Our emotional wounds can’t be healed by technology – we need spiritualty

[Youth meeting at Melbourne, Australia]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Some of you want to even come inside, this space over here. Come here. Can you put this somewhere else, in the corner? Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. So I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you. And… Now… This octagonal facility that all of you have, it’s something very extraordinary in the Western world.
Where… For people who come from India just for studies, and then to have a place where you have both cultural, spiritual, and social facility to take care of all aspects of your life. It’s very special. I have travelled across the world, many places, and I’ve not seen something which is going on so consistently for so many years.
And… Nityanand Prabhu Vasudhanandaji, it’s your dedication, your vision that is working so wonderfully. And… I’m grateful to be here with all of you. So, Nityanand Prabhu and I have been having a little discussion about which topic to speak on.
So he requested me to speak on the topic of the missing self in the selfie. It’s a topic I spoke in several companies. So I was telling him that all of you are overqualified for that topic.
So all of you… This is a topic which I speak at a basic level to in companies I’ve spoken since Stanford and Google and other places. But I’ll take that theme. So I’ll broadly speak about how in our lives what technology can provide and what spirituality can provide.
First, I started travelling from outside India. I’ve been travelling India for many years. I’ve been travelling India for a few years now.
So the first thing that I noticed outside India is that the level of comfort, the level of organisation, the level of technology, it’s all much more. And as I interacted with people, there’s one advantage of being in a renounced order. Many advantages.
But one of them is that people often put down their masks. Everybody lives with a mask. We all have difficulties in our lives.
And today’s society is such that unhappiness is considered to be a failure. If you’re unhappy, that means you’ve failed in life. So even when people have distress, they try to cover their distress.
And they continue to act as if they’re happy. And because they have to put on that face in front of everyone, oh, they’re unhappy, things are all right, nothing is wrong. So they have to act tough, they have to act happy.
So they need to put down their masks somewhere. And that is why so many people go to psychologists. It is not that they are actually… Normally in India, if you think somebody goes to a psychologist, you’ll think they’ve gone crazy.
It is not like that. It is not… I have gone to mental health care centres and I have spoken to the inmates also over there. And these people are actually very intelligent.
I was in New Jersey, and I was there in a mental health care centre, and there was this one person who was a double PhD. Brilliant, but he had to be admitted with severe depression into the health care centre because what had happened, he had a double PhD and he was applying for a grant. And when you work in universities, you need to get grants for your projects.
So he was applying for a grant and his proposal was rejected and there was a junior colleague of his who was barely a master’s and his proposal was accepted. So he just couldn’t cope with that. He couldn’t cope with that and he collapsed.
So here, in general, life gives all of us difficulties. When there are physical blows that life sends our way, at that time, it’s easy to see. Somebody’s got a fracture, somebody’s got a bandage on their face or their hand or whatever.
We can see that they’re injured. And then whatever support is needed, that is provided for. When I travel, I usually get a wheelchair.
Some wheelchairs are not available. Somebody always offers to carry my luggage. So if somebody has a physical limitation, it is easily visible.
People come forward to help. But just as life can give us physical blows, life can also give us emotional blows. And when those emotional blows come, we don’t see them visibly.
Actually, emotional blows can come in broadly three different ways. One is that we make some plan for our life. We have certain goals, certain targets, certain projects to achieve and we fail in that.
So, events of life, when they go wrong, that can disorient us. The other is that sometimes people can let us down. We try to form a relationship with someone or we trust someone and then they let us down, they disappoint us, they will betray us.
So there can be situations which can cause us a shock internally or there can be people who can cause a shock internally. And the third is we ourselves can cause a shock internally. We ourselves means we sometimes can make a terrible mistake.
Things are going on nicely but we just make one wrong choice and get into big trouble because of that. So now, at that time, at one level, we need to acknowledge our mistake. But sometimes, people just keep beating themselves up.
Why did I do that? And when they keep beating themselves up, then it can be very traumatising for them. So basically, everybody suffers throughout the course of life from many emotional blows. And generally, because our society equates success with happiness.
So, therefore, even if somebody has emotional blows, people have to heal and act as if they are happy. Act as if they are cheerful. Act as if everything is right in life.
In western world, people ask you, how are you? But they don’t have the time to hear how you are. It’s just a greeting. How are you? And even before you know the answer, they walk away.
So, people are polite but they are not personal. They are not personal. Personal bonds are less.
So actually, when emotional blows come upon us, at that time, it is our relationships that can shatter us. Because physical blows, you can go to a doctor. But emotional blows, how do we process them? We need inner maturity.
We need relational security. And ultimately, we need spiritual security. So, studying that, I started this topic by saying that people put on a mask usually in society.
But when somebody is in an unannounced order, they often put down that mask. Because they put on a mask because practically everybody in society is a competitor of everyone else. Even if we are colleagues, even if we are co-students, at the same time, we are competitors.
So therefore, it creates a lot of insecurity. So, Chandra was mentioning that I was quite interested in cricket earlier. So, I remember, there were these, from Australia itself, there were these two brothers, Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh.
So, they became very well-known players. But at one time, Steve Waugh got on the team first. And then Mark Waugh was trying to get into the team.
And then he got the news that he was selected. And he came back home, he was very happy. And all his family was very serious.
They said, you know I was selected? He said, yes. Who was dropped? He said, Steve Waugh was dropped. So, what happened, he said, I read somewhere along the way, after that, their relationship was never the same.
Although they were brothers, very close to each other, playing the same profession. But here, the life pitted them against each other. Eventually, of course, both of them were in the team.
And both of them fared well. But basically, in life, we don’t know who will be our potential competitor in future. So that’s why, there is a lot of insecurity within, and people put on the mask for a long time.
Actually, at an emotional level, the biggest burden to carry is a mask. At a physical level, if you carry a heavy burden, it’s tiring. But at an emotional level, to carry a mask for a long time, it is tiring.
This doesn’t mean that we should always have a long face with everyone, and tell everyone about our problems. And wherever we go, some people go the other extreme, wherever they go, they start what is called a pity party. A pity party? A pity party means? Oh, you know, life is so terrible, this went wrong with me.
Oh, life is so terrible, this also went wrong with me. And then, both of them, they feel sorry for each other, and they start blaming the big bad world. Now, that is not very helpful.
But we have to cope with reality as it is. We don’t have to obsess over the negative. By the same time, we don’t have to deny the negative.
The negative also is there. And life does wounds as it does. So, these emotional wounds that happen in the course of our life, these cannot be healed by technology.
Technology can provide us a lot of facilities externally. We can give a lot of information, we can give a lot of entertainment. Now, this topic, seeing self in the selfie, I said the difference between self and selfie is I and E. So, you know, the I, selfie represents technology, self represents spirituality.
So, technology can provide us information, but not connection. Technology can provide us information, this is this, but a connection, if you want to develop with anything or anyone, that is something which requires application. And technology can provide us entertainment.
It cannot provide us enlightenment. Enlightenment doesn’t necessarily have to mean mystical scenes of seeing light everywhere or anything like that. Enlightenment simply means understanding what am I meant to do in my life.
What is the purpose of my life? How should I live my life? So, being this, not having this, is actually can be very disorienting for people. There is, the Bhagavad Gita says, is the body, the mind and the soul. Or you can say gross body, subtle body and spirit.
So, at the level of the gross body, there are a lot of comforts that are provided by technology. But, at the level of the subtle body, we need certain things in life. And yes, technology can provide entertainment which deletes the mind.
But, that doesn’t satisfy us. And similarly, technology can provide us a lot of information. But, to apply that information and to change our life, it doesn’t, technology cannot provide us a connection.
So, yes, technology has social media and we are connecting with people. So many people we connect with. But ultimately, social media can only provide us access.
The human skills that are required, the emotional growth that is required, the relational maturity that is required, that can’t be provided by technology. So, this internal side of ours, often gets not only neglected, but it even becomes tormented. And there is a lot of focus on externals.
And there is entertainment, people are obsessed with it. In India, we have this IPL. What is IPL? Indian Premier League, isn’t it? So now, entertainment is like a pain killer.
And when the mind is stressed, when the mind is troubled, it’s like physical pain, it’s a pain killer. But enlightenment is like the real medicine. Entertainment is like, ok, life is so troublesome, I don’t know what to do, how to move forward, this problem, that problem.
Just turn on some TV, turn on some movies, turn on some sports and forget it all. So, that’s entertainment. And actually, if you see in today’s world, I was talking about IPL because many people in the western world, they have some stereotypes about India.
They say, oh, India is the country of snake charmers. Although India has actually more software engineers than practically any other country in the world except China. Or all other countries in the world sum together also.
But still they have the IPL. And then they have the stereotypes also, there is the caste system. But there is another stereotype, India is a land of poverty.
However, in this IPL, the amount of money that is spent, in about 50 days, most these players earn more than what most Indians will earn in 50 years of their life. I am not even talking about middle class or upper middle class Indians also, they won’t earn so much. The amount of money that is spent in IPL, if that were used to tackle poverty in India, all the poor people in India could be fed for one year and more would be remaining in the amount of money that is spent on IPL.
So now, this is not to criticise cricket or IPL, it is just to see things in perspective. Where is all this money coming from? It is coming from people’s pockets. But why are people ready to spend so much money? It is because they feel it is so important.
In today’s world, entertainers are probably the highest paid professionals. I mean, football cup was there, so one of my friends was telling me that in today’s world, a doctor, a surgeon who can cure a broken leg can’t earn even one-tenth of what a person can earn if he can kick a ball with a leg. So, why is it that we are ready to spend so much money for entertainment? Because we feel it is such a great need.
We feel that it is such a great need that whatever is required, we spend for it. Entertainment is not bad. Entertainment has always been a part of human society.
But the obsession with entertainment that is there in today’s world is unprecedented. The sheer amount of mania associated with it, the sheer amount of money spent on it, that’s because people’s lives are so empty. Their lives are so boring, so empty, so distressing, that they need something to forgive the emptiness of their lives.
We work hard, we have a job, we do various things, we try to have a successful career, but this isn’t giving fulfilment. There is no enlightenment in the sense of what is the point of life, what is the meaning of life, what is the purpose of life? And all that is not known. To forget it, we need more and more sensory stimuli.
So, Indians traditionally had two painkillers. If you consider entertainment to be like a mental painkiller, one painkiller was cricket. The other was Bollywood.
And so, I think about 10 years ago, both of them got married. And their child is IPL. So, people, there is more and more emphasis on entertainment because there is so much inner emptiness and somehow or other it’s forgotten.
But the problem with painkillers is that they only cover the pain. They don’t cure the pain. And that’s why as the disease internally keeps increasing, people need heavier and heavier dosage of painkillers.
Similarly, we see in respect to entertainment, it is becoming more and more passion, more and more action-packed, more and more violent. Now there are 5-day test matches, now there are 1-day matches, then there were T20 matches, now there is IPL, now there is a whole proposal for T10 matches. So, it is just going on.
Because people want more and more dosage of stimulation by which they can forget the emptiness of pain. And this forgetting cannot go on for very long. It just goes on for some time and people just break down.
How much entertainment can you consume? No matter how much they consume, it doesn’t take away the emptiness from their life. So, through technology, we get a lot of entertainment. And sometimes people say, in the past, people did not have TV.
Man, how was there such boring life? Actually, now we may have TV with 100 channels and still we are bored. So, boredom is not just a result of… boredom is not cured simply by having more and more stimulation. Actually, boredom is dealt with by having a purpose to life.
Having a satisfying, meaningful purpose to life. And if that purpose is not there, no amount of stimulation with technology, that is not going to bring you fulfilment. So, this is where we need spiritual knowledge.
So, I talked about how life gives us emotional wounds. And when these emotional wounds come, we put on a mask in front of society. But we need to let go somewhere.
So, what we do is just try to forget life by running into entertainment. And just getting lost in the entertainment and try to forget life’s problems. But the wounds are there.
And despite social media, despite entertainment, despite so many things, people are so lonely. People are at the psychological level more and more distressed. Sometimes, I do talks with people.
Yoga studios and other places. And people, when they talk, we have very stimulating discussions where they talk this wisdom, that wisdom, I read this. And they appear very wise.
And then they say, after that, if I want to talk to the person, when they start talking to the person, they break down this problem in life, this is happening, that is happening. So, yes, they are seeking relief through wisdom. That is good.
But at the same time, internally, they are traumatised. They don’t know how to deal with it. So, the technology cannot provide any human connections.
Technology cannot provide any spiritual connections. Technology can provide a sensory stimulation, but it cannot give us purpose and meaning in life. For that, we need spirituality.
And, the Bhagavad Gita also talks about these inner wounds. Arjuna was a warrior, battle-hardened warrior. He could withstand the fiercest arrows of his opponents.
But, that same Arjuna, in the middle of a battlefield, broke down and started crying. For a Kshatriya, Kshatriyas, it’s a strategy of Kshatriyas that you don’t show pain. Because you have to act up in front of your enemies.
And even if somebody is in pain, generally, we don’t cry in public. We will cry in private. But Arjuna was not just in public, he was like in the centre of the public.
In the middle of the two armies, so everybody could see him. And then, Tantatha Krupaya Vishnu Ashru Purnakul Ekshanam So, Ashru Purnakul Ekshanam. His eyes are filled with tears.
So, what happened? He got traumatised at that time. How can I fight this war? How can I fight against my relatives? How can I kill my elders? So, his question at that time was similar. Arjuna also had phenomenal technology.
He had the Gandiva, which is very powerful. He had celestial weapons. But that technology did not give him a direction at that time.
Even prosperity, he said, even if I get heavenly prosperity, that will not remove my inner emptiness. He said that, this grief that is drying me up from within, even if I get heavenly prosperity, that will not remove this grief. Please tell me what I should do.
Please tell me what am I going to do. Dharma is not just religious codes. Dharma actually means that action, which harmonises us with Arjuna.
Harmonious action. How are we meant to live in a way that is in harmony with who we are and what we are meant to do. So, Arjuna was fed not by physical wounds, but by emotional wounds.
He got so disoriented that he put the child in his bosom and said, I can’t fight. And the message of the Bhagavad Gita reoriented him. It strengthened him from within.
That same Arjuna, at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, he had said, put aside his bow saying, I can’t fight. But, by the end of the Bhagavad Gita, he has picked up his bow in readiness to fight. He has picked up his bow in readiness to fight.
So, what exactly happened? How did this change happen in Arjuna? The Bhagavad Gita offered him those two things. Connection and enlightenment. As Arjuna already knew about Arjuna’s skills.
The Bhagavad Gita did not teach Arjuna Arjuna’s skills. The Bhagavad Gita gave him a spiritual vision for life. We all need a sense of purpose in our life.
So, the Bhagavad Gita told Arjuna, Arjuna, you are a soul. Your eternal connection is with the Supreme Soul. And whatever you do in life, you do it in a mood of service to that Supreme Soul.
One of the concluding verses of the Bhagavad Gita is The Bhagavad Gita was a long verse. I was at the Gita Jayanthi. I was giving a talk at a Hindu place.
And there, they had some kids recite some verses from the Gita. So, the kids recited various verses and they came to this verse. And they recited 18.66 as sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sarva-dharman parityajya So, then I asked him afterwards, the verse is sarva-dharman parityajya Why did you recite it as sarva-dharman parityajya? So, that person was an organiser.
He quoted some Gita scholar. He said, actually Krishna has come to establish Dharma. Dharma samstha apanartha hai.
So, why would Krishna tell anyone to give up Dharma? So, he says, Krishna has come to establish Dharma. Therefore, what he will tell us to give up is our Dharma. So, he said, in the past, when people would write Bhagavad Gita, they had manuscripts, they had copied manuscripts.
So, probably, some manuscript copier forgot to write the O. And that’s why it became sarva-dharman parityajya. So, now we have put back the O. Naturally, it may seem to make logical sense, but, if you look at the context of the Gita, Arjuna was a virtuous Kshatriya. For him, our Dharma was not an option at all.
For him, his confusion was which Dharma to follow. He had two Dharmas which were pulling him in two different directions. One Dharma was his Kshatriya Dharma.
As a warrior, as a martial guard in a society, he had to fight against anyone who was an aggressor. But he also had his Kula Dharma. He was a member of the Kuru dynasty.
And a member of the Kuru dynasty, protecting his Kula was also his Dharma. But what does he do when members of his Kula are only fighting against him? Does he follow his Kula Dharma or does he follow his Kshatriya Dharma? So, in this conflict, he got confused. Krishna, that’s why Arjuna is that give up all his confusion about this Dharma or that Dharma.
Go back to fundamentals. You are not a Kshatriya, you are not a Kuru Vamsi. You are a soul who is a part of God.
And your ultimate duty is to serve God. sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sharman parityajya Surrender to me. Now, Prabhupada, when he went to America, he said that even the hippies had started following sarva-dharman parityajya.
They had given up all duties. They had given up duties to their family, their career, to their nation. But he says, I taught them mam ekam sharman parityajya.
How to surrender to Krishna? So, the important thing is that when Krishna says sarva-dharman parityajya, he is not telling Arjuna to become Adharmik. He is saying, go to the ultimate Dharma, mam ekam sharman parityajya. And act at that level.
So, after this, Arjuna did fight the war. We could say Arjuna did the Kshatriya Dharma. But Arjuna did not fight the war as a Kshatriya.
He fought the war as a devotee acting in the role of Kshatriya. So, why is this important? I was talking about, we all need a sense of purpose in our life. We all, technology provides information but not connection.
It provides entertainment but not enlightenment. So, I am explaining how the Bhagavad Gita provides us enlightenment and connection. So, it actually provides us enlightenment about who we are and what we are meant to be.
So, we all, like Arjuna, have different roles in our life. We may have a role of a student, we may have a role of a professional working in a company, we may have a role of a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, a son, a daughter. We have various roles in our life.
And we act according to these roles. But underlying these roles is our fundamental identity. That we are souls.
As a soul, I am working as an engineer. As a soul who is a servant of Krishna, I am serving Krishna in this particular role. So, when we don’t have this understanding that I am fundamentally a servant of Krishna and I am doing this as a role, then, we don’t have this understanding, we get inordinately, excessively attached to that particular role.
And if that role, something goes wrong with it, then, we just can’t bear it. We get frustrated. Because our whole life is centred on that.
So, if I think that, okay, I am an engineer. A software engineer. And then, somehow, I lose my job.
And I don’t get another job as a software engineer. Then, I get the question, who am I? What am I meant to do? And this can especially happen with respect to relationships. In America, in Columbus, I gave a series of seminars on overcoming fear.
So, at that time, I talked about what are the top ten fears of people. I did some study. What are the top ten fears of the 18th century, the 19th century, the 20th century, the 21st century? So, there are two fears that are new in the list of top ten fears of the 21st century.
One is the fear of terrorists. It’s understandable. And the second is the fear of rejection.
Fear of rejection. The opposite of connection. Because, almost everywhere in the world now, the traditional social structure has collapsed.
people either, when they want to form relationships, there is no structure for stability in marriage. There is no stability in marriage. So, people have great fear and they try to form a relationship and they are rejected in that relationship.
And a rejection can cause devastation to people’s self-confidence, morale, and people go into terrible depression. So, what happens in today’s society? We all have, we all need a sense of self-worth. We all need a sense of self-security.
And, we get this from our identity. If somebody asks us, Who are you? What do you do? You say, Okay, I’m an engineer, I’m a lawyer, I’m this thing, I’m that thing. That identity gives us a sense of security.
It gives us a sense of self-worth. It gives us a sense of significance. But, as the world keeps changing so much, our sense of identity, this identity that we get, it just changes so much.
There’s one devotee, I don’t know if he’s safe, works in Phoenix in America. And, he came to India to meet his family and relatives and to go to some pilgrimage. And then, when he went back to America, he went to his office and his office was already disappeared.
What had happened was, during that time, it was one and a half months, his company went bankrupt, the office was sold, and now something else was there. And somehow, he got a mail, but during that time, he had got dozens and dozens of mails, he overlooked that mail. So, there’s so much insecurity.
People say, you may lose your job. He lost his job, the office only disappeared. So, sometimes, there’s so much insecurity.
Somebody identifies a professional role, when you lose that, it causes great insecurity. Similarly, with respect to our relationships, we often get security by our sense of identity, by our relationships. So, especially in today’s world, when people want to form relationships, if some relationship doesn’t work out, it causes a great loss of not only emotional distress, but also, a lack of, a loss of self-confidence.
Something’s wrong with me. So, that can be very destabilising. So, I was talking about how emotional wounds can terribly distress us in today’s world.
And this is where the Bhagavad Gita offers a spiritual connection. No matter what happens to us in our relationships in this world, Krishna always loves us. Krishna is always there in our hearts with us.
Every one of us, He’s our well-wisher. He doesn’t say, I’m only the well-wisher of my pure devotees. Or even His devotees.
He says, I’m the well-wisher of everyone. He’s in the hearts of every single person, guiding the ventures of everyone. And, He doesn’t abandon us anytime.
No matter who else may abandon us, Krishna will never abandon us. In fact, there’s nothing that we can ever do which can make Krishna abandon us. So, that is the power of His love for us.
And, to the extent we connect with Krishna, to the extent we start developing our relationship with Krishna. Now, we have, as I said, various roles and various relationships in the world. And through our roles and our relationships, we get a sense of identity.
We get a sense of significance, self-worth. But, these are unstable. These are all in the horizontal realm.
And they can all shake anytime. But our relationship with Krishna is vertical. That is our terminal security.
To the extent we develop our relationship with Krishna, we practise bhakti yoga diligently, not just as a ritual, but we do it in a way that we develop our personal relationship with Krishna. Then, that personal relationship with Krishna becomes our security. So, the world will have its storms coming.
But, we will be sheltered in our relationship with Krishna. And we are sheltered in that relationship. Then, whatever things may go wrong, we will see that everything that I’m doing is a service to Krishna.
Whatever I’m doing, whatever relationship I’m pursuing, whatever career I’m pursuing, it’s all a service to Krishna. And sometimes, some services may work out, sometimes some services may not work out. But, even if nothing works out, still, Krishna is with me.
And my purpose is to serve Him. In the Kunti Bharani, it says, It says, just as the Ganga always flows towards the ocean, let my consciousness flow towards you. So, for all of us also, the various activities that we do in our life, our profession, our relationships, our various family responsibilities, these are all channels.
And through all these channels, we are offering our consciousness in service to Krishna. If we don’t see that ultimate connection, then that channel becomes like a dam. And, if we see my relationship is only with this person, and this person rejects me, if I say, I’m doing this career, I lost this chance, I lost the job.
So, if we think our destination is only in this world, I want this, and I didn’t get it, we just feel there’s a dam over there, and we get blocked. But if we see that every one of these activities that we are doing is a service to Krishna. And, when a river is moving towards the ocean, if one channel for the river’s flow gets blocked, the river moves along another channel.
The river itself doesn’t reduce itself to one channel. The river can move on. Even this channel doesn’t work, this channel.
This channel doesn’t work, this channel. So, this is actually what you can call as psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility means that sometimes if we have psychological rigidity, this is the way things have to work.
And if things don’t work this way, then we stop working. We just can’t do anything. But psychological flexibility means, okay, if it is not working this way, let me do it this way.
So, that psychological flexibility, which helps us to deal with life’s wounds, and which helps us to recover from life’s wounds, especially emotional wounds, that is what Bhakti provides us. So, for Arjuna, he understood, that okay, even if my relatives die, even if whatever happens, Krishna is with me, I am going to serve the servant. So, let me give this service.
So, once we get this understanding, this conviction, that actually I am a servant of Krishna. And whatever happens in life, I am going to serve Krishna. If we keep this conviction in our consciousness, and we get this conviction by the practise of Bhakti, then life’s blows may still come.
But those blows won’t hurt us that much. I conclude with one example of what I mean, that life’s blows will not hurt us that much. At a philosophical level, we understand that whatever goes wrong in our life, it’s ultimately because of our own past karma.
If somebody betrays us, charlatan, economic appeal happens, we lose our job. It’s all because of karma in the past. But Krishna is the lord of karma.
And Krishna wants to protect us. So, imagine there’s a small child, and the child is a stern teacher in the school. The teacher insists that all the children should do the homework.
And if the child doesn’t do the homework, then the teacher says, not done homework? Come, show your hand. On the hand. The stick.
The teacher beats the child. Now, today, the child has not done the homework. And now the mother knows.
At one level, the mother doesn’t want the child to suffer. But at another level, the mother also doesn’t want the child to become undisciplined. So when the child is going to school, the mother comes and puts nice thick gloves on both the hands of the child.
And then the child goes to school, and the teacher says, you’re not done homework? Come here, show your hand. And he shows the hand. The teacher beats the stick.
And a loud noise comes. The blows hit, but they don’t hurt. The blows hit, but they don’t hurt.
So similarly, we are all like that child. Material nature, with its own system of karma, is like the teacher. And Krishna is like our mother.
And the glows that Krishna gives us is Krishna consciousness. Is remembrance of Krishna. Is our understanding that I was so much a servant of Krishna, and I deserve Krishna.
If you become conscious of me, you will pass over all problems by my grace. What this means is, he’s not saying problems will not come. But you will pass over them by my grace.
So when we are sheltered in Krishna, that means we are internally secure. Krishna is with me. Krishna is my lord.
I’m his servant. Then, life may still send problems our way. But those problems won’t trouble us so much.
Why? Because we will be sheltered in Krishna. Going back to the metaphor of the river, if we have only one channel to move forward, and that channel is blocked, that means we will be blocked. But there are many channels.
If this doesn’t work, I’m still a servant of Krishna. Let me serve Krishna in this way. So when he does like that, what happens by that? Actually, we all can have a psychological flexibility to move on towards Krishna.
So, we may have to live with pain, but we don’t have to live in pain. We have to live with pain, in the sense that pain is a part of life. But, if we are too attached to something, if that one thing is everything for us, then pain will not be a part of life.
Pain will become the whole of our life. But when we see that, actually Krishna is the whole and we are his parts, and our consciousness focusses on Krishna, only one thing goes wrong, but still other things can go ahead. And through that, I can keep moving forward.
To conclude one story, this one devotee friend of mine, he was an engineer, he studied in Pune, did reasonably well in his company, and then he was also practising bhakti. And he tried to share with one of his close friends, but his close friend was not at all interested. He said, oh no, this is not the time for all this.
Not impious, but he didn’t feel this is needed. And somehow, this friend got a job in his first campus internship. And actually, this devotee had academically done better than this friend.
But this devotee, one company, second company, third company, he actually went through 21 interviews. And he got a single job. And then, finally in the 22nd company, he got a job.
Fairly good job. And then, when he met his friend, he also said, then well in academics, and he’s not getting a job. But what happened, finally he got the 22nd company, he got a job, his friend came and told him, I think I’ll also start practising more.
He says, what happened? He said, I had a job, so he was working on a job, this devotee almost had to go to 6-8 months and get a job before he got a job. He said, in the last 6-8 months, I saw that I had a job, and still I was in so much stress. And I said, you had no job, and I never saw you depressed.
So he said, there must be something in your life, which is giving you so much stress. So, when we go through difficulties, he had been trying to get, they were close friends, he had become a devotee, his friend had not become a devotee, so he was trying to make his friend into a devotee, but still not interested, they were playing with Krishna. So he said, at that time, when he, the day I got the job, he said, nice, I’m going to start practising more.
And now both of them become wonderful devotees together. So he said, at that time, when that happened, I understood why I didn’t get a job for so long. Because my preaching did not affect my friend so much as my living.
So he did not know. He was trying to tackle this issue, and suddenly he was concerned. He was trying to get a job.
But what purpose Krishna will serve, we don’t know. So, when we have this bigger purpose to life, that I am Krishna’s servant, then the blows that life sends our way, they don’t hurt us that much. We can move forward through them with greater resilience.
Whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through. Whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through. So I’ll summarise.
I spoke about the theme of why we need spirituality, why we need Bhagavad Gita in today’s world. So I started by talking about how people in today’s world put on a mask. The mask of pretending to be happy.
Although they are enormously distressed. They put on the mask because society considers unhappiness itself to be a failure. And even if people are having various other failures, they don’t want to act as if they are failures in their life.
So they put on the mask. But then this mask burdens them. Because they are internally wounded and still they are acting as if normal.
My hand is fractured and still I try to lift and re-weight. So when we are wounded and still I put on a mask as if everything is fine, then it distresses us further. We have to re-weight the distress.
And that’s why people need psychologists because they are lonely and they have a mask which they can’t remove in front of them. That’s why they go and find a psychologist and they remove it. And similarly, those in the renounced order they feel these people are not my competitors so they may remove the mask in front of them also.
And they share the distresses that they are going through. So everybody in life has distresses. And physical blows we can still treat.
Emotional blows, psychological blows are much more difficult to treat because they are not visible. And how do we deal with it? Psychological blows today is largely through entertainment. Just forget it.
Entertainment is basically a painkiller for forgetting the emptiness and the distressfulness of life. And this painkiller also needs to be increased more and more as the disease increases. Similarly, we see entertainment is becoming more and more compulsive more and more aggressive more and more expensive.
And still people are going crazy for it. Somehow the needs are being met. So technology can provide the entertainment but not enlightenment.
Not sense of meaning and purpose for our life. Technology can provide information but not connection. We have so many information about so many people in social media profiles.
But how much do we connect with them? I talked about how Arjuna also had a severe emotional blow. He was traumatised. How can I fight against my religious? And Krishna helped him to arrive at a decision by revealing his para dharma.
He told him, you are the dharma at the material level. Whether you are a Kshatriya or a Kurnandana. You are ultimately a soul within myself.
I am in that capacity. So, that soothed him. That gave him a sense of direction in life.
He understood that he got the connection with Krishna through the knowledge of Guru Amitabh. And he got the enlightenment that I am meant to serve Krishna no matter what happens. So the river always flows towards the ocean.
Similarly, our consciousness is meant to flow towards Krishna. And it will flow through different channels. Those channels are our roles and our relationships.
But sometimes, some channels may get blocked. So if we don’t have an ultimate vision, I am pursuing this relationship, I am pursuing this career, I am doing this activity. It’s all meant ultimately to serve Krishna.
If we forget that, then that channel gets blocked, our whole life will get blocked. And we will feel unbearably frustrated. But when we have this bigger understanding of life, if this doesn’t work, nothing works for us.
There are many channels in our life that give us psychological flexibility. And we all need a sense of self-worth, security and significance. And if we seek it through our roles or our relationships, we will sentence ourselves to enormous insecurity.
Because today the job situation is so insecure and relationships are so unstable. Infection is a great fear for people today. So we need security through our connection with Krishna.
This process of bhakti gives us a sense of spiritual identity and spiritual purpose. I am a soul who is meant to serve Krishna through whatever I do. And when we have that understanding, even when life’s sense blows, that time we can weather them, we can tolerate them.
This is the example of the globe. The light blows, the flies hit, but they don’t hurt that much. We may have to live with pain, but we don’t have to live in pain.
So ultimately, by the shelter of Krishna, whatever karma may get us through, Krishna will get us through. Not only will he get us through, but he will also, he may have some other plans by which he may help others through us. He may get a job for so long, but eventually he got a job.
But he was not disheartened. And through it, he enlightened others. So that long-term vision which comes by our connection with Krishna, that helps us to weather life’s rainy storms.
And thus we can move through our life’s journey more confidently, more purposefully, and ultimately more successfully. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Are there any questions or comments? So I live with devotees and find it very difficult to maintain my service attitude towards them. Can’t we live with devotees as we live outside with casual friends? If we are casual, we become casualties. No, what I mean by that is that actually, it’s not that we have to be artificial or super grave or super strict with devotees.
Service attitude simply means that we do what is required in that situation. Now, it’s not that when we live outside with casual friends, it’s a very functional kind of thing. You live here, I live here, we share the space.
But when we live with devotees, we also want to develop a relationship with the devotees and through the devotees with Krishna. So, in each interaction, each relationship, we have to find out what works the best. Some different relationships work well at different distances.
That means in every relationship, there is some expectation and there is some contribution. We expect the other person to do something and we do something in that relationship. And usually, relationships become strained when we feel that the expectation from us is too much and the contribution from the other person is too less.
So, sometimes you feel, okay, I’m living in a devotee association. I’m expected to do this also, this also, this also. What am I getting here? So, if we feel that the expectation from us is too much and then what we are getting from them is too less, that’s when these sort of thoughts start coming.
So, then we have to see what am I getting here. Ultimately, we are getting a spiritual environment. We are getting a culture which is conducive for our inner, for our higher values.
We are getting a deeper connection with many other cultured people. So, there are benefits of this and sometimes our mind may just say, this is too much, this is too much, this is too much. So, then if we feel like that, then we have to see what exactly is burdening us and address that.
Maybe I feel this is becoming too much. We can talk with some senior devotees and find out how it can be addressed. Service attitude doesn’t mean that we are going to be exploited.
It just means that we become a little more flexible in the way we live. And some things become too much of a demand. Then we can always ask senior devotees and we can get something adjusted.
It’s not that difficult to do that. But the principle is that we have to see sometimes our mind only sees unexpected do this, unexpected do that, unexpected do that. The mind doesn’t see what all we are getting.
When we start seeing what all we are getting, we say, okay, this is not too much of a price for it. So, having said that, ultimately, I was doing a relationship seminar in India and I asked a devotee, I asked the devotees, when we live in a devotee community, devotees, we have to tolerate many things. So, what all do we have to tolerate? So, one devotee was enthusiastic about it.
Yes, we have to tolerate devotees. So, I said, yes, it is a good realisation that we should tolerate devotees. We should not just retaliate against devotees.
We should not abandon, reject devotees. We should tolerate them. I said, but as we advance, we will also realise that devotees are tolerating us.
So, yes, there are some things which are difficult to tolerate, others find difficult that they have to tolerate. But if we have a service attitude, we see that through all this, we are growing spiritually. We are growing towards Christianity.
If we reduce our relationship with others only to the reciprocal interaction between the two of us, then how is that different from a continuity relationship? We see that actually whatever I am doing in this relationship with this person or that person, I am not only doing it for that person, I am also serving Krishna to others. Suppose there is a a cloth mall, a cloth shop where there are many clothes, and there are customers who come in and there are attendants who show the various clothes to the customers. Now some customers are very demanding.
They may look at 100 pairs of clothes and they not take anyone. And then attendants get frustrated. They have to tie all the clothes and put them all back in the rack.
Now, suppose the customer does this again and again in the mall. Then what will happen? Normally when a customer comes, all the attendants won’t attend. Because they will get some discount, they will get some pair, then they may see.
But sometimes some customers come and all the attendants go away. Now suppose there is a difficult customer like this and then there is some attendant who remains very polite and courteous, although that customer is very attitudinal. Now at the end, despite the politeness, the customer doesn’t take the customer with any product and just goes away.
Now this attendant may get frustrated. But the attendant also knows that my salary is not coming from this customer. My salary is coming from my boss.
And there are cameras, here my boss is watching. So now the customer may not make the sale, but the boss observes and says, you know how to deal with tough people. Therefore, I will make you in charge of this whole building.
You take care of the difficult customers and you take care of the others also. So in the sense of that interaction, there is a feeling, there is frustration. But in terms of the bigger picture, there is success.
Sometimes in some relationships for us, there may be some people who are very difficult. And some people simply make too many demands from us. So you see, I try to have a service attitude.
I am not just serving this person. I am serving Krishna to this person. And even this person doesn’t reciprocate.
So Krishna will not. And Krishna will do all. So when you see that way, then it is easier to maintain that service attitude.
At work, my female colleagues come physically very close to me and that makes me agitated. So even if I don’t want to, how do I deal with when this answer remains over? Yeah, it’s a difficult situation in general. I think there are 2-3 different factors over there.
First is that agitation is a function of imagination. Agitation is a function of imagination. So for example, suppose this is the home, this is the office.
And there are 2 people who go from this home to the office. In between, there is a bar. And one of them has drunk alcohol regularly.
It’s almost like alcohol. And the other has never drunk. Sorry.
So, then when the person passes by, the person who has never drunk, they are not feeling agitated. The person who has drunk regularly, they feel, let me go and drink. Oh, I can have a drink.
Maybe this drink is there. Maybe that drink is there. And the person will start worrying and feel the imagination a lot.
So, agitation is caused not just by the stimulus. It is caused by the imagination that is associated with the stimulus. And the stimulus triggers the imagination.
That is when the agitation happens. If the stimulus doesn’t trigger the imagination, then the agitation won’t happen so much. So, now, in youth, it’s just natural that hormones are running around and the imagination is active at this time.
So, in a sense, this agitation is not unnatural. There is a devotee who wrote to Brahmapada and said, Brahmapada, I am sexually agitated. And Brahmapada said, even Brahmaji is agitated.
Everybody is agitated in this world. So, having said that, it’s not, what I am saying is, it’s not unnatural. It just happens with everyone.
And nobody, you can say, is completely free from this agitation. Everybody has their struggles. The important thing is, when the agitation happens, there are certain thresholds.
Those thresholds should not get crossed. So, now, how do we deal with it? Basically, we have to try to minimise the imagination. The stimulation, we can’t remove.
Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says, when he is talking in 3.36 to 3.43, he talks about kama. And he says, where is kama situated? So, it’s interesting. He doesn’t say that lust is situated in the sense objects.
He says, lust is situated in the senses, the mind and the intelligence. Indriyan manobuddhi asyarishthayam uchyate. etanir mohe tesha jnanam avartate jnanam.
That means, it is not that the female colleagues, they are the cause of our agitation. They are the trigger for our agitation. The cause is the mind, senses and intelligence themselves being filled with, being taken over by lust.
So, what do we do about it? We can’t control the externals too much. And sometimes we may just be seen as asocial or things may be things may be very unusual. We may find it very difficult.
First time when I went to America, after a college programme, one girl, she liked the programme, she wanted to shake hands. I didn’t know what to do. So, anyway, I just shook hands at that time.
But last year, what happened was, I went for a college programme and there was an American girl, she asked this question. So, she asked, you know, why do religions fight among each other? And I gave her a narrow answer explaining how three motor machines are there with people in different modes. So, after that she came and she said this question burdened me for so long.
I thought religion was good, but I saw there was so much violence in the religion. She said, your answer is unburdening and so grateful. Can I give you a hug? So, now, there was a devotee, she was an American girl, she didn’t know anything.
So, there was a devotee, so I looked at him and then he said, he is a monk, on his behalf you can hug me. Then, his wife was there and she said, I am his wife, on his behalf you can hug me. So, this is the parampara of protection.
So, everybody faces this problem. So, it has to be practical, if you can minimise the imagination, then the stimulation will solve a lot of problems. And you can try to, how do you minimise the imagination? See, imagination also happens and we can’t we can’t suppress it, we need to redirect it.
So, if there are some other things you like to do, something which are more healthy, something which are more holistic, you may like to do some service in the temple, you may like to learn some skills, you may like to do some other positive things in your life. So, we try to give our imagination that direction. When the imagination becomes busy in something else, then we don’t even notice.
So, basically, we need, we can’t control the environment. But what we can try to do is, we can’t even repress our desire, the hormones are there in this image, so we can’t get rid of them, but we can redirect the imagination. To the extent, we find something more stimulating for our imagination, to that extent it helps.
So, we can find out in the Ujjwal Neelamani. Ujjwal Neelamani is a book which is an advanced version of Bhakti Samyak Samyak, which describes how to stimulate Bhakti for Krishna. So, there he, Bhupa Goswami, uses the word called Kuddipan.
Kuddipan means spiritual stimulus. So, just as we can have sensual stimulus, we see certain things and we get agitated. As for alcoholics, a bar will be a sensual stimulus.
For a greedy person, sight of money will be a sensual stimulus. For somebody lusty, sexual objects will be a sensual stimulus. So, all of us have different stimuli which agitate us sensually.
Similarly, in our own personal spiritual lives, there can be spiritual stimuli which attract us spiritually. Some of us may like coupons, some of us may like details, and not just coupons, some of us may like a particular detail by a particular devotee, a particular cue, some of us may like a particular darshan of Allah, a particular picture of the deities, a particular address of the deities, some of us may like particular verses, some of us may like to hear the classes of particular devotees, some of us may like to note down some striking philosophical points. So, these are all our Ujjwal.
These are what? Stimulate us spiritually. So, if we find out what is our Gupal, what is our spiritual stimulus, and then we keep that spiritual stimulus as accessible as possible for us. So, when the mind starts imagining this, this, this, this, then at that time, try to have that spiritual stimulus.
So, if you have a picture of the deities, and they have a nice picture of the deities, look at those deities and look at that and try to visualise the form of the deities. Look at them. Give the thoughts, the desires, the imagination, a more spiritual direction.
And in this case, it is not zero-life. Is it a chance that Krishna will go? It may, it may not. Because we have to basically redirect our consciousness.
So, what will help us to redirect our consciousness? That will vary from person to person. So, if we take inventory of our own spiritual life and find out what is Gupal and what is best for us, then the agitation caused by such external environments can be decreased much more. And last point.
So, first I said imagination is the problem. Second I said is that we have to find a spiritual stimulation. And thirdly is that ultimately although the mind imagines a lot, if we do a philosophical analysis, ultimately everybody is a person like this.
Tamal Krishnamaharaj, he was a sanyasi but he went to Cambridge and did his studies and he asked many of his disciples, Brahmacharis, to do PhDs. So, one of his disciples asked him that way. So, there were Brahmacharis living in strict separation.
They went to colleges and suddenly in colleges there was a culture of free mixing. Very difficult. So, one of those devotees, who is now a scholar, he told me that Tamal Krishnamaharaj said that we should learn to see women as just people like us.
Just physically they are different. So, when we focus only on the physical difference, we get agitated. You see, they are just people like us.
When we focus on that aspect that they are souls, they are people like us, just the physical differences are there. Physical differences, we cannot deny them, we cannot minimise them. But we don’t have to use them with the physical differences.
So, that is something particularly over a period of time, when there is too much separation between men and women, then the mind also gets a lot of imagination working. When we start working for some time, then what happens is a habituation develops. And then your imagination also goes up.
So, functionally, we have to see that we are all people and we are all trying to work in a particular environment. So, over a period of time, initially the mind’s imagination may be very high, but over a period of time, we just keep working, keep doing what is required. See, the imagination is usually a function of unusual stimuli.
That means that if some stimuli becomes more and more commonplace, then the imagination starts going down more and more. So, imagine, oh, lifelong, I haven’t given this imagination, I haven’t given this talk, I haven’t given this talk, as we become as we become habituated to certain stimuli, then the imagination and agitation goes down. So, we can also intellectually help ourselves in the habituation by saying, oh, actually it is not just all people.
I can give you a specific perspective, we are souls. Even if you can’t see us, we are souls. We are just human beings.
We are all working together. So, we don’t focus on the physical differences. And that will happen, it won’t happen immediately.
It will take time. But as you keep working, the habituation with something decreases the imagination about that thing. And over a period of time, it will become more manageable.
So, don’t make it into a too big an issue. It will come, it will stay for some time, it will go. Okay? So, let me stop.
Oh, how many? Anything else? You had something? Yes, question. You want to make some comments about this, put this answer? If you want to add something, something practical. Yes, sir.
Yeah. Okay. So, you know, many times in our, at least I can say for myself, in my life, I have a situation where where I I have strong belief that if in this situation I don’t act in a egoistic way, I am, it is a loss, I am going to lose it.
Or it’s a failure for me. You know, if I don’t don’t become, in this situation, if I don’t become bossy, or I don’t act in a way that I boss around this person, I can’t get on top of this person, then I am a failure. Or if I don’t if I don’t strive to satisfy some greed or or if I don’t satisfy or strive to get some kind of entertainment, then I am not, you know, I am not done enough, I am not, so I am not.
And then in that, so then you think, oh, then you then we have heard, you know, that Chandigarh Krishna or whatever, then at that time mind thinks, oh, what was that going to do, you know, how was that satisfied, but I have such a strong desire to do this now. Okay. So if we have a strong desire to do something, we may try to be aggressive in a particular situation to get something, or we may desire that I need some, I want some entertainment right now.
So at that time Chandigarh Krishna doesn’t seem to help. So what do we do? See, there are different kinds of desires we have. And we have to see what is the, what is going to be the result of the desire.
Each person is an individual. There are three aspects to it. We have our own personality, we have our desires, and we have the situation.
So now, desire is just a normal part of life. We often give the example of itch. If you scratch an itch, it will become worse.
But, that is not always the case. If you already have a rash, and that time if you scratch an itch, then the rash worsens. But so many times you might do, I just get a small itch and I scratch, it’s over.
It’s not that you’ll be able to keep scratching for the rest of your life. Isn’t it? So, there are many desires, which are just routine desires. Today I feel like eating this.
Today I feel like doing that. You know, we don’t have to go into too much analysis. Oh, this is a matter of desire, this is that, this is that.
It’s not really deviating as much from our overall purpose in life. Sometimes I get the urge to scratch and I say, I’m not scratching. I’m talking with someone and there’s no attention.
I’m not scratching. I feel like scratching. I’m not scratching.
I feel like scratching. I don’t want to scratch. I’m not talking with them at all.
The dialogue in our mind is, scratching is a scratch and move on. So, in that case, in a normal situation with healthy skin, scratching is not a big issue. It’s when there’s a disease or if I keep scratching so much that it causes a rash or already there is a rash and then I scratch, then it becomes a serious problem.
So, there are many desires, which you may have and fulfilling them may not cause much trouble. It is a routine part of life. You do it and you move on.
And not doing it causes more agitation than doing it. So then, dharma avruddho bhūteśu kāmasmi. I am kāma, that is not contrary to dharma.
Kāma can specifically refer to sexual desire or it can refer in a generic way to kāma refers to ambition, to desire in general. Generally, when devotees do business, there are devotees, some devotees have started Artha Forum. They are trying to reach out to top business people in Mumbai, London and other places.
So, one of the reasons I gave a talk in Artha Forum, so he said that, when does our professional ambition, somebody is a CEO of a company, somebody is a top mark in a company, so when does the ambition become green? When the ambition crosses the boundary of ethics. So, ambition is kāma, dharma is ethics. When ambition makes us give up our ethics, that is when it becomes green.
But when the ambition is within the ethical boundaries, it is not green. So, it is just like our body is meant to grow. All of us were invisible organisms at one time, but now we have millions of cells in our body.
We have grown so big now. So, growing is a natural part of our body, natural function of the body. Similarly, we all want to grow in various aspects of our life.
We want to grow socially, we want to grow emotionally, we want to grow financially, we want to grow in terms of status in society. Growth is a natural function in life. The problem comes not when there is growth, the problem comes when there is disproportionate growth.
Cancer is also growth in the body. But it is a growth that destroys all other growth. So, when one thing becomes such an obsession that we neglect everything for it.
I want to get to the top in my company. And for that, I become a workaholic. I neglect my family, I neglect my health, I neglect my spirituality.
I am a stamper on everyone. Then, that is obsession. That will be destroyed.
So, when there is proportionate growth, it is not a problem. Now, I was talking about first, the desires. To grow is a natural desire of the human.
Then, second part, I will talk about the situation. Where I am in, what is the effect of fulfilling this desire? Is it causing disorientation, disruption? It is going in the proportion of my life. So, in the Mahabharata, when Narbuni comes to me to register, Narbuni asks, how are you? And the way he asks, he says, are you pursuing Dharma, Artha and Kama in balance? He says, don’t pursue Dharma at the cost of Artha and Kama.
Don’t pursue Artha at the cost of Dharma and Kama. And don’t pursue Kama at the cost of Dharma and Artha. So, in today’s language, Dharma is in terms of our spirituality.
Artha is in terms of our financial security. Kama is in terms of our relationships. And our, say, home, family, growth, whatever.
So, Krishna says, pursue all of them in balance. That’s what Narbuni said. So, growth is not a problem.
It is disproportionate growth that is a problem. So, our situation, the particular desire, and our own disposition also matters. In the 18th chapter, Krishna tells Arjuna, the characteristic of one of the Ramayana is Shanti.
Shambho dhamma tapasho dhamma. Shanti laarja vamee vacha. Just be peaceful, be forgiving.
But in the next verse, Krishna has the characteristic of Kshatriya is yuddhe chaapke apalayanam. When there is a conflict, the Kshatriya doesn’t back out. Fight it out.
And that is considered to be a virtue. So, that means, what is a virtue for a Brahmin and what is a virtue for a Kshatriya? So, Kshatriya means forgive and forget. Move on in life.
Kshatriya is a martial guardian of society. And Kshatriya has to administer justice. And sometimes, for administering justice, a strong stand has to be taken.
So, we all have particular dispositions. And if, in a particular situation, we feel that I have to take a stand over here. I have to throw my weight around.
We can do it, but we do it in a mood of service. We can even be controllers in a mood of service. We can be controllers in the service of the Supreme Controller.
When we become parents, we are taking care of our children. At that time, we have to discipline children. Do this, don’t do this.
Parents are basically controllers of their children. But they are controlling the service of the Supreme Controller. The spiritual master is a controller.
Spiritual master is controlling. Do this, don’t do this. They are controllers in the service of the Supreme Controller.
So, some of us, by our psychological disposition, may have a need to control. Now, we can say, everyone has a controlling mentality. But it’s interesting, Krishna said, ईश्वरोह महं भोगी In the 16th chapter, the 15th verse, he says that this is a demoniac mentality.
They think I am the controller. But, the same Krishna, in 18.43, says, ईश्वर भाव is a quality and a laudable quality of a Shatana. It’s just as daksha, resourcefulness, heroism.
Similarly, ईश्वर भाव. Now, how can ईश्वर भाव, how can the controlling mentality be a virtue? In society, somebody has to take charge. Somebody has to be a leader.
So, those people who have the qualities to be leaders, then they have to take that. But they will not move their rule. Is the ईश्वर भाव being used in the service of this Parameshwar? Or is it being used to themselves become the Parameshwar? So, if we have a particular lead, then we have to act accordingly.
We can’t just suppress ourselves. So, if we have that assertive nature, then we need to create for ourselves the space where we can assert ourselves. So, basically, when we work in a particular setting, in a particular situation, if we need to assert ourselves, then we need to have the facility.
Not that we are going to dominate and control and exploit others. But that is the space we need. And different people need different kinds of space.
Somebody may need a relational space. Somebody may need an intellectual space. This is the way I understand this.
Somebody’s misunderstanding is not right. No, no. This is the way I understand it.
So, my understanding may be different from somebody else’s understanding. And they may consider my understanding wrong. But I can quote Shastra to support my understanding.
I can quote Mursad to support my understanding. And I need the intellectual space. This is the way I understand it.
So, all of us have particular needs. And accordingly, we need to create the space for ourselves where the need to assert according to our own disposition is challenged. Do you answer the question? So, let me know what time we should go on.
Whether we need… I am trying to find out. What time? Those two are tomorrow, sir. Okay.
You know, if God is one, then why should we follow the Bhagavad Gita? If Bhagavad Gita says Krishna is supreme, then why other people in the world follow other gods? Isn’t God one? Yes, God is one. But people’s conceptions of God are many. And there is God who is the eternal God.
God is the eternal supreme person. But different people have different conceptions of what is supreme. So, the Bhagavad Gita offers us a multi-level access to divinity.
That means, what it says is, if you consider different religions, outside the Vedic tradition, say, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, they also talk about one God. And I have an article called Krishna Consciousness and Christianity Comparison. So, many of the attributes of Krishna are described in the ten chapters of the Bhagavad Gita.
I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all things. It’s similar to what is described about God in the Bible. I am the Alpha and the Omega of all things.
So, actually, if you look at essential attributes of Krishna and, say, of Jehovah or Yahweh or Allah or whatever, you find that many essential attributes are similar. So, the same one God is being worshipped. But it is being worshipped in different ways.
Different ways means, Bhaktivinoda Thakur writes in Chaitanya Jiksha Amrit that according to people’s cultures, according to people’s language, according to people’s mentality, according to people’s spiritual level, the same one God reveals himself in different ways and provides the facility to rise from where they are towards the middle. Now, there will be differences of course in different religions and even within our own tradition. Within the God Hindu tradition also there are differences.
But these differences are secondary. There is, in every religion there is esoteric and exoteric aspects. Esoteric is internal, exoteric is external.
So, different religions may offer respect to God in different ways. In our tradition, we fold hands. And the Christians may raise their hands.
And the Muslims may raise their hands. The Christians may offer mass. So, the expression is different but the emotion is the same.
There are these two movies in Bollywood which were satires on religion, OMG and PK. So, I wrote small books responding to the questions which those movies raised. So, I have answered this question about the difference of religions elaborately over there.
So, exoteric aspects may sometimes not just be different, they may be opposite also. Whenever I travel all over the world, I spend a lot of time in America, and whenever I am going for a programme, quite often, I just go to the wrong side of the car. Because in America, the driver sits on one side, in Australia, UK, India, the driver sits on the other side.
So, when I am going, I forget where I am. And I end up not on the different side or wrong side of the car. So, now, the way people, the side of the road which people drive in America, the way side of the road which people drive in India, it’s not just different, it’s opposite.
So, the rule is opposite. But the purpose is the same. The purpose is the regulation of traffic.
The purpose is the smooth and safe travel for people. Similarly, there may be some specifics in different religions which may be different. And to the extent that some may even be opposite.
But, those are external. Internally, the purpose is one. The purpose is the elevation of consciousness.
This doesn’t mean that every path that everyone is following is going to elevate their consciousness. You have to see specifically what they are following, what they are believing, and how it is effecting them. But in general, the Bhagavad Gita’s understanding is that mamo vartaman vartante manushyaha paath samshaya All people are on my path.
Some people say, all paths lead to me. This is not the translation of the Gita. Prabhupada says that if all paths lead to Krishna, then why does Krishna have to speak anything? Whatever you are doing, it will come to him only.
It doesn’t work like that. There are all people are on my path. There is one journey of consciousness which starts with material consciousness and rises to spiritual consciousness.
And along this journey, different people are on different levels. So, they are all following something by which they will be rising upwards. How much they rise, how long it takes to rise, that will vary from person to person.
In general, if we see others practising their religion, that surely causes insecurity. Why are they following this path? Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, in Chaitanya Chakravarti, that if we see somebody, if we go to a place of worship of some other religion, and there we see somebody, there we see God being worshipped, or some worship happening. He says that we should be there in a mode of reverence, thinking that the same God whom I am worshipping is manifesting himself here.
He is so compassionate that he is manifesting to these people in a way different from what I am. Because their conception and their form of worship are different from mine. So, I can’t understand this way.
But seeing how that Lord is so merciful, that he is attracting these people in this way, my attraction to the Lord in the form I know is increasing. That means if we see Muslims doing namaz diligently at that particular time of the day, just think, they are doing their prayers so diligently. So, God is attracting them through that.
So, let me also devote myself to God. So, that way we can elaborate subject for those of you interested. I have a series of lectures on Krishna Consciousness and World Religions.
So, I discuss about each religion, each religion in the world. Elaborate the entire history, the philosophy, and what similarities and differences are there. In essence, we are all on the journey of consciousness.
From material consciousness to spiritual consciousness. Thank you very much.