Overcoming discouragement in life

Retreat at Ballarat, Session 5

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Since we will be talking, I will just briefly talk about discouragement and fighting discouragement in our life. So, the Ramayan is Itihas It is a description of events that happened long ago. At the same time, Mahavacharya in his Vedanta Sukta commentary explains that the Itiharsas are not just Itiharsas.
He says that the Itiharsas can be understood on three levels. There is the historical or the liturgical. Then there is the ethical and then there is the metaphorical.
So, historical or liturgical means just hearing the stories of the Mahabharata Ramayan that unifies us. So, Eke Kaksharam Kamsa Mahabharata Anakshatam In the Ramayan, Mahavacharya said that one letter can remove this society that will purify us. So, we hear it and we are purified.
But along with that, there is a literal level of it. Understanding the Ramayan. Along with that, there is also the ethical level.
Ethical level means we understand that there are certain ethical choices that the characters in the Ramayan had to face. And they made certain choices based on the situations they were in. Some of the choices were right, some of the choices were wrong.
And by understanding their reasoning, we can also get guidance in terms of principles for facing the ethical challenges that we have in our life. So, for example, in Vrishan, he chose to leave Ravana. Or Ravana, despite Buddha himself.
He tried to have that Sita. So, all these are decisions which they made. And some of the decisions backfired on them.
Some of the decisions were very good. So, we learn from them how we should act in our life. So, one is, just here, we will be purified by him.
The second is, we hear and understand the ethical principles involved. And we learn principles for our life in our own lives. Although our dilemmas are not exactly the same, but they are similar.
The third, he explains the metaphorical level. Metaphorical level means that the characters in the Ramayana can represent certain things. It’s like he says, Ravana represents lust.
So, he says, Ram cut off the head of Ravana but the head kept coming back again and again and again. So, like that, we may think that we destroyed lust, but lust keeps coming back again and again. And finally, when Ram hit the arrow in the heart of Ravana, that is where the lust was killed.
So, like that, we need to not just destroy the head of the lust. We have to remove it at the root. The heart is where the desire stands.
And we need to purify the desire. So, he is often using symbolic or metaphorical essence in his teachings. Now, Srila Prabhupada cautioned very strongly about metaphorical interpretation because some people use the metaphorical as a substitute for the literal.
That means some people feel, Amaral, Krishna, he asked him to fight. I think it’s so bad. Why would God ask him to fight? Therefore, they say, actually, this Kurukshetra is simply a metaphor.
Kurukshetra represents the human body and the Pandavas are fighting. So, they are having good desires and bad desires. So, they use the metaphorical as a substitute for the literal.
And that Srila Prabhupada alleged. But, metaphorical as a supplement of the literal is perfectly fine. Prabhupada himself says that, for example, the six sons that Kamsa had before, that Devaki had, and they were killed by Kamsa, they represent the six Anantas.
The six Anantas are good for Maharaj, and the Guru appears, the well-grounded one, and after that, Krishna appears. So, Prabhupada also gives metaphorical explanations at times. So, Govind Raj is a prominent commentator in the South Indian tradition of the Ramayana.
And he explains, that Sita represents the soul, Ravana represents the mind, and Lanka represents the body. So, when the soul turns away from God, then the mind captures the soul and traps it in bodily consciousness. Just as in Sita, she was no longer with Ram, then Ravana came and abducted her, and trapped her in Lanka.
So, Lanka is in the body. So, when the soul turns away from the Lord, soul has to look for pleasure somewhere. The mind has to look for pleasure in the body.
And that’s how we get trapped in bodily consciousness. And when we are trapped in bodily consciousness, for Sita, she remained faithful to Ram. She was constantly waiting for Ram.
And Ravana tried various strategies. You know, sometimes some police arrest some criminal or some suspected criminal who might have witnessed something. And in order to break down the criminal, the police used what is called the good cop-bad cop routine.
You know, good cop means, when a good cop comes along and says that, first he says bad cop to me, now when the bad cop is threatened, beat up the person. Threaten him to beat or threaten him, beat him a little bit. And then the good cop comes along and the good cop says, hey, bad cop, I don’t know why the bad cop is stopping you.
But you know, he needs some evidence. So, give him some information, then I’ll make sure he doesn’t do it. So, what happens is, both of them have the same mission, but they adopt different approaches.
On one side, the promise of relief, on the other side, the fear of retribution, the fear of pain. By this, they try to break down the witness. So, Ravana basically adopted something like good cop-bad cop routine.
So, what he did was, he had some of his very deformed, hideous looking Rakshasis. And they would come and threaten Sita, that, if you don’t give yourself to Ravana, then he will kill you. He will eat you up for breakfast, after all he is a Rakshasa.
So, on the other hand, there were also some other Rakshasis. For example, Vibhishan was a devotee. He was a pious person.
So, Vibhishan’s wife was there, Sharama was there, and then others were there. So, they came there and they threatened Sita. Initially, as long as Vibhishan was there, at that time, Vibhishan was with Ravana only.
So, at that time, Ravana did not suspect Vibhishan’s wife also. But, later on, when Vibhishan went away, his wife was there, and Sita and they had become friends. And initially, Ravana had told her, that you should allow her to surrender to him, to give herself to him.
But they befriended each other, and after they befriended each other, at that time, now Ravana thought, these two are just women, what can they do? So, he did not separate them. They meet, but they can’t do anything. That’s what he thought.
But, as he was trying various ways, he himself came and threatened her, I will kill you, if you don’t surrender to me, don’t give yourself to me. But, Sita was not ready to give in at all. And finally, Ravana said that her hope lies in Rama.
So, he says, as long as she hopes that Rama will come to receive her, she is not going to give herself to him. Therefore, he got one of his demons, named Vidyut Jwala. And he wrote Vidyut Jwala to make her, make a form similar to Rama.
And he made the form, and he brought it in front of Rama, and then he brought it in front of Ravana, and Ravana cut off his head. And then, after cutting off the head of that form, so the head was in one hand, and the torso was in the other hand. And he marched towards Sita, to Ashok Vati, where Sita was kept.
And then he told her, you said that you are going to, that Rama will come and receive you? She says, my demons have already gone and killed her. And they crossed over the ocean, and after crossing over the ocean, they were so tired, they fell asleep at night. And at night, my Prahastha and my army went and slaughtered all of them.
And they crossed. Rama’s head right in front of her. And they crossed Rama’s body in front of her.
And Sita, when Ravana came charging towards her, she was beautiful. And when she saw, Rama’s head right in front of her, falling in front of her, she was devastated. And crying.
She said, alas, alas. She said, how has this happened? It is at the time of my marriage, as she always told me, that I would never become a widow. How could Rama kill her? She looked at her, she looked exactly like Rama.
She was shattered. Now, Sita’s overflowing emotion was so intense, that Ravana was already taken aback for a moment. And then, before he could speak, Sita turned and appears, and I’m running down to her and says, you know, what difference does it make now? Whether I live or whether I die? He says, that let light a funeral pyre and the same pyre where Rama dies, let me also enter over there and die.
Ravana said, no, this is not what I wanted. So Ravana, he was like, alas, what has happened to you? Actually, Ravana was, what in modern psychology, you could call an alpami. So he couldn’t counter the idea that any woman would reject him for some other man.
And that’s why when he came also, he came to Sita, he did not directly fight with Rama, because he had thought that if I fight and kill Rama, Sita would be angry on his feet. But if I come and proposition her, she will accept it. She will accept it.
And he thought, even if she did not actually accept, the first thing he did is, okay, I’ll abduct her now. When she sees my wealth, then she will accept. So then as soon as they came to Lanka, he just took her on a tour of Lanka.
To show her all the wealth that I have. He says, all this wealth will be yours. You will be my chief queen.
So he just couldn’t digest the idea that still Sita was not ready to accept. And now, you know, when Rama died, he couldn’t act. Even now she is shifting, she is shifting her whole life.
He just didn’t know what to do. Now in the meanwhile, actually, Rama had already crossed over the ocean. And there were, Rama’s soldiers were there outside.
And they had launched an attack on Lanka’s gates. And the attack was so forceful, Lanka had huge walls. So they had thought we are safe.
But the monkeys had climbed right on top of the walls and they were knocking off the guards and charging into the kingdom. And the commander, he immediately called Rama. He said, there is an emergency, come.
Now Rama just looked at Sita. He just scowled and walked away from there. And he said, they went back and will counter the attack, he said.
And the meanwhile, Sita was still devastated, not knowing what to do. And at that time, his religious wife came home. She told him, Sita was devastated.
And, so, his wife embraced her and said, Dad, actually, don’t cry. This is all the rules. Even now, you can hear the charge of Rama, Rama’s Vanaras, attacking the Lanka’s gates.
Rama is right here. Hope is just around the corner. Don’t lose heart.
And then, Sita, when she spoke, Sita became calm and then she looked at the face. She looked at the body. And she looked carefully and then she said, she knew Rama.
She said, although he looks very much like Rama, he is not Rama. And then, she realised, then her morale was restored. Then she gave hope to everybody.
And then, of course, you know, that Rama came and eventually defeated Rama and rescued her. The point is that, just as Ravana tried to break Sita’s morale, just as Ravana tried to discourage Sita, similarly, our mind tries to break our morale. Mind creates various real or imaginary or combination of real and imaginary situations by which it makes us want to, it makes us, what is the point in circumvention? What is the point of going on with that? What is the point in fighting on? Just give up.
So at that time, when we are faced, now Sita knew at one level that Rama cannot be killed. Sita knew Rama’s power. She had also seen how Rama had single-handedly killed so many people in his mass.
But when that sight was brought in front of her, she was overwhelmed. So like that, although we know all the philosophy in the background, but there are times when what we see in front of us, the kind of problems we may face, the kind of pleasure that may allure us in our life, what will happen? By seeing them, we will feel demoralised. We will feel demoralised.
In fact, the whole Bhagavad Gita at one level is actually the conflict between Prateksha Pramana and Shankara Pramana. Arjuna, by seeing the Arjuna in the battlefield, he said, how can I fight? He lost his morale. But by hearing the Bhagavad Gita, his morale was restored.
And then Shabda Pramana. Shabda Pramana is not just written in the word of scripture. It is the word of scripture applied in a way that they inspire us, they guide us, they illuminate us.
Similarly, by Prateksha Pramana, by seeing in front of her eyes, she got lost in thought. But when she heard, heard the truth about Ram’s problem, heard the truth about the real situation there, then her morale was restored. Similar in our life.
We cannot move around in life with closed eyes. So we have to use Prateksha Pramana for functioning in this way. But if we over-learn Prateksha Pramana, then sooner or later our spiritual determination will be sapped.
Our spiritual determination will be weakened. We will say, what is the point of practising this way? But if we hear the Shabda, if we hear from Krishna, hear from Krishna what is introduced, then our morale will be restored. So that is discouraging.
The world, in general, is a place where there are problems. The problems, they make us discourage. And if our eyes are focused only on the world, then it’s only a matter of time when the discouragement will become so much that we’ll feel what is the point of doing that.
But if we look beyond the world, beyond the world is Krishna. And Shabda Pramana, the early note scripture, guides our eyes towards the Lord Looking beyond the world is not rejecting the world, but it is not limiting our vision to the world. When we look beyond the world to the Lord, then at that time we understand, yes, Krishna is still in control.
And Krishna is still in control and in due course he will work things out right. Now, if we are in a hospital, the Bhagavad Gita says that this world is called Kaalimshas. Now this has to be carefully understood.
That this world is a miserable place does not mean that we all have to be miserable. If we see what this verse focusses Actually, the thrust of this verse is those who become devoted to me, they will I think my abode, they will not come back to this place. What is the place of this? So the thrust of this verse is not that this world is a miserable place.
The thrust of this verse is the elevating potency of bhakti to raise us above this world. So when we say this world is a place of misery, what does it mean? It is like a hospital. In a hospital there is sickness, in a hospital there will be suffering.
But in a hospital there is also a system in place by which the suffering can be minimised and the suffering can be cured. So this world is a place of misery. It is like a hospital.
But here the process of dharma and the process of our talking is from dharma to prema so the process of dharma is itself a process of progressive treatment. And when we come to the level of prema then we are discharged from the hospital. When we come to know Krishna in truth we cannot but be attracted to him.
They are purified and they attain to Krishna. So the process of dharma culminating in prema is the treatment of misery. And to the extent we take the treatment to that extent our misery gets minimised.
If we are sick we are going to have problems. Even with the best treatment when we are sick immediately all problems will go away. But if we are taking the treatment properly the pain is managed it is minimised and the pain is gradually cured.
So even while practising dharma there will be problems in our life. But there is a big difference in the problem that a devotee faces in life and the problem that a non-devotee faces. The difference between a devotee and a non-devotee is in terms of the high level of people in the hospital.
One person’s disease has not been diagnosed and no treatment is going on. The other person’s disease has been diagnosed and the treatment is going on. Both may be in pain right now but both’s destiny is very difficult.
So like that non-devotees are also having problems but they don’t know what is the cause of it. And they don’t know what is the solution. Whereas for us as sadhakas we know our self-centred desires they are the cause of the problem and bhakti cures, purifies our desires and bhakti restores us to the state of pure love of Krishna where we become free from all this.
So as long as we hear Shastra then we can make sense both of the problematic nature of the world even if the best doctor was there even the best doctor can’t give the hospital a happiness. The hospital is the place where they are sick but the best doctor can tell and make sure that the patient is cured. So like that in this world Krishna, he doesn’t guarantee that there will be no problems in life.
But if a patient doesn’t have any reading of the doctor the patient says I am here when the disease is here and suddenly yesterday I had cough today I have temperature tomorrow my body is trembling day after tomorrow I have headache what problems will come next I don’t know. It’s only the doctor it’s only the patient and the disease the patient will be miserable but the patient knows yes I am the patient the disease is here but there is a doctor who is treating this and who knows what he is doing who knows how to treat it then the patient just becomes calm so like that if the focus is only we and the world we and our situation in the world this problem is coming tomorrow that problem is coming then this is happening, that is happening what is going on if we think that things should go according to our plan things don’t go according to our plan we think everything is coming but if we know yes there is Krishna in control things may not be going according to my plan but things are going according to Krishna’s plan and if I just keep practising Bhakti if I just keep observing Krishna then eventually there will be a restoration of health there will be the return to happiness and that when we understand that this world is a place where we will be cured by Krishna’s grace and to the extent we are focused on Krishna to the extent even in this world our miseries decrease madashraya katham vishta shunvanti kathayanti chitta panthi vidha sthapa nintamanti katha chitta sah the Bhagavad Gita third canto Kapila says that that my devotees when they are absorbed in me then because their conscience is absorbed in me they do not feel the material needs panthi vidha sthapa nintamanti katha chitta sah it just says if say outside it is very cold and we are trembling we are trembling and shivering when we come into a room where there is proper heating immediately we feel the warmth we feel the relief we feel the comfort although outside there is heat but as soon as we come inside the room heat is released similarly in this world there are problems but if we bring our consciousness to Krishna it is like entering a room where there is proper heating so the cold, the misery of this world that toils us but as soon as we come to Krishna as soon as we absorb our consciousness in Krishna we become, we gain relief we gain peace we feel joyful dhautatma purushara krishnam padamula apna manjate mukta sarva parikshanam pantha svasya namyata in second canto of the bhagavatam the example is given suppose a traveller has gone on a long, long trouble journey and after a while the traveller comes back he is confident, safe, happy so like that a devotee knows my consciousness has gone on a long trouble journey but it exists now it has come to Krishna and he goes this is what I am doing I just stay over here then I feel the joy the security the happiness everywhere I go so the devotee never gives up the notice of Krishna and by just holding on to the notice of Krishna by holding on to Krishna’s service Krishna’s remembrance that attachment to Krishna grows strongly and eventually the devotee attains Krishna’s support and the devotion is coming the last commentary the last words anamati shraddha the last words so shraddha scripture indicates anamati anamati means there is no coming back there is no coming back what scripture says is that once you attain Krishna’s abode you will never come back to this world Bhagavad Gita also raises the question what is the guarantee of this he says the guarantee of this is Krishna’s love he says that Krishna who descends from the spiritual world to material world to reclaim the souls that is the sole purpose for which he comes from there to here and if a soul has turned away from this world and has come to hell how will Krishna let that soul ever go away Krishna will hold on to that soul and Krishna will ensure that soul always stays so it is Krishna’s love which is our hope in life sometimes when we look ahead we look at say we look at bhav, prem she asks me I am so far I don’t care will I ever meet those stages but if we feel discouraged thinking I have so far ahead to go then at that time we can look back and think how far I have come if we look at our own life say 5 years ago, 10 years ago we would have thought that we are a association of devotees and we would be living the kind of life we are living so actually we have either by Krishna’s grace or we have come a long way come a long wrong way ahead from where we were and how have we come yes we did practise bhakti we did the Paharastra Balaji Purusha here but it is quite often it is Krishna’s mercy that is driving us along often we say that I am doing my best but quite often if you look at us we are actually doing our least the least we can do in terms of bhakti so that we can continue as a bhakta and so on but still in spite of our distractions in front of our eyes Krishna has brought us so far and that same lord who has brought us so far even without much serious effort from our part that same lord is there with us he will take us always in the right direction and that’s why to the extent we keep our eyes on Krishna and to the extent the way to keep our eyes on Krishna is through hearing Krishna if we keep hearing we get energised our eyes rise beyond this world to Krishna our eyes rise beyond the disease to the doctor who is treating the disease and if we just see the disease we will become discouraged but if we see the doctor we will get encouragement if we focus on the word there will be discouragement but if we focus on Krishna then there will be encouragement Krishna’s love for us is unfailing no matter what happens he will always be there for us and he will lead us onwards ultimately to the supreme abode in his own words to be summarised I just started by talking about how we all how do we battle discouragement in our life talk about the literal ethical and metaphorical explanations of the scripture the metaphorical should be a supplement to the literal not a substitute and one metaphorical explanation as the Bhagavad Gita says that the Ravana is like the mind which traps the Sita like soul in the Nanka line body so when the soul wants to become liberated against Krishna the soul is betrayed and the lord descends the lord appears in my heart liberating me so at that time the mind tries to break the soul’s morale just as Ravana tried to go to bad property he used various things to try to somehow break Sita’s morale and just as he used Vidyu Jwala to create an illusion of Ram and through that he tried to break her morale but then when she heard from someone who knew the truth Tattva Darshi when she heard her illusion dissipated similarly by Prateksha Pramana if we focus too much on what we are seeing in the world then our mind will be lost when we hear Shabda Pramana we say Arjuna lost his morale but my hearing is more at risk if we hear regularly then our eyes focus not on the world but on the lord who is beyond this world and that helps us make sense of what is happening in this world there is suffering in this world but the suffering of this world is like the suffering that is there in a hospital with hospitals under the care of a doctor the suffering is pervasive and the patients are in need so like that if we just focus on suffering we will lose all we will lose encouragement if we focus on Krishna then we will have confidence that whatever is happening still I may have problems but my problems are of a very different nature from those who are not practising bhakti they are not diagnosed they are not getting treated I have already been diagnosed I have already been treated properly I just have to continue practise dharma which culminates in bhakti and Krishna’s love for us has brought us so far so if we feel discouraged we should not see how far we have to go and look how far we have come and that same Krishna’s love has brought us so far it will take us all the way to heaven also thank you very much so krishna bhagwan ki krishna bhagwan ki krishna bhagwan ki krishna bhagwan krishna bhagwan ki krishna bhagwan so what exactly is the mind the mind is best understood like the software programme in your computer So there is a hardware, there is a software and there is a user. So there is a soul in the user, mind in the software.
Now, this software is programmed and it is also programmable. So by the past choices that we have made, we have created certain impressions. And they are like the programmes in the mind.
So those programmes, just like if we have used a computer repeatedly, then certain programmes automatically open up, start up a certain programme, start off. Or as soon as we open a browser, a certain page automatically opens up as a home page. So the way a computer has been used, certain things become default.
So like that for all of us, based on the way we have acted in the past, certain kind of desire, certain kind of thinking, certain way of behaving, that has become like our default patterns. So we often do those without thinking itself. Without thinking, without choosing also.
Just get chosen for us. Now, not all of these are bad and not all of these are even changeable. So within the mind’s programmes, there are our desires, which are related with, say, Kaam, Drona, Loka, Mahamsa, Vimatsa, Anandas, which have to be curbed and which have to be cured.
But there are also the desires which are related to our varna, to our sabhava. So I also work on Kshatriya nature, Ramana nature, whatever. Different kinds of natures we may have.
So that has to be understood and channelled. That doesn’t have to be given up. That can’t be changed also to the last extent.
So Krishna talks about this and he says, nigraha kim ganesh. What can depression accomplish? This is not referring to, he’s not saying that, oh, you should not try to control lust or greed or anything like that. He talks in the next verse only that you have to control lust.
But nigraha he talks about, certain programming, that is the way they are. Just like if I have an Apple computer, I cannot make it function like a Windows computer. It’s a different system.
So like that, a brahmana cannot be made to work like a Vaishna. Or a temporary way to like that. So in the mind, there is a certain programming which is usable in our material life and usable in our spiritual life.
And certain programming which is undesirable, which needs to be countered and which needs to be corrected. So the process of bhakti is a process of purification of the mind. Now purification essentially means correcting the wrong programme.
That is what purification is. Now, with respect to material and personal disorders, it’s difficult to say because these sort of disorders, there are different symptoms by which they are diagnosed. And one problem with psychiatry is that psychiatry is not a precise science of the same level as say science related to other bodily parts.
For example, if we have malaria, there are specific germs, there are tests which can be done to find out which are the germs and this is the cure. But for with respect to brain related problems, there are germs there. So there was a survey done in London.
They had a person go to 8 different psychiatrists and describe the same 10 symptoms. And all the 8 psychiatrists gave 8 different diagnoses of disease only. On the same symptoms.
Why? Because different psychiatrists emphasise different symptoms. And based on that, which symptom was emphasised, the diagnosis comes out to be different. So that’s why psychiatry is not a very precise science.
That is not to say that psychiatry treatment may not be required certain times. If there are some disturbance in the brain functioning, shortage of certain hormones or chemicals, there are certain damage to the brain parts in terms of structural damage, then that may cause some behavioural problems and that may lead to structural or chemical restoration for the immune system. But in general, if somebody has a multiple disorder problem, that could be at one level because of, from the spiritual perspective, that there are examples, there are very documented examples of a person, say that person was born in France, France and never been out of France.
Suddenly that person starts speaking some African dialect. How could they have known that? So from the human perspective, I understand that in such cases, when the person exhibits knowledge which is just not possible by any means, then that is a reasonable case for saying that some other person has entered into that person. It’s like, as you say, ghosts possess someone.
So it could be like a ghost that possesses you. But we don’t have to jump to that conclusion as the first conclusion. Generally speaking, it’s not, does the mind split into two? Mind doesn’t split into two.
Mind is only one. But sometimes the mind may have very rapidly changing or rapidly or wildly contradictory desires. One time the mind feels like this, other time the mind feels like that.
So when that happens, then that requires, in some way it can be treated using some medicines. But that is largely because of a result of too much Rajoguna and Tamoguna. So when there is too much Rajoguna and Tamoguna, the mind just runs wild.
So as devotees, there are some devotees who are into psychiatry and they offer counselling. And there are some devotees who are trying to work a connection, explaining many of the non-psychiatric problems from the spiritual perspective. But primarily for us, if a devotee faces some mental problems, then we should not be judgemental thinking it’s just a weak mind.
No, it can be a weak mind, it can be actually a brain problem also in terms of some structural, chemical imbalance in the brain. Whatever be the problem, we should not stigmatise. If they have a problem, then we want to help them and whatever is the best way to help, that will have to be judged.
But just as some people may be physically weak, like that some people may be mentally weak. So it’s not a character deficiency. Some people, they just eat a little wrong food and their whole stomach gets upset.
Others, you know, they treat their tongue like a conveyor belt. And nothing seems to go wrong. So that is just the way different bodies are made.
Different minds can also be made in different ways. So some devotees are such that they cannot cope too much pressure. They just get, they scramble when there is too much pressure.
You understand, that’s the way their mind is. And they need to be guided and induced accordingly. Krishna doesn’t see how much we are doing.
Krishna says how much we are doing according to our capacity. Somebody will be doing just, like we have the famous story of Hanuman and the squirrel. Hanuman was taking a giant ball, and the squirrel was producing small particles of dust.
So if somebody has a limited physical capacity, somebody has a limited mental capacity, if they are using that to the fullest, Krishna is pleased with that. So we should never stigmatise anyone who seems to have these problems. But whatever is the best way that they can be helped, they should be encouraged to take that help and continue practising.
Does that answer your question? Is the mind just a repository of past impressions? Yes, but the repository we consider normally inactive. It is just something which is there. That’s why I will give an example of a software programme.
The programme is also unconscious. But the programme has, by its own programming, it has a functionality. So now the mind is also unconscious, the mind is not conscious.
But because it keeps functioning in a particular way by its default programming, to understand the mind, we often personify it. The mind is speaking like this, the mind is saying like that. So basically, in our ordinary discourse also we say, the computer is asking, should we shut down? Actually, the computer is not asking anything.
The prompt is coming over there. So for a conversational sentence, we actually say that the computer is asking over there. So just as we personify something which is insentient for a conversational purpose, so like that we personify the mind.
The mind is unconscious, but it is not unconscious like gross matter. It is unconscious, but based on the past choices that we have made, it has a certain default functionality. And the best way to understand it is through the metaphor of a software.
So it is not living, but it is useful to treat it as if it were living, as if it were a person. So then we can understand its action and evaluate and respond to its action appropriately. Is it understandable? Okay.
So how does the intelligence control the mind? Intelligence is also a part of the software package only. Software, because in a fundamental sense, mind, intelligence and ego, they are all subtle matter. And broad subtle matter we can compare to software.
So now the intelligence is that part of our subtle body that doesn’t just act based on impulses. It is capable of staying longer. It is capable of evaluating.
Just like in the software in our computer, there might be some virus that is coming. Now that virus is damaging. But at that same level of software, we can also have an antivirus, which can counter the virus.
So the intelligence is like an antivirus. And to the extent that intelligence is strong, the virus may still be there, but we can counter the virus. So intelligence is also subtle.
And intelligence is also something which is, we could say programmable or changeable. When we hear more and more scripture, when we study more and more scripture, our intelligence develops. So then that development means what? The intelligence becomes sharper reflexes.
So sometimes if we have an antivirus programme, but it is very slow in acting. So by the time it awakens, the virus has deleted everything also. So like that, we get some temptation, we fall down, what did you do? So if we keep hearing scripture, it says sharpen your intelligence.
It means what? Our intellectual reflexes become quicker. We start understanding. So control our mind with intelligence means, if we consider say the example of a firefighter.
Now say firefighters are trained to fight fire. But first time, if a new firefighter goes and sees a big fire, firefighter just seems in a freeze, doesn’t know what to do. Fire hose in the hand, just drops the fire hose and fight.
But as the firefighter becomes trained, now a seasoned firefighter, they may also feel some panic when they see a huge fire. But then their training kicks in. Their training kicks in means what? Very fast they recover, and they say okay, use this hose, attack the fire from there, I’ll attack from here, you go there.
And they spring into action and they extinguish the fire. Similarly, when the dushpureanajna chinti, point that Krishna says, desire is like a fire. So when the fire of desire erupts in our consciousness, our intelligence is not prepared, what happened? Just don’t know what to do, we just panic, and the fire keeps burning.
But when we say control the mind with intelligence, that means our intelligence becomes sharper, the reflexes become right. What should I do? Think of some philosophy. Remember Krishna.
And redirect the consciousness towards Krishna. Extinguish the fire. So basically, as our intelligence becomes sharper, the fire will still keep litting.
The desires won’t go away immediately, the mind will get agitated, the fires will come. But when the intelligence becomes stronger, then it’s like, it’s not just a virus which can be easily deleted, the virus is death. But the antivirus programme springs in quickly, then the virus can’t damage much.
So like that, for the mind to get purified will take a long time, but for the mind to be controlled, if our intelligence is strong, then our intellectual reflexes become much faster. And as soon as the fire of desire erupts in our consciousness immediately, we douse it with the force of Krishna consciousness, with the remembrance of Krishna. And that’s how by training, we sharpen our intellectual reflexes.
And what we know is the right thing, we do it beautifully. Does that answer your question? Thank you. Any other questions? Yes.
Yes. One of the questions is… The second question was around hearing. So, when we go to a spot, there’s a website, there are thousands and thousands of websites.
So, since hearing is an integral part of our development, it impacts all other aspects of the speech. So how do we prioritise what we hear? There’s so much of choice. The more the choice, the more the choice.
For speech, how many… if there is a market out there, all of them are for everyday life. How do we prioritise? Okay. So, when there’s so much to hear, how do we prioritise what to hear? Yeah.
Actually, it is… very important to have some purpose driven hearing, in the sense that if we have some goal, because otherwise, there’s just so much ocean of hearing. And sometimes, we hear so many good points, but then we hear this and we hear that and we’re not able to align because there’s so much to align also. So, if we have some objective, for example, it is best if we can complement the hearing and the reading together.
We’re reading a subject, and we hear about a subject. Then, our appreciation of the subject can become deeper. So… Actually, I have to say, it depends a lot on individual nature.
Some devotees are inspired by some devotees. So, the primary inspiration is coming from a person. You know, say, a spiritual master or some senior who inspired us.
Then, just hearing from that person itself may be enough. That’s what inspires us. But in some cases, the inspiration from some people may be there, but our inspiration may also be in terms of understanding things.
Like, if you want to study a book systematically. Then, if you see a temple, we have daily Bhagavatam classes. The Bhagavatam classes are very good in terms of being regularly reminded of the philosophy of Krishna consciousness.
But the Bhagavatam classes are not exactly Bhagavatam studies, you know. Because each class is given by a different speaker who goes in different directions. We get their association, we understand their realisation, but we may not go deep into the subject.
So, if our interest is in studying a particular book, then it’s best to find out some lectures which are systematically covering the book. Or, if we are interested in understanding a particular concept. Say, what are the three modes of literature? Then, we can focus on that topic.
So, one is a book itself. A book may have many topics. The other is a topic itself, which we want to understand.
And usually, say, if we are to give a class on a particular topic, then we may ourselves hear on that topic. And, apart from that also, there can be applications related to it. So, if I am battling with a particular author, if I want to develop a particular quality, I may hear about that.
That’s also related to the topic only. But, there is there is there is inspirational hearing and there is educational hearing. And the two are not always the same.
When we are primarily inspired by some person, by some senior Vaishnava, Vyasa Kuchum, then we just hear from them, inspire them. Even if the content of that hearing may not be very educationally deep or educationally very multifaceted or whatever. So, for some others, the primary hearing they want is educational hearing.
And we can’t legislate this. In our own spiritual life also, the difference is we may feel more motivated, surcharged by different kinds of hearings. So, if we keep if we make a plan, and hear according to the plan, and then afterwards we observe this worked out well, this did not work out so well, then we can accordingly change what is our need, whether it is primarily inspirational hearing or whether it is educational hearing, that also we will learn ourselves.
So, when it comes to our own hearing, it’s it’s best not to legislate anything. In the temple when there are programmes, we do go for the temple programmes whenever it’s possible for us. But in our own hearing, we can focus primarily on that which gives us an existence in the spiritual world.
So, we, after we keep hearing for some time, a simple example of this is eating. There are so many different food items. How do we decide what to eat? We may try out different things at different times, but over a period of time, what is good for my body? What is good for my diet? What gives me energy? What keeps my healthy? And then we choose that.
There may be any shades of experimentation we have to go through before we decide. And even then we may try occasionally some new items. But we don’t focus simply on eating new items all the time.
We know there are some new dishes to eat. So, like that, if we are hearing, there are so many great devotees from whom we can hear. So, we can have some regular hearing going on, and within that we may, if say we are going to hear for a few hours per week, whatever, then within that we can allocate a little time where we can hear some new speakers.
So that we might learn something new also. But, if we have been hearing for a few years, and we have been practising for a few years, we basically understand what our needs are, to a significant extent. Then the kind of hearing that nourishes us, that is the primary hearing we should be doing.
Just like in our meal, the primary meal has to be a nourishing food. But along with that, we might find some other items also, which may be good, which may be not just tasty, but they may also be good for our health. We might keep finding them.
So, we don’t have to put a moratorium, no more hearing from anywhere else. Just as we don’t put a moratorium in eating, but there has to be a balance between regular educational hearing, or regular not necessarily educational, I could say nourishing hearing. Whether it is educational or inspirational, that may vary.
But regular nourishing hearing, and other exploratory hearing to find out if we can get more nourishment from other sources. And that way, we can gradually find out how to keep ourselves inspired from the hearing. Does it answer the question? Thank you.
Thank you. Okay. So, the six stages are none of the things Adhira Kalmi talks about.
Because one has to go through all the six stages in that sequence. No, not necessarily. So, they are basically, they are analytical stages of how the Nath has metropolis.
They are not necessary that they will come one after another. So, depending on our circumstance, depending on our depending on our own mind’s frame, sometimes if we just go to a new place, then we say, what is practising bhakti like differently? Then at that time the view to be correct may increase more. In a way, I could be practising bhakti like this.
And other times, when there has been some big up and down in our life, at that time we may, there may be ghanta arrival. Sometimes we just become lax in our bhakti. Because there is so much, all is going on in our life.
So, it’s not necessarily sequential. Essential point is, these are the patterns in which the mind may travel. And we could put something like continuing the example of the virus.
Somebody may tell us that these are the kinds of virus that can infect the computer beyond the watch out. So, these are the viruses and when this virus comes up, this is the kind of misdemeanour that might come in the computer. So, it’s not that the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th virus are going to come in sequence.
Any of them may come anytime. But, once we understand the way the virus attacks, then we can be alert to deal with it. So, these are, any of these viruses may attack us at different times depending on our situation and our own consciousness.
It sounds good? So, here there is another question. Is lamenting bad? I’ve heard that one should lament of the misdoings, the mistakes that we have done. There is repenting and there is lamenting.
They are two different things. Repentance means, again, like I told about learning from the past and lamenting about the past. So, in repentance, the focus is that yes, I made a mistake and I should not do it.
I feel bad that I did it and I’m not going to do it again. So, there are actually few terms associated with it. Lamenting, basically, it just means feeling sorry for oneself.
Why did this happen? Why did I do that? Why, why, why? Lamenting is characterised primarily by living in the past. Living from past. Whereas, repenting is characterised not by recognising the mistake of the past, but after that, focussing on correcting oneself in the present.
So, we should definitely repent what we have done. But repentance essentially means that we are not nonchalant. Is that what is the big deal? It’s like this happens everywhere.
Everybody is like this. It doesn’t matter. No, it does matter.
But, if I have got a wound, it does matter. But if I’m constantly thinking about the wound, it’s not going to heal the wound. I have to do something to heal the wound and I have to take care that I don’t repeat the wound.
Similarly, if we have done something wrong, then we should be cautious so that we don’t repeat it. What makes us feel bad? That’s the words of conscience. Conscience is the metaphor.
Conscience is the dog that barks when the thief of sin comes to the door of our consciousness. So, it’s like a dog barks when a thief comes at our door. So, we consider our consciousness like a room.
So, when a thief of sin comes at the door of our consciousness, conscience is the dog that barks. So, if some sinful temptation is coming or you are doing something wrong also, then no barking happening. That means there is a serious problem.
How do we come to know? So, if we don’t feel bad at all after doing something wrong, that means we have done the bad thing so many times that our consciousness is practically dead now. That is an alarming thing. So, to not feel any concern, not feel any alarm, not feel anything, to nonchalantly do wrong things, that means our consciousness has been dead and that is a serious situation.
But, it is not that we just bark. The dog is barking. The point of the dog barking is to not allow the thief to come in.
So, like that, if we feel bad, what is the result after we feel bad about it? That we stop doing the bad thing, we counter it, we do something to strengthen ourselves. Whereas, somebody is repenting, somebody is lamenting, a dog is barking and we also think, why is the dog barking? What to do? The thief has come. Let the thief steal it.
Oh, the thief has stolen everything. So, if we don’t do anything about the problem, that is lamentation. But, if we recognise it is a problem, and we do what is in our power to deal with the problem, that is repentance and that is very good.
Is the question clear? Yes. Okay. Sometimes among devotee circles.
So, only the Pradhana Dharma will be used for the next life. So, for the Aparadharma, the yoga will be used for the next life. And it is not going to be much happiness.
So, then devotees will be transferred in Aparadharma. So, what is Krishna saying about Aparadharma? Okay. Is it that when it happens, Pradhana Dharma will be the greatest and Aparadharma will not give much happiness.
So, how important is it to Aparadharma? What does Krishna say about this? The Aparadharma and Pradhana Dharma, they are not necessarily entirely unconnected. If we are the family where some of our family members are devotees, some of our family members are going to become devotees, may become devotees, then the way we relate with them, then it is a place where Aparadharma and Pradhana Dharma are going to intersect. So, similarly, if you are working in a corporate environment, in a company, the way we behave, if you are not doing your job responsibly, and then after that we invite you, please come for a talk, you say, I will become like you, I don’t want to come.
So, I will become irresponsible like you, I don’t want to come for a talk. So, then we are actually doing this service. So, first of all, to think that Prabhupada writes in 7th chapter that the jurisdiction of Krishna consciousness extends everywhere.
That means, it is not that our family responsibilities are our professional responsibilities, they have nothing to do with Krishna. They do affect our devotion. So, that’s why we talk about the analysis of the difference between Paradharma and Aparadharma for one main purpose.
That is, to not mistakenly equate the two and think that doing the Aparadharma itself is enough. I don’t have to do any Paradharma. So, if someone says that that actually you know, like one part of Paradharma is that we should do charity to Krishna.
So, one time, one devotee, I was at a programme. So, the conversation was actually my house, the temple, all my family members, devotees. So, you know, we said we should give some donation to Krishna.
But all the money is going to Krishna only, alright. So, why should I give any donation? No, that is fine. The problem with this reasoning is that yes, all our family members should be devotees.
But do we see them as devotees first or do we see them as family members first? Do we remember Krishna first? We do, even if our family is fully devotees. We do need a temple where the devotees must remember Krishna. So, we cannot confusingly equate Aparadharma and Paradharma.
For that purpose, we separate. Yes, this is my Aparadharma and this is my Paradharma. And therefore, I should give adequate attention to the Paradharma activities.
But after the separation, we don’t have to constantly keep analysing. If a mother is taking care of her child, am I doing it? Is this my material duty or is it my spiritual duty? We don’t have to worry about that. Prabhupada told us that children born in the Krishnamarshi movement, they are actually like Kundachil, special souls.
Krishna has them in our family. So, once we are doing our responsibilities, we should make time for direct spiritual activities. But after that, whatever we need to do, we need to do it wholeheartedly.
If we are half-hearted about doing things, we are supposed to not do them well. And because many of the responsibilities are in our Aparadharma, they have to be done immediately. So that we have to spend more time on doing it afterwards.
So, we needn’t have a fragmented vision where we think that Krishna is served only in the temple and only directly with devotees. No, Krishna is served in our home, Krishna is served in our profession also. But, if I don’t serve Krishna directly by going to the temple but directly associating with devotees, my service attitude, my devotional consciousness will not last.
Therefore, I have to do directly Paradharma activities. But Aparadharma activities, if they are not done well, they can create tremendous disruption around. And then that disruption will terribly affect our Paradharma activities.
So, for example, if some devotee does not follow the state laws and the devotee gets caught or gets into legal trouble, then legal trouble is such that the devotee will say, I am doing everything for Krishna. This is mundane morality, I don’t care for it. But no, we can’t do that.
Because mundane morality is also important. Sanatana Goswami was a Mahabhagavad, but when he was serving our Nawab Hussain Shah, when the Nawab would come to his house, he would get an overall respect from him. Because he was his boss in life.
And we have to do our bodily duties also with sense. We may say that this will not give me much happiness. Okay, agreed.
It may not give much happiness, but not doing it will cause a lot of trouble. So, at least from that perspective, we don’t have to unnecessarily complicate our activities. So, one extreme is where we keep expanding our material activities more and more.
That we have not done, but whatever needs to be done, we need to do it today. And we can see, so, Krishna says, by your work, we shall make it. So, if we have that, if by direct paradhana activities we develop a worshipful mood, and afterwards when we do the paradhana activities, we can carry that mood of worship, mood of devotional service into those activities.
And do those activities also for Krishna. … … … … … … … … Okay. So, we can realise the mind, but how can we realise the intelligence? Realising the mind itself is the intelligence.
… … This is the mind speaking. If I recognise that, that is the intelligence speaking that. Others are not going to recognise it.
So, it’s like, say, when I have to understand what is the mind, who is helping me to understand that? That is the intelligence. So, it’s not necessary for us to distinctly identify as the intelligence. It’s just the capacity to look at our mind itself is our capacity of intelligence.
The capacity, if I get certain feelings, the capacity to evaluate those feelings, that itself is my intelligence. And especially for us, in the sadhana stage, at least initially, intelligence comes primarily from the words of Guru Swami Krishna. That’s why Krishna says, smrti brahmashad buddhi nashod, buddhi nashad brahmashod.
What is he saying? Smrti. As soon as remembrance is lost, then intelligence is lost. So, Krishna checked out our extensions commentary.
But here smrti, in fact, refers not just to memory, smrti refers to smrti shastra. Smrti means what we have heard from Guru Swami Shastra, the Puranas and Yantras. So as soon as we forget the words of Guru Swami Shastra, the next Yantras are written in this way.
So for us, if we can catch the mind acting, that is the intelligence, and the capacity to catch the mind acting, that enhances, when we hear the Guru Swami Shastra. So for all practical purposes, we can say that the words of Guru Swami Shastra comprise our intelligence. I think this is partly proper to mention that the right intent does not guarantee the right action.
So, say when that happens to us, how do we, like, do we contemplate that Krishna will make it all right in the end, or is it like, no, I have to get out of here, and so on. How do we, how do we be positive and realise that Krishna will make it all right? Okay. So, the right intent does not guarantee the right action.
So if you find that we have made some mistake, then will Krishna take care of things eventually, or how should we look at those mistakes? We have to do, Prabhupada is saying, your head can be in the sky, but your feet have to be on the ground. That means, if there is a mess in front of us right now, and we focus on what are the practical things that I can do to deal with the mess. And we say, this is such a big mess, I can’t deal with everything.
This can’t solve it. Then don’t worry about it. Take one step at a time.
If I made a mistake, okay, this is what I can do. This is what I can do. This is what I can do.
And gradually, we find that we do certain things correct, we correct certain things, and Krishna will arrange for correcting the other things. So, having a head on the ground means having faith that Krishna will take care. Having feet on the ground means doing practical things to take care also.
It is not that when we say Krishna will take care, one way Krishna takes care is also by giving us the intelligence to take care. So, if I don’t use my intelligence and say Krishna will take care, then actually I am rejecting one of the ways in which Krishna will take care. So, when we make mistakes, we need to do both things.
Whatever we can practically do to correct the mistakes, we do that. And beyond that, if there are things which are too big, which are not correctable parts, we depend on Krishna properly. When Satsvarupa Maharaj once, he was supposed to send a letter to one devotee, and then he was supposed to attach another letter.
So, which Prabhupada did to some other devotee, but he forgot to attach the letter. And then that devotee wrote back and then said, Prabhupada, you know, when you sent this letter, I forgot to send this letter. He said, how could you forget? Did you not read that I said that this has to be attached? This will get attached.
I said, Prabhupada, I forgot. He said, how could you forget? Satsvarupa Maharaj was very young at that time, maybe 20-25 something like that. He said, Prabhupada, it seemed to be so.
He just started crying over there. I said, Prabhupada, I did not pay anything. He said, how could you forget? I just couldn’t tolerate it.
He just apologised to Prabhupada and walked away. He started thinking, what should I do? He thought about Prabhupada, what to do. He said, Prabhupada, I have been, my whole life is of using Prabhupada.
What should I do? Then he calmed down, he prayed, and then he said, he went back to Prabhupada. He said, Prabhupada, I will write a letter to him saying that it was my mistake, because of which I was supposed to enclose the letter, but I have not enclosed it. And he said, I also got the letter, I will enclose it, and I will send it to him.
And he sent it to Prabhupada immediately. And so I smiled, and he said, Prabhupada never referred to that letter. That means Prabhupada did not like just crying and breaking down when you commit mistakes.
Okay, your mistake has been committed, apologise for that, and then make amends for it. So, once we do that, we don’t have to live too much in the past. And of course, sometimes things may not be entirely amendable.
But whatever amends we can make, if we make that, then that is good news. And if people are understanding, they will also see that we had no bad intention. If a mistake has happened, we are truly regretting it.
We are doing what we can to make amends for it. So apologising and amending, that is the best way to move forward from mistakes. So, I have seen in devotee circles, in devotee circles you don’t have very close relationships.
And I have studied quite a few years in devotee circles, sometimes we feel as if if we want to confide something, we should confide to our non-devotee friends and not to our devotee friends. So, how can we develop close relationships among devotees? See, there is no need to demonise non-devotees. That means, it is not something wrong for a devotee to have non-devotee friends.
It is just that while we are associating with non-devotees, we should not take their non-demotional values. So, it is not that we cannot, there is a devotional boundary, there is a devotee, there is a non-devotee. But just the practise, when we talk about devotee, normally what do we mean? We may say, I can have Krishna coming to the temple.
Now, these in and of itself, they do not immediately, necessarily guarantee a good character. They should, by the process of practising bhakti, one should develop a good character. But people may be chanting just ritualistically.
People may have very deep conditions from the past. Or people may right now be under pressure. So, it is not that just because somebody is a devotee, that person is a very good person.
Just because somebody is a non-devotee, that person is a very bad person. He or she is a very bad person. It is a work in progress.
So, if we are living in a society, if we are in a particular community, if we are working in a particular job, if we have friends over there, it is perfectly fine. The important thing is that we should not imbibe their non-demotional values. That we have to be cautious when dealing with.
But as far as developing close relationships with devotees is concerned, so now if it is a matter of confiding, it is a matter of what the issue is. If it is a professional problem in a professional setting, a devotee cannot be able to handle both. And that time if you want to confide with some professional friend for dealing with, that is perfectly fine.
But if it is a… Especially, there are emotional issues which we have. There is a practical problem, say, if my computer is not working. And I consult somebody and tell him, all these problems the computer has given me.
And by talking about that, the computer has got external tools. It is not that I am going to develop a heart-to-heart friendship with that person. That is a functional relationship.
So, we need to have functional relationships with whoever we are having functions in this world. But if we have personal issues, emotional issues, at that time, if we start connecting, sharing that with non-devotees, then they will have their own emotional values. And then they will try to offer us some solutions and promises based on their emotional values.
And then their emotional values, their moral values, that can create a lot of problems. So, if we find that we don’t have close relationships with devotees, there can be two main reasons for this. One is that either we have not been able to find the right devotee circle, right people with the devotee circle.
Or it is that we have been too judgemental. And we have pushed devotees away, that’s why devotees are also pushing back. Like once, I was giving a class and when we are practising bhakti, we have to tolerate many things.
I was talking about tolerance. He says, what is it that we have to tolerate? One devotee raised his hand. He says, we have to tolerate devotees.
So, I think yes, this is a good realisation. That we have to tolerate devotees. But after we advance a little more, we will realise that devotees are tolerating us.
So, material existence is to some extent, even when we are practising bhakti, it is, it requires a lot of mutual tolerance. So, it’s possible that sometimes we may be too judgemental in the past. We may have done something by which we have pushed devotees away.
And because of that, devotees also don’t want to come too close to us. Because if they open our heart and we just speak too harshly to them, the relationship will get scarred. That’s why they will not come close to us.
Otherwise, it’s also possible that we have not found a former like-minded association. So, when you talk about close relationships, we cannot develop close relationships with too many devotees. Even if we have one or two devotees with whom we can open our heart, then that is going on.
And if we find one or two devotees like that with whom we can connect, we need to take time out. We spend time to invest in that relationship. Relationships are like trees.
You know, we have to spend a lot first in planting the tree, then in nourishing the tree, and after that in growing the trees. So, if we find, you know, some devotees here, I can really connect with this devotee, then we need to spend time. So, whatever way we can spend time, we have to create that time and create that energy and connect with them.
And then, if we are available for them, they will be available for us. So, basically, if it is happening that we are finding that there is not a close relationship between devotees, there is not much point in making a general statement like that. Yes, there may be that there is not a close relationship between devotees, but what can we do to deal with that situation? We find out some devotees and we set an example of trying to develop a close relationship.
And then others will follow suit. Relatively speaking, there are two forces which act in the devotee community. One is that we are all devotees and we are meant to serve each other.
That is one force which can, in a very strong and nice way, bring devotees to us. But there is another force, another factor of course, we could say, that we have to follow certain standards. And if we focus on the standards, then we become quite judgemental.
This person is a loose devotee. This person is like this. This person is like that.
This person is like that. Now, quite often if you see, as soon as we meet a devotee, our mind passes a comment about it. It is judgemental.
It is critical. It is backbiting. So many things like that, the mind just keeps coming up.
So now, even if we never speak these things, there are certain things which people can make out that this person is not really having a positive opinion. So people also keep a distance. So, if sometimes we give the standards more importance than the service entity, then that also creates a lot of distance among devotees.
So the standards are important, but the standards are something which we should take for a rising arsenal. What happens is, in every community, what has happened in every family, there are ego battles. And what happens is, our spiritual standards sometimes become like weapons for beating others in the ego battle.
I am following so strictly. Do not follow me. Do not say that so blindly.
So, because of that, the service entity which is there, by which we relate with each other, come close to each other, that gets sabotaged by the regimentality which comes because of standards. So, for example, now some devotee has some problem, some family problem, some personal problem, whatever. The devotee has some battle with another and is getting weak or is falling down, whatever.
Now, that means that devotee is like a wounded soldier. Now, if a soldier is wounded, a soldier needs to be sent to, he needs help to go to the hospital. But, as soon as a soldier gets wounded, we take him to a court and make him stand as a convict in the court.
How did you do this? What were you thinking? Why were you doing this? So, when a soldier, if somebody has some problems, what happens is, instead of helping them, recognising that they are wounded, today they have a problem, tomorrow I may fall. So, we need to help each other. But, instead of helping each other to go to the hospital, we take them to court and convict them.
Then, how can people have trust? See, once a person is in a devotee community, already they are adhering to the laws, already they know about the standards. And they are struggling to follow the standards, they don’t need to be just told, given a lecture on the standards. So, there is no point in judging them for not following the standards, whatever it is.
So, people watch. If one person is judged and judged very strongly and condemned or labelled in a particular way, that there is some problem, then others also become apprehensive about it. So, we have to subordinate, we have to understand that the standards are important, but the standards are meant to help everyone rise.
The standards are not meant to judge anyone. Our primary mode of relationship with everyone is that we want to serve them, we want to assist them. And as a matter of assisting them, we have some standards.
But if the standards become the primary thing that you judge, then the relationships cannot be maintained very much. So, overall, rather than making a blanket statement about how relationships are in a community, we can focus on trying to ourselves, change and try to develop good relationships. And if we do that, instead of don’t ask for a friend like Madhura, be a friend like Madhura.
Madhura was a very, in spite of Dhritarashtra rebuffing him so many times, Madhura was always there for him. So, rather than asking, oh, I am in trouble, there is no friend like Madhura, come and help. We try to be like a friend like that.
And if we are like a friend like that, at other times, others will be friends too. And that way, the closer relationships between devotees can be built. So, why we may feel confided with non-devotees is because we feel that they are not going to be judgemental.
Devotees are. But we should know that they are also judgemental, not about a specific lapse in spiritual standards. They may be judgemental about the whole spiritual process only.
And their judgmentality is also going to affect us. And that might affect our spiritual life much more damagingly. So, therefore, we cannot avoid danger entirely when we share our happiness.
But what we can do is, we can create a background, or create a ground of relative safety that can slowly open our hearts. And we can observe. Just like if some unknown stranger comes to our house, we open the door a little and see who is there.
We talk a little, look at the person, try to become nice. And then we open the door. So, like that, we can start by confiding a little bit and see how the other person reacts.
And gradually, as there is proper reciprocation, we can open our heart more and develop relationships. Any other questions? We were just talking about the intelligence, psychology, mind. My question is, in creation, you see that how mind is in the mode of goodness and intelligence is in the mode of passion.
So, how do we understand that? So, the mind is said to be in the mode of goodness and intelligence is said to be in the mode of passion. Why is that? Our mind is being controlled by intelligence. How can the mind be controlled by intelligence? See, there is primarily the process of creation that we talk about.
There are many different explanations given for this. I will give my understanding over here. The point is that if we look at it from the functional perspective, there, it’s primarily material existence we talk about.
And there is material intelligence and there is spiritual intelligence. The two are not necessarily the same. Material intelligence has many features, but you could say in the simple term of material intelligence is information processing capacity.
Sometimes you may say that some people are brilliant in terms of say mathematics or physics or computer programming or whatever. At the same time, they may be smokers, smoking or drinking and they may be taking themselves to a quick grave. So, why is that? They have the capacity to crunch numbers, but they don’t have the capacity to discriminate, to discern the short term, the long term, the material and spiritual.
So, all intelligence is not the same. So, in that particular point, when the intelligence is talked about, that is material intelligence. So, goodness is connected with passion.
So, goodness is connected with maintenance and passion is connected with creation. So, the mind in the material world maintains our material existence. The mind maintains the status quo and the intelligence, the material intelligence, it creates newer and newer ways to enjoy materiality.
So, in that, now if you see most of technology today, it is used for newer and newer ways of sense gratification. So, what is happening over here is invention of technology requires intelligence, but that intelligence is used in the service of the mind. Knowledge is not used to control the mind.
So, the mind is considered to be in goodness because the mind maintains the status quo of material existence and the material intelligence expands material existence by coming up with new new schemes for material enjoyment. And that’s how the material intelligence is considered to be in the mode of passion, sorry, material intelligence is considered to be in the mode of passion and the mind in the mode of goodness. But spiritual intelligence, the intelligence we get by by the mercy of Krishna, through his abhijasra, that is of a significantly different category.
Now, material intelligence can be used in spiritual services also. Just like if somebody has got good information, personal capacity, they can memorise shlokas, they can analyse concepts and they can study and teach nicely. That is okay.
But material intelligence and spiritual intelligence, they are not necessarily the same. So, material intelligence is the mode of passion, spiritual intelligence is transcendent. And the mind, because it maintains the material existence, it is said to be in the mode of goodness.
Any other questions? Yes, sir. You have two questions. Okay.
So, for getting the palan, we need karma, dhaima and kaala. So, what exactly determines dhaima, dhaima? So, dhaima is determined by our past karma. Destiny is basically an accumulation of our past karma.
Whatever karma, our past is not just the previous life, many previous, many past lives. All that is accumulated together as our destiny. And so, in that sense, we are the creators of our destiny.
But we are not the creators of our immediate destiny in the sense that we cannot determine or check everything that is going to happen in our future. But what we do is going to change our future in a small or a big way. So, whatever happens in our life, that is destiny.
But that is also a reaction to, that is also a manifestation of the reactions to our past karma. You understand the question? Is there a difference between karma and destiny? Is there a difference between karma and destiny? I explained destiny. I talked about the four meanings of karma.
And I told the second meaning is essentially equivalent to destiny. Reaction past karma. But destiny is basically, it is not just a past karma coming down like a big lump on us.
It comes in a particular way. That is karma daivane kriya. So, under the divine’s permission, we get a particular reaction.
Different reactions at different times. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Suppose you have a child. And that child is always dissatisfied with whatever you do for him.
That will not be a very pleasant relationship. I will give you one thing for the child. He will not give me that toy.
He will not give me this. He will not give me that. He will not give me that.
Then it will not be quite an unpleasant or strange relationship. So Krishna is our parent. We are his children.
So if we don’t have gratitude, then we will have the opposite of gratitude. That is discontent. Dissatisfaction.
And we are always very dissatisfied. Oh, this will not happen. That will not happen.
This is not working. This is not working at all. This is not there in my life.
Then we cannot be easily related to Krishna. So gratitude enables us to create a basic platform of amicability or pleasantness in our relationship with Krishna. And we say we have to remember Krishna but it is anukulyena krishna nishyam.
I have to remember Krishna in a way that is pleasing to me. So there are two different things which are involved over here. One is remembering Krishna the person himself.
And second is remembering what this person Krishna has done for me. So you cannot artificially segregate them. But still, for example, when we hear Krishna’s pastimes, we are not constantly thinking, what has Krishna done for me? Krishna came and restored Draupadi.
Krishna came and accepted me. Ram, Ram is my Guru. What has Krishna done for me? We are not necessarily thinking like that.
We are just thinking about Krishna. And that itself is purifying. And that hearing about Krishna is good.
But we also want to develop a personal relationship with Krishna. And then we want to connect with Krishna so that gratitude is important in taking Krishna or in raising our relationship with Krishna on the level of just central, just a hero in entertaining stories. If we just hear Krishna’s pastimes, we organise, you know, there is Superman, there is Batman.
Like that there is Krishna. Nice stories. But we want to have a personal relationship with Krishna.
So gratitude creates a basic platform of pleasantness. Then we are remembering Krishna in a personal relationship with him. And whatever the gratitude, one of the most important things to focus on is on what we have.
The whole advertising industry will focus on showing us all that we don’t have. And as they say that for the consumer economy, consumer dissatisfaction is the fuel. To the extent consumer is dissatisfied, purchase new things.
That’s how the economy will move on. But that’s an unsustainable model. If you want to be satisfied, you will never be satisfied if we just expose ourselves to the materialistic propaganda of the world.
So minimising that exposure, so we don’t focus so much on seeing what we don’t have. We focus on seeing what we have. And seeing what we have also means with respect to whatever we have in spiritual life, we need to appreciate what we have.
The father may give, give say a will to the child. When another child becomes 18, child is going to get say a million dollars. And the child is going to say, what is this paper? What is the value of it? The child doesn’t appreciate because the child doesn’t understand what it is.
So like that, Krishna gives us many spiritual gifts but if we don’t appreciate what he has given us, then we won’t value it. So for appreciating them, we need to hear the philosophy. And if we look at our life, there are things that are wrong in our life and there are things that are right.
The mind, by default, goes towards the things that are wrong and makes us dissatisfied. So we need to consciously go towards the things that are right and remind ourselves of it. And that’s why if we consciously sit down, if you want to continue writing, what are the things I am grateful for in my life? And then, when we don’t feel that, we look back and read it.
Because there are times, I was talking earlier about the spikes of the mind. So the mind goes into negative feelings. At that time, it’s like our intelligence becomes paralysed.
It doesn’t work. That’s why if at that time we have already written down something, then we can read that. Yeah, it’s true.
The mind is saying, yes, you don’t have this, you don’t have this, you don’t have this. What is it? We have so many other things. We read that and we strengthen our intelligence at that time.
That way, by writing down what are the things that we are thankful for and hearing so that we understand that what all we have to be thankful for. The two things are there. Whatever we are thankful for, we need to remember ourselves.
Remind ourselves of that. And other things, they are valuable, but there’s the help we don’t realise. So by hearing about it, we start appreciating the value.
And a very important thing for gratitude is monitoring our level of expectation. If I come to a programme, I expect that there’s going to be a 12-course feast after the programme. And there are only 6 items over there.
I have been dissatisfied. By that time, I just think, there are so many people who every night go to sleep starving with an empty stomach. I think at that time, 6-course feast is a big thing.
It’s wonderful. So to cultivate satisfaction, we need to regulate our expectation. So gratitude comes when we don’t go into life with big, big expectations.
If we have too big expectations of everything, we’ll never be satisfied. So by monitoring our expectations, by listing what all we are thankful for, and by hearing so that we can appreciate what are the things that we don’t have appreciation right now for, by that we can cultivate gratitude. Thank you so much, Pradeep.
And thank you all for your attention and very proactive participation. Thank you so much. You were one of the first people that came to see me.
And we have a thank you at the closing speech coming up. So please stay on. But before that, I have a few important announcements.
One is, for all those who are having this room,