
Okay, it happens. Next time I will work and I will get the result. So, Karmavada makes people develop depression because of Karmavada we think that if everything is in my hands, if nothing comes to me, then that means I must be bad only.
And then I develop depression, I develop inferiority complex, I develop suicidal urges. See, never before in the history of the world have so many people committed suicide. Today, according to United Nations, one million people commit suicide every year.
And these are just the recorded suicides. There are many more. Now, one million suicides means something like 80 suicides per hour.
So, since we started this class, 80 people have committed suicide. And this figure, one million, is more than the number of people who are killed in war and in crimes combined together. That means more than the number of people who are being killed by others are the number of people who are killing themselves.
Why is that? That is because of materialism. That is because of atheism. Because in the past there was religion and yes, some people may commit suicide but it was never in such scales.
So, karmavada is wrong and daivavada is also wrong. Daivavada is what? Everything is destroyed. No.
The Bhagavad Gita tells Krishna. Krishna tells Arjuna, you should do this, you should not do this. So, what religion tells us is there is a higher factor involved.
Recognise the higher factor. Just like when a farmer has to do agriculture, then there is a blend of karma and daiva. The karma is that the farmer has to sow the seeds, plough the land and the daiva is that rains have to come.
When both karma and daiva come together, then one gets the phala. Then one gets the grains. Similarly, in our life we have to work and then there is a higher sanction that has to come.
Then we get the results. So, what all that religion tells us is that understand that there is a higher sanction involved also. There is a higher factor involved.
That doesn’t create helplessness. That actually saves us from depression, inferiority complex and suicidal urges. So, it’s a complete misunderstanding.
So, any questions? Further? Yes, please. You believe in giving back something after people donate. So, doesn’t that mean that you are creating like someone who is not known about the Bhagavad Gita and who is not knowing about the scriptures that much.
But he comes and sees that yeah, I get to go and I get to do Abhishek for 2000 rupees. So, isn’t it creating an urge that yeah, I can please God by giving 2000 rupees? Yes. So, when we offer people you can do Abhishek for 2000 rupees, we just create an urge that just by 2000 rupees I can please God.
Actually, there are various ways and levels at which we can connect with God. So, not everybody is ready to offer their hearts to God. So, when people are not ready to offer their hearts to God, the scriptures tell us you can offer what is in your heart to God.
So, generally what is in our heart is money, isn’t it? So, when we offer money to God, what happens is by offering that money we offer God a place in our heart. At least that much. Yes, I offered this donation, let me go to the temple and let me do this Abhishek.
So, that way that level at least connection is there. Now, if we what we would like to do is everybody who wants everybody can get spiritual knowledge, they can get benefited by that, that’s our ultimate goal. But not everybody is ready for that.
So, depending on how much people are ready, then Krishna reciprocates. Krishna also describes in the Bhagavad Gita 4.11 ये थामां प्रपद्यन्ते तामस्तथाइवभजाम्यः that as all people surrender unto me, I reciprocate accordingly. So, Krishna is reciprocal.
He is responsive. So, now if somebody wants to connect with God by offering money, Krishna says that’s fine, they can connect at that level. Now, of course, a higher level is as people offer their intelligence to God, they understand God’s message and above all that they offer their heart to God.
So, the journey is generally from external to internal. You know, first I come to a temple, I just offer my physical presence to God for some time. I just come to the temple.
So, then I offer something which is a little more dear, I offer some donation, I offer some money. Then afterwards, I become interested and I start offering my head in the sense that let me understand what is this religious business teaching. Then I start studying the Bhagavad Gita, we may join some courses and we will learn something and then gradually we will offer the heart.
So, there is a progression and generally, the idea is not that the Abhishek is not like a is not like a product that is sold for 2000 rupees. If that is the notion, that is mistaken. The idea is that there has to be some level of reciprocation.
So, when people offer something, God offers something in return. It’s not like a business deal. The more idea is that the opportunity to serve the Lord is a great privilege.
In whatever we are doing, Abhishek is a privilege. And ideally speaking, we would like to offer this privilege to everyone. But then, there are practical limitations in the sense that there are hundreds and thousands of people who come and if you start offering Abhishek for everyone, it will just go for days and days and days together.
So, another important point is whenever people are giving anything free, people take it very cheaply. So, whenever there is certain level of offering done, then there is a reciprocation. So, in general, the darshan of the Lord in the temple, that is open for everyone.
There are no charges for that. The chanting of the holy names, that is also freely available for everyone. So, wherever there is some infrastructural requirements for offering certain facility for serving God, then there has to be some level of finances also involved for that.
But the idea is to connect people with God at whatever level is possible. So, money is one way by which people can connect with God. Does this answer your question? Yes.
So, when we are saying that it is like a business deal, then it is religion at the level of desire. So, there are four levels and religion at the level of desire is also a scripturally valid principle. But it is not the highest principle.
So, at religion at the level of desire is okay because at least people are coming to God in some way. And the principle is not just the idea of a business deal. The principle is people connect with God.
And the deal part may get over but the connection is eternal. The connection will stay forever. Because when person comes and does some abhishek, takes darshan of the deities, the memories that are created, samskara that are created, they have a lasting effect.
They will stay forever. Okay, what about those who can’t afford it? Yes, it shouldn’t ever be the idea that money is the only way to connect with God. There are various ways to connect with God.
Krishna ultimately sees our heart. As I said, somebody may not do any abhishek to the Lord but that same person may with a humble and genuine heart offer prayers to God. And that person may please God much more.
So, the pleasure of God is dependent primarily on our attitude. As I said, Krishna is bhavagrahi. So, but bhav, there are also facilities by which we can express the bhav.
But they are facilities to express. They are not the essence. So, the offering of abhishek is one way to express the bhav.
Other bhav, somebody can just come in janmashtami, take darshan, offer sincere prayers and go. That person will also be pleased. Clear? Any other questions? Yes.
Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for very wonderful lecture. My question is, many people argue that there is no God exists and it is just mind game.
Like for example, they said that there is positive or negative charge in our mind. And for example, they gave example, suppose I am keeping this finger and I am saying, continuously chanting that these fingers are coming closer and closer and I am seeing. So, it will come more closer.
And so, they said that in this way, just mind, whatever we say, that happens. So, what do you say about that? Yes. This is the idea that God is just a mental projection or a mental conception.
Now, the idea here is that the mind, the example that was given, if I just say that my fingers are apart and my fingers are coming closer and closer, they will come closer. So, it’s true that the mind has powers that are not entirely understood by modern science. So, these powers exist.
But, there is, as I said, a physical level, which is what science largely studies. I throw a ball physically at a wall, at what speed it will come back, I can understand the Newton’s laws of motion. So, this is, science largely studies the physical level.
Beyond the physical level, there is the mental level, which science is only slowly discovering right now. But, this also exists and this also has potency. But, beyond the mental level is the spiritual level.
So, God and soul and their relationship exist at the spiritual level. Now, there may be some mental effects of that also. But, those mental effects come from some source.
So, even if I say that I just chant the name of Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna and then that causes some transformation in me. So, okay, that’s possible. But, what is the nature of that transformation? See, just by repeating certain phrases, people may develop certain ideas.
But, the kind of transformation that happens by repeating the names of God is that people rise beyond the physical level, beyond the mental level, to a higher level. And how do we know that there is some level higher beyond the mental? Actually, we cannot know through science because science doesn’t even know what is the mental level. I am not just minimising science.
You know, I respect science for whatever scientific knowledge is there. But, psychology at the start of the century was called as psycholos, the study of the mind. But then, scientists said that actually, we don’t even know what is the mind.
Because there is no laboratory experiment to pursue the mind. And so, psychologists said, how can you have a science that is about a subject that we don’t know whether it exists or not? So, they redefined science as the study of behaviour. Psychology is the study of human behaviour.
So, my point is, from a scientific perspective, we do not have proof even for the mind, what to speak of for the soul. But, let’s look from the alternative perspective, that is, the scriptural analytical perspective. So, by the chanting of the names of Krishna, we become free from physical urges, we become free from mental urges.
And we develop a devotion, a transformation, an attraction that goes beyond mental urges. Now, what does this mean? That means, there are so many people who are addicted today. So, addiction has a physical component to it also, that it cannot live without, say, alcohol.
Now, is there, if all chanting of the names was just a mental thing, then, maybe, just by chanting some names, can a person become free from addiction? Just take any name. de-addiction. I will chant japa of de-addiction every day.
Will I become free from addiction? Well, no addiction centres have been successful in doing this. And, they don’t even try it. Now, this is at the physical level.
But, thousands of people all over the world, by chanting the names of Krishna, have become freed from that. Similarly, at a mental level. At a mental level, all of us understand that anger is bad.
When I become angry, I shout at others, I may beat others, I may do such things that are, that cause me nightmares afterwards, and that cause nightmares to others. But with all our science and technology, is there any medicine by which I can get rid of anger? Whenever you feel angry, take this pill. Anger goes away.
Now, the only medicine that with all our science we have is a sedative, which puts people to sleep. When they wake up, all the anger is usually there again. So, with all, so this anger is mental.
We don’t know how to deal with it. But, chant Hare Krishna, you’ll see that anger comes into control. Anger goes away.
So, we see that this has potency at a physical level, it has potency at a mental level. And, not only that, there is a higher happiness that we experience, which is not available by chanting any other names. If somebody is a fan of, say, Michael Jackson, you know, how long a person can chant, when the film star, when that star is coming, people may chant Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson.
But that, just for a few minutes. You know, how many people can actually be satisfied lifelong chanting Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson. You know, how many fans of Michael Jackson have become brahmacharis and sanyasis.
So, but, those who chant Krishna’s names, they become free from everything material. It’s not that they are all torturing themselves, just giving up everything material. They are experiencing something higher.
So, that is experience of happiness at a spiritual level. So, the spiritual reality, we can understand it analytically, but it is confirmed through experience. So, as we practise, we will also experience higher reality.
And that’s how we can understand that God is, the belief in God has mental effects. But God is not just a mental conception. God is a spiritual reality who has mental effects and who, connection with whom has mental effects as well as physical effects.
Does it answer your question? Any other questions? Yes, please. Krishna? Yes. In fact, what treatment should be given to these people who make such movies making fun of God? They are not only making fun of God, they are making fun of Shraddha also.
And this is a tradition now. In Marathi also, there was one movie. There is an organisation also, Andhra Shraddha Nirmuland Samiti.
They are also making fun of these. So, what action should be taken? In fact, what legal or anything action? What action can be taken against such things? Actually, we have to provide education. We have to provide vigorous education.
To a large extent, demonising people is not the solution. Now, the movie director of this movie, Yomai Shukla, he is a close friend of one of our devotees in Pune. And he told me that that person believes in God.
So, no. So, his point was that he had very bad experience with Godmen. And that’s why he decided to expose Godmen.
So, the mistake is blanket generalisation. So, you know, when people criticise religion, we shouldn’t necessarily demonise those people thinking that these people are evil. No.
They also have valid points. But the mistake is they are extrapolating. So, we need to provide proper education.
And if we provide proper education, and then there will be a there will be a possibility, there will be a very good forum by which people can learn. And people can get benefited. So, actually, it’s very easy and it’s very useless to just demonise people.
These people are evil. These people are bad. No.
The solution is we have to provide education. Now, I am not saying that there can also be demoniac people who are complete God-haters. And they may also make things like this.
So, now, what can we do? The solution is do we go in for legal action? Today, India is a secular country. And somehow the secularism has a little peculiar definition in India. I did a little bit research on secularism.
So, in when Ambedkar made the constitution, he said India is a secular country but they never defined what is secularism. Because they felt that it is very volatile and they left it for future amendments. And that future amendment has not come till now.
So, what exactly secularism means is not known. Shri Prabhupada explained that what should secularism be? Secularism means that the government should not take sides of any religion. Just as the government makes sure that if there are various businesses, now there can be many companies in one particular industry.
There can be many shipping companies. Now the government doesn’t take sides of any particular shipping company. But in the government make sure that there is overall order in the shipping industry.
Similarly, the government should not favour any religion but the government should make sure that even within the religious field there is some level of order, harmony, integrity that is maintained. Now how will that do that? If the government has no religious education at all, then the government can’t do that. That’s why actually the solution is education.
Education and then there has to be proper administration. But demonising people is not the solution. That is very simplistic and there are certain religions which do fatwas.
Anybody who criticises their religion we will just shoot those people. That leads to that sort of religious fanaticism leads to atheistic fanaticism where people become haters of God and people become haters of religion and we don’t want that kind of thing. What we want is education and that’s what Krishna Iskcon is trying to do by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and the more forums we can get for that and more we can ourselves participate in providing that education the more this kind of misconceptions can be countered.
Any other questions? Yes, Mataji. If God is meant to help everyone why is there death, poverty and suffering in the world? Once there was a person a devotee who went to a doctor and this doctor happened to be an atheist. So when he went to this atheist this atheist saw this person who was a devotee of God he said, you believe in God? He said, of course.
He said, can’t you see there is so much disease, so much suffering in this world? Where is God? This devotee did not reply anything and then he left and after some time he came back to the doctor’s clinic. He says, there are no doctors in this city. He says, what do you mean? He says, there are no doctors in this city.
What do you mean? Are you kidding? Come with me. He took him out and outside his clinic just on the footpath there was a beggar who was coughing coughing bitterly and then he said, the very fact that this person is sick proves that there are no doctors in this city. He said, are you crazy? He said, he is sick because he doesn’t come to me.
He said, exactly. People are suffering because they don’t go to God. So, actually speaking, this mitigation of suffering will happen at various levels.
You know, just by connecting with God, even in this life, at this world, we will find a huge burden of anxiety going away. Just by chanting the names of God, by worshipping God, we will find that the tension, the anxiety, the worry just goes away because we understand that God is in control, God is our protector. That is one level of anxiety that goes away.
To the extent we do chintan, we will find that our chinta decreases. Then after that, another level is, if people start understanding that God is in control and they start following the instructions of God, the guidelines of God, then we will see that much of immorality, corruption, suffering will stop. You know, today in the world, we follow Krishna’s teachings, Krishna gives us guidelines by which we can give up lust, anger, greed.
If you look at the major crimes in society today, you know, all the rapes and sexual violence that is caused by lust, all the corruption that is there, that is caused by greed, and all the murders and the wars, they are primarily caused by anger. So, now, how do we deal with lust, anger, greed? We can have better laws, that is good. You know, we can have a lokpal, that is good.
But ultimately, the lokpal cannot free people from greed. It can only punish the greedy. What can free people from greed is Gopal.
So, when people experience higher happiness by loving God, then they don’t need to accumulate more and more things by which to become happy. And that’s how they will become free from greed. So, at a law and order level also, much more suffering will decrease.
And beyond that, this world is like a hospital. So, it’s like a treatment place. We cannot expect ultimately happiness in a hospital.
The hospital is a place where we get treated and we go back to home where there is happiness. So, this world is a place of death. It is not that when people become devoted to God, death will end in this world.
No. But when we become devoted to God, we will come to a spiritual level of consciousness by which we will return back to God where there will be eternal life. So, that’s how at a mental level, by connecting with God, we become free from anxiety.
At a social level, by following God’s laws, the level of crime and suffering decreases and at a spiritual level, by connecting with God, we go back to an eternal world where there is no suffering, where there is no death, where there is eternal happiness. That’s how we understand why there is suffering and how God helps us to relieve ourselves from suffering. Does this answer your question? Any other questions? Okay.
Where is the mic? Yes, please. What about Artha, Kama and Moksha? This is a system of gradual material prosperity and spiritual progress. The idea is that there is, before Artha, Kama and Moksha, there is Dharma.
So, in modern society, out of these four, people have removed Dharma and people have removed Moksha. People are only interested in Artha and Kama. I want money and I want enjoyment.
But, Artha and Kama alone, divorced from Dharma, they are unsustainable. When we just try to earn money and enjoy at a sensual level, then we cannot sustain that because nature is like our mother. And nature gives things depending on how much we are cooperating with the rest of nature.
Now, when we human beings exploit nature, we kill millions of animals, we destroy thousands of trees, we corrupt the top soil, and we dry up rivers. So, when we exploit nature in this way, then we react. And those reactions will cause shortage.
So, Artha is not just the salary that we earn. Artha is holistic economic prosperity. And such prosperity depends on the gifts of nature.
So, when there is Dharma, when we follow the laws of nature, when we follow the principles given by God in the scriptures, then that is, by that we no longer exploit nature, we will cooperate with nature. Then nature provides her gifts. And then that leads to Artha.
Now, Kama is, the idea, it is not just that today the word Kama Sutra is used as a metaphor for all kinds of erotic and pornographic literature. But Kama is not just sensual enjoyment. Kama is a material happiness at large.
That means there is a well harmonised family unit where everybody is living together in a relatively satisfied way. So, Kama basically means general material desires, which can be satisfied by Dharma and Artha. And over a period of time, when we satisfy the material desires within the precincts of Dharma, then we understand that these don’t really satisfy me.
I have enjoyed these things, but it’s temporary. There must be something higher in life. And then that creates the aspiration for Moksha.
And then one goes beyond this to try to achieve something eternal. So, Dharma, Artha, Kama, they regulate our action in the temporary arena, in the material arena. And by such regulated actions, eventually we start aspiring for the eternal.
And that leads to Moksha. Now, in Bhakti, when we practise Bhakti, what we do is, we regulate all these four in such a way that they harmonise with devotion. So Dharma means we practise the principles of Bhakti.
And in this way, we can gradually go through this progression very fast and attain eternal happiness. Does that answer your question? Okay. Yes, where? Okay.
You had, can you speak loudly? The mic will take some, okay, you have got there is a part in the movie where milk was being poured on a Shiva Linga and it was being wasted. So, now, traditionally, the principle of Abhishek is that whatever is offered in the deity, that is used later as Mahaprasad. That’s what we do in ISKCON temples.
And not just in ISKCON temples, many other temples all over the world also. And that’s the standard. Now, this idea that whatever is offered to the deity should be sent to the, just, it just let to go into the drainage, that is not really proper according to scripture.
Because what is offered to the Lord becomes pure and that should be accepted. So, ideally speaking, a system should be created by which that milk which is offered to the lingas, that can be taken and distributed to people. And it can be given as Prasad, it can be given to poor people, whatever.
And that’s what is done by so many temples all over the world. Now, there are so many temples all over the world which give free food to so many people. In many holy places, Vrindavan, Udupi and many other places, so many people are fed poor.
ISKCON itself has a food for life programme which, which various programmes all over the world which literally feed almost like 10 meals every second. Now, millions and millions of meals have been fed all over the world to people. So, when we, when a movie just takes one side of it, just shows one set of, one kind of ritual and generalises from that, that is misleading.
So, ideally speaking, whatever is offered to the Lord should be distributed. And that is what is done in so many temples. So, rather than highlight, instead of by completely neglecting that and highlighting only the place part where the meal gets wasted, it creates a misleading conception of religion.
Does that answer your question? Yeah. Yes, behind. So, is it that dharma, most people get their religion by birth in a particular religious community, but is there some education by which we can select our dharma? As of now, in our society, we don’t have anything like that.
But the important point is it depends on our initiative. It depends on our initiative. So, if we want, we can explore.
But actually the idea, religion has largely become just a bodily label today. One of my friends, he is a Jew, so he was talking about Krishna consciousness with his relatives and one of his uncles said, are you trying to convert me? So he said, I didn’t know that you, I didn’t know that you followed the religion. He knew that this uncle was an atheist.
He said, I’m a Jew, I’m an atheist, but I’m a Jew-atheist. Now, the first commandment given by Moses, the founder of Judaism, is that love God. So how can you be a Jew-atheist? So here what has happened is religion has become just a bodily designation, which is unfortunate.
So, we should ourselves seek education and by that we can learn. And of course, when, if I am in a house on fire, which is the best door to get out of the fire? The one that is the nearest. So, similarly, it is not that all of us, that we have to practise some religion, we have to explore all the religions in the world.
This world, as I said, is like a place which is on fire. It’s like a hospital. We have to get out of it.
So if we know that some path does take us out, then we don’t have to spend our life searching around all the paths. If there is a path, try it out. And if it helps well and good, if it doesn’t, then try something else.
So, those of us who are born in India, you know, we have the Vedic culture with us, and if we give it a try, we will find that it purifies us, it elevates us, it brings us to a higher level of consciousness. And we don’t say that this is the only way. There are some religions which say that.
This is the only way. And if you don’t follow this way, you are going to go to hell. And there are some religions which say, you are not only going to hell, we will send you there faster.
Now, it is not that these religions are bad, there are some people who are fanatical within those religions who say like that. But the Vedic teachers are not like that. Ashila Prabhupada said that, you know, Jesus is also a bona fide teacher, Mohammed is also a bona fide teacher.
And by following those religions, people can get elevated. So, our idea is that people should become God conscious. Our goal is not to convert people from one religion to another, but if at all there is any conversion, there is a conversion from being materialist to becoming spiritualist.
When Ashila Prabhupada was in Iran, at that time, the people, they were talking with some Muslims and in the background, the namaz started. And Prabhupada closed his eyes and he heard the namaz very prayerfully. And then he opened his eyes, his eyes were shining.
That was beautiful, wasn’t it? So the devotees, they, little, Prabhupada, wouldn’t it be nice if they all chanted Hare Krishna instead? So Prabhupada looked hurt and he said, why are you making me sectarian? They are glorifying God in their way and we are glorifying God by chanting Hare Krishna. So, ultimately the principle is that we have to develop love for God. So, it’s not that we have to go around converting other people to our religion.
What we have to do is, if there is any conversion, it’s conversion from being materialist to being spiritualist. So, if we have found a path by which we can become that way spiritually minded, then there is no need to go around searching all other paths also. Follow the path by which you become spiritually minded and encourage others to follow the path by which they are becoming spiritually minded.
The test is objective. We are not saying here that all paths are right. There is a test.
The test is, are people getting spiritually elevated? Are they becoming less materialistic, less worldly minded and more God minded, more spiritual by practising a path, more devoted to God? Then that’s a valid path. Does it answer your question? Okay. There is one question here.
Yes, please. Yeah. I would like to comment on, about dharma or religion or this picture also.
Any dharma teaches us humanity. So, whatever you have been telling about Gita or teaching of Krishna is absolutely correct, absolutely to be followed. What picture has shown is the distorted version of Shraddha that is prevailing in the society right now.
So, I appreciate that this picture is a good eye opener as such. It is, we must recheck our Shraddha by means of this picture. Secondly, any God is everywhere.
It is not in one single image or any idol. Because, and if it is in idol, we ourselves are deteriorating the image of God. which we can observe at the time of Ganpati procession or Ganpati immersion.
Next day, the situation is horrible. If God is in that idol, why we are ignoring such incidences? And, one more thing, sir. One thing, I’ll answer this then we can address the other ones.
So, all religions, do they teach humanity? Yes, they teach humanity and they teach more. They teach spirituality also. See, we are not just human beings.
We are spiritual beings on a human journey. And, humanism itself will not elevate us to a spiritual level. So, humanism is good, humanity is good, but religion teaches us something more also.
It tells us humans to become spiritual. And, yes, the move, what is done, it is proper, offered one part of education, which is good. Now, with respect to the idols, the word idol has a very negative connotation.
And, we use the word deity to describe the image of God. So, regarding the Ganesh Visarjan, there are different kinds of invocation of God within the deity. So, the idea is, the understanding is that God has his original form.
God is a person just like you and I are a person and he has his original form in the spiritual world. And, the great sages, in their mystical visions, I was talking about the spiritual level, physical, mental, spiritual, in their mystical visions, they have seen that form of God. And, they have described that form in the scriptures.
And, according to that form, when we create an image, then that is the way by which we can connect with God. So, just as if I have a picture of a particular person, I can remember that person. But, God’s relationship with this image is not just like that of a statue with the person who about whom the statue is made.
Because, as you yourself said, God is everywhere. So, God is present even in the statue. at the start, when a deity is made, at that time, God is invited to reside in that deity.
God is everywhere, but there is avahan or invocation of God. God, please come and reside in this form. And, we will serve you.
So, when that happens, then that deity is no longer just stone. Although that may be made from stone, God comes and manifests and resides in that. And, we see the effect through the purification that happens.
Now, as I said earlier, there are so many people who make some statues of politicians and film stars and all that. That doesn’t lead to any change of heart. That doesn’t lead to any purification.
But, people who worship the deity, they become purified. So, that is by avahan, that is the deity is called. So, it’s not just an idol, it’s a deity.
Because, God’s presence is invoked over there and that presence can be felt by sincerely worshipping the deity. Now, this invocation is of multiple types. So, one is a stahi pratishtha.
That means, once the Lord is invoked as a deity, he is present forever. And, then the idea is we’ll keep worshipping him for all time to come. Then, there is another kind of pratishtha which is called as astahi pratishtha.
It is called a finite installation. That means, for a particular amount of time, the Lord is invited. And, this is also a bona fide tradition.
That means, say, people who feel that we cannot worship God throughout the year, then they are told, for one month, for two months, for one week, two weeks, during some sacred period, you invite God. And, then there is an avahan that is done. And, then the deity is worshipped for a particular period.
And, then after that, there is tirobhau. Tirobhau is not just putting the deity we thank the Lord for having manifested. And, then we request him to depart.
And, after that is done, then it’s like God has manifested in the deity and God has chosen to unmanifest from the deity. Now, after the deity is unmanifested, then there proper descriptions in the Shilpa Shastras and Pacharatras, these are sets of scriptures, by which what should be done with that form. So normally it is said that that form should be put in some water and respectfully put in the water.
So this is a bona fide way of worshipping for those who cannot worship regularly. Unfortunately today, the Aavirbhav and Thirubhav are not done only practically speaking. So most people think that I just purchase an image from the market and then I worship it for some time and then I knew when I was staying at a particular place, what to speak of having, there was a particular family, they were in a house and you should actually in some proper way, we have invited the Lord and he has resided in a particular form and now that form has to be respectfully put in the water.
But what they were doing was, they had a house and below their house, third floor, below their house, there was a well. From third floor only they dropped the phone into the well. So this is very unfortunate.
So these are distortions. So ideally speaking, the Sthyi Puja is the best that is recommended. We invite the Lord and we serve him lifelong.
But Sthyi is not possible. Asthyi is also accepted, but that should also be done properly according to the scripture. Yes.
One more. I think each image or idol of the God acts like a icon on computer. When I see any book or anything, first I look at the cover page.
That cover page indicates what would be the content inside. Likewise, when I see at the image of Krishna, I immediately recollect Gita. So if I recollect Gita, or I am supposed to recollect Gita, but if I am not following even after seeing image of Krishna, then that is useless.
Or if I see image of Krishna and make changes in my behaviour, then that is the effect of God present everywhere. This is what I feel. Yes.
So is the deity of God an icon which is meant to remind us of God? Yes, that is one level at which the deity can also function. So it depends on our level of perception. Some people may come to the temple and then they say this is just stone.
So if we are completely in materialistic consciousness, then we will see, we are seeing only matter. Then I am in a materialistic consciousness, then I will see the deity only as stone. That’s one level.
The higher, intellectually more refined level of consciousness is, I understand that God is a higher reality. And the deity is a means by which I connect with, I remember the higher reality. That is the second level.
And the third level is that actually deity is not just an abstract representation of the higher reality. Now I have talked about this elaborately. I have written a book on this topic called Idol Worship or Ideal Worship.
And in that I have talked about this. I’ll explain this briefly and conclude. There are two kinds of symbolisms.
There is ascending symbolism and there is descending symbolism. Ascending symbol is what? There is some concept which is invisible and I create a visible representation for that. So ascending symbolism means the example of that is a flag.
Now India has got the flag in a tricolour. So that is a representation of nationhood or patriotism. Now the concept of patriotism is amorphous, abstract.
And I give a tangible, concrete representation of this to the tricolour flag. So this is the second level understanding. That is ascending symbolism.
Now if the Parliament of India decides that actually now in the current with India developing agriculture is not so important for us. So we don’t need a tricolour. We don’t need the green colour.
We’ll have bicolour flag for India. Can we do that? Yeah, the Indian Parliament can do that. Why? Because there is no intrinsic connection between the symbol and the symbolised.
So this is ascending symbolism. That means the connection between the symbol and the symbolised is just by our imagination, by the ascent of our imagination. There is however another kind of symbolism that is descending symbolism.
Descending symbolism means that there is a higher reality and that higher reality is directly represented through a symbol. So for example, there is a photo of a person. And now there is a direct connection between the photo and the person.
You know if a husband comes back to his home and the husband is normally carrying the photo of his wife in his wallet. And one day the husband comes back home and the wife finds that there is some other woman’s photo over there. He says, what is this? You know actually I am thinking of you only.
I just put else’s photo over there. That will not work. Because there is an intrinsic connection between what is symbolised and how it is symbolised.
So in the case of the deity, this is a descending symbolism. There is a higher reality and there is a direct way in which it is represented. So now by thinking of the deity, by taking darshan of the deity, we may think of the Bhagavad Gita, we may think about general spiritual things.
That is good. But the deity is also a direct manifestation of Krishna. And Krishna is a person.
And the deity gives us a visual depiction of how Krishna looks like. So the deity is not just the take-off point for spiritual thought. It is not just an abstract icon.
It is that and it is more also. The deity is a direct representation of the higher reality. And when we become purified, then we will actually see Krishna with our pure spiritual eyes, the way we see the deity.
So it is not that we have to go beyond the deity to some higher truth. The deity is the higher truth manifest to our vision. And when we become purified, then we will see that higher truth directly.
But till then, we see that higher truth manifested as the deity. So thank you very much for your intelligent questions and patient hearing. Those of you who have further questions, we can’t have them right now.
I have my website, thespiritualscientist.com, where I have answered almost 800-900 questions till now. And thespiritualscientist.com. So I can answer the questions over there. You can just post the question.
In a few days, I will answer those questions. And if you have any more specific questions about the movie, they are available in my book. Oh my God! There are a few copies of the book available.
You can take that. And our goal in writing book is not to do any dhanda. That’s why we have also made the book available free as an online digital copy.
So if you go to my website, you can download a PDF copy of that book and you can read it yourself. If you have any further questions, you are most welcome to ask that. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna.