Rama at home in exile 2 – The power of diligence

[Seminar at ISKCON, Melbourne, Australia]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
There were a couple of questions which came up while I was talking after the class. So one question was that, for Lord Ram, for him, acceptance is not difficult because he is God.
So everything is happening according to his plan only. So what does he have to accept? It’s his plan working. Well, like I said that, for us, intelligence means to frame things in the most constructive context.
So we have to see how we want to look at the epics. Madhvacharya, in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya, explains that the epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata primarily, they can be seen at three different levels. We can see them first as literal.
These are historical incidents that happened. And simply hearing about them will purify us. So there’s no need for any analysis, no need for any kind of, just recite it.
That’s how there are people who do Ramayan, Parayan, some people do Bhagwat Parayan. Just recite it. That’s purifying.
So that’s one level where there’s no analysis, just recitation for purification. Then another level, he says, is ethical. Ethical means we see these epics as guidebooks for our ethical decision making.
OK, so in this situation, this is how this person acted. But this is how someone could have acted. So Ravana gave in to his lust and he made a mistake that ruined him.
Or, say, Kaikeyi listened, submissive to mantra, and that’s how her character got distorted, whatever. So like this, we can approach the epics at the ethical level and learn how we can act properly. Here, at the ethical level, we don’t primarily judge whether the particular character is right or wrong, especially if the characters are also devotees.
We focus on what, on what basis was this action done? And if this had been considered, this action could also have been done, like that. So we learn lessons for our sake. A third level could be the metaphorical level, where we focus on seeing if there is any symbolic significance to certain things.
So, for example, Prabhupada gives the example, says that Devaki’s six children were first killed and then Balram appeared in her womb and then Krishna appeared. So he says that, what do the six children represent? The six anarthas, lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion. Now, and then after the anarthas are removed and the Guru appears in our heart, and then after the Guru appears, the Guru cleans our heart and then Krishna appears.
So this is metaphorical. So metaphorical meanings also can be given, but metaphorical meanings are not at the expense of the literal. This is historical, Devaki was there and she had six children.
So, the epics in this way can be understood at different levels. So presently, when we were discussing today, at what level are we discussing? Among this literal, ethical, metaphorical? Ethical, yes. So we are discussing, okay, in this situation, how Ram accepted? So, is ethical, you don’t necessarily have to go into ethics as a technical word.
Ethical basically means a guidebook for, ethics means guide, principles for living rightly or living effectively. That’s what the level we are discussing it at. So, if we want to, if we see the epics as simply everything is the Lord’s will, then there is nothing to learn at all, isn’t it? Then, there is absolutely nothing to learn.
But if you want to learn some lessons, then we see things at different levels. So, yes, the Lord is supreme, the Lord is divine. But at the same time, everything, whether it is in His Leela or whether it is otherwise in the world, it is not necessary that everything happens according to His will.
Everything happens according to His sanction. So, Ravana is abducting Sita. Ram, if Ram had not sanctioned, it would not have happened.
But did Ram really want Sita to be abducted? Did Krishna want Draupadi to be disrobed? No, the Acharyas don’t say like that. Some soul who wanted to misuse their free will, wanted to do something. And because by past karma, that soul had a certain level of Kshetra, certain area of influence.
So, within that area of influence, that soul could do something. So, when people misuse their free will to do some terrible thing, that is not God’s will. That is not done without God’s sanction.
But it is not God’s will. There is a difference. There is something which God allows and there is something which God wants.
So, all the bad things that happen in life, it is not that they are God’s will. They are more like God’s sanction. And that is why the word is Upadrashta Anumandacha.
It is I am the permitter. This is what you strongly want to do. When it is not good, you want to do it, do it.
You will have to bear the consequences for it, but you do it. But let you do it. So, that is why even in the Lord’s pastimes or in the Lord’s, in the general, even when the Lord is not directly present on the earth, whatever happens, it is not necessary that everything is according to his will.
Was it Krishna’s will that when he went to the Shanti Doodh to Duryodhana that Duryodhana will not listen to him? No, Krishna tried his best to persuade Duryodhana. But Duryodhana chose not to listen. Then that is how it happened that his peace mission failed.
It is not that Krishna wanted it to fail. Krishna tried wholeheartedly. But Duryodhana was not ready to listen.
So, everything that happens, even in the Lord’s pastimes, is necessarily not what the Lord wills. It is what the Lord sanctions. So, if we want to learn lessons, then we focus not on that divine level that everything is within the Lord’s plan.
But we focus on the level that, okay, in this situation, how could the response have been? And why was this response chosen? And how we can learn from it? That is why we are focussing on that ethical level. So, any other questions? So, let’s move on to the second part now. I spoke in the first half on the topic, what was the topic? Acceptance.
We are focussing on acceptance and diligence leading to transcendence. So, transcendence means to go beyond or rise beyond our situation. So, in acceptance, I spoke three points.
What was the first point? That was the second point. First point was, acceptance is difficult, but if you don’t accept, our energy gets wasted. So, I talked about how such an inconceivable thing was there.
Unbearable thing happened. From one moment being the king to losing everything, except life. But then the second point I talked was, that acceptance can be because of probably three levels.
What are they? Powerlessness, temporariness and purposefulness. So, among these, purposeful is the best. And then lastly, to be able to accept, we see acceptance as empowering.
Acceptance enables us to stop fighting battles that are lost, so that we can concentrate on fighting the battles that can be won. Now, let’s go to the second part of diligence. In this, I will talk about three points again.
So, I hinted at the first point, that diligence means to focus on the level that we can act right now. I talked about this theme of intelligence means to frame issues in the most constructive context. The first point is, diligence means to act on the level that we can.
Second point I will talk about is, that diligence comes by identifying ourselves as servants of Krishna. And last point I will talk about, how by diligence, we empower Krishna to do his part. Normally we say, we want Krishna’s empowerment.
Who are we to empower Krishna? But I will talk about this, what do we mean by, we have to empower Krishna to do his part. I will talk about it. So, these are three points.
So, let’s look at the first point. Diligence comes by acting at the level that we can. So, for all of us, whenever we face any problem.
Say, if we are driving to a particular place and the car breaks down. Now, what do I do at that time? Okay, now, if I am myself an expert mechanic, I can fix the car. But if I can’t, then I may decide that, oh, I have to, where I have to go is not very urgent.
I will just call some tow and get the car towed and then I will go elsewhere. But where I have to go is very urgent, then maybe I just call someone at tow and they will take care of the car. And I will leave, I will hire a cab and go right away.
So, depending on, we see what is the level I can act at. Then we can be diligent. But when we don’t focus on that, where I can act.
Say, this point was raised in a discussion just after the class that, because Ram’s purpose was to serve Krishna, serve his father, so he was able to persevere. Whether it was accepting the kingdom or going to the forest. But if our purpose itself is thwarted, if there is something which we want to do and that itself is blocked, then what do we do? Say, if we want to conduct a programme, and we want to conduct a programme and we are not given permission to conduct that programme, then what do we do? So then, we have to, as I said, I talk elaborately about framing things in the right context.
So then we have to see, okay, what is my purpose? Why do I want to conduct this programme? Okay, now, it could be at multiple levels. If I conduct a programme, maybe some devotees will come to my house and they will bless my house. Or if I conduct a programme, people in my neighbourhood will come to know about this programme and then we can start a regular programme, I can have satsang over there.
Or, if I conduct a programme, then that can help us, we want to do some project, and that can give us some contact for the projects. So whenever we do any particular action, every action of ours exists within a nested loop, multiple levels. Sir, once I was talking with a senior devotee, very widely experienced teacher, so I was telling him that sometimes when we give class, the audience is not at all interested.
So sometimes what happens is that maybe some neighbour has forced you to come, some relative has forced you to come, forced the people to come, and the people who are there, they, from their faces it appears as if they would be anywhere in the world except there. So, when it is like that, so when people are not interested, so how do we enthuse ourselves? To speak. Sometimes we try to speak, even if we try to speak in a way that, try to create interest in the point, people just have no interest.
So this devotee told me, then you could see this class as a practise for a future class when the audience will be interested. So what that means is, I just have to frame it in a different context. In some cases I may say, oh, actually, maybe I don’t know, I need some training, I need some guidance about how to create interest in this audience.
So maybe I’m just not able to present properly to connect properly. Or maybe it could be that we are having the programme at a wrong time. Say if there’s been a long series of engagements and people are all tired, everybody just wants to, needs rest, and then if you have a programme at that time, maybe the timing could be bad.
So we have to place that issue in the context where we can work. So if the timing was wrong, maybe in the future we can plan the timing better. If the presentation is not good, we can improve the presentation.
If the audience is just not interested, then we decide, okay, this is just the way it is. I can see this as a practise for the next one. So basically in every situation that we are in, if you want to be diligent, diligent means you want to persevere.
I want to move forward in this situation, then we have to act at the level that we can. Another example to illustrate this is the way the Ganga flows towards the ocean. Now the Ganga’s purpose is very clear.
It wants to flow towards the ocean. But the Ganga is not attached to one path. If a particular path gets blocked for some reason, the Ganga may keep trying to go by that path, keep trying to go by that path.
But if that path is blocked, the Ganga will also find some other way, some other way to go by some other path. I was at a university in America where there was a devotee who was studying the history of geography. It’s an interesting subject.
There is history as a subject and geography as a subject. But the history of geography, that means how land masses change. So he had this big world map and I was seeing, see the path of rivers.
We think of a river as a big body that is flowing, but over the centuries rivers have changed paths so much. If a river shifts path, it can actually mean the end of a civilisation. In fact, there was this big prosperous Indus Valley civilisation in India and one theory they say why it shut down or why it just ended so abruptly was the Saraswati that was flowing because of the seismic disturbance, the Saraswati actually went underground.
And now through the space sensors, below the Thar desert, NASA scientists have found that there are signs of remarkably broad riverbed. In fact, that riverbed is so broad that there are artefacts or fossils of houses on the riverbeds. That means originally the riverbed was very, very big and then the river became smaller and then people built, wherever the river was smaller, people wanted to live as close to the river as possible.
So they built a river over there. So they built houses over there. And eventually that river also dried up.
So the whole, that was like a flourishing plain, green plain, it just became a desert. So rivers, for us when you see the river flowing day after day after day after day, but over centuries, rivers can also change their paths. So the river’s purpose is to go towards the ocean.
And it may create a riverbed over centuries. But sometimes that riverbed gets blocked and the river’s path may change. So the river’s flow always keeps happening at the level that works.
Okay, if it’s not flowing this way, then let me flow this way. If it’s not flowing this way, let me flow this way. So the river is attached to the purpose, not the path.
The river is attached to the purpose, not the path. So similarly for us, if we focus on the purpose, and act at the level that we can. Okay, this is where I want to go, but I can’t do this right now.
Okay, so what can I do? So diligence comes by acting at the level at which we can act. So when Ram went to the forest, and then initially he was staying in Chitrakoot. Chitrakoot, Adrinike, Thanerama.
And while he was living there, the whole army of Ayodhya came with Bharat to try to besiege him to come back. And Ram remained firm, saying that, I will honour my father’s word. Even Kaikeyi came with Bharat.
But Ram said, I’m going to stay here. And then after that, Ram stayed there for some time. And then he saw that the sages who were living in the forest, Ram had his own hermitage, and the sages also had their hermitages.
The sages were all looking anxious. Anxious and a little restless. So he asked them, this is Ram’s humility.
He says, have I done anything which is causing you anxiety? Has Lakshman or I spoken or acted in a way that has inconvenienced you? Or has Sita acted in any way improper for a young woman that is disturbing you? And the sages were just amazed. They said, oh Ram, your behaviour is flawless. Sita is the very embodiment of chastity and virtue.
How can she ever act wrongly? He said, we are concerned because we want to perform a sacrifice. But the demons are tormenting us. The Rakshasas are desecrating our sacrifices.
They are threatening us. And that is why we, after much consideration, have decided that we will not stay here anymore. So Ram was hearing this, and Ram was about to tell them, you stay here, I will protect you.
But then Ram was about to say this, and the sages said that actually, even in the forest, we don’t like to stay at one place for very long. We stay for a year or two, and then we move on. In the past, the sages, many of them would also be householders.
But they would live very renounced lives. And he said that we would like to shift our hermitage somewhere else. And because we have been thinking about all this, that’s why you might have seen us a little anxious.
And then they went upwards, they went northwards. And then Ram thought, he came to Lakshmana and Sita and he said, that we should also move. We have stayed here for a long time, and it is good if we move from here, because otherwise somebody might come from Ayodhya again to try to persuade us to come back.
And they decided to go southwards. So, dandakavan janapavan Rama. Then where did he come to? They moved all the way down from Chitrakoot.
In Chitrakoot, if you see geography of India, it’s not very far from Ayodhya. From Chitrakoot, they all the way came down to Dandakaranya. Where is Dandakaranya? Anyone knows? It’s in Maharashtra.
It’s in Nasik basically. There is a place called Tapovan. So, he came and stayed over there.
And they said that there is this demon’s current Dushan, they keep coming and tormenting us. So, when Ram was coming down, he came to a place called Ramtek. And at the place Ramtek, he saw that there was a mound of bones.
And he looked carefully and he saw these are all human bones. And then he enquired and he found that the demons, the sages who would come to the forest, the demons were cannibals. Rakshasas, they were man-eating monsters.
And they had devoured many of the sages over there and they had tossed away and thrown the bones. And like a perverse sign of their trophy, they had piled all the bones together. So, when Ram saw that, he became furious.
And he gripped his bow and he said, the sages who have dedicated their life for the service of humanity, the sages who have devoted themselves to life’s ultimate purpose, the demons are tormenting and killing them, such demons, I will rid them from the earth. And that’s how Ram entered further, deeper into the area which is very close to the place where demons were staying. So, Ram, within his situation now, he is a Kshatriya.
Kshatriya is Shatrayate Kshatriya. Those who protect others from hurt. They are the martial guardians of society.
Ram as a king, he is protecting his citizens. But now, although he was not the king, but still he had that sense of responsibility, that sense of duty. And he camped right near the place where the demons were staying.
So, the demons were in Janasthan, that was their base, from where they would go to various places. But near Janasthan, they stayed and Ram stayed in Tapovan. And that’s how Shurpanakha was wandering around.
She smelled some human flesh. And that’s how she came in search of this human flesh. But she was so… her desires were so restless that she came in search for a lunch.
And her lunch changed into her date after that. So, she wanted to have Ram for herself. So, that’s a whole different story.
If we get time, we’ll go into. But the point here is that Ram had that sense of purpose. That I am meant to protect Dharma.
I am meant to protect the sages. So, although he did not have much royal facilities as a king, but still he had that sense of royal responsibility. And by that, he kept moving forwards.
So now, this is a little thought exercise. In the Mahabharata and in the Ramayana, both there is a period of exile for the central characters. Ram goes on exile and the Pandavas also go on exile.
But there are some major differences. Can you think of the differences? What are the differences between Ram’s exile and the Pandavas’ exile? Yes? Ram was to be in Kaukita whereas not Ram was to be in Kaukita. Yes.
So, the details were different. Ram’s exile was for how many years? 14 years. And the Pandavas’ exile was? 12 plus 1. Now, it’s interesting.
Why did Duryodhana ask for this incognito exile period? And why did Kaikeyi not ask for that? So, the reasoning is that Kaikeyi’s whole mind was polluted by Mantra. So, Mantra felt that if Ram is out of the country for 14 years, during that time Bharat can rule competently and Bharat can win over all the citizens. And because Bharat is also virtuous.
In the case of the Pandavas and Kauravas, the Kauravas were known to be cruel. So, if Bharat wins over the citizens, then after 14 years if Ram comes back, Ram won’t be a threat to Bharat. So, she felt that 14 years is enough period for Bharat to exhibit his administrative skills and win over the citizens in the courtiers.
In the case of Duryodhana, his plan was even more devilish. Just before all this happened, the Rajasuya Yagya had been performed. And Rajasuya Yagya was a sacrifice in which everybody from all over the world had come.
So, and then Yudhishthira and the Pandavas were like the central figures in that Rajasuya sacrifice. So, everybody everywhere knew them. So, the clause of incognito exile was so that it is almost impossible to fulfil.
Just because of the Rajasuya Yagya, they were already so well known, that for them to hide was going to be impossible. So, his plan was that 12 plus 1 years and in that 1 year the Pandavas will be found. And what will happen if they are found? Again 12 plus 1 years.
So, his plan was to keep the Pandavas in exile forever. And that’s why that 1 year clause was added to it. So, the details of the exile were different.
Anything else that was different? Yeah? The Pandavas were forced to go on. In what sense were the Pandavas forced? They were lost in a gamble. Okay, so how was that forced? Okay, I understand what you are saying.
So, because they lost the gambling match, they just couldn’t stay there. Okay, I could put it different way. Yeah, you could put it in a slightly different way.
That actually the Pandavas committed a mistake. Or at least Yudhishthir committed a mistake. We could say some way Yudhishthir was responsible for their going to the exile.
Whereas Ram had committed no mistake at all. Now the mind is such a thing that sometimes we get into trouble because we have committed a mistake. And sometimes we get into trouble although we have not committed any mistake.
Now the mind is so cunning that it can beat us up in both situations. So, if you have committed no mistake, your life is so unfair, life is so unfair, life is so unfair. Why is life so unfair with you? And if you have committed a mistake, you are such a fool.
Why did you make such a mistake? Why did you make such a mistake? Why did you make such a mistake? So, either way the mind can make us more miserable than what life has made us. Life can impose some misery on us, but the mind can make us much more miserable. And actually this was a difference that in the case of Yudhishthir, he had committed a mistake.
And he felt very mortified by it. So, this brings me to the third point. Before I go to the third point, did any of you have any other points of the difference? One was that Ram was not allowed to enter into any kingdom whereas the Pandavas could.
Which is why he had to send Hanuman and Agadir to give the messages, because he wasn’t allowed to enter an actual city or town, he had to be in a forest. Okay, good point. That Ram was not allowed to enter into any city.
It was not just an exile from Ayodhya. It was he had to be exiled to a forest. And that’s why when Guha, he was a tribal, he invited Ram to come and stay in his palace, whatever palace he wanted, Ram said, no, I cannot do that.
And that’s why even when Sugriva became the king, Ram did not enter into Sugriva’s kingdom. He stayed outside in the Chaturmasya period. Now in the case of the Pandavas also, something similar broadly was true.
But not exactly. They did go to, they ascended to the heavens, they went to Kubera’s abode also. And they did not stay directly in the palace, they stayed in the gardens in the palace.
But this was not required or this clause was not there when it came to incognito exile. During the incognito period, they could go anywhere, they just had to hide. So but Ram had, Ram stuck to that principle that he will not enter into any palace at all.
And that is why the first thing Ravana did, Ravana was such a person that he was so materialistic that he couldn’t fathom how anyone else will not be materialistic. So when he approached Sita, his whole approach was, he just thought that, you know, some people are so egomaniac, who can refuse me? So he first came and started bragging about his wealth. What all wealth I have? No, first thing he did was, when he approached Sita, he came in the garb of a sadhu.
But the first thing he started doing was, he started praising Sita’s beauty. Sita was a little taken aback, this is not how sadhus speak, something is wrong over here. And then when he saw that Sita was not impressed, Sita was a little taken aback, then, that time he remembered, actually I am a sadhu’s garb, not required now.
So he changed his garb. And then he showed his powerful form. And he said, I am Ravana.
And he started talking about his own wealth. And even then Sita was not impressed. And he just couldn’t digest, why is Sita not impressed? Maybe she is attached to Ram.
Just like a boy wants to approach a girl, what he will do is, he will try to praise her beauty. And then he will praise his own wealth. And then he will trash the competition.
So he started trashing Ram. He says, he is a beggar, what can he give you? And everything that Ravana did to try to impress Sita, every single thing only alienated her. First, he is speaking in an inappropriate language, praising her beauty, that just put her off.
Then he is bragging about his wealth, put her off further. And then he is criticising Ram, just completely closed him, closed him to her. So everything backfired.
But he thought, maybe when she actually sees my wealth, then she will be impressed. So then as soon as he took her to Lanka, the first thing that he did was, he took her on a tour of his palace. Showed her, see I have got this Vishwakumaran, I have got this from here, I have got that from there, I have got this jewel from here.
And Sita was not even looking at it. Not even looking at it. And eventually, he took Sita to his big personal chambers.
And he says, this everything will be yours. He says, you will be my head queen. And Sita refused and Sita said, as long as my lord is staying in a forest, I will not stay in a palace.
He just computed. And then finally, because she absolutely refused to stay in a palace, that’s why he put her in Ashokwatika. That was the place where, that was his favourite gardens and that’s where Hanuman met her.
And then Hanuman converted that Ashokwatika into Shokwatika. Because all of Ravana’s formidable generals were bested and overpowered by Hanuman over there. So anyway, that difference was that there was a forest stay and incognito stay, where they could stay anywhere.
Any other differences? Yes? Ramu, in Ramayan, the exile is constantly personal. Okay, that’s a good point. Lord is going in exile, whereas his devotees are going in exile.
Anything else? Yes, thank you. The level of acceptance of the exile, was it in exile for both the parties? Like, Lord Ram accepted it, both parties, as his kamal, as his own. Whereas Pandavas were like, you know, level of acceptance was… Okay, that’s a good point.
That’s very, that’s the most relevant point for our class. Good. So, if you see, how many people went on exile in the Ramayan? Three.
Three. Three. And in the Mahabharata? Six.
Six. Seven. Who is the seventh? Six.
Six, yeah, six. So, the five Pandavas and Draupadi. So, actually, Kunti was also supposed to go.
But at that time, Vidur approached Yudhishthira. Vidur said that, Kunti has been in the forest before, but now she is aged. There is no need for her to go.
And then he requested Kunti and Kunti stayed with him in his house. And Subhadra, Arjuna had already married Subhadra. But at that time, Subhadra was not there.
Subhadra had gone to her parents’ place. She was in Dwarka at that time. And that’s why she did not come for this whole gambling match.
What had happened was, that before the gambling match, there was a Rajasuya sacrifice. And in the Rajasuya sacrifice, Krishna had also come. And for Subhadra, it was her whole family, many of them were there.
And she met many of them. Krishna was there, so many of his queens were there. But she wanted to spend more time with the other family also, who had not come there.
So, from Indraprastha, she went to Dwarka with Krishna. Whereas, the Pandavas stayed over there. Pandavas and Draupadi were still there and they came.
So, there are three people here, six people here. But the major difference is in terms of the level of acceptance, as you rightly said. Among the Pandavas, all of them accepted that they had to go to the exile.
But Yudhishthir was very remorseful. How could I have gambled like this? What a terrible thing, what possessed me? He was so heartbroken by what he had done. So, Yudhishthir was remorseful, whereas Bhima was resentful.
Bhima, in the forest also, he would sit alone, looking in the dark. And his eyes would be glaring. He would just sit and glare.
And by the time night would occur, nothing you could see, you could only see his red eyes because of glaring. He was very angry. And you see the character of Draupadi and Sita also.
Sita is a more mild character. She accepts things. Draupadi is a fiery character.
She was born from fire. Draupadi was born from fire, Sita entered into fire. There is a difference.
But Draupadi was very fiery. And at one particular point, she actually in the forest lashes out at Yudhishthir and says, How could you gamble so much? Didn’t you have any sense? And then Yudhishthir, there is a chapter where Yudhishthir consoles her by giving her philosophical instructions. Moral instructions basically.
How distress has come in our life and sometimes we just have to accept it. So, after that Draupadi becomes a little more accepting. But Draupadi is still very angry.
Among the, in the Ramayana, among the three people, who is the least accepting? Lakshmana. Yes, Lakshmana. Lakshmana is initially, he actually says to Rama, this is outrageous, this is unfair.
He says, you deserve to be the prince and the king. You have done no fault. If the king is sending you out to the forest, then you should raise a coup against him.
You should rise in insurrection. And I will be by your side. And we will get the kingdom that you deserve and we will hand it to you.
So, Rama says, what are you talking about? He says, our father is our worshipable master. Whatever he tells, we will do. He is so angry.
He doesn’t even refer to Dashrath as his father. He says, the king has become blinded by lust for his youngest wife. And because of that, he has sent you to the forest.
Dad, if somebody is blinded by lust and doesn’t know what is right or wrong, we are not obliged to obey such a person. So, at that time, Rama says, that I was with Dashrath. And I saw, whatever he did, he didn’t want to do it.
He was compelled to do it. Against his will. It is not out of lust.
It is out of the word of honour that he had given. The promise that he had given. So, Lakshman is ultra-sceptical.
See, what happens is, when we want to believe something, even a small reason we get, we will accept it as enough for believing it. But if you don’t want to believe it, no matter how many reasons come, we will not accept it. It is said that, for those who are believers, no reason is required.
And for those who are non-believers, no reason is required. Because no reason you give, they will be ready to accept it. Some people are very atheistic or materialistic.
They just don’t accept God, they don’t accept soul. And they find faults with Krishna conscious philosophy, Krishna conscious practise. Now, at that time, we can ask them one simple question.
If it could be proven that the soul and God really exist, would you practise Krishna consciousness? If the basic principles of Krishna consciousness were true, would you practise it at that time? And, I have talked with a few atheists. They are so reluctant to say yes. No! That means, it is not that it is because there is no evidence, that’s why they are not practising it.
Even if the evidence were there, they just don’t want to practise. So, that’s why some people, when they ask for evidence, what is the proof for this, what is the proof for this, what is the proof for this? Well, we can turn the question, what is the proof that you are going to commit yourself for this? So, no matter how much proof you give, sometimes some people may just not be ready. And endless arguments are of no use.
Anyway, here I am going on a little tangent. But, the important thing which I was making over here is that, for Lakshman, he said his promises. Now, who has heard about his promises? We have been living with our parents for so long, nobody ever talked about his promises.
How did his promises come up suddenly? He didn’t even believe their promises like this. So, Ram said that if our father is saying that this is a word of honour, we should have enough honour for him to accept it. And then, Rama’s anger turns towards Kaikeyi.
And he says, she is so manipulative, and for her own selfish gain, she wants to instal her son as the king, and she wants to exile you for no fault of yours. So, he is so hard-hearted and cruel. And Rama says that, Oh Bharat, you know how much Kaikeyi loved us.
Kaikeyi loved me. He says, her love was like the flowing Ganga. Lakshman is still so angry.
That’s what I can’t understand. How did the Ganga dry up in one night? And then, Ram says, that’s why. When I saw her changed behaviour, I understood this is the will of destiny.
I was giving this class recently in Murvelamba, in the farm. And after that, one devotee came and told me that this point gave me so much relief. That sometimes, some people have been very kind and loving to us, and suddenly, their behaviour changes.
And then we try to figure out, did I do something wrong? If I have done something wrong, please tell me what did I do wrong? But we just can’t find any logical reason why it has happened. So, some people seem to be on a mission to destroy us. So, what did I do? Sometimes, it’s just the will of destiny.
So, we just have to accept that sometimes logical reasons are not there. So, he says, I understood this is the will of destiny. Now, Lakshman is still not ready to accept it.
Lakshman said that only cowards consider injustice to be destiny. He says, heroes fight against injustice. Then Ram says that for me, the just course of action is, what is my duty to my father? And my duty to my father was to ascend the throne if he wanted.
My duty to my father is to renounce the kingdom, if that’s what he wants. And that is what I will do. So, at that time, Lakshman reluctantly accepts.
But then later, when Lakshman comes and sees how selflessly Bharat besieges, begs Ram, come back. And then finally, he carries Ram’s sandals on his own head and goes. Then Lakshman’s heart also melts.
And after that, when Lakshman, Lakshman accepts the whole thing much more gracefully. Actually, it’s resentful, but he accepts it much more gracefully. Because he sees, it is just, he sees Kaikeyi is remorseful.
And Bharat is also not enjoying in opulence. Bharat is also living very simply. That’s what he says he will do.
And then, it becomes a little more easier for him to accept it, in some inconceivable plan. So, for us, the point I was making through all this analysis, is that to be diligent, we need to focus on doing, on acting at the level that we can. We might want to act at a big level, but if that facility is not there, then act at the level that we can.
And when we act at the level that we can, like the Ganga keeps flowing, sometimes it can flow like a big river, sometimes it may flow as a small trick, but it keeps flowing. So, we act at the level we can. And the level at which we can act may change according to situations.
But we can keep acting. We can keep moving small, small steps forward. And that’s how we can progress in our life’s journey.
So, that was the first point. It’s a very long point. But we had a lot of comparative analysis of the epics.
So, any questions or comments about this till now? Any reflections? Q. On acceptance, acceptance also is a form of rejection. K. Of what? Rejection. Q. Yes.
K. How? Q. It’s kind of, you accept something to be true based on your ability to understand the current situation. Q. That means you are actually maybe overlooking the possibility of other options. So, you are actually rejecting by accepting certain things as to be true.
K. Yes. Life always requires us to make choices. Either this or this.
We are not, we are finite beings. And that’s why when we accept something, we reject something. So, now that, I wouldn’t use the word rejection so much.
It is more that we recognise that either this thing is not changeable or this thing is not worth the effort required to change. Sometimes it may be changeable, but it might just require so much effort. It’s not worth it.
So, I’ll focus my energy to change somewhere else. So, yes, we do say, when we are saying yes to something, we are also saying no to something. That’s true.
And that’s the dynamism of life. But where is our focus? I accept this, so that I can focus on this direction. So, it’s like, okay, this is for the river to move onwards.
I cannot move this way, I cannot move this way, so let me move this way. That I cannot move this way, I’m rejecting that option. Or I’m accepting that moving this way is not possible right now, so I’ll move this way.
Okay, thank you. Any other questions or comments? Although the talk is on exile, there is the other perspective that Bharat is also in that position that he is not very comfortable. He also had to accept and face the shock.
Thank you, yes, it was very difficult for Bharat also to accept. He couldn’t accept that first of all Ram had been exiled. He couldn’t accept that his father had died because of that shock.
He couldn’t accept that his mother had done all this. And he couldn’t accept that his mother thought he will be pleased by all this. So, it is very difficult for him also, a big shock for him.
Yes, yes, please. Yeah, question, comment, whatever. Yeah, please.
Guruji, does forgiveness and forgiveness, does this need a first act before acceptance? Okay, does forgiving and forgetting, is this before acceptance? Yeah, will that act have to come before acceptance? Well, it depends. Sometimes we might be very emotionally invested in a particular relationship or a particular situation, a particular project. And at that time forgiveness might be very difficult.
And so, as I said, diligence means to do what it takes to move on. Sometimes you might be able to forgive, forget and then accept. Sometimes you might not be able to forgive and forget.
But okay, this is what has happened, this is how this person has behaved. And I have to go on with my life, so let me move on. And then maybe as time passes, we might be able to accept and we might be able to forgive them later.
So, we have to see how best it works. Sometimes trying to forgive might expend so much emotional energy for us. How can I forgive? How could this person have done like this? I can’t.
So, sometimes that might expend so much emotional energy that the struggle to forgive may exhaust us and leave us with no energy to move forward in life. And sometimes it may be that we forgive and that helps us to move forward. So, each person is different.
In many ways, emotional wounds are like physical wounds. Say, if somebody has got a fracture. Normally, fractures have a, you could say, normal pattern for healing.
Initially you put them a plaster and then just don’t do anything, just let them rest. And after that we remove the cast and we start slowly doing some exercise. And by that, gradually the hands’ mobility and energy comes back.
Now, broadly speaking, the doctor may tell that, Okay, you have to put this, keep your hand in the cast for about two weeks. But it is not like a predetermined, exactly two weeks means at 5.59 we put in the cast. After two weeks, 5.59 we remove the cast.
The doctor actually does some tests and sees. Some people it might be 10 days, some people it might be 20 days. So, just as in physical wounds there is variability, similarly in emotional wounds also there is variability.
Sometimes when we are wounded by some person, then we may say, I just want, I don’t want to, I want to keep a distance from that person. I just don’t want to do anything right now. So, just I want my, just like we might put a hand in the cast, like that we put ourselves in a cast, we put our emotions in a cast.
Sometimes if I say somebody has been hurt terribly, grievously in a particular relationship, when somebody is hurt in a relationship and if at that time they rush into another relationship, they may think I’ll get shelter. But they might not be thinking clearly whether this relationship is good for them. They might be rushing into that relationship because of neediness rather than a mature understanding.
So, there is a time when you just put a hand in the cast. So, we need to just keep a distance and let some emotional healing happen that way. And after that we bring it out of the cast.
So, after that we try to interact with people and then we deal with them and try to move forward. So, each person will require differently. And we have to find out what works best for us.
So, forgiveness is definitely required at some time to let go of the past. But at what point will work for whom, each person’s mind is different, each person’s emotional state is different. And each person has to find out what works the best.
Okay. Thank you. Yes.
So, one of the reasons why Dasharath Maharaj had to send Lord Ram for example, was to keep his word of honour. We see that Ratha uses the same excuse in Mahabharata and there he is criticised saying that you have to give up your word of honour for a life of honour. Correct.
Okay. So, Dasharath, he has to exile Ram for keeping his word of honour. But when Karna keeps his word of honour and says that I will not come on the Pandavas’ side, he is criticised for that.
He said he should have come on the Pandavas’ side. Okay. Good question.
I would say there are three major differences. The big difference is that there is Krishna who is persuading him. There is Dharma and there is the Lord of Dharma.
All principles of Dharma come from Krishna and they are meant to take us to Krishna. So, if Krishna himself is telling us something, then there is a big difference in that. So, it’s said that our moral principles are like a flashlight or a streetlight.
Whereas Krishna’s direct guidance is like the sun. So, when there is no sun, then the flashlight, streetlight are essential. But when the sun rises, then the flashlight and streetlight are not so much needed.
You may not even notice it. So, when Krishna is directly giving the guidance, it’s not that the devotee will act immorally. He will act morally, but moral considerations are not necessarily the considerations that decide a devotee’s actions.
Oh, this flashlight is showing this way, so I should move this way. No, the sun is there. It’s a much bigger picture.
So, if Krishna himself was telling him to do something, then for him to reject that in the name of word of honour, that is not appropriate at all. The second thing is that even when there is a word of honour, what are we doing because of that? What is it making us do? Prabhupada says that obligation is not binding if it makes us do bad things. Because it’s broadly speaking, the Mahabharata says that when we do some actions, there are three broad factors we can consider.
There is intent, content and consequence. That intent is why am I doing this? Content is what am I doing? So, some actions we broadly understand this is right or speaking lies is bad. You know, hitting someone is bad.
Doing some violence is bad, broadly speaking, content. But then you also look at the consequence. Consequences, what is the result of this? So, you could say speaking lies is bad.
But if somebody is out to kill someone, there are riots going on, somebody is out to kill someone. And they ask us, do you know where this person is? You speak the truth, they will die. So, you have to speak a lie because the consequence is good.
So, I would say that in this case, the content is that the word of honour should be honoured. But then you have to look at the consequence. In the case of Ram, Ram had to be distressed, you could say at one level.
That Ram, Sita, Lakshman, all of them were distressed. But it was not like a mass adharma happening. Whereas Karna’s fighting on Duryodhana’s side would cause the bloodshed and death of huge number of people.
So, the consequences were far more catastrophic. And Arjun, Karna by his word of honour ended up doing a, supporting somebody who was adharmic. So, from that consequence perspective also, is the consequence very grievous? And thus he needed to consider that.
So, is the word of honour absolutely binding in all situations? Not exactly. It is binding no doubt. It is not that we can just casually, casually just neglect our word.
I say I made a promise and then we just break the promise or whatever. Not like that. But we have to consider the big picture.
Sometimes consequences may warrant not doing a particular thing even if you have promised to do it. That is the second factor. The third factor is that in the case of Dashrath keeping his word of honour, actually in the Sri Vaishno tradition there is criticism even of that.
They say it is more of rasik thing. He says, you know, if your lord is there with you, how can you send the lord away? And then you think you are keeping, is your word of honour more important than your lord? So that the Sri Vaishnocharya, some of them they criticise Dashrath Maharaj for that. And they say that because he sent Ram to the forest, so he had to die a very painful death because of that.
Now of course it was not painful. It was absorbed, painful at one level. But he died in remembrance of Ram.
So in one sense it is glorious. But it was a very, from one perspective a very sad death. His heart broken, his son had to go to the forest, his wife had turned against him and he just died.
So Dashrath’s action from a dharmic perspective is considered noble. But from bhakti perspective it is not considered glorious. So Dashrath Maharaj is not talked about in the same league as Nanda Maharaj or Devaki.
Not that he is a great devotee, but he is a great devotee, but in this particular context. So there are some Gita commentators, some Ramayan commentators who do say that Dashrath Maharaj’s action of valuing his word of honour more than valuing the lord is not devotionally appropriate. So we could look at it from different perspectives.
Thank you. So let’s move on now. We can have questions a little later.
We want to complete also. So first point I mentioned was that diligence comes by acting at the level that we can. Now the second point with respect to diligence is that when we, does anyone remember the second point? The third point was we talked about the lord.
So diligence comes by identifying ourselves as servants of Krishna. This is very important. Why? Because our purpose or our sense of purpose is determined by our identity.
So that means if I think of myself in a particular role, and if I can’t do that, then I feel my whole life is useless. So we all have various roles and responsibilities. We identify ourselves as a professional.
We identify ourselves as a father or a mother. We identify ourselves as a homemaker. We identify ourselves as a preacher, as a counsellor.
We have various roles and we identify ourselves according to those roles. There is one devotee. The devotee is in America.
The devotee is very super cleanliness conscious. Being clean is very good. But the devotee is always paranoid.
Everything has to be clean. So the devotee is telling me that they are going in a car for some meeting and the car was hit by a truck. And the car started rolling round and round and round.
And the first thought that came in my mind is, Oh, if I die now, people will go and see my house and my house is not clean. So I had to go out urgently and not be able to clean the house. Now, yes, cleaning the house is important.
But at that time, remember Krishna, not a clean house. So if somebody identifies themselves with the role, Oh, I’m a homemaker and my purpose is to keep my house clean. And if it’s not done, you might just overreact to that.
So we all identify ourselves in particular ways. And based on that, we consider our role or our purpose accordingly. So if we identify ourselves as a parent, and then if we find our child going on some wrong track, we feel my whole life is my whole life is wasted.
What is this? If somebody identifies themselves as a as a defining relationship, is say as a spouse and the husband of someone or the wife of someone and some problem comes in that relationship. Now, it’s going to be painful anyway. But that is the defining identity.
Then a problem in that relationship will be devastating. We completely crumble. So because our identity shapes our purpose.
Our conception of our identity shapes our purpose. And if we identify ourselves in a particular way, then our purpose is shaped accordingly. So we, based for certain identities, certain things will be unacceptable.
So for example, for actually that is the, for Arjun at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, that is a crisis of identity. Is am I a Kshatriya or am I a Kurunandana? If I am a Kshatriya, then anybody who is an aggressor, I have to fight against them. But if I am a Kurunandana, how can I fight against my elders? How can I fight against Bhishma and Drona? So his confusion about what to do stem from his confusion about what is this defining identity.
And I say the first thing the Bhagavad Gita starts with is that neither Kurunandana nor a Kshatriya. Your identity is that you are a soul. And gradually the Bhagavad Gita evolves that you are not just a soul, you are a soul who is a part of Krishna.
And your defining identity is that you are a servant of Krishna. And that’s why sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. Surrender to me.
Prabhupada says in a lecture that when he came to America, the hippies, they had also done sarva-dharman parityajya. He says I taught them how to do mam ekam saranam vraja. Sarva-dharman parityajya means they had given up all duties.
They are not doing any duty to the family, they are not building their own career, not even taking care of their own health and hygiene, not doing any duty to the nation, nothing. But that sarva-dharman parityajya is not the message of the Gita. Sarva-dharman parityajya is the launching pad for mam ekam saranam vraja.
So Arjuna’s question was, should I do kshatriya dharma or should I do kula dharma? So Krishna says forget all these considerations, know that you are my servant. So do that dharma which will help you to serve me. So when we are not able to find a purpose, when we feel our purpose is thwarted, so when acceptance is difficult, when diligence is not possible, so acceptance means the river understands, diligence means I can’t flow this way, I accept it.
Diligence means I’ll keep flowing this way. So when we want to be diligent, we need to identify ourselves as servants of Krishna. To the extent we identify ourselves that way, to that extent, okay, I’m a servant of Krishna, how can I serve Krishna now? Okay, this role is not working, this responsibility is not working, I’ll do this, I’ll do this.
Prabhupada had that flexibility. When he was doing one thing, he would do it wholeheartedly. When he tried to start a business, he was travelling across the country, so many times, so many places.
So Prabhupada was at that time travelling and he was trying to expand his business. And that didn’t work out when he started writing B.T.G. He was working so hard to publish the B.T.G. that when he didn’t have money, he was ready to compromise and not take his breakfast only, so that he would have enough money so that he would buy paper for B.T.G. magazine. And the printer, where he would go, the printer would say, Swami, have you taken breakfast? Prabhupada would just remain silent and then he would arrange some breakfast for him, some fruits or something.
So Prabhupada, when he was doing that, he was wholehearted. But when B.T.G. did not work out, he immediately shifted to something else. Somebody told him that, Swamiji, why don’t you write books? Prabhupada started writing books.
And Prabhupada was writing books. He was in Vrindavan. He was, he just had no resources.
So later on, when Prabhupada came to America, he started typing for Prabhupada and editing for Prabhupada. So at that time, he typed some pages for Prabhupada and asked Swamiji, do you have anything more? He said, yes, come to my room. And Prabhupada had a trunk.
And he opened that trunk. And he said, normally if you write, you leave a left margin, a right margin. But Prabhupada had written from the left top to the right bottom.
And there were just piles and piles of pages like that. And, I agree, Bhru said that, Swamiji, this is a lifetime of work. And Prabhupada just smiled broadly.
Many lifetimes. So, when Prabhupada was writing all this, he didn’t even have enough money for paper. That’s why he was writing from every available space he was typing.
He was writing over there. So, he had that limitation. He didn’t have money.
He didn’t even know how to print the books. But what he had was, he had the knowledge, he had the desire to write, and he was writing. So, he did not identify himself as an author.
If his identification had been as an author, when am I going to publish these books? In fact, for Prabhupada, if he had identified himself primarily as an author, actually he had very bright prospects for publishing his books in India. Because he already had got endorsement from the President of India, the Prime Minister of India, and also the President, the Prime Minister had also approved it, Lal Balu Shastri had appreciated his books, Dr. Radhakrishnan had approved his books. So, they had said that all Indian libraries should have these books.
So, Prabhupada could have just got enough money to keep publishing his books. But Prabhupada did not identify himself as an author. Prabhupada identified himself as a servant of Krishna.
Writing was a service to Krishna. When he came to America in 1963, 64, 65, he published three books, which are the first, The Panto of Srimad Bhagavatam. But from 65 to 68, nothing was published.
Because Prabhupada was actually struggling to establish the mission. And by Krishna’s arrangement, after that, just explosion of books after that. So, Prabhupada always identified himself as a servant of Krishna.
And when we identify ourselves as servant of Krishna, okay, as a servant of Krishna, how can I serve in this situation? How can I serve in this situation? So, when we identify ourselves as servant, our mood is, how can I serve? But if we identify ourselves in a particular role, every role brings with it a kind of controlling mentality. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. A parent, I have to control my child.
If I’m a boss, I have to control my team. If I’m a counsellor, I have to make sure my counsellors are behaving properly, doing things properly. And sometimes we just not be able to control those things.
So, we have to shift. Functionally, we might be in various roles, but fundamentally, we identify ourselves as servants of Krishna. As a servant of Krishna, I’m doing this.
So, continue that metaphor of river and ocean. We could say various roles that we have, they are like various river trajectories. They are various paths for the river to go towards the ocean.
The ocean is Krishna. So now, if we become too attached to one particular role, then it’s like all the river water is concentrated in one path. And if that path gets blocked, then we just can’t move forward.
But if we identify ourselves as servants of Krishna, yes, my primary service is this. So, most of the water of my consciousness is going to this path. But if this path gets blocked, then this path is also there.
This path is also there. This path is also there. So, as devotees, it is good to be attached to our service.
But even more important than attachment to service is attachment to service attitude. Attachment to service means I want the river to keep flowing towards Krishna. But attachment to service can mean I want to do this service only.
But if I can’t do this service, then service attitude is even more important. If I can’t do this, I will do this. I will do this.
So, identifying ourselves as servants of Krishna will enable us to be diligent. And even when one thing gets blocked, another thing gets blocked, another thing gets blocked, we’ll still keep moving forwards. This was the second point.
Any questions or reflections on this? So, last point I’ll take now. Last point was that by acceptance and diligence, we empower Krishna to do his part. That we need to empower Krishna to do his part.
You say, who am I to empower Krishna? Krishna has to empower me. Yes, that is of course true. Krishna has to empower us.
But what I mean by we need to empower Krishna means that we say God helps those who help themselves. Now, that’s true. And now, you could extend this further in different ways.
God helps those who help themselves by opening themselves to God’s help. If we are close to God’s help, then even God can’t help us. It’s like Duryodhana refused to listen to anything that Duryodhana, that Krishna was saying when Krishna came as the peace messenger.
Then even Krishna couldn’t help him. So, when we say we have to empower Krishna means we need to open our heart to Krishna. That, okay, Krishna, I don’t know what your plan is, but you surely have some plan.
So, please, let me serve you according to your plan. I don’t know what your plan is, but still I want to serve you. So, that attitude of service when we have towards Krishna, then that is what, by which we are opening our heart to Krishna.
Sometimes, when there is acceptance, what it does is that it we stop resenting. Why is this happening? Why is that happening? Why is that happening? And diligence means we start doing something. In the previous session, I have said that to put something behind us, we have to put something ahead of us.
So, okay, what can I do right now? How can I serve Krishna right now? In this situation, when we have that attitude, then we start moving forwards. And, okay, Krishna, I want to serve you right now. Please guide me.
With that attitude, take one step forward. One step forward. And we can move on.
So, when we say we have to empower Krishna means that Krishna has a plan. So, Krishna’s plan for us has to work through us also. Krishna’s plan for us has to work through us also.
It can work through other people also. But it has to work through us also. That means that we also have to be ready to cooperate with Krishna.
Just like a doctor may be treating a patient. And the doctor may arrange for the experts to give consultation, experts to do a particular surgery. The doctors may arrange to have the best technological facility for doing the support system, whatever is required.
But the patient also has to cooperate. And the patient has to empower the doctor. How? By consent.
Yes. Whatever you want to do, I agree to it. So, consent for surgery, consent for taking medicines properly, consent for doing whatever exercises are required properly.
Then when the patient empowers the doctor, then the doctor can actually heal the patient. So, similarly for us, by our cooperation, we empower Krishna. So, sometimes we we block ourselves because we block Krishna because we are too attached to how things should work out.
This is how things have to work out. But Krishna has his own plans. Many of you may know that story of how once a person was drowning because the river flood had come and the water was rising.
And this person said, Oh God, please help me. And then there are people who were leaving from there. They said, come, you know, we’ll go.
He said, no, no, God will help me. And the water started rising, rising, rising. And water started coming into the house through his windows.
And then after some time, a boat came by over there. He says, come, come. He says, we’ll go ahead to rescue you.
He said, no, no, God will help me. And the water rose further and then he came to the, he went to the terrace of his house. And the helicopter came from above.
And the helicopter threw a rescue rope down. And he said, come. He said, no, God will help me.
And then the water started rising and rising and started drowning. He says, God, why did you help me? What did God say? I sent all those rescuers to you. So, that means that one, one aspect of empowering God is not imposing our expectation on how God should help us.
What this person was thinking, God will come miraculously and lift me up and take me. God doesn’t have to come like that. So, God’s help can come in many different ways.
So, by our willingness, by our diligence, okay, I’ll keep doing what I can. By the diligence, we’ll find that we will get God’s empowerment. So, how do we, how do we let Krishna help us? By doing what we can.
This is the point. I’ll conclude this. This point is think small, grow big.
Think or rather not think small. Act small and grow big. That means take small steps.
Take small steps. One step at a time. Sometimes if I decide that say, I want to read Bhagavatam.
Every day tomorrow I’ll read, from tomorrow every day I’ll read one hour Bhagavatam. One hour, okay. First day I read, second day I read and then third day, I can’t read at all.
And fourth day I can’t read at all. And I start thinking you know, I cannot read only. And fifth day I think I’ll read all three hours together.
But then, somehow I squeeze in time, I read for three hours and the next five days I can’t read. And now I think I have to read six hours sixty. Six hours is impossible.
And we get so discouraged, for the next six months we don’t open Bhagavatam. So, just start small and decide that okay, I’ll read one page Bhagavatam every day. If I can’t read one page Bhagavatam, I will read one line of Bhagavatam every day.
One line, what is going to happen? One line, nothing is going to happen, but something is going to happen. Something is, we are creating a habit. See, for forming our mind is very responsive.
For forming impressions on the mind, the quantity is not as important as the regularity. See, ultimately when we want to do something, for us, is it that we just want to read the Bhagavatam and complete the Bhagavatam? It’s one thing. Yes, we want to naturally, but for us we want to connect with Krishna.
I want to connect with Krishna through the Bhagavatam. So, the regularity, each day I just open the Bhagavatam or even open the app on the phone to open a particular page on the Bhagavatam. That small action will create an impression in the mind.
And even that one line I read, that creates an impression. And reading six hours maybe once in six months or even once a month, that may not create as much of an impression as for reading six minutes every day for a month or six months. Now, it’s very good if you can get time to read six hours, but if we want to change ourselves, it’s like, we just think small.
What is the smallest thing I can do? Start with that and move onwards. And what will gain confidence by this? And if we do small, small things as much as we can, we are showing Krishna I want to do this. And when we do what we can, Krishna empowers us to do what we can’t.
So, Arjuna fought the whole way to get till Jaidrath. And he was so close, at that time, the Kauravas suddenly attacked him in a horde. And Arjuna just couldn’t move forward.
So, Arjuna had done everything that he could. And that time, Krishna did what Arjuna couldn’t. Krishna empowered, covered the sun.
So, we start by doing small things. In diligence, just start with small things. Say, now we hear a class.
Again, one more example of things. I’ll give two examples of things, small and act big, and I’ll conclude this. So, ever since I’ve started travelling, my writing has gone down significantly.
So, I’m trying to find out how I can write. So, I decided that every day, I’ll write at least six minutes. Now, I started that.
Now, of course, I’m writing my Gita daily every day. That is going on. But other writing which I want to do, started with six minutes.
Six minutes, nothing is going to happen. But in six minutes, I found I can write about 200 words. And then when I spend another six minutes, I can edit it next day.
But I found that just by doing that, six minutes writing every day, now whenever I have some time, I look forward to it. I’ve got out of the mindset that I need one hour, two hour to write. Six minutes I can write.
Six minutes I can write. When I get two hours, I’ll put it all together. So, my writing is moving forward reasonably well by that.
Whereas it has stopped for some time, but it’s moving on. Similarly, with respect to… we may hear many points in classes. This is such a good point.
I want to apply this. I want to apply this. Sometimes what happens is, we hear so many points, and so many points are so good, that we don’t know which to apply.
And then we end up applying nothing. So, just take one point to apply. If you just… the whole class you hear, just take one point.
The most effective point I would say, think small, act big, grow big. So, what are the smallest things I can surely do? You take one point, what happens by taking that one point? It’s like one weapon that you can use for fighting. So, imagine a warrior is going for a war, and a warrior carries 15 weapons with him.
A sword, a bow, an arrow, a shield, and a javelin, and a schmitter, and so many things. So many weapons will burden the warrior only. And the warrior will carry the weapons for some time, and after that he’ll say that, these weapons are too much of a burden, I’ll put them aside for some time.
They put aside all the weapons, and that’s the time when the enemy attacks. And they have nothing. So, for the warrior, it is good to learn many weapons, but carry one weapon.
So, for us, if we are all fighting a war against illusion, and take one weapon, and you can decide, okay, this one point, I’m going to apply for the next one week, or for the next one fortnight, or the next one month. Don’t say, for the rest of my life. What happens is, when we say, I’ll apply this for the rest of my life, the mind will say, you have the rest of your life to apply it.
Laughter So, it seems like too big a resolution. And when we make a resolution, I’ll do this for the rest of my life, for the mind, there is no success, there is only failure. Isn’t it? Because even if I apply for 25 years, 26th year I don’t apply, I failed.
So, if we make a resolution like that, the mind has many ways which it discourages. So, make a, like a warrior, one should learn many different weapons, for the next one month, I’ll practise swords. I’ll use a sword.
For the next one month, I’ll use archery, I’ll use, carry a bow and arrow with me. So, maybe if you hear some classes, you could make a list of points which you would like to apply. But focus on one.
Just one point. Just as we have to, if we carry too many weapons, warrior carries too many weapons, they’ll get burden. Like that, if you carry too many weapons to apply, too many points to apply, our head will get burdened.
And after sometime, just take out all the points. So, just take one point, and just say, I’ll apply this one point. And when we do this, through that one point, Krishna will give us guidance, Krishna will give us empowerment, Krishna will give us realisation.
And, through that, applying that one point, we are showing Krishna, I want to connect with you. And that’s how we’ll be able to move forwards. So, just act small.
And by that, we empower Krishna. Because Krishna needs some way for him to manifest in our hearts. Krishna, even if we give him a little space in our heart, Krishna can expand.
And Krishna can conquer our heart also. But we need to give him that little space at least. So, by doing that one thing that I can do, we start off.
And we give Krishna that place, we empower Krishna, and Krishna will help us move forwards. So, Krishna will raise us towards transcendence. The situation may still be there, but once, even when we are in a frustrating situation, if we feel that we can’t do anything and that we are doing nothing, then we feel especially irritated by it.
But if we find, I can do this one small thing. And by this one small thing, I’m moving forward. Even if it is small, I’m moving forward.
That gives us a little more positivity. So, look at what is this one thing which I can do. And start doing that.
So, that is our diligence. I have hundred other things to do. I can’t do them right now.
That is my acceptance. So, by that acceptance, I will not get agitated about the things which I’m not able to do. By that diligence, I will keep doing something.
And by doing this, we will be able to move forwards. So, that’s how we can, by acceptance and diligence, rise towards transcendence. Krishna eagerly wants to help us.
But He needs our help to be able to help us. He needs our cooperation. He needs our consent.
And when we give that to Him, Krishna can do dramatic things. Krishna can miraculously transform us. He can make us far better than what we thought we could be.
That is His power. That is His mercy. And we just need to become instruments in His hands.
So, we cannot become fully surrendered instruments. But we can surrender in one small thing. And by that, we move onwards towards Krishna.
So, I’ll summarise. I spoke today on this theme of diligence. And three main points.
First was, I talked about, diligence comes by doing, by acting at the level that we can. So, I talked about how sometimes, the Ganga always keeps moving towards the ocean, finding whichever path it can. So, like that, our consciousness is like the river Ganga and Krishna is the ocean.
So, we have to find some way to keep moving onwards. And we compared the exile of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to talk about how different characters had different levels of acceptance. And then, by different situations or different ways of thinking, they got more and more acceptance over a period of time.
And Ram acted as the servant of Krishna, his father, as a obedient, talked about duty of his father and that’s how he was able to continue. And second point I talked about was that we need to, to stay diligent, we need to identify ourselves as servant of Krishna. There are many different roles and if we identify with a particular role, too much and every role requires a certain level of control to act in that role.
And if that control is taken away from us, we will feel completely frustrated. And if we shift back from that role to our fundamental identity as servant of Krishna, then we can find out how I can move onwards. So, each role is like one bed, river bed through which the water is flowing.
So, one river bed gets blocked, we find another river bed and move on. The last point was that we need to empower Krishna to help us. So, that means we have to open our heart to Krishna’s help.
We don’t impose our expectations on how Krishna should help us, but we open to Krishna’s help in whatever way it can come to us. And for that, we think small and grow big. Think small means, what is the smallest thing that I can surely do? And start with that.
And by doing this, what may be a very small thing for us, that can become an adequate place for Krishna to enter into our heart and he can dramatically transform us. So, Krishna’s mercy is what we can access by even small actions that we do committedly. For us to form impressions in our mind, the quantity of action is not as important as the regularity.
And by that regularity, an impression will form in our mind and Krishna will act to transform our mind. And that’s how we can all grow in our lives in various aspects and become better and better devotees and become better and better ways in which we can contribute in this world in a mood of service to Krishna. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Yes, sir. How do we recognise Krishna’s help to us? Sometimes we might feel that we might consult seniors or authorities or whatever.
They might not propose but they get discouraged. Okay, good question. So, how do we recognise Krishna’s help? If somebody discourages us, then unintentionally also, then is that Krishna’s help? Not necessarily like that.
We have to see that Krishna’s help can come from different channels. And sometimes from some channel, something that comes may not be Krishna’s help directly. So, Prabhupada says in a lecture that Krishna and Maya have the same purpose.
Both Krishna and Maya want to take us towards the spiritual world, towards Krishna. But Krishna catches our hand from ahead and pulls us to and takes us towards him. Maya kicks us from behind.
So, kicks us from behind and pushes us towards Krishna. And now, what happens is that in our life, different devotees or different people may play different roles. So, some people may play the role of taking us with our hand towards Krishna.
And some people may play the role of pushing us from behind towards Krishna. And sometimes the same devotee may play the double role. So, ultimately we have to focus on moving towards Krishna.
So, if some devotees’ guidance or inputs are discouraging and confusing us, then we keep a distance from them. And when they connect with some devotees with whom we can, with whom we find that we are like-minded, we need not just association, but we need like-minded association. Without like-minded association, we will feel as if we are just not understood.
Nobody understands us and nobody connects with us. It becomes very difficult then. Even in devotee association, if we don’t have like-minded association, we may feel suffocated.
Just as the body needs oxygen, the heart needs understanding. So, we need somebody who will understand us. And for that, we need like-minded people.
So, in the devotee association also, we respect all devotees, but we connect especially with those who are like-minded. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes.
… That’s true. Good question. Should we take up many services so that we can connect with Krishna in many ways? I’ll just take up one service.
Prabhupada quoted once that knowledge means to know something about everything and to know everything about something. So, we should be able to do various services and one service we can specialise in. That’s a broad understanding.
The principle I would say is that each of us has to find out how best we work. How best we work means we have our body, our mind and those are our tools for serving Krishna. And our body and our mind is different from somebody else’s body and somebody else’s mind.
So, for some people, they feel that unless they are doing ten things together, they feel they are not doing anything only. Do this, do this, do this, then I feel I’m doing something. I’m stimulated.
For some people, if you do ten things, they just get overwhelmed. If we do one thing first, then I’ll do that thing. Then I’ll do that thing.
So, it varies from person to person. So, I feel that we learn from our own self-observation how we work the best. So, it may be that we just focus on one thing and we also have some other things which are by the side.
But in one thing, we become really good. That’s wonderful. But even when we are doing that one thing, here it is not so much about the service as the identification.
Say, somebody is doing book distribution as their main service. It’s wonderful. It’s such a wonderful way to share Krishna’s mercy with so many people.
But, in America, I met many devotees who distribute books throughout their lives and then they grew old and they had back issues and now they can’t lift books. So, now they have to reinvent themselves and do some other service. Otherwise, what do I do? So, we can’t, we will definitely have a functional identity in the movement based on the service that we are doing.
Somebody may identify as a pujari, somebody is a preacher, somebody is a book distributor. And if that is our functional identity, we specialise in that and we learn that very well. But we don’t fundamentally identify ourselves with that.
I am not a book distributor. I am not a preacher. I am a servant of Krishna whose present service is the preacher.
Because it’s my present service, I will do it wholeheartedly. I will try to learn as much as I can in that. But I won’t reduce my self-identification to that.
So, then what happens? If this doesn’t work out, for some reason, when I was in the Middle East, then you cannot do any book distribution at all. So, legally it’s not allowed. Then what do you do? Devotees have their own creative ways of they do small, small bhakti vaksha kind of programmes in people’s houses and preaching is moving.
They found a way over there. So, we have to have, if you say, fixity of purpose and flexibility of process. Fixity in purpose.
My purpose is to serve Krishna. But flexibility. If this is what I can do right now, I have facility to do this, I have inspiration to do it, then let me focus wholeheartedly on it.
But tomorrow something changes, I’ll be ready to be flexible and I’ll work on something else. It is true that if we try to scatter ourselves on too many things, then the jack of all trades becomes the master of none. That is true.
So, we don’t want to distribute on too many things. So, it’s not so much of what we do as what we identify ourselves with. We may do even just one thing, but we don’t identify ourselves solely with that action.
We identify ourselves with the disposition that I’m a servant of Krishna. Okay? Thank you. Any one last question? Yes.
Could you please suggest some of the purposes that devotees can have in their own lives specialising in three purposes highest, middle and lowest? Okay. So, what are the purposes that devotees can have in their lives? See, there’s a a purpose is more like a direction. A purpose is not so much a destination.
Say, it’s like if somebody decides, I’m going to go northward. Then, from here, you might come to one city, another city or that road is blocked, you might not come to that city. You might take some other route.
So, purpose is not goal specific. It is direction specific. Now, if our purpose is to grow in our relationship with Krishna, to develop love for Krishna, to realise Krishna, to realise the spiritual side.
Now, within that, we can set specific goals. Goals are fine. Goals inspire us.
But purpose is what will stay with us. Goals, we may achieve them, we may not achieve them. But even after achieving them, the goals will pass by.
We have to keep moving forward. So, we can set goals which help us move towards the purpose. But we don’t obsess over the goals.
We focus on the purpose. And goals are tools for us to move towards the purpose. So, we could say, short-term goal could be, say like, for one month, I’ll read Bhagavatam every day for some time.
Or whatever it is that we feel inspired to do, we make it a committed way to do that. Committed way to do that. It would be a short-term goal.
A medium-term goal could be that, okay, I want to, I also want to be able to be a preacher. I want to give classes. So, in 5 years down the line, I should be able to give classes.
Or 10 years down the line, I should be able to give, whatever. It would be a goal like that. Or 10 years down the line, I would like to host a programme in my house.
I would like to do this. I would like to do that. So, we can look at how different devotees are serving and see how we would like to serve.
Sometimes, it may not be clear right now. It will become clear. But we can have a broad idea.
Ultimately, of course, we want to remember Krishna at the time of death. That is our long-term goal. And for that, we can say that, when we have crisis, when we have adversities, when we have difficulties, what do we remember? Do we try to remember Krishna? Does Krishna’s memory come spontaneously? All that can help us develop that.
So, we focus on the direction of connecting with Krishna. And we have that direction, then even if there is something which is thwarted, it doesn’t matter so much. Even if we don’t get to a particular goal, still we keep moving forward in that direction.
Prabhupada didn’t really know how exactly the Krishna conscious movement was going to spread. But he was determined. And Krishna… for many years, it seemed that there was nothing happening.
And like, the last few years, amazing things happened. So, we don’t know how Krishna will reciprocate. But Prabhupada was fixed in the service of Krishna, always.
So, it’s like sometimes there is a cricket match going on. The team, you know, for 40 overs, they just bat as if it’s like a test match. And the last 10 overs, they just pile up so many runs.
That is like a record-breaking score. So, some teams may play that throughout. They’re just scoring nicely and they get a big score.
Some teams, they may just bat right in the beginning, score a lot and then they build on that gradually later, whatever. So, different teams may bat differently. But they want to get to a big score.
So, like that, similarly, our purpose is to go towards Krishna. Sometimes we may be able to go very fast. Sometimes we may be able to go slowly.
Sometimes we may be able to go at a canter throughout. That varies. But if you have that purpose of moving towards Krishna, then according to time, place, circumstance, we can adjust.
So, I said we need to have fixity in purpose and flexibility in process. So, in another sense, you could put it that way that to have fixity in purpose, we need flexibility in process. If you don’t have flexibility in process, then if throughout somebody wants to just bat aggressively, well, they may not be able to throw out.
They may not be able to do anything. So, the fixity in purpose is to maintain that, we need to have flexibility. Sometimes I am able to do more.
Sometimes I am able to do less. But throughout, I keep moving towards Krishna. Thank you