​Should we see adversities in material life as impetuses for practicing karmany va dhikaraste?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so I have tried repeatedly to progress in my material life and despite strong candidacy of things, they didn’t turn out favorably, just when things were going to fall in place, everything went wrong so as so, however does it mean that one shouldn’t attempt extremely hard towards such material aspirations and keep in mind Krishna says and keep going in life with spiritual aspirations and performing duties in material world sometimes when we pursue material life and things can go wrong it can happen for devotees, it can happen for non-devotees, that is just the nature of the material world, so when we say Om, Shanti, Shanti Shanti, three times we say Shanti the reason for that is the soul is trapped in three circles or is encased in three circles the circle of the body and the mind, the circle of society and the circle of material nature or environment and now all these three circles they can cause Klesh the Adhyatmik Klesh, Adhibhautik Klesh and Adhidaivik Klesh so the invocation says Shanti three times Adhyatmik Klesh Shanti, Adhibhautik Klesh Shanti, Adhidaivik Klesh Shanti that’s the aspiration for peace, so actually just being in the material world, whether we are devotees whether non-devotees, things will go wrong now as far as Karmanyavadika is concerned, certainly Krishna last line he says Maate Sangostva Karmani that do not be detached to not doing one’s work so we should not become lethargic or despondent or morose, just because you don’t get success in material life and stop doing things, now we have our duty and we do that duty, so I explained in the how there is karma plus daiva plus kala gives phala, so we do our duty, then the destiny comes in rightly and then when time passes, the result comes the farmer sows the land, ploughs the seed that is the karma, the destiny gives the rains and then time passes and the harvest occurs, so now in this case sometimes destiny may not be favourable and that’s why despite our work the results, despite our karma, the phala may not come, but you should know that whatever karma we are doing, that is contributing to our future positive daiva so in that sense whatever work we do, it does not ever go in vain it always contributes positively and that’s why Krishna says Maate Sangostva Karmani, not be attached to inaction now we can also observe in material life Krishna also says that there are five factors which determine success or which Adhishthanam Tatha Karta Karanam Chyapratak Vida, Vividhas Chyapratak Cheshta, Daivam Chaivatra Panchamam, so he says Adhishthanam, if I were to do any activity, Adhishthanam is the field of action, that is the body Karta, that is the doer, that is the soul Karanam, that is the senses and Cheshta, Cheshta is the endeavour and Daiva, Daivam Chaivatra Panchamam, destiny is the fifth factor so all these five need to come together for the result to come out right, so to give a simple example suppose there is a sports player a cricketer is there, the cricketer has to be in basic health, the body has to be fit, along with that if the cricketer is a batsman or a bowler, there are specific senses required for the specific activity that we are doing sometimes a musician may be physically healthy but the throat may be sore, musician cannot perform so for specific occupations specific senses are required, so the senses also have to be fit and then Krishna says Karta the musician, if the soul has left the body, the musician cannot do anything so the soul has to be there but the fourth factor is Cheshta Cheshta is endeavour so without endeavour, things don’t produce results, Nahi Suktasya Simasya Parvishanti Mukhe Subashita says that by the past karma a soul may get the body of a lion a lion is supposed to be the king of animals but just because that soul has a lion’s body, that does not mean the deer is going to come in its mouth and say eat me please Nahi Suktasya Simasya Parvishanti Mukhe Mrugaha that if the lion keeps sleeping the deer is not going to come in its mouth, even in the lion, having the body of a lion still has to endeavour has to chase the chase the deer to catch it so like that even when we have talents we have to endeavour Cheshta is one factor and then Daiva is the last factor, so we if we don’t do Cheshta we will not get the result so sometimes it happens that we need to keep striving for something and gradually the result comes, so now it is a matter of practical intelligence that means say if I am doing a particular activity and repeatedly I am not succeeding in that activity so should I just keep continuing doing that activity till I succeed or should I look for some other activity, maybe some other career maybe some other direction I should progress in that is a matter of practical intelligence and we can consult others and think of ourselves and decide but in principle failure in material life should not be taken as a license for laziness even if we don’t get success in material life laziness is Tamoguna whereas Bhakti is actually normally in material life if we are pursuing we are in Rajoguna in passion when we are pursuing a lot of things in material life and if we don’t get success in material life we may become frustrated now frustration as I said is not renunciation we are frustrated it is the difference is that they say the three modes humorously described some people make things happen some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened so these are basically roughly the three modes in goodness people make things happen in passion we want to do a lot of things but we do one thing and that creates we don’t do it very thoughtfully so that creates a whole complexity what is happening what is happening so some people watch things happen and some people are ignorant some people wonder what happened so if we don’t get success in material life in passion we are not able to achieve so if we go into ignorance I can’t do anything so that going into ignorance is not really conducive for transcendence we need to rise towards the higher consciousness so when we come towards goodness that means if we have some facing some reversal in material life and if we intensify our spiritual life and pray to Krishna and chant some prayers and associate with devotees seriously and that will bring us to goodness and when we are in goodness we will be able to actually observe what is happening in our material life what did I do wrong is it that I just need to persist in this very field and eventually I will achieve success or should I look in some other field that we will learn when we come to goodness so rather than seeing frustration seeing failure in material life as a license for becoming lethargic about material life and sinking into the mode of ignorance we can see that this is a opportunity to take a pause we take a pause and absorb ourselves in Krishna and then after our consciousness is raised towards goodness then we can see and decide what we can do after that