OMG 2 – Acts of God, Karma and Destiny

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I welcome all of you to this Sunday programme. I will be speaking on the topic of Oh My God Part 2, Acts of God, Karma and Destiny. So, am I audible behind? So, last time I discussed about the various questions that are raised in that movie Oh My God, especially I discussed about the commercialisation of religion, the rationale for deity worship and the importance of rituals.
Today I will focus on the other topic which actually extends far beyond the specific movie. It is a topic that has played humanity throughout history, that is philosophically called as the problem of evil. In this particular movie, basically the tipping point, the action starts from the point where the protagonist, the hero, his house gets destroyed in an earthquake and the insurance company refuses to reimburse saying that earthquakes are acts of God, whereas we are insured only from acts of human beings.
And then he does a court case against God saying that God has destroyed, the earthquake is an act of God and God is responsible for the destruction of my shop and he should reimburse it. So, the word acts of God is often used without any clear definition of what it means. So, we will discuss this concept of acts of God and see how it correlates with karma and destiny.
So, in the tradition of the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam, acts of God is the term used to describe supernatural interventions that are attributed to the divine. Supernatural interventions, that means, say for example, the original Jews when they were trying to flee from the slavery of the Egyptian Pharaoh and they came to a sea. So, they were trapped between the sea ahead and the devil behind.
That’s how the phrases come, trapped between the sea and the devil. The Egyptian army was behind and the sea was ahead. And at that time, miraculously, the sea parted.
And they were able to go through to safety. And after that, when the persecutors tried to cross the same sea that had parted the sea, joined together and they all drowned. So, this is considered in the biblical tradition to be an act of God.
That is supernatural interventions. So, sea parting is supernatural intervention. And how did the sea part? That supernatural intervention is attributed to the divine.
So, this is called as an act of God. Now, the question that arises in the context of this particular movie is that are earthquakes the acts of God? And more importantly, does God act in the world? If he acts, how does he act? So, historically, God has been considered to be the creator and the controller. So, that is theism.
Theism means God is the creator and the controller. But as science progressed and science understood more and more about how the world works, thereafter the idea came about that the world is working according to laws. For example, the planets are moving according to the laws of gravity.
So, then where does God come into the picture if the planets are moving according to laws and not according to God’s will? The idea came, okay, the laws are made by God. So, God is definitely the creator but God is no longer considered to be the controller. The controller is the laws of nature.
So, this particular school of thought that God is the creator but not the controller is called as theism. Theism. Theism is God is the creator and the controller.
Theism is God is the creator but not the controller. And atheism is God is neither the creator nor the controller. It simply doesn’t exist.
So, now currently if we ask scientists what caused the earthquake, they will say it is because of some seismic disturbance. There is an epicentre and there is some destabilisation between the tectonic plates of the earth and that causes earthquakes. So, where does God come into the picture if earthquake is caused by the disruption of the tectonic, by the disturbance of the tectonic plates? So, here we have to understand that for actions there are multiple causations.
There is not just one cause for action. So, for example, if a person is playing billiards and there is a top camera which simply shows the billiards board. So, on the billiards board what happens is there are balls kept in various positions and then a stick comes along.
The stick hits a particular ball at a particular angle and all the other balls get scattered and maybe some ball goes into a hole. And then the points get scored. Now, if we look only at the table, what we will see is a stick is hitting a ball and the ball is hitting other balls and they are getting displaced.
Now, all this movement will be according to the laws of mechanics. So, we can mathematically deduce that this ball went into the hole because this stick hit this ball at this angle at this force, at this force. So, this analysis of the motion of the balls within a billiards board is correct.
But it is not complete. The stick hit a ball at a particular force and a particular angle because the player holding the stick is either expert or inexpert. So, the scientific view focusses only on the stick hitting the ball.
And as far as the interaction of forces is concerned, the laws of nature are obeyed. But beyond the laws of nature is the action of a conscious being, the player. So, that is why the idea that the ball going into the hole depends on the force with which the stick hits the ball and the idea that the ball going into the hole depends on the expertise of the player.
These two ideas are not contradictory, they are complementary. They are not contradictory, they are complementary. Complementary means, yes, it is explained at, that the laws of mechanics explain certain factors, but beyond that there is the expertise of the player.
So, similarly, when we talk about earthquakes, the disturbance of the seismic plates, the seismic disturbance caused by the tectonic plates, that is a factor. And ultimately God’s supreme sanction, that is also a factor. So, these two are not contradictory, they are complementary.
This is what I said that for actions there are multiple causes. So, we discussed two causes. One is the movement of the tectonic plates and the other is ultimately the will of God.
So, now if we say that, okay, the tectonic plates which caused the earthquake moved because of the will of God, then does God become responsible for the deaths that happened because of the earthquakes? No, not necessarily. So, going back to the earlier point that acts of God are defined as supernatural interventions that are attributed to the divine. So, now they are attributed to the divine, but they are not actuated by the divine.
They are actuated. Actuated means motivated or caused not by God, but by our own past karma. So, let’s understand this a little bit more.
So, that means there is one cause that is the immediate material cause, that is the specific disturbance of tectonic plates. And there is an ultimate cause that is the sanction of God. Now, there is a common saying, not a blade of grass moves without the will of God.
Actually, this is not a correct saying. The precise is not without the will of God, it is without the sanction of God. Not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of God.
So, in 13.23 in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna describes, Upadrishta, Anumanitacha, Vartabhauta Maheshwara, Paramatmetichapyukto, Behesmin Purushapara. So, he describes that in his body there is another person, another Purusha, and he is Upadrishta and Anumanitha. He is the overseer and the permitter.
He is not the biller. He is not the motivator. It’s an important point to understand.
So, he is overseer and the permitter. So, what is the difference between will and sanction? Will is what a person himself wants to do. Sanction is what a person allows.
So, whatever happens in this world, it is not necessarily the will of God. Now, if some terrorists blow up a tower where thousands of people get killed, is that the will of God? No. It is not that God wants some people to die.
It’s not that God wants some people to act cruelly. Actually, it is those people who want to act cruelly and God sanctions it. So, God is the sanctioner.
God is not the doer. So, now, it’s interesting that if somebody comes and robs our house, then, so according to the insurance company, that is the act of man. And if earthquake occurs, that is the act of God.
So, what is the essential difference? That means acts in which human beings are not involved, human beings have no control, those are attributed as acts of God. And acts in which human beings are involved, human beings have some control, they are attributed as acts of man. However, this is artificial division.
Because ultimately, we could call both as acts of God and both as acts of man. Because even when a thief steals from a particular house, the thief is able to do it because God sanctions it. So, in that sense, you could call it also, a thief stealing is also an act of God.
And earthquake occurring is also, is definitely an act of God because God is ultimately sanctioning it. But it is also an act of man. It is some bad karma that people did because of which some reaction came.
So, now, somebody may say, I don’t believe God is in control, I don’t believe there is some bad karma involved. No, this is all just, just your religious belief. Fine.
That’s what you can believe. Oh, you know, we can present Krishna consciousness based on scripture and we can present it based on logic. So, ultimately, our pramana, our source of knowledge is scripture.
But for those who do not accept scripture, we can also use logic. So, fine, if somebody doesn’t believe God is in charge and earthquakes, then how do they happen? So, first point which we discussed till now is, to blame God for earthquakes is wrong. Because, actually speaking, if anything supernatural is to be attributed to God, ultimately, God is a sanctioner.
God is not the doer. God is not the willer. So, we will come back to this point a little bit later.
But let’s start with something more basic. Somebody says, okay, I don’t believe in God. Okay.
You can have it like that. Then when earthquakes occur and some people, thousands of people sometimes, they unfortunately perish, then what’s the cause of that? Why does that happen? You know, why do some people perish, some people survive? This is a question that is difficult to understand. And when you talk about the problem of evil, it is difficult to explain things which we human beings have no control over.
That means, for example, one is earthquakes. Some people die, some people live. Another, at a more fundamental level, it is not just earthquakes that, in a sense, discriminate.
Some people live and some people die. Actually, the discrimination, if you want to say that there is discrimination, it starts right from birth. Some people are born in wealthy families.
Some people are born in poor families. Some people are born with handsome looks. Some people are born with mediocre looks.
So, if these, now these do matter in life, at least material life. But if these are different, then does ultimately God differentiate this? Does God discriminate like that? So, when we look at the world, we do see inequities. Inequities means differences that seem unjust.
So now, we basically have two options when we see these inequities. One option is that it happens by chance. The other option is it happens by plan.
So now, if we say it happens by chance, then actually the idea of chance as God. If everything happens by chance, we are making chance into God. The idea of chance being the almighty instigator of things is a doctrine of helplessness.
It is a philosophy of helplessness. Because life just becomes reduced to a cosmic lottery game. And some people win, some people lose.
If you lose, bad luck. What can you do? That’s all. So, we just live in perpetual fear thinking that maybe I lose the lottery in future and I will have to suffer.
So, the other alternative is the alternative that things are by plan. That things are happening because of the will of God. Now, this seems even more difficult to digest.
Because we can worship God if we believe him to be kind, if we believe him to be just. But, there is a God who arbitrarily discriminates. A God who decides that some people will be poor and some people will be wealthy.
A God who decides that some people will live and some people will die. And on what basis? If God decides this arbitrarily, then we are in for a very frightening future. Because, what if God decides against you? Ultimately, everything is decided by divine caprice.
Caprice means whim. Arbitrary decision making. So, if arbitrarily God is going to decide that this is going to happen to this person, that is going to happen to that person, then it becomes really difficult to worship such a God.
And that is why we will see, given these two alternatives, historically in the western intellectual tradition, there are these two alternatives. Either we believe in chance or we believe in God. So, since the heart doesn’t accept the idea that there can be a God who arbitrarily discriminates, who arbitrarily decides that this will happen to this person, that will happen to that person.
And that’s why many people have chosen atheism, gone away from belief in an arbitrary God and preferred belief in almighty chance. Although chance creates helplessness, but the idea of an arbitrary God creates a further sense of unfairness, not just by chance but by design, by intention, which seems extremely difficult to digest. So, to understand this, now there is this whole spot fixing scandal going on.
So, suppose a cricket match is going on. And when the cricket match starts, there are, the scoreboard you see, one team starts with a score of 0 and the other team starts with a score of 200. Hey, what’s going on? What’s going on here? Now, when we see such a big difference, we have two alternatives.
One is that the scoreboard is operating by chance. You know, somehow some numbers come up on the scoreboard. So, by chance one team got 0, the other team got 200.
And if it is like that, if the scoreboard is going to change by chance, then what is the point in trying to play the game? You know, whatever you do, you hit a sixer and the score will change minus six. So, if everything is happening, we don’t live our life as if things happen by chance. So, what to speak of? Even a game, there are rules.
There is definitely some aspects that are not under control. But we don’t think that everything is by chance even in the game. What to speak of in real life? So, now the other idea is that the organiser of the match is biassed.
And that’s why that organiser has put a score of 200 for one team and 0 for the other. So, now that means that is behind, it is going to suffer a lot because it is faced against a biassed organiser. So, these are the basic two ideas.
The 0 score is compared to a person born poor. The 200 score is compared to a person born wealthy. So, now why is this happening? So, one is that the scoreboard is going by chance, that means things happen by chance in life.
And the other is the scoreboard is put in place by a biassed organiser, that means God is acting by his own arbitrary will. However, there is a third possibility. The third possibility is that this is the second innings of the match.
And a particular team has scored in the previous innings and that’s why it has a lead. So, why do different people have different starting points? Because this is not our first innings in life. All of us have had many innings.
We have gone through many lifetimes before and in our past lifetimes, we have accumulated certain karmic scores. And those past karmic scores determine our present starting points. Because our karmic scores are different, that’s why our starting points are different.
So, actually speaking, only when we integrate the principle of reincarnation into our vision of life, can we make sense of the world. What does it mean to make sense of the world? What do we have to make sense of the world? We have to make sense of why there is injustice in the world while God is said to be just. Why is there evil in this world when God is supposed to be good? So, we can reconcile the apparent injustice with the justice of God, the apparent evil of the world with the goodness of God when we understand that there are multiple like that.
And people who are suffering now are suffering not because of chance or because of any arbitrary decision on the part of God. They are suffering because of their own time. So, whatever we have done that comes back to us.
Now, this principle of causality that actions produce effects, actions produce consequences is accepted by all the religions of the world. But how this principle acts, that most religions can’t explain if they don’t accept the principle of reincarnation. And unfortunately, the mainstream variations today, mainstream versions today, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, don’t accept reincarnation.
Although there are references to it, all these religions, if you look at their scriptures, they are not particularly philosophical. They are primarily talking about moral codes illustrated through certain stories. So, that’s why it is not able to explain those things properly.
And that’s why reincarnation is not explained too much. It’s just hinted at. So, our main point here is, so, why does it happen that earthquakes lead to certain people dying, certain people living? That’s because of their own past background.
So, now, we come to a three-level causation. Three-level causation, that means, why does the earthquake happen? First level causation is because of seismic disturbances. But why does seismic disturbances happen in a particular way? And why does the earthquake happen at a particular angle, with a particular intensity, that certain people die and certain people live? That is determined by the karma of people.
So, in earthquakes, some people live, some people die. That is determined by their own karma. And the third level causation is ultimately God.
So, God is not responsible for what happens because he is the sanctioner. He is not the actuator. He is not the doer, in the sense that it is not his will that people suffer.
So, therefore, when we understand this triple level causation, so, earlier I said that God’s will and nature’s actions, these two are not contradictory, they are complementary. You know, basically, in the universe, whether we talk about science or we talk about scripture, there are basically three principles of existence. There is matter, consciousness and the absolute truth.
Now, matter is what the, so this is science and Sanskrit is called as Jagat, Jeev and Jagdish. Jagat is matter, Jeev is consciousness and Jagdish is the supreme absolute truth. So, science also understands that there is matter, there is consciousness and science does not exactly use the word absolute truth to refer to God, but it understands that there is some ultimate principle.
They may say it is a quantum mechanical vacuum, whatever they call it. They may call it differently, but they have an understanding that some kind of absolute truth is there. So, now, you see from this religious point of view, so matter acts, for example, earthquake happens.
So, the earthquake is caused by certain material forces. That is the first level causation. So, these three principles of existence, matter, consciousness and absolute truth, all three are involved when something happens.
So, at a first level, there is matter that acts in a particular way. So, if a person becomes sick with malaria, the first level causation is matter. That means that, okay, there are certain infections in the body, which is attributed to a material cause, that is malaria mosquito biting and malaria infection coming.
This is a material cause. So, science goes only to this level causation. Now, science knows that, okay, malaria biting causes a particular person to get infection.
But now, if you look at the study of science, it is difficult to say in a house, why a particular person gets bitten and particular person gets infected, others do not. You know, sometimes I say that there is low immunity. But then, there are people with relatively good health and they also suffer from this.
You know, especially, this we can see with respect to diseases for which aetiology is unknown. Aetiology means causes are unknown or unpredictable. For example, why heart attacks happen to someone else? Why cancers happen? Now, we know a material mechanism by which it happens.
So, you know, science answers the question how? But science does not answer the question why? There is a difference between how and why. How means, okay, when we say earthquakes happen because of the disturbance of tectonic plates, that is a mechanism. That is not causation.
Mechanism is the way things happen. So, now, a particular person gets malaria. How malaria comes, that is explained through the scientific process that, okay, mosquito bites and that is how malaria comes.
But the question is, we should not mix up these two questions. How and why are not the same questions? How is a scientific question? Why is a philosophical question? And science and philosophy are not the same thing. Science and philosophy are different.
Why? So, why a particular person gets malaria is not answered by the mechanism. Mechanism, okay, mosquito bit and this person got malaria. So, mechanism is important.
But that does not determine why a particular person gets malaria. So, for that, we have to go to the second and third level causation. Second level causation is, the first level causation is matter.
Second level causation is consciousness, that is the soul. The soul has done particular karma and as a reaction to that karma, the mosquito bites. Now, the mosquito is not thinking, oh, this person has done bad karma, I have to go and bite him.
No. Actually, there, for that, understanding that you have to go to third level causation. The super soul is present in the heart of even the mosquito.
And the super soul does the mosquito, go and bite this person. So, this is how things happen in the material world. So, all three causes are there involved and all three causes play a role.
So, when we understand this triple level causation, so we can’t, God is responsive, we are responsible. God is responsive, we are responsible. Responsive means God responds to the way we act.
But it is we who initiate. So, we are responsible. So, we do certain kind of karma and we get certain kind of reactions to that.
So, ultimately God is involved, but he is not responsible, he is simply responsive. He is responsive to the way we make choices. It is we who are responsible.
So, now, when we look at earthquakes, what is their cause? It is caused by seismic plate, seismic disturbances. It is caused by bad karma. It is ultimately, we could say, caused by the will of God.
All three are involved in the triple level causation. So, now, this is the understanding of acts of God. So, what we call as acts of God are actually acts which are executed through nature because of the past acts of man under the sanction of God.
So, all three are involved. They are executed through nature because of the past actions of man under the will of God. So, we can’t blame God for anything.
Now, how does karma and destiny play a role in this? Now, to move forward to this, before we move forward to this, it is very important to understand that the problem of evil has two aspects. One is the rational aspect and the other is the emotional aspect. The rational aspect is understanding philosophically what has caused this.
But emotional aspect is being able to act in the proper, sensitive and humane way. Now, if we mix the two, if we mix the rational and the emotional aspect, then we can come off as monstrously insensitive. I’ll explain this.
You know, recently, maybe a few months, six months ago or something, there was this terrible Ghazi rape, gang rape in Delhi. It created a big furor in the media. So, I wrote an article about that explaining how the provocation that is there through the media is inciting people.
That’s one of the causes. So, I was asked a question. I answer questions on my website.
So, I was asked a question. You know, what was the karma of the woman who got raped? So, the first point I mentioned is that the principle of karma is not meant for post-mortem. It is meant for prognosis.
It is not meant for post-mortem means. After things have happened, we can’t find out what is the cause. If we look at scripture, when Draupadi is dishonoured, nobody asks what was the karma of Draupadi.
You know, when Sita is abducted, nobody asks what was the karma of Sita because of which she got abducted. See, when all our philosophy should increase our humanity, not decrease our humanity, if a person is suffering and we start thinking what karma the person has done, we will become terribly insensitive. We are supposed to deal with people based on not what their karma is but based on what our duty is.
Not based on what their karma is. You know, if a patient is sick, if the doctor starts thinking the sickness is because of patient’s bad karma only, then how will the doctor do the duty? And if you start thinking of bad karma, there is no limit to this. You know, an infant is crying and a mother is crying because of her bad karma.
How will life go on? It will become a terrible thing. So, actually speaking, when a person is suffering, at that time, we are not meant to think what that person’s karma is. We are supposed to answer what our duty is.
What is my duty? How should I act in an appropriate way? So, if a woman is violated like that, you know, actually the duty of society is to help that victim and then to create a system by which that sort of victimisation won’t happen again. In the fourth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, when all the citizens come to Buddha Maharaj saying that we are starving, you know, the digestive fire is burning us from within like the trees getting burned in a forest fire. So, Buddha Maharaj doesn’t say, is this your karma happening? No.
What does he do? He makes arrangements, proactively, aggressively he makes arrangements for providing for the citizens. Why? Because that’s the duty. So, therefore, from the emotional point of view, if a person is suffering, we shouldn’t think that, suppose a person is sick and we start thinking, what karma did he do that he is suffering like this? How will we think? At that time we should be thinking, what can I do to help? You know, if we don’t understand the appropriate application of philosophy, then we will sentence to a jail a person who needs to go to the hospital.
What does that mean if a person is sick? You know, that sick person should be taken to the hospital, not to the jail. A person is suffering now, if we tell them that person, it’s because of your own bad karma, I don’t know what all bad karma that you are going to suffer now. You know, we are sentencing that person further.
So, the principle of, the emotional and the rational aspect have to be very carefully understood. So, the emotional side is, if we just use the philosophy of karma to beat down things around the throat of people, we will come out as very insensitive. So, from the emotional point of view, when people are suffering, what we should see is, what is our duty? How can we help people? And there are different ways in which different people can be helped.
And there is the whole system of Varanashram by which there are systems created for helping. But from the emotional point of view, we, if at all we are meant to judge, we should judge people simply based on this life, not on previous life. If at all we are supposed to judge anyone, that means we are supposed to judge based on this life, not previous life.
So, what does it mean, judge based on this life? If a student gets poor marks in the exam, then if the student has studied well, then we shouldn’t think anything. Because of your karma, you got bad marks. Then we have to recheck and check whether the examiner has checked properly or not.
And then examiner may not check and rechecking the marks may improve. So, what we have to do is, when we in our normal interactions with people, generally we should not judge. But if at all there is judging, we have to judge people based on this life actually.
So, in the case of that terrible crime that happened in Delhi, if at all there is any judgement, the judgement is against the criminals. The judgement is against the legal system, the police system that doesn’t provide adequate security. We can’t blame the victim over there.
So, now philosophically it is true that if a person suffers, whatever suffering comes to us is because of our own past matter. But when we are discussing with others and a person is suffering, karma is not what we are supposed to stuff down their throats. Actually, philosophically a person enquiring can give that answer.
But more important is to show inner sensitivity, to offer help, to show warmth and care. And then after that the philosophy can be presented appropriately. We see that this whole concept of karma and destiny is never misapplied in scripture.
In the 10th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, when Vasudev is doing last ditch emergency efforts to save his wife Devaki from being slaughtered by Kamsa, he tells Kamsa, ultimately destiny is supreme. And if it is destined that you will die, then you will not be able to avoid destiny. Why do further bad karma by which you will have to suffer further? And you will not be able to avoid destiny also.
Now, interestingly, when Vasudev is arguing like this, Vasudev doesn’t turn around and think, if it is the destiny of Devaki to die, she will die anyway. Why am I trying to stop? So, why does he do that? Because the focus is not on destiny, the focus is duty. Vasudev is the husband, it is the husband’s duty to protect his wife.
So, on the other hand, Kamsa, why is he being told about destiny? Because it is his duty also to protect his sister. Now, he is giving up duty in the hope of avoiding some trouble, in the hope of doing something expeditious by killing Devaki so that her 8th child will never be born. So, here he is reminded of destiny.
So, the reminder of destiny is given so that a person will not abandon his or her duty. So, the focus, the Vedic culture is duty centric, not destiny centric. Focus is what? Duty centric, not destiny centric.
That means, all of us, we have to focus on doing our duty. And despite our duty, if sometimes things go wrong, then we understand it is the well of destiny. So, we should not give up our duty in the name of destiny.
So, for example, you know, if, like, there were some, in America, when Srila Prabhupada was there on a planet as president, some devotees, they were going on a puja and it went very rashly. And they met with an accident. And several of them unfortunately passed away in that accident.
When Srila Prabhupada got the news, the devotees said, no, Prabhupada, it was Krishna’s arrangement. Prabhupada said, not Krishna’s arrangement, it was their carelessness. It was their carelessness.
What does it mean it was their carelessness? If they had driven carefully, then who knows what would have happened. It may not have happened also. So, what is important over here is, now if somebody dies in an accident and say the accident is caused by the carelessness of a driver and all the other people die.
Now, we should not go into paranoia thinking, was it the destiny of everyone to die? And was it because of destiny that that person, that driver was inattentive? No. Here we have to see, focus on what the driver did wrong. So, now when I am talking about, earlier we talked about this triple level causation.
Remember what triple level causation is? There is a material cause, there is a past karma cause and there is the ultimate will of God. So, now this cause, the first level cause is changeable to some extent. What do you mean by first level cause is changeable? Say, if now, if an accident happens and people die, the first level cause is the two vehicles colliding.
And okay, then you could say that is the karma of the people to die, ultimately this will of God is there. But the first level cause that is there, the first level cause is in our hands. So, if we are responsible, then we can take care and avoid things.
Sometimes some people ask, ultimately if our sickness is destined, then why should we take medicines? If it is our destiny to become sick, then we will become sick. If it is our destiny to become healthy, we will become healthy. Actually, we should not think of destiny as an absolute fixed quantity.
It is fixed in one sense in terms of how much we have to suffer and how much good we have to get. But the form is highly flexible. The form is changeable and the destiny also changes, especially the way the destiny will come upon us, will change depending on how we act.
So, for example, if I overeat and then I get a stomach upset, was it my destiny that I got a stomach upset? Well, as I said, when I said that when we are looking at causes, at first level, we should look at this worldly causes. So, for example, if somebody, as I said that if somebody is victimised by a crime, then first level is, what went wrong? Was that person careless? Was the legal system not proper? If the police did not work, what happened? Similarly, just as we applied social context, we have to apply to individual context also. So, if my stomach is upset, I look back at the first level, did I eat improperly? That’s why my stomach got upset.
So, now, we can’t say that it was my destiny to get a stomach upset. That’s why by the will of destiny, I was impelled to overeat. That will be perversion.
This was what Vidurastra did in the Mahabharata. Vidurastra was always passively and sometimes actively supporting Duryodhana’s evil schemes. And Vidura again and again and again tried to warn him, if you continue this course of action, of allowing and abetting, Duryodhana, then it will cause the destruction of the whole Guru dynasty.
So, at that time, Vidurastra said, if it is the will of almighty destiny that our dynasty will destroy, then who am I, a tiny mortal, to stop the will of almighty destiny? So, this is pseudo humility. This is simply irresponsibility masking as humility. It is what? Irresponsibility masking as humility.
So, Vidura cut through it and Vidura said, okay, destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves. Destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves. That means, if I overeat, whether I will get a stomach upset or not, that is determined by destiny.
But whether I overeat or not, that is not determined by destiny. So, if, whether you should stop Duryodhana or not, that is in your hands, that is not determined by destiny. So, the idea of destiny shouldn’t be used as an argument for irresponsibility, as a support for irresponsibility.
So, some students, you know, they have their exams coming up. And before the exams, somehow, very large students fall in love with Nila Amrit or Ramayana or Mahabharata, just before the exams. Because, you know, exams involve lot of hard work, studies, and then the mind starts saying, study is all maya only, ultimately.
It is all temporary. And I have to go back to Krishna. So, suddenly, you start reading Nila Amrit, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and then, and what happens is, when the exams come, then the brain goes into a blank.
Because nothing was there only, it will go into blank only. And then you get bad marks, and you say, it’s because of destiny. It’s not because of destiny, it’s because of irresponsibility.
And somebody says, you know, that time only I felt inspired to read Nila Amrit. So, I felt it is the will of God that I should read Nila Amrit. I felt as if destiny was inspiring me to read Nila Amrit.
That’s not destiny. Actually, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, 18th chapter, that when we renounce duty because of kāyakleśa-bhāyārtha-jīt, because it is troublesome, then that is renunciation in the mode of passion and ignorance. These are lower modes.
So, this especially happens, this idea of destiny. See, whenever we want to do some actions, at that time, especially those actions are involving a lot of consequences, then we want some supernatural signs. We want some support.
Should I do this or should I not do that? So, then, at such times, actually, when certain things happen, we often interpret them as signals. Maybe this is the will of God. And that’s why I should do this.
So, now God can signal to us in various ways. We can’t stop Him from that. Nobody can stop Him.
But, you know, for us, that shouldn’t become a substitute for our own rational thinking and responsible choosing. So, this especially, this idea of destiny comes up often with respect to love marriages. When a boy and a girl, they somehow become attracted to each other.
So, the romantic novels always show this, you know, they meet in some special circumstances and there is a storm going on and at that time itself both of them are stranded together or both of them are on a lift and suddenly the electricity goes off. And they think, oh, it was the will of destiny, the electricity went off at that time and that’s how we met. So, you know, these sort of things, somehow they happen and the two people meet each other, two people fall in love and they think that the way everything happened, it was all so extraordinary, so miraculous, otherwise it would never have happened.
So, because so many extraordinary situations happened, therefore, it must be the will of God. And therefore, we should get married. So, now, actually speaking, we cannot simply attribute to, attribute as actions of God, the actions whose causes we don’t know.
You know, okay, how the electricity went off at a particular time and the two of them were there in the lift, you know, do you think that, is it, I mean, is it necessary that it was the will of God? And we can’t attribute it like that. Now, it may be that two people can meet in miraculous ways and maybe they become, they may become a compatible couple, but there is no guarantee for that. So, actually speaking, this sort of situations, we cannot use them as a substitute for our own responsible thinking and choosing.
So, if certain things happen in particular ways and we take that as science, that God has done this. See, this whole idea that trying to understand God’s hand, you know, we have to be very careful about it. Sometimes somebody would say, we are going to office and the car breaks down and then you go further and first you go to office, there is heavy traffic and then you go further and you find that the car breaks down and then you take a taxi and the taxi gets, taxi gets a puncture and everything seems to be going wrong.
And then you think, why did this happen? Because I didn’t chant in the morning attentively. Now, is it true that because I didn’t chant in the morning attentively, that’s why Krishna did all these things to me? You know, we really can’t attribute things like this to God. What we can safely say is, because I didn’t chant attentively, so my mind was not stable, my mind was peaceful and that’s why I made some reckless decisions.
But what happens to us if we go into that zone, that you know, everything that goes wrong, somehow God is acting, God is punishing me or God is doing something. We will live a very paranoid life. And the whole point is, it’s all very speculative.
What is the action of God in a particular situation, that is very speculative. For example, you know, this happens when we are preachers, that suppose in a class we are asked a question and we have never heard the question. And the question comes up and suddenly some answer also comes.
And then you say, you know, this is Krishna speaking. Well, it may be, but it may not be also. The test is not whether when the question came, suddenly the answer came.
The question, the point, the mood point is whether the answer is overall in agreement with Guru’s Adhusha. So it could be that, okay, Krishna only inspired the person to ask the question and Krishna only inspired the preacher to give answer. That’s possible.
We can’t deny it. But just the two happening automatically doesn’t in and of itself guarantee that the answer is what Krishna gave. You know, maybe the preacher just doesn’t want to appear ignorant.
So, at a subconscious level the brain went into a hyper processing mode and came up with some answer. Who knows? So, the test for deciding whether something is an action of God is ultimately whether it is according to Guru’s Adhusha. So, it is possible that when we are preaching, we may get an answer.
But then we should check with Guru’s Adhusha as to whether the answer is right or not. Only when we check out with Guru’s Adhusha and find that it is right, then we can say that it is by the arrangement of Krishna. That it is Krishna who, in order to share his message, gave me this answer.
Similarly, with respect to all these things. And again, if I get an answer like this, this should not become a substitute. When I am preaching, if any questions on Krishna, I will give the answers.
Therefore, no need for me to study. No need for me to prepare. Spontaneous bhakti will do.
Spontaneous bhakti is okay, but spontaneous preaching is not okay. We have to prepare. Even the spontaneous classes, actually they come only after there is years and years of study and assimilation and realisation.
We can’t again resort of Krishna speaking something during preaching. That is not a substitute for study. We have a public speaking course conducted by devotees.
Where the guideline is, depend on Krishna, that is the last guideline, after you have prepared. We can’t depend on Krishna as a substitute for preparing. So, the idea is that what is in our hands, we must do.
And only then, what is not in our hands, we can attribute to God. So, with respect to marriage, it may be possible that some people meet in special ways and they get married. But what is in our hand is to check with our intelligence, with the guidance of seniors, whether it’s a compatible match, whether it’s likely to last, what about the cultural, social, spiritual compatibilities, and all that, and then decide.
Now, when we responsibly choose our actions, then can we expect right results? If we are not responsibly choosing our actions, and then those actions produce consequences, then am I responsible or is destiny responsible? I am responsible, I can’t blame destiny for that. For example now, if I know that I have got diabetes, and I can’t eat sweets, but then during prasad, prasad sweets are served. Prasad is transcendental.
It is by Krishna’s will that this prasad came in my plate. Therefore, it is Krishna’s will that I should eat these sweets. And then my diabetes worsens.
Is that diabetes worsening Krishna’s will? No, it is not Krishna’s will, it’s my wilfulness. Wilfulness means obstinacy. It’s my wilfulness.
So, the idea of destiny should never be used to justify our own irresponsibility. We are responsible for choosing our actions in this life. And we need to use our own intelligence and the guidance of others to make responsible choices.
And after we make responsible choices, if still things work out wrong, then that is ultimately by the will of destiny. That means those things are supposed to happen in a particular way and that’s how they happen. So, the whole principle of destiny is meant not as a substitute for duty, but as a supplement to duty.
The whole principle of destiny is not meant as a substitute for duty. It is a supplement to duty. What do I mean by supplement? I will conclude with this, summarise this and we will have question answers.
So, the difference between substitute and supplement is something we can understand with the example of farming. When a person does farming, first there is the ploughing of the land and the sowing of the seeds that has to be done. That is the karma from this life.
Then the rains have to come in a timely and adequate quantity. So, karma is the farmer’s sowing and ploughing. Daiva, destiny is the rains coming.
And when there is karma and daiva, then there is fruit. There is the fruit, that is the rains will come. Properly.
So, now daiva will definitely play a role because the rains are not in our country. But daiva is not a substitute for karma. The farmer does not plough the land and then says, oh I did not get crops because of destiny.
No, it is not because of destiny, it is because of the responsibility. Farmer did not do. So, karma, so the concept of daiva is not a substitute for karma, it is a supplement to karma.
Supplement, it is something additional. Or more precisely, actually it is not supplement, it is a complement. Supplement is something additional.
Complement means that which completes. So, karma and daiva, when both come together, then there is phala. So, now if I act in a way that is not well thought out, then what is happening is I am not doing my karma properly and naturally the phala will not come out properly.
So, when that happens, then who is responsible? It is not destiny is responsible. So, I will conclude with three examples now to illustrate this point. See, some people say that actually smoking does not cause lung cancer.
Actually, this was the idea. For many years, almost 20, 30, 40 years, from 1910 to around 1940, 1950, although there was a good amount of evidence that smoking causes severe health problems, that data was suppressed. And when data was suppressed, so many people suffered because of that.
But eventually the idea came out that it does happen, that people suffer. And then there are exceptions. Why are there exceptions? Because there are other factors involved.
What are the other factors? Some persons, by their own past bad karma, are meant to have a sickly body. And because they have a sickly body, then even without smoking they may get lung cancer. And some other people, because they have done a lot of good karma in the past, they are meant to have a healthy body in this world, no matter what they do.
Now, we see this difference, not by the smoking side, with respect to eating. Now, some people, when they eat, if there is a little bit more spice, a little bit more oil, then immediately their whole digestive system gets upset. But there are other people, you know, whose digestive system seems to be like a conveyor belt in a factory.
Whatever you put in, it just goes in, nothing happens, it just gets consumed. And they are able to digest anything. So, why this difference? Different people have different digestive power.
And that is by karma. So, some people are meant to be sickly, and then even if they don’t smoke, they get lung cancer. Other people are meant to be healthy.
So, even if they smoke in response, they smoke, they may not get lung cancer in this life. But smoking is bad karma. And bad karma is going to produce disease.
Bad karma is going to produce disease, sometime or other. So, the exceptions are there. And exceptions don’t disprove the rule.
The exceptions only point out that there are other factors involved. So, the rule is still operational. But you see, when we look at rules, rules generally we study in isolation.
This action leads to this consequence, this action leads to this consequence. But in reality, things don’t happen in isolation. In reality, things always happen in combination.
So, that’s why the reality becomes much more complex. Which action caused which reaction, that becomes very difficult to understand. And that’s why as I said, the whole principle of karma is not for post-mortem.
It is for prognosis. What does it mean isolation and combination? That things in reality happen in combination. We see that, I’ll take another example and then I’ll come back to the point of karma.
Generally, we say anybody practises bhakti, that person will always get a human life in future. But then we see, Bharat Maharaj, he practised bhakti to a very advanced level, but still he lost his human body and he got a deer’s body. So, what happened? There is a rule that one who practises bhakti… So, in 2.14 Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that, even little bhakti saves one from a lot of danger and Prabhupada explains this danger means, greatest danger is losing human form.
So, how did Bharat Maharaj lose the human form? Now, this is a principle, it is a rule, it is true. But in reality, things don’t happen in isolation. They happen in combination.
There is another factor involved. The other factor was… yam yam va bismarad bhavam tijit gante kalevaram tam tam evaiti kaunteya sadadad bhava bhavitaam Whatever we remember at the time of death, that’s what we attain. This is a law of last thought.
Whatever is our last thought becomes our next word. So, now in reality, in the case of Bharat Maharaj departing from the world, both these factors happen in combination. So, then when two laws are acting in combination, then some arrangement has to be made which adjusts both, reconciles both.
So, in the case of Bharat Maharaj, what happened is, as per the law of yam yam va bismarad bhavam, he got a dear body. But as per the law of neha vikramanashosti bhaktivayanavidyame, he did not lose his spiritual consciousness. So, he got a dear body, but he did not get dear consciousness.
He got a dear body, but his consciousness was, was not just human consciousness, but it was a consciousness of a spiritually inclined, spiritually evolved human being. So, in this way, both these principles were harmonised, reconciled. So, in reality, reality does not involve rules acting in isolation.
They involve rules acting in combination. And that’s why which rule caused which result to happen, it becomes very difficult to understand. That’s why in general we don’t go into that zone.
Like a particular thing happened to me, why did that happen from a past life person? It’s impossible to find out. So, with respect to our actions, so what I was saying is, that if a smoker is smoking, but if a person, that person is not getting any bad consequences, what does it mean? Okay, there is this life’s karma, person acts wrongly, there are consequences of that. But there is also the past life’s karma, that a person has done good karmas, the person is supposed to have good health.
So, then when both of these have to interact, then it may happen that the person may have good health in this lifetime. And in a future lifetime or in some other way, the reaction to this particular misdeed will also come. So, that’s why the exceptions, what do they indicate? The exceptions don’t disprove the rule.
The exceptions simply demonstrate that multiple rules are acting in combination. And that’s why we can’t specifically understand how the rule is producing the result. So, as devotees, what do we do in our practise of spiritual life? We have this, what does Krishna consciousness do actually? So, there is this triple causation is there.
There is a material cause, there is the cause in terms of the misuse of free will and there is a cause in terms of Krishna’s nature. So, what does devotional, how does devotional service actually help us? It helps us at four levels. First is that it gives us knowledge of the law of karma by which we will not do wrong things.
So, most people do wrong things because they don’t even know that it is wrong. Especially, for example, in countries where meat eating is a part of the culture, you know, small children, often their mothers feed them liquefied beef because the idea is it contains proteins. So, that same thing is available through milk but milk liquefied.
So, unfortunately what happens is people don’t know it’s wrong. So, first is that we get a higher knowledge that enables us to understand this is right, this is wrong. Then after that, we get second level Krishna consciousness help of this and it gives us a higher taste.
Sometimes we know certain things are wrong but we are unable to view them. But Krishna consciousness gives us a higher taste by which we are able to say no to those things. Because although there is some pleasure over there, when we get a higher pleasure, then we can say no to those things.
So, by Krishna consciousness, you know, first we understand. When this sort of thing comes in front of me, this sort of condition comes, I should show a red flag over here. This is a danger.
If you don’t have the philosophical knowledge, then instead of the red flag, we should roll out the red carpet. What happens is, whatever we should keep away from, we welcome it into our life. So, first we get a higher knowledge by which we understand where I should show the red flag and where I should show the red carpet.
We get that knowledge. And then after that, we get the inner strength, the higher taste by which we can act according to our intelligence. Reject the undesirable things.
So, these two are with respect to our this life choices. These two are with respect to our this life choices. So, Krishna consciousness enables us to make responsible choices in this life.
And that also checks our suffering. Now beyond that, what about previous life, whatever we have done in destiny? Krishna consciousness helps us there in two ways. One is that by Krishna’s will, by Krishna’s mercy, our karmic reactions get minimised.
So, this is logical because just as if the purpose of karma, the purpose of the whole system of karma is not punishment, it is reformation. So, neither Krishna nor Maya are interested in punishing you. Their interest is primarily in reforming you.
And sometimes punishment is required for reformation. So, if a person is ready to reform, that means, if a person starts practising devotional service, then the punishment doesn’t have to be given. Just like a criminal may be sentenced to 20 years in jail, but if the criminal starts behaving responsibly in jail, then the criminal may just be sentenced to 15 years or 10 years also.
Or even lesser sometimes. So, like that, our karmic reactions get minimised. And among these four, the first and second we can perceive.
We can perceive that, OK, I am checked. I get knowledge by which I don’t do wrong thing. I get taste by which I don’t feel dragged towards doing wrong things.
Now, third is something which we can’t perceive. Now, why can’t we perceive that our karma is just getting a sample reaction only? Minimise, minimise. Because we don’t know how much our karma was first.
Isn’t it? So, we don’t know what we are getting. Is it a sample or is it how much it is? So, what we understand is that Krishna is benevolent to you. And if Krishna, sometimes what happens is, our life so much suffering comes along, we may say, OK, I may have done some bad karma.
So much bad karma? I don’t think I did so much bad karma. Why am I suffering so much? But actually, there is half trusting Krishna and fully trusting Krishna. Now, what do you mean half trusting Krishna? Sometimes what happens is, Krishna is all wise and he is all strong.
So, we sometimes feel that things should work out in a particular way. For example, I have got a particular disease. Or I want good marks in my exam.
And I believe that Krishna is all strong. Krishna I want, he can give me the good marks. Therefore, I pray to Krishna.
So, I have some faith in Krishna. But I have faith in Krishna’s strength. But this is only half faith in Krishna.
Because what is the idea? Krishna, you know, I have intelligence for what I want. And use your strength to fulfil my plan according to my intelligence. But actually, Krishna not only has greater strength than us, he also has greater intelligence than us.
So, when we trust Krishna, not just his strength that he can do what is good for us, but we also trust his intelligence that he knows what is good for us. So, surely if we feel something is good for me, let us do it. We can pray to Krishna.
Krishna, please let things work out in this way. But then we have to have trust in Krishna. Krishna knows what is best for us.
So, we should have trust in Krishna’s strength and his intelligence. And his intelligence. That way, we may sometimes feel that this particular situation is causing a lot of suffering for me.
The suffering may be there. But who knows? That suffering may give some very great realisation. You know, the real problem comes in life not because of suffering.
But it comes because suffering seems meaningless. Now, when there is, when the suffering seems meaningless, if the suffering has meaning, people will voluntarily take up suffering. For example, you know, if a person is starving because the person doesn’t have food, the person will feel miserable.
But then if a person does to do some sort of agitation for a virtuous cause and the person fasts, what is happening? The person is voluntarily choosing the suffering. So, in both case, there is suffering of not having any food to eat. But in the first case, it seems meaningless.
Oh, I am starving. I don’t have food. There are so many people who are eating.
Why am I suffering like this? In the second case, suffering is meaningful. You understand this? I am fasting for a particular cause. So, you know, normally, if a person gets wounded, person will feel miserable.
But if a soldier goes on the battlefield and is wounded on the battlefield, soldier thinks, yes, I sacrificed for my nation. So, suffering on the battlefield is also suffering. But it is meaningful suffering.
So, what we, generally we are always afraid of suffering. And naturally we are happiness seeking creatures. So, we don’t want suffering.
That’s fine. But when the suffering comes, if we are just so much filled with resentment about the suffering, then we can’t probe into the meaning of the suffering. So, actually when suffering comes in a devotee’s life, there is great meaning in that.
Through that, we don’t know, but through that suffering, Krishna will bring about great realisations. Krishna will bring about great wisdom and great good for the world. If you look at Srila Prabhupada’s life, there is so much suffering.
Right from the fact that his businesses, very often his business collapsed. You know, there was his family members didn’t help. He was knocked down by a cow.
There was a conspiracy against him in Jaipur. Then he got a heart attack on that train, on the bus, on the ship. Then David came and attacked him.
Somebody stole away his typewriter. Now, actually speaking, if you look at Srila Prabhupada, he is a pure devotee. He doesn’t have any bad karmas.
So, you know, what do we attribute his suffering to? But what happened? Through all that suffering, something miraculous came in. Krishna consciousness not only spread, but Krishna consciousness spread in such a miraculous way, that a person at the age of 70 will travel all over the world and make so many temples. It’s a fact that is unparalleled in world history.
So, we don’t know what Krishna has in store for us. So, what we have to do is, when a devotee undergoes suffering, we have to understand that these are the labour pains of devotion. You know, normally if a person, a woman gets spayed, that will be miserable.
But when a woman is pregnant and she gets spayed, the pain is there. But there is also the higher awareness. Through this pain, you know, life is going to change.
My child is going to change. And the mother, she, pain is there, but the mother tolerates the pain with the anticipation that the child will come. Similarly, for a devotee, whatever pains are coming, they are the labour pains of devotion.
That means, sufferings are there, but through that great wisdom and ultimately pure devotion will manifest. So, Krishna, when the sufferings come to us, the sufferings are coming, they are minimised by Krishna. So, we may feel, oh, there is so much suffering.
Did I do so much bad karma? Actually speaking, we don’t know what all we did in our previous life. But what we can trust is, trust Krishna’s intelligence. And we understand that when we surrender to Krishna, Krishna will always want our good and do our good.
So, whatever is happening to us, suffering that are coming to us, they are simply the labour pains of devotion. So, rather than trying to run away from those sufferings, trying to think that giving up devotional service because of the labour pains of devotion is like doing abortion because of the labour pains in pregnancy. So, when we tolerate, then Krishna prema will manifest.
And at the fourth, final level, so, third level is Krishna minimises the suffering. Fourth level is related with what I described is, actually, whenever, whatever suffering comes, Krishna helps the devotee to translate that suffering. How? By giving his remembrance.
Krishna gives his remembrance to the devotee and by that remembrance the devotee transcends the suffering. So, what does it mean by remembrance we transcend the suffering? Actually, the suffering is there. But in general, how much we suffer during the suffering is determined by our attitude.
That means, if somebody insults me, then definitely they are going to cause me pain. But if I keep thinking about that, why did that person do that? Why did that person do that? Why did that person speak that? How dare he speak that? I will show that person. And then what happens is, all that processing makes our brain like an overcooked rotten vegetable.
You know, we just spoil our consciousness like that. So, like that, overcooked rotten vegetable because the first thoughts are rotten. Thoughts of taking revenge against somebody, that is a rotten thought.
And then we just let our mind go on and on, like there is a rotten vegetable and cooking a rotten vegetable itself we are using. But overcooking a rotten vegetable is useless. So, first of all the thoughts of revenge are itself useless.
And then we keep thinking, thinking, thinking about it, means it is overcooking a rotten vegetable. It doesn’t lead to anything useful. So, often the suffering is, the problem is there.
But how much we suffer because of that depends on our attitude. If we keep thinking about it, thinking about it, that problem will consume us. So, unfortunately, problems tend to have some inbuilt mental glue.
Now, mental glue means what? Whenever there is a problem, the problem just fixes itself to our mind. And our mind doesn’t go anywhere. Sometimes you would be chanting Hare Krishna, shaking their head.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Shaking the head vigorously, but the mind is not shaking at all. The mind is just fixed in one particular thought.
So, there is a mental glue which fixes the mind to problems. So, that is something which, because of which we maximise ourselves. Okay, some problem has come up, if I can solve it well and good, if I can’t just get out of the way and move on with life.
If somebody has insulted me, if I can clarify the situation, if I can make that person see sense well and good, if I can’t, just give that person room and go your way, let that person go his or her way. So, if we keep dwelling on it, we create problems. So, when we say Krishna consciousness is to always think of Krishna, what happens is, by thinking of Krishna, our mind gets an alternative to thinking about the problems of the world.
So, always thinking of Krishna, it actually removes this mental glue of the problems. So, as devotees, if we keep thinking of our problems, then we will not really tap the power of Krishna consciousness. As devotees, we all have problems, but we shouldn’t become problem conscious.
We should stay Krishna conscious. Don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is.
Don’t tell God how big your problems are. Krishna is practising bhakti, why this problem, this problem, this problem, this problem? Don’t tell God how big your problems are. That was the difference between Prahlad Maharaj and Indira.
Indira told Narasimha Dev, after Hiranyakashi was killed, thank you for killing him, because as long as he is alive, he was dominating our minds and that’s why we could not practise bhakti. Now that you have killed him, now we will practise bhakti. But Prahlad, what is he, even if Hiranyakashi was there, still, he was practising bhakti, he was telling Hiranyakashi, you should also practise bhakti.
So, what was he doing? So, what is he, don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is. So, Prahlad was telling Hiranyakashi, he does worship Lord Vishnu.
So, rather than being problem conscious, we try to be Krishna conscious. That doesn’t mean we run away from the problem. But we don’t unnecessarily dwell on the problem.
Okay, there is a problem, whatever I can do to deal with it, I will do it. But apart from that, I will not let my mind meditate on the problem. Instead, I will meditate on Krishna.
And meditation on Krishna saves us from a lot of unnecessary anxiety. And it gives us inner strength, it gives us higher happiness. So, for example, when people are sick, you know, when people fall sick, one of the biggest sufferings is because when you are sick, there is nothing to do.
You are just lying down and only thing you can think of is feel sorry for one thing. But if we can think of Krishna, we can read about Krishna, hear about Krishna, if possible speak about Krishna with others. And then by that, we can take our mind off the world, take our mind off the sickness.
And that way, the problem’s trouble decreases much more. The problem is there. But the problem’s trouble, the trouble caused by the problem depends on how much you think about the problem.
You don’t think too much about the problem, the problem won’t trouble you so much. That’s how, when we practise Krishna consciousness, why do we need to practise Krishna consciousness? Because when problems come, it is not easy to think of Krishna. It’s only when we have practised thinking of Krishna, then when problems come, we will be able to think about Krishna.
That’s why Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, what is the purpose of sadhana bhakti? Abhyasya yogena tattva mam incaptum dhananjaya. By the practise of sadhana bhakti, increase your attraction to Krishna. So, when our health is good, when we have the opportunity to practise your own service, at that time we practise fixing the mind on Krishna.
And then when trouble comes, we will be able to see beyond the trouble to Krishna. And then get the shelter of Krishna and go beyond those problems. So, if I am on the ground in front of a skyscraper, then the skyscraper appears very big.
But if I am flying in an aeroplane, at the same place, the skyscraper is there, but it seems small. So, when we are alone, for us the problem seems like a big skyscraper and we feel insignificant. But when we are with Krishna, Krishna consciousness raises us up.
Life is there. Problems will come, problems will go. I deal with them the best way I can.
There is no need to get overpowered by them. Krishna consciousness lifts us up. So, with Krishna, we flourish.
Without Krishna, we perish. So, that’s how our bhakti goes on. And by the practise of Krishna consciousness, we can tolerate nightly transitions in the audience.
So, I will summarise what we discussed. The topic of this was acts of God. So, I discussed about in the acts of God, three levels of causation.
You know that. That is first, the material cause of, say earthquakes are caused by seismic disturbances. Then there is the intermediate cause.
That is the bad karma of people. And lastly it is God’s will. That is the, so God is the sanctioner.
Then we discussed about how this is the understanding which makes full sense. Otherwise, if we say that everything is happening by chance, it’s a doctrine of meaningless. If everything is happening just by the will of God, then that makes God arbitrary and becomes, makes devotion to God difficult.
But when we understand that there are, that we have done karma, not just in this, but in previous lives also. So, like a match which shows different scores, because it’s multiple screenings going on. So, reincarnation enables us to make sense of what happens in the world.
Now, karma from previous lives and love. The main point of the class we discussed was that the whole concept of destiny should not be used as the justification for irresponsibility. We discussed Vidura’s exam.
Vidura and Dhritarashtra, then Vasudeva and Devaki. Vasudeva, Devaki and Kamsa. And then we discussed exam, practical exam for our life.
Somebody gets accident, somebody over-eats, somebody gets malaria, somebody suffers in an earthquake. So, we cannot, we have to do our marriage, I discussed. So, we shouldn’t think that just because things are happening in particularly extraordinary ways, that doesn’t mean they are the will of God.
They may be, but whether it is the will of God or not, for that we have to use our own intelligence and seek guidance and ultimately base our actions on guru sadhus. So, then, so destiny and karma, karma and daiva, destiny should not be a substitute for responsibility in our actions. Destiny is not a substitute, it’s a complement.
And lastly we discussed that this whole thing, we can’t do a post-mortem of what has happened because multiple factors, multiple rules lead to particular consequences in life. So, rather than trying to go into post-mortem, we do prognosis. Prognosis is what? Let me practise devotional service.
Okay, I don’t practise devotional service, I’ll suffer. If I practise devotional service, I’ll become free from something. And then we discussed four ways in which devotional service frees us.
First is it gives higher knowledge by which we don’t do wrong things. Higher taste by which we are not, we don’t let us, we are saved from being pulled by our own past conditionings. Then it gives us, Krishna minimises the suffering.
And then whatever suffering comes, lastly we discussed, that because we understand that suffering is meaningful, it is like the labour pain of devotion. And because Krishna, Krishna consciousness gives an alternative satisfying object of thought, so that we don’t fixate on the problems, by all this we can minimise our suffering in this world and ultimately return back to Krishna, to Vaikuntha, where there is no suffering at all. So, any questions you can ask me, I am here.
Okay, I understood. So, the question is, I understood the question is that, because Ajayamil did not know about the glories of the holy name, so his chanting was not offensive, it was fruitful. But those who know the glory of the holy name and they chant, then they get a sinful reaction.
So, it seems ignorant chanting is better than enlightened chanting. Because in enlightened chanting there is a possibility of offences. See, first point is that Ajayamil’s chanting was not entirely fruitful.
He got a second chance. And then in the second chance he avoided offences. He did not go back to void of death.
That chanting saved him from the suffering of hell, which the Yamunatas would have taken. But then he reformed himself. And after that reformation itself, he then got the, went back to Godhead.
So, the idea of offensive, offenseless chanting difference is not that, you know, we somehow try to find out a loophole in the system and get away without surrendering. It doesn’t work like that. The idea is, ultimately we have to love Krishna to go back to Krishna.
And love is always a voluntary choice. And we have to choose. Without consciously choosing, even if Krishna does something miraculous for us, even if somehow Krishna takes us back to the spiritual world, we will say, I want to enjoy.
We want to come back to the matrimony. Ultimately, that’s why, you know, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, I had asked Sadhanath Maharaj this question, that Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that, when the child in the womb, he prays, Ek baar prabhu dekha diya more, vanchi le dina dase. You showed yourself to me once when you were in the womb, when I was in the womb, you showed yourself to me.
But then you vanchi lo, you gave me up. So, what does it mean? How could God give up somebody? So, what Radhanath Maharaj explained is that, actually, surrender under pressure is not real surrender. When the child in the womb is suffering and completely helpless.
So, at that time, he calls out, Krishna, please help me. Krishna will help. So, when Krishna appears at that time, the appearance of Krishna’s suffering minimises.
But then, real surrender is when we have the freedom to not surrender and still surrender. So, when we have no alternative and we surrender, you know, when a person becomes old and can’t do anything, now I will practise bhakti. So, that is good, at least you practise bhakti at that time.
But when we are young, we are healthy, we can’t do other things, but then we choose to serve Krishna. That is true devotion. That is real surrender.
So, the idea is Krishna wants to help us in every possible way. So, if we don’t know about Krishna, we don’t know about the holiness, Krishna said, I will give you benefits. But then, the purpose of those initial benefits is to attract us to offer our love.
So, again the purpose of offensive chanting, the principle behind offensive chanting is not that Krishna wants us to, wants to catch us doing wrong. You commit offence, now you suffer. It’s not like that.
But the idea is, see, when there is offence, essentially it means that there is more love. If we love someone, it is not offence. So, what are the offences? Inattentive chanting.
If we are loving Krishna, there will not be inattentive idea chanting. So, rather than trying to see this whole system of offence and offensive chanting and defenceless chanting as some legalistic system, you know, we should see it more as a, more as Krishna’s compassion and love coming out. An opportunity to offer our love to Krishna.
So, ultimately we have to offer our love to Krishna, we have to choose to love Krishna. Then you will go back to Krishna. Any other questions? Yes.
Where is the mic? On the fourth way of help by devotional service, some say, Krishna consciousness is just a thought to take out mind from absorption problem. Can you tell how Krishna consciousness really helps, not just as alternate thoughts, how any other material alternate thoughts can’t help? Yes. It is true that if we can get our mind off problems, it helps.
So, nowadays people think that in hospitals also we should have, there are five star hospitals, there are hospitals with maybe 500 TV channels. And their idea is that if the patient thinks about the sickness, the patient will suffer more. So, to get the patient mind off the sickness, have 500 TV channels.
And that will get the patient mind off the sickness. Well, it doesn’t work so simply. Because although the mind may go off the sickness, most of the TV channels are showing self-gratification.
And that will simply fill the patient’s desire with desires for enjoyment. And that desire for enjoyment will bring again back the thought to the body. Oh, I don’t have the body to enjoy.
So, it doesn’t work so simply. So, material, alternative material thoughts ultimately bring us back to bodily consciousness. Ultimately, because they bring us to bodily consciousness, they keep us in mental existence.
Actually, the principle of absorption enabling a person to go beyond suffering applies to any activity. There can be a sportsman, a sportsperson who is so absorbed in the sports, that person doesn’t feel any pain of the body because completely went on winning. So, that absorption, we can take inspiration from how people can get absorbed in materialistic things.
But then we have to understand that material objects don’t dignify or elevate our consciousness. So, but if there is attraction to a particular thing, then we can forget other things. Now, when people have to watch cricket matches at night, they forget their sleep.
But they are still in bodily consciousness only. Whereas Krishna consciousness, it is not just any other alternate material thought. It is a thought that elevates and dignifies our consciousness.
When we connect with Krishna, Krishna is at a higher level of reality. That is spiritual reality. And by remembering Krishna, we are moving towards the spiritual reality.
So, when we move towards spiritual reality, then we gradually go beyond the body, we go beyond bodily suffering in life. Now, sometimes as devotees we may also feel, I want to serve Krishna and because I am sick, I can’t serve Krishna. But the wonderful thing about Krishna consciousness is that Krishna consciousness itself can never be stopped.
Our bodily situations may stop us from doing particular forms of devotional service. If I am sick, I may not be able to go on book distribution, I may not be able to dance in theatres. But I can still think of Krishna.
I can still speak about Krishna. So, Krishna consciousness is the only activity that ultimately can be done irrespective of whatever the bodily conditions. But other activities, they depend on the body and they bring us back to the body.
Krishna consciousness takes us beyond the body. And that’s why it is the ultimate, it is the ultimate. It purifies and elevates us.
Yes, where is the mic? While the mic is going, I will answer questions from the chat also. So, I will save time. Yeah.
So, in the cycle of action and reaction, what role do the modes of material nature play? Do they determine our actions or do our actions determine the modes? See, the modes impel, they don’t compel. Impel means they push us in particular directions. But compel means to force.
They don’t force us. We can counter-push. So, the mode of passion may push me to become lusty, to become greedy, to become angry.
But I can counter-push. I can say no. So, by my past karma, I will have a certain set of mental and social conditions.
So, by my past karma, I may have an irritable nature. Or by my past karma, I may be in circumstances that are very irritating. And both of these, irritable nature and irritating circumstances will impel me to become angry.
But still, I can choose not to become angry. So, the modes don’t determine our actions. And that’s why we are responsible for our choices.
But what we should recognise is that we just can’t make our actions in isolation from our circumstances or our mentality. That means, if I have a nature by which I am short-tempered, then it’s best that I quickly move away from provoking situations. So, we have to take, according to our modes, we all have certain weaknesses.
And when we know those weaknesses, we should prepare for them by taking additional precautions. That way, we can avoid the coming of people. But ultimately, they don’t force us.
They can push us in a particular direction. But they don’t force us. So, we are responsible.
The modes create certain inclinations. It’s like if I have a particular mode, that part becomes sliding. So, I will go down that path easily.
But still, it’s up to me to choose whether to go down or not. So, I have to take additional precautions. If I know a certain situation makes me passionate, because I am also vulnerable that way, then I should make, as much as possible, not go into that situation.
Or go into that situation with proper checks, so that I won’t succumb in the wrong way. Yes? Yes. So, how can we see the hand of Krishna everywhere if we are not to succumb to speculation? And not succumb to speculation about what is happening.
Is it only after the action or before the action? See, if you look at Guru Sadhu Shastra, generally, the hand of Krishna or the signals of Krishna, they reinforce what we learn normally from Krishna. For example, Shri Sri Ramakrishna Prabhupada, you know, he said that some postman or some ordinary worker told me, why are you writing newspapers? Write books. And he felt this is my Guru Maharaj speaking.
But we see that before that, his Guru Maharaj has already given the instruction. That means you should write books. So, he felt that was like a reminder.
So, in general, if we, so, the paranormal or the miraculous ways by which Krishna can guide us, he can surely guide us. But normally they reinforce what we learn by normal means. You know.
So, that is the basic criteria. If somebody says, you know, Krishna came in my dream yesterday. And now, what should I do? Should I offer obeisance and say, Krishna came in your dream? Or should I say, you are a sahajiya? Why are you claiming like this? No.
We don’t have to go to either extreme. It’s possible that Krishna can come in the dream of a particular person. But you know, our spiritual advance, as Baldev Vidyabhushan describes in Govinda Vashya, that the difference between swapna and jagruti is that in only in jagruti we can execute, we can exercise our free will.
In swapna we can’t exercise our free will. And our spiritual advancement comes by exercising our free will. So, even if Krishna comes in my dream, that will not make me spiritually advanced.
After I wake up, what I do will make me spiritually advanced. So, if I feel Krishna has come in my dream, fine. Let me take that as an inspiration to serve him more enthusiastically after waking up.
So, the basic criteria is that the standard way of instruction, the standard instructions, if the coincidental or the miraculous or the supernatural repeats and reinforces that, then we can consider that that is Krishna. Clear? Yes. So, if Dhritarashtra had got Dhritarashtra under control, could the instruction have been avoided? And generally does our action change destiny? As I said again, destiny is not like a completely frozen unchangeable thing.
So, whatever bad karma we have done, that reactions will come some way or the other. But specific forms of reactions can be avoided. And that particular action, the wrong actions from our side, they also constitute further bad karma, which will also give reactions.
So, yes, we could say that if Dhritarashtra had avoided, had controlled Duryodhana, then the whole instruction could have been avoided. Definitely. So, our actions in this life also contribute to the consequences.
Do they change destiny? They may not change destiny, but they do change the manifestation of destiny. How things manifest in the world, that can certainly be changed. And some manifestation can be particularly distracting.
You know, if a person is driving, if somebody else is driving at a very far reckless speed and he hits into me, then I can say that’s my destiny. But then if I am attentive, at last moment I can just move my car aside and the blow may be lessened. So, then our actions in this life can change the manifestation of destiny also.
Definitely. In lecture you told that we should not concoct about action of Krishna. So, what should be our consciousness when we are somehow others saved from sure shot accident.
Yes, we can definitely be grateful to Krishna. And see, ultimately for all this, for everything in bhakti, the defining principle is whatever is favourable for bhakti, we accept it. What is unfavourable for bhakti, we reject it.
So, if we are saved from a sure shot accident, then we see it as Krishna’s mercy. And yes, we feel grateful to Krishna. And we proceed in devotional service with more enthusiasm.
But the point is, we shouldn’t too much overemphasise this sort of things. That Krishna has saved us from a sure shot accident, that is not Krishna’s greatest mercy. Krishna’s greatest mercy is that saved us from the sure shot accident of going back to the cycle of birth and death.
You know, going on to new and material existence, going to hell. So, if we emphasise these things too much, then somebody else meets with the accident. Krishna was merciful to him.
Why was Krishna unmerciful to me? Now, why didn’t Krishna save me from that accident? So, what happens is, if we overemphasise the material aspects of Krishna’s actions too much, then our devotion, our expectation about Krishna gets stuck at that level. And then that prevents us from seeing Krishna’s mercy in other more valuable ways, more valuable from the point of view of our long term goal. So, we can be definitely grateful to Krishna if Krishna intervenes in a particular way.
If something happens in a miraculous way, which to us seems like Krishna’s intervention, we can definitely be grateful to Krishna. But we shouldn’t focus too much on that. The basis of my bhakti should not just be that Krishna saved me from an accident.
The basis of my bhakti is that actually I am not the body, I am the soul. And I went to serve Krishna. I will be happy only by serving Krishna.
But Krishna reminded me of his love. Why this? Krishna loves me and I should love him. That is the basis of my bhakti.
Krishna reminded me of his love in a particular way, miraculously. So, I am grateful for that remembrance. But the fundamental should be not such miraculous interventions of Krishna.
Fundamental foundation of our bhakti should be our understanding of the truths of life centred on Krishna’s love for all of us. Yes. Does the Bhagavad Gita say that not a blade of grass moves without Krishna? It doesn’t say that anywhere.
There is no mention of truna or anything in the Bhagavad Gita like that. As I said, as I mentioned, it is not God’s will, it is God’s sanction. So, it is God’s sanction that is required for all actions.
So, it is not God’s will. So, now sometimes, you know, a devotee’s exalted consciousness may be such that, so for example, when the Calcutta was being bombed, at that time, Prabhupada was saying that Krishna has come as this Lord. Now, what does it mean? That is actually the consciousness of a devotee that devotee can remember Krishna everywhere.
But it is not that Krishna has caused the Second World War and Krishna has caused the Japanese to bomb Calcutta. You know, the Japanese have their own ambitions and they are bombing Calcutta because of their own ambitions. But it is a devotee’s consciousness, a devotee can see Krishna everywhere.
And in this case, so is it an error that a devotee sees Krishna in a bomb coming? No, that is not a dushan, it is a bhushan. So, a devotee can see Krishna everywhere. Like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, you know, it is said that every forest he saw as Vrindavan, every hill he saw as Govardhan.
Now, actually you can say, that forest is not Vrindavan. So, is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu committing a mistake? How can God commit a mistake? The point here is, when we talk about bhakti, we talk about a devotee’s capacity to remember Krishna in everything and everything. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw every forest as Vrindavan, but still there is a difference.
He didn’t stop in that forest, still he went on towards Vrindavan. Isn’t it? So, a devotee’s remembrance of Krishna in everything doesn’t blind the devotee to ultimate realities also. So, that’s why we shouldn’t think in a simplistic sense that Krishna is the cause of everything.
That is, a devotee should remember Krishna as ultimately being involved in everything. But there are also intermediate factors which a devotee should consider. So, is the birth of a child on a particular day fixed or destined? And are the parents we get fixed by destiny? If so, then the sentence, marriages are made in heaven are true.
If not, what is the science behind this? See, the specific ways in which destiny unfolds are complex. As I said, destiny doesn’t change, but the manifestation of destiny in a particular person’s life can be changed. So, we could say that if there is, now there is natural pregnancy, there is natural delivery, there is delivery necessary, there can be premature delivery in case of some danger to the baby.
So, can this date of birth be changed? Actually, how we should understand is that both the human action and the past destiny come together in certain situations. That means, see, it’s not that medical technology is independent of the action of God. That means, God can act through the means of medical technology also.
So, if a birth is happening because at a particular time, through a particular medical technology, what that simply means is that, you know, it is the will of God, it is ultimately you could say, it is the arrangement of destiny that the child is getting born at a particular time. So, the idea that destiny has to act in some miraculous ways, supernatural ways, that’s not necessarily valid. Destiny can act even through natural ways.
Destiny can act even through the hands of a doctor. You know, I just said that, you know, that these doctors who say that we treat, he cures. So, the doctor treats, Krishna cures.
And how does Krishna cure? He cures through the medicines. So, that means that even if there is a, we say that a material level, it appears as if the date of birth is determined by certain material factors. But we understand that those material factors are ultimately determined by destiny.
And are the parents that we get fixed by destiny? Yes. The parents we get are fixed by destiny. But this is a non-sequitur.
Non-sequitur means this is a lead to the next point. This isn’t true that marriages are made in heaven. Actually speaking, the whole principle of karma works in complex ways.
See, marriages ultimately are, if A gets married to B, nothing will happen without a sanction of God. So, if it’s happening by the sanction of God, that means you could say that ultimately there is some higher arrangement. But that higher arrangement is sanctioned.
It is not planned. So, it’s not that all marriages are made in heaven. So, how it particularly works out that, you know, two people choose to marry and then after that the parents are determined? See, you have to understand that it is not the parents being destined doesn’t mean necessarily that this soul has to take these two individuals only as parents.
It is that it could work out that way. But what it broadly means is according to our karma, we get certain set of circumstances. So, somebody may get loving parents, somebody may get not so loving parents.
Somebody may get different kind of situations. So, karma, how it works out, it’s complex. So, basic principle is that when I say that our parents are destined, basically what it means is that the soul by the past karma gets a particular set of circumstances in the next life.
So, the set of circumstances includes the parents. So, includes the parents, includes the social situation, includes the nationality, all these are included. But the specifics, they work out in different ways.
So, again, if we go into a multiple analysis, the principle again is that our marriage is made in heaven. Actually speaking, we should be responsible and not assume that marriages are made in heaven. We should be responsible to intelligently choose how we should act in our lives.
Does that address the question? Yeah? Yes. So, if A acts and say A drives responsibly and B becomes the actual victim because of that. So, now, isn’t B suffering unjustly because of that? No, we understand that whatever happens to us is what we deserve.
If I suffer in an accident, that means I have done some karma because of which I am getting the reaction. Now, it is not that A has to do that. A is not free from responsibility because A drove carelessly.
A was not thinking that you know B has done some bad karma and I have to give him reaction. A was, you know, B was probably in a drunken stupor or irresponsible, careless and drove the car responsibly. So, how we should see it is, if something happens to us, we understand that it is my own past karma because of which it is happening.
So, but that person, because that person acted irresponsibly, that person is responsible. So, whatever happens to us is because of our past karma. Nothing happens, we don’t get any suffering that is undeserving.
But as I said, from this whole system point of view, when we are interacting with people, we shouldn’t hammer the point, it is happening because of your own karma only. No, we should sympathise. The whole system of justice in this life is based on so that people will regulate and act responsibly in this life.
Clear? As Krishna knows the past of, past and future of everybody, what is the significance of freedom? Can you elaborate? Actually, Krishna’s knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past. It is knowledge without intervention. Krishna’s knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past.
I know yesterday morning, I went here, I did that. I know it. But I can’t intervene in it.
So, in Krishna’s case, Krishna knows about the future. It is not that he can’t intervene, he doesn’t intervene. So, that’s how our free will and God’s omnipotence, omniscience are reconciled.
Krishna’s knowledge of the future is knowledge without intervention. It is he doesn’t intervene. He knows the choices, he knows the consequences and he allows us to make the choices and get the consequences.
Is it right that one who is practising Krishna consciousness should consider if the sufferings are purification? Yes. Sufferings are purification definitely for a person practising Krishna consciousness. But they are not the only means of purification.
Our sadhana, bhakti is the primary means of purification. And while practising sadhana, bhakti, the, see, purification in multiple levels. There is purification in terms of exhaustion of past bad karma.
That will happen when we get suffering. But the more important purification is purification of our own wrong desires. That will not happen just by getting bad karmic reactions.
That will happen by the practise of sadhana bhakti. So, whatever sufferings come, we accept them as purification. But we accept them and intensely focus on the practise of sadhana bhakti to purify our desires.
Chanting makes 99% of our spiritual practises by mate age. Then should the conditioning like being deaf and dumb from childhood, birth, mean that one can’t become Krishna conscious in his life? Is it that karma could be such that one sure shot can’t help oneself become Krishna conscious? Firstly, this idea that chanting makes 99% spiritual advancement, you know, we can’t bring mathematical quantification to transcendental issues. And Srila Prabhupada makes a statement like this, we have to understand the mood of those statements.
The mood is that it is extremely, chanting is extremely important. We can’t hang on to the 99% figure. You know, like somebody, some people in the scriptures it is said that one name of Ram is equal to thousand name of Vishnu.
And one name of Krishna is equal to say three names of Ram. So, somebody may say, why should I chant Hare Ram? I will just chant Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. I will just chant Krishna’s name.
Why should I need to chant Ram’s name? Actually, you know, spiritual advancement is not based on mathematical calculation. Ultimately, you know, we are chanting the holy names not to sort of mathematically bargain advancement from Krishna. You know, we are chanting to develop our love for Krishna.
And love is based on reciprocation. So, we chant Hare Krishna because Guru Sadhu Shastra. Those who love Krishna and those who have taught us to love Krishna have told us to chant Krishna’s name.
Or they have told us to chant Hare Krishna mantra. Similarly, you know, we chant, chantinging is important. So, the 99% figure should be used to recognise the importance of chanting.
We can’t hang on to it and say that everything else is just 1% importance. It is very important, that’s the point. Now, are the deaf and dumb unable to practise Krishna consciousness? No.
One can chant in the mind. See, bhakti ultimately is a matter of exercising our being. It is not a matter of doing what is not within our capacity.
It is a matter of doing what is in our capacity. So, if a person just by the situation is not able to speak, allow, then whatever is within the capacity, the person will do. The person can chant in the mind, the person can remember Krishna.
So, ultimately, again, we have to understand that it is not just the verbal utterance of the holy name that leads to spiritual advancement. That does lead to some spiritual advancement. But the verbal utterance of the holy name is an expression of our desire to love Krishna.
And it is our desire to love Krishna that leads to spiritual advancement. That enables us to enter into the world of Krishna’s love. So, that we can express according to our circumstances.
So, no material situation can permanently disqualify us from practising Krishna consciousness. Though it can definitely stop us from practising particular forms of Krishna consciousness. Are those who come in this life of bhakti as per destiny or as per arthaas? When we come to bhakti, generally it is by the grace of devotees.
It is by the grace of devotees. Is it by destiny or by our own desires or bad desires? No. Those may be contributive factors.
But primarily it is the mercy of Krishna. You know, very few of us are of the category that we went out searching for Krishna. May be some very exalted souls, they went all around, all over the world searching for Krishna.
For most of us, devotees came searching for us. So, it is devotees mercy. So, Prabhupada says that, you know, a person who is fortunate and intelligent takes to Krishna consciousness, becomes a devotee.
So, fortune is to have the opportunity to practise Krishna consciousness. And intelligence is to take the opportunity to practise Krishna consciousness. So, we have to use our intelligence.
By fortune, we get the opportunity. By intelligence, we take the opportunity. So, by destiny it may happen that somebody, now we have built the NVCC over here and there are some people staying close to it.
That may be by destiny. But then, we could say that is destiny. But it is by fortune that devotees chose this place to build a temple.
And it is their intelligence that they will choose to practise devotional service. So, ultimately what we see is, that it is devotees mercy that uses the fortune and it is by our intelligent choice that we get the fortune, which we take the fortune. Can we call the thought to do a particular action which lead to an action thereby good or bad, the action itself as a product of previous karma? That means, if I do a particular action which leads to consequences and then for that action I got a thought.
So, was that thought a result of my past karma? Yes. See, our past karmic reactions come in, come externally as situations in our life and internally as inclinations. Our past karma comes also as inclinations.
So, if I get a particular thought, as I said, some people may be more lusty, some people may be more irritable, more greedy. That’s because of past karma. But between the thought and the action is our freedom.
So, it is not that just because a thought has come, I have to act on that action. So, by my past karma I may get a particular kind of thought. But it is not that I was forced to do that action according to thought.
I could have chosen not to act. So, it is said that tolerance is the stopper between temptation and transgression. Temptation means a particular thought comes in my mind.
Transgression is, temptation is a wrong thought comes in my mind. Transgression is I act on it. But between temptation and transgression there is a stopper.
And that stopper is tolerance. So, when we develop our capacity to tolerate by remembering Krishna, by remembering the philosophy, by absorbing ourselves in devotional service, then we can stop the temptation from becoming transgression. Just like Prabhupada says, if thoughts come, there is no problem.
If you act on the thoughts, that is a big deal. So, we can’t say that our bad actions were caused by our past karma or bad thoughts were caused by our past karma. But our bad actions were caused by our, our free will, not by that bad karma.
So, one last question. You gave the example of one person insulting others. So, in this case the person being insulted, if undergoes mental disturbance and suffers, so does it react, react the karmic reaction, does it reduce the karmic reaction which he was supposed to undergo? Don’t go into paralysis by analysis.
The question is basically that somebody insults me. And naturally I will suffer. So, if I suffer now and if I keep thinking about the suffering, being able to insult and because of that I suffer more.
So, is that increased suffering exhausting my past bad karma? No, no, no. It is something which I am only creating suffering by thinking about. It’s like, you know, if I put my hand in, if suppose I am sitting here and suddenly this place catches fire.
So, I could say this place catching fire is because of my past bad karma. But if I keep sitting here, that is not because of past bad karma. That is because of my present foolishness.
I should move away from there. So, we have to see what is the best way of acting right now. So, we shouldn’t think that if I think of, so, you know, many times people feel, you see, self-pity is a temptation.
We think of lust as a temptation, greed as a temptation but self-pity is also temptation. You know, people always insult me. People always disrespect me.
People never deal with me properly. I am so unfortunate. I am so miserable.
Ultimately, any thought that keeps us away from Krishna is a temptation. So, sometimes some temptations make us happy. But sometimes some temptations may make us miserable also.
But if it keeps us away from Krishna, that is a temptation. So, self-pity is also a temptation. And we should avoid the temptation of self-pity because ultimately we are self-centred.
So, what we should think is okay, this problem is there. How can I solve it? Let me move away from that situation. Let me think of some way to rectify it.
If we love someone, we cannot sanction killing him. How should we see lover of Krishna sanctioning killing of cows? We have to understand that the material reality is not the ultimate reality. At the material level, things will happen.
So, we could say that if Krishna loves all of us, because love should mean that there should be no sanctioning of killing, then we can say there should be no death in the material world. So, ultimately death is also a form of killing. So, if Krishna loves cows, that is true.
But that love doesn’t mean that Krishna will on each occasion intervene within the actions of material nature. So, if some people have some demonic inclinations because of which they do wrong activities, we have to understand that Krishna doesn’t necessarily intervene in the world in miraculous ways. Krishna also expects intervention in normal ways.
That means that Krishna expects that the administrators of the society, the government, the leaders, they act on his behalf and they intervene and they protect. So, Krishna sanctions because certain people have their own demonic inclinations and they want to do certain things. So, he sanctions because at the material level, you know, we could say then why did Krishna allow Jatayu to die? Why did Krishna allow Abhimanyu to die? At the material level, Krishna doesn’t always intervene.
Even when those who we love undergo suffering. So, we shouldn’t think, we shouldn’t judge Krishna’s love based on events that happen only at the material level. Because the material reality is only part of the reality.
It’s only a part of the reality. Just like a small child, where the child just thinks, my parents, they shouted at me, my parents did this, did that. Just on that small framework, the parents don’t love me.
The parents are shouting at me because I am doing something bad and parents want me to protect me from that. So, what happens is, the material reality is only a partial reality. And if we try to perceive Krishna’s love only at the level of material reality, our faith will always stay unstable.
Because sometimes we will be able to see Krishna’s actions, sometimes we will not be able to see Krishna’s actions. Just like sometimes devotees may depart from the world in very God conscious ways. Surrounded by devotees, chanting kirtans.
Sometimes devotees may die in some terrible accidents also. So, we shouldn’t think that Krishna’s love has to manifest only at the material level. Actually, whichever way a devotee leaves the body, the devotee has lived life serving Krishna, then surely the devotee will go back to Krishna.
And the love of Krishna was that, Krishna gave the devotee opportunity to practise devotional service and transcend bodily consciousness. Last question. What is the meaning of causeless mercy when we say that there are two factors, Krishna’s mercy and our endeavours? So, the causeless mercy means that the mercies coming in our life doesn’t have any cause.
But we have to accept the mercy. See, causeless mercy means, it’s like a beggar gives charity. So, the beggar’s giving charity is not necessarily dependent on the, sorry, the donor’s giving charity is not dependent on the beggar’s qualification.
See, the donor just desires to give charity. But the beggar has to accept the charity. So, our endeavour is basically to accept Krishna’s mercy.
So, Krishna’s mercy coming into our life is causeless. In the sense that Krishna doesn’t require any qualification from our side to give the mercy. So, when we say causeless means, again as I said, the cause is not in us, for us getting the mercy.
But certainly we have to accept the mercy. See, even in causeless mercy, Krishna does not trample on our freedom. Krishna respects our freedom.
If we don’t want his mercy, then Krishna won’t forcefully thrust his mercy on us. So, that’s why there are multiple factors involved. Causeless mercy is one factor.
But the exercise, but the respect for our free will is also another factor. And when both these come in conjunction, then that’s why fortune is to get the mercy, intelligence is to receive the mercy. When we are fortunate and intelligent, then we can advance and return back.
Thank you very much.