Seek not a stormless sea, seek an unsinkable ship

[Talk at Bhakti Center, Goldcoast, Australia]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. I am grateful to be here with all of you today evening in the beautiful presence of D. T. Zainshula Prabhupad. So, I will speak on the topic of Seek not a stormless sea, seek an unsinkable ship.
When we face problems in life, how can we deal with those problems in a positive and constructive way by our spirituality. I will speak based on 18.58 in the Bhagavad Gita. mat-chittaḥ sarva-durgāṇi mat-prasādāt tariśyasi Krishna says, if you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all obstacles by My grace.
So, I will speak three points and after each point, I will pause and I will invite some reflections. If you found any point striking, if you found any point which you felt would be useful for you to try to carry over, one or two of you can speak that point. And then I will go over three points like that and then we will have the question answers.
So, I will speak three main points. First is, the expectation of a stormless sea is what causes us greatest frustration. The second is, that through our spirituality, through our bhakti, Krishna has provided us an unsinkable ship.
And third is, that we need to steer our ship not by our fears, but by our faith. So, the first point, that the expectation that our life, Am I audible behind? Can you hear me? Okay, thank you. The expectation that the sea should be stormless is what sets us up for great frustration.
Normally, whenever we do anything in life, we do it with certain set of expectations. Say, right now if you have come for a programme, I have come here, and say the mic doesn’t work, you would be annoyed. If we go to say, we are going to watch some video and suddenly the power goes off.
That causes annoyance. So, when we have a certain expectation and that expectation is thwarted, that’s when we feel annoyed, we feel frustrated. And, in today’s world especially, with the advent of technology and with the promise of progress, our expectations that things should work the way we want have increased tremendously.
And, because of this, our frustration has also increased. As we have progressed technologically, our capacity to control things at the physical level has increased. Now, it’s extraordinarily hot.
A friend sent me a message recently that, you see the irony of the climate change recently in Chicago. This friend is from Chicago. He said that, Chicago had the lowest temperature in recorded human history.
So, he said Chicago had minus 47 and Melbourne had plus 47. So, that is the extreme. Now, with technology, we can have air conditioning, we can have room warming and by that, we can control things to some extent.
And, this capacity to control the changing things in life, when this is increased by technology, to some extent that makes us comfortable. But, technology does not just provide us facility. Technology also fosters a mentality.
The mentality is that, we expect to be able to control things. And, when we are not able to control things, then we get annoyed. So, when you want to hear a class and suddenly, unfortunately, small babies, they live in their own world.
They don’t even know what they are doing. But, sometimes that can disturb disturb not just everyone else, even their parents. They may also want to participate in the programme.
So, when we are not able to control something, that annoys us. But, the greater our expectation that something should be controlled and the greater is the frustration when we can’t control it. And, because technology provides us greater facility to control things, it also creates a greater expectation within us.
And, that’s why it creates a greater frustration when we are not able to control. So, at a physical level, through technology, we may have been able to control things better. But, at a mental level, the stress, the distress has increased manifold.
Millions and millions of people succumb to depression, to mental health problems. Over a million people commit suicide every year. So, all this can have many specific causes.
But, one generic cause is that we are so unable to accept when things don’t go our way that we just can’t continue our life. When a person is depressed, yes, there could be genuine causes of problem. But, when depression happens, what happens is a person, one thing goes wrong in their life and they feel so drattled by that that they feel, I just can’t move in my life.
Sometimes, it can be a clinical depression where medication is required. But, most often, it is just inability to accept that life has given us a raw deal. And, this inability is increased not just because technology has created that expectation that things should go on nicely for us.
But, through technology, we have the media, we have the movies, we have the commercials and all of them usually depict people who are happy. So, there is nothing that makes us as unhappy as the belief that everyone else is happy. So, when we see all the smiling faces on television and the commercials, most commercials are basically a form of mythology.
Oh, you know, you buy this shampoo, you’ll become attractive, you’ll become lovable and you’ll be happy. You buy this car, everybody will adore you and you’ll become happy. So, now, because of our worldview being shaped by the media, which shows people who are happy, what happens is, we expect that everything should be happy.
And, when that expectation is thwarted, we think that everyone else is happy and I should also be happy. And, when storms come in our life, we’re just not able to process it. And, I’ve travelled across the world for several years now and I get to talk with people who are millionaires, people who are big industrialists, people who are very learned scholars and often somebody who is a spiritualist, people lower their guards and open their hearts.
Otherwise, everyone else, we want to put on a facade that I am happy. So, then I have seen that every single person has big, big storms going on in their lives. And, the expectation that the sea, that our life should be stormless, that is what causes us great frustration.
I was in Canada and there is a psychologist, devotee of the psychotherapist and for many years he was practising individual psychotherapy. Recently, he said, I started group psychotherapy. And, I asked him to speak out our heart with all its problems, even to one person is difficult.
But, what to speak about in a group to dozen people. Do people open up? He said, yes, we have confidentiality codes but the important thing is the advantage of group psychotherapy is that when people hear everyone else’s problems then they realise misery is democratic. Misery is democratic.
Everybody gets misery in their lives. I am not alone. So, in one particular open session, at the end of the session, he said that I asked all my clients, he said, if all of you could place your problems outside on the table in front of you.
I sat on the round table. He said, if all of you could place your problems on the table, would any of you like to interchange your problems with anyone else? And, nobody raised their hands. So, everybody was thinking, my problem is terrible but when they heard others’ problems, I don’t want that.
I don’t want that. So, actually, this does not mean that we want everybody to be in trouble. But, it’s just to understand that that is the nature of the world.
The world is like a stormy sea. It’s like a sea and storms will come over there. Another metaphor could be this world is like a hospital.
And everybody is sick over here. Some people’s sickness is easily visible. Some people’s sickness is not visible.
Now, it’s not that we want everybody in the hospital to be in pain. But, it’s a common understanding that in the hospital there will be pain. Once we expect okay, I am sick, there is pain.
Now, let me focus on the treatment. But, if we resent the fact that we have pain, we refuse to accept that itself. Why am I having this pain? Then, most of our energy goes in the resentment and the denial and we have very little energy left to actually deal with the situation.
So, this was the first point. The expectation that our life should be like a stormless sea is what causes us greatest frustration. So, any thoughts about this? Would you like to speak something which some thought triggered in you? Something you spoke? Something you thought spoke to you? Yes, please.
Okay, we will come to questions a little later. If anybody has any reflections, we will take that. Otherwise, I will have questions.
So, reflection on the previous one or this you have? The previous, you know how you were saying about the group? Yes, please go ahead. Yesterday, you both were talking. I said, my wife, you must be thinking if you would have made a right decision, your husband would have been someone else.
Or, I would have been thinking this. And, we look into other couples. Oh, they are so happy.
Then, the other couple must be looking at us. We are living in Australia. Oh, they are very happy.
So, you must be thinking, all the people living in India are happy. The Indian people are thinking people living in Australia are happy. Or, your husband is happy.
We always try to relate ourselves. He is more happy than me. That is more happy than me.
His child is more than me. But, as a matter of fact, everybody is envious of everyone. And, everybody thinks his problem is less bigger than others’ problem.
Yeah, good point. Thank you. Yeah.
Actually, I have a friend who is a marriage counsellor in America. And, he was telling me that there are only two kinds of couples. Those who fight with each other and those whom you don’t know very well.
So, when two people are going to be together, there are going to be differences. So, it’s how we manage to live with those differences. That’s the challenge.
But, yes, everybody puts on a facade in the front. And, that’s why we think that, oh, everyone else is happy. That’s… I wouldn’t say it’s conscious envy of others.
It’s just that we feel that others are better off than us and we wonder why has life singled me out to go through so many sufferings. But, when we understand that, yes, everybody has their issues to deal with. That creates, that doesn’t solve the problem, but at least that decreases the resentment.
See, we… What we mind more than suffering is being singled out for suffering. Say, if in a class, everybody is given some difficult assignment. Well, okay, this is what is required as part of the class.
But, in a class, only one student is singled out for a difficult assignment. That student says, why me? Isn’t it? But, what it is, that every single student is singled out for a difficult assignment. But, it is all done privately.
So, the teacher in the school of life, every single student is singled out for a difficult assignment. But, because everybody is singled out privately, everybody tells things, oh, my assignment is difficult and everybody else’s is easy. And that’s what makes us more resentful.
Thank you. Any other reflections? Yes, please. That’s interesting.
Yeah. Many people think they are not suffering. There are sometimes world happiness surveys that happen.
And there are three Scandinavian countries. They often rank quite high in the world happiness surveys. But, at the same time, these countries have among the world’s highest anti-depressant and tranquillizer scenes.
So, people think they are happy, but they have to take anti-depressants. They have to take so many artificial supports. So, is that really happiness? So, it’s like if a person is a little drunk, then they understand, I am drunk.
Maybe I should not go alone. Maybe I should not drive a car. I have to take a ride or get someone to drive me.
But if the person is very drunk, they don’t even understand that they are drunk. Somebody says, you shouldn’t drive. They are too drunk.
They are so drunk that they don’t even realise they are drunk. So, sometimes, when we have a little distress, we recognise, I am in distress. But when distress becomes so much that in order to cope with it, we take in so many artificial stimuli and we think, I am happy.
Many people spend hours and hours sitting in front of a TV just taking stuff in from that idiot box or nowadays on the internet. Internet is useful in many ways, but in many ways it becomes like an international net where from everywhere in the world, a net can be thrown on our consciousness and we can be caught. So, when this happens, people are lonely and they think I am happy.
So, it’s an illusion. It’s when people are too drunk, they think they are happy, but if you look at their lives, what all are the things they are doing to cope up with life itself, that indicates that they are not really happy. Thank you.
Since people are so work-alcoholic, people are going that way, they just give their whole life to the work. Many times I just ask the question, are you happy with all these questions? Because you are at the top level, you will become a CEO or this and that. Are you happy right now? They just say, yes, I am happy.
But I know, I can feel that and sometimes they come and say, yeah, I don’t have the time to spend with my family or most of my time goes on transportation. When I go home, my kids go to bed, when I go to office, they go to school. Sometimes I meet them once in a week.
That’s true. They are happy or they are achieving, but still. Yeah, actually, people say happy, but they are workaholics and they don’t have any time for the family also.
See, in general, somehow it’s become a matter of the culture today that if somebody is asked, are you happy? Nobody says no. It’s like when you ask somebody, how are you? Nobody expects an honest answer. How are you? is more a greeting than a question.
Many times people ask, how are you? and they walk ahead without even waiting to hear the answer. So, similarly, generally for people to open up about the reality of their life is not easy. somehow in today’s society, happiness has become a symbol of success.
So, because happiness has become a symbol of success and everybody wants to act successful. Everybody wants to believe that they are successful. Everybody wants others to believe that they are successful.
So, if anybody says I am not happy, that means they are not successful. That means they are failures in the project of life and very few people can admit that. They will admit that only when they can trust the other person.
They are very close to the other person. So, people often have smiling faces but they have crying hearts. So, it’s unfortunately a facade.
Generally nobody answers that question. Are you happy? Honestly. It’s a difficult question because in the sense that the answer may reveal too much about us more than what we need to reveal.
What we would want to reveal. So, as people don’t want to lower their defences, they don’t answer the question. Thank you.
So, this was the first point. What is the first point? Expectation of a stormless sea. What does it do? Yes, it causes great frustration.
In fact, more than the frustrating situation, it is our expectation that causes the greater frustration. So, we move on to the second point. We’ll have time for question and answer at the end.
The second point was that Krishna provides us an unsinkable ship through the process of spirituality, the process of bhakti. When a storm is there, at that time, we have no power to stop the storm. But if we have a safe ship, that is our security.
And, what is the ship we are talking about? Ultimately, the storms of life, they hit us, not just physically, but they hit us at the level of our consciousness. And, the maximum suffering happens not just because somebody has physically or financially troubled or threatened. It happens because how does it affect us at the level of the mind.
Now, when we practise bhakti, bhakti is not just a set of rituals, like, say, chanting or worshipping. Bhakti essentially is meant to make our consciousness attached to Krishna. Krishna says, when we practise sadhana bhakti, when we try to fix the mind on him, by this we will become attached to him.
And, where our consciousness is, that is where we experience all emotion. So, for example, let’s take a converse example. Say, somebody is a great cricket fan.
And, say, there is a cricket match, say they are fan, Indian cricket fans, and India is having a match with Australia. The match might have been in Australia, and the fan might be in India. But, if India starts losing, this cricket fan becomes agitated, frustrated, miserable.
If we consider, they are in India, the match is in Australia, thousands of miles away. Why are they so frustrated? Because their consciousness is there. So, where our consciousness is, that is where we experience emotions.
And, where does our consciousness usually go? It goes where we are attached to. In fact, one way to know what we are attached to is to check what we think of or where our thoughts go when we have nothing to do. When we are idle, where do our thoughts go? Do they go towards money? Do they go towards sensual gratification? Do they go towards prestige? Or, do they go towards Krishna? So, wherever our consciousness is, we experience emotions accordingly.
The process of bhakti, it takes our consciousness towards Krishna. And, as we keep practising bhakti, our consciousness becomes attached to Krishna. And, as our consciousness becomes attached to Krishna, now, Krishna is all-attractive.
Kulashekhar Maharaj says in the Mukund Mala Stotra, that, my dear lord, Kulashekhar was a great king. He had kind of fabulous wealth that most people only dream about. But, he is saying that all the pleasures that I have experienced in life, there is no pleasure greater than I do not know any pleasure greater than what? Hari Charan, the lotus feet of lord Hari.
Smaran. It’s a beautiful alteration. Charan Smaran.
So, the Smaran is remembrance. There is no joy like the joy of remembering lord Krishna. It’s mysterious that somehow, if we fix our mind on Krishna, we experience a sublime peace.
We experience somehow our consciousness gets fixed on Krishna. Whether it’s just come to a spiritually vibrant place, serene place where Krishna is being worshipped. We just hear some sweet, devotional music.
Or, we hear some wisdom about Krishna. We recite some verses. We chant some prayers.
And we channel our consciousness towards Krishna. If our consciousness gets connected with Krishna, we start experiencing peace. It’s something which is to be experienced.
It is devotional mysticism in action that just fixing the consciousness on Krishna brings peace. It’s something like, say, outside it’s very hot and the moment we come into an air-conditioned room, immediately we feel relief. So, similarly, when we fix our mind on Krishna, we feel relief.
When we focus our consciousness on Krishna, its relief seems to stream into our consciousness. And we feel peaceful, we feel calm, we feel secure. Oh, mind! Great saints, they don’t just pray to Krishna, they pray even to the mind.
Oh, mind! Please, focus on Krishna. What will happen by focussing on Krishna? You’ll become fearless. So, what happens is that when we fix our mind on Krishna, Krishna is the how does it make us peaceful? Krishna is the ultimate unchanging reality.
Change is what causes uncertainty, it causes anxiety. And, when something changes, we can face the change, but we need something which is unchanging that we can hold on to. So, Krishna is the supreme unchanging reality.
And the more we connect with Krishna, the more we start experiencing peace. Now, this peace doesn’t itself solve our problems, but at least the peace ensures that we don’t aggravate the problem. There’s a problem out here and there is our reaction to the problem.
So, when our reaction to the problem is not proper, it aggravates the problem. Suppose, we hear some bad news and now it’s sad, it’s bad, but then if we become depressed, if we become angry, if we react in an impulsive knee-jerk way, we make things worse. So, often it is not just our problems that trouble us, it is our thoughts about the problems that trouble us.
If you look at our problems in life, there are problems and we need to deal with them. But what happens is our mind gets stuck to this problem. Why is this person doing like this? Now, what will happen here? Why is this not going this way? And even when we are doing other things, our mind is stuck over there.
And that is what makes us more miserable. It’s like, say, if we are going on a car ride and, say, if we go through some area where maybe there is some sewage is there and foul smell is there. Now, that foul smell is difficult to bear.
We may just close our, even if our car window is open, we’ll close it, we’ll cover our nose and we’ll rush through that area. Now, nobody, in their good sense, if there is a foul sewage over there outside, they’ll not go there, pick up the sewage, put it in their car and move along with it. See, that is stupid, isn’t it? But unfortunately, our mind does like that.
During the journey of our life, we face problems that’s like foul-smelling sewage. And we put it in our car and carry it with us. And it keeps stinking and it keeps hurting us.
So, somehow, it seems like there is some magnetic pull that attracts our mind towards problems. So, whenever there are problems, even if we are not dealing with the problem, we are still thinking about the problem. And that makes things worse.
So, when we become attached to Krishna, instead of dwelling endlessly on problems and making ourselves agitated, we fix our mind in Krishna. We become peaceful. And once we become peaceful, then we can deal with the problem more maturely.
If we are agitated, we can’t deal with problems. So, actually, I have a graph for this in a PowerPoint, but I’ll try to illustrate this. Imagine if this is time and this is a problem.
Now, normally, this is a problem, this is time. So, the more, if we have a problem, we need to think about it. And the more we think about it, okay, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.
So, our capacity to deal with the problem increases linearly as we think about it. Say, okay, our car has broken down. Then, okay, car has broken down.
If we think about it, okay, I don’t have a spare tyre, but I have my phone, I can call someone. Or, maybe, there’s a shop over here. We think about it, our clarity increases.
But, the peculiarity is that this graph doesn’t always keep going straight. Beyond a particular point, if we keep thinking about the problem, it becomes flat. We keep thinking, we keep thinking, but no solution is emerging.
And our mental energy is getting expended. And after some time, rather than just staying flat, actually it goes down. That the more we think about the problem, the more confused, more perplexed, more frustrated we become.
So, we do need to think about our problems. Thinking about Krishna is not escaping from our problems. But, we need to think about our problems in proportion.
When we think excessively, we do a disservice to ourselves. So, therefore, if we have something alternative to think about, which is pacifying, which is satisfying, then what will happen? We won’t just go in this loop of unproductive thinking. But, we will withdraw our mind, think about something which pacifies us, connect with Krishna, and then when we are rejuvenated, we’ll come back and deal with the problem.
So, the storm is still there and the storm has to be dealt with. But, when we understand that Krishna is with me, Krishna is the Supreme Lord, remembrance of Krishna still makes me peaceful. That gives us calmness.
And with that calmness, when we try to deal with the outer problem, there’s greater clarity. So, Krishna has given us an unsinkable ship in the sense that He has given us, through the process of bhakti, the facility to calm and shelter our consciousness no matter how great the storms come in our life. So, any reflections on this? This is the second point.
As I said, even among its life storms, Krishna has given us an unsinkable ship in the form of His remembrance. Any of you have any experience of how thinking about Krishna calms you down? Or maybe how thinking too much about a problem worsens the problem? Yes, Vasudev. I was at this afternoon, I was at a topic service centre where you can bring your licence, bring your registration.
So, because I moved from interstate, from Sydney to here, I have changed my licence but I went to change my licence but this has been going on for two days and I end up waiting there for almost 40 minutes and I don’t get any answer. So, today when I was sitting there, I just thought, well, let’s not think about the problem anymore. What’s going to happen? What if they come back to me? So, I was just kind of reading through and I think there was a particular article in Dandapur’s where it talks about the problem is obvious but suffering is optional.
So, I just came across that word and even though it didn’t have directly to do with Krishna consciousness or chanting. It’s Krishna conscious wisdom. So, that was quite helpful when I was sitting there.
See, when you say that, when you say that, we could say that problems are inevitable but suffering is optional. What that means is the problems are going to come in our life but suffering comes when we keep thinking about the problems. If we don’t think so much about the problems, we won’t suffer so much.
Thank you. Anything else? Yes, please. Wonderful.
Yes, through chanting you are experiencing that relief. Thank you for sharing that. As I said, it’s something which we have to experience ourselves and if we do chanting as a ritual, then we don’t make that connection.
But if we chant really to take shelter, then we make that connection and we experience that relief, that strength. Thank you. Anyone else? So, I’ll move to the last point.
The first point was that the expectation that life should be stormless, that itself causes great frustration. The second is Krishna has given us an unsinkable ship in the form of his remembrance. And the last point is that we need to steer our life not based on our fears but based on our faith.
Suppose somebody is in a ship and there is a big storm, you can see monster waves out there. Now, the more they look at those waves, they become paranoid. They start trembling, start fearing.
What if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? Now, if their ship is sturdy enough to face that storm, to survive through that storm, then just looking at the stormy waves is going to agitate them more and more. Similarly for us, life can create stormy waves for us in many, many different ways. And more often than not, we start getting carried away by those waves.
Carried away by those waves means our consciousness gets captivated by it. That our mind starts telling, one thing goes wrong. Our mind starts saying, everything is going to go wrong.
Your destiny is rotten. You are worthless. I was at a mental health care centre in Connecticut in America and I was talking with people over there and many of them were very intelligent, educated, smart people who had mental health problems.
This one girl, so I was asking how they went to depression. This one girl, she said that she was in a very good university and while she was studying, she was also waiting tables to get some additional money. And once, while carrying some water, somehow the glass of water slipped from her hands and it fell and it spilled.
And she said, that made her think, I am so worthless that I can’t even carry a glass of water. What am I going to do with my life? So, now, okay, a glass of water slipped from your hands. Why extrapolate that to think that my life is worthless and I am useless? So, what the mind does is that any event that happens, the mind gives its own commentary on that.
And we start listening to that commentary. The event might be very small, but the mind’s commentary can be outrageous. So, imagine if there is a cricket match going on, normally in a cricket match there is commentary.
So, now the spectator is here, the commentator is here, the player is here. Now the commentator is meant to explain how the match is going on. But suppose the commentator is biassed and his player is batting very well, the player hits a very good shot and the commentator says, oh that was just a lucky shot.
And the player is leading the recovery of the batting team and the commentator says, this one person gets out and the whole team is going to collapse. The match is going to get lost. And the commentator, what is he doing? He is not explaining the game.
He is actually just giving a negative spin to everything that is happening. And now imagine further that the player is here, the commentator is here, the spectator is here. The commentator is heard by the spectator.
But suppose the commentator were heard by the player also and the player hits a very good shot and the commentator says, that was just a lucky hit. Next ball is going to get out. Now, what will happen? The player will get psyched out.
If the player starts taking the commentary more seriously than the reality and even the next ball is playable, then the commentator says, this baller is a very dangerous baller. This baller is going to be such a bouncer that is going to injure this player’s head and the player is going to faint and maybe die. And a simple ball comes up and the player is not able to bat only because he is scared.
So, if the player starts hearing the commentary instead of playing the match, then the player will sabotage themselves. The same thing happens to us. We often take our mind’s commentary of reality more seriously than reality itself.
So, yes, you spilled a glass. The mind’s commentary was, you are worthless. Well, so many people spill some water.
What is the big deal? Just pick it up, clean it and move on with life. So, often when we get filled with our fears, what is happening? This problem is there, this problem is there, this problem is there. The mind takes one fear and then makes a doomsday commentary based on that.
And then we feel that our life is doomed. And the mind will say, Oh, you don’t know what is going to happen in the future. We are doing this, but this will go wrong and that will go wrong and that will go wrong and everything will crumble.
Now, it’s true that we don’t know the future. But, it’s also true that the mind doesn’t know the future. We don’t know the future, but the mind is no expert who knows the future.
So, yes, our plans may not come true. That’s possible. But, it’s not that the mind’s fears are going to come true.
We can never have certainty in life in terms of what is going to happen in life. But, when we start listening to our fears, the fears are basically the mind’s dystopian commentary of what is going to happen in the future. Utopia is where everything is unrealistically wonderful.
Dystopia is where everything is unrealistically dreadful. And our mind often gives a dystopian commentary. And that makes life completely miserable.
Completely miserable. And, what happens because of this is that when we let ourselves be driven by our fears, we make our life worse than what it needs to be. I remember the first time I gave a public talk, it was maybe more than 30 years ago.
And I was in college. I was in school actually. 30-35 years ago.
So, I prepared very well. And my content was very, I mean, objectively it was well prepared. But, when I just went on the dais to speak, at that time, something within me said, you are going to make a fool of yourself.
I was starting to set that. I had no philosophical understanding at that time. I did not know that the mind is speaking over there.
But just because of that, I became so nervous. And, normally when I become nervous, I start speaking fast. And, I started speaking fast because I was nervous.
It’s like, you invite somebody to ride a car, to take a ride in the car, as soon as they get in, zoom! We start moving fast. So, I started speaking so fast, that nobody could connect with it. And then, people started looking at their watch, people started looking at each other, people started looking at the door.
And that made me even more nervous. And I started speaking faster. So, it was supposed to be a 7-minute talk, and I finished in 3 and a half minutes.
And I didn’t know what to do after that. So, of course, it was a disaster. But, now when I look back, I understand that it was the mind’s commentary.
Oh, you are going to make a fool of yourself. Because of which, I made a fool of myself. It is not that I was unprepared and I had forgotten everything.
I remembered everything, but I delivered in such a incomprehensible way that I made a fool of myself. So, when we listen to the mind saying, you will make a fool of yourselves, by listening to it, we make a fool of ourselves. But in contrast, if instead of listening to our fears, we listen to Krishna with faith, yes, there will be problems.
As Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita over here, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. Can you repeat this? If you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. This is Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 18.15. So, if we listen not to our fears, but if we turn with faith to Krishna, then, instead of looking at those big storms, look at the ship, yes, the stormy waves are big, but the ship is secure.
Let me focus on directing the ship properly. Let me take shelter of Krishna. Let me not be alarmed by my mind’s alarmist tendencies.
Let me calm down. Let me just do what I can in this situation. We take one small step forward.
The mind, this is a big problem here, this is a problem here and the mind exaggerates it and thinks everything is going to fall apart. So, one way to deal with this is just focus on the present. Okay, what is the problem right now? Oh, this water spill.
Okay, let me pick it up. So, what is the problem right now? So, many times, self-help books tell live in the present. That’s important.
If we, the mind makes things worse by taking us from the present either to the past or to the future. But we live in the present, but we don’t just live for the present. We live in the present for Krishna.
That means that, okay, I have this problem. What can I do right now about it? How can I serve Krishna in this situation? If we understand that our eternal position, some people can take away our job, the world can take away our relationships, the world can take away our health, but one thing that no one can ever take away from us is our relationship with Krishna. Krishna is our Lord and we are eternally His servitors.
That is a relationship which is eternally with us. So, if we have that mood, Krishna, how can I serve you in this situation? Okay. I can do this one thing.
Take one step forward. Take one step forward. If you think I have to solve this whole problem, the mind will catch you, this problem is so big you can’t solve it.
Just to de-escalate the mind’s exaggeration, what is one small, simple step I can take to solving this problem? This is SSS. Small, simple step. Small, simple step.
How can I take to solve this problem, to serve Krishna in this situation? If you begin with this, it’s manageable. Yes, I can do this. I can do this.
And if you just keep taking small, simple steps in our life, in our service to Krishna, we’ll find those big stormy waves that were there, they came, they stayed and they went away. And we will not only survive those storms, but we’ll thrive because of our deepened connection with Krishna, because of our increased faith in Krishna, because of our experience that connecting with Krishna enables us to deal with the problems. So I’ll conclude with this thought that when we face problems, don’t let the mind scream how big the problems are.
Tell the mind how big Krishna is. Don’t let the mind tell you how big the problems are. Tell the mind how big Krishna is.
And by that, we’ll find that Krishna is bigger than the biggest problems and he’ll help us to deal with whatever problems come our way. So that was the third point that instead of letting our life be driven by our fears, if we let our life be driven by our faith, then instead of listening to the mind’s commentary and worsening the situation, we turn towards Krishna and Krishna will guide us through whatever problems we may face. Any reflections on this? Of course, this is the first time I’ve got this.
But usually, sometimes I do tell my mind is this problem is temporary and happiness will be temporary. So the happiness is long in this. I’ve got distress and I’m in trouble and this will go away soon as well.
But this is the cycle going on. So I have to somehow not get bewildered or get the happiness as well as the distress in the world or anything like that. Beautiful point, yes.
It’s a very very important point that actually the more we imagine the happiness to be big, the more the problem will also appear to be big. So if we understand that everything in life is temporary na praharushet priyam praapya no dvijet praapya cha priyam sthira buddhir samudho brahma vid brahmani sthita that actually don’t get elated when there is pleasure and don’t get dejected when there is distress. So, say India wins a cricket match and somebody jumps up and down in joy.
Australia wins a cricket match and Australia jumps up and down in joy. And Australia loses the cricket match and they say, okay I’m detached from cricket. It’s not going to work like that.
You may say I’m detached from cricket but still you’ll be dejected by that. So, if we make the world too big in our eyes then when problems come, we can’t make those problems small. So, if we understand and through our experience of life we understand this.
Pleasures also don’t last for long problems also don’t last for long. So then, both of them we downsize. Then we can see Krishna, how big he is.
If we let the mind tell us how big the pleasure is, then we can’t stop the mind from telling us how big the problem is. We can’t selectively mute the mind. We have to continuously mute the mind both its version of pleasure and its version of problems.
Thank you. Any one more point? Anyone? Question or comment? Comment please. Yeah, please.
Welcome. So, first time I went on book distribution because the whole day, what happens if someone just insults you in your face etc. I was just thinking about that for the whole day and then when I actually went on book distribution I started doing it.
And even then I was very hesitant. I was not giving books to anyone because I was thinking, Madhava Lata Prabhu had ideas to be engaged in the service of Srila Prabhupada. And that basically just made a massive change in my outlook on that problem.
And then you just go and give books because then you understand it’s not about you, it’s about the engagement Prabhupada’s service. And that basically, in that way you’re able to just solve the problem in that sense, just by shifting your consciousness. Beautiful.
Thank you for sharing that. Yes. Many times when we become too fixated on the external result, then that causes worry.
Then we focus on our inner purpose, not on the outer result. Our inner purpose is to serve Krishna. Yes, it will be wonderful if the result comes.
We would like to offer that to Krishna. But all services are meant primarily not to offer the result of the service to Krishna, but to offer ourselves to Krishna. So, if we keep that in focus, then much of the anxiety goes away.
Thank you. So, I’ll summarise and then, does anyone have any one more reflection? Question? I’ll just summarise the class and then we can have questions, one or two. So, I spoke today on the topic of don’t expect a stormless sea.
Seek not a stormless sea, seek an unsinkable ship. So, the expectation, three points. First of all, the expectation that our life journey should be smooth, that the sea should be stormless, that expectation itself causes great frustration.
And because of technology having increased our capacity to control things externally. So, whenever we are not able to control, we can’t process it. That’s why mental health problems are increasing.
Because we can’t accept that sometimes, you can’t expect that life has problems, that things don’t go my way. And moreover, through media we see everybody with smiling faces and happy and we think we alone are unhappy. So, because we believe that everyone else is happy, that makes us even more unhappy.
But understand this world is like a hospital. Everybody is sick in their own way. And we all can accept without resentment the storm that is coming in our life and move forward.
Second point was that in his remembrance through bhakti, Krishna has given us an unsinkable ship. Just as in heat, if we come to air-conditioned room, we immediately feel relieved. Similarly, while thinking about so many problematic things in life, if we just start thinking of Krishna, we start feeling relieved.
Why? Because Krishna is the supreme, unchangeable reality. And thinking about Him shelters us amidst all the unpredictable changes in the world. And thinking about Krishna is not running away from the problems.
It is ensuring that the problems don’t run us over. When we want to solve a problem, thinking about it helps us better deal with it. But if we keep thinking about it, then it becomes flat and after that it goes down.
We just feel perplexed and overwhelmed. So withdrawing from the problem, thinking about Krishna and sheltering ourselves and coming back can give us greater clarity in dealing with the problems. So, that inner security in the form of his remembrance is the unsinkable ship that Krishna has given us.
And lastly, third point was don’t let your fears steer your life. Let your faith steer your life. If you look at the storms, you’ll get alarmed.
But if you look at the ship, we can stay confident. So, whenever some problems happen in our life, our mind gives a dystopian commentary to it and makes us disheartened and disempowered. The player has to play the game, not listen to the commentary.
Similarly, instead of hearing the mind’s fears, we don’t know the future, so there is no guarantee of success. But the mind also doesn’t know the future, so there is no guarantee of failure also. Instead of listening to the commentary of the mind, we just deal with life as it is.
And one way to deal with life as it is, is to ask ourselves what is one small, simple step I can take to deal with this problem right now. Let’s say we bring the mind to the present, live in the present, then the problem doesn’t get exaggerated and we live in the present, but not for the present, but for Krishna. So how can I serve Krishna in one small, simple step right now? When we do this, when we think like this, we find one step forward, one step forward, one step forward and then the storm will gradually go away and we will not only survive but thrive because our increased conviction in the potency of Krishna Bhakti, increased conviction in our capacity to deal with life’s problems through the practise of Krishna Bhakti.
So instead of letting the mind tell us how big the problem is, we can tell the mind how big Krishna is. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
So do we have time for questions? So do we have few minutes for questions? You had a question? I have one question. Just looking at the looking at the spirit soul for example, I was just wondering where does the spirit soul get this idea that it will be able to have it can expect a stormless sea because for example, if you look at the spirit soul in the spiritual world, there is all kinds of spiritual anxieties in the spiritual world. So how come when the spirit soul is in this material world it seeks a stormless sea? Okay.
So where does our expectation that we should have a stormless sea come from? Good question. I would say there are three parts to it. First is that although in the spiritual world there is anxiety, that anxiety is on a foundation of security.
That is the devotee is fixed in the relationship with Krishna and the anxiety is how best can I serve Krishna? If my service doesn’t go well, what will happen? But there is no insecurity in that foundation. So for us in the material world, the foundation itself is insecure. We may whatever we think is our foundation it can be our health, our job, our family our mental stability, everything can collapse at any time.
So because the material world doesn’t have a stable foundation that itself creates the great insecurity. So we expect a stormless sea because originally the soul is secure in the relationship with Krishna. I said that also in today’s world as I said that there is some amount of mis-education or mis-information created by the technology and the media that we will be happy.
That happiness is the natural state and if something is, if you are not happy then something is wrong with you. It’s not that something is wrong with us in a immediate sense. It’s the nature of the world.
So that mis-education is there to some extent and third is that we as individuals we are seeking at the material level what is there at the spiritual level. So there is a stormless sea in the sense of security in the spiritual world but we are seeking that in the material world and that’s how this expectation comes up when you function in the material life. Thank you.
Isn’t it human nature that fear takes precedence over faith? I wouldn’t say necessarily it’s human nature. It depends on how our human nature is. There is sattvaguna, rajoguna and tamoguna the three modes of material nature.
Goodness, passion, ignorance as we say. So depending on what our default nature is a particular state of mind will be natural for us. So if somebody is in tamas, see the idea is if you consider what is the defining characteristics of these modes we could say in the mode of passion we perceive material reality and we believe that we can control material reality.
In mode of ignorance, in tamas we we perceive material reality but we feel we can’t even control that and that’s why we withdraw into some imaginary world. That’s why entertainment, drugs all these escapist ways. In sattva we perceive material reality.
We understand that material reality is insecure but then we perceive spiritual reality and we seek security over there. So faith it’s much easier to turn in faith towards Krishna if we are in sattva. If we are in tamas fear will naturally overwhelm us.
If we are in rajas, depending on how much rajas, how much passion is there then we can turn with faith towards Krishna or we will turn in fear away from it. Now we can’t immediately change our modes. That’s why we need to associate with those who are situated in a higher mode.
So by ourselves we may just get overwhelmed by fear but if you associate with some devotees some spiritually minded people who are situated in sattva or abhav then we talk with them we hear from them and then they will calm us down. That’s why we will see especially coming in association of great souls and especially hearing from them will increase our faith and will increase our inclination to turn in faith towards Krishna. So depending on where our mode is situated, which mode we are situated in, faith or fear may be natural but by associating with higher devotees who are situated in faith, we can also turn in faith towards Krishna.
Any other questions? Yes. Sir, you mentioned that living in the presence and also in Krishna consciousness so I was just trying to understand because we hear also out there that people advocate about living in the presence but they don’t quite bring Krishna consciousness. So what’s the way to understand it? Living in the presence but at the same time there is absence of Krishna consciousness.
So people strive to live in the present also but without any Krishna consciousness. How do we see that? Broadly speaking, generalisations are never universal but they give us an indication of universal truths. So broadly speaking, we could say being obsessed with the future scheming and dreaming out the future and thinking it will all be wonderful, that characterises Rajas.
Worrying about the past and projecting the past onto the future. This went wrong, that went wrong, that went wrong and all this will also go wrong in my life. That characterises Tamas.
So a mind which is in Sattva, in goodness will focus on the present. So many of the self-help techniques like mindfulness and others which people do to ground themselves in the present they are all ways primarily to get oneself to Sattva to the mode of goodness and for somebody who has lived in Rajas and Tamas coming to goodness is hugely helpful, can provide big relief. I was in Silicon Valley in America, a big company called Salesforce.
So they have, among several companies but that is most prominent, they have in their company itself rooms for meditation and mindfulness and they have done many studies and they use that actually if people can calm themselves down through meditation through mindfulness, then their performance improves and for the company’s perspective, their health insurance they have to pay less. Health cost they have to pay less. But either way, the point I am making is that this has been reasonably well documented scientifically.
Just living in the present can help us to function better in life and Sattva is living in the present. Now Sattva is conducive to Shuddha Sattva. We can live in the present and live for something bigger in the present.
Live for the biggest reality, Krishna. But that is not something which most people know about. One problem is that whenever we talk about Krishna, people think of it as a sectarian God, Him as a sectarian God.
In today’s world, somehow the word God has got a bad name. It’s in Star Wars, they say that may the force be with you. Now if Star Wars director made the dialogue, may God be with you.
Now all the theatres would have become empty. They don’t want God. There is some force, something bigger, something is there, people acknowledge that.
But now people use the word, may the universe blessings come to you. What is the universe? Ultimately it’s a personal reality. So people have this fear of sectarianism when they bring in God.
As soon as they talk about God, my God versus your God. My God is better or your God is better. So people want to stay away a little from God.
So that’s why this idea that living for something bigger in the present, going to worship the Sattva, is something that is not yet mainstream. In fact it is quite people apprehensive about it. But if it’s presented properly, so in my corporate and yoga talks, I don’t present Krishna as God or even certainly not as a Hindu God.
I present Krishna as the object of loving yogic meditation. People are interested in love, people are interested in yoga, people are interested in meditation. So okay, what do you meditate on? I don’t say that he is the ultimate truth, he is the ultimate reality.
I say that great yogic experts throughout history have considered Krishna as the object of loving yogic meditation. And you can also try that. And that if you present it like that, people accept it, people are quite open to it.
So it’s a matter of how we present in such a way that we don’t rub people off wrongly, we don’t increase their feelings of sectarianism. If we can present it properly, even living in the present is good, and living in the present for something bigger than the present is much better. So more the idea of higher motivations.
Yes, it’s true. I’ve always been critical about this thing when you have two hours class and there is no mentioning of Krishna. Not only you, I’m saying, not to you only, but most of the classes in our present day is gone as well.
Two, three hours of lectures going on and no mentioning of Krishna and Prabhupada sometimes. Are we too scared to say Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead? Or are we just because motivational, you don’t know, it’s more like motivational talks and we don’t want to bring Krishna in our motivational talks. Yeah, it’s a challenge.
So sometimes devotees give long classes but don’t mention Krishna at all. You want to focus on motivational talks? There are two perspectives to it. I’ll give both perspectives and then I’ll try to offer a balance.
One perspective is that we are here to learn knowledge about Krishna. It’s a Krishna consciousness movement. And if we don’t tell people about Krishna, then what are we doing in this movement? So, we should tell people about Krishna and that’s how we will attract people.
Prabhupada also explicitly named this movement as Krishna consciousness not just generic God consciousness also. So, we should speak about Krishna and otherwise we are not really doing benefit to people, we are not representing our tradition. That’s one perspective.
The other perspective is that the people who are directly interested in personal spirituality, in a personal absolute truth, in some God like Krishna are very few in today’s world. Even when Prabhupada came to America in the 1960s, actually it was a very unusual period in American history. Not in American western history you could say.
The hippie movement, the counterculture, this lasted for 10-12 years. And the kind of enormous interest in eastern mystical spirituality that was there, it’s not there. Now people are interested in yoga, people are interested in meditation, but not in the kind of spirituality which resembles religion very much.
So, the idea is that, the other perspective is that we give people what they need or what they feel they need so that they become receptive to us. And then we can give them Krishna. If we just give them Krishna they’ll feel this is not for me and they’ll go away.
So we give them what they feel they need, that is motivational talks. And by that we make them receptive, we make them appreciative and then when we give them Krishna, they will take it. So, this approach also has merit because if you consider traditionally the brahmanas would do karmakanda and the brahmanas would do bhakti.
Karmakanda is material religiosity. It is religious practises that provide material results. Oh, there is a drought over here.
Let’s do this yajna, fire sacrifice, rains will come. Oh, we are not able to conceive a child. Do this yajna and then you get a child.
So, people want to see results here and now. So, in the past, it was like a continuum. The same brahmanas who would give people material results would also tell about spiritual knowledge.
And that’s how people would take the material results, develop faith and come towards spiritual knowledge. So, now today, people are not so much interested in physical results. If I can’t conceive, I just go to gynaecologist and do something or something like that.
Most people, what they want is mental relief, some inspiration, some motivation. In fact, in many of these big churches in America, there is an article in New York Times that God has been rebranded. Traditionally, God was the cosmic supplier.
Oh, father, thou art in heaven, give us our daily bread. In fact, now, one Christian group, they say, Oh, father, thou art in heaven, give us our daily peas. So, they have rebranded God not as a cosmic supplier but as a cosmic therapist.
You go to God and you become peaceful. Because peace is what people want. So, now, if that is what people want and if we give that to them, they become more receptive.
Now, the problem with this is that unless there is a well-defined channel by which you can get people from that motivation, motivational level to spiritual level. If that is not there, then what happens? We just become another of a whole panel of motivational speakers. And because motivational speakers can become popular, then more and more people may start doing that.
When devotees start doing that, then we may not speak about Krishna at all. So, there is a danger. The danger of sticking only to Krishna is that we may not reach many people.
The danger of speaking about motivation is that we may not connect people with Krishna. So, there has to be, in my understanding at least, that this has to be seen as a specialised service that might be done by a few people in few places. So, there are forums where, say, now, I am an engineer by profession and I speak on science and spirituality.
So, once I was invited to a talk on science and spirituality and after that, one student asked, so, what is your religion? So, I said that, here I am speaking on science and spirituality. Now, everyone may have their own faith. If you want to know about that, you can talk with me privately afterwards.
Here, let’s talk about, talk about science and spirituality. So, after that, both the professor over there and the HOD over there, both of them appreciated this. This was our fear, that we don’t want our university to be used as a podium for proselytising some religion.
So, the answer you gave was very good. Now, if somebody comes to a temple and asks me, what is your religion? If I give the same answer, I am doing a disservice over there. Isn’t it? So, in certain forums, if the expectation is a particular thing, then we have to deliver that expectation.
Otherwise, there is no need to go to those forums. So, those who can speak accordingly, they can go to those forums. So, this is a specialised service where we may speak about other topics where, say, somebody is scientific preaching.
Now, somebody may read hundreds of books to write one scientific book and in their talks, there may be no Krishna directly over there, but they may just talk about consciousness and consciousness as a non-material source. That’s also one way of preaching. And they are also doing, they are reaching a particular audience which would not be reached otherwise.
But everybody should not try to do that. Now, what happens in scientific outreach? People understand, science is not easy. It will require a lot of hard work.
I can’t do it. But if this is in motivational talks, anybody then thinks, I can do it. And they start doing it, then that can become a trend which can be unhealthy.
So, if some devotees with a proper purpose and plan, use this as a means for connecting people with Krishna, then that is fine. So, there are two broad aspects of outreach. One is, we get people to Krishna and the other is, we get Krishna to people.
So, when we get people to Krishna, that’s like getting them to the temples. Then at that time, we need to have proper Krishna bhakti presented to them. But when we are getting Krishna to people, at that time, we have to get him or give him in a way that they will find relevant for them.
So, it can be done by a few devotees who want to specialise in that service. And if they do it under the guidance of some seniors who know what they are doing and who can monitor and mentor them, then we can reach to a large number of people. I have seen that those devotees who do motivational talks, they open doors which would otherwise never be open for devotees.
And those people who appreciate them, then you are from this movement, you start appreciating that movement also. And then that kind of favourable perception of the movement is good. But we don’t want reduction of the movement to that.
We want favourable perception, but if you think people start thinking this is what our movement is about, then it will be a problem. So, that’s some kind of balance if it is done cautiously. So, shall we stop here? So, thank you very much for your attention and participation.
Thank you for your reflections and hope that you can get shelter of Krishna’s unshinkable ship in your life journey. Shri Prabhupada Ki Gaur Bhakta Brindaki Gaur Premanande