Overcoming resentment amidst difficult situations

[Evening program at Charlotte, USA]

Transcription

As it is mentioned, today I speak on the topic of overcoming resentment amidst difficult circumstances. The world is so arranged in a way that even the best plans sometimes get disrupted, but we need to make plans because things do not usually work in an orderly way. But even after making plans things sometimes gets disrupted, and when things get disrupted. When things don’t go we envision they would go, at that we get disturbed, and one is that the things don’t go the way that we want them to go. The other is, things go exactly opposite the way that we want them to go. The other is, things go exactly opposite the way we want them to go. So, there is some sort of strain in a relationship, we meet that person to try to resolve that strain, and then actually the misunderstandings pile up. The accusations and the recriminations go further, and things become worse, instead of becoming better. So, when such a thing happens one of the natural tendencies of the mind is to become resentful. So, resentment basically means that we begrudge whatever is happening, and broadly if we look at life whatever happens we can attribute it to various causes.

Sometimes we may blame people, ‘Because of you this happened, because of him this happened, because of her that happened.’ So, we may blame others, or we may hold others responsible and we may resent others for the way they are behaving.

Second is, we may resent ourselves. One is why are you like that? The other is why am I like that? Why do I get angry like this? Why do I forget things like this? Why am I so careless like that? That kind of resentment may also come, and sometimes that same resentment… it may go outwards, it may go inwards or it may go upwards, where we become resentful of God… ‘Why is God doing like this? You know I am doing so much for God. Why is He doing something like this to me? So, does God exists, does He care, you start getting questions of that kind.

So, in all these three cases when resentment comes in our mind, at one level the feeling is natural. That yes, we wanted to do something, we wanted things to work in a particular way, and they have just gone the other way. To feel upset is natural; to feel disturbed, to feel even resentful is natural. At the same time, we human beings have been given the capacity not just to feel emotions but we also have been given the capacity to choose emotions. That means certain emotions will come upon us, and they natural but what do we do with those emotions is up to us, and we have the capacity to choose. So, that is a defining difference between humans and animals.

All living beings feel hunger. When the hunger is felt, there is sensation that comes… there is a emotion that I feel, ‘I am hungry now.’, and the normal response to the sensation or the emotion… sensations in the body that comes in the mind also… ‘I am hungry.’ A feeling comes. The natural response to that response of hunger is, I eat. So, normally speaking… so, that’s how say animals work. Animals they see some food item. They feel hungry and they pound on it and eat it. So, there is a natural coupling between sensation or emotion and action. Sensation and emotion comes in and action comes out. There is a natural coupling between them. So, if a cat sees rat, the cat can’t think, ‘Oh today is ekadashi.’ (laughter) The cat will simply pounce on it.

Last year after America I had gone to U.K. So, I was invited to the Cambridge University to give a talk on Science and Spirituality, and while coming back we went to the tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling. He saw the fruit falling or he felt the fruit falling… whatever is the story, but then here if you consider that in the history of science, Newton’s brilliance has been appreciated, that by seeing something so ordinary as a fruit falling he came up with the theory of gravity. That definitely is brilliance. At the same time how did the brilliance come up? Instead of Newton if some monkey would have been sitting over there… if the monkey would have seen the fruit falling, the monkey would have picked up the fruit, eaten it and gone its way, and no one would have blamed it for that. What to speak of monkey, even most of the human beings would have done the same thing, and you would not blame them, but the thing is that instead of just doing the instinctive thing of picking up the fruit and eating, Newton thought, ‘Hey what made the fruit fall?’ So, there could have been an instinctive reaction, ‘Oh there is a fruit, let me eat it.’ But he did not go along the line of that instinctive reaction. He chose not the instinctive path, but the intelligent path.

So, the special capacity of the human beings is that we human beings as compared to animals… lower species is that, we can decouple sensation or emotion from action, we can decouple emotion from action. That is how for example, we can fast. Now we feel hungry but for maybe it is a holy day,  for religious purposes we fast or sometimes we want to lose weight, for dieting we may fast, whatever it is, but there is a sensation that comes in, there is a emotion that arises because of that, and there is natural action that comes, but we can decouple emotion from action, and that is a special privilege of the human being. This privilege is exercised through intelligence. To the extent we can use the intelligence, we can feel the emotion but we can decide whether to act accordingly or not or act in a different way, and this decoupling of emotion and action… Coupling means to join together, decoupling is the separate. This decoupling of emotion and action is vital for dealing with resentment. Now when resentment happens, when we become resentful…So, at one level when things go wrong it is natural to feel resentful, but just because something is natural doesn’t necessarily make it desiring. It is natural at that time, ‘Why did this go wrong?’ So, why is resentment not desirable, I will give three examples to illustrate it. Say, if you are driving a car and while driving,  suddenly we hit a pothole… this bump, this jolt is there, and we move forward. Now if unexpectedly we see a pot hole, so we may look back. We may pull over also and look back, we can slow down and pull over. There is a pot hole. How did I not notice it? And then we may learn something from it. ‘Ok, next time I will be very careful. I will have to avoid this pothole.’ And that way we will move on. We will learn and we will move on.

Suppose somebody kept looking back, glaring back at the pothole. Where did this pothole come from? He keeps driving and keeps looking back. Now the pothole itself cause oneself a jolt. Now their looking back while driving ahead, that can cause an accident, that can cause a disaster. So, in real life very few people would actually do something like that when it comes to driving, but if you compare life to journey we often do this thing. What happens is that, when something goes wrong in our life… say we run into a pothole and suddenly get a jolt, and then we start looking back, ‘Why  did that happen? Why did I do that? Why did he do that? Why did she do that? Why? Why? Why? And we keep looking back, glaring back at it, feeling frustrated about it, resenting it, and now unlike a car journey where we can stop the car, in the life’s journey we can’t stop, the life keeps moving on, but we are caught looking behind. So, what happens is, there is the hindsight and there is the foresight. Foresight is what we see ahead, hindsight is we see after the event… what happened.

So, now it is good to learn from the past. If certain things have gone out in an unexpected way, then it’s good to learn from the past, but learning from the past is different from living in the past. When we leave in the past that time we are mentally consumed by whatever has happened in the past, and then it’s like a person looking back while they are driving, they just can’t do anything. They can’t utilize their present in fact, they create further trouble because of the absent mindedness, the distractedness, the negativity that comes up. So, when we are resentful we are learning from the past, we are living in the past.

What is the primary difference? The primary difference when we are learning from the past is that we are in control. Ok, I am right now here. I will take my thoughts back in a guided way, look at the event, and see what could have been done better, but when we are lamenting the past, when we are living in the past, when we are resenting the past, at that time it is not that we are in control, it is the mind that is in control, and the mind just goes back to the past, and it just keeps going round and round and round over there, and the more we think about the past, we don’t learn anything from it, we just feel more and more frustrated. So, it is not that we are going to the past. The mind is simply taking us to the past. So, when this happens it simply dissipates our energy.

Another way of understanding this is like… as I said like the mind takes us to the past… the mind goes in a perpetual auto-replay mode, you know. Sometimes say we are watching a Youtube video and at the bottom there is a replay, play it again. Sometimes that replay setting is automatically put. The same video keeps playing again and again and again and again. So, like that when the mind becomes resentful of something then it goes into a perpetual auto-replay mode. Again and again the same thing we keep thinking, ‘Why did he do that, why did she do that, why did I do that, why did this happen, why, why, why?’ It just keeps replaying the event again and again and again, and it consumes our mental energy. We just can’t do anything, because the mind is consumed with that continuous replaying.

Another may be more practical example… in Youtube such a autoreplay doesn’t happen so often. Another more practical example would be sometimes say if you are working on a computer and the computer hangs. Now if the computer hangs, essentially what happens? It’s like one program is caught in a repeat mode. Somewhere some program is there which is caught in an endless do-loop13.16?? and it going on and on and on, and it consumes all the C.P.U, all the memory power, and then because it consumes all the processing power, the other programs can’t function, and then after that the whole computer stops functioning. So, similarly when we become resentful, at that time the same one event it just goes round and round and round, again and again and again, just keep going again and again in that way. When it keeps going again and again in the mind it consumes all our mental processing power, we just can’t think about anything else, and we just become paralysed, we become powerless.

So, now resentment can express itself in two ways. One is it express itself outwards or it expresses itself inwards. When it expresses itself outwards we lash out at others, ‘You are such a terrible person. Now because of you…’ ,and then we go on a campaign telling everyone how bad that person is. We demonise the other person. Now irrespective of what is true or false… that is not the important thing… maybe true also but it doesn’t really solve the problem. The other is we go on a attack on ourselves… ‘You are so foolish, you are so useless, you are so irresponsible, you are so careless, you are good for nothing, you are doomed and damned.’ We start beating ourselves internally, and in both the cases essentially what happens is that we dis-empower ourselves. When we think that, that person is a problem… ‘Ok, what can I do, that person is bad, what can I do.’ , and if I think I am the bad guy, then also ultimately if I have to improve it is I who has to work to improve, but if I start thinking that I am hopelessly bad, I am irredeemably bad then I can’t do anything to improve. So, both ways resentment chokes us.

So, now how do we deal with resentment? When a computer starts hanging what do you do? We restart or reboot the computer. So, similarly we need to reboot. Now what does rebooting mean? Rebooting means changing the questions that we ask. Now, in life sometimes the Why questions just have no answers. Why did this happen? Now, why did they act like that? Why did she do like that? Why did he do like that? You know the Why question has no answers. So, when I say that the Why question has no answers, we may say, ‘No, we understand that the philosophy of karma is there, bad karma things are happening.’ Yes, from a philosophical perspective that is ok, but from a practical perspective it doesn’t… whenever we talk about karma we have to understand that there are multiple levels of causation, that whenever anything happens there are three levels of causation. Say, one level of causation is say I find that I have got malaria. Now why did I get malaria? Because a mosquito bit me. Now, that is one level of causation of malaria, but then if I consider that in the house five of us are staying and it was not that the mosquito had some special love for me. Why did that mosquito come and only bit me? The mosquito bite can explain the occurrence of malaria, but the mosquito bite alone cannot explain, why did malaria come only to this person and not to that person. Sometimes we find that this person has lower immunity and that person has not got malaria. Somebody has good immunity, but still they have got malaria. So, the biological cause or the specific material, physical cause, that is important, but that is not sufficient. It is one part of the causal chain. Another part is our own karma.

It is by our karma that that particular mosquito bit us, and it bit us when we were vulnerable, when our immunity was down and that is how we got malaria. So, karma is the second level cause. The third level cause ultimately Krishna’s plan, Krishna’s sanction…. upadrasta anumanta cha, where Krishna is the overseer, Krishna is the permitter. Now when we say that Krishna is the third level cause, we have to understand that Krishna is not having some agenda against us. It’s not like Krishna wants us to fall sick, it is our own karma coming to us and Krishna is sanctioning it. So, in everything that happens, we can have these three levels of causation, and at different times we deal with things differently.

In the first level of causation… ‘Ok, I have got malaria, I will take some medicine, so that that mosquito, that particular infectant that is there, it’s influence on me decreases, and even in the vedic tradition there is Aurveda for this purpose. Ok, this is the material, physical cause of the disease and this is the material, physical solution to this disease. ‘Your stomach is upset, ok you take this peal, take this herb or potion or whatever it is.’ So, sometimes we work at a material level to address a first level material cause, but sometimes even when we address the material level of cause to our best capacity it doesn’t get addressed. Especially those who are in the medical field, they know that sometimes, some people, they have this disease and you give this medicine, you expect them to get cured but they don’t get cured. When an ordinary disease is there, we see it as ordinary but we just don’t get cured. So, when we do our part and still things are not set right that means that there is something more involved over there. So, the karmic cause is also there over there, and by the karmic cause, by destiny, sometimes we may just have to suffer for a particular time. So, at that time our material effort to resolve the cause, to resolve the material cause it doesn’t work, why because at that point the karma is coming into play, and we are meant to go through some difficulty for some time.

So, I am talking about this to understand from a philosophical perspective why resentment doesn’t help. Resentment doesn’t help us, resentment simply hurts us because as I said resentment does not solve the problem, but it also prevents us from doing anything else in our life. When I am resentful of this person, that person, whatever it is then my mental energy gets consumed and I can’t just do anything. So, we need to reboot. Reboot means what? Change the question. Instead of asking why, ask how… how can I act now? And if you go to the ultimate level, Krishna is always in control. So, how can I serve you Krishna? What do You want me to do in this situations Krishna? How can I serve you? When we have that attitude, how can I serve? Then we can always find some way to move forward because when we ask the why question, basically when we get no answer it is like a door being slammed in our face. ‘Now why did this happen? This doesn’t make sense. This explanation doesn’t make sense, that explanation doesn’t make sense.’, and we just feel, so many doors are slammed in my face and we don’t know what to do, but the how question opens the doors…. ‘How can I act now, how can I serve now?’ When we ask this question, at that time essentially what happens is that in every situation that we are in there is something that is in our control and there is something that is not in our control… any situation… even if there is some conflict with someone, whatever it is that has gone wrong, in every situation there is something in our control and there is something that is not in our control. The why question shifts our focus to that which is not in our control. Why is he doing like that? Why is she speaking like that? Why are they doing like that? The why question shifts the focus to that which is not in our control, and thus it dis-empowers us, because what is not in our control what can we do about it…we can’t do anything. The How question shifts our focus to what is in our control. How can I serve now, how can I respond now, how can I act in this situation, and just the fact that there is something in my control. At the very least my own consciousness, my own emotions are in my control.

Sometimes we may fall sick. Say we are going to go for a picnic or a yatra or a outing, and we are looking forward to that, and when we are looking forward to the outing, and just the night before that we start trembling and we find that we have a fever, and then we have to stay in bed for the next three days. Now we may resent, ‘Oh all my friends are going out and enjoying and I am lying in this bed.’ Now if we consider there is flue… if it is an ordinary flue, the flue doesn’t really cause much physical pain. There is weakness, you have to sleep more, and you have to have a regulated diet, but there is not so much physical pain over there. But that resentment, it causes far greater pain. So, if we look at life resentment of reality often hurts more than reality.

There is a particular reality that hurts, but our resentment of reality hurts us more. Yes, I couldn’t go for the picnic… that hurts, but if I keep thinking, ‘They are all enjoying, why is this happening to me….’ that hurts us much more. Better say, ‘Ok, I can’t go right now, so what can I do, maybe I will find some good book to read, maybe I will call up  someone and talk with them, maybe I just need some rest… let me take some rest.’ You know, we can do some constructive activities even while we are in the hospital bed. That means that if we recognize that at least my consciousness is in my control… where if nothing else in my control, the world can take away all power from us, the world can even take away the power to speak, the world can even take away the power to see, the power to hear, but the world can never take away our power to think. Our power to think… we can always choose what we think about. That power is always there with us, and the whole process of Krishna Consciousness is ultimately meant to increase our power to think. The power to think means, power to direct our thoughts, power of choosing what we think.

So, a devotee can be lying in a sick bed but a devotee is thinking about Krishna, remembering Krishna’s pastimes, chanting Krishna’s name, hearing Krishna’s kirtan, and the devotee can be not just tolerating the pain, but the devotee can be joyful at that time. So, the power to direct our thoughts is something that the world can never take away. But when we become resentful, that is the very power that is take away from us… it is not taken away. We let it be taken away. That means that we let our thoughts get locked in one particular situation. ‘Why is this happening, why is this happening?’ So, resentment often is like beating our head against the wall.  We simply hurt ourselves by that.

So, by changing the question that we ask ourselves from why to how, we can free ourselves from that resentment, not entirely but at least we can shift our mental focus, we can fight, ‘Ok there is something that I can do, this I can do, that I can do.’ And sometimes when things go wrong, it is like… the power suddenly goes off. Everything which is well lit suddenly becomes dark. Say we are going on the road in the night.. it is on  a well lit road, and suddenly the power goes off. We may groan, we may curse, we may rant, but after a few minutes, after a few moments what we will do, we will take out our flash light, our phone, we will turn on our flash light, and we will see around us.. the phone flash light does not replace the street lights, but at the same time it can show us one step forward. We take one step forward and afterwards the flash light shows us the next step, but we take one step forward. If we are going on the wrong track and we find that there is a ditch on the road and we are falling off, then we turn around and we come back on track. So, we can keep taking one step forward, and that way if we do, we can cover substantial distance.

So, similarly when we shift the question from why to how… how can I serve? Krishna how can I serve? Srila Prabhupada was asked, ‘What is the best prayer that we can offer to Krishna?’ Prabhupada said, ‘Ask Krishna, please give me the strength to serve You.’ So, when we ask that question, that question itself becomes like a flash light. ‘Yes I can do this, yes I can do that.’ We keep taking one step forward, and as we keep taking one step forward gradually we can cover a substantial distance, and the good thing in life is… the good part of life in this world is that everything is temporary. The bad part of everything in this world is temporary is that the pleasures here are temporary, but good part of that temporariness is that the problems are also temporary. So, nothing lasts forever. So, no matter how problematic a situation may seem to be, nothing is going to last forever. So, we keep moving forward and the lights come back.

So, by shifting our focus from why to how we can take a tangible step to breaking free from resentment, to not letting our mental energy be choked in resentment but to move forwards. This is simply from a point of practical perspective, ‘How can I serve?’ Now going deeper we understand that Krishna is always our benefactor, and Krishna is always our benefactor… that means that Krishna can bring good even out of the bad.

Sometimes bad things happen if life, and it is not that as devotees we are meant to think that everything that happens is for good. Some people say that, there is a Gita sar, which people put sometimes in shops or houses, ‘Jo hua wo accha huan, jo ho raha hain wo accha hon raha hain, jo hone wala hain wo bhi accha hi hoga.’ Now, I have read the Gita hundred of times, I never found any verse which comes anywhere close to this. (laughter). There is no verse in the Gita which says this.

Now, everything that happens can be for good. It is not intrinsically good. It can be good. Sometimes bad things happen. When Draupadi was disrobed, nobody in the Mahabharat tells, ‘Jo huan accha huan..’ (laugh) Nobody tells her that. It is a bad thing, it is a horrible thing that had happed to her. So, it is not that as devotees, even if bad things happen we are meant to think that it is all good. We can’t do that, we are not expected to do that. Sometimes bad things happen in life, and we acknowledge that we are bad, but Krishna’s expertise is that He can bring good even out of the bad, and for that He needs our cooperation. If we are resentful, then we don’t play our part. When we don’t play our part, then Krishna can’t help us. Just like a patient who is sick. The doctor needs the cooperation of the patient. The patient is suffering and the doctor needs the cooperation. To the extent that the patient cooperates, the doctor’s work becomes easy. The doctor can treat, the doctor can cure. So, similarly we … if we understand that, yes Krishna is still in control and He can bring good even out of the bad, but then Krishna can… we will see that, actually we can have that faith, we can have that release, ‘why such terrible things have happened?’ Yes, terrible things have happened but somehow Krishna can bring out good out of the bad. We can see this in nature throughout.

Now actually God breaks clouds to give rains. God breaks the ground to give grains but we have to plough the ground. God gives grains, God has arranged in such a way that grains need to be broken, so that bread is formed, and then there is further arrangement that the bread has to broken when we can eat it so that we get energy. So, often things have to be broken down so that something more usable, something better can come out of it. So, similarly sometimes our plans are broken down, but something better will come down from it.

So, firstly simply at a practical level, resentment will choke my mental energy, it will close doors for me, if I want to open the doors let me shift the question from why to how. That is the first level. Second level is if we turn towards Krishna. We understand that it is not I just alone now trying to imagine, how can I serve in this situation. You know, Krishna is also there, Krishna is also helping me, and Krishna will take care of things ultimately. So, let me try to serve Krishna. So, it is not we alone who are working. Krishna is also there to help us.

In the Mahabharat when Abhimanyu is killed, at that time Yudhisthir feels terribly guilty because the whole chakravyuh had been set up to arrest Yudhisthir. When Drona became the commander, at that time when Bhisma fell, Drona expected that Karna will become the commander, because Karna had not been fighting earlier…Karna was the trusted friend of Duryodhana, but Karna said that Drona is like my teacher… the teacher of all of you. It will not be appropriate… people will not respect me if I am the commander when he is there. So, you make him the commander. So, when Duryodhana approached Drona, and Drona was delighted. He said, ‘O Prince, you have honoured me and I will like to bestow some boon upon you for having giving this honour to me. What do you want?’ Now Duryodhana knew this… Duryodhana said, ‘I want that you arrest Yudhisthir alive, and bring him in front of me.’ Drona’s eyes opened, ‘Yudhisthir is such a ajat satru, that you don’t even want to kill him, you want him arrested alive.’, Duryodhana just sardonically shook his head, and he said, ‘If we kill Yudhisthir, Bhima and Arjuna will go wild with rage and they will destroy our army. So, my plant is that after seeing them fight for ten days, after seeing them fell Bhisma, I have understood that we can’t win this war. So, my plan is if you arrest Yudhisthir and bring him in front of me, I will challenge him to another gambling match, and I will defeat him and have him go to the forest for another 12 years.’ So, Drona said, ‘You will never learn.’… he didn’t say that.

So, the next several days… 11 and 12 days, so Drona said that, ‘Arjuna is my equal in every way, and move over Arjuna has got celestial weapons. So, If Arjuna protects Yudhisthir I will not be able to protect him. You get Arjuna out of the way, I will arrest Yudhisthir.’ So, 11,12 days, both days he tries to his fullest  capacity and Yudhisthir is both times very severely disadvantaged, but Arjuna comes rushing in the last moment and saves the day. So, on the 13^th day, they formed the chakraview, and the idea of the chakraview is, their goal is to trap Yudhisthir in the net, and that is why they have Arjuna side tracked by Susarma… Trigartha King who challenges Arjuna and takes him on the other side, and then the only person who can break the chakraview is Abhimanyu. So, when they sent Abhimanyu inside, he tells in advance, ‘I don’t know how to come out.’ The Pandavas say that… Bhima says, ‘Don’t worry, you can break it, you know if you can penetrate inside we will destroy from inside, we just don’t know how to go inside.’ Now for Bhima it is an infuriating situation, because sometimes what happens we have a lot of strength but you know strength alone is not enough, because the enemy is attacking in a particular way… there may be a big body builder, but the enemy is shooting with machine guns, what you will be able to do. So, Bhima is feeling very frustrated. He says, ‘You just help me just get inside. I will destroy this from inside.’ So, Abhimanyu does that. Then Jayadrata comes in the way. Abhimanyu is trapped, and eventually Abhimanyu fights heroically but at the end of the day he is killed, and at that time Yudhisthir is filled remorse, he says, ‘Abhimanyu was like my son. I am meant to protect him, but what kind of father am I, what kind of uncle am I that I sent that 16 year boy to his death?’ He is completely shattered. He says, ‘When Arjuna comes back what face will I show to him?’ Yudhisthir is so shattered, that he says that, ‘I cannot face Arjuna. I will avenge Abhimanyu’s death or I will die myself.’ Yudhisthir charges towards the Kaurava to attack them, and when he was charging towards them, at that time Vysasa Dev comes over there, and although Yudhisthir is so disturbed, but when Vyasa Deva comes he knows. So, he gets off his chariot and offers his respect to Vyasadev, and he confesses his heart, ‘Arjuna’s son has been killed so brutally, and I sent him to his death. I am overwhelmed. You tell me what to do, what can I do?’

So, then Vyasadev tells him many valuable things. The first thing he says is, ‘Oh king, know that no one in this world can violate the law of death. Everybody who is born has to die.’ So, there were many kings who were far more virtuous than Abhimanyu, and they also had to die.

But somebody may say that, ‘Oh but Abhimanyu had to die so young. There is a full life in front of him.’ He says that, ‘Actually this world is always a place of temptation. No matter how virtuous and glorious a person may be they can be tempted at any moment, and they can fall but by laying down his life in a virtuous cause Abhimanyu has ascended to the place that is beyond temptation, and thus it is not that we should lament his condition, we should pity our condition that we are still in this word of temptation and distraction. He resides in a divine form in a higher realm. He has attained an auspicious destination, and the purpose of the lives of the heroes is to attain a destination like that, and he was further counselled and then he says that the inscrutable will of the Lord is ultimately for the good of all the living beings. The Lord’s will is inscrutable. We can’t understand why certain things happen, but still it is for the good of all living beings and he said, ‘If you do his will, you will understand this in due course. How the Lord’s will is for our good, we will understand it in due course if we do His will. If we do His will means that he consoles… that five days from now the earth will be yours and this war is soon going to come to an end. A great victory is due for you, to not lose your cool now. One man thing he says is, ‘Oh King! Give up grief, because grief and lamentation achieves nothing except to sap the energy of the lamenter. When we lament we achieve nothing except to sap the energy of the lamenter. Give up your lamentation, and arise to do your duty. So, Yudhisthir is consoled by those words of wisdom.

So, here actually again what is he saying? He doesn’t get into… Vyasadeva doesn’t get into Karma. He doesn’t tell that in the past life Abhimanyu had done this, and because of it he had to die. There are times when karmic explanations can be given, and there are times when karmic explanations are not appropriate. When something bad has happened, that time our purpose is to be by the purpose to help and support the person. Nobody tells Draupadi, ‘It was because of your karma that this happened to you, that you were dishonoured.’ No. Even Krishna says that… ‘Terrible things would have happened, If I had been there I would have avoided it, I would have stopped this gambling match, I would have never allowed this things to happen.’ Krishna was there to support Draupadi.

So, like that when we speak our purpose is not just to speak the truth, our purpose is to speak the truth in a way that inspires people to come closer to the truth, and so in this way by shifting the question… what Yudhisthir has told is, ‘If you do His will, in due course you will understand this.’ So, like that if we shift our attitude, ‘How can I serve in this situation?’ Then we can actually break free from resentment.

I will conclude with one last point about handling not just specific resentment, but the mind’s attitude to be resentful. We can develop another habit. The habit of cultivating aggressive gratitude. What does that mean? Normally, is something good happens to us, we feel thankful. Somebody does something good for us, we say thank you, if some desire is fulfilled we say thank you to Krishna. On the other hand normally we think, how can aggressive and gratitude go together? What does it mean?

Normally aggression means that say… this is a territory that belongs to someone. That person goes out of the territory and occupies somebody else’s territory or tries to occupy someone else’s territory, that is considered as an act of aggression. So, aggressive gratitude means that there is a territory, there is certain set of events which if they happen, we will feel grateful, but aggressive gratitude means we go out of that territory and look for reasons to be grateful. So, there are certain things… at a particular point of our life we may feel, ‘Oh you know, there are so many things wrong in my life. What is there to be grateful for?’ But we actively, aggressively even look for what is right in our life, and if we all look at our life we will see that there are so many things that are right. For example, it is said that every time…sometime our stomach gets upset, and then we complain that our stomach is paining and I am not able to eat properly. So, actually speaking if we see, the only time we think of our digestion is when it doesn’t work. When it works we just take it for granted.  So, it is said that God gives and forgives, we get and forget. So, if you actually look we will find that there are so many things that are right in our life.

Let’s look at three levels. At the material level we can see that there are so many people in this world who are suffering far, far more than what we are suffering. According to statistics almost one out of every five people in the world, they sleep hungry in the night. They are malnourished. Most of us, we don’t have that problem. There are so many people who do not have the basic necessities of life. So, if we consider from the material perspective, the current culture, the media, the advertising industry it always shows us all the things that we don’t have. ‘Oh, this new phone has come, this new car has come, this new  product has come.’, and because of that we always see what we don’t have, and we feel dissatisfied, but if we shift our vision we will see that there are so  many people who don’t have the things that we have.

So, if we really wanted to count our blessings we are blessed far more than what many other people have. So, if we look to be grateful we all have things that we can be thankful for and further this is again at a material level itself that there are so many things which so many people don’t have, and especially if we look at things that we value. See, what happens it that sometimes our faith in God can limit God. Even how can anyone limit God….. Actually what I mean by that is that, we have faith in God only when He gives a particular thing to us, and if He doesn’t give that thing, ‘God doesn’t exist, God doesn’t care.’

So, sometimes when we are attached to a particular thing and we just want that thing and if that thing doesn’t happen then we think, ‘Oh, nothing is happening.’ Just like say sometimes, if children sometimes want a toy, and if the parents don’t give that toy, the children say, ‘You don’t love me.’ Now, actually the parents are providing with so many things to the child, but just that one thing is not provided they become blind to everything and they say, ‘you don’t love me.’ So, actually it is easy to laugh when we think that our children are doing like that, but often we like that with Krishna. We all have something that we just want, and if that one thing doesn’t work the we say, ‘Krishna doesn’t love me, Krishna doesn’t care for me, Krishna doesn’t do anything for me.’ Well, Krishna has done so many things for us.

So, if we cultivate aggressive gratitude. That means that we look for the things that are right in our life. At a material level we will see that there are many things that are right. At a more personal level… personal level also we may feel that I don’t have this ability, I don’t have that ability. If only I had that ability I could do so much. If I had that ability I could do so much. So, here also actually all of us have been given what we need for our growth, all of us have been given what we need for our growth.

So, if God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made us into someone else. He has made you you and He has made me me. There is a purpose for it, and if we just instead of looking at socially glamorized models. Some people may be looking better than us, some people may be speaking better than us, some people may be more of a crowd pullers than us. There are certain qualities that are glamorized in today’s world, and everybody wants to have those attributes and those who don’t have them, they feel just as if I am nothing, but it is not like that. Those features that are glamorised, yes they may attract some attention, but we all can make a contribution irrespective of whether we are attracting attention or not.

So, it’s like say after this program there is Prasad. Don’t suppose, Prasad is really there. (laughter). Suppose there is some arrangement for Prasad, and everybody is getting different items. So, all of us have got different items on our plates, and all of us have got good items, and I get a feast and instead of savouring what I have got I look at what he has got. (laughter), and I keep lamenting, ‘Oh I don’t have that.’ You have a feast. You eat your feast. So, like that all of us have a feast in our plate. All of us have talents, all of us have abilities. Some of us may have talents which are more easily visible, more easily glamorized in today’s world, others may not have that…

So, even in our personal aspects if we learn to look at ourselves objectively rather than based on the social mirror. Social mirror means what is glamorized in society. Instead of looking at it in that way, we look at ourselves, ‘I am good at this. I like this. I can do this well.’ And we can develop that, and by looking at what we have we can use that, and we can all make constructive contributions. This is in terms of our personal attributes, and third level is at a spiritual level.

Actually the ultimate happiness in this world comes by connecting with the source of this world, which is Krishna, and the opportunity to connect with Krishna is very rare. Very few people have it, and even fewer people take that opportunity. So, if whatever be the situation that we are in, if we connect with Krishna, if we absorb ourselves in Krishna we can rise above the stress.

mac-cittah sarva-durgani
mat-prasadat tarisyasi

Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. This means that He is not saying that obstacles will not come, but you will pass over them by His grace, because we will understand that Krishna is there, Krishna will help guide me, Krishna will take care of things. So, when we become resentful we become problem conscious, instead of being Krishna conscious, and the more we become problem conscious what happens is, problems derive energy from our thoughts, and the more we think of the problem, the problem seems to become bigger and bigger, and then you know that, ‘I can’t do anything.’ It’s like the problem is there like the reality. We don’t deny the problem as a reality, but how much we think about the problem that is up to us. ‘Ok I have got some disease, I have got some relationship issue with someone, I lost my job, I got some financial insecurity.’ All these needs to be dealt with, they are problems and they need to be dealt with but we can’t be dealing with them 24 hours a day. We have a life to go on, but unfortunately the problem comes… the problem comes with a mental glue, it sticks to our mind and constantly we are thinking about it, and then the more we think about it without actually doing anything to do with it the more the problem seems to become bigger and bigger. As it becomes bigger and bigger, we feel ourselves smaller and smaller, and we can’t do anything.

So, it is like say if I have to carry a five kg bag. Now five kg is not a very heavy weight, I can carry it, but if I am told, ‘You have to carry this five kg bag for the next 24 hours or carrying this five kg bag is your 24/7 job from now onwards.’ If I think that I have to carry this five kg bag for the rest of my life, that five kg will appear like 500 kg. I will not be to carry it. So, the problem of today are always manageable today, it is only when we extrapolate the problems of today and think that they are going to be there all the time or we take a problem of yesterday and let it dominate us today, then life becomes unbearable.

So, the whole problem is that we are problem conscious instead of Krishna conscious. So, don’t tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big God is. If the problem is big, Krishna is bigger, and Krishna can guide us to deal with the problems. Even if the problem remains, by taking shelter of Krishna we can get inner strength, we can get inner stability… When we remember Krishna we can experience bliss, we can experience relief, we can experience strength, and then that’s when thing is right in life, and then with that one thing right in our life we can come back, we can reorient ourselves, rejuvenate ourselves and come back and deal with the problem intelligently.

So, thus by cultivating aggressive gratitude for the opportunity to remember Krishna…that opportunity is not there for many people, we have that opportunity and if we tap that opportunity even the toughest of problems can be dealt with.

So, when a problematic situation comes in our life, we can see that as an opportunity to experience for ourselves how tough Krishna can make us. We think that this problem is so big. We can’t deal with it, I am crumbling under it, but if we take shelter of Krishna we will find that actually Krishna can make us so tough that problems which would have caused us to crushed we can still go through them. So, say somebody is coming and beating and I feel like I am going to be knocked down, my skull will break apart, my bones will break apart, somebody is beating me, but the remembrance of Krishna is like an armour. When we remember Krishna, actually we discover, ‘Hey, this problem before I was a devotee five or ten years ago, if this problem had come I would have crumbled, but now still I am surviving, I am going on. So, if we take shelter of Krishna we will discover… now in the Mahabharat when Gandhari told Duryodhana that this blessing that I have given you I will put an invisible armour on you, and nobody will be able to destroy except at your thighs. So, he didn’t know how strong it is, and then at one time Bhima hit him, and Bhima hit him with such force that actually it would have practically rent a bolder apart, it was such force. Duryodhana’s body should have cracked open. The force was so great that Duryodhana was thrown away to a considerable distance, and the Pandavas were about to erupt in victory, and Duryodhana was flung far away, fell in the ground and he got up and he completely unhurt. Bhima was stunned, what happened? So, at that time Duryodhana discovered how powerful that armour was. A blow that could have killed him… the blow still had the force. It flung him away but it didn’t hurt him anymore. So, like that at an external level we may be tossed by problems but internally if we are remembering Krishna we will be protected.

So, we can see problems as opportunities to discover how tough Krishna can make us, and if we see it that way we will discover resilience that we can develop by Krishna consciousness, and thus our faith in Krishna can increase much more. That this Krishna consciousness is for real. It has tremendous potency to shield me from life’s problems, and the problem will come and the problem will go, but if our faith in Krishna is deepened, that is a lasting asset for us, that will prepare us for no matter what problems comes in our life. That will ultimately take us beyond this miserable world to Krishna’s eternal abode where there are no problems.

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Summary :

I spoke about overcoming resentment. So, I started by talking about how when things go wrong, we become resentful either of somebody else who is the cause of the problem, or ourselves… ‘why did I make this stupid mistake?’ Or God… ‘Why is God doing like this?’, and this resentment, it simply chokes us, it paralyses us. It’s like we…instead of… we get caught living in the past like a person who hits a pothole while driving a car, and instead of… they can look back and learn, where is the pothole and how to avoid it. But instead of that if he keeps looking back, then he will meet with an accident. So, like that when we become resentful we live in the past, and we make things worse for the future.

So, another example I gave is that, when we are resentful it is like our mind goes into a perpetual replay mode. ‘Now why did this happen, why, why, why, why…’ and it completely consumes our mental energy, like a computer program that hangs, we just can’t do anything at that time. We just have to shut down and reboot the computer. So, like that similarly when we become resentful, that one problem that is there, we just keep thinking about it, and we just can’t do anything else. We become reduced to emotional wrecks. So, at that time rebooting the computer means we change the question that we are asking. Instead of asking Why… Why is this happening, we change the question to How… How can I serve now? The Why question is disempowering because it focuses on… it shifts our focus to that which is not in our control, and on the other hand the How question shifts our focus to that which is in our control, and no matter how big a problem we are facing there is always something in our control.

So, when all my friends are going for a picnic and I fall sick, at that time what is in my control? My own thoughts, my own consciousness…. So, if I keep resenting, why can I not go for that picnic, then resentment of reality often hurts more than reality. So, the world can take away many of our powers, but the world can never take away our power to direct our thoughts, and this is this power that is specially tapped and trained by the practices of Krishna consciousness. So, to overcome resentment the first step is, we can change the question from Why to How… Second point is, I talked about how we can know that… Krishna can… we can have faith that Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. So, shifting the focus from us to Krishna, and it’s not that when something bad is happening we have to imagine that it is good. Rather we understand that it’s a triple level causation, that there is an immediate cause to the problem, I am trying to fix it but it is not getting fixed. That means that there is some past karma, that is the second level cause. Because of that past karmic complication this problem will be there for some time, but like everything in this world even the problem is temporary. Therefore, ultimate is Krishna… by Krishna’s sanction that it is happening. Krishna is not causing this, but it is my own karma which Krishna is sanctioning or allowing it to happen. So, Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. So, let me surrender to Krishna’s plan, let me try to serve Him using my God-given intelligence.

I discussed about how Yudhisthir was consoled and counselled by Vyasadev. He said that actually… he just shifted Abhimanyu who has gone beyond the line of temptation. So, we should lament for ourselves instead of lamenting for him. That lamentation achieves nothing except to sap the energy of the lamenter, and the inscrutable will of the Lord is surely for the good of all living beings. If we do His will, we will understand in due course, and the third step I talked about for overcoming resentment is – Cultivate aggressive gratitude. So, aggressive gratitude means we don’t wait for good things to happen to be thankful. Rather we go out of the normal zone of gratitude to look actively for what I can be thankful about?

I discussed at three levels, that at an external material level… food, clothing and other necessities and facilities of life which millions of people don’t have but we have. We can be grateful for that. Instead of just looking at what materialistic culture around us shows us… it shows us many things which we don’t have… it advertises them. We can just shift our focus and think about many things that we have which others don’t have, that can bring us gratitude. At a personal level again, the society glamorizes certain talents and certain abilities because of which we may feel that I am not good enough, but we are good enough for what we are meant to do. If God had wanted us to be someone else, we would have been someone else.

So, all of us have like a feast, but with different items in each one’s plate. Instead of looking at what is in others plate, we learn to understand and savour what is in our plate. We should develop our talents and we can make our contributions, and lastly at the spiritual level… now whatever problem is there we can be sheltered from that problem by remembrance of Krishna. It can give us strength and it can give us security, it can give us serenity… and the opportunity for remembering Krishna is also not available for many people. We have that opportunity, and with this opportunity available if we just tap it, then the problems can become impetuses for us to discover how tough Krishna can make us. So, we have an armour around us, but just as Duryodhana discovered when Bhima hit him how strong that armour was. So, like that when life hits us, rather than resenting why life has hit us, we can remember Krishna, absorb ourselves in His remembrance and we will discover that, not only can I survive actually, I am protected even in the situation.

So, when we become problem conscious, then the problems of yesterday’s burdens us today, and the problems we think will be there forever, and thus we feel disempowered, we feel that the problem is too big and I am too small, but instead of looking simply at the problem and thinking I am too small we can look at the reality which is bigger than that problem, that is Krishna.

Don’t tell Krishna how big your problems are, tell problems how big Krishna is. By becoming Krishna conscious we can be sheltered from the problem, and with the sheltering calm that comes, we can use our intelligence to act wisely and to resolve the problem or the endure the problem, whatever works out, but ultimately by taking shelter of Krishna we gain conviction about the reality and the potency of Krishna’s shelter, and that is life’s greatest gain, that gain, that conviction in the reality ant the potency of Krishna’s remembrance…. that will enable us to weather any stone that life sends our way. Ultimately it will take us beyond this stormy world to Krishna’s eternal, blissful abode.

(Transcription by Sadananda Krishnaprema Prabhu)

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. I thank all of you for coming here today evening for this discussion. As I mentioned, I will speak on the topic of overcoming resentment amidst difficult circumstances.
The world is so arranged in a way that even the best plans sometimes get disrupted. But we need to make plans because things don’t usually work in orderly way. But even after making plans, things sometimes get disrupted.
And when things get disrupted, when things don’t go the way we envision they would go, at that time we get disturbed. And one is that things don’t go the way we want them to. The other is things go exactly opposite the way we want them to.
So there is some sort of strain in the relationship. We meet that person to try to resolve that strain. And then actually the misunderstandings pile up.
The accusations and the recriminations go further and things just become worse instead of becoming better. So when such a thing happens, it is one of the natural tendencies of the mind to become resentful. So resentment basically means that we begrudge whatever is happening.
And now broadly, if we look at life, whatever happens, we can attribute it to various causes. Sometimes, you know, we may blame people, you know, because of you, this went up because of him that happened because of her that happened. So we may blame others when we are we may hold others responsible.
And we may resent others for the way they are behaving. Second is, we may resent ourselves. One is why are you like that? The other is, why am I like that? Why do I get angry like this? Why do I forget things like this? Why am I so careless like that? That kind of resentment may also come.
And sometimes, that same resentment go, it may go outwards, it may go inwards, or it may go upwards, where we become resentful of God. Now, why is God doing like this? You know, I am doing so much for God. Why is he doing something like this to me? So does God exist? Does he care? You start getting questions of that kind.
So in all these three cases, when resentment comes in our mind, at one level, the feeling is natural. That yes, we wanted to do something, we wanted things to work in a particular way, and they just gone the opposite. So to feel upset is natural, to feel disturbed, to feel even resentful is natural.
At the same time, we human beings have been given the capacity not just to feel emotions, but we have also been given the capacity to choose emotions. That means certain emotions will come upon us, and they are natural. But how much we, what do we do with those emotions is up to us.
And we have the capacity to choose. So that is a defining difference between humans and animals. See, all living beings feel hunger.
When the hunger is felt, that is a sensation that comes in. There is an emotion that I feel, oh, I am hungry now. And the normal response to the sensation or the emotion, sensation in the body that comes in the mind also, I am hungry, a feeling comes.
The natural response to the emotion of hunger is, I eat. So normally speaking, now that is how animals work. Animals, they see some food item, they feel hungry, and they see some food item, they bounce on it.
So there is a natural coupling between sensation or emotion and action. Sensation and emotion comes in and action comes out. There is a natural coupling between the two.
So if a cat sees a rat, the cat can’t think, oh, today is Ekadashi. The cat will simply bounce on it. Last year I was, after I went from America, I had gone to UK.
So I was invited to the Cambridge University to give a talk on science and spirituality. And while coming back, we went to the tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling. He saw the fruit falling or he felt the fruit falling, whatever is the story.
But then here, if we consider that in the history of science, we appreciate Newton’s brilliance. I see something so ordinary as the fruit falling, he came up with the theory of gravity. That definitely is brilliance.
At the same time, how did that brilliance come up? Instead of Newton, if a monkey had been sitting over there, the monkey would have seen the fruit falling, the monkey would have picked up the fruit, eaten it and gone its way. And no one would have blamed it for that. Or to speak of a monkey, even most human beings would have done the same thing.
And you wouldn’t blame them. But the thing is, instead of just doing the instinctive thing of picking up the fruit and eating, Newton thought, what made this fruit fall? So there could have been an instinctive reaction, oh, there’s a fruit, let me eat it. But he did not go along the line of that instinctive reaction.
He chose not the instinctive path, but the intelligent path. So the special capacity of the human beings as compared to animals, lower species, is that we can decouple sensation or emotion from action. We can decouple emotion from action.
That is how, for example, we can fast. We feel hungry, but for maybe it’s a holy day, for religious purposes in the past, or sometimes we want to lose weight, for dieting we may fast, whatever it is. But there is a sensation that comes in, there is an emotion that arises because of that.
And there is natural action that comes. But we can decouple emotion from action. And that is a special privilege of the human being.
This privilege is exercised through intelligence. To the extent we use our intelligence, we can feel the emotion, but we can decide whether to act accordingly or not, or act in a different way. And this decoupling of emotion and action, coupling means to join together, decoupling is to separate.
This decoupling of emotion and action is vital for dealing with resentment. When resentment happens, when we become resentful, so at one level when things go wrong, it is natural to feel resentful. But just because something is natural, does not necessarily make it desirable.
It is natural at that time, why did this go wrong? So why is resentment not desirable? I will give three examples to illustrate it. Say, if we are driving a car, and while driving, suddenly we hit a pothole, bump, jolt is there, and we move forward. Now, unexpectedly we saw a pothole.
So we may look back, we may pull over also and look back, slow down and pull over. There is a pothole, how did I not notice it? And then we may learn something from it. Okay, next time, I will be careful, I will have to avoid this pothole.
And that way we will move on. We will learn and we will move on. But suppose, somebody kept looking back, glaring at the pothole, where did this pothole come from? I keep driving and keep looking back.
The pothole itself caused one jolt, but their looking back while driving ahead, that can cause an accident, that can cause a disaster. So in real life, very few people would actually do something like that. When it comes to driving.
But in terms of, if we compare life to a journey, we often do this thing. What happens is that when we, when something goes wrong in our life, something, life, we just run into a pothole, suddenly there gets, you get a jolt. And then we start looking back, why did that happen? Why did I do that? Why did he do that? Why did she do that? Why, why, why? And we keep looking back, glaring at it, feeling frustrated about it, resenting it.
And now unlike a car journey, where we can stop the car, in the life journey, we can’t stop. Life keeps moving on, life keeps moving on. But we are caught looking behind.
So what happens is, there is hindsight and there is foresight. Foresight means we see what is ahead. Hindsight is we see from after the event, what happened.
So now it is good to learn from the past. You know, if certain things have gone out in an unexpected way, then it is good to learn from the past. But learning from the past is different from living in the past.
When we live in the past, at that time, we are mentally consumed by whatever happened in the past. And then it’s like a person looking back while they’re driving. They just can’t do anything.
They just can’t do anything. They’ll run into, they can’t utilise the present. In fact, they create further trouble because of the absent mindedness, the distractedness, the negativity that comes up.
So when we are resentful, we are not learning from the past, we are living in the past. What is the primary difference? The primary difference when we are learning from the past is that we are in control. I am right now here, I will take my thoughts back in a guided way, look at the event and see what could have been done better.
But when we are lamenting the past, when we are living in the past, when we are resenting the past, at that time, it is not that we are in control, it is the mind that is in control. And the mind just goes back to the past. And it keeps going round and round and round over there.
And the more we think about the past, we don’t learn anything from it, we just feel more and more frustrated. So it is not that we are going to the past, the mind is simply taking us to the past. So when this happens, it simply dissipates our energy.
Now, another way of understanding this is like, as I said, when the mind takes us to the past, the mind goes in a perpetual auto replay mode. You know, sometimes say we are watching a YouTube video and at the bottom there is a replay, play it again. Sometimes that replay setting has automatically put it.
The same video keeps playing again and again and again and again. So like that, when the mind becomes resentful of something, then it goes into a perpetual auto replay mode. Now again, again, the same thing we keep thinking, why did he do that? Why did she do that? Why did I do that? Why did this happen? Why, why, why? Just keep replaying that event again and again and again and again.
And it consumes our mental energy. We just can’t do anything. Because the mind is consumed with that replay, replay, replay, replay.
And when, another more, maybe more practical example, in YouTube such an auto replay doesn’t happen so often. Another more practical example would be sometimes, say, if you’re working on a computer and the computer hangs. And when the computer hangs, essentially what happens? It’s like one programme is caught in a repeat mode.
Somewhere, some programme is there, is caught in an endless do loop. And it is just going on and on and on and on. And it consumes all the CPU, all the memory power, all the processing power of the computer.
And then, because it consumes all the processing power, other programmes can’t function. And then after that, the whole computer stops functioning. So, similarly, when, when we become resentful, at that time, the same one event, it just goes round and round and round and round again and again and again, just keep going again and again in the mind.
It keeps going again and again in the mind, it just consumes all our mental processing power. We just can’t think about anything else. And we just become paralysed, we become powerless.
Now, when in the resentment, it can express itself in two ways. One is it expresses itself outwards, it expresses itself, it expresses itself outwards, or it expresses itself inwards. And it expresses itself outwards, we lash out at others.
You are such a terrible person. Now, because of you, we go on a campaign, telling everyone else how bad that person is. We demonise the other person.
Now, irrespective of what is true, what is false, that is not the important thing. Maybe true also. But it doesn’t really solve the problem.
The other is, we go on attack on ourselves. You are so foolish, you’re so useless, you’re so irresponsible, you’re so careless. You are good for nothing.
You are doomed and damned. We start beating ourselves up internally. And in both the cases, essentially what happens is, we disempower ourselves.
When we think that that person is a problem, what can I do? That person is bad, what can I do? And if I think I am the bad guy, then also, ultimately, if I have to improve, it is I who have to work to improve. But if I start thinking that I am hopelessly bad, I am irredeemably bad, then I can’t do anything to improve. So both ways, resentment chokes us.
So now, how do we deal with resentment? When a computer programme starts hanging, what do you do? Yeah, restart, reboot the computer. So similarly, we need to reboot. Now, what does rebooting mean? Rebooting means changing the question that we ask.
In life, sometimes the why question just has no answers. Why did this happen? Now, why did they act like that? Why did she do like that? Why did he do like that? You know, the why question just has no answers. So when I say the why question has no answers, we may say, no, but you know, we understand that the philosophy of karma is there, bad karma things are happening.
Yes, from a philosophical perspective, it is okay. But from a practical perspective, you know, it doesn’t, whenever we talk about karma, we have to understand that there are multiple levels of causation. That whenever anything happens, there are, there are three levels of causation.
Say one level of causation is, okay, say, I find that I got malaria. Why did I get malaria? Because a mosquito bit me. Now, that is one level of causation of malaria.
But then if I consider, you know, in the house, five of us are staying, and it was not that the mosquito had some special love for me. Why did that mosquito come and bite only me? You know, the mosquito can explain the occurrence of malaria. Sorry, the mosquito can, the mosquito bite can explain the occurrence of malaria.
But the mosquito bite alone can’t explain why did the malaria come only to this person, not to that person. Sometimes we find this person has lower immunity and that person has not got malaria. Somebody has good immunity, still they get malaria.
So, the biological cause or the specific material, physical cause, that is, that is important. But that is not sufficient. It is one part of the causal chain.
Another part is our own karma. It is by our karma that that particular mosquito bit us. And it bit us when we were vulnerable, when our immunity was down, and that is how we got malaria.
So, karma is the second level cause. The third level cause, ultimately, is Krishna’s plan. Krishna’s sanction, Upadrashta Anumantacharya.
Krishna is the overseer, Krishna is the predator. Now, when we say Krishna is the third level cause, we have to understand that Krishna is not having some agenda against us. Krishna wants us to fall sick.
It is not like that. It is our own karma coming to us, Krishna is sanctioning it. So, in everything that happens, we can have these three levels of causation.
And at different times, we deal with things differently. At the first level of causation, okay, I have got malaria, I take some medicine, so that that mosquito, that particular infectant that is there, its influence on me decreases. And even in the Vedic tradition, there is Ayurveda for this process.
Okay, this is the material, physical cause of this disease. And this is the material, physical solution to this disease. You have digest, your stomach is upset, okay, take this pill, take this herb, take this, take this potion, whatever it is.
So, sometimes we work at a material level to address a material, the first level material cause. But sometimes, even when we address the material level cause to our best capacity, it doesn’t get addressed. Especially those in the medical field, they know that sometimes some people, they have this disease and you do the medicine and you expect them to get cured, they don’t get cured.
An ordinary disease is there, it seems it is ordinary, but they just don’t get cured. So, when we do our part and still things are not set right, that means there is something more involved over there. So, the karmic cause is also there over there.
And by the karmic cause, by destiny, sometimes we may be meant to suffer for a particular time. So, at that time, our material effort to resolve the cause, resolve the material cause, it doesn’t work. Why? Because at that point, the karma is coming into play and we are meant to go through some difficulty for some time.
So, I am talking about this to understand from a philosophical perspective, why resentment does not help. Resentment does not help us, resentment simply hurts us. Because as I said, resentment does not solve the problem, but it also prevents us from doing anything else in our life.
When I am resentful of this person, that person, whatever it is, then my mental energy gets consumed and I just can’t do anything. So, we need to reboot. Reboot means what? Change the question.
Instead of asking why, ask how. How can I act now? And if we go to the ultimate level, Krishna is always in control. So, how can I serve you, Krishna? What do you want me to do in this situation, Krishna? How can I serve you? When we have that attitude, how can I serve? Then we can always find some way to move forward.
Because when we ask the why question, basically when we get no answer, it is like a door being slammed in our face. Why did this happen? No, this doesn’t make sense. This explanation doesn’t make sense.
This explanation doesn’t make sense. And then we just feel so many doors are slammed in our face and we don’t know what to do. But the how question opens doors.
How can I act now? How can I serve now? When I ask this question, at that time, essentially what happens is that in every situation that we are in, there is something which is in our control, and there is something which is not in our control. Any situation, even if I am, even if say there is some conflict with someone, whatever it is that has gone wrong, every situation, there is something in our control, something not in our control. The why question shifts our focus to that which is not in our control.
Why is he doing like that? Why is she speaking like that? Why are they doing like that? The why question shifts the focus to that which is not in our control. And thus, it disempowers us. Because what is not in our control, what can we do about it? We can’t do anything.
The how question shifts our focus to what is in our control. How can I serve now? How can I respond now? How can I act in this situation? And just the fact that there is something in my control. At the very least, my own consciousness, my own emotions are in my control.
Sometimes we just fall sick. Say we are going to go for a picnic or a yatra, an outing. We are looking forward to that.
And when we are going forward, looking forward to that outing, just the night before that, we start trembling. We find that we got a flu. And then we have to stay in bed for the next three days.
Now, we may resent. All my friends are going out and enjoying and I am lying in this bed. Now, if we consider there is a flu, if it’s an ordinary flu, the flu doesn’t really cause much physical pain.
There is weakness. We have to sleep poor. We may have to have a regulated diet.
But there is not so much physical pain over there. But that resentment, it causes far greater pain. So if you look at life, resentment of reality often hurts more than reality.
There is a particular reality which hurts. But our resentment of reality hurts us more. Yes, I couldn’t go for the picnic.
I am sick. That hurts. But I keep thinking, they are all enjoying.
Why is this happening to me? Why is this happening to me? Why is this happening to me? That hurts us much more. I can’t go right now. So what can I do? Maybe I find some good book to read.
Maybe I call up someone and talk with them. Maybe I just need some rest. Let me take some rest.
You know, we can do constructive activities even when we are in a hospital bed. That means that if we recognise at least my consciousness is in my control. If nothing else is in our control, the world can take away all power from us.
The world can take away the power to speak. The world can take away the power to see, the power to hear. But the world can never take away our power to think.
Our power to think. We can always choose what we think about. That power is always there with us.
And the whole process of Krishna consciousness is ultimately meant to increase our power to think. Power to think means power to direct our thoughts. Power of choosing what we think.
So a devotee can be lying in a sick bed and the devotee is thinking about Krishna. Remembering Krishna’s pastimes, chanting Krishna’s name, hearing Krishna’s Kirtan. And the devotee can be actually not just tolerating the pain, but the devotee can be joyful at that pain.
So the power to direct our thoughts is something which the world can never take away from us. But when we become resentful, that is the very power that is taken away from us. It’s not taken away, we let it be taken away.
That means we let our thoughts get locked in one particular situation. Why is this happening? Why is this happening? So resentment often is like beating our head against a wall. We simply hurt ourselves by that.
So by changing the question that we ask ourselves from why to how, we can free ourselves from that resentment. Not entirely, but at least we can shift our mental focus. We can find, okay there is something I can do, this I can do, that I can do.
And sometimes when things go wrong, it is like the power suddenly goes off. Everything which is well lit suddenly becomes dark. Say we are going on a road at night, on a well lit road and suddenly the power goes off.
We may groan, we may curse, we may rant. But after a few minutes, after a few moments, what will we do? We will take out our flashlight, our phone, we will turn on the flashlight and we will see around us. The phone flashlight does not replace the streetlights.
But at the same time it can show us one step forward. We take one step forward and after that the flashlight shows us the next step. We take one step forward.
Say oh, if we are going on the wrong track, this is a ditch over here. I am going off the road. We turn around, we come back on track.
So we can keep taking one step forward, one step forward, one step forward. And that way if we do, then we can cover a substantial distance. So similarly, when we shift the question from why to how, how can I serve? Krishna, how can I serve? Shri Prabhupada was asked, what is the best prayer that we can offer to Krishna? Prabhupada said, ask Krishna, please give me the strength to serve you.
So when we ask that question, that question itself becomes like a flashlight. Yes, I can do this. Yes, I can do that.
I can do that. We keep taking one step forward, one step forward, one step forward. And as we keep taking one step forward, one step forward, gradually we can cover a substantial distance.
And the good thing in life is or the good part of life in this world is that everything is temporary. The bad part of everything being temporary is that the pleasures here are temporary. But the good part of that is temporariness is that even the problems are temporary.
So nothing lasts forever. So no matter how problematic a situation may seem to be, nothing is going to last forever. So we keep moving forward, moving forward and the lights come back.
The lights will come back. So by shifting our focus from why to how, we can take a tangible step to breaking free from resentment. To not letting our mental energy be choked with resentment, but to move onwards.
This is simply from a practical perspective. How can I serve? Going deeper, we understand that Krishna is always our benefactor. And Krishna is always our benefactor.
That means that Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. That sometimes bad things happen in life. And it is not that as devotees we are meant to think that everything that happens is good.
Some people say that there is a Gita saar which people put in sometimes in shops or houses. Jo hua, wo achcha hua. Jo ho raha hai, wo achcha ho raha hai.
Jo hone wala hai, wo bhi achcha hi hoga. Now, I mean I have read the Gita hundreds of times. I have never found any verse which comes anywhere close to this.
There is no verse in the Gita which says this. Everything that happens has happened as good. Everything that happens is good.
Everything that will happen is good. Now everything that happens can be for good. It is not intrinsically good.
It can be for good. Sometimes bad things happen. When Draupadi is disrobed, nobody in the Mahabharata tells her, jo hua, wo achcha hua.
Nobody tells her that. It’s a bad thing. It’s a horrible thing that happens to her.
So it’s not that as devotees somehow when bad things happen we are meant to think it’s all good. We can’t do that. We are not expected to do that.
Sometimes bad things happen in life and we acknowledge they are bad. But Krishna’s expertise is that he can bring good even out of the bad. And for that he needs our cooperation.
If we are resentful then we don’t play our part. When we don’t play our part then Krishna can’t help us. Just like a patient who is sick.
The doctor needs the cooperation of the patient. The patient is suffering and the doctor needs the cooperation. To the extent the patient cooperates, the doctor’s work becomes easy.
The doctor can treat and the doctor can cure. So similarly, if we understand that Krishna is still in control, Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. Then we will see that actually we can have that faith.
We can have that release. Why such terrible things have happened. Yes, terrible things have happened but somehow Krishna can bring good out of the bad.
We see this in nature throughout. Actually, God breaks clouds to give rains. God breaks the ground to give grains.
We have to plough the ground. God has arranged in such a way that grains need to be broken so that bread is formed. And then further the bread has to be broken when we eat it.
From that we get energy. So often things have to be broken down so that something more usable, something better can come out of it. So similarly, sometimes our plans are broken down.
But something better can come out of it. So firstly, at a simply practical level, resentment will choke my mental energy, it will close doors for me. If I want to open doors, let me shift the question from why to how.
That’s the first level. Second level is if we turn towards Krishna. It is not just I alone somehow trying to imagine how can I serve in this situation.
Krishna is also there. Krishna is also helping me. And Krishna will take care of things ultimately.
So let me try to serve Krishna. So it’s not we alone who are working. Krishna is also there to help us.
In Mahabharata, when Abhimanyu is killed, at that time Yudhisthira feels terribly guilty because the whole Chakravyuha had been set up to arrest Yudhisthira. When Drona became the commander, at that time, when Bhishma fell, Drona expected that Karna will become the commander. Because Karna had not been fighting earlier.
Karna was the trusted friend of Duryodhana. But Karna said that Drona is like my teacher. He is the teacher of all of you.
It will not be appropriate. People will not respect me if I am the commander when he is there. So you make him the commander.
So when Duryodhana approached Drona, Drona was delighted. He says, Oh Prince, you have honoured me and I would like to bestow some boon upon you for having given this honour to me. What do you want? Now Duryodhana knew this that he would ask.
Duryodhana said, I want that you arrest Yudhisthira alive and bring him in front of me. So Drona’s eyes opened wide and he said, Oh, Yudhisthira is such an ajat shatru that even you don’t want to kill him. You want him arrested alive.
Duryodhana just sardonically shook his head and he said, If we kill Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna will go wild with rage and they will destroy our army. My plan is after seeing them fight for 10 days, after seeing them fell Bhishma, I have understood that we can’t win this war. So my plan is if you arrest Yudhisthira and bring him in front of me, I will challenge him to another gambling match.
And I will defeat him and have him go to the forest for another 12 years. So Drona said he will never learn. He didn’t say that.
So the next several days, 11th and 12th days, Drona said that Arjuna is my equal in every way. And moreover Arjuna has got celestial weapons. So if Arjuna protects Yudhisthira, I will not be able to arrest him.
If you get Arjuna out of the way, I will arrest Yudhisthira. So 11th, 12th days, both the days he tries to his fullest capacity. And Yudhisthira is both times very severely disadvantaged.
But Arjuna comes rushing in at the last moment and saves the day. So on the 13th day, they form the Chakravyuha. And the idea of the Chakravyuha is, their goal is to trap Yudhisthira in it.
And that’s why they have got Arjuna sidetracked by Susharma. Trigarta king who challenges Arjuna takes him on the other side. And then the only person who can break the Chakravyuha is Abhimanyu.
So when they send Abhimanyu inside, Abhimanyu tells in advance, I don’t know how to come out. The Pandavas say that, Bhima says, don’t worry, if you can just break it, if you can just penetrate inside, we will destroy it from inside. We just don’t know how to get inside.
Now for Bhima, it is an infuriating situation. Because sometimes what happens, we have a lot of strength, but strength alone is not enough. Because the enemy is attacking in a particular way.
There may be a big bodybuilder, but if the enemy is shooting with machine guns, what can the bodybuilder do? So Bhima is feeling very frustrated. He says, you just help me get inside, I will destroy this from inside. So Abhimanyu does that.
But then Chaitanya comes in the way. Abhimanyu is trapped. And eventually Abhimanyu fights heroically.
But by the end of the day, he is killed. And at that time, Yudhishthira is filled with such remorse. He says, Abhimanyu was like my son.
I am meant to protect him. But what kind of father am I? What kind of uncle am I? That I sent that 16 year old boy to his death? He is completely shattered. He says, when Arjuna comes back, what face will I show him? Yudhishthira is so shattered.
He says, I cannot face Arjuna. I will avenge Abhimanyu’s death. Or I will die myself.
He just charges towards the Kaurav camp to attack them. And he is charging towards them. At that time Vyasadev comes over there.
And although Yudhishthira is so disturbed, but Vyasadev comes, he knows. So he gets off his chariot and offers his respect to Vyasadev. And he confesses his heart.
Oh, Arjuna’s son has been killed so brutally. And I sent him to his death. He says, oh, I am overwhelmed.
Please tell me what. What can I do? So then Vyasadev tells him many valuable things. The first thing he says is, Oh king, know that no one in this world can violate the law of death.
Everybody who is born has to die. So there were many kings far more virtuous than Abhimanyu. He lists those kings.
He says, they also had to die. So, but somebody may say that, oh, but Abhimanyu had to die so young. There is full life in front of him.
So he says that actually this world is always a place of temptation. No matter how virtuous and glorious a person may be, they can be tempted at any moment. And they can fall.
But by laying down his life in a virtuous cause, Abhimanyu has ascended to the place that is beyond temptation. And thus, it is not that we should lament his condition. We should pity our condition.
And we are still in this world of temptation and distraction. He resides in a divine form at a higher realm. He has attained an auspicious destination.
And the purpose of the lives of heroes is to attain a destination like that. And he goes further counsel. And then he says that the inscrutable will of the Lord is ultimately for the good of all living beings.
The Lord’s will is inscrutable. We can’t understand why certain things happen. But still, it is for the good of all living beings.
And he said, if you do his will, you will understand this in due course. How the Lord’s will is for our good, we will understand it in due course if we do his will. If we do his will means that he consoles us.
Four days from now, the earth will be yours. Five days from now, the earth will be yours. And this war is soon going to come to an end.
A great victory is due for you. Do not lose your cool now. One more thing he says is that all kings give up grief.
Because grief, lamentation, because lamentation achieves nothing except to sap the energy of the lamentor. When you lament, it achieves nothing except to sap the energy of the lamentor. Give up your lamentation and arise to do your duty.
So Yudhishthira is consoled by those words of wisdom. So here, actually again, what is he saying? He doesn’t get into karma, he doesn’t tell, oh, in a past life I had done this because of which he had to die. There are times when karmic explanations can be given.
And there are times when karmic explanations are not appropriate. When something as bad as happened, at that time our purpose is to be by the person, to help and support the person. Nobody tells Draupadi, it was because of your karma that this happened to you, that you were dishonoured.
No. Even Krishna says, it’s a terrible thing that happened. If I had been there, I would have avoided it.
I would have stopped this gambling match. I would never have allowed this to happen. Krishna is there to support Draupadi.
So like that, when we speak, our purpose is not just to speak the truth. Our purpose is to speak the truth in a way that inspires people to come closer to the truth. And so in this way, by shifting the question, what Yudhishthira tells, what Yudhishthira is told is, if you do his will, in due course you will understand this.
So like that, if we shift our attitude, how can I serve in this situation? Then we can actually break free from resentment. I’ll conclude with one last point about handling not just specific resentment, but the mind’s attitude to be resentful. We can develop another habit.
The habit of cultivating aggressive gratitude. Aggressive gratitude. What does that mean? Normally, if something good happens to us, we feel thankful.
Somebody does something good for us, we say thank you. If some desire is fulfilled, we say thank you to Krishna. On the other hand, normally we think, how can aggressive and gratitude go together? What does it mean? Normally aggression means, let’s say, this is a territory that belongs to someone.
That person goes out of that territory and occupies somebody else’s territory. Or tries to occupy someone else’s territory. That is considered an act of aggression.
So aggressive gratitude means that there is a territory, there is a certain set of events, which if they happen, we will feel grateful. But aggressive gratitude means we go out of that territory and look for reasons to be grateful. There are certain things, at a particular point in our life, we may feel, you know, there are so many things wrong in my life.
What is there to be grateful for? But we actively, aggressively even look for what is right in our life. And if we all look at our life, we will see there are so many things that are right. For example, it is said that every time, sometimes our stomach gets upset.
And then we complain, no, my stomach is upset, it’s paining, I’m not able to eat properly. So actually speaking, if you see, the only time we think of our digestion is when it doesn’t work. When it works, we just take it for granted.
Just take it for granted. So it is said that God gives and forgives, we get and forget. So if we actually look, we will find that there are so many things that are right in our life.
Even from, let’s look at three levels. At the material level. At the material level, we can see that there are so many people in this world who are suffering far, far more than what we are suffering.
According to statistics, you know, almost one out of every five people in the world, they sleep hungry every night. They don’t get it, they are malnourished. Most of us, we don’t have that problem.
There are so many people who do not have the basic necessities of life. So if we consider from the material perspective, the current culture, the media, the advertising industry, it always shows us all the things that we don’t have. Oh, this new phone has come, this new car has come, this new product has come.
And because of that, we always see what we don’t have and we feel dissatisfied. But if we shifted our vision, we will see that there are so many people who don’t have the things that we have. So if we really wanted to count our blessings, we are blessed far more than what many other people have.
So if we look to be grateful, we all have things that we can be thankful for. And further, this is again at a material level itself, that there are so many things which so many people don’t have. And especially if you look at things that we value, see what happens is that sometimes our faith in God can limit God.
How can anyone limit God? Actually, what I mean by that is, we have faith in God only when he gives a particular thing to us. And if he doesn’t give that thing, we think, oh, God doesn’t exist, God doesn’t care. So sometimes if we are attached to a particular thing and we just want that thing, and if that thing doesn’t happen, then we think, oh, nothing is happening in my life.
Just like sometimes some children want a toy and the parents don’t give that toy. The children say, you don’t love me! Now the children, actually the parents are providing so many things to the child, but just that one thing is not provided. Then they become blind to everything else and they say, you don’t love me.
So actually, it’s easy to laugh when we think our children are doing like that. But often we do like that with Krishna. We all have something which we just want, you know.
And that one thing doesn’t work, Krishna doesn’t love me. Krishna doesn’t care for me. Krishna doesn’t do anything for me.
And Krishna is doing so many things for us. So if we cultivate aggressive gratitude, that means we look for the things that are right in our life. At a material level, we will see that there are many things that are right.
At a more personal level, we may feel, I don’t have this ability, I don’t have that ability. If only I had that ability, I could do so much. If I had that ability, I could do so much.
So here also, actually, all of us have been given what we need for our growth. All of us have been given what we need for our growth. So if God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else.
You know, he has made you, you. He has made me, me. There’s a purpose for that.
And if we just, instead of looking at socially glamorised models, some people may be looking better than us. Some people may be speaking better than us. Some people may be more crowd pullers than us.
There are certain qualities that are glamorised in today’s world. And everybody wants to have those attributes. And those who don’t have them, they just feel as if I have nothing.
But it’s not like that. Those features that are glamorised, yes, they may attract some attention. But we all can make a contribution irrespective of whether we are attracting attention or not.
So if we, so it’s like, say suppose after this programme, there is prasad. Now don’t suppose prasad is actually there. But suppose there is a special kind of arrangement for prasad that everybody is getting different items.
So you have got different items in your plate. You have got different items in your plate. I have got different items in my plate.
All of us have got different items. Now, all of us have got good items. But I get a feast.
And instead of savouring what I have got, I look at what has he got. Now, what has she got? Oh, what has he got? Oh, I don’t have that. Oh, I don’t have that.
I don’t have that. You have a feast. Eat your feast.
So like that, all of us have a feast in our plate. All of us have talents. All of us have abilities.
Some of us may have talents which are more easily visible, more easily, more easily glamorised in today’s world. But others may not have that. But all of us have a feast.
So even in our personal aspects, if we learn to look at ourselves objectively rather than based on the social mirror. Social mirror means what is glamorised in society. Instead of looking at it that way, we look at ourselves.
I am good at this. I like this. I can do this well.
And we can develop that. And by looking at what we have, we can use that and we all can make constructive contributions. This is in terms of our personal attributes.
And third level is at a spiritual level. No, actually, the ultimate happiness in this world comes by connecting with the source of this world. That is Krishna.
And the opportunity to connect with Krishna is very rare. Very few people have it. And even fewer people take that opportunity.
So if whatever be the situation we are in, if we connect with Krishna, if we absorb ourselves in Krishna, we can rise above distress. Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. This means he is not saying obstacles will not come, but we will pass over them by his grace.
Because we will understand that Krishna is there. Krishna will help, guide me. Krishna will take care of things.
So when we become resentful, we become problem conscious instead of being Krishna conscious. And the more we become problem conscious, what happens is problems derive energy from our thoughts. And the more we think of a problem, the problem seems to become bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
And we feel I can’t do anything. The problem is there as a reality. We don’t deny the problem as a reality.
But how much we think about the problem, it is up to us. OK, I’ve got some disease. I got some relationship issue with someone.
You know, I lost my job. I got some financial insecurity. All these need to be dealt with.
They are problems that need to be dealt with. But we can’t be dealing with them 24 hours a day. We have a life to go on.
But unfortunately the problem comes. The problem, it’s like it comes with a mental glue. It sticks to our mind.
And constantly we are thinking about it. And then the more we think about it without actually doing anything to deal with it, the more the problem seems to become bigger and bigger and bigger. As it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, we feel ourselves smaller and smaller and smaller.
And we can’t do anything. So it’s like, say, if I have to carry a 5 kg bag. Now, 5 kg is not a very heavy weight.
I can carry it. But if I am told, you have to carry this 5 kg bag for the next 24 hours. I have to carry, carrying this 5 kg bag is your 24 by 7 job from now onwards.
If I think I have to carry this 5 kg for the rest of my life, 5 kg will appear like 500 kg. I will not be able to carry it. So, you know, the problems of today are always manageable today.
It is only when we extrapolate the problems of today and think that they are going to be there all the time. Or we take a problem of yesterday and let it dominate us today. Then life becomes unbearable.
So the whole problem is that we are problem conscious instead of Krishna conscious. So, don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is.
Tell your problems how big God is. This problem is big but Krishna is bigger. And Krishna can guide us to deal with the problems.
Even if the problem remains, by taking shelter of Krishna, we can get inner strength. We can get inner stability. Yes, this is wrong in my life, that is wrong in my life.
But still, when I remember Krishna, I can experience peace. I can experience relief. I can experience strength.
And then, that one thing is right in our life. And then with that one thing right in our life, we can come back. We can reorient ourselves, rejuvenate ourselves and come back and deal with the problem intelligently.
So, by thus cultivating aggressive gratitude for the opportunity to remember Krishna. For the opportunity to remember Krishna, that is, this opportunity is not there for many people. We have that opportunity and if we tap that opportunity, even the toughest of problems can be dealt with.
So, when a problematic situation comes in our life, we can see that as an opportunity to experience for ourselves how tough Krishna can make us. We think this problem is so big, I can’t deal with it. I am crumbling under it.
But if we take shelter of Krishna, we will find that actually Krishna can make us so tough that problems which would have caused us to crush, to be crushed, we can still go through them. So, it’s like say somebody is coming and beating. I am going to be knocked down.
My skull will break apart. My bones will break apart now. Somebody is beating me.
But the remembrance of Krishna is like a armour. When we remember Krishna, you know, actually we discover, hey, this problem, before I was a devotee, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, this problem had come, I would have crumbled. But now I am still surviving.
I am still going on. So, if we take shelter of Krishna, we discover. In the Mahabharata, when Gandhari told Duryodhana that with this blessing that I have given you, I have put an invisible armour on you and nobody will be able to destroy you except for at your thighs.
So, he did not know how strong it is. And then at one time Bhima hit him. And Bhima hit him with such force that actually it would have practically rent a boulder apart.
It was such force. Duryodhana’s body should have cracked open. The force was so great that Bhima was thrown, sorry, Duryodhana was thrown a considerable distance.
And Pandavas were about to cry in victory, erupt in victory. And Duryodhana was flung far away. He fell on the ground and he got up.
And he was completely unhurt. Bhima was stunned. What happened? So, at that time Duryodhana discovered how powerful that armour was.
A blow that could have killed him, the blow still had the force, so it flung him away. But it did not hurt him in any way. So, like that, at an external level, you know, we may be tossed by problems.
But internally, if we are remembering Krishna, we will be protected. So, we can see problems as opportunities to discover how tough Krishna can make us. And if we see it that way, we will discover that there is enormous resilience that we can develop by Krishna Consciousness.
And thus, our faith in Krishna can increase much more. That this Krishna Consciousness is for real. It has tremendous potency to shield me from life’s problems.
And the problem will come, the problem will go. But if our faith in Krishna has deepened, that is a lasting asset for us. That will prepare us for no matter what problem comes in our life.
That will ultimately take us beyond this miserable world to Krishna’s eternal abode where there are no problems. So, I’ll summarise. I talked about the, I spoke about overcoming resentment.
So, I started by talking about how when things go wrong, we become resentful. Either of somebody else who is the cause of the problem or of ourselves. Why did I make such a stupid mistake? Or of God.
Why is God doing like this? And this resentment, it simply chokes us. It paralyses us. It’s like we, instead of, we get caught living in the past.
Like a person who hits a pothole while driving a car. Instead of, they can look back and learn where is the pothole and avoid it. But instead of that, they keep looking back, looking back, looking back.
Then, they’ll meet accident. So like that, when we become resentful, we live in the past. And we make things worse for the future.
So, another example I gave is that when we are resentful, it’s like our mind goes into a perpetual replay mode. Why did this happen? Why, why, why, why? And it completely consumes our mental energy. Like a computer programme that hangs.
You just can’t do anything at that time. You just have to shut down and reboot the computer. So like that, similarly, when we become resentful, that one problem that is there, we just keep thinking about it and we just can’t do anything else.
We become reduced to emotional wrecks. So at that time, rebooting the computer means that we change the question we are asking. Instead of asking why, why is this happening, we change the question to how.
How can I serve now? The why question is disempowering. Because it focusses on, it shifts our focus to that which is not in our control. And just on the other hand, the how question, it shifts our focus to that which is in our control.
And no matter how big a problem we are facing, there is always something in our control. So if all my friends are going for a picnic, I have fallen sick. At that time, what is in my control? My own thoughts, my own consciousness.
So if I keep resenting, why can I not go for the picnic? Then resentment of reality often hurts more than reality. So the world can take away many of our powers. But the world can never take away our power to direct our thoughts.
And it is this power that is especially tapped and trained by the practises of Krishna Consciousness. So to overcome resentment, the first step is we can change the question from why to how. Second question, second point is, I talked about how we can know that Krishna can, we can have faith that Krishna can bring good even out of the bad.
So shifting the focus from us to Krishna. And it’s not that when bad, when something bad is happening, we have to imagine that it is good. Rather, we understand that it is a triple level causation.
That there is an immediate cause to the problem. I am trying to fix it but it is not getting fixed. That means there is some past karma that is a second level cause.
Because of that past karmic complication, this problem will be there for some time. But like everything in this world, even the problem is temporary. Therefore, the ultimate is Krishna.
Krishna’s sanction by which it is happening. Krishna is not causing this. But it is my own karma which Krishna is sanctioning.
Allowing it to happen. So Krishna can bring good even out of the bad. So let me surrender to Krishna’s plan.
Let me try to serve him using my God-given intelligence. I discussed about how Yudhishthira was consoled and counselled by Vyasadeva. He said that actually he just shifted.
Abhimanyu has gone beyond the land of temptation. So we should lament for ourselves instead of for him. That lamentation achieves nothing except to sap the energy of the lamenter.
And the inscrutable will of the Lord is surely for the good of all living beings. If we do his will, we will understand a new course. And the third step I talked about for overcoming resentment is cultivate aggressive gratitude.
So aggressive gratitude means we don’t wait for good things to happen to be thankful. Rather we go out of the normal zone of gratitude to look actively for what can I be thankful about. I discussed at three levels.
At an external material level, food, clothing, shelter and so many other necessities and facilities of life which millions of people don’t have, we have. So we can be grateful for that. Instead of just looking at what the materialistic culture around us shows us, it shows us the many things which we don’t have, advertises them.
We can just shift our focus and think of the many things that we have which others don’t have. That can bring us gratitude. At a personal level, again society glamorises certain talents and certain abilities because of which we feel that I am not good enough.
But we are good enough for what we are meant to do. If God had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else. So all of us have like a feast but with different items in each one’s plate.
Instead of looking at what is in others plate, we learn to understand and savour what is in our plate. Develop our talents and we can make our contributions. And lastly, at the spiritual level, whatever problem is there, we can be sheltered from that problem by remembrance of Krishna.
It can give us strength, it can give us security, it can give us serenity. And the opportunity for remembering Krishna is also something which is available for many people. We have that opportunity and with this opportunity available, if you just tap it, then problems can become impetuses for us to discover how tough Krishna can make us.
So we have an armour around us. But just as Duryodhana discovered when Bhima hit him, how strong that armour was. So like that when life hits us, rather than resenting why life has hit us, we can remember Krishna, absorb ourselves in remembrance and we will discover that not only can I survive actually, I am protected even in this situation.
So when we become problem conscious, then the problems of yesterday burden us today and the problems of today we think they will be there forever and thus we feel disempowered. We feel that the problem is too big, I am too small. But instead of looking at simply the problem and thinking I am too small, we can look at a reality which is bigger than that problem, that is Krishna.
Don’t tell Krishna how big your problems are, tell problems how big Krishna is. By becoming Krishna conscious, we can be sheltered from the problem and with the sheltering calm that comes, we can use our intelligence to act wisely and to resolve the problem or to endure the problem, whatever works out. But ultimately by taking shelter of Krishna, we gain conviction about the reality and the potency of Krishna’s shelter and that is life’s greatest gain.
That gain, that conviction in the reality and the potency of Krishna’s remembrance, that will enable us to weather any storm that life sends our way. Ultimately, it will take us beyond this stormy world to Krishna’s eternal blissful abode. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. So are there any questions or comments? Babaji, my biggest resentment is procrastination. So I have been doing this all the time, I believe.
Most of my spiritual life would have been much better if I had not procrastinated. How do I get to what I am saying? So my biggest resentment is procrastination. There is a slight ambiguity in the question.
Are you saying regret is procrastination or resentment is procrastination? Because the two are different things. Regret means, I wish I was not procrastinating. But resentment means, I hate myself because I procrastinated.
So resentment is a very strong negative feeling of hatred. So basically is it that you resent yourself or you just regret that you are procrastinating? Yeah, it’s regret. So yes, in general, the mind always chooses the path of least resistance.
That is the normal tendency of the mind. So if there is something which is difficult to do or which the mind feels is difficult to do, the mind tries to put it off. And that is a normal human tendency to put off unpalatable things.
And that’s how we tend to procrastinate that which is difficult or which we feel is difficult. So there are two basic strategies we could say to overcome procrastination. One is personal, the other is social.
Personally, we need to strengthen our intellectual conviction. About why, not that this is important, why this is also urgent. See what happens is the mind is very cunning.
Initially, when we are not philosophically at all attuned, at that time, we think, okay, we don’t think God very important. But once we start understanding the philosophy, we understand Krishna is important. Krishna Bhakti is important.
But at that time, Maya shifts the strategies. Krishna is important, but this is urgent. Yeah, that is important, but this is urgent.
And then again, now this is urgent. Now this is urgent. This is urgent.
And that way, Maya doesn’t allow us to focus on Krishna. So that’s why now it is true that in life there can be urgent situations. But it’s not that 24 hours a day, everything that we do is urgent.
So we can make time for that which is important and urgent also. So we need to reinforce our intellectual conviction by regularly studying scripture and not just general philosophy, but specifically those sections of scripture, maybe certain verses, certain classes, certain quotes, which remind us of the urgency of practising Krishna Consciousness. And then keep that ready with us.
Maybe write down those quotes, write down those passages, those points. And whenever the tendency, whenever we have to do something which we encounter some resistance for, at that time we can, see there is resistance and there is persistence. So resistance comes from within.
Then we need persistence to overcome the resistance. That persistence will come from our intellectual conviction. That’s why whichever is our tendency to procrastinate, we need specific, specifically composed intellectual reflections to persist within that.
Secondly, it is, if we could make a social commitment to something. Social commitment means we announce that I am going to do this every day. Not in a show-off sense, but just in a sense that we get the help of others by that.
So if I had to do something, let’s say, if I want to memorise shlokas, then I decide, you know, I decide to meet with a friend and decide, you know, every week we’ll memorise one shloka or every day we’ll memorise one shloka. And then we decide we’ll meet every day, five minutes on Skype or on phone. We’ll talk and we will recite the shloka.
Now what happens? As soon as we have some, this is the term, which is basically satsang, in a sense, good association, not just in terms of someone with whom we hear lectures, but equal with whom we can share. So in modern psychology, the word that is used for this is accountability partner. Now, I want to be accountable and I need a partner to whom I can be accountable.
So if there is something which we tend, which we want to do, but we tend to put off, then we make a commitment with someone else. Ideally, if they are also making a similar commitment, that’s wonderful. Let’s say we want to study Shastra.
And then we decide, you know, all of both of us, even if we don’t study together, but we’ll study every day, 15 minutes or in a week, in a week or in a week, I was going to study three hours or six hours, whatever it is. And then we meet together. So actually making a commitment is one of the most effective ways of overcoming the mind’s tendency for procrastination.
Because once something we make a commitment to, then somehow or other we find a way to do that. Now, the key difference between material life and spiritual life is that in material life, the commitments we take up, we understand that they are irrevocable. I may not feel like doing my job.
I may want to procrastinate that also. But you know, I have to earn my living. Otherwise, where will I stay? What will I eat? So in our conditions, in our stage, our material life and its obligations seem mandatory.
Our spiritual life and its obligations don’t seem so mandatory. That’s why we have to create a commitment in some way. If we create a commitment, then we’ll find that that conviction and commitment together will help us to overcome the tendency for procrastination.
Does the Bhagavad Gita give spiritual solutions to all material problems? See, we have to understand firstly, what do we mean by spiritual and what do we mean by material? Let’s start from the context of the Gita itself. After hearing the Gita, Arjuna fought the war and he won the war. Now, did he win the war by the knowledge of the Gita or did he win the war by the knowledge of archery that he had learnt throughout his life? What do you think? Both, isn’t it? Both.
The knowledge of the Gita gave him the spiritual inspiration, the conviction, the direction and the knowledge of archery helped him to practically execute the determination. So, the spiritual is the director of the material. The spiritual is not the replacer of the material.
A simple example, if I wake up early in the morning in Brahma Murtha and chant 64 rounds attentively, is that and if I don’t brush my teeth, is my 64 round chanting going to remove my bad breath from my mouth? It’s not and it’s not expected to. Chanting is going to offer us something far more. Bad breath we can remove simply by brushing our teeth, isn’t it? So, it’s not required.
So, the point is the spiritual and the material are two different domains. And material problems require material solutions. If I have got a fracture in my hand, is chanting Hare Krishna going to heal the fracture? You may say Krishna can do anything.
Yes, Krishna can do anything but it is not a devotee’s mood that Krishna you miraculously intervene in every situation and you fix every situation. That is not the mood of a devotee. Krishna has created arrangements and we take part of the arrangements.
So, it is not that in every small problem in the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, the devotee is expecting Krishna to intervene and help. So, among the vanaras, when they had to jump across the ocean, they were all blessed by Ram. Ram had blessed all of them and they were going.
But the vanara who had the material ability to jump that far, that vanara was selected to jump and that was Hanuman. So, the material and the spiritual are complementary. So, when we say that spiritual solutions to material problems, what it means is not that the spiritual replaces the material but that the spiritual guides the material.
So, it is that somebody has got a fracture and you go to a doctor. The doctor treats it. Sometimes there are some doctors who are so selfish that they actually aggravate the patient’s problems so that they can get more money out of it.
So, then what are they doing? They are actually using the material knowledge in an abusive way, in an exploitative way. So, the problem of the world is not shortage of resources. It is misuse of resources.
And that misuse happens because of self-centred, selfish consciousness. That misuse happens because our consciousness is caught in materialistic things. When our consciousness becomes spiritual, then that misuse will go down.
When that misuse will go down, then whatever material resources we have, we will use them more effectively. So, it is that the Bhagavad Gita has spiritual solutions to all problems. What does it mean? All material problems.
It means that whatever material problem we are facing, if we study the Bhagavad Gita, if we apply the principles of the Bhagavad Gita, then we will ourselves get the pure consciousness. We will get the inner guidance by which we can effectively implement material solutions. So, it is not that say there is corruption in the government or there is AIDS or there is cancer.
It is that the cure for all these things is not found in the Bhagavad Gita. So, sometimes while praising the Gita, some people make some grandiose statements that they can’t practically explain. And then people become more sceptical because of that.
So, yes, the Bhagavad Gita contains spiritual wisdom by which we can make material solutions effective. The material solutions require material expertise also. So, it is not that just by chanting Hare Krishna or just by studying the Bhagavad Gita, a person will become the best doctor, the best engineer, the best public speaker, the best political leader, the best army man or air force person or whatever, no.
Now, they can become, but they also have to acquire those particular skills. So, the point is the spiritual is the director of the material. Director in the sense that the material skills that we have, they are directed wisely, selflessly, constructively so that we become parts of the solution, not parts of the problem.
So, in that sense of guiding us towards effective material solutions and changing our consciousness by which we can be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem. So, in that principle, in the sense of principles, the Bhagavad Gita can offer us, has the potential to offer solution to all problems. Does that answer your question? Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Any other questions? Yes, ma’am. So, how the 5th Canto cosmology of the Bhagavatam, how to understand or present them, they seem to be very difficult to understand.
So, this is something which I have studied, contemplated, prayed, discussed for over 20 years. So, it’s not an easy question to answer. There is a five step reflection.
I have a full class on this, many full classes actually, but I’ll just give this five step reflection to understand this. So, see, those five steps are we understand the purpose of scripture. We understand the purpose of science.
Then we understand the scope of science. We understand the scope of scripture. And then we see how the two can be harmonised.
So, let’s start with the purpose of science. See, science, as it is understood today in the world, is a methodology which is used for getting material explanations for material phenomena. Newton saw fruit falling.
What caused this fruit to fall? Now, you could have said God caused the fruit to fall. And that is true. Newton also believed that laws come from God.
But he was looking for a material cause, not for God as a cause. So, science focusses on looking for material explanations for material phenomena. In scientific word it is called naturalism or methodological naturalism.
That as a methodology, science looks for natural explanations for natural phenomena. And science in itself doesn’t make any statements about anything non-material, whether it exists or it doesn’t exist. So, that is the scope of science.
That is the purpose of science, to look for material explanations for material phenomena. Now, what is the purpose of scripture? When you consider the Bhagavatam, it is spoken to Shukadeva Goswami when he is about to die in seven days. So, the purpose of Shukadeva Goswami in speaking to Parikshit Maharaj is to help him fix the mind on Krishna.
And the Bhagavatam’s fifth canto cosmology is also with that purpose. Bhagavatam’s cosmology, it is said at the starting and the ending of that section, that by meditating on the universe in this way, one’s appreciation, one’s devotion to Lord Hari will increase. So, the purpose of everything in the Bhagavatam is to help us fix the mind on Krishna.
So, now it is not that Shukadeva Goswami was giving Parikshit Maharaj knowledge about how he could go on a space travel. That is not the purpose over there. So, everything is to be seen in the light of its purpose.
The purpose of science is to give natural explanations for natural phenomena. The purpose of scripture is to help us fix the mind on Krishna. Now, let’s look at the scope of scripture, scope of science.
As I said, science offers us not reality. It offers us models of reality. That means that say, there is quantum physics, there is relativity.
These are two fundamental branches of physics today. And both of them are violently contradictory. The model of reality that is offered by quantum physics is very different from the model of reality offered by relativity.
Now, this is a technical subject and I can discuss this with those who are technically interested separately. But suffice it to say that these two are just not reconcilable. And currently, what do scientists do? They use whichever model works.
So, mostly for the subatomic realm, it is the quantum physics that works. For cosmic distances, cosmic objects, it is the relativity that works. And they use whichever model works.
So now, what is the nature of reality? Is it particles? Is it waves? Is it something else? Is it space time? What is it? Scientists have, basically in science, there is the ontological approach to reality and there is the functional approach to reality. Ontology means the study of reality as it is. Functional means reality as we can function with it.
So now, science, if you go seriously into the study of science, science makes no pretensions of giving us knowledge of reality. It simply gives us models of reality. So, quantum physics offers one model and relativity offers another model.
Now, what reality is, it is something else. We do not know it. Reality may be something entirely different.
These are working models. When I say models, I am not saying they are false. They are useful, but they give a particular picture of reality.
Just like if I have a map of North Carolina, map of America, that map is useful. But the map does not contain everything. So, if I use a map to go to a friend’s house and everything that the map tells me, go left, go right, go this way, go that way, it all is right.
And my confidence in the map increases. And finally I reach my friend’s house, I knock on the door and my friend says, welcome. I look at the map.
You are not present in the map, so you do not exist. If I say that, my friend will say, you are crazy. The map is not meant to show me.
So, the map is a model of the territory. The map does not depict everything. So, science does not have a monopoly on explanation of reality.
Science offers us explanations that work within particular frameworks, particular models. But there can be other explanations, other perceptions from other scales of observation, from other perspectives. Science offers us a model.
So, it is like if I take white chalk, I take black coal and I grind both of them into powder. And then I mix the powder together. I will have grey granules.
But if I look at it under a microscope, I will not see any grey granules. I will see white and black. Now what is it really? Is it grey granules or is it white and black? Well, what it is depends on our scale of observation.
So, like that science can offer us different, so science offers us particular models of reality that come from a particular scale of observation. So, there can be other models of reality, other visions of reality that can be from other scales of observation. And science cannot inherently disprove them.
Science offers us one model. Something else may be there from some other perspective. So, this is the third point, the scope of science.
If we consider the scope of scripture, the Bhagavatam offers a particular cosmology. At the same time, the Bhagavatam’s cosmology is not the only cosmology in the Indian tradition. If we consider astrology, astrology is based on the Jyotishya Shastra.
And Jyotishya Shastras, they have a different cosmology. So, the Bhagavatam’s cosmology is different from the Jyotishya cosmology. And astrologers, now no astrologer uses the Bhagavatam’s cosmology for predicting anything.
They all use Jyotishya cosmology. Even our Vaishnav astrologers, even our Vaishnav Acharyas who have commented on the Bhagavatam, if they had to do anything astrological, they use the Jyotishya cosmology. That means even the Bhagavatam’s cosmology is even within the Vedic tradition not considered to be the only cosmology.
That is, the Bhagavatam offers a particular vision of reality which is Krishna centred. But for functional purposes, even within the Vedic tradition, there is another cosmology that is used. That is the Jyotishya cosmology.
And Jyotishya cosmology is in many ways similar to modern cosmology. So again, the point of the Bhagavatam is, the Acharyas, they are not saying that the Bhagavatam’s cosmology is mythological or imaginary. See, it’s from a different scale.
We don’t have to put, this brings me to the last point. Now, we don’t have to position science and scripture as competitors. When we position scripture as a competitor to science, we devalue scripture.
Science gives us functional knowledge for operating in this world. Scripture gives us knowledge for raising our consciousness and going beyond this world. Now, sometimes scripture may also give us functional knowledge in this world.
We can use that. But that is not the purpose of scripture. Parikshit Maharaj was not interested in learning how to make a plane, how to make a mobile.
He was not interested. He was interested in how to focus the mind on Krishna, how to go to Krishna. So, when we understand that these two have different purposes.
So, scripture, by positioning scripture as a competitor to science, we devalue scripture. Instead, we understand scripture has a different purpose, science has a different purpose. So, it is more or less like, in this world we have to take care of our material needs.
And there can be different ways for taking care of the material needs. So, we may take Ayurveda, we may take allopathy. My health is not good.
The important point is not that I become a campaigner for allopathy or become a campaigner against allopathy. As if we are devotees, our purpose is I want to get healthy and I can serve Krishna. So, similarly, we don’t have to become campaigners for science saying that everything that science says is right.
Or we don’t have to become campaigners against science saying that everything that science says is wrong. Our purpose is science is functional. Scripture is transcendental.
So, for practical purposes, we can use allopathy, we can use Ayurveda. Like that we can use modern cosmology, we can use Jyotisha cosmology. Whatever is required, we just get on with life.
And we do whatever is required at the practical level. But we don’t let science determine our values and goals. Actually, science doesn’t actually give any knowledge about values and goals.
Because that is outside the scope of science. So, that way, if we understand what their purposes are, then we won’t unnecessarily obsess over sections of scripture which are difficult to make sense. So, the Bhagavatam offers us cosmology which is primarily meant to help us fix the mind on Krishna.
And if we find that by studying the Bhagavatam’s cosmology, it doesn’t make any sense to me. It seems so strange. It agitates me.
Then the purpose of fixing the mind on Krishna is not being served. And Prabhupada in his purports is also very expert. Prabhupada doesn’t go too much into the technicalities.
Prabhupada, even in the Bhagavatam’s 5th Canto cosmology purports, he is focussing on the principles of spiritual life. Those principles are what are important for us. So, if we have that purpose of fixing the mind on Krishna, then we can present, ourselves understand scripture appropriately and present it in a way that helps people to come closer to Krishna.
Does it answer your question? Thank you. So, if any of you have further questions or would like to hear this further, I have on the spiritualscientist.com, there is a whole lecture on this topic, 5 Reflections for Reconciling Science and Scripture. Especially if you want to explain this to others, you want to hear this in more detail.
Thank you. Is there any other question? You mentioned in your lecture, one of the objectives of Krishna consciousness is to increase your ability to think. Yeah, correct.
I believe thinking at the end of the day is also a material activity, isn’t it? Okay. It’s part of the subtle body, which is part of the material world. So, why would you say that Krishna consciousness will increase our ability to think? Yeah, I got the question.
So, when I said that Krishna consciousness increases our ability to think, isn’t the ability to think also a material ability? And how is increasing that going to release us from material entanglement? See, I qualified my statement. Ability to think means ability to direct our thoughts. Ability to choose what we think about.
So, when you say Krishna consciousness, that means I want to become conscious of Krishna. I want to direct my thoughts towards Krishna. So, now the ability to think, is it a material ability? Consciousness itself is non-material.
Consciousness is transcendental. It comes from the soul. And when the soul’s consciousness is channelled through the subtle body, then from the subtle body it comes to the outer world.
We express our thoughts. So, now specific capacities or specific ways of thinking. See, some people are more analytical.
Some people are more mathematical. Some people are more logical. Some people are more verbal.
Some people are more visual. So, all these specific abilities to think or specific ways of thinking, they are material skills. Some people have very high verbal intelligence.
Some people, they see one thing, they have very high visual intelligence. They see something, they remember it. So, these specific ways in which we think, they are material abilities.
But the original capacity to think, that comes from the soul. Because thinking is ultimately an act of consciousness. So, all abilities actually are possible because the soul is present.
So, when I said Krishna consciousness increases our ability to think, I am not talking in terms of that devotee’s verbal ability will increase or linguistic ability will increase or visual ability will increase. I am talking about ability to think means ability to direct our thoughts. Okay.
So, if we come to that. So, Krishna consciousness increases our ability to think. Now, is it that there are two ways of thinking, the mind’s way of thinking and the soul’s way of thinking? Yes and no.
So, again a little technical. In the conditioned stage, we always think with the mind. Just like in the condition, as long as I have material body, when I have to speak, I will always use my throat to speak.
Whenever you have to hear, you need the ear to hear. So, there are certain material implements, material tools that we need for functioning in this world. So, just as throat is the tool for speaking, the mind is the tool for thinking.
That means the process of thinking is channelled through the mind. Just as the process of speaking is channelled through the body, through the throat, through the mouth. Now, the mind is a little more complicated.
In the sense that the mind is like a subtle body. The mind is a part of subtle body. So, it’s like the software in a computer.
So, softwares often have their default programmes. So, imagine it’s like, you know, some people, they just speak something and they are almost stupid. You know, it’s almost like they don’t have control over their verbal faculty.
It’s like their tongue speaks on its own without their having control on it. So, the mind is like that. So, the mind has certain default programmings by which it tends to think in a particular way.
So, all thinking requires the presence of the soul because thinking is the activity of consciousness. And all thinking is routed through the mind. But there is certain thinking that is initiated by the mind.
There is certain thinking that by initiated I mean triggered. So, for example, you know, the soul is pure. But we sometimes get lusty thoughts.
Sometimes we get greedy thoughts. Sometimes we get angry thoughts. Those are coming from the programme that are stored in the mind.
So, basically, the mind’s way of thinking means that the thoughts are more or less channelled. The thoughts are triggered by the mind and the soul goes along with it. That means, say, I see some food item.
And either I see it physically or the recollection comes in the mind. Yes, I can eat this. So, I think about it.
Now, it may be very fatty and I have decided I want to eat healthy. But if I am not careful, then what happens? Many times, you know, people resolve they will not eat something and then suddenly they find, I am eating, what am I doing? We find we are eating it. So, what has happened? If we are not very conscious of ourselves, then the mind proposes something and we accept it unwittingly.
And then we end up doing it. So, the mind’s way of thinking means that the soul just unthinkingly goes along with the mind and does whatever it is saying. The soul’s way of thinking means that the soul is the director of the thoughts.
Do I really want to do this? Do I want to think about this? Do I want to dwell on this? Soul thinks and then accordingly it acts. So, that means in the mind’s way of thinking, the mind gets control of the soul, practically speaking and the mind drags the soul along. In the soul’s way of thinking, that means the soul is the director and the soul takes the mind along.
If we consider the chariot body example, the horses can drag the chariot in a particular direction or the passenger, they can tell you, take it this way and then the charioter takes the chariot that way. So, in both cases, the passenger is also involved, the charioter is also involved, the reins are also involved, the horses are also involved. But who is in control? So, sometimes the mind can be in control and then we are directed in unhealthy directions.
Sometimes the soul is in control and then we can go in healthier directions. So, when I said Krishna consciousness increases our capacity, ability to think, that means Krishna consciousness increases our ability to direct our thoughts in a ways, in directions that promote our ultimate interests. Does it answer your question? Resentment is a very common problem and what we addressed was a very common topic.
How can the Bhagavad Gita’s knowledge help poor people? See, there is treating a disease at its symptoms and treating a disease at its cause. So, somebody is having fever, they are feeling very hot. We may put some, you know, some cold water sheets or something like that on their head.
It helps to some level. You know, it’s good. But we have to say what is the germ, what is the disease in the body and we have to cure that.
So, when we see people are poor, yes, we may actually feel inclined. Let me give them some food. They need some food.
And that is treating the problem at one level. But that is treating the problem only at the level of the symptoms. You know, the problem in this world is not simply shortage of food.
It is twofold. At one level, it is greed among the haves. And it is also bad habits among the have-nots.
Many times when we as devotees we travel, we always keep some prasad with us. And when some beggars come along, we give food. Many beggars refuse to take food.
They want money. Because with that money they want to smoke, they want to drink. In many countries which are welfare states, there actually the government maintains people who are unemployed.
And these unemployed people, they take the dole from the government and they use it for drugs. They use it for drinks. And then they stay malnourished.
They ruin their health. So there are many people for whom who are just not capable of receiving help. That means offering them help at a material level is like pouring water in a leaking bucket.
I may very diligently pour water in it, but it will simply leak out. So unfortunately that many people who are starving, not all people, many people who are starving, they are there because not they are so desperately short of money, but it is because they are just squandering the money that they have. So helping them by just simply providing food does not really solve their problem.
They need to be equipped to make healthier choices in their lives. And Sri Prabhupada, he also said in Krishna Conscious Movement also, there are programmes which provide food to poor people. There is prasadam that is provided.
There are many programmes like that. But Prabhupada’s focus was that we need to empower people to make healthier choices by providing them spiritual knowledge, by giving them spiritual practises. So by such knowledge and practises, people become free from the bad habits that they are having.
And thus, whatever resources they have, they can use them better. That’s from the perspective of the have-nots. From the perspective of the haves, actually, you know, much of the problem in the world is because the haves are holding on to resources.
The amount of money that Americans spend on decreasing their weight, that much money can feed all the hungry people in the world. So what does this mean? This means that there are people who eat more and to get rid of the weight that they acquired by eating more, they are spending money. So first they spend money to eat more, then they spend money to lose that weight.
And just that weight, that money is enough to feed the hungry people. So now, in some cases, obesity may be a genetic condition. Some people, no matter how much they eat, they never gain weight.
And some people, they eat little, they gain a lot of weight. That is there. But in many cases, obesity is because of over-eating, unregulated eating.
So eating is just one example of things. You know, there are, because of the uncontrolled mind and senses, there are people who hold on to, hold on to resources. And because of that, the resources are not used properly.
Again, by the practise of Krishna consciousness, by the understanding spiritual knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita, we become, our greed goes down. And when the greed goes down, the wealthy will become more charitable. When they become more charitable, they will release more of the resources.
And thus, people can be benefited. So, the Krishna consciousness, the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita may not literally lead to people being fed, hungry people being fed. But at the level of, not the symptom, but the level of the causes, the cause of starvation or hunger in terms of the self-destructive habits of the poor and the self-aggrandising, self-accumulating habits of the greedy, both of them can be cured.
And thus, it can solve the problem of hunger at a more fundamental and a more sustainable level. Are poor people themselves responsible for their poverty? I wouldn’t make that general statement. It is possible.
We can say from the karmic point of view, everybody is responsible for the situation that they are in. But we are not meant to judge people based on their past karma. You know, if, say, if a thief comes and robs someone and that person goes to a king and says, I have been robbed.
The king says, it was your past karma that you were robbed. Well, it may be, but the important thing is, what is the king’s dharma? The king’s dharma is to protect the citizens. So similarly, we are not meant to judge people by their past karma.
We are meant to act based on what is our present dharma. You know, that way, if you start taking past karma, if a baby is crying, should the mother think she is crying because of her past karma? You know, we will become heartless. It’s not like that.
So the point is that sometimes, you know, people may be in difficult situations because of the circumstances which are beyond their control. Sometimes people are in difficulties because of the bad choices they made in this life. As I said, some people may have bad habits because of which they are in poverty.
So there are two extremes. One is sentimentality and the other is heartlessness. Sentimentality means that we think, oh, somebody is starving, just let me give them some money.
Let me give them some things. Sometimes we may make things worse. You know, an alcoholic who is starving, we give them money.
They may take alcohol instead of food and they may go home and do further domestic abuse. Isn’t it? So sentimentality is not good. But heartlessness, you know, they are suffering because of their own karma.
They are only responsible for it. That is also not good. No, we want to help, but we want to help in a way that is actually helpful.
So, yeah, so if the attitude that everybody is responsible for their own situation, if that makes us heartless, then that is unhealthy. But if that makes us think that, OK, let me try to help in a sustainable way, in a way that actually helps that person, then that is very good. Thank you.
Yes, Prabhu. We come to you. Yes, Prabhu.
You had a question? Yes. So you said that we are, we face upsets because of the problems. And problems ultimately getting sanctioned by Krishna.
So my question is, problems getting created by others, also Krishna sanctions that person who creates the problems. OK. So if problems that are caused by others, are they sanctioned by Krishna also? Yes.
Nothing happens without Krishna’s sanction. If somebody is insulting me, that person is insulting me because Krishna is allowing that person to insult me. Now Krishna is not causing that.
Krishna is allowing that. The difference between the two is that, just like rains are the cause of the growth of all vegetation. But specific vegetation that grows, in some places grains may grow, in some places weeds may grow.
Now where what is growing, that is not determined by the rains. That is determined by what kind of seeds were there in between. So whatever, whoever does, without Krishna’s sanction it won’t happen.
So Krishna’s sanction is like the rain falling. But people’s specific actions are dependent on their own desire, their own consciousness, their own motivations. So some people act kindly, some people act cruelly.
And that is like grains growing or weeds growing. So without Krishna’s sanction nothing will happen. But that does not mean that whatever is happening, that is what Krishna wants to happen.
Sometimes Krishna allows certain things to happen because they can serve some ultimate purpose. But it is not that when bad things are happening, Krishna wants those bad things to happen. See, Krishna is not the cause of the world’s suffering.
Krishna is the cure for the world’s suffering. By taking shelter of Krishna, we can become free from the sufferings, whatever are there in this world. But we understand that the problems of life don’t mean that Krishna is not in control.
Krishna is in control, but because this person has some malafide motivation, because I have done some bad karma because of which I am going to get some reaction. That’s why Krishna is allowing this. So when somebody speaks harshly with me, that is like I had sown some bad seeds in the past, bad seeds of karma, and those bad karmic seeds are manifesting through this person.
Does that answer your question? Yes, please. Inscrutable will of God is good for everyone, right? So what’s wrong with living your own life? What’s wrong with that living? OK. So if the inscrutable will of the Lord is good for everyone, then what’s wrong with the attitude that whatever is happening, let it happen? See, there are two different things over here.
Whatever is happening and what am I doing? There are two different things. So before the Kurukshetra war, Vidura desperately tries to persuade Dhritarashtra to stop Duryodhana from antagonising the Pandavas. So at that time Dhritarashtra tries to take recourse of the argument of destiny.
And he says, if it is the will of almighty destiny that our dynasty be destroyed, then who am I, a tiny mortal, to stop the will of almighty destiny? Now Vidura cuts through Dhritarashtra’s rationalisations. And Vidura says, OK, destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves. Destiny determines the consequences of our actions, not our actions themselves.
Now if a student doesn’t study for the exam, parents say, why are you not studying, you will fail. No, it is my destiny to fail. It is not your destiny to fail, it is your irresponsibility.
So that means our actions are for us to choose. So the implication over there is, Vidura is saying, Dhritarashtra, yes, if it is the will of destiny, it may happen. But the important thing is, are you doing your duty? What is your duty as the head of the Kuru family? Your duty is to protect your nephews also.
You are like a father for them. They don’t have a father. So what is your duty? So in our life there are two aspects.
One is that things are going to happen. They are not in our control. And we have to accept what is happening.
So I talk about resentment, overcoming resentment, that is analysis of that. But there is also, there are things which are in our control and we are meant to do them. And if we don’t do them, we are irresponsible.
So what is happening is by the Lord’s will. But that does not mean that whatever is happening is, it doesn’t deserve any response from our side. No, we have to see what is my duty and what is my response in that situation.
I will give another example to conclude this answer. That you most of us know the incident when Kamsa tried to lock off the head of Devaki. He caught her by the hair.
And at that time Vasudev was trying to stop Kamsa and he was using various arguments. So one of the arguments he uses is, oh Kamsa, if you are destined to die, then who can avoid destiny? And what will you gain by committing such a grievous activity of killing your own sister in order to avoid destiny which is anyway unavoidable. Now Vasudev could very well have turned his argument around and could have said that if Devaki is just trying to die, she is going to die.
Why am I trying to persuade Kamsa? He didn’t do that. Why not? Because the point is not, the Vedic culture of spiritual wisdom is not destiny centred. It is duty centred.
So sometimes we may do our best duty and still the result may not come. Then we understand that it is by destiny. So Vasudev was sticking to his duty.
And he did not use destiny as an argument for giving up his duty. His duty was to protect his wife. On the other hand, Kamsa was giving up his duty, was doing the opposite of his duty just to try to protect his wife.
So what was Vasudev doing? Vasudev was trying to get Kamsa back to remind him of his duty. So destiny and duty both are there in our life. Both are present in our life.
And our focus is that we always do our duty. But sometimes when our duty does not provide the result, we understand that destiny is not favourable, so I’ll accept it. But just because destiny is not favourable doesn’t mean that I don’t do, I just don’t attempt to do my duty also.
We should always do our duty. So the inscrutable will of the Lord is for everyone’s good. But what is the second part of it? He says, if you do his will, then you will understand this in due course.
So there is something which I also have to do. And that is do my duty. Do my material duty, do my devotional duty.
And by that, that will work out for the good. So if I don’t do my duty, then it may not work out for the good. It’s like the doctor is doing the surgery.
That is for my good. But if I don’t take the pain medicine, if I don’t take the proper medicines, then that surgery may actually cause, may not work out good. So we accept things which are beyond our control as the will of destiny, but we do that which is in our control as our duty.
That’s how we can harmonise duty and destiny together. So thank you very much. Vishwa Prabhupada ki Jai.
Gaur Bhakta Vrinda ki Jai. Tai Gaur Prema Nande.