Self excellence principles from Bhagavad Gita

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Today we will be discussing on self-excellence skills based on the Bhagavad Gita. I will be talking about the principle of self-excellence based on the example of Arjuna from the Bhagavad Gita. So Arjuna is excellent example of a person who had phenomenal talent.
Quite often for success in any field talent is a vital component and such talent is very much complemented with temperament and when there is this combination of talent and temperament then there is achievement. Consider for example sports which is a highly performance orientated activity. Almost all fields are performance orientated no doubt but if you consider sports especially when there are pressure moments how a player performs at the time of the pressure moments determines how well that player will be able to fare.
So if at the key moments when there is the greatest pressure if somebody chokes then that person will not be able to do justice to their talents. So that capacity to cope with pressure and move onwards towards success is what is the role of temperament and Arjuna at the start of the Bhagavad Gita faced a test of temperament. His vocation was archery.
He was a champion archer of his times and his talent was never in doubt. His talent was phenomenal and that talent was never in doubt. Right from his early childhood he had excelled in archery and while excelling thus in archery he had achieved extraordinary levels of excellence.
So the biggest match of his life came in the form of the Kurukshetra war. Sometimes players prepare years and years say for Olympics or for a World Cup In cricket the one day matches World Cup which occurs once in four years that is considered to be the biggest tournament and sometimes teams plan years before that to find out how they are faring to improve the way they will fare So for example the World Cup cricket which is going to come now 3-4 years later already many teams in the world are considering who will be their captain, who will be their vice-captain, who will be their best bowlers, best batsmen for that team which will eventually be able to bring the World Cup for their country. So this kind of advance planning indicates the importance of the event which is going to come up and such a phenomenally important event was what was coming up for Arjuna Arjuna he was going to face the match of his life for his life.
The match of his life means it was going to be the biggest match and for his life. This was a sport in which if he lost he was going to die. So it is extremely serious event and in such a serious event what happened to him? He found himself overwhelmed He found himself being driven out of control by his emotions.
If we consider a car the very mechanism that drives the car can also drive the car out of control The very mechanism by which the car runs fast on the road by that very mechanism the car can run off the road and what makes the difference between a car that runs smooth and fast on the road and a car that veers disastrously off the road The major difference is the capacity of control, the level of control that the car driver has on the car and sometimes if a person is driving under alcoholic influence then the car veers out of control and they injure themselves, they can injure others also So the same force of emotions that can inspire and motivate us that same force of emotions that can also discourage and demotivate us It is the same petrol and the same engine structure that propels the car on the road and it propels the car off the road So like that we all have emotions and if we consider the Kurukshetra war that happened after the Bhagavad Gita was spoken there were many emotionally charged moments over there but those emotionally charged moments did not lead to emotional breakdown However that emotional breakdown happened at the start of the Bhagavad Gita for Arjuna The specific reasons why Arjuna became emotionally overwhelmed may be fairly different from the specific emotions that may overwhelm us today but whatever be the specifics the universals remain the same The universals are that in the battle between reason and emotion Emotion had delivered a knockdown punch on reason Arjuna was not able to think clearly In 1.13 in the Bhagavad Gita he says I am not able to see Why am I not able to see? Brahmateeva means move and move round and round My mind is moving round and round and because of this nimittani I am seeing the factors that cause misfortune Viparitani kesava unfavourable So what I am seeing is the instruments of misfortune all around me and I am not able to think clearly So Arjuna was overwhelmed by emotion and when we talk about self-excellence insights, self-excellence skills from the Bhagavad Gita the point is that we all have certain talents but if we don’t have the proper temperament and temperament largely means the capacity to channel our power of emotions if you don’t have the capacity for proper emotional management if you don’t have the right temperament then we will not be able to translate our talent into achievement The Bhagavad Gita is spoken at the start of a war but at that particular point the focus is not on war strategies Nowhere in the Bhagavad Gita does Krishna tell Arjuna which weapon should he use, should he use a brahmastra or should he use a agneyastra or bhargavastra or whatever Krishna does not get into the specifics of the usage of weapons Krishna does not get into the specifics of strategies of war Krishna doesn’t get into any specifics about weapons or war whatsoever So Arjuna’s talent is already there whatever it is It is phenomenal in this case but it is there and the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t go into the issue of the means by which Arjuna is going to fight the war He is going to use archery skills and he already has those skills but what the Bhagavad Gita focusses on is the second part which is often overlooked If you can summarise self-excellence in an equation it will be talent plus temperament is equal to achievement Talent plus temperament is equal to achievement and the Bhagavad Gita does not focus on the talent part so much it focusses on the temperament part The temperament, if one has the right temperament even if a person has mediocre talent still that person can achieve substantially more things in life if they have a sound temperament So in our life we all have certain sets of talents and understanding our talents and developing those talents is an important part of moving towards self-excellence Unfortunately because today’s socio-cultural ethos glamorises certain kinds of talents so for example if a person becomes expert in some technical skills if a person becomes an engineer, a person becomes a doctor then they are considered to be successful then they are considered to be on the path to success then they are considered to be worthwhile so that is a subject that needs to be separately discussed but I’ll just mention a couple of points on that that when we talk about talent plus temperament is equal to achievement the talent part, some of us may feel that I don’t have the necessary talents oh this person has so many talents, that person has so many talents, I have nothing actually it’s not like that, we all have talents the problem is often that we focus too much on others talents and because of that we are not able to appreciate our own talents so imagine if there is a feast and in that feast not only are there very delicious items but there are different delicious items for different people that means everybody gets a different feast and we have got many delicious items on our plate but unfortunately instead of looking at what items are there on our plate we are constantly looking at what is there in whose plate oh they have got that, they have got that, they have got that, they have got that I don’t have this, I don’t have that and this way when we get too caught in seeing what are the delicacies on others plates we don’t appreciate and relish what is there on our plate so similarly if society glamorises certain talents then we focus on those talents and by focussing too much on those talents we miss out on the other talents that we actually have so the Bhagavad Gita states that it is far better to do one’s own activity than to do somebody else’s activity the reason for this is this is not a verse which imposes casteist discrimination as a spiritual principle rather it is a verse which recommends and harmonisation between our inner disposition and our outer vocation actually our inner disposition is our svabhava it is our nature and our outer vocation is our svakarma when the svabhava and svakarma are in harmony then there is swananda swananda is self-satisfaction so svabhava plus svakarma leads to swananda now when we work according to our nature and when we work in a way that is harmonious with our nature then we get swananda, we get inner happiness of course when we talk about our svabhava there are two aspects to it there is our material svabhava in terms of the specific material talents and inclinations and dispositions that we have and there is our spiritual svabhava we are by nature souls who are servants of Krishna and we are meant to love and serve Krishna so when we act this way svakarmana tam abhyarcha siddhim indati manavah in the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, 46th, 47th verses Krishna talks about this principle of worshipping him through our work svakarmana tam abhyarcha by your own work tam abhyarcha worship him, Krishna says this his focus is on that we can harmonise the material and the spiritual with the devotional so here he is talking about the talents part that whatever talents we have instead of worrying about what others have and what I don’t have we can focus primarily on what we have and use what we have in the service of Krishna and in a mood of contribution when we do that, that itself will bring some satisfaction so talent is what we gain by looking inwards towards the gift that we have and not getting obsessed in looking outwards towards what we don’t have then when we talk about temperament which is the thrust of our talk today so temperament is something which each and every one of us can develop we can strengthen it we can make it our strong point by getting a spiritual vision of life when we talk about temperament I mentioned earlier temperament essentially means expertise in emotional management emotional management managing our own emotions is not always very easy but we can manage our emotions if we have a spiritual understanding of life suppose if we are in a disaster hit area say we are in a flooded area and the water is rising here, there, going everywhere and at that time we will ourselves be very worried oh where will the water come from next how will I deal with this water, what should I do next and that insecurity, that worry will definitely trouble us but if we could have a helicopter which airlifts us above the disaster hit area and if we are above the flooded area looking down at it from a helicopter from that safe elevated vantage point we will still be concerned oh how much damage is being caused over here but we will not be disturbed we will be concerned but not disturbed if we ourselves feel threatened as we would feel if we are on the ground we would not feel that way personally threatened if we are in the air in the safety of a helicopter so similarly while living in this world in the normal course of life when we go through life’s ups and downs if we have a materialistic conception of life if we think of ourselves as our bodies if we think of ourselves as material creatures then we by our consciousness place ourselves within the vulnerable zone of material consciousness we place ourselves in the vulnerable zone of being buffeted by material ups and downs because if I think that I am a material product and my happiness depends on material things then when those material things are threatened when they are taken away we can no longer be happy our happiness is taken away by those things so therefore what we need is to raise our self-conception and the best way to raise our self-conception is through spiritual education through spiritual purification so when we study the Bhagavad Gita and by studying the Bhagavad Gita’s wisdom we understand our spiritual identity then that understanding raises our consciousness above the material level to the spiritual level and once the consciousness is raised to the spiritual level then we feel less disturbed so it is paradoxical that the more distanced we are from a situation the more involved we can be in it the more distanced we are from a situation the more involved we can be in it now when a war is going on there are warriors who are in the thick of the war they are fighting enemy attacks and then they counter then another enemy attacks and they counter another enemy attacks and they counter but there also in a war are required generals or leaders who can stand at a distance and observe the overall trend of the war in this particular direction the enemy is too strong in this particular direction the enemy is little weaker here we are making good progress but here we need reinforcements so unless there is a person who has the broader picture of how the war is going and where reinforcements are needed where a strategic withdrawal is required unless somebody has the big picture view of things to make that decision just total involvement in the war alone without considering the big picture is not enough so we need the big picture involvement and that big picture involvement big picture level of involvement comes by the practise of spiritual life when we get spiritual education then our consciousness rises upwards we see the present in its specific relevance as well as in its broader picture this present is going to lead to the future in our present sometimes people say just live in the present just focus on what you are doing right now now living in the present is important no doubt but we can’t let the present overwhelm us many times if we have a very important exam or a very important interview coming up sometimes that tension may paralyse us and we need a double kind of expertise at such times double means whatever question we are facing right now we need to expertly focus on answering that question and while answering that question if we find oh this is good I don’t know what to answer to the question what should I do then we have to have that presence of mind to decide should I deal with this question or should I skip it and go to the next question so while we are doing one thing we have to focus on that one thing but at the same time we have to be aware ok I have this much time and I have this many questions to deal with and this is worth this much time I can invest this much time in this much like that we have to be aware of the broad picture of things also and this awareness of broader reality that comes when we have a spiritual understanding of life because the spiritual understanding of life frees us from the threat of being involved in the immediate being consumed by the immediate if I feel that the next wave of flood water that is coming is going to knock me down and is going to drown me then I will just be constantly feeling threatened but if I am above the flood in an aircraft then I may see flood coming from here I can alert and I can direct what action is to be taken but I don’t feel immediately threatened myself the same way the temperament develops temperament which as I said means emotional management the temperament develops more and more when we have the capacity for emotional management and capacity to manage our emotions comes when we have a spiritual understanding of life because spiritual understanding elevates us above our immediate material circumstances when we understand that we are at our core souls who are different from our bodies who are not threatened by bodily change who are indestructible nainam chinnanti shastrani nainam dhahati pavakah na chainam kledan tapo na shoshyati marutah that nainam chinnanti shastrani that the soul is never destroyed by anything and more importantly Bhagavata helps us understand not just that we are souls but we are souls who are eternal parts of Krishna and when we understand that Krishna is always there with us no matter what happens, no matter how much tension we face in life no matter how much trouble we face in life no matter how immense are the dangers that are there around us still as long as we understand that Krishna is with us we understand that no danger is going to ever destroy us no danger is irreversible and this understanding helps us focus and progress this understanding helps us move onwards and the Bhagavad Gita begins with Arjuna putting aside his bow unwilling to fight 1.46 says he put aside his bow feeling dejected but by the end of the Bhagavad Gita in 18.78 he says that Arjuna has picked up his bow so Arjuna’s capacity to use the bow represents his talent but Arjuna’s determination or his emotional strength to raise the bow and to use it for fighting that represents his temperament and he had lost the temperament at the start of the Gita and that’s why despite having the talent to expertly use the Gandiva he was not able to use it anymore but by hearing the Gita’s message by understanding his own spiritual indestructibility by understanding the eternal enduring nature of Krishna’s love for him by recognising that his life was meant for a purpose higher than just fighting against relatives for some property when he saw that whatever he was doing that is an offering of love to the supreme which is meant for an eternal purpose and that understanding, that inspiration enabled him to contribute in a positive uplifting way and that’s how the Gandiva bow which he lifted up that enabled him to translate his talent with temperament into achievement Achievement was what is predicted at the end of the Gita tatra shrir vijayo bhutir dhruvani tirma tirmama there, where Arjuna is there, where Krishna is there there, there will be victory there will be opulence, there will be power there will be morality there will be all opulences over there everything wonderful will come over there where Krishna and Arjuna unite and Arjuna’s uplifted Gandiva represents our own desire to our own inspiration, our own aspiration to contribute positively, to do justice to our God given talents and to contribute something worthwhile to the world so that is achieved when we let the Gita’s message inspire and empower us to move forward in our life I’ll summarise then we can have a few question answers the talk was on the topic of self excellence principles based on the Bhagavad Gita and I talked about how the excellence in terms of achievement comes through the result of combination of talent and temperament talent plus temperament leads to achievement even talented say sports players, cricket players if they choke under pressure moments then they cannot achieve anything worthwhile and the Bhagavad Gita is a book about boosting one’s temperament temperament essentially means managing our emotions and at the start of the Gita in the inner war that was happening in Arjuna’s heart reason had been knocked down by emotion so emotion is what drives all of us but this is the fuel in a car and the engine and the locomotory mechanism of the car that’s what drives the car but that same mechanism can drive the car smoothly and swiftly on the road or that same mechanism can drive the car off the road so similarly the force of our emotions can inspire us positively or it can distract us disastrously and the capacity to let the emotions empower us and not distract us that is temperament and that temperament can be enhanced by internalising the message of the Gita so with respect to talent I discussed that swabhava plus swakarma leads to swananda that when we understand our inner disposition and then we choose accordingly suitable outer vocation then that leads to holistic satisfaction and I discussed about how today certain talents get glamorised and other people feel left out but if we look at, if we consider all of us have certain talents that all of us are like eating feasts in which different people have different delicacies we too have certain delicacies and by focussing on what we have and trying to develop it we can manage the talent part and for managing temperament part to ensure that we channel our emotions and our emotions don’t consume us we need to situate ourselves at a level higher than our emotions you have two examples for that in a flood if we are on the ground we will feel threatened and we will be disturbed but if we are above the ground in a helicopter we will be concerned but not disturbed so spiritual understanding of life raises our self-understanding to a higher level by which once our self-understanding is elevated to a higher level we don’t feel threatened when we understand that I am a soul who is indestructible that Krishna’s love for me is independent of whatever situation I am in then by that elevated self-understanding we can avoid getting carried away by the world’s ups and downs and second example discusses in a war the fighting itself is important but the big picture vision to know where to focus and from where to withdraw, where to reinforce all that also requires a distancing from the situation so distancing from the situation helps us to be appropriately involved in the situation and that distancing happens when we have again a spiritual understanding by that distancing for the spiritual self-understanding we can channel and focus our energies we can be engaged in the present without being obsessed or consumed by the present and lastly concluded by talking about how Arjuna lost his temperament which is externally demonstrated by his putting aside the Gandhi Vibho but when he by hearing the Gita felt inspired he again lifted the Gandhi Vibho which represents the restoration of his temperament and that eventually led to the long term, the holistic success for him in terms of attaining victory in the battle of Kurukshetra and similarly in the Kurukshetra that we have to fight we too can by practising this combination of talent and temperament move towards achievement. Thank you there any comments or questions I’ll be happy to try to answer them thank you very much so here there is a question from Vaibhav Sharma Prabhu we hear that Krishna is always with us but suppose we are unable to clear some competitive exam and at that time how can we feel Krishna’s presence and how can we move onwards in such situations yes we see in the Mahabharata that the Pandavas had to go through enormous distresses there were times if we look at the highlights of the Mahabharata we could say that oh Krishna protected Draupadi Krishna came and helped the Pandavas and Draupadi when Durvasa Muni came when they were being disrobed there are times, these are the times which we highlight but at the same time if we consider the overall Mahabharata there are times when the Pandavas may well have felt lost that when Yudhishthir was gambling and he was not winning he was losing one thing and another and another and another he would have felt desolate, he would have felt devastated why am I losing, why is Krishna letting this happen to me when the Pandavas were in the forest initially at that time it was months and months before they went to Draupadi’s swayamvar and there Arjuna got the hand of Draupadi at that time when they were living in the forest at least the second time when the Pandavas were living in the forest they had a clear time frame that 12 years in the forest, 1 year at Aghyatvas and then they would come back to their kingdom but the first time when the Pandavas were in the forest they had no knowledge when they would be able to come back if at all they would be able to come back and how they would be able to come back, nothing they knew at that time they were orphans, the mother was there but the father was not there they were not just orphans but they were in today’s terms if we consider, they were refugees they had left their own land, an attempt had been made to burn them alive and they were living in the forest and moving from place to place as refugees and fugitives and at that time they could also have felt desolate when is there going to be light at the end of the tunnel so the scripture is not just about glorious doesn’t just tell us about glorious victories where Krishna miraculously intervenes and does wonderful things those are the dramatic high points of the story but if we look at the overall story there are often low points where the morale of even exalted characters can go down we see in the Ramayana also, we glorify the chastity of Sita but for her the 12 months when she was away when she was away from Ram, that was not at all a pleasant experience so all these times how did she endure it, how did she persevere it was through her inner conviction and she also got outer association the Pandavas had their association of each other Sita had the association of Vibhishana’s wife and in that way she persevered so if we find ourselves getting discouraged by life’s reversals then at that time we need to remember the principles of Bhakti which we have connected with, just thinking that Krishna is with us that is fine, that is fine theoretically but we have to find out those limbs of Bhakti, those activities in Bhakti which help us feel that connection with Krishna at an individual level what makes us feel yes I am connected with Krishna, that Krishna loves me Krishna is there with me, so if we through some kirtan, through some bhajans through some classes, through some shloka recitation, through some darshans we feel the presence of Krishna, we feel the proximity of Krishna we feel the power of Krishna so those are the activities which we need to do regularly by which you can feel the presence of Krishna so philosophically through scriptural narrative we understand that things take time and that there can be dark periods even for dedicated devotees and practically we find out the means by which we can negotiate and overcome these dark periods and thus we can move forwards in our endeavours question, why does the soul become contaminated in the material world even if it is a part of Krishna this is a question from Jayesh Trivedi programme now yes, the soul is a part of Krishna the soul is not Krishna so just as the vast ocean cannot be evaporated by the sun but drops of water in the ocean can be evaporated so like that the illusory energy cannot bewilder Krishna who is in the vast ocean but we are like the small drops, we can be evaporated and because we are infinitesimal, because we are tiny so we have the vulnerability to illusion but vulnerability does not have to lead to defeat or destruction so although that vulnerability is there if we stay focused on Krishna if we stay connected with Krishna then that contamination can be avoided so the infinitesimal nature of our souls that makes us vulnerable to temptation but by staying connected with Krishna we can avoid that contamination avoid that vulnerability to contamination and the more we become strongly rooted in our connection with Krishna the less we will be tempted or overcome by illusion thank you so this question is from Aniruddha Prabhu how to get the feeling that we are souls yes firstly we need to use our reason, our intelligence to understand philosophically how we are souls because without the philosophical understanding whatever feeling we have that will not be enduring so that’s why we study the Bhagavad Gita, we hear classes wherein we get the philosophical understanding and as far as the feeling is concerned we need for that feeling to focus on those activities within bhakti that give us a sublime experience of the kind which we don’t get by any other activities so for example some of us we may participate in kirtans and we may feel something sublime which we don’t get through any ordinary music some of us may recite verses, memorise verses, contemplate verses and that may give us an upliftment which we don’t get by any other thing so that within the process of bhakti there are certain limbs which will nourish and uplift us emotionally and when we try to do corresponding activities so for example we recite say some verses from the Bhagavad Gita and somebody recites say some poetry from some famous poet we will find that famous poet’s poetry will also be nice but the Bhagavad Gita’s depth of wisdom and depth of spiritual emotion that comes from reciting it or from singing some devotional songs nothing else can provide us that so when we consider that everything else remains the same I am using the same mouth to utter some sound vibrations I am using the same brain to process those sound vibrations and yet this particular activity gives me a certain level of experience and other activities don’t give me that experience so from what stratum of my existence is that experience coming that is coming from the spiritual stratum of my existence because everything else is the same if I had not been the soul and if there had been nothing spiritual which could stimulate my soul then there would have been no reason for this special sound vibration which is connected with my spiritual side to evoke such spiritual emotion within me so by that by such introspection based on personal spiritual experiences we can get the emotionally empowered realisation that we are at our core spiritual beings so questions from Vaibhav Prabhu once again how to focus on a task when some astrologer says that you won’t be able to clear this task or achieve a particular result see astrology is a complex subject and when astrologers make predictions sometimes the predictions may work sometimes they may not work it depends especially on the competence of the astrologer that we are going to so it’s important that we choose a vocation which is in harmony with our inspiration and depending on our personal level of faith if our level of faith is not very high in astrology then there is no need to use astrology to disempower ourselves so some of us may come from a background where we may have had traditionally our families having faith in astrology but thereafter we find that because of our education because of our subsequent say college or whatever we don’t have that much faith in astrology now so we see astrology not as spiritual but as a material system of certain kind of knowledge acquisition that is meant to help us move forwards in our life so while moving forwards if you find that a particular kind of obstacle is there then we may decide ok this road is blocked so maybe I have to take some other road or maybe I need not go in this direction I can go in some other direction but if we don’t have much faith in astrology from beforehand then studying astrology or consulting an astrologer and then getting discouraged because of the diagnosis of the astrologer we are simply sabotaging ourselves so that means I am talking about two distinct situations here if we have strong faith in astrology for whatever reasons and if an astrologer who is trustworthy tells us that this is not going to work for you then better give it up better give it up and choose some other option and move onwards in life but if we feel very strongly inspired to do something if we have been told by devotees you can pursue this kind of vocation this will make a significant contribution by this or I want to pursue this kind of relationship because I feel this is good for me if we are determined to do that then we don’t have to let astrological predictions come in the way we have to choose what we are going to do if we want to put faith in astrology and follow astrology then follow it wholeheartedly find a good astrology and follow wholeheartedly if we don’t want to if we have our own reservations about the jurisdiction of astrology say on how much does it apply to devotees or whether the astrologers themselves are reliable or not if we have doubts about it then don’t get involved in astrology at all if we just keep flip flopping maybe trying to find out whichever astrologer will pat us on the back for doing what we want to do then we can make a mess of our life with astrology and best to decide how to move forwards and then move forwards accordingly so in general astrology is like a road map or a weather forecast but it is not necessarily always a reliable weather forecast considering the fact that there are not many astrologers who are of a very reliable calibre on a consistent basis this is not to disrespect astrology or astrologers but considering that astrology has become big business now so there is that risk and that’s why rather than being wishy-washy about going here or there focus on one course of action and then persevere either if you have faith in astrology then just don’t do what astrology doesn’t want us to do but if we have reservations about astrology then move forward without bothering much about astrological considerations and focussing on praying to Krishna and sadhana to Krishna by which we can move onwards steadily now questions further questions from Deepak Meena why do we get bewildered many times even though we know we are eternal and Krishna would be there with his devotees all the time yes again we get bewildered because we tend to forget Smriti Brahmashad Buddhi Nashod Buddhi Nashad Pranashyati in 2.62 and 62 Krishna states that Pranashyati bewilderment or delusion how does it happen Buddhi Nashad when the intelligence is destroyed and how many of the intelligence is destroyed Buddhi Nashad when does it happen when does that happen Smriti Brahmashad when memory is lost so we need to revive our memory repeatedly periodically, regularly so the more we can refresh our memory with spiritual insights the more we will be able to bolster our intelligence and the more we will be able to stay on the right track and yes we may hear classes regularly by going to the temple or read books regularly but if we have something on a regular basis in terms of greater frequency may be everyday we read something from the Gita everyday we have some dose of spiritual wisdom coming to us our way we will find that it will help us to stay on track and our nature is eternal our connection with Krishna is eternal but our recollection of our nature and our connection with Krishna is not eternal it is very variable it is very ephemeral and that’s why we need to reinforce it by regular conscious recollection question from Vishwanath Prabhu how do we understand one’s Sabhava yes that is by introspection and by guidance from others in general if we live with ourselves for a certain amount of time then live with ourselves means we just go through our life we find that these are things which I am comfortable with these are things which I am not comfortable with then by observing that we get some clues about our Sabhava by recognising that we are at our core of a particular nature and what that nature is revealed through self observation it’s like diet in our food we find this food works for me, this food doesn’t work for me this food is great, this food is not so great so when we observe ourselves we learn like that and by learning like that we move onwards so we need to observe ourselves for this purpose the more we can observe ourselves the more we can learn and the more we learn the more we move forward towards self understanding so rather than thinking Sabhava as something some one single thing that will be revealed through some miraculous flash of insight we can consider Sabhava as an ongoing revelation that will move on, that will help us understand ourselves better more and more as we move onwards in our life and that way by observing ourselves and also by having some friends who tell us certain things about ourselves hey do this, don’t do this, you are good at this you know you are not all that good at that so when they tell us like that by their observation by friends I especially refer to our spiritual guides who are also our friends who are also benefactors by their guidance also we can learn more about ourselves but self observation is also very important and rather than thinking of Sabhava as some category into which we have to fit ourselves now for analytical purposes the categorisation Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra is good which is Vaishnavism categorisation but in terms of practical application it’s not that the success of our life is to be able to put ourselves into a particular category the success of our life comes by understanding what we are internally, what kind of body and mind we have and how that can be best used so just like if there are four roads or four lanes on a road and different lanes have different kinds of requirements some lanes go very fast but then they are meant for vehicles of this particular weight another lane it can go fast but it is meant for this kind of vehicle this lane is meant for going slowly now all of them are meant for vehicles to move forward in the same direction but different lanes have different specialisation different strengths or limitations whatever it is so similarly Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra we should not see them as categories or our Sabhava in general rather than seeing it as a category into which we have to fit ourselves we see it as a lane by which we can move forward in the express way of life and while we are moving around in our journey of life the force of life itself sometimes moves us from this lane towards that lane temporarily or from that lane towards this lane so while we are moving onwards we look at ourselves and try to learn which is the lane in which I fit the best that means what is the way I can best contribute there is external competence and there is inner comfort Guna and Karma Karma is competence Guna is comfort when we have certain qualities we feel comfortable doing that activity corresponding to that quality and we are competent in doing it externally so by looking for this inner feeling of comfort and outer competence we can learn more and more about our Sabhava Thank you Question from Kunal Kohli Prabhu I am vegetarian but with onion and garlic is it possible to raise my consciousness above the three modes yes definitely the primary elevation of our consciousness above the three modes happens through the practise of Bhakti and there are certain things which may drag our consciousness down there are certain things which may drag our consciousness up when I am talking about material things but the material forces which affect our consciousness are never as powerful as the spiritual forces that affect our consciousness so if we are focused on the spiritual practises of Bhakti then they can definitely elevate our consciousness and rather than worrying about what we are not able to give up we can focus on what we are able to take up what can we do in our Bhakti for elevating our consciousness if we are doing those activities for elevating our consciousness more and more then we will find our consciousness elevated and with our elevated consciousness we may well find out how we can alter our circumstances what adjustments we can do by which even the external forces which drag our consciousness down we can avoid or counter them too Question by Tejas Zarekar Nobody comes in my dreams as it happens with great devotees such as Prabhupada Sourav Goswami or Karjuna himself saw Krishna Yes, somebody coming in our dreams is not as important as we making someone service our dream Yes, Krishna came in a vision to Prabhupada or Rupa Goswami came in a vision to Prabhupada but that was not what defined Prabhupada what defined Prabhupada was his life long dedication to the service of Krishna to the service of his spiritual master and because he stayed consistently engaged in service he was eventually able to attain glorious things in his life and we too should focus primarily on that aspect whether Krishna comes in our dream or not is not as important as what happens after we wake up from the dream somebody says Krishna comes in my dream and Krishna tells me that there is no need to chant Hare Krishna, there is no need to study Bhagavad Gita there is no need to practise Bhakti in that dream it is not Krishna coming in the dream it is Maya coming in the garb of Krishna in the early days one disciple told Prabhupada Prabhupada you came in my dream yesterday and you told me that I should take LSD and Prabhupada said that was not me that was Maya in my garb so the paranormal divine interventions that may happen in some devotees lives they are significant but they are not defining for the spiritual growth of a person ultimately spiritual advancement is not about what Krishna does to us it is about what we do it is we who have to use our free will to turn towards Krishna and to devote ourselves to Krishna and unless we learn to direct our free will towards Krishna we will not make spiritual advancement so some great personality is coming in our dream is what Krishna is doing for us but when we wake up and try to serve Krishna that is what we are doing so if the paranormal some divine visions come up what should be important is whether they inspire us with greater enthusiasm and greater conviction for our normal devotional activities because what will lead to our spiritual growth is the dedication in the real world our consciousness goes through four different stages there is the present stage is Jagruti when we are awake there is Swapna which is deep sleep there is Sushupti which is deep sleep and there is Samadhi or Turiya when we are in spiritual consciousness so the spiritual growth primarily happens by conscious use of our free will and that use of free will happens primarily in Jagruti in Swapna there is not much use of free will so that use of free will happens when we are awake and that is why we need not worry too much about whether somebody is coming in our dream or not we should focus on whether we are moving onwards towards Krishna in our awaken stage there is a question here that from Suryansin Khatna Prabhu that when we if our life span is fixed not in terms of our minutes but in terms of our breath then does do the exercises that involve fast breathing whether they be jogging, running or even yoga do they lead to shortening of our life span not necessarily we have to understand that there is a interconnectedness between our present and past activities so that means that by our past karma certain things are determined in our life by our present disposition by action certain things change in our life so for example if say in absolute sense the number of breaths for all of us are fixed that’s what where the defining marker of people’s actions then why would Kshatriyas try to fight so heroically why would Kshatriyas in the past train for years to become heroic warriors when their death is going to come its going to come and they are going to die why bother to fight heroically that question could well have come up or for that matter why have Ayurveda as a form of treatment when people’s number of breaths are going to get over they are going to get over and Ayurveda talks about healthy ways of living it talks about unhealthy ways of living so why talk about all these things at all if all that is going to matter is the number of breaths so we shouldn’t have a simplistic idea of destiny in terms of some counter which is just going and you know its like a time bomb which is ticking and the moment that time bomb reaches a particular counter I will say it is down count to zero and tak we are going to die that is a oversimplified understanding of the way in which destiny works it is more in terms of a dynamic interaction between what we have done in the past and what we are doing in the present so when Srila Prabhupada was there on the planet at that time some devotees they were going for some tuition but they went in a van extremely fast and because of their reckless driving they met with an accident and the accident turned out to be fatal so some devotees after that asked Prabhupada that was their death their destiny Prabhupada enquired about the circumstances and when he found that it was due to their reckless driving he said no it was not their destiny it was their own carelessness so now this indicates that there is a subtle and complex level of things happening if somebody drives drunken and then they drive off the road and they fall and die then is that destiny again so the focus on any of these things is that we need to do our part at the same time we acknowledge that there are forces beyond our control which can also change things so when we say that our life span is determined the stress in that is that we should remember that we are not eternal and that we are going to die and we are moving that we are born and we are going to die but we don’t have to constantly be obsessed with that we have to make the best use of the life span that we have right now and making the best use of the life span that we have right now means doing activities that are health inducing so for example doing certain exercises doing certain yoga that is health inducing so it is not just the purpose of life is not just to breathe slow or breathe long or live long the purpose of life is to live productively and if certain exercises even if they relatively speaking make us breathe faster during that period but if those exercises are leading to further growth in our life those exercises are enabling us to move towards a better health so that we can function better and those exercises should be adopted so this destiny is a big and complex topic I have given three classes on Are we the makers of our destiny which is there on thespiritscientist.com and if you are interested you can hear that but here suffice it to say that rather than thinking of destiny as something like an absolute timer which is going to go off after either a particular number of times particular second count or a particular breath count we can see it as more subtle in terms of a dynamic interaction of what is ordained and what is decided by our present choices Thank you Question from Shravan Kumar Prabhu that often the deaths of often in material world the deaths of some people who are great achievers such as Steve Jobs, Abdul Kalam, Muhammad Ali they are celebrated and the definition of success is very different from in spiritual life so how do we practitioners of bhakti respond to such success celebrations yes sometimes the spiritual and the material can be seen as contradictory sometimes some people may by people I mean some devotees or some spiritualists they may say that all material achievements are ultimately useless the spiritual achievements are only important and therefore we shouldn’t bother anything about many material achievements but that is not the in general the attitude of our acharyas Shri Prabhupada he sometimes quoted British poets so for example he would quote especially some British poets whom he had studied during his Scottish Church college education or before that in his school education and if there was some wisdom over there available he would use that and he would make a spiritual point using that wisdom so those poets, those authors be they in English, be they on mundane subjects if they have contributed something worthwhile then that has to be appreciated so actually speaking in many ways for succeeding and achieving anything substantial the same kind of zeal is required in both material and spiritual lives if say somebody has founded a radically transforming company somebody has made some dramatic scientific inventions somebody has made some significant sports achievements so all these none of, nothing comes easy in life so there is sattvaguna, rajoguna, tamoguna and to persevere to the level of becoming an outstanding achiever in any area of life that requires certain level of laudable qualities and sometimes we too can learn from the kind of commitment, kind of creativity the kind of inspiring dedication to a vision which people had, Bhaktivinoda Thakur talks about this also in his Jayaiva Dharma in Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit he says the devotees can celebrate different kinds of festivals where the devotee’s heart is primarily in Vaishnava festivals where Krishna is glorified but he says that apart from that there are certain festivals such as the worship of the Devatas if they are required to be celebrated for social for social purposes they can be celebrated and then he goes on and talks also about further other festivals which are more of entirely social occasions so if for social purposes they are required to be celebrated they can be celebrated so for example Independence Day of a country or a Republic Day they can be celebrated also similarly if there are certain things like that if there are certain laudable virtues in people who are material achievers then we can appreciate those virtues and we can learn something from their their dedication and we can see if that can be used in Krishna’s service Prabhupada would quote Chanakya Pandit who would say that we can look for gold even in a filthy place so those who are material achievers and they are some of their aspects of their lifestyle or some of the aspects of their world views may be very different from the spiritual understanding but if they achieve something there may be something there may be and there often is something valuable that can be learned and another point of looking at this is that if people’s thoughts are there in a particular direction and if we show how from that direction thoughts can be spiritualised so these people are already there so these people are already there in the minds of people and if we can show some spiritual connectedness with that we can give some spiritual comments to certain certain quotes of their, certain incidents in their lives certain factors of their achievement not just in terms of dismissive, oh it’s all material but a little more in terms of more perceptive in terms of connecting the material with the spiritual then we can help people direct their thoughts towards Krishna so their thoughts are already in certain things and if we can show the connectedness of those things with Krishna then we can help them move closer towards Krishna Question from Priya Omar How can we manage when we understand importance of spirituality and bhakti but we fail to keep it going in case of facing any material discomfort or criticism We need the shock absorber of devotee association and the shock absorber also of our own inner conviction Bhakti is never a smooth ride but certain aspects of the ride are often bumpier than other aspects so when that happens if a vehicle doesn’t have a shock absorber then the jaws become too much the shock absorber and the jaws are much lesser so at times of extreme discomfort or criticism we need the association of devotees especially those devotees who encourage us who are appreciative who see the good within us and who help us to move onwards that is when we see this and when we focus on the social on sheltering our consciousness in these recollections in such association and the recollections that come from such association then we are able to move onwards so for example Sri Prabhupada, his spiritual master gave him the instruction to share Krishna consciousness all over the world but then there were so many reversals in his life which he faced materially also he was not very successful spiritually also he was not very successful but then there were several very defining moments when his spiritual master observed him appreciated him, encouraged him and those were the driving moments driving inspirations for him and they enabled him to weather whatever storms life sent his way so we need to find out our own shock absorbers now what are the things that that increase our inner toughness that enable us to develop as they say a thick skin by which we can endure the blows of the world which come upon us so by having that shock absorber in terms of devotee association in terms of personal conviction we can move onwards even in adverse situations in life so just a couple of minutes question from Swapnil Naik how to work towards giving up having any kind of expectation from devotees especially close ones since unfortunately in today’s world our trust and faith tend to get shattered the problem comes when we see devotees separate from Krishna we need to understand that it is Krishna who is inspiring me and who is guiding me and that Krishna can guide me through this devotee at one particular time in our life and Krishna can guide me through another devotee in another time in my life and if we think that Krishna will always if we think that Krishna’s guidance can come only through one devotee and can come completely through one devotee and then that doesn’t happen then we feel disappointed and if that devotee has some problems in the way they are practising the standards that they are practising then we may even feel shattered so if we see devotees as independent sources of inspiration then our trust will get shattered even when we follow a spiritual master now we are following the spiritual master because Krishna tells us to follow the spiritual master and in that sense by following the spiritual master we are following Krishna so whatever spiritual guides we have we follow them because when we get good guidance from them it is Krishna who is guiding us through them when we see their connectedness with Krishna and thereby let their inspiration coming from them help us move towards Krishna propel us towards Krishna then we stay Krishna conscious so sometimes some devotees have problems then we can understand that ok Krishna gave me some guidance through this devotee and now what is going on in this devotee’s life is between them and Krishna I need to move forward in my relationship with Krishna so let me find out from where I can get inspiration now and move onwards now we don’t have to become paranoid about having relationships about having close relationships or coming in general close to devotees in terms of love and trust but the problem comes when we expect everything from one devotee or another devotee we all change as life moves forward others change as life moves forward and sometimes those changes may not exactly work out the same way that we expected so by Krishna’s mercy so we have a broad community of devotees and wherever we find inspiration we take that inspiration and we shouldn’t be disrespectful to those devotees whom we no longer find inspiring now we should just see that as Krishna’s plan and for our growth, for their growth whatever is happening we move forward I’ll just conclude this with an example when children are very small they consider their parents to be like gods and whatever the parents say they will do it but once the children come to their teenage then prior to that if my parents in their childhood if my parents told me to do it I must do it and once they come to their teenage if my parents told it then I will never do it it’s going to that stage of rebellion so what happens is at that time their intelligence started developing and they can start seeing that ok my parents they are not all that perfect they have this problem they don’t do this right they are like this they are like that so initially because of lack of intelligence or lack of developed intelligence in childhood we idolise our parents and afterwards we may even demonise them but gradually hopefully what happens is when the adolescence goes past and one comes to adulthood and starts settling in life then one starts realising that oh there was this which went right my parents have done a lot of good things for me also there is a lot of right that they have done although there might be some deficiencies in what they have given me also but there is much that they have done for me also so basically just as the extremes of idolisation and demonization idolisation and rejection that needs to be avoided and that is avoided as the relationship between the children and the parents matures in adulthood similarly we also go through different phases in our relationship with Krishna with Krishna’s devotees so initially we may have unrealistically high expectations from devotees based on a notion that everybody is very advanced everybody should be very loving very caring nearly perfect and when that doesn’t happen then we may go to the other extreme and just feel that oh devotees always let me down so let me not trust any devotees no we see our connection with Krishna and wherever we find that we are becoming connected with Krishna through someone we channel that we use that with an attitude of gratitude towards Krishna and to those who are His instruments but we don’t have to reduce our relationship to Krishna to our relationship with anyone or to devotees Krishna is infinite and Krishna can manifest to different devotees at different times by thus keeping our vision on Krishna we can non-judgementally have relationship with devotees and move onwards in our bhakti thank you thank you very much for joining in today’s session thank you Hare Krishna