Rekindling Wisdom 3 – How God is the supreme enjoyer and what that means for our enjoyment
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
The idea that everything comes from Krishna is not just something erotic. It's something which is practical also. For example, somebody is a very good singer.
Now if you look at it physiologically, everybody has their two voice cords. And the voice cords move and the sense of how to come back to normal. Now there are some speech synthesis softwares which synthesize speech.
I have some text reading softwares also. So they read text. And they can read text well in the sense of there can be accuracy.
But there is no emotion at all. And we speak so much to our emotions. So the speech synthesis softwares are so complex.
And at the most, they can just provide us a loud sound. And we very effortlessly make sound of its modulations. And I'm just talking about speech.
So how do we do it? Even a person who sings very sweetly, a person who practices, but ultimately there is some ability. It's just a complete gift. And that ability is an omission of the performance.
And that applies in all fields. So our abilities are not our abilities alone. They are gifts given to us by God.
So going back to the point of God, the supreme enjoyer, what does it mean when we say enjoyer? Ultimately, everybody wants to enjoy life. How do we enjoy? We enjoy life. Firstly, things should work according to my plan.
That's when we enjoy. You can play a video game. And I win the game.
My plan works and I enjoy. But most of the time, what happens? Things don't work according to our plan. I suppose if we have plans.
Most of the time, we work also without a plan. We just have some desires. But for God, things work according to his plan.
Which I also call into religion. That's why he is the supreme enjoyer. And when he is the enjoyer, that doesn't mean he can provide you with enjoyment.
By cooperating with him, you also enjoy. This cooperation is an interesting concept. All of you know the example of how when I nourish the stomach, what happens? The hand picks a gulab jamun and decides.
I will discover some new way to enjoy the gulab jamun. So let me do experiments. What can I do with this gulab jamun? We toss it.
I don't want to eat the gulab jamun. Old people in their old fashion eat the gulab jamun. We are modern people.
We do some discussion. So what do we do? We toss the gulab jamun. Otherwise, they squeeze the gulab jamun.
Pulse the gulab jamun. Scratch the gulab jamun. Pulse the gulab jamun.
Whatever else we do, it's not going to give you the enjoyment. What has to be done is to eat the gulab jamun and eat it. Now there is the old and there is the new.
But beyond the difference of the old and the new, there is the reality. Just as the sun is the source of light, whether the times are modern or post-modern or pre-modern or ancient, that doesn't matter. The sun is always the source of illumination.
Similarly, scriptures give us certain truths which are times of the night. So when we act as cooperators, when just the hand contributes to the stomach, then the hand also contributes to the stomach. Then the whole experience becomes special.
Similarly, we are parts of God. And as parts of God, when we cooperate with him, then not only does he get pleasure, but we also get pleasure. So what does that mean with cooperation? We have certain talents which we use in his service.
When we use the talents in his service, he gets pleasure and he gets pleasure. Arjuna, we have the example. Arjuna was a formidable archer, the world's best archer.
But he was using his archery skills for what purpose? For glorifying Krishna. For establishing his glory. And for establishing Arjuna in the world.
So whatever talents we have, we don't deny the talents, we don't reject the talents. But we understand, if I try to use my talents for my independent enjoyment, the result will be, there will be some little enjoyment, but there will be frustration. In fact, you see, this is interesting again, you know, there are problems generated, there are small problems that are created by people in the world.
Some people are hungry, some people are drunkards, they may disrupt some things. But many of the biggest problems in the world are created by the most talented people. Isn't it? You have to take a nuclear bomb, isn't it? Who is responsible for that? It's the intelligent people.
They do it. It's a tragic testimony to the human condition that the greatest insight of the greatest brain of the last century led to the greatest disaster of the last century. Who was the greatest brain of the last century? Einstein.
His greatest insight was? T is equal to x square. We interchange a bit of matter and energy. And what happened? That led to the greatest disaster.
That was the foundation of the development of the atom bomb. Einstein himself did not want the atom bomb to develop, but at that time there were rumours going on that Jammu might have the atom bomb. And then he sent a letter to President Eisenhower saying that we must have the atom bomb.
And eventually when Jammu and Jammu crashed, most historians say that Japan would have surrendered anyway. Japan was going to defeat it. But just to exhibit their power, America dropped the bomb.
On Japan. And then Einstein later said, this letter which I sent to Eisenhower is the biggest mistake I made in my life. So what has happened? The biggest insight, the best insight of the best brain led to the worst disaster.
And so when our talents, when we use them, the talents are here, the talents are not to be denied by our children, but when they are used independently of God, even against our best intentions, we can be comfortable with such. That's why our abilities are best used in the sense that so how do I understand that this will lead to enjoyment? Because there is a higher enjoyment of God. When we use our abilities to glorify Krishna, what happens is, when we use our abilities independently, then there is some glory upon it.
Like okay, I am a famous person. As students, some students are afraid that I am too serious about my bhakti. Then I am not doing my studies.
I have become irresponsible. But that is in sickness too. That is not what Krishna talks about in the Bhagavad Gita.
Virtually, Krishna tells us, we have to work this way beautifully. But most students don't study so that they do. I am the doctor.
Then what they do is just to glorify their own ego. But a devotee has a loftier motive. A devotee wants to glorify Krishna.
A devotee wants to glorify Dharma. Devotees who study, they perform excellently. They excel in their performance and then by that they glorify Krishna.
So the idea is that they do justice to their talents in a way that benefits them, benefits others, benefits them because they are doing justice to their talents, benefits others because they are attracting others to the truth also. So our talents, they truly utilize. We essentially have a choice.
We can be a part or we can be a part. We can be a part. We can be a part of Krishna.
We can be a part of his plan. Or we can be apart. We can live apart from Krishna.
When we can live apart, then our life basically becomes gradually more and more miserable. We continuously have love for him. But when we live apart from Krishna, then we connect with Krishna more and more.
And Krishna is the reservoir of happiness. From him we get more and more happiness. Till we get supreme eternal happiness, we can be back to Krishna.
So we know how to find Pandavas when there were 100 Kalpavats? That's why? Yes, because they were on Krishna's side. And they had trust in Krishna. So Arjuna says that Shambhagavatam He says in the opposite sentence, which form did Arjuna follow? He says Arjuna was Bhishma, he was Karma.
We will discuss about Karma elaborately in our last satsang tomorrow. So all these formidable warriors were there. He says, I was protected.
How was I protected? He says that Who is Narahari Dasa? Narahari means? Narasimha. Who is his servant? Prahlad. He says Prahlad was protected, I was protected.
It's a very interesting example. Because from the external point of view, Prahlad and Arjuna are very different. Prahlad never used any weapons.
Prahlad did nothing different himself. Prahlad was not a champion archer. But this is a five-year-old boy.
You know, for a… For a… You know, imagine somebody who is a world champion. You know, suppose Sachin Tendulkar is a world champion. He says, you know, you played as well as a baby.
It's insane, isn't it? Somebody is a world champion. So Arjuna is himself saying, I was protected. Prahlad was protected.
Somebody will say, Arjuna fought so much. So tirelessly, so impulsively he fought. But Arjuna understands it is not just my fighting that led to the result.
It's ultimately Krishna's contribution. So Krishna will exist in all days. So what are the examples? You know, this one example is Draupadi was protected by Krishna during the satsang.
Any other examples? Yes? This also shows the devotion of Draupadi to Krishna. Yes. So Draupadi ordered to Krishna to come to his house.
But when the Hanuman showed that they have to help this Draupadi, because the Hanuman told to give Durvasa and Durvasa gets angry. So he can destroy them. So at last, only Upanishad Krishna came for them.
And Draupadi told, I have nothing to give you. Only one dice. That only one dice, Krishna will satisfy you.
You eat half of that, and half of that you take the total one. So Krishna ate. He was impressed so much by Draupadi's devotion.
He ate one dice, and because of that he was satisfied to satisfy the total one. So Durvasa got angry. And Draupadi suggested to Durvasa, tell her that you are satisfied, you can go to Krishna's house.
And they failed. Then we won't be able to take you there. It will make you sad.
So better you don't go there. And then he did not go there. Because Krishna had no devotion.
Krishna saved the Pandavas and then he died. So Durvasa was amazed how Krishna protected the Pandavas. Yes.
Many incidents like this in Mahabharata. So Krishna used mystical powers. Now in this pastime of Draupadi, what is interesting is that Draupadi was a very efficient housewife.
And then the nakshapatra was a cherished gift which they had got. So after nakshapatra would be used, we should be clean and keep it very carefully. But on that particular day, one morsel of it can be ruined.
So what happened, that one morsel which at the external level would have seemed to be a stick. She didn't clean it properly. But what Krishna did is, he used his expertise to convert that one morsel into infinity of it.
By which everybody was satisfied. So devotee, Krishna can utilize everything and everything for his devotional action. So when Krishna is, when Krishna is supreme proprietor, he has to be enjoyed.
When Krishna wants to get something done, he will enable his devotees, empower his devotees and he will himself help to do what is required. In the final battle that happened between Karna and Arjuna on the 17th day. So at that time, Shalya was the charioteer of Karna.
And Karna was Shalya. Now if today Arjuna tells me what to do, so Shalya became very serious. You know, if you are killed, then I will raise my weapons and I will fight and do my best to kill your killers.
And if I am unable to kill them, then I will lay down my life in the battlefield and follow you to the heavens. So Karna moderately appreciated. Unless if Arjuna asks Krishna, Oh Arjuna, Krishna, if today Karna kills me, what will you do? So Krishna's voice became fiery.
He said, Oh Arjuna, the sun may rain upon you, the sky may fall down, the earth may break apart, the oceans may dry up, but Karna will never be able to defeat you. If somehow, Karna manages to defeat you, then I will take my Subhashin Chakra and not only kill Karna, I will kill the whole Kauravas. No, I will assume my form of universal destruction and destroy the whole universe.
Oh Arjuna, rest assured, Karna will never be able to kill you. So this is the love of Krishna for his devotees. And this is the love that comes to the assistance of devotees.
When we surrender to Krishna, we lose everything. We may say that I am losing my freedom, but actually we get something far greater. We get the love of Krishna, we get the protection of Krishna, we get the mercy of Krishna, by which we can take far greater things in life.
So Krishna is not just a mystical conception, he is our God, he is our greatest relationship. And by loving him, we get the highest fulfillment in life. Thank you very much.
The sense of wisdom, this topic is called rekindling wisdom. Why do we call it rekindling wisdom? Because wisdom, knowledge is not just about some information on subjects. Ultimately knowledge is about what will lead us to truly happy.
And that is our connection with God. So by understanding who God is, and by understanding how we are connecting with him, we can be happy. That is rekindling the true wisdom in our hearts.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.