QA tradition brings intellectual vibrancy to bhakti

Srimad Bhagavatam class at Denver

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I seek the blessings of His Holiness the Tantric Maharaj and all the Vaishnavas so that I can speak something on the Vishnu Mahagatam. So today we are discussing the last verse of this chapter in the second canto wherein the chatu shloki is revealed. Here Krishna states, the Lord is stating to Brahma that your questions I will be answering in detail based on the verse that I had spoken earlier.
So I will take this class in three parts. I will talk about first the tradition of question answers which is consistently present in the Vedic literature. Then I will talk about the concept of nutshell verses or chatu shlokis or any kind of summation of thought.
And then I will talk specifically about the issues mentioned in this translation and purport. Among the world’s great scriptures or the books considered sacred by the world’s great religions, the Vedic literature are distinctive in their tradition of serious question answers. If we look at the Bible, it is primarily, the Old Testament is primarily a book of the description of the activities of God’s chosen people.
How Moses led them from Egypt and eventually they came to the promised land. And there are activities of prophets and God’s intervention is primarily in terms of his doing supernatural events such as parting the oceans to facilitate his worshippers. There is no place where there is any question answer with God directly.
There is only the activities of God’s people with God’s interventions in between. If we look at the New Testament, which is the sacred book of the Christians, primarily centred on Jesus, so then the Gospels are talking about Jesus’ life. And even there, it’s mostly stories with very little question answers.
No serious question answers. We tell some parables and give some moral principles based on those parables. I’m not discounting the value of these sacred books.
I’m simply pointing out objectively that there are no serious question answers within them. And a major part of the Bible is Paul’s epistles, which are basically the letters and the instructions that he gave to different people in different parts of the Christianised world at that time. If you look at the Quran, it is primarily a revelation that Muhammad is said to have got from Allah through Gabriel, the archangel at that time.
And these came to Muhammad at various different occasions when, say, he would be just talking with someone and suddenly he would feel the spirit speaking through him. And then what he spoke at different times and different occasions was later brought together and made into a Quran several decades after Muhammad had passed away. So again, it is a unidirectional, unilateral revelation.
There are no question answers anywhere in the Quran. Of course, one can find answers to questions based on the wisdom in these books. But within the books themselves, there is no tradition of question answers.
And in contrast, if you see the Vedic literature, there is the consistent, right from the Upanishads, even in the Vedas, you will see there are questions. But Upanishads are filled with question answers. And usually the Upanishadic questions are very abstract and abstruse.
They are difficult to understand. And that is why the attempt was made to discover and clarify their import in the Vedanta Sutra. So the tradition of question answers is continued even in the Puranas.
In fact, most of the Puranas we see are settings where sages are assembled and certain questions are discussed. And even in the Ramayana, it begins with a seminal question. Valmiki is asking Narada, who is their ideal person? What are the characteristics of an ideal person? The Mahabharata’s defining question is, what is dharma? The Bhagavatam takes that and focusses further.
What is the dharma of a person on the verge of death? But essentially, there are questions throughout. And that’s why, although the biggest religions do take us towards God, in the Chaitanya Shikshamrit, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that just as the same mountain peak can be seen from different directions by different observers. So he says Plato saw it from the west and Patanjali saw it from the east.
So same absolute truth has been seen and has been revealed in different traditions. But not all traditions have similar approaches towards the absolute truth. So the Vedic scriptures especially, they have a very sound philosophical grounding on which to approach God.
And this makes approaching God not just a matter of belief, no. There are atheists who caricature the Abrahamic religions. The Abrahamic religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
They all accept Abraham as one of their founding prophets. They say, what are these religions? They are pay, pray, obey. You come, you give some donation, you pray to some God and you obey whatever God says.
So this does not have much of an intellectual aspect. You begin with belief that Jesus is the saviour, you end with belief that Jesus is the saviour. There is no such thing as, not even a process for realising any higher spiritual realities.
In contrast with this pay, pray, obey, unfortunately because the Abrahamic religions are prominent in the west and western civilisation is spread over the rest of the world. So most religions, in fact all religion is seen in that light and dismissed in that light. But if we look at the Bhagavad Gita and the bhakti tradition, it is more of, not pay, pray, obey, but it is more of analyse, realise and relish.
Analyse, observe. Athato, if you see, the Vedanta Sutra begins itself with, not obey, not believe, but enquire. Athato Brahma Jijnasa.
And this theme is carried on in various other sutras. The Mimamsaka Sutra, Vedanta is one of the six schools of thought within the Vedic tradition. So Vedanta Sutra begins with Athato Brahma Jijnasa.
The Mimamsaka Sutra by Gemini begins with Athato Dharma Jijnasa. The Shandilya Bhakti Sutra begins with Athato Bhakti Jijnasa. So the point is Jijnasa, enquire, enquire.
So it is not so much belief as enquiry that is stressed. And if we enquire, that enquiry will make us look for something beyond what we observe in our day to day. Sometimes some people feel that we live in an age of science.
And how can you believe in something unscientific, pre-scientific? It’s like religion. But actually, science and spirituality, especially if you understand spirituality in terms of enquiry, as the Vedic scriptures present us, then science and spirituality can be seen as fruits of the same tree. Albert Einstein said that same thing.
He said science, religion, art, they are all fruits of the same tree. It means the same human mind which enquires. At one level, when it enquires about the things in this world and tries to understand how the things work, then it comes up with scientific progress.
But when there is overconfidence about the scope of scientific knowledge, and one assumes that science can answer all questions, then there is serious blunder. So, the same spirit of enquiry, when it is directed towards transcendental questions, what exists beyond, okay, there is this observable world, what exists beyond that? When the questions are raised about that, that is the time when scriptures become indispensable. We need scripture to know that which is beyond sense perception, that which exists beyond what we normally experience, with our senses.
And is there something beyond? Somebody may say, why do you believe that there is anything beyond? All that there is to life is what we see in the here and now. Now, actually, from the point of view of atheism, if we accept that what we observe is all that exists, ultimately we are rejecting God and we are becoming atheistic. So if we become atheistic, then what is the point of everything? Why do we exist? You know, I am just, as they say, stardust come alive.
I am just a lucky accident within the history of the universe, somehow sprung to life. So before I was born, there was an infinity of nothingness. And after I die, there will be an infinity of nothingness.
And between these two infinities of nothingness, for some time, this biochemical bag flaps around. So, if everything is ultimately meaningless, now, that is the ultimate conclusion of atheism. We are just here, what? Life has no meaning.
And atheists sometimes become hyper-aggressive. There are atheists and there are antitheists. Atheists don’t believe in God.
Antitheists are active missionaries of atheism. They campaign for atheism. And they say, you should grow up.
You should have courage and recognise that life is meaningless. Don’t be a coward and imagine some meaning through some meaningless religious beliefs. So now, whenever the word courage is brought, people start thinking, well, the opposite option must be coward.
So, I have courage. Accept that there is no meaning to life. But, if everything is meaningless, then why do atheists criticise religion for its apparently meaningless beliefs? If everything is meaningless, why say that this is your religion, this doesn’t make sense, this doesn’t make sense, this doesn’t make sense? Well, nothing makes sense.
So, in the atheistic worldview, what do we do by that? We are struggling to find some islets of meaning while drowning in an ocean of meaninglessness. The whole of existence is meaningless, and within that, let’s try to find some meaning here, let’s try to find some meaning here, let’s try to find some meaning here. Ultimately, it makes the whole search for meaning, the search for knowledge, the search for science, everything becomes meaningless.
So, what is scientific knowledge? Scientific knowledge, ultimately, which atheists are very proud of, it is nothing but some signals going on in our brain. The brain signals are going on, and that is all that there is, if everything is meaningless. So, atheism ultimately makes, it collapses into meaninglessness.
It can’t explain anything, even the search for knowledge, which they claim culminates in atheism. So, if we restrict everything to this world, then we collapse into meaninglessness. So, the same intelligence, which when enquiring this world, can come up with scientific knowledge.
Now, not all scientific knowledge is correct. Science is ever evolving, and its theories are ever changing. But that same human intelligence, which has given us scientific knowledge, if we focus on questions beyond, questions of ultimate interest, then we come to spiritual wisdom.
And the scriptures guide those who are seeking such ultimate wisdom. Of course, scriptures contain guidance for everyone, but especially for people who are looking for ultimate questions. In fact, the scriptures exhort us, not towards mindless belief, not just have faith.
Bhagavad Gita is not so much a book of commandments, it is more a book of choices. You do this, this will happen. You do this, this will happen.
Now, you decide what you want to do. And Bhagavad Gita reveals a vision of God, not someone who is sitting up in a cloud, throwing thunderbolts and casting the disbelievers down to hell forever. Bhagavad Gita reveals a God who respects human intelligence, and respects human independence.
Now, respects human intelligence means, nowhere in the Bhagavad Gita does Krishna tell Arjuna, you have to accept my words because I am God. When Arjuna asks questions, Krishna gives rational answers. Of course, those rational answers are based on scripture.
But still, the point is, there is reasoning. There is not just a raw call to authority for dominating someone. Arjuna asks questions, Krishna answers.
No. The nearest to a challenging question, that Arjuna gets in the Bhagavad Gita, is in 4.4. In 4.1, Krishna tells Arjuna that, इमं विवस्पते योगम् प्रोक्तवानावेनं विवस्वान्मनवेप्रागः। मनुरिक्ष्वाकवेप्रवेत। He says that, I give this knowledge to the Sun God. And then, Arjuna asks in 4.4, कतमेदि विजानियं तमादो प्रोक्तवानिति अपरंभवतो जन्मापरंजन्मविवस्वतमाद। He says that, Sun was born much earlier than you.
He is much older. So, how did you give this knowledge to the Sun? And, this can very well be seen as a challenging question. Basically, what you are saying doesn’t make sense.
And, Krishna doesn’t label Arjuna as a doubter, as a fool, as a unbeliever. Krishna answers objectively. He says, yes, we have gone through many lifetimes.
बहुनिमेविति तानि जन्मानितवचार्जुना। तानिमेविति सर्वाणिन तमद परंधना। So, we have gone through many lifetimes. I remember them, you don’t. So, there is a culture of rigorous and respectful question answers.
Rigorous. If you look at the questions that are asked, they are serious questions. And, they are respectful.
Now, when Suta Goswami is asked questions in the first chapter of the first Skandroshan in Bhagavatam, in reply, he says, अतः पंदिर्दुजस्रेष्ठा वर्णाश्रलं भागशं। One of the verses when he says while answering, he is referring to the questioner as भुजस्रेष्ठा. He is not saying, I am भुजस्रेष्ठा, I am so intelligent, I will answer your questions. He is saying, the questioner, O Shravanaka, you are भुजस्रेष्ठा.
Because, here we see, a God and those who are sharing his message, they are very respectful question answers. And, as I said, the Bhagavad Gita reveals a God who respects human intelligence and human independence. At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, what does Krishna tell Arjuna? विम्रिष्येतरशेषेन दिधेचसि तथा कुरु। Vimrishye, that celebrate deeply and then decide what you want to do.
So, we as followers of this glorious tradition, where there is an intellectually profound presentation of the Absolute Truth, we also need to present in that tradition, not dogmatically demanding acceptance, but rationally presenting in a way that attracts intelligent people and people in general, of course. So, here we see, right at the beginning of creation, after Brahma is born and is bewildered, he meditates and the Lord appears and he asks and the Lord answers. The Lord has condensed things in the Chatur Shloki, which has come earlier and now he is repeating.
He says, I will repeat. So, in this particular context, the concept of the Chatur Shloki, or it can be various number of Shlokas, but the concept of condensing the essential message into some short units, that is meant primarily for assimilation, recollection and quotation. So, for example, Ramanujacharya is the first person who talked about the Chatur Shloki in the Bhagavad Gita.
He and subsequent Acharyas have accepted that. He also talked that Chatur Shloki is 10.8 to 11 in the Bhagavad Gita. And then he talked about the 18.66 Sarva Dharmaan Parityaja being the Charam Shloka.
Charam is the highest, the crest jewel Shloka of the Bhagavad Gita. So, now there are different traditions. In the Bhagavatam, sometimes some people say there is a Pancha Shloka, there is a Sapta Shloka.
Some people say there is a Chatur Shloka. So, Prabhupada primarily accepted the Chatur Shloka. He said that there are four verses which give the essence.
And in this way, by conveying the essence or by highlighting verses which give the essence, it becomes easier for people to keep the central point in mind. Now, if you look at the Chatur Shloki, Chatur Shloki itself can be a whole class, I will just highlight a couple of points here. When he talks of Chatur Shloki, it gives a very interesting aham eva sam eva agni.
So, I was alone existed in the beginning. I alone will exist in the end. And I alone exist now.
I alone exist now. So now, what does it mean? We are existing, the stable is existing. What does it mean that God alone exists? The Bhagavad Gita and the Bhakti literature in general give us a very inclusive conception of God.
Now, God is not just someone who is up there far away. God is up there and He is right in here. Closer than the closest person can ever be.
No matter how tightly someone hugs us, that person cannot come as close to us as Krishna is always. And that proximity is not just in position. It is also in disposition.
Krishna loves us more than anyone else. He is the well-wisher of all living beings. So, that’s the first point about how God is… I am all that exists.
So, God is not separated from His energy. Within the Vedantic tradition, the Gaudiya Vaishnava Siddhanta explains that God and the world are related as energies. So, when we say God at one level, when we treat Him as an object of worship, we say, okay, yes, God is there in the altar.
God is the object of worship. But when we want to understand God as a philosophical principle, maybe I need to understand that God is not something who is somewhere else. God includes all living beings.
तमेवं पितामस्ति जगतो माता धाता पितामवेद्यं पवित्रमोंकार रिक्साम्य जुवेवज्य। In the 9th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, 17th verse, Prabhupada in the purport says that so Krishna is the father, Krishna is the grandfather, Krishna is the progenitor. In one sense, Krishna is everything. Sometimes some atheists ask that can God create a stone He cannot eat? Actually, Prabhupada gave one answer.
What was that? He will create a stone which He can’t lift. And then afterwards, He will lift it. So this is the answer which rests on understanding God in the conceivable potency.
At the same time, if we look at the Bhagavad Gita’s conception of God, we can approach this question in a different way. This question itself is based on a misconception about what God is. We think that God is just another object in this world.
Okay, this is a stone and this is God. Can God create a stone He can’t lift? No, God is not like that. God is not just another thing in the world.
That God is the root of all of existence. Nothing would exist if God did not exist. How can I say such a thing? That nothing would exist if God did not exist.
What this means is that we observe things around us that are temporary. Science has also concluded, previously atheists tried to champion what was called as the steady state theory. That the universe exists as it is.
Then there is no creation and there is no creator. That way they tried to do away with God. But scientists are more or less unanimous now in saying that God, that the universe is temporary.
So if everything is temporary, then where does everything temporary originate in? If I am at a 100 storey building on top and I know each building is say 1 storey, maybe 10 feet. And I am at a height of 1000 feet. Now this, each 10 feet structure has to be rested in something else.
And then you go 10 feet down, 10 feet down, 10 feet down, 10 feet down, 10 feet down. At some place this has to stop. And that place is the foundation.
It is the ground on which the building is built. So by logical inference, if one temporary thing A has come from another temporary thing B, which has come from another temporary thing C, which has come from another temporary thing D. Now this causal chain has to stop somewhere. And it cannot stop in anything temporary.
Because if I have just 10 storey building going on and on and on, where does it end? The whole building will collapse. So this chain has to stop, of temporary things has to stop in something which is eternal. And that eternal is God.
And Krishna says, aham sarvasya prabhavo madhya sarvam pravartate that I am the source of everything. Aham eva saneva kirti The first verse of the Chaturthi Shloka Bhagavad Gita and the first verse of the Chaturthi Shloka Bhagavatam both spoke about similar concepts. That God is the ultimate reality.
And the Chaturthi Shloka concludes with a very intriguing definition of Maya. I’ll conclude at this point. You can have a few comments, questions, etc.
That Maya, what exactly is Maya? In the Christian tradition, see in this world, there is something which impels us towards wrongdoing. Now what is that? Different traditions have tried to explain it in different ways. So primarily in the Abrahamic religions, they have said that there is something called devil.
And that devil is what makes us do wrong things. And the devil is seen to be an enemy of God. Almost as powerful as God.
But God will ultimately assert His supremacy. And by that, they say, at that time, the true believers will be redeemed. So, sometimes when there are evils, there are some natural calamities, some tsunamis, some earthquakes happen.
So then, if these religious apologists are asked, why did this evil happen? They say that actually, if God is in control, why does God allow evil to happen? They say, actually God is not in control. The world is controlled by the devil. Because in the first, Adam sinned against God, by eating the forbidden apple.
So from that, when Adam accepted Satan, who had come as a snake, Satan’s proposal, that time, Adam surrendered his control to Satan. And from that time, the world is controlled by Satan. So now, if God is not in control, what is the point of worshipping God? God will ultimately assert His control.
Not now. And then, because Adam sinned, that sin is like a genetic defect, that has passed down to all of humanity. We have all become sinful.
It borders on monstrous insensitivity to see that millions of people have died because someone ate an apple millions of years ago. There is an aggressive atheist who says that belief in such a God should be made immoral. Because believing in a good God in the reality of human suffering is an insult to the gravity of the suffering.
So the point is that when there is no proper understanding of the nature of the world, the religious beliefs propel into self-contradiction. So one explanation is that this world is no longer controlled by God. It is controlled by the devil.
This is the explanation of the Abrahamic religions. And as contrasted with that, the Mayavadi resolution of this is very simple. What is that? This is all a dream.
So actually you are not suffering. You just wake up from the dream and you will understand there is no suffering. Not only is there no suffering, there is no sufferer also.
So now this also, it may at one level seem very simple. Yes, it’s all a dream. But the question is, right now, it’s a reality.
Right now we experience it as suffering. And the suffering is serious. So again, it also trivialises the suffering.
So what the Bhagavatam says is, रुद्दे अर्थम् यत् प्रतीये चात्मनी। तं विद्यादात्मनो मायां यथावासु यथात्मा। So what the Bhagavatam says, what is Maya? Maya is not some anti-God force. It is, Maya we could say is one energy. But that energy is also not a villain.
Durga Devi, Maya Devi, she is also a maidservant of God. The Bhagavatam says Durga Devi is Vaishnavi. But then it says, वैश्णवी जनमोलिनी। She is Vaishnavi, but she deludes people.
Now why does she delude people? Once Prabhupada was asked, that if we want to serve Krishna, why is Maya so strong? So Prabhupada replied, because your purpose is not strong. Your purpose is not strong. So now, what this means is, I’ll explain the words.
The Bhagavatam is saying that if we think of anything which is not connected with God, to be meaningful, that conception is Maya. So the blame is not on the illusory energy. She is also Krishna’s energy.
She is also Vaishnavi. But the conception that we accept, that something is meaningful, separate from God, that is Maya. So now, to understand this, let’s consider an exam.
A few months ago, I was in Melbourne. So one devotee asked a question. He said, we should choose Krishna, we should give up Maya.
But then, there are always, in this world, so many wrong options. And so few right options. So why is it like that? So I said, that’s the way it always is, in any multiple-choice exam.
Is it? In any multiple-choice exam, there are, say, four wrong options, and one right option. Now, if the choosing was based only on chance, then by probability, the right choice percentage would be only 20%. And most students would fail.
And you could blame the teacher. Why did you put so many wrong options there? But the teacher gives education. And after giving education, it is the student’s responsibility to make the right choice.
So the wrong choices are given, not to cause the student to fail, but to compel the student to internalise the education, and thereby grow in learning. Similarly, in this world, there are many wrong options. But scripture tells us, and our human intelligence can also prompt us.
We are all prompted towards ultimate questions. At some time or other in our life, what is the point of it all? What am I living for? This question does come to everyone. Because today we live in an age of mass distraction.
We may not pay attention to this question, but the question does come. So, especially, say, when the Twin Towers fell, the top Google search for some time was gone. Ultimately, what is the point of life? People started looking for that.
So, I have this question, and scripture provides us the answer to this question. So, God is the ultimate reality. And that doesn’t mean we reject this world, but we connect this world with God.
So, the Bhagavatam’s definition of maya is, to see anything disconnected from God. And that is, when we see anything disconnected from God, and see it as meaningful, see it as capable of giving pleasure, we are ticking a wrong option. And when we tick a wrong option, अथचेत तमहंकाराण नश्रोष्यसी विनंग्षिसी Krishna says in 18.58, You will be lost.
If we choose the right option, Krishna assures, मच्चित्तः सर्मदुर्गाणि मत्प्रसादात् तरशिसी If you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. So here, here is the Bhagavatam’s ultimate resolution of the problem of human evil. What is the resolution? That the problem of evil, why is there evil in this world? That evil is because of our wrong conception and wrong action.
Even in this world, if we start seeing everything connected with God, then we can tolerate and transcend suffering. Yes, at a physical level the suffering will be there, but internally, by remembrance of Krishna, we can go beyond the suffering. We won’t be afflicted by the suffering.
Just like say outside, it is very hot, suppose. And we come inside an air-conditioned room. We feel relief.
So like that, तपन्ति विविधः स्तापा नैतान्मद्गतः जीतसः Bhagavatam in Kapila’s teaching states, that in this world, तपन्ति विविधः स्तापा There are various तपाs, various विविविधःs which come. But for a devotee, नैतान्मद्गतः, the devotee is not afflicted. Why? नैतान्मद्गतः जीतसः Because the consciousness is absorbed in me.
So by seeing everything in connection with Krishna, Prabhupada gave us the vision. Even the suffering that comes, we see the suffering as an impetus for connecting with Krishna. Prabhupada saw he lost everything.
He had worked for decades to build a business. And that was not for his own material purposes. That was to fund his spiritual master’s mission.
And that business collapsed. Prabhupada said, why did God do this to me? I was doing all this for Him. But instead he saw that as an impetus for connecting with Krishna further.
Krishna wasn’t going to preach His message directly. So our philosophical study, our study of Shastra should train us to connect everything with Krishna. We don’t just come here, we don’t read scripture, we don’t attend class, just to hear and go.
Hearing will purify. But by hearing, we should be able to learn to connect everything that happens in our life with Krishna. How is this? Out of the six elements of surrender, which I talked about, अनु कुल्ले से नंकर्ण, पृति कुल्ले से वर्जिन, रक्षिष्टिकि विश्वासो गोपत्रत्वे वर्वन्तथा, आत्मनिक्षेत कारपन्ने, शदविदा शरावति.
So out of these six items, the last four are dispositions. Faith in Krishna. Dependence on Krishna.
Believe that Krishna will be our protector. These dispositions will take time to cultivate. Will need purification.
But the first two are actions. अनु कुल्ले से संकल्प, Accept that you are favourable. पर ती कुल्ले से वर्जिन, Reject that which is unfavourable.
So this is actually a very dynamic conception of surrender. Most people think surrender means raise your hand and surrender. Yes, Draupadi surrendered like that.
But it was not that she surrendered only at that time. Her whole life was a surrendered life. So surrender doesn’t just mean passively leaving everything to God.
It means actively choosing that which will take us towards God. And actively rejecting that which takes us away from God. And such choice is not only about things externally.
That choice is also about thoughts internally. So whenever things start seemingly going wrong in our life, we reject those thoughts which discourage us, which make us feel maybe God doesn’t exist, maybe God doesn’t care. No.
We choose those thoughts. Yes, this is an opportunity for me to go deeper in my bhakti. And the more things change, the more we need to hold on to the things that don’t change.
So we can see the changes, the upheavals of the material level as impetuses to hold on tighter to the spiritual level of reality, to Krishna. And then we can experience what we can say Krishna conditioning. It’s like air conditioning providing relief from heat.
Similarly, by absorption in Krishna, we can experience this Krishna conditioning, which provides us relief from the miseries of material existence. So I’ll summarise. I started by talking about how the other religious traditions, their scriptures don’t have question-answers, whether it be the Old Testament, New Testament or the Bible or the Quran.
Whereas there is a vibrant tradition of question-answers, right from the Upanishads down to the Puranas and the Itihasas. And these question-answers are respectful and rigorous. And Bhagavad Gita reveals a vision of a God who respects human intelligence and respects human independence.
And doesn’t give commandments but gives choices by educating about consequences. And then we discussed about how the non-intellectual or anti-intellectual conception of God alienates people from religion. And if we present the absolute truth in an intelligent and intelligible way, we can attract many people.
And we discussed specifically about the Jata Shloki in the Bhagavatam. So God is the only reality means. God is not divorced from the world.
Everything is connected with him, being his energy. And Bhagavatam’s understanding is that evil comes not because there is some anti-divine demon or satan or not because this world is entirely false but rather because our perception our perception is disconnected from God. And God himself, through scriptures as he is giving here to Brahma, he gives knowledge by which we can connect ourselves with him and we can connect everything with him.
And by that even in this world we can become free from destiny. Just as a person who is… so the heat of material existence afflicts those whose consciousness is disconnected from Krishna. The consciousness becomes connected to Krishna.
Then we experience relief. So the wrong options in this world are not meant to delude us, like the wrong options in the multiple choice exam. They are meant to force us to make right choices.
Force us to think, what do I want in my life? And then we are impend towards making healthy choices which take us closer to Krishna. Thank you very much.