​Our material needs are like painkillers – necessary but not sufficient

​Home program in Singapore

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Jai. Today evening I will discuss from the Bhagavad Gita on the topic of how our material and our spiritual needs they interrelate. The basic theme I will be talking is our material needs are necessary but they are not sufficient.
Our material needs are like painkillers. And our spiritual needs are like the curative medicine. That will be the basic theme.
Normally if a patient is sick and is in pain at that time the doctor gives a balanced programme of some pain medicine by which the patient is offered immediate relief. At the same time the doctor does not stop with that. The doctor also gives curative medicine.
And the pain medicine can offer relief but it doesn’t cure the disease. It only actually covers the disease. It doesn’t cure, it covers.
And if the patient thinks that whenever I take this pain killing medicine I feel better, my pain goes away. So what do I need to take any curative medicine for? Relatively speaking the pain killing medicine is much cheaper than antibiotic or any curative medicine. The patient may think why do I have to spend so much money? I just take the pain killing medicine and I’ll be alright.
Actually the patient may seem to be alright but internally the patient’s condition is becoming worse and worse. So similarly we see in the world that all of us, we have material needs. We have food, we need food, we need water, we need health, we need various bodily necessities.
And say if we are hungry that is a state of misery. It can be a state of great intolerable misery. At the same time satisfying our hunger in and of itself is not a lasting solution for three reasons.
Firstly even if we satisfy our hunger the hunger is going to recur after a few hours. Secondly we may solve the problem of hunger but hundreds of other problems are there which will still keep troubling us. And thirdly the very problem of hunger decreases.
Thirdly even when there is the concern about eating food we eat food not just for sustenance we eat food also for pleasure. And when we eat food for pleasure sometimes the pleasure motive overrides our eating so much that often what we eat is unhealthy. An old Egyptian saying is that one-fourth of what you eat maintains you.
The remaining three-fourth maintains your physician. Laughing Laughing Laughing So quite often we end up overeating and there is a whole lot of problems because of that. As per WHO statistics there are 800 million people in the world who are undernourished.
But there are 1000 million, 1 million people who are obese. So more than number of people who are having problems because of lack of food more than that number of people who are having problems who are having problems because of having eaten too much. So what does this mean? This means that that which is often said is an absolute necessity that necessity is definitely food is a necessity for our living.
But when food instead of being perceived as a necessity for living is made into a source of pleasure and a primary source of pleasure at the expense of everything else then that very thing can become the cause of misery. Lakshmibhagavatam talks about this as the reverse effect principle. Viparitams cha Viparitams Reverse effect principle means that whatever it is that we think will bring us happiness that very thing causes us unhappiness.
The search for happiness is often the cause of the greatest unhappiness. The search for happiness is often the cause of the greatest unhappiness. Now why does this happen? We look at this based on a story from the Mahabharata.
A set of incidents from the Mahabharata. Now the Mahabharata is essentially a family drama. The two cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas and the Kauravas repeatedly wrong the Pandavas and despite whatever atrocities were done against them first they tried to poison Bhima.
Then after that Can we leave this? Can you come ahead otherwise? Everyone can come. Can you switch this? So Am I audible? So first Duryodhana tried to poison Bhima then somehow Bhima survived. Not only survived, he became stronger.
Then the Kauravas tried to have the Pandavas burned alive in the Vanavad forest and yet they survived. Not only survived, Arjuna and the Pandavas married Draupadi and they formed an alliance with Drupada. Panchala kingdom was the second most powerful kingdom, almost equal to that in power of the Kurus.
And then Dhritarashtra realised that I cannot just antagonise the Pandavas now that they are allied with such a powerful family. Therefore, he decided to split the kingdom into two and give half the kingdom. But then it is like say a father has two companies and one company is flourishing and the other is bankrupt.
And the father gives, I will give both of you one-one company. It’s one-one company but it’s utterly discriminatory. So like that, Khandavprastha was a barren land and Dhritarashtra gave it to the Pandavas.
Pandavas still accepted it and by Krishna’s mercy and the Pandavas’ diligence, Khandavprastha was transformed into a prosperous kingdom, Indraprastha. And then the Pandavas performed the Rajasuya Yajna and there Duryodhana came to seek. Duryodhana also came to, because they were all part of the same family, so Duryodhana came for that Yajna.
Bhishma, Pitamah, all the elders came. Dhritarashtra said, no, it is difficult for me to travel because he was visually impaired. So he couldn’t come.
Now when Duryodhana came there, he, from his childhood, he was a pampered child. Because initially, for the Pandavas had gone to the forest and it was thought that because of a curse, Pandavas may not be able to have any children at all. So then it was expected that Duryodhana will become the next king.
And that’s why everybody would pamper him. And he had become basically a spoiled child. There are, especially the parents are very well-to-do in a family.
And the children often develop an entitlement complex. Entitlement mentality. I’m entitled to have this, I’m entitled to have that, I’m entitled to have that.
And then, if one thing doesn’t go according to their will, they throw a big tantrum. So like that, Duryodhana, he thought that I was entitled to become the next king. And then, when suddenly the Pandavas came back, and the Pandavas were much more cultured, much more gentle, much more respectful, much more virtuous, and the whole, all the courtiers and the citizens practically fell in love with the Pandavas.
These are wonderful people. And Duryodhana felt himself terribly sidelined and slighted by that. And that’s why, he felt my life mission is to get a kingdom, and get a kingdom in such a way that the Pandavas are shown to be lesser than me.
I want to parade my superiority over the Pandavas. Now, at that time, the Pandavas, the prosperity that they had got in the process, that was entirely self-created. Self-created means, of course, the Krishna’s mercy.
But they had not taken anything from the Kauravas. And the Kauravas themselves were also very prosperous. But, when Duryodhana saw the sheer amount of gifts that the Pandavas had got, and the scale of the grandeur with which the whole celebration took place, his heart started burning with envy.
Now, when his heart started burning with envy, all of us have certain weaknesses. We know that around certain people, if you know that, I spend too much time with this person, I tend to become irritable and snappy. And then, when we speak certain words, some people, intentionally or unintentionally, they just end up pressing our buttons.
And then, in their presence, we just start exploding. So, if we know that, if we know our weaknesses, it is our responsibility to avoid exposing ourselves unnecessarily to those weaknesses. Now, it is said that, if a person is having, say, a problem of excessive alcoholism, then, it is their responsibility to avoid going to places where people take alcohol.
Some other people might just go for a party and they may not get caught in that. If somebody has a weakness in India, they have to take caution themselves. Now, Duryodhana did the exact opposite.
He went for the Rajasuya India and he saw a huge amount of opulence and his heart was burning with envy. But, when everybody else left, instead of leaving, he decided to stay on. So, his staying on there was like, himself he put fuel in the fire of envy that was burning in his heart.
And then, further incidents happened after which, I won’t go into the details of those incidents, but basically, he left in a huff, feeling insulted, feeling denigrated by the Pandavas, although it was just circumstantial. He slipped and fell. And it was just, the Pandavas had no animosity towards him.
But, it was just a casual joke. But, he took it very seriously. When, psychologists call this attribution error.
Attribution error means that we see a particular behaviour and based on that behaviour, we attribute a particular motive to that person. And, what motive do we attribute to a person? That depends on what is our opinion of that person. You know, if we like someone and if we find that they are eating a lot, we say, he must be hungry.
If we don’t like someone, and we say they are eating a lot, he’s a glutton. It’s the same action, but, based on our opinion of that person, we look at the action and we attribute a motivation. So, in this way, our attribution reinforces our opinion of that person.
The way we attribute a particular motivation to them and in that way, we make things, we make the misconceptions further. So, when Duryodhana slipped and fell in the Maya Sabha, he thought there was a flat land, he saw there was water. He just slipped and fell.
And, it’s just a humorous thing. No one has to take it seriously. Pandavas laughed, but Yudhishthira said, don’t laugh.
They all just laughed casually. And, he said, you know, he imagined as if they were all just waiting to see me fall and they were waiting to laugh at me. Nothing like that.
Just a casual incident. And, they were relatives. It’s not such a big thing.
But, he made it into such a big thing. So, what happened is, he wanted to prove that I am superior to the Pandavas. But, he thought that the Pandavas wanted to prove that they are superior to me.
And, now when I fell like that, they laughed at me. In this way, they are trying to brandish their superiority over me. So, he felt insulted and he just left.
Shakuni was there with him. Shakuni also left. And, then they went to Dhritarashtra.
And, at that time, while they were coming along itself, Shakuni made a plan. He said that you cannot get the Pandavas kingdom back by fighting against them. Nor can you ever perform a sacrifice of this scale.
But, you can invite them for a gambling match and I will get their wealth. Then, they started thinking, how will we persuade Dhritarashtra to agree to this? So, then Shakuni said that I will do the needful. Shakuni went and he told Dhritarashtra that O king, do you not know that your son is in terrible misery? He is breathing heavily.
His fist is clenched. He is scowling. He is in mortal agony.
Dhritarashtra was very attached to Dhritarashtra and he actually had a further paternal concern. He said, O son, what is the matter? And, Dhritarashtra replied, What man can be happy when he sees that his rival is better than him? Dhritarashtra asked, What is the matter? Tell me. I saw that the Pandavas had such prosperity, such opulence that our opulence is nothing.
Dhritarashtra tried to pacify him. He said, How does that matter to you? You have a huge palace. You have opulence.
You have horses. You have elephants. You have servants.
You have a queen. You have your family. What the Pandavas have, how does it matter to you? Be satisfied with what you have.
He says, It is impossible for me to be satisfied. He says, Whatever I see, immediately, if I see my chariot, I think, what is the chariot of the Pandavas? If I see my palace, if I see my necklace, I think, what is the necklace of the Pandavas? And in this way, I stay perpetually dissatisfied. We live in a world where there is huge amount of advertisements.
Advertisements are so common in today’s world that we may not even realise that barely 200 years ago, there were practically no advertisements. The only advertisement would be that maybe if a vendor is going along the road, he or she will shout, please have my wares. Have these fruits or something like that.
No advertisements at all. And even 100 years ago, the advertisements that were there, were primarily advertisements meant to which promoted the product based on its quality. You know, it is this function, this function, this function, therefore, you can take it.
But in the 1920s, Sigmund Freud was a prominent psychologist and psychoanalyst. He created a branch of psychology called psychoanalysis. And he postulated that humans have a rational side and an emotional side.
Like, we have a rational intelligence, but we have a huge amount of emotional side. So he says, our rationality is like a small canoe. Canoe is like a flat bed board and our emotionality is like a vast turbulent ocean.
And he said that if normally our rational intelligence can guide us to act, but if our emotions are activated, then the emotionality overthrows our rationality and we end up acting irrationally. Now, his ideas were taken by the advertising industry. He said, rather than trying to appeal to people’s intelligence to make them take the product, appeal to their feelings.
Appeal to their feelings and if their feelings are triggered, then they will immediately take the product. And a large number of advertisements today, they operate on this principle. I once saw an advertisement of a car.
This was showing this young man driving a car and there is a young girl looking very admiringly at him. And from behind from another house, there is a neighbour glaring. And the advertisement said, he says, buy this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes.
Now, what kind of standard of enjoyment is this? Enjoy the envy in someone’s eyes. We are all meant to be happy, but there is a far higher standard of happiness than simply trying to make others envious. But unfortunately, when we have a materialistic conception of life, material things are necessary.
We need food, we need wealth, we need house, we need certain level of comforts. But when we make them, we elevate them from a necessity to a source of happiness. Food is a necessity, but when we make it into a source of happiness, and not only a source of happiness, a primary source of happiness, wealth is also a necessity.
But from necessity, if we make it into a source of happiness, and we perceive it as a primary source of happiness, then that very pursuit of wealth becomes the primary cause of misery for us. And this is what happened to Duryodhana. That he, his whole conception of progress, success, happiness in life was, how much prosperous I am.
And when he saw that someone else was more prosperous than him, he just couldn’t tolerate it. And then he went to such atrocities. Somehow or the other, trying to show the Pandavas down.
And at the end, what happened? He was himself down. He was destroyed. So the material side of our life, it is important.
No doubt. At the same time, I said that, the material side, it’s a necessity, but when we try to make it more than a necessity, we make it a source of pleasure. Then that very thing becomes the source of dissatisfaction, the source of misery.
Later on, when the Pandavas are in exile, after Draupadi has been dishonoured and the Pandavas have been dispossessed of all the kingdom, Dhritarashtra is gripped by immense remorse. Actually, his remorse is not so much because of the wrong that he has done. His remorse is because of the fear of the consequences that will come because of the wrong.
If the Pandavas are angry and the Pandavas have taken vows to take revenge, what will happen to them? So at that time, Vidura tells him that, oh Dhritarashtra, when did the kingdom give you happiness? In fact, Vidura makes the same argument eventually at the end of the Kurukshetra war also. And he says when you did not have the kingdom, you were craving. When will I get it? When will I get it? When you had the kingdom, you were worried because you will lose it.
Because you were afraid the Pandavas will come back and they will take it away. And now that Vidura and your sons have been killed, now you are lamenting that you don’t have control over the kingdom. So he says, when did this kingdom actually give you happiness? It’s never.
Neither before having it, while having it or after having it. So before we have it, we crave for it. … … … … … The Bhagavatam says that when we hear about Krishna, … when we hear about Krishna, … Krishna was the supreme person.
What happens by hearing about him? … Bhakti, that is devotion to him awakens when we hear about him. And when that devotion awakens then what happens? … … means destroyed. What all are destroyed? … So there is grief, lamentation, there is illusion and then there is fear.
… … … … … … … … … … The first thing is, when we don’t have it, we are in the illusion that getting it will make me happy. When we have it, we have the fear that I will lose it and when we lose it, there is a lamentation that I have lost it. So in this way, essentially, if our consciousness is caught at the material level, where our definition of happiness is in material terms only, then essentially, there is either illusion, there is insecurity, or there is lamentation and essentially, there is no happiness.
Although there is a hope for happiness, the hope never materialises. This is how we can understand from our practical perspective that we have material needs but when we make the material needs into the goals of our life and we think that they are going to be the sources of pleasure for me, then they, far from giving us pleasure, they become the source of misery. They are actually painkillers.
Painkillers are needs. If I am sick, I am in pain, I need a painkiller and to not give a painkiller to someone when they are in pain, that is not proper. A doctor has to be a painkiller also.
But if the doctor gives only the painkiller, that is also wrong. So in the Vedic culture, there were four Purusharthas, that is Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. So when Maharaja Yudhishthira is the king, at that time, Narad Muni comes to meet him in his palace and Narad Muni, he asks him questions.
Normally when we ask people, how are you, he says, we are greeting. So the sages, when they would meet, they would ask, how are you, it is not just a state of affairs. The state of living determines our state of affairs.
So he asks a more fundamental question. He says, are you pursuing religion, pleasure and profit in proper proportion? Religion is Dharma. Profit is Artha.
Pleasure is Kama. Kama is not the sensual pleasure, Kama is the holistic satisfaction of desires. So he says, a person who pursues pleasure at the cost of, say, wealth and religion, such a person suffers.
There are people who are, just for example, there are students who may get into college and then after college, they get into a job, but they are so much into partying and drinking and thinking that they are enjoying, that often they ruin their health, they ruin their career, they ruin their finances, the pursuit of pleasure at the cost of everything else. Similarly, some people, some people who just pursue pleasure, they can become alcoholics. They just drink and drink and they think that at the bottom of a bottle lies the solution to all problems.
But at the bottom of the bottle is where they end up, because of their addiction to it. So one is the indiscriminate pursuit of pleasure, which leads to alcoholism, but we can go to the other extreme. There is another form of addiction, which is quite common, which is actually the prestigious addiction.
The prestigious addiction is workaholism. There is alcoholism and there is workaholism. Workaholism is where people work so much that their work itself becomes that obsession and they have no time for their family, they have no time for their own health, they have no time for religion.
They are just unidimensional performing machines they become. Nothing more than that. Just unidimensional performing machines.
And when they become like this, they may become phenomenal achievers in their life, but they are not satisfied. Often, when we seek anything material as an escape way from the problems of life, some workaholics say, oh, my work is a very spiritual place. My office is a spiritual place for me.
Now why is the office spiritual? Their office is spiritual because their home is like Kurukshetra for them. If we don’t give enough time for our family members, we are not emotionally available to them. Then there is a conflict in the family, the children become unhappy, the spouse is not happy.
And then what happens, one feels, oh, things in home are so disorderly, better let me spend more time at office. And one is, in this way, anything material, now work is important. Working in a responsible way, doing justice to our talents, performing is important.
But when we make that itself the goal of life, again there is imbalance. So just as, now we have these two aspects of our life. We have professional life, personal life.
Success in professional life cannot compensate for failure in personal life. Somebody will become, rise to the top of the corporate ladder. But if they say, children turn out to be drug addicts, what happens when they fail? So success in one field cannot compensate for failure in another field.
It is far better to have moderate success in all fields than to pursue disproportionate success in one field and end up with utter failure in another field. So just as these two fields are not interchangeable, the professional and personal are not interchangeable, similarly our material side and our spiritual side, they are not interchangeable. Now success in material life cannot compensate for failure in spiritual life.
Just like, if a doctor gives me painkillers and doctor gives me medicine, I very diligently take the painkiller morning after evening. But I don’t take the medicine at all. Just taking the painkiller diligently, that is not going to cure me.
I may feel, yes, things are okay because the painkiller is covering the disease. But internally the disease is worsening. And eventually the disease, it is going to manifest in a very ugly way.
As it worsens, eventually a time will come when the painkiller itself will not work. And that’s why any form of addiction, when people get into addiction, they have to increase the quantity of the addiction. Why? Because it’s like a painkiller.
When I take painkillers, the painkiller provides some relief, but internally the disease is worsening. And because the disease is worsening, then I need further doses of painkillers. That’s how, anything that, at the material level if we seek relief, we’ll simply want more and more and more and more of it.
And that more will never be enough. Why will it not be enough? Because what we don’t have is not the problem. What we think we should have is the problem.
That is, I think that, oh, I don’t have this car. If I just get that car, then I’ll be happy. But even if I get that car, some other car is going to come.
The problem with the rat race is that even if we win the rat race, we still remain rats. Even if we win the rat race, we still remain rats. Because basically, the definition of success still remains the same.
Always there is something outside which we want to keep getting. The point is not that we should not pursue material things. But to pursue material things as the primary purpose of life, that is a serious mistake.
And Bhagavad Gita offers us a balance. Arjuna was a warrior, and Arjuna was actually thinking that let me renounce the world. But Krishna told him, no.
He said, no need for you to renounce the world. But rather, he said, renounce the illusion that the world will be the source of happiness for you. Because if Arjuna, at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, he was thinking that, oh, if I fight this war, my relatives may die.
Then that will be a great source of misery for me. But if I don’t fight, then I’ll not have the freedom. Then I’ll be defeated.
I’ll be disgraced. That will also be a source of misery for me. So Arjuna was in what in corporate language is called as a lose-lose situation.
Do this, you’re still losing. Do that, still you’re also losing. He didn’t know what to do.
Krishna told him, Krishna changed his definition of success. He says, you don’t fight because you want the kingdom. And don’t avoid fighting because you don’t want the kingdom.
He says, you do your duty for a higher purpose. Svakarmanatam abhyarcha siddhim vinnati manavah. In 18.46 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, By your work, worship me.
And by worshipping him through your work, you will attain life’s perfection. Now, worshipping him through your work doesn’t mean that work is worship. If work itself is worship, then the donkey will be the greatest worshipper.
Work itself, work is worship is a good principle as far as talking about the dignity of all labour is concerned. That all people, whatever work they do, they should be respected. That is a valid principle.
But it is not a philosophical principle. Philosophically, work can be made into worship. Work is meant to be used to worship the Supreme Lord.
And that requires cultivating a mood of devotion. And that’s why we need time for exclusive spiritual activities. It’s like we come for satsang now, or we study the scriptures, we do kirtans, we do japa, we have an altar in our home, and we spend some time in praying.
So this direct connection with God, direct connection with Krishna infuses a mood of devotion in our heart. And with that mood of devotion, when we do other activities, whether it is our family responsibilities, our professional responsibilities, we carry that mood of service. And then when we do these activities, we can do them diligently, we can do them responsibly, but we are not labouring under the illusion that these things will make me happy.
Yes, I may get a great salary, I may get a big promotion, that’s good, if I get it, if I have the talent, I should use it, I should get it. But I won’t be thinking that this is what will make me happy. I’ll conclude with one point.
In the Vedic terminology, there are two words, there is abhyudaya and there is nishreyas. Abhyudaya is achievement, and nishreyas is fulfilment. Achievement is external.
Fulfilment is internal. Materialism, a materialistic worldview, makes us believe that these two are equivalent. That makes us think that achievement will automatically bring fulfilment.
Oh, if I achieve, if I get a big house, if I get the latest car, if I achieve this promotion in my job, if I get this, then that will bring me fulfilment. But achievement and fulfilment are two separate things. Achievement automatically doesn’t bring fulfilment.
Achievement is the acquisition of something external, and the fulfilment is an expression of something internal. When we are internally living a life that is in harmony with who we are, then we get fulfilment. So when, at our core, we understand that we are parts of Krishna, and that our nature is to love and serve, when we become devoted to Krishna, and we reorient our life in a mood of devotion to Krishna, then we get fulfilment internally, irrespective of whether we get achievement externally or not.
And when we are fulfilled internally, we also work externally diligently, because we are motivated by a mood of loving service. And then we get achievement also, but that achievement will not be at the expense of fulfilment. Rather, the fulfilment will propel us towards holistic achievement.
That’s the balance programme, where we don’t pursue the painkillers. The painkillers are a part of our life. Material needs are essential, but we don’t think that they will cure us.
We understand that it is the curative medicine for the soul. The curative medicine is the connection with Krishna. It is the process of Napti Yoga.
And we make that as the primary driving force of our life, the mood of devotional service to the Lord. And that acts as a curative effect on our heart, that brings us fulfilment. And the material needs, they, to whatever extent we need them, we pursue them, but without the notion that they will bring us happiness.
So, abhyudaya is not to be equated with nishreyas. Achievement is not the same as fulfilment. You pursue fulfilment first, achievement will follow.
Pursue achievement first, we will never achieve enough. Because whatever we achieve, something more will always be there to achieve. And we will never have fulfilment either.
Yoga bhavati dukkha. In 6.17, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that yoga, by the practise of yoga, bhavati dukkha. The way to become free from misery is by the practise of yoga.
And the best yoga the Bhagavad Gita recommends is the process of bhakti yoga. So, I’ll summarise, then we can have some questions. I started by speaking about how our material side, our material needs, they are necessary, but they are not sufficient.
They are like painkillers. And if a patient thinks that, oh, just my painkillers, my pain is going away, why do I need to take the medicines? That patient is fooling oneself. Similarly, in our life, our material needs are like painkillers.
And not having them causes suffering. Not having food causes suffering. But having food itself does not relieve us of misery.
We have so many other problems that come up. We have so many other needs that are there. And more importantly, when we start pursuing food itself as a source of pleasure, then that food becomes the cause of misery.
We discussed how more the number of people who are undernourished, 800 million, more than that is the number of people who are obese, that is 1 billion. So the very search for happiness often becomes the cause of the greatest unhappiness. And this principle applies in whatever we seek at the material level as our source of pleasure.
And then we discussed how this is what happened in Duryodhana’s life. He thought that acquiring wealth, acquiring material prosperity, and trying to get it not just as a necessity, for a king it is important to have prosperity, but he wanted it more than the Pandavas. And that made him give up his morality, give up his ethics, he acted atrociously.
And on top of it, still he was not satisfied. Never satisfied. And Vidura told Dhritarashtra that when we pursue material things as our source of happiness, when we don’t have it, there is the illusion that when I get it, I’ll be happy.
When we have it, there is the fear that I’ll lose it. And when we lose it, there is lamentation. And this level of existence, the hope that happiness will come, but happiness never comes.
This level of consciousness is further aggravated in today’s world through the advertising industry, which triggers our emotions, and tries to catch us by triggering our emotions and making us seek more and more things, simply with the illusion that getting those things will make me happy. And then we discussed about how the Vedic culture offers a balanced programme of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Naksha. So the material and the spiritual are all to be pursued in balance.
And just as if one pursues pleasure too much, they will become alcoholics. But if one goes to the other extreme and pursues profit, worldly recognition, fame too much, they become workaholics. And success in one field of life, success in professional life, doesn’t compensate for failure in personal life.
Similarly, success in material life cannot compensate for failure in spiritual life. Success in material life can bring achievement, but a success in spiritual life can bring fulfilment. And achievement is neither equivalent to the fulfilment, nor is achievement a substitute for fulfilment.
So when we infuse our heart with devotion, by practising devotional activities, then we carry that mode of devotion in our works. And with that intention of devotional service when we work, through our various activities, that becomes a balanced programme. Our direct devotional activities are like the medicine, and other things that we do in our life for living respectably in this world, they are like the pilgrims.
They don’t become the source of misery, rather they become a part of the balanced programme by which we find fulfilment in this world itself. What to speak of next when we become liberated from material existence. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions? How can we overcome envy? How can we overcome envy? Usually the envy is towards those who we think are equal to us. Or who we think are at the same level. We don’t become envious of the President of America, or the Prime Minister of India, or anyone of that level.
Why? Because this is completely out of our scheme. So usually our envy is towards those whom we think I should be superior to them, but they are superior to me. Now, primarily the envy comes because we in life think that our happiness depends on externals.
That if I get these things, if I get these more than them, then I’ll become happy. So, at a philosophical level, we need to recognise that these are not the sources of happiness. There may be some titillation, some gratification, some pleasure, but it is very superficial.
That is, when we acquire material things, when we get some material pleasures, there is pleasure. But that pleasure is very external. Sometimes when there is a small child, the relatives may come and the relatives may tickle the child.
The child is tickled, the child may laugh. But is that laughter happiness? The child’s laughter on tickling is not happiness. If that were happiness, and we all want to be happy, so we all could have our own perpetual tickling machines.
We could have our perpetual tickling machines and we could all be happy for the rest of our lives. Happiness doesn’t work out like that. We understand that even if the child is laughing, that’s very superficial.
So like that, for us, acquiring material things, or acquiring material things more than others, that itself is not going to give us much happiness. There’ll be a little happiness, but it’s going to be temporary. And that’s why, first of all, philosophical understanding of our nature and where our search for happiness will be fulfilled.
Philosophical understanding is important. Along with that philosophical understanding, at a practical level, we need to avoid unnecessarily focussing on what others have. Like Guruvar Dhana, he had no business staying on in the Prastha after everyone had left.
So exposing ourselves to things which can be within us, that is also not proper. We should take precautions if we find that we are invasive. Better not expose ourselves too much.
But more importantly, if we recognise that actually, whatever whoever has, that is a gift given by God to them. And the real happiness that we get, Krishna is Krishna’s greatest blessing. Krishna can give wealth, Krishna can give fame, Krishna can give position, and they are His blessings.
But they cannot give lasting happiness. When Krishna manifests in our heart, and our heart becomes enriched with devotion for Him, that is what will give us a lasting happiness. So if we see that this is a blessing given by Krishna, then our focus shifts from them to Krishna.
And our connection with Krishna is not based on what He has given us. Our connection with Krishna is based on what we are giving Him. That means, if somebody has been given a lot of wealth, does that mean that person is very dear to Krishna? Not necessarily.
That will be because of their past karma or whatever reasons. Our connection with Krishna depends on what we are offering to Krishna. So, somebody may have a lot, and they may offer a little.
And with their lot, they will be only in a lot of illusion. They will not have a lot of happiness. We may have less, but what we have less, we use properly.
In a mood of service to Krishna, that less can give us greater things. To give a simple example, suppose after this programme there is prasad, there is a feast. But suppose there is a special feast, where everybody is going to have their own plate with their own delicacies.
Everybody has separate items. Now, I have a feast in front of me. There are many delicacies here.
But instead of looking at my plate, I am looking at everyone else’s plate. Oh, they have got that. Oh, they have got that.
You have a feast. Eat it. Enjoy it.
So, actually, what we need for our happiness, Krishna has already provided that. What we need more, if we work, we will provide that also. So, rather than worrying too much of what others have, rather than craving for the delicacies in others’ plates, we focus on relishing what is there in our plate.
We will find that therein also we will get happiness. So, if we see that this is there, then we will say, why are they having it, why am I not having it? But if we think that this is given by Krishna, and basically, the happiness comes by not what they have, but what they do with what they have. So, rather than craving for what others have, we focus on relishing what we have.
That means, we accept the gift that we have, develop those gifts, and try to use them properly. And by that, actually, in the Ramayana, there is a story of how when Rama was building the bridge, there was Hanuman who was carrying giant boulders, and there was a squirrel who was taking some sand particles. And Rama said, I am equally pleased with both of you, but according to your capacity, I am not.
Similarly, it is not that greater material prosperity on someone is necessarily a greater blessing of Krishna. That’s also a blessing, but the greater blessing of Krishna is not giving greater material things. The greater blessing of Krishna is giving the greater intelligence to use what we have in His service.
And that is an intelligence which we can all get if we study the Ramayana properly, and orient our life in a mood of service, actually. Any other questions? I have an understanding, and please confirm it if I am correct, and then I have a conclusion later on, which you can confirm if my understanding is correct. So, my understanding is like, which the whole Gita also precise that to achieve eternal happiness, we should have control over our senses, our needs, what we always acquire for something new.
So we have to control our senses. This is my understanding. Then I see a lunatic guy who is totally out of control, he cannot control his senses, so should I believe that lunatic guy is eternally happy, because he is not having any needs, any satisfaction, he is not having control of his senses, so he is eternally happy, because he does not have any quest to achieve more of something, he is not greedy, he is happy.
So we need to control our senses to be happy, because we have so many desires, but if somebody is mentally unstable, is lost in one’s own mental world, they don’t seem to have any desires, and they seem to be happy in their own world. So are they actually happy? Quite often, we equate happiness with a present or a temporary state of being, but the temporary state of being alone doesn’t comprise happiness. It’s like a person may drink, and after drinking, they may think they are enjoying life, but how long? They think they are enjoying, but afterwards, the hangover is going to come.
So we can’t just isolate the present from the past or the future. And based on the present state itself, how should we define who is happy or who is not happy? So a state of drunken intoxication is not pleasure, although it may appear temporary. Similarly, a person who has lost control over one’s mental faculties, and that person is living in an imaginary world, they may seem to not have cravings, they are lost in their mental world, but that itself is not pleasure.
Why? Because that also is a temporary state. They are also souls, and they are living in physical bodies right now, but this life is temporary. And they are not going to live in this way forever.
There is a future life, and based on the way they are living, that future destination is going to be accordingly determined. That is the first point. The present state is not necessarily the permanent state of happiness, and it is not authentic happiness at all, even if it appears to be happiness.
Second thing is that even people who are mentally unstable, it is not as if all of them are all the time lost happily in their own world. I am coming from Melbourne, so I went for one of the programmes, there was an Australian nurse, she has been a nurse for 20-25 years. She read one of my articles, and she came to Melbourne Temple.
She is a nurse for mental health, and she said that people who are mentally unstable, they go through wild mood swings, and today they may just appear to be so happy, that you may feel that they are happier than me, but the next day they may just become violent. It is one thing if they become violent against others, maybe a number of people are required to control them, but it is quite another, they may become violent against themselves. So often they become suicidal, they become maniac, and they need to be affected.
So even if somebody who is mentally unstable, or mentally lost right now, seems to be happy, that is not necessarily the state always. Even within that state also, there are various moods in which a person goes through. The third thing is, that for us as souls, the primary goal is not to control our senses, or to control our desires, the primary goal is to direct our desires, is to direct our senses.
In 2.61 he says, that how do we control the senses? By fixing the consciousness on them. The point is not just to control the senses, the point is to direct our heart towards Krishna. The senses, they drag us in various directions, wherein they promise pleasure, but in the end they give misery.
So that’s why we say, control the senses. Unnecessarily, if a person thinks, I’ll eat and be happy, but then they eat a lot, and then they get all kinds of diseases. So control your eating.
Excessive indulgence in the senses, that causes misery, even at a material level, but if we make our goal itself, even controlling the senses, that is not a very stimulating or satisfying goal, because that is primarily based on negation. Don’t do this, don’t do this, don’t do this. We may, even if we succeed, it’s difficult to succeed, but even if we succeed, there is no satisfaction in not doing something.
So the point of the Bhagavad Gita is that, our dissatisfaction is not caused by our attachment to worldly things, our sufferings, our bondage, it is not caused by our attachment to worldly things. Our suffering is caused by our attachment to Krishna. To the extent we become attached to Krishna, to that extent, we become happy.
na praharishet priyam prapte na vijet prapti cha priyam sthira buddhir samudho brahma vid brahmanistha In 5.20 in the Gita, Krishna says that, sthira buddhir, one with intelligence is steady, brahma vid brahmanistha, the person knows spiritual reality and the person is actually situated in spiritual reality. And the next verse says, sukhena brahma samskarsam atyantam sukham asnityam By contact with Brahma, contact with the spiritual reality, which is Krishna, sukhena brahma samskarsam atyantam sukham asnityam that is the ultimate happiness. And for gaining that ultimate happiness, bahi sparsheshva saktatma vindakyatmi sukham bahi sparsheshva saktatma one is detached from external pleasures.
So we need both. We need to control senses. But again, as I said, one extreme is to think that I need material things to become happy.
The other extreme, it is the same material mentality, I need to give up material things to be happy. That is also not the solution. There are three broad margas, paths given in the Vedic literature.
One is the karma marga, the other is the jnana marga and the third is the bhakti marga. On the karma marga, people romanticise the world. If I get this, if I get that, oh my life will be so wonderful.
So in karma, people romanticise the world. In jnana, people demonise the world. This is a place of entanglement, this is a place of misery, this is a place of danger.
Painted in the darkest, dreariest, most negative colours. But in bhakti, we utilise the world. We don’t romanticise it, we don’t demonise it, we utilise it.
So our senses, if we think that they are sources of pleasure, that will cause us misery. But if we think that they are the sources of misery, and therefore I have to absolutely control, dominate them, that is also not sustainable, that is not going to give us any satisfaction. But we utilise our senses.
The senses and the ability that we have physically, they are all meant to be used in a mode of service. And to the extent we use them in a mode of service, to that extent we gain satisfaction. So the mentally unstable people cannot do this.
And that is why, although they may appear temporarily to be happy, it is basically an illusion. Just as a person who is intoxicated may think that they are happy. But that is not going to last for long.
So rather than just looking at surface appearance and thinking that are they better or are they better, we need to understand that happiness is essentially an inner harmonisation with our essential nature. And that happens when we practise mindfulness. Does that answer your question? That was the answer.
I don’t easily get satisfied by the answer, but I did get satisfied by the answer. This will be my second time. Last year, in June, you were in Melbourne.
Oh, you were there that time? Yes, I was there that time. Oh, that’s right. At the work, we have to show a lot of passion.
Even though we are grounded in the process, we should be around the company of the manager, we should do a good show, we should run after things. You said that when you endeavour for the painkillers, you have to draw the line. How do you balance that? How do you do the show that you have to do? At work, we have to show a lot of passion, especially if you are in a leadership position in a company or in a profession.
But if this is a painkiller, then we have to draw a line. So how do we draw the line? First… How will we identify that line? So how do we identify that line? Where we should draw it? The first thing is, in terms of analysis, analysis is separating, dividing something into its components. Synthesis is uniting things together.
So in terms of analysis, we need to separate our life into material and spiritual. So that we give due time to the spiritual. So that we have time for, say, worshipping the deities, hearing the Bhagavad Gita, chanting the holy names.
But having done that, having made sure that we give due time for our spiritual side, after that we don’t have to constantly be differentiating this is material, this is spiritual. For a devotee, everything can be spiritualised. And if our purpose of life is to serve Krishna, then even our material, professional, family, all these things are also spiritualised in their intention.
When Arjuna was practising archery, he was not thinking, what is archery? He was diligently practising. To what extent was he practising? We know the famous story that, one night when suddenly the light went dark, the lamp got extinguished by a gust of wind, he could still eat. He thought, if I can eat in dark, why can’t I shoot in the dark? That’s how he practised.
That’s how he attained expertise in shooting targets in darkness, shooting invisible targets, more specifically. And that proved a decisive, critical skill eventually, in the Kurukshetra war. So, when he was doing his Kshatriya dharma, he did not cut corners there.
He was not just minimising it or denigrating it as material. He did it diligently. Yudhishthira Maharaj, he did the Ragasuya Yajna.
Now, to do that Yajna requires a huge amount of effort. What is its purpose? He, as a devotee, if he was celebrated as the king of all kings, then he glorified that. Krishna is the supreme person.
People would take him seriously. So, just as he tried to excel, he was a king, so as a king he tried to excel. One way to excel as a king was by performing the Ragasuya Yajna.
So he did that. So, it’s not that, as devotees, we are not meant to be ambitious in material life. It is not that we are not meant to be zealous, diligent.
The word passion has a negative connotation in the bhakti philosophy. But the idea of the drive to achieve something, if we separate our material life and spiritual life entirely, then we are actually limiting the scope of Krishna. Krishna doesn’t exist only in the temple.
Krishna is there at our home, Krishna is there in the office also. yathah pravrttir bhūtānāṁ yena sarvam idam katham svakarmanātma-bdhyarcya siddhim vindati māmavaḥ So, I just quoted this verse, 18.46, by your work, worshipping. But who is that lord whom we are worshipping? Krishna talks about two things.
yathah pravrttir bhūtānāṁ, from whom everything has come. yena sarvam idam katham, by whom everything is pervaded. What does this mean? Krishna is saying that I am not existing in the spiritual world and you think that you have to do spiritual activities to worship me.
The material world also comes from me. I pervade the material world also. Therefore, by your work also you can worship me.
svakarmanātma-bdhyarcya So, as devotees, when we are doing our profession, we should do it diligently. And we shouldn’t constantly think that this is material, this is spiritual. When it needs to be done, let’s do it wholeheartedly.
Doing it in a mood of devotion. What should not be done is, because I am doing my work in a mood of devotion, there is no need for me to do any bhakti at all. That will not work because when we are doing our worldly activities, although in intention they are spiritual, in association they are not spiritual.
Because we are having materialistic association at that time. Materialistic environment is there. And that will erode our spiritual desires.
We may start with the intention that I am doing this for Krishna. But over a period of time, our ego, our pride, our greed may take over. That’s why we need time for devotional activities.
We need time for serious devotional activities. But, once we have given time for devotional activities, the remaining time we can focus wholeheartedly in doing whatever we are doing. Now, regarding drawing the line, that also has to be done according to time-place circumstances.
That means, let’s suppose, say, if we are travelling, like we were coming here and we got caught in a traffic jam. So, if we get caught in a traffic jam, there is a lot of congestion and the vehicle moves slowly. But, once the road gets cleared, the vehicle moves fast.
We need to make sure that the vehicle moves fast. So, like that, we are basically going in the right direction. But sometimes we move slower, sometimes we move faster.
So, like that, sometimes in our material life, there will be congestion. Too many things come up at that time. And we need to give time for those things.
So, at that time, our spiritual life may get relatively slowed down. But, after that, it’s not that in our material life, there are constantly emergencies. Constantly problems keep coming up.
But the problems are not emergency-level problems. So, if constantly emergency-level problems are coming up, then that means we have overloaded ourselves too much. See, in our material life also, it is natural to want to grow.
It is natural to be ambitious. But, say, if I have muscles, by which I can lift up 10 kg weight. If I try to lift 11 or 12 or 13, I can still do it and my muscles will grow.
But if I have the capacity to lift up 10 kg and I lift up 25 kg, that is going to cause a breakdown of my muscles. So, like that, when we are working in our life, in our professional life, if we find that we are constantly in anxiety, constantly we are firefighting, constantly there are emergencies, that means we have got into something which is not compatible with us. We just got into things excessively.
Then we may have to cut some things down. But, it is not that we are meant to be lackadaisical or we are meant to be apathetic in our material life. Whatever time we spend, we spend it wholeheartedly.
And sometimes we may need to spend more time. But, overall, our life should be directed towards Krishna. And the exact proportion, that will vary from person to person.
That is something… Bhakti, as we practise it, bhakti-pareesha-anubhava-virakki-ranya-tricha. The practise of bhakti gives us paraeesha-anubhava. It gives us experience of Krishna, who is transcendental.
And when we get that experience of Krishna, that is so fulfilling an experience that virakki-ranya-tricha, one becomes detached from other experiences. One does not crave for other things. So, there is, what can be called as, organic renunciation.
Or naturally emerging detachment that comes. So, if we are young, and if we have a lot of drive to achieve, artificially restraining ourselves, will not be sustainable. Now, what exactly will be artificial restrainment? That, we will have to observe over a period of time.
That means, if we are at a crossroads in our life, and we are thinking, should I do this or should I do that? Should I take a higher paying job, which is also having more demands? Should I take a lower paying job, which is less demanding? This is something which is a major decision, and we cannot take it on the impulses, or just on our feelings. We need to observe what is our overall temperament. So, for taking major decisions in our life, it is good to do some kind of writing down, to do some kind of journaling, where we write down the pros and cons of doing this.
Why do I want to do this? What are my apprehensions about doing this? Write it down systematically, and when we get things out of our head, that itself brings some detachment, and objectivity in our thinking of those things. As long as they are inside our head, maybe I should do this, maybe I should do that. We just keep going round and round, and they consume our mental space.
Get it out, and keep it written down. So, when we write down our apprehensions, and our aspirations, put together, that becomes like a snapshot of our mind. We take memories, physical camera, we take snapshots, but we take a snapshot of our mind.
And then, after one week, after one month, after three months, after six months, if we again write down, we don’t have to write everything down, but basically, any additional thought that comes up, we write down. And then, after six months, we see that, consistently, this is what has been my feeling. Then, that is not just a passing impulse, it is the stable state of our mind, that is our temperament.
But if we find that, now I am feeling like this, after one week, I feel something different, then I start to know, all these factors also have to be considered. Then, after one week, I see something else also. Then, gradually, we accumulate that, and then think in a more detached way, in a more objective way, not a silly detached way, we are detached from those feelings, and then we arrive at a mature decision.
So, that line of how much is enough, that is something which we have to, no doubt we use Shastra, but we are all individuals, and we have to make that decision, based on what is best sustainable for us. It is something like eating. How much to eat, nobody can tell us.
Should I take two chapatis or four chapatis, should I take five chapatis? There is a little imbalance in their eating, and they get upset. There are other people, who treat their tongue like a conveyor belt. And still, they seem to go on nicely.
So, they are physically different. So, what will be a healthy diet for different people? Even in the Pandavas, Bhima’s diet was phenomenal. When Draupadi was married, Kunti told her how to serve food to the Pandavas.
She said, whatever food you get, make it in two divisions. One division goes to Bhima, and the remaining is divided into five. And you will all take it.
That’s how they would eat. That was Bhima’s meal. And Kunti did not tell it in the mood of making fun of Bhima, that you are eating so much.
That was his meal. So, all of us are different, and what will be the line for us? That is something which we, observing ourselves consistently over a period of time, can learn. Thank you very much.
Shreemad Bhagavad Gita Ki Jai! Shree Prabhupada Ki Jai! Douradhakta Vrindaki Jai! Jai Dour Pramana!