​Pressing on when things don’t make sense

​Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Soho Street, London, UK

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I’m grateful to be here with all of you at the feet of Sri Prabhupada. So, the very, this is a temple which I have seen in many videos.
I’m happy to be here. So, Sri Prabhupada, by giving the name Londonishwar to the deities, he demonstrated the blend of tradition and modernity that he embodied in his presentation of Krishna Consciousness. Londonishwar, in English, when somebody calls a new word it is called neologism.
So, Prabhupada’s neologism is Londonishwar. He’s added not to the English, added to Sanskrit vocabulary. So, Vishnu Sahasranama is one of the compositions which gives thousand names of Vishnu.
So, the Lord has unlimited names and Prabhupada demonstrates that by adding one more to his glorious names. So, here in this particular section, in the Bhagavatam, it’s a pastime that moves towards a conclusion that can be somewhat disturbing because this is a time when the Lord departs from the world and then his dynasty also engages in a fratricidal brawl which ends in all of them being destroyed. So, the Bhagavatam actually in a sense is centred around Krishna.
Every canto of the Bhagavatam mentions Krishna. The name Krishna is there and some reference to Krishna Leela is also there in every canto of the Bhagavatam. And out of the 335 chapters of the Bhagavatam, Krishna is dealt with in the 90 chapters of the Bhagavatam and also in the 30 round chapters of the 11th canto where Krishna Leela is primarily in the 10th canto and Krishna Shiksha is in the 11th canto.
And this particular pastime which is going to come up now, in this particular verse, what has been described is the Devatas are coming to Krishna and all the Devatas are coming to Krishna in Dwarka and they will offer elaborate prayers and the conclusion of their prayers will be that now, oh Lord, the purpose in descending to this world and performing your pastime, that purpose has been served. There’s nothing more for you to do. And the Lord says, yes, I’ll depart but I’ll take the Yadus with me also.
But he takes the Yadus in a very mysterious way. So, first 2-3 points in the background. Now, when we look at any particular incident in life, the tendency of the mind often is to isolate it.
That means we often see a situation without its connection with the overall picture. And then if we see a person, you know, if we meet a person for only once and then we see that person in a very angry mood shouting at someone, we think, oh, this person is very short-tempered. But you know, that person might have a normal behaviour at other times.
But if we see just that incident, then that might bewilder us. So, we need to see one incident in connection with the broader picture. So, to understand the depth of Krishna’s love for us, we need to understand the length and the breadth of our own existence.
The length and the breadth means that if I just see from one incident’s perspective, sometimes some very serious devotees may get cancer or they may meet with a terrible accident or they may become the brunt of some violent attacks by someone. And somebody may ask, you know, where is Krishna? Why is Krishna not protecting his devotees? So, actually, if we just look at that incident alone, we say, yeah, God doesn’t protect. What is happening? But to understand the depth of Krishna’s love for us, we need to expand our own conception of the length of our existence and the breadth of our existence.
The length and the breadth means that length is that our life doesn’t begin with birth and doesn’t end with death. It extends to many lifetimes before birth and it extends to many lifetimes after death. And breadth means we are not just our bodies.
Our existence is not physical. There is the body, there’s a mind and there’s a soul. And sometimes something which is inimical at the physical level may actually be beneficial at the spiritual level.
So, about four or five years ago, I was once visiting the Radha Ras Bihari temple in Juhu, Mumbai. And I was chanting in the morning. I was closed eyes.
I was trying to be absorbed in chanting. And someone had slipped, some water had slipped over there. So, my leg went on that water and it slipped.
And I had an extremely bad fracture at that time. So, I already had this leg as polio and osteoporosis. So, literally the bone of the thigh came off.
It was just hanging by the skin. So, after I had the surgery, I had to take two, three months for recovery. But one of my friends, earlier he was an atheist.
He said, do you still believe in God? He said, you were in the temple of God, chanting the names of God and at that time you got into an accident. So, what do you worship God for? So, what do you get out of this? So, yeah, at that time when it happened, it was extremely painful. I had never experienced pain of that kind in my life till then.
But then, you know, I just couldn’t tolerate the pain. And somehow for me, among all the scriptures, I connect with the Bhagavad Gita very nicely. So, I memorised most of the verses of the Gita.
So, somehow at that time, I started reciting the verses of the Gita. I was reciting one chapter after another, after another. So, it was like it happened something like morning 6.45 or something.
And then I was taken to a hospital and it took a long time for the doctors to diagnosis and everything. And then finally, that afternoon I was operated. So, six hours before I was given anaesthesia, I was continuously reciting the verses of the Gita.
And now when I look back, I feel that was actually one of the most intense spiritual experiences I had. That I was just reciting the verses and I was completely absorbed. I was not chanting out of devotion.
I was chanting out of necessity. Not because I loved the Gita so much, but because as soon as I stopped chanting, all the pain would come up. And then first we thought it was not such a major thing.
So, we just went to a nearby doctor and did an x-ray. Nearby just a clinic, not a doctor, but just a clinic where you do x-rays. And then he said, hey, this is a very serious thing.
You have to go to a doctor immediately. You have to get operated. And then when we went to the doctor, the doctor said, okay, you have fell down, we’ll do an x-ray.
I said, no, I’ve already done the x-ray. He said, look at this. He says, this cannot be your x-ray.
I said, what do you mean? He says, no, if a person has a fracture like that, they’ll be screaming in pain. They’ll not be able to be conscious also. So, actually, I was continuously reciting the verses of the Gita and somehow I was absorbed.
So, I told this incident to my friend and I said that that realisation of the potency of Krishna Bhakti to raise one above, raise a person above one’s body, to raise a pure person, shelter in spiritual reality, that realisation I would not have got if I had not got a fracture. So, we go to a temple not just for material well-being. Yes, material well-being is also a part of our life in this world.
And Krishna does provide for material well-being. But material well-being is not the ultimate purpose of life. Because at the material level, ultimately, there’s going to be destruction.
We’re all going to die. So, material well-being should be a springboard for moving towards spiritual well-being. And if we can experience Krishna’s shelter, if we can experience absorption in Krishna, then that increases our conviction about the reality of spiritual truths.
And that takes us closer to Krishna. So, I don’t know, actually, this whole experience brought me closer to Krishna more than anything else what I had experienced in my spiritual life. So, it’s not that I welcome an accident.
It’s not that we have to go out of our way to get some troubles. It is not, you know, sometimes we may hear some stories of some devotee getting some cancer, and then they become very serious in bhakti. So, is it that, you know, we should pray, let me get cancer so that I’ll become serious in bhakti? No, it’s not that.
Cancer is not the producer of bhakti. It is one’s own sincerity and the devotee’s mercy that helps, Krishna’s mercy that helps us to get intensification in bhakti. But sometimes that sort of adverse situation is what is required for the intensification of our bhakti.
So, when we normally go through the course of life, often on a day-to-day basis, Krishna consciousness may not seem to make much difference in our lives. Because on a day-to-day basis, we also have to face the routine problems of life, adhyatmik, adhibhautik, adhiklik. These cliches are always there for everyone, whether it’s devotee or non-devotee.
And we also still have our own desires which keep popping up. And then we feel, what real difference is bhakti making in my life? But the difference is that between the devotee and a non-devotee is, imagine that there are two people in the hospital. Both of them are in pain.
But one person has been diagnosed and is being treated. And the other person has not been diagnosed and has not been treated. Both of them are in pain.
Externally, it may seem both of them are in a similar situation. But their situation is very different. The person who has been diagnosed and is being treated, they are actually moving towards getting healed very soon.
As the other person, the first person’s pain is going to decrease and it’s going to soon be eliminated. As the other person, the pain is going to perpetuate, maybe even aggravate. So that is the difference between a devotee and a non-devotee.
Everybody goes through suffering in this way. Now when we are sick, suffering is just the result of sickness. Whether we are taking treatment or not, suffering will be there.
But when we are taking the treatment, we are on the path to recovery. That’s why if we just fixate on one moment in life, think, why is Krishna doing this to me? Why is this happening in my life? Then we may not feel that actually Krishna is helping me. But if you look at the broader picture of our life, then we will see that, yes, this may have happened, but I have shelter.
I have the shelter of Krishna. At the physical level, things may still go wrong. But a devotee doesn’t exist only at the physical level.
We do exist at the physical level because as long as we are living in the world, we have to function at the physical level. But a devotee also has awareness of the spiritual level, also has some experience of the spiritual level. That’s why I started by saying that sometimes what is inimical at the physical level may be beneficial at the spiritual level.
And materialistic people have no physical spiritual, no awareness of spiritual level. That’s why when things go wrong at a physical level, they feel that’s the end of the world. What am I to do in my life? But devotees are normally practising bhakti to try to rise from the physical level to the spiritual level.
But often the routine course of life, the routine temptations, distractions of life may make us not move so seriously towards the spiritual level. So at that time, some unbeneficial, some inimical things happening at the physical level, they become the impetus for a devotee to raise the consciousness faster to the spiritual level. In the broader Hindu society, among the most quoted verses of the Bhagavad Gita are 4.7 and 8 in the Gita.
Basically Krishna descends to this world when there is a disorder and he sets things in order over it. Akshara Prabhupada quotes the next words much more. 4.9 is actually we could say that the first two verses describe the external purpose of Krishna’s descent.
External in the sense that that is the circumstantial purpose. Krishna descends to set things in order in life, in the world. But the nature of this world is that order will not last for very long.
Now Krishna descended and set order and established the Pandavas. But soon after that the Pandavas departed and then Parikshit was ruling and Parikshit was cursed. Parikshit had to die when he was just very young and then Kali Yuga started.
So the nature of this world is that order at the material level will not last for long. Krishna does come to set order but the purpose of setting order in this world is not just to make this world order. The purpose of setting of establishing Dharma in this world is to establish us in Dharma.
The purpose of establishing Dharma in the world is to establish us in Dharma. It means we need to practise Dharma and that practise of Dharma is actually the practise of Bhakti. So the circumstantial purpose is Krishna establishes Dharma in the world but the perennial purpose is Krishna gives us the path of Bhakti.
Krishna reveals his pastimes by which we can become attracted to him. When we understand his pastimes in truth philosophically then our heart becomes attracted to him and then we attain him. So that way that is the ultimate purpose of Krishna Yuga and from that purpose perspective when we see sometimes there will be order in this world sometimes there will be disorder in this world but through order through disorder there’s always the opportunity to take shelter of Krishna and that opportunity to take shelter of Krishna that is what Krishna’s eternal blessing is.
So here Krishna has performed extraordinary pastime. He lifted Govardhan Hill. He has delivered the world from so many demons.
He has demonstrated the Rasleela. He has given the Bhagavad Gita and now he’s about to depart. So now this particular pastime where apparently Krishna’s relatives fight with each other over a small misunderstanding.
Basically they fight. This argument starts over whether the actions of some of the participants in the Kurukshetra war. Dhrishtadyumna, he kills Drona when Drona is in meditation unarmed and then was that right or wrong and like that several incidents come up and they start having a debate over there and the debate becomes a fight and in the fight they start killing each other and then eventually everyone is killed.
I mean Krishna, it seems the way the Mahabharata describes the pastime, Krishna tries to stop them but the Yadus are so wild that they just push Krishna aside. Krishna is not able to stop them and then they all destroy each other and Krishna goes and sits in a meditative form and as he is meditating Balram also comes with him and Balram it is described that actually a snake comes out of his mouth and when the snake comes out of his mouth that Balram sits on that snake and then that snake lifts him up and he basically departs. So Balram’s actually disappearance appears to be, there’s something divine about it, he disappears on a sacred snake but Krishna’s disappearance appears to be, there’s one Indian scholar who has written a book about Krishna and he says Krishna’s end is very tragic.
He gets shot on an arrow and then for a warrior to be killed by another warrior is honourable and some honour is there, you become a martyr but to be killed by a hunter that means basically you’re like an animal who is killed by a hunter. Krishna’s death is so tragic, such a great hero he made such a sorry end but here we have to look at some important facts. What is Krishna doing? See in this world Krishna reciprocates with our desires.
So if somebody wants to be atheistic, Krishna will give them reasons to be atheistic. If somebody wants to believe in God, Krishna will give them abundant reasons to believe in God. As you surrender unto me, I’ll reward you.
That one person maintains all other persons. So that means what? That this maintenance is not just physical in terms of Krishna provides rains and Krishna provides grains, that’s true but this this maintenance is also intellectual. If there’s something you want to believe, Krishna will let you believe it.
So that’s and people’s mind will just go to that particular point. How can God do this? How can such person be God? How can God exist? So how it is that if say now if we look at the whole system by which rains come, it’s quite a magnificent system. The way the water evaporates, evaporated by the sun and then clouds are formed.
Now the clouds are like a mobile water tank that is made of aircraft proof technology. Whole aeroplane can go through a cloud and there’s no leakage practically speaking. Even the WTC, the twin tower designers couldn’t make aircraft proof technology.
Now the whole mechanism is so magnificent, how water is taken from the ocean and is brought to the clouds and then it is showered down on the earth and that’s how our need for water is satisfied. For those who are not aquatics, who are terrestrial beings, for all terrestrial beings including humans, the need of water is satisfied through the mechanism of rains and for this thinking person, this can point to the benevolence of God, the benevolence and the intelligence of God. But a sceptic may argue, okay, if God has made rains to provide water to all living beings, then why does rain occur on the oceans? Why does rain occur on the oceans? So the answer is, rain falls on the ocean so that atheists can ask this question.
See, the nature of this world is, suppose if we went to some very old kind of traditional heritage building where nobody stayed and then in that we found there are 50 rooms, out of which 49 rooms are clean. In old British English there’s a spick and span, they’re all very clean and there’s one room which is very disorderly. What would that indicate? You could say, you could look at that disorderly room and say there’s no caretaker for this room or we could look at the 49 rooms which are very clean and say something going on over here which I don’t understand.
There’s some caretaker who’s taking care of all these 49 rooms and maybe they have some purpose because of which they have kept this room unclean or disorderly. So I can look at the 49 rooms and appreciate the caretaker or I can look at the one unclean room and say there’s no caretaker. The same way, if I look at the universe, there are so many things which are so well coordinated.
The universe bespeaks of intelligent design. Now there are things which may seem disorderly to us, no doubt about it, there are a lot of things which may seem disorderly. But if we look at the overall picture of the world, we do see orderliness.
Within that there are pockets of disorderliness. But overall there is orderliness. It is only because there are pockets of disorderliness that’s why we raise the question, why is this disorderly? Otherwise we could say everything is, if everything were just disorderly, like people ask why do bad things happen to good people? Now that is a valid question and there’s a whole philosophical answer for that.
But the point is that the very reason we ask why do bad things happen to good people is that normally we see a cause-effect connection. Now if a student studies, student gets good marks in the exam. Normally if I take care of my health, I have proper diet, I have proper exercise, then I do maintain good health.
So because we normally see a connection between cause and effect in a linear way, that is why when we don’t see that cause-effect connection, that’s why the question comes, why does this happen? So the point is there is normal orderliness and then there is some disorderliness. And in fact, if you see the whole of science, it functions on faith. Normally people say science and faith, science is based on reason, religion is based on faith and therefore they say that science and religion is in conflict.
But science also operates on faith. What is the faith? The faith of science is that there is an order in nature. When Newton, just yesterday I was at Cambridge, so that’s the place where there’s the reputedly the tree where Newton saw the fruit falling.
Now when Newton saw the fruit falling and based on that he inferred the theory of gravity. That’s his brilliance. But the very fact that on seeing the fruit falling he asked the question, why did this fruit, what made this fruit fall? That question what made this fruit fall implies his assumption.
Assumption is simply another word for faith. His faith that things don’t happen in a disorderly way. There is some order and I want to find out what that order is.
So that means that science, whenever it sees some observed phenomena, it has the faith that there is some order behind it and then it tries to find what that order is. So by seeing a fruit falling, what is the pattern behind this? What is the order behind this? From there the law of gravity came up. Now the law, the principle of gravity and the principles of motion, they actually worked phenomenally well for almost three centuries.
But in the 20th century scientists found that for the movement of very microscopic or fundamental particles, subatomic, their motion could not be explained using Newtonian physics. And similarly movement of very large cosmic bodies which are moving near the speed of light, that also could not be well explained using Newtonian physics. So here did scientists say, oh that means Newton’s law does not work, that means nature is not orderly.
No, they said there must be some other order, something else which is going on, which we need to understand. And then for the explanation of microscopic or fundamental particles they came up with quantum physics. And for the explanation of celestial bodies moving at high speeds, they came up with the principle of relativity theory.
So the point which I am making here is, we do not have to go into scientific intricacies, but I am illustrating the principle. The principle is that science operates in the faith that there is order in nature. And even when that order is not apparent, instead of assuming that things are disorderly, they assume that there is some order which we have not yet understood.
And currently relativity and quantum physics, they are just not reconcilable. But still scientists perceive and they say there must be some theory which we have not yet come up with. So even when we cannot make sense of the order, science operates by assuming that there is order.
The same way, when we see normally things happen in orderly way. If I do good, I do get good in this. If I am kind to others, others are kind to me.
If I am gentle to others, others are gentle to me. You know what Jesus called as the golden law, do unto others as you want others to do unto you. So in a significant number of cases, people reciprocate to us the way we behave.
Now there are some cases when we are very kind and gentle to someone and that person still remains rude, that person still remains insensitive, that person remains harsh, that is an exception. And when that sort of thing happens, there is some other order operating over there. So if we say that things are entirely disorderly and there is no order at all, then actually the atheistic world view leads to incoherence.
Because what happens? According to atheistic world view we have, why does the fruit fall? Oh, that is because of law of gravity. Why do the fundamental particles move at this speed? That is because of quantum physics. Why do things go wrong in life? That is because everything is disorderly.
So what happens? Atheism reduces existence to eyelets of meaning in an ocean of meaninglessness. Eyelets of meaning. Why do fruits fall? That is because of gravity.
Why do fundamental particles move? That is because of quantum physics. But what is life? Life is meaningless. So there are eyelets of meaning within an ocean of meaninglessness.
So then rather than assuming that the ocean is meaningless, isn’t it more humbler and saner to assume that even in that ocean there is some meaning which I have not yet been able to find out? Science operates and whenever it is not able to find out any order, it assumes that there is an order which I can’t find. Let me study more. So like that, when we see disorder in nature or something which doesn’t make sense or something that doesn’t make sense.
Like, you know, if I was giving the example of that heritage building, in which 49 buildings are very orderly, 49 rooms are very clean and spick and one room is messy. So then maybe that caretaker of the room wants to teach something else. Maybe they want to demonstrate how something messy looks so bad when something is in a spick and span room.
They may have some other purpose. That’s why that room has been kept unclean. So like that, when we see overall Krishna Leela, where Krishna is demonstrating such extraordinary pastimes, he is defeating the devatas, he is defeating the dhanavas, he is demonstrating his supremacy in hundreds of ways.
Then at the end, when suddenly such a pastime comes where, you know, apparently Krishna’s dynasty is destroyed in an internecine war and Krishna is killed by an arrow hitting his leg by a hunter, if you ask what is going on over here? What is going on? Now, if you look at it purely from the point of your logic, you know, an arrow wound to a leg is never fatal, isn’t it? Even a bullet wound to a leg is never fatal. What may happen, the only way it can lead to death is if there’s infection because of that infection spreads all over the body and there’s no treatment. That’s only when a wound to the leg can kill.
And Krishna is not just any ordinary tender-bodied human being. Even from the point of view of, even if somebody doesn’t accept Krishna as God, Krishna was a Kshatriya and Krishna had fought in many wars. So it’s not that a wound to a leg is going to kill Krishna.
And further, what happens over there when that hunter comes and shoots Krishna? The hunter is horrified. What have I done when he sees what has actually happened? And Krishna is not angry with him. Krishna is not either feeling angry or Krishna is not feeling wronged.
Krishna actually blesses that hunter and he says, this is all a part of my plan. And then Krishna departs from this world. And now apparently Krishna leaves the material body behind when he departs.
That’s what the Bhagavatam says. So the Bhagavatam, in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami quotes Jiva Goswami in the Sandarbhas and he says, some of the Leelas of Krishna are what is called as Asura Mohan Leela. Asura Mohan means those Leelas are not meant for the devotees to become attracted to.
Those Leelas are primarily meant for the Asuras to become deviated, to become deluded. So just as Krishna comes as Mohini Murthi, when he comes as Mohini Murthi, the purpose is what? To Asura Mohan, to delude the demons. That is in a very graphic, sensual way, Krishna is deluding the demons.
But here Krishna can delude the demoniac people in an intellectual way, wherein they start rationalising their atheism. They start rationalising their godlessness by quoting this pastime of Krishna. But if we go deeper into that pastime, we will see that there are so many things which raise questions.
As I said, how could a leg arrow to the wound, wound to the leg kill a person? And why would a person bless their murderer? Why would a person bless someone who has killed them by accident? Okay, you may forgive them, not bless them. But here Krishna blesses them. So there is something much more going on over here, which we need to be open to.
So Krishna ends his leela on a seemingly tragic note for a purpose. The purpose is Asura Mohan. Those who want to be atheistic, they will be given, those who want to be demoniac, they will quote this pastime and say, yeah, Krishna cannot be God.
But those who are open-minded, they will see Krishna performs so many other pastimes. And therefore, there must be something higher going on. There must be some hidden purpose over here.
And when we are open to that hidden purpose, then Krishna will illumine us, Krishna will help us understand why he is doing what he is doing. So the Acharyas, we have to look at the Acharyas commentaries to understand this pastime. And the explanation that the Acharyas give, Vishwamitra Thakur quotes the Puranas and he explains multiple things.
He says that the Yadus, when they fought and killed themselves, each other, actually the reason was that they were so powerful that nobody else could kill them. And their fighting and killing themselves was meant to demonstrate at one level that he, just like Yudhishthir Maharaj when he gambled and he did something so terrible. Now somebody can argue and they can say that, oh, if Yudhishthir Maharaj gambled and he is Dharmaraj, then why should I also gamble? But the Mahabharata lesson is something entirely different.
Mahabharata lesson is that even if a person who is as dharmic as Yudhishthir, if he gambles, he gets into trouble. And not to speak of ordinary people like us, if we gamble, we will get into so much trouble. Similarly, here when the Yadus drink and they have a drunken brawl which turns fatal, so then that indicates that even people who are so exalted, if they succumb to drunkenness, they can also end up doing crazy things and not to speak of ordinary people like us.
So this pastime is meant to sound a cautionary note. When scriptures illustrate something, they illustrate those things in a very graphic way sometimes. So here the scripture demonstrates the danger of intoxication in a very graphic way.
And Krishna’s departure that demonstrates, that is Asur Mohanlila. And the last part, after this what happens is that when Arjuna tries to take Krishna’s queens with him, the ladies of the Yadu dynasty with him, at that time, Arjuna tells Yudhishthir that, you know some cowherd boys, they came and attacked and they took away Krishna’s queens and I was unable to protect them. Arjuna is crestfallen by that.
But now here, there are two, three things of view in Srimad Bhagavatam. Vishwanath Chakravorty explains in his commentaries that actually, why among all people, why are cowherd men coming and attacking? You know, cowherd men are not particularly dacoits. Cowherd people, they are the simple, peace-loving people, you know.
If they wanted to be dacoits, actually to handle cow requires gentleness. And if they wanted to, if they really wanted, they had a dacoit nature, they would not be taking care of cow. Maybe they were taking care of horses, they were taking care of something else.
So, the whole idea of cowherd men coming and having the audacity to attack a warrior and to defeat the warrior and then take the Kshatriya women away, that is outrageous. And they also are not aware that there are Kshatriyas, although there are other Kshatriyas who can break vengeance, you know, if their women are touched also. So, why would any cowherd men do something like that? So, Vishwanath Chakravorty explains that this Gopair, this cowherd men indicates that actually, it was Krishna himself who came as this cowherd.
Krishna was a cowherd boy, Krishna was a cowherd man and Krishna chose to come as a cowherd. And he wanted to take his with him and take the Kuru ladies with him, the Yadu ladies with him. And that’s why Krishna came as a cowherd man and he took those women with him.
And then with them all, he departed to the spiritual world. And for Arjuna, this demonstration was, Arjuna, you may be very powerful, but your power ultimately is not your power. It is the power of God which has come through you.
So, whenever in the scriptures, we see something that doesn’t make sense, we need to be open to understand that there’s something bigger happening over there. And then we try to look at the Acharyas and try to find out what is that bigger thing that is happening over there. And the same principle applies in our life also, that whenever something is happening that just doesn’t make sense, I’m trying to practise bhakti and then why is this happening to me? Then we have something bigger happening over there.
So, when we understand the breadth of our existence and the length of our existence, breadth means something, as I said, which will be inimical at the physical level, may be beneficial at the spiritual level. Similarly, if we understand the length of our existence, you know, I don’t exist just in this moment. It’s not just for this month.
It’s not even for this year. Not even for this lifetime. Actually, we are eternal beings.
And something that may seem to be disastrous in this moment may actually give rise to something wonderful in future. You know, if we see a movie in which, you know, you just see the hero being beaten by the villain. He’s being beaten, beaten, beaten, beaten.
And you say, what kind of movie is this? The villain is winning, the hero is losing. And if somebody just walks out of the movie at that time, then what will happen? Actually, the hero getting beaten by the villain, that might be like a dramatic point which inspires the hero to become stronger. And then the hero does maybe bodybuilding exercises or whatever, becomes expert.
And then that is the whole thrust of the story. You know, how hero becomes stronger and at the end of the movie, the hero will defeat the villain. But by just seeing the villain beating up the hero, if somebody walks out of the movie, then what a bad director, you know.
They made a movie in which the hero gets beaten up. But no, you see the full work of the director. See the full work of the director will see that actually the hero wins.
So like that, if we just look at one incident or one set of incidents in our life, you feel, you know, what is Krishna doing? You know, this is a movie, it’s not exactly a movie. This is something happening in our own life to us. So we can’t physically walk away, but we may walk away from our faith.
We think, no, Krishna doesn’t care or Krishna doesn’t exist. But if we just persevere, if we just persevere, hold on to Krishna and persevere in the practise of bhakti, then Krishna will reveal in His due course of time, how even through something which is very terrible, something wonderful will emerge. So rather than seeing, I’ll conclude with this point, rather than seeing suffering as an evidence that Krishna doesn’t exist or Krishna doesn’t care, we can see suffering as an opportunity to realise the potency of Krishna consciousness to raise us above suffering.
So when tough things happen to us, we can see those when bad things, when life becomes tough. In material life, they say when the tough, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Now, but when the going gets tough, it’s not just the tough get going.
As devotees, we can see that as an opportunity to experience how tough Krishna bhakti can make us. That means if this problem had come to me and I had not been a devotee, I would just have trembled completely. But the same problem has come.
Now if I take shelter of Krishna, I can tolerate this problem. I can actually manage. And that shows this Krishna bhakti stuff is real.
It actually strengthens me from within. We can see that as an opportunity to realise how tough Krishna bhakti can make us. And then that increased toughness will help us withstand life’s future problems much more confidently, much more gracefully, much more constructively.
So when we when we see suffering in this world, when we see suffering in our own lives, we should know that Krishna is not the cause of the suffering. Krishna is the cure for the suffering. The cause of the suffering is some karmic balance has to be adjusted.
Whatever it is, we don’t know. But Krishna is not up there causing that suffering to us. Krishna is in here right next to us, ready to help us tolerate that suffering.
Help us not just go through that suffering, but to actually grow through that suffering. So Krishna is there. If we take shelter of Krishna, we can see it this way that then actually if we take shelter of Krishna, the same suffering which for some people could have damaged their faith, that same suffering can actually strengthen our faith.
So if when problems come in our life, we can see this. Why doesn’t God help me? We can see it. No.
Actually, Krishna has told us in scripture that this world is dukkhalan. And now I’m getting the realisation this is dukkhalan. So actually my faith in Krishna’s increased by that.
And secondly, what I can see is Krishna has not just said that this world is dukkhalan and you stay dukkhi. That is not Krishna’s message. Krishna’s message is this world is dukkhalan, but if you take shelter of me, you can transcend the misery of this world.
So what we can see is now I have got realisation of one part of Krishna’s teaching. This world is a place of misery. Now let me try to get realisation of the other part of Krishna’s teaching.
That is by taking shelter of him, I can transcend the misery of this world. And then if we take suffering as an opportunity to realise Krishna’s second half of his teaching, which is actually the essential part of his teaching, that you know by taking shelter of him, we can transcend misery. And then we can find out how we best can take shelter of Krishna, how we can take shelter of Krishna best.
Now for some of us, it may be chanting, studying shastra. Some of us may be you know just kirtan. Some of us may be memorising, reciting verses.
Some of us it may be worshipping the deity. We can find out individually what is our uddhipan. Uddhipan is our spiritual stimulus.
So what is it that enables us to take shelter of Krishna most easily, most effectively. And then when we take shelter of Krishna, then we will realise that whatever happened was actually ultimately for our good. So all that happens is not necessarily good.
All that happens is for good. There is a difference between that. All that happens is not necessarily good.
You know, somebody gets robbed, somebody gets a terrible disease. It is not that that event is good. I mean Arjuna, when Arjuna is killed, Krishna does not say, his killing is good.
He does not tell like that. He grieves with him. But then he tells, you know, remember your duty.
And then what happens through that is, the next day Arjuna fights more vigorously and that is the worst day for the Kauravas. So even when bad things happen, it is not that our faith means we should just somehow suppress our feelings and say, oh it is good. No, when bad things happen, they are bad.
But if we have faith in Krishna, all that happens can be for good. But for it to happen for good, we have to make good choices. If something happens, bad happens to me and if I become resentful, I give up my faith, then I am making a bad choice and that will make the things worse.
So all that happens may not be good, but all that happens can be for good, if we make the good choice of taking shelter of Krishna. And that is what the Bhagavatam demonstrates. For Parikshit Maharaj, a young man in the prime of his youth, suddenly to be cursed to die at the age of, at a very young age, in seven days and for no fault practically.
It is one thing when, you know, we are at fault and we are punished. Another thing when there is a minor fault and a huge reaction, huge punishment. So Parikshit Maharaj himself could have, you know, been asking this question, why do bad things happen to good people? I was such a good person.
But Parikshit Maharaj didn’t ask that question. He took shelter of Krishna. And the Bhagavatam’s ultimate message is that don’t expect Krishna’s shelter at the material level.
The Bhagavatam doesn’t reveal Parikshit being protected at the material level, but he is protected at the spiritual level. He absorbs himself in Krishna and his life is supremely successful. So same way, by taking shelter of Krishna through the process that Shri Prabhupada has given us, we also can actually experience the supreme shelter of Krishna in this life and the supreme success at the end of our life.
I’ll summarise. I talked here about how sometimes terrible things we may see happening in our own lives or in Krishna’s past. We just don’t make sense.
So to understand them, to understand Krishna’s love for us, we have to understand the breadth of our existence and also the length of our existence. Breadth of our existence means that we are not just the body, there is body, mind and soul. And something that is physically inimical may be spiritually beneficial.
And I gave the example of my own fracture, how that enabled me to take shelter of Krishna’s Gita verses. And similarly, in Krishna Leela, when we see, I talked about this pastime of the Yadus killing each other and Krishna dying, Krishna leaving a material body behind, this may seem very tragic and may seem, is Krishna really God? But Krishna reciprocates the desires and for the atheistic, he gives them reasons to be atheistic. So if in a room, 49 rooms are orderly and one is unclean, rather than using that one unclean room to say that there is no caretaker of this room, we can try to find out, now why has that caretaker allowed this room to be unclean? So, when in the universe we see disorder jars us so much, because normally we see order in this world.
We ask the question, why do bad things happen to good people? Because normally, good action does produce good results. And science also assumes this faith that there is order in nature. And even when they find something which is not orderly, they have the faith that there is some future theory which will explain what is the order.
So science operates on faith that there is order. And just as they have that faith that the future understanding will reveal what the order is. Similarly, as devotees, we can also have the faith that even if things do not make sense to me right now, some future understanding will reveal what the sense of this was.
And otherwise, if you just become atheistic then, if somebody becomes atheistic, then they are basically, they end up with islets of meaning in an ocean of, while drowning in an ocean of meaninglessness. But if there are islets of meaning, there could also be an ocean of meaning. Let’s be open to that.
And as devotees, if we remain faithful to Krishna, then Krishna will reveal that whatever has happened is ultimately for our good. A hero may be beaten up in one part of the movie, but that might be the dramatic point to reveal the hero’s metamorphosis. So we have to watch till the end of the movie and then we’ll see how the hero triumphs.
So like that sometimes terrible sufferings may come in our life. And if we just walk out of the movie, just give up our faith that we will not allow Krishna to show us what he is planning for us. So by persevering in our bhakti, by having faith that Krishna is not the cause of our suffering, Krishna is the cure for my suffering and taking shelter of Krishna, we can see problems and there’s the opportunity to discover how tough Krishna can make us, to discover the other half of scriptural teaching.
One half is this world is a place of misery, which I’m realising right now, and other half is by taking shelter of Krishna, I can transcend misery. So let me take shelter of Krishna. Let me find out how I can best take shelter of Krishna and thereby realise that Krishna bhakti can help me to transcend suffering.
And Parichit Maharaj, he didn’t ask why do bad things happen to good people. He actually made the good choice of taking shelter of Krishna. And thus he transcended the suffering of death, which was inevitable.
So similarly, sufferings may be inevitable at the material level, but by taking shelter of Krishna, we too can transcend suffering. So thank you very much. Are there any comments or questions? Yes, Bram.
Thank you for a great talk. Thank you. Happy to hear so much.
So many points. It’s been a lovely discussion. Just one thing.
You mentioned that time of going through biblia may not be clear. It’s not actually clear for us. And it always seems like that.
It always seems like that Krishna always seems like Krishna. And only when we look back can we understand Krishna. If there’s a time where we can understand the time of the difficulty and how to have a vision that is because often we’re deluded and we can’t work it out.
Then when you look back you might understand that it always seems like Krishna is not quite His plan is not quite understood. Yeah, that’s true. So normally when the problem comes, we don’t understand Krishna’s plan.
Later we understand it. So is it possible that in future we’ll come to a level where we will understand at that point itself what Krishna’s plan is? The soul never becomes omniscient. Even if the soul is completely purified, the soul doesn’t become omniscient.
Even in Prabhupada’s song, Arkhine Bhagwat Dharma he says, My dear lord, you must have some purpose for having got me here. Otherwise, why would you have brought me to this terrible place? I’ll give you the word. I guess.
Anumane. This is my anuman, my guess, my inference. So even for a pure devotee, it may not be that they know exactly what is happening and what they are supposed to do, how they are supposed to act.
No, Prabhupada was pragmatic. Prabhupada would try whatever worked. And he tried this, it didn’t work.
He just stopped it and he tried something else. He started back to Godhead. He found people were not taking magazine seriously.
And he started books. Then he saw, he had the books but people were just offering nominal respect in India. So he came to America.
And America, first he went to Mishra Yoga Studio. Then he found that people are interested in yoga but he is not allowed to speak his message. So Prabhupada was trying different things.
And then he saw whatever worked. Mishra Prabhupada writes in a parpour, in a Bhagavatam that is, in a Bhagavatam, he says that a devotee may be perplexed but a devotee is never discouraged. So perplexed means we don’t know what to do.
Discouraged means we don’t feel like doing anything. So it’s possible that even very advanced devotees may temporarily be perplexed. So what they never lose is their desire to serve Krishna.
If we just maintain that desire to serve Krishna then through that desire it will be revealed how we can move closer to Him. So suppose say we are walking in this room and there is light now. I can see there is a door over there.
There is another door over there. There are people sitting over here. I can see all this.
But suddenly the power goes off. It becomes completely dark over here. Then I can curse the darkness.
I don’t know what to do in this darkness. I can’t move around. Or maybe I can find my flashlight.
Most phones also have flashlights now. The flashlight is not a substitute for the electrical light. But the flashlight can show me the space around me.
I can take one step forward. I can take one step forward. And like that I may reach a long distance.
And by that time the power comes back. So similarly there are some times in our life when things seem to be fairly clear. Let’s say the room is well lit.
Now I got this service. I progress in this service. And life seems to go on in an orderly pattern.
Maybe for a few months or a few years. But then suddenly the lights go off. Maybe something goes wrong.
Our services get changed. Our circumstances get changed. The world changes tremendously.
We just don’t know what to do at that time. So at that time we can just curse the darkness. Or we can turn on our flashlight.
That flashlight is the service attitude. Service attitude means Krishna how can I serve you now? And Prabhupada once asked what is the best prayer that we can offer to Krishna. Prabhupada said, Krishna please give me the strength to serve you.
So if we just ask this question, Krishna how can I serve you? There are two questions when we face life’s problems. Why is this happening? And how can I respond? So we may say the two questions are interrelated. They are.
But the first question is often difficult to answer. The why question just leads to endless perplexity. But the how question is actually empowering.
How can I best respond now? How can I serve now? At least one step I can take forward. I take that one step forward. It shows me one more step forward.
I take one more step forward. And like that we navigate through the phases of darkness and perplexity in our life. So when we don’t know why what is happening in our life.
Then at that time just Krishna how can I serve you in this situation? And sometimes you know I go in this direction. I think the door is here. I hit a wall over there.
The door is not here. So like that we have to explore. So when these things happen, if we just maintain the service attitude, then we will be moving, taking steps forward.
And some things may work out some things may not work out. But every time we maintain the service attitude and I try to take steps forward. In this world we may not seem to be going anywhere.
But in our journey towards Krishna we are taking steps forward towards Krishna. So some services may not bear results in this world. We may preach at a particular place and people may never become devotees of that.
Then we may decide okay this place is not very good. I will go somewhere else. That’s fine.
At a material level the service did not produce any result. But at a spiritual level the effort to serve has purified us, has taken us closer to Krishna. So Srila Prabhupada also for him 40 years almost in India, very little results were produced.
And Prabhupada was trying various things. He said that Prabhupada says in one conversation I think that when he was on the streets of Delhi and a cow hit him, Prabhupada he said, I just had this question. Why is this happening? A cow is sort of a sacred animal for us.
A cow coming and hitting, it’s the least thing that we may expect. A cow hitting a pure devotee of Krishna. Why is this happening? But Prabhupada did not obsess over that why question.
Rather focused on how. And his mood was that verse, that song is very beautiful. So make me dance Krishna.
Make me dance means what? We just don’t know how Krishna wants us to dance. So we just do what we can in that situation. Intelligence has many definitions.
One definition of intelligence is to know what to do when you don’t know what to do. That means rather than thinking that I don’t know and getting paralysed, I think of, okay, what is the one step I can take right now? Okay, take one step forward. Sometimes life is so dark and so dreary that the best we can do at that time is just take one step forward.
Sometimes life is clear and we can move forward confidently, swiftly. But if you just look at the darkness and the curse, the darkness will be paralysed. But if you have that service attitude, Krishna, how can I serve you? That question itself, how can I serve you, will become like a torch.
And that will show one step ahead. Okay, you can do this. And then again, how can I serve you? Again, it will show one step ahead.
And you take one step forward, one step forward. Gradually, things will become clear. Machittah sarva-durgani mat-prasadah tarisute.
Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. So he doesn’t say that there will be no obstacles. There will be obstacles, but if you become conscious of me, you will pass over them.
So our focus should be on trying to become conscious of Krishna and trying to serve Krishna according to our understanding. And gradually, he will reveal to us how best we can serve. Does that answer your question? Thank you.
Okay. Any other questions? Yes, Pram? … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Okay. Yeah.
Just as our mind and senses can mislead us, our intelligence can also mislead us through rationalisation. So can I say that Krishna is doing this because that’s what we want? See, rather than saying Krishna is doing it, we can say Krishna is allowing it. See, we have been given our intelligence, and it’s up to us how to use the intelligence.
Krishna gives us a choice. So now we can use the intelligence to go closer to him, or we can stay away from him and rationalise that using our intelligence. We can go further away from him also.
So, in general, when we come into our inner territory, it’s very difficult for us to know this is the mind, this is the intelligence. What is it actually at that moment? This voice is speaking. Is it the mind’s voice or is it the intelligence’s voice? So, in general, if we have to take any major decisions in our life, it’s best to not take them instinctively, not take them fast.
Just press a pause button. This is what I feel like I should do. And I have this reasoning.
Now, is this a right reason or is it a wrong reason? Is it a real reason or is it a rationalisation? How do I know? A good thing is to pause. Because we all have a core sincerity. Otherwise, we would not be practising bhakti.
But sometimes our conditioning overcomes our sincerity. So, if we just pause and don’t act, then gradually our sincerity again surfaces. This was my reasoning, but maybe I had some ulterior motives because of which I wanted to do this.
We can evaluate that. And we can, of course, consult senior devotees, consult spiritual guides. They can also provide us guidance.
See, normally we look at everything and everyone through our mind. That means if somebody comes and starts speaking very sweetly to me, what does he want? Maybe they want me to do something. That’s why they’re speaking so sweetly.
So, it could be true and that’s the kind of experience we have had. The point which I’m making is that often we see everyone through the filter of our mind. Now, if we have even one or two devotees whom we don’t see through our mind, we see our mind through them.
That means my mind is saying this, but they are saying this. I’m doing a particular service, say, and for that I have to do some things. So, if somebody is, say, promoting, if, I think there are many examples.
Let’s say somebody is preaching on the internet and for the preaching on the internet they need to have social media where they are promoting themselves. Somebody comes and tells me, you are becoming very proud. Now, I may think that actually I am doing this for my service.
For my service, it’s required. Now, if I’m seeing them only through my mind, I’ll say, this person is simply envious of me. But, if I have some trust in that person, then I say, let me investigate.
Instead of seeing them through, okay, this person is saying this, my mind is saying this, which is true. So, if we have some devotee friends through whom we see our mind, then that is a great fortune. You know, that will help us to actually catch our rationalisations.
Now, it’s not necessary that when we see the philosophy in a way that is suitable for us, that is not necessarily always rationalisation also. One principle of bhakti is also, अनु कुल्यस संकल को प्रति कुल्यस से वाजने. Except that which is favourable, reject that which is unfavourable.
So, if we find certain aspects of the philosophy, certain aspects of the practises, they are conducive for us, they help us to grow, then that may also be just accepting that which is favourable for us. So, if we are not becoming judgemental, if we are not becoming superior, if we are not becoming argumentative, then it need not be a rationalisation. It’s just simply an admission that this is what I need for my practise of bhakti.
So, rather than holding ourselves guilty or holding ourselves as right or defending ourselves as right or just admitting I am guilty, it is better to keep things in abeyance, keep things in pause and evaluate with the guidance of some devotees. Again, if I said it is a major decision, it is good to write things down also. This is what I think about this.
Write things down and then when you write things down, that becomes like a snapshot of our mind. Snapshot of our thinking. And come back after a week, come back after a month and look at that.
I was thinking like this, you know, but I didn’t think of this factor and this is such an important factor. Then our thinking becomes broader. It is getting the thoughts out of our head creates some distance.
And when the distance is there, the distance itself brings some objectivity. As long as thoughts are inside me, we just are too caught up with the thoughts. Our head is congested.
Get them out. Don’t act on them. Get them out and then wait for some time.
Then evaluate them. Then we will be able to catch ourselves. And usually it is not that the rationalisation is entirely a self-serving rationalisation.
There is some element of truth to it. There is something which we need for our own spiritual growth. Sometimes we may need some space.
And we may find some aspect of philosophy which justifies our having some space. That may be a genuine need for some people. That’s okay.
So we can by getting association of trustworthy devotees through whom we see our mind and by getting the contents of our mind outside so that we can evaluate them more objectively and by just waiting not acting on it immediately by all this we will be able to evaluate and then arrive at a more mature decision. Does that answer your question? Thank you very much.