Tap your inner power by understanding your inner hierarchy – Gita 03.42

[Evening program at ISKCON, Orlando, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, Hare Krishna.
So, I am honoured to be here in Lotus Feet Ocean. And, seek the blessings of Sona Sthigra Maharaj, that I can speak. So, I’ll speak on the topic of tapping our inner power.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about different levels of the inner hierarchy. In 3.42, He says, So he says, Indriyaani paranyaah, so normally we identify ourselves with the body. But above the body, driving the body are the senses.
The body may be situated at one place, but in the eyes see something, I want to get that. And the body starts moving in that direction. So the body is moved by the senses.
So in that sense, the senses are higher than the body. Then further above that is Indriya, Indriyaani paranyaah, Indriyadhyaparamanah, above the senses is the mind, which is what Prabhupada explains in the Purport that actually even when we are sleeping at that time our senses are inactive, but at that time the mind is active, the mind is dreaming. So, in terms of the energy, in terms of the sheer energy that the mind possesses, its energy is much more than the energy of the senses.
Even when the body is tired and it needs some rest, at that time the mind continues to function. Manasastupara buddhe, and the mind is energetic, but what the mind can achieve, that is determined by the intelligence. So the intelligence actually channels the energy of the mind.
It’s like we may have so much wind flowing by in the sky, but if we have a wind vane, then that can tap it into an energy. So just the flow of energy is not enough. There has to be some means by which to tap that energy.
So Krishna says above the mind is the intelligence. And then he says lastly, yo buddhe paratastu saha, beyond buddhi is the saha, this being Krishna refers to the soul. So Krishna talks about four levels over here, the body, the senses, the mind, the intelligence and the soul.
So this is five actually, but the body is something which is implicit, but within that functioning are the senses. So in this, Krishna talks about these four things. While talking about these four things, he stresses on the point that actually, we can function at any of these levels, and which level we function at, that determines how productive we will be.
So last year, I had been invited to Cambridge University to give a talk on science and spirituality. So while returning back, we passed by the tree, where supposedly Newton saw the fruit falling. It’s not exactly that tree, it is a descendant of that tree.
And that place is considered to be like a pilgrimage place for scientists. That is the place where science started developing. So when I was going by there, it just struck me that millions of fruits have fallen throughout history.
So what was so special about this fruit falling? If instead of Newton, at that time, there would have been a monkey sitting over there. The monkey would have just picked up the fruit, eaten it and gone its own way, gone on its way. Why speak of monkey? Many human beings would have done the same thing.
And in principle, there is nothing wrong in that. A fruit has fallen, eat the fruit. It is nice, fruits are delicious, they are natural and good food, we eat it.
You go on with it. Yes, you could have done that. But we humans have two sides.
We have an impulsive side, and we have an intelligent side. The impulsive side is driven primarily towards bodily activities. So the bodily activities are the activities of eating, of sleeping, of mating, of defending.
Now actually, these activities are also needed for the functioning of the body. But when we act only at this level, we limit our potential. So there is the necessity for living, and there is the purpose for living.
What we live with and what we live for are two different things. So what we live with, yes, we all need food, we need shelter. These things we need, the biological necessities.
But what we live with, if that becomes what we live for, if this itself becomes the purpose of life, then we severely limit our potential. So for example, if a student goes to university, say here we have University of Central Florida, University of Orlando. So a student goes to university.
Now when the students are studying, naturally while they’re living in the college, maybe the hostels, for three, four, five years, they need to eat food. And if they’re going to eat food, yes, nobody likes to eat unpalatable food. If you can get good food, fine, you can take good food and enjoy that.
But the purpose of going to a university is not to eat food. The student in the university spends all the time just searching for the best food to get. And in that process, spends all the years over there just looking for good food.
That is a massive underutilisation of the time at the university. Food, and good food also can be got anywhere actually. But the education that the university can offer, that is special.
And with that education, a student can create such a bright career for oneself in the future. So similarly, the human form of life is actually considered for the soul, a precious opportunity for education. And to use this form for simply the biological needs, the biological drives, this is a terrible a tragic underutilisation of the human form.
Now, scientists and researchers have been trying to analyse what is the difference between humans and animals? Is there any difference actually? So basically, the Western thought has gone towards two extremes with respect to the difference between humans and animals. So, much of Western intellectual thought has inherited, has come from Christianity. Actually, it has come from Greek thought, much of which was influenced by Vedic, Upanishadic thought.
But in the modern times, the Greek thought was incorporated into Christian thought by St. Augustine first and then by Thomas Aquinas. In the Greek tradition, there were two main thinkers, there was Plato and there was Aristotle. So, Augustine integrated Christian theology or biblical theology with Plato’s ideas.
That was in the 3rd century roughly, early dawn of Christianity, 3rd, 4th century and then in the mediaeval times, 11th, 12th century, Thomas Aquinas tried to integrate a thought of Plato’s disciple that is Aristotle with Christian biblical theology. And what resulted was the idea that humans are special because humans alone have souls. This was an idea that Thomas Aquinas proposed.
And his reasoning was that only humans have what he called the light of reason within them. They have the special endowment by which they can ultimately know God. So, this is true that we humans alone can know God.
But from this point, he extrapolated that actually this means we humans alone have souls. And then what about the life that is there in other species? So they have different explanations for that. So, one of the explanations that they give is animals have spirit but not soul.
Now, Sri Prabhupada avoided this confusion by using the word spirit soul. So, they have the idea that there is a spirit which animates them but that spirit is of a different kind. So, that spirit is something which lives and then dies.
It cannot know God. So, humans alone can know God. So, Christian theology put humanity on a special pedestal.
And the whole remaining existence, all the flora and fauna, that just became a backdrop for the central drama of human redemption through Jesus. The lives of the birds and the animals, they serve no purpose except to just serve as a setting. So, they will live, they will struggle fitfully, they will grow old and they will die.
And that is the end of their existence. So, this leads to what is called as anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism is anthropos is humanity.
So, a human-centred worldview. Now, of course, in America, people are very attached to their pets. So, one of the popes was asked, What about my dog? If I go to heaven, what about my dog? So, then he accommodated.
He said, if a dog is faithful to a faithful Christian, that dog will also go to heaven. So, there’s some sort of, you could say, pandering over there. But the idea was that only humans can know God.
So, only humans have souls. Then Darwin’s theory of evolution came up. And Darwin proposed that all species have evolved from one species to second species, third species.
Now, the evidence talks about change. The problem with evolution theory, in many ways, is that the word evolution itself means many things. Evolution, if it’s simply used to mean the word change, then change is a fact of life.
And we see, Krishna also says in the Bhagavad Gita, आदिवूतं क्षरोभावः that this material world is constantly changing. So, yeah, a species will adapt to nature. Whatever circumstances there are, they will adapt to that.
So, if we consider evolution as simply change, adaptation to nature, that is a fact of life. Nobody is denying that. So, what happens? Evolution as change, that is observed everywhere.
But evolution as change, which can bring about all the species. What is the evidence that is available is for variation within species. Variation within species means that, okay, if one species is living at a particular place, but then the weather changes and it becomes very, the drought comes over there, water becomes scarce, and the species adapts itself.
So, there’s evidence for variation within species. But then evolution is used for, evolution has this one meaning that, okay, it refers to change, change in response to nature. But then from there it is extrapolated that, that means all change came because of natural selection, as he called it.
So, we see variation within species, but from that the extrapolation is made about original species. And for this, strictly speaking, there is no evidence. Because we have not seen species evolving from one species to another.
But evolution goes even further, and then evolution at third level becomes an all-explaining ideology. Everything that exists, that’s because of evolution. So, why are some people religious? Why are some people atheistic? Oh, evolution has programmed the brains of some people in a way that they believe in God.
Evolution has programmed the brains of other people because of which they don’t believe in God. So, now this has absolutely no evidence that our beliefs, first of all our beliefs, you know, what are beliefs? How can we connect them with brain programming or with the brain analysis? All that we can see is certain chemical states. And the chemical states have got nothing to do, they themselves are intrinsically not emotions.
They are just bodily functions that happen when something deeper experiences some emotions. So, evolution is an all-explaining ideology that is a denier of God, that is a rejecter of God. So, evolution and God, of course, is a very complicated subject.
I am not going to go into that. Our topic is on soul right now. But, so, Darwin proposed that actually humans have come from apes.
That was the original idea. But then they found that there are no intermediate species. Where are the ape men? So, then they changed the theory and they said, actually humans have not come from apes.
There are intermediate species from which both apes and humans have come. And that intermediate species got extinct. So, what happened? There is no need for evidence required.
And the theory can still go on. But either way, the point was that there is no qualitative difference between humans and animals because both have come from the same ancestor. And so, whereas, Christian theology, now this is not directly in the Bible, this is the subsequent thoughts of one thing or the other, that is only humans have souls.
Darwin’s theory of evolution implied that no one has souls. Because one species evolved from another to another to another and nobody has souls. So, these are the two broad ideas that have influenced Western mainstream thought.
Now, the Vedic understanding is that the basic characteristic of the soul is consciousness. It is Chetana. avinashita tadviddhi ye na sarvam idam tatam vinashyam avyayasyasya nakashchit kartum arhati avinashita tadviddhi, that which pervades the whole body, that is indestructible.
So, Srila Prabhupada in that purport explains that what is it that pervades the body? That is consciousness. I can feel anything that is touched on my body because there is consciousness over there. If something touches this table, I do not sense it because my consciousness is not there.
So, consciousness pervades the body. So, the consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Well, Devidya Bhushan is one of the most prominent acharyas in our Gaudiya Vishnu tradition.
He has written a commentary on Vedanta Sutra called the Govinda Bhashya. And there he analyses this relationship of the soul and consciousness. And the basic point is consciousness is the energy of the soul.
Just like we have a light over here. And from that light, its energy, from that bal, its energy is pervading the room. So, Krishna also says this later in 13.34, yatha prakashayaty eka, krtsnam lokame mamravikshetram kshetritha krtsnam prakashayaty bharatam So, this is just as the sun situated at one place illuminates the whole universe.
Similarly, the soul illuminates the body with consciousness. So, Valdevidya Bhushan talks about the jnana rupa and jnana svarupa. So, the soul itself is jnana svarupa.
And the soul’s consciousness which radiates outward, that is the jnana rupa. The consciousness radiates outwards. And the soul itself remains unchanging.
But the extent of the radiation of the soul’s consciousness outwards, that changes. So, the soul is unchanging, but the soul when it goes through different bodies, through different situations, different mentalities, extent to which the consciousness radiates outwards, that changes. What does this mean? This means that the soul’s consciousness is shaped by its bodily circumstances.
So, whereas Christian thinkers postulated that actually the capacity to know God is a symptom of the soul. What the Bhagavad Gita and Bhakti tradition explains is, that actually it is consciousness that is a symptom of the soul. Wherever there is consciousness, there is soul.
So, animals have consciousness, germs have consciousness. But it is the capacity to know God that is the characteristic of the developed consciousness. And that developed consciousness capacity is present in human beings.
It is not present in animals. So, human beings are different from animals. But that difference is in degree.
It is not in nature. It is not that animals don’t have souls and humans have souls. It is all living beings have souls, but the degree of the development of the consciousness of the soul in human beings is much more than that in animals.
And we see to a large extent that animals also have emotions. Those who have pets, they can see that actually they also have emotions. They have feelings like us.
They have moods like us. So, animals are also persons. So, in that sense, they also have consciousness just like we have.
So, actually speaking, we as souls go through various species. And at the lower species, we function more or less at the bodily or the sensory level. Just a couple of days ago was Ekadashi.
Now if a cat sees a mouse on Ekadashi, the cat can’t think, Oh, today is Ekadashi, I have to fast. Why? Because it is driven by biological impulses. Now we are also driven by biological impulses.
But we can regulate ourselves. Now it’s not fasting necessarily for Ekadashi. Some people want to fast because they just want to lose weight.
Now how many animals can think, Oh, I want to lose weight. I’ll fast now. They can’t think like that.
Prabhupada says in one lecture that a hog eats human excreta. And he says the hog delights in eating that. And what is the proof that it delights? Prabhupada says it’s so fat.
Prabhupada says that it eats, it’s bulky. So what is happening? The animals also eat. They also get pleasure in eating.
But they can’t think of doing higher for regulation. So we human beings, whether it is for a spiritual purpose, Okay, I want to get purified. I want to go closer to Krishna.
So I want to fast. Or it can even be for material purposes. I want to look attractive.
So I’ll fast so that I lose weight. Whichever way it is, we have the capacity to regulate our impulses according to our intelligence. In fact, if we consider going back to the starting when I said about Govantai Bhagwan ki jaya So when I spoke in the beginning about Newton observing the fruit falling at that time also, what exactly happened is instead of acting according to impulse, Newton acted according to intelligence.
By impulse, he just grabbed the fruit and eaten it. By intelligence, he thought, Okay, what made this fruit fall? And by thinking that way, he came up with the theory of gravity. And that started the whole engine of the train of modern science.
Started by actually the use of intelligence to subordinate the impulse. So Albert Einstein said that the sciences, the arts and the religions, all are fruits of the same tree of human consciousness. It is human beings who when they act in the world of matter to explore and analyse the world of matter that the sciences come up.
When human beings act in the world of imagination, imagination not in the sense of fantasy, imagination in the sense of creativity, at that time the arts come up. And when humans act in the realm of that which transcends matter, the spiritual reality, that is when religion, philosophy, all these come up. So actually some people feel that science and spirituality, they are contradictory.
If you are scientific, how can you be spiritual? Or if you are spiritual, then you are being unscientific. No, it’s not like that. Science and spirituality basically is the same intelligence, but directed in different domains.
When the intelligence is directed towards the exploration of matter, then that leads to the development of science. When the intelligence is directed towards the realm of spirit, that leads to the development of spirituality. Now, of course, when I said that, when intelligence is used to analyse the realm of matter, that leads to science.
That is true. But what also happens is the majority of the world is not really interested in the intelligence. They are interested simply in the impulses.
So even the scientific progress, which is a result of the intelligence, is used for pandering to the impulses of people. So for example, when I was studying engineering, I did my electronics and telecommunications engineering in India, in one of the top colleges there. So in my fourth year, I started studying television engineering.
And there, this was about 1990s. So there I read that the most extensive use of electronics engineering is to make TVs. That was a big anticlimax for me.
I said, you know, I’ve been studying engineering. I’m using my intelligence. For me, engineering was not just application.
I was more in search of truth. I was trying to understand what is the nature of reality. I said, what is this? I’m using my intelligence to make idiot boxes, to make people into idiots.
Is that what I really want to do with my intelligence? So of course, science is itself a product of intelligence. But the products of science are not used for intelligence. Science is a product of intelligence.
So a computer, internet, mobiles, they all require intelligence to make. But how many people are actually using these products for something intelligent? Yes, people are using it for education. People are using it for intelligent purposes also.
But comparatively speaking, most of scientific products and technology, they are used simply for pandering to impulses. Pandering to impulses, whether it is whatever. If you want to eat, then there are so many advertisements that come up.
People want to meet, whether it is dating or whether it is seeing obscene images or whatever. All this that we see, science and technology are used for pandering to the impulses of people. When this happens, then we end up again on the platform of existence where the animals exist.
The animals exist simply to pander to their impulses. And they use their intelligence also, but their intelligence is used to satisfy their impulses. So when, say, a tiger is to catch a prey, the tigers have a sense, okay, that deer is there and the wind is moving like this.
So if I approach the prey from here, the deer will smell me coming. So the tiger will go all the way around and come from the other side. So when the smell comes, the deer won’t get the smell and it can pounce on it.
So now the tiger, when it’s catching the prey, it is using its intelligence, but its intelligence is used primarily for satisfying its impulses. So if we human beings do the same thing, then we are living at the same animal level. And then, actually, we massively underutilise our potential.
What is our potential? By nature, we are all pleasure seekers. We all want happiness. And we have the potential to find lasting happiness.
We as soul, the soul is sat-chit-ananda. Ananda is happiness. Ananda is a characteristic of the soul.
So as the characteristic of the soul, we are by nature meant to be joyful. But to the extent we identify with that which we are not, to that extent, we lose our joyfulness. The word maya has many meanings.
There is an etymological meaning and there is a philosophical meaning. Ma means not, ya means this. That which is not.
So to mistake something to be that which is not, that is maya. In a philosophical sense, the word maya is often translated as illusion. Now, if you go a little bit into psychology, there are two different terms which are used in common parlance in a similar way, but they are different.
There is illusion and there is hallucination. So illusion means there is an external object, but it is perceived wrong. So for example, somebody sees a rope.
There is a snake over here. There is an object, but the object is perceived wrong. That is illusion.
Hallucination means there is nothing. Somebody is lying over there. Somebody has come over there.
A thief has come over there. There is nobody over there. So hallucination, so that means when there is a perception, when there is a stimulus, but the perception of that stimulus is wrong.
That is illusion. When there is hallucination, there is perception without any stimulus at all. So the perception itself is a product of imagination.
So when we use the word maya, is it illusion or is it hallucination? Yeah, it is illusion. It is not hallucination. So what is the illusion? The objects in this world do exist.
Yes, if there is a gulab jamun, it does taste good. If somebody looks attractive, they look attractive. That object, that object’s beauty, that object’s taste, that object’s fragrance, whatever it is.
We have these five sense objects. We have touched, we touch things, we taste things, we smell things, we see things, we taste things. So like that, we approach things in different ways, through our eyes, through our ears, through nose, through skin.
So like that, the objects out there are attractive. So it’s not a hallucination to say that something is attractive. But the illusion is to think that these objects will give me pleasure.
Yes, they will give us pleasure, but that pleasure is very short-lived. It stays for a few moments, and then after it, it just goes away. Because that pleasure is like a drop.
That is what we are longing for, is the ocean. And that ocean is found in Krishna. Krishna says, whatever is attractive in this world, it reflects a spark of my splendour.
So Krishna doesn’t deny that there are attractive things in this world. He says, there are attractive things, but know that there are only sparks. If there’s a cold night, a spark, what warmth can it give us? If there’s a fire, a blazing fire, it can give us some warmth.
So like that, the objects of this world, they give us some pleasure, but it’s little pleasure. Whereas, when we connect with Krishna, we get lasting pleasure. So, we human beings, by our developed consciousness, we can know God, we can love God.
That means we can connect with Krishna. And by connecting with Krishna, we can relish lasting happiness. Whereas, when we act according to our impulses, we are simply connecting with the sparks.
Come on, eat this, touch this, get this, enjoy this. So all this that our impulses push us towards, they are sparks. They will give us pleasure, but it is flickering pleasure.
It doesn’t last. And that is why, when we act according to our impulses, we underutilise our potential. We deprive ourselves.
But when we act according to our intelligence, then we fulfil our potential. We fulfil our potential means, we can progress in a way that we can move towards lasting happiness. And, I’ll conclude with one point, and we can have question and answers.
Many times, people often get, nowadays there is this whole atmosphere of moral relativism. Moral relativism means, if I feel something is right, then it is right. And nobody has a right to say, this is wrong or this is right.
Everything, I’ll determine it. So morality, people feel, is self-determined. If I feel that something is right, then it’s right.
If you feel it is wrong, you don’t do it. But don’t impose your ideas on me. So, when we get into this moral issue, of course, nobody, people may say, there is no absolute morality.
But it doesn’t work like that. Even people who are moral relativists, they also intuitively know that some things are wrong. If you ask a person who is a moral relativist, do you think that right now in this world, there are some people who are doing things which they should not be doing? Yes, of course.
There are terrorists who are killing innocent people. There are child abusers who are abusing people. So many terrible things.
So then what are you doing? You are making a moral judgement. Isn’t it? Isn’t it? So, the moment we say that somebody is doing something which they should not be doing, that means they are making a moral judgement. And if you are making a moral judgement, that means you are not a moral relativist.
That means you are saying that this is, it’s not just a matter of feeling whether this is right or wrong, it is wrong. Whether they feel it right or wrong, no, it is wrong. So terrorists may be fully convinced that what they are doing is right.
But it’s not a matter of relativism, moral relativism, if they kill hundreds of innocent people. It’s wrong. So, we all intuitively accept that there is something right and there is something wrong.
So, nobody is an absolute moral relativist. Nobody at all. But when we get into moral issues, people can disagree.
You think this is wrong, but I don’t think it is wrong. So, once you get into the issue of what is right and what is wrong, it can become a very indecisive or bitter discussion. It can become sound very judgemental.
You shouldn’t do this because it is wrong. You shouldn’t do this, you should do it because it is right. So, when we get into this whole polarity of right and wrong, people often take it as being very judgemental.
So, instead we can focus on what is wise and what is unwise. What is intelligent and what is unintelligent. I started with the Gita verse, which talks about various levels at which we exist, the body, the senses, the mind, the intelligence and the soul.
So, most of the animals, they act at the level of the senses. Whatever their desire, they pander to that. And if you consider the mind, although the mind is above the senses, normally the mind also functions according to the senses.
That means the senses give us some stimulus and the mind imagines based on that. The mind imagines based on that. And Sri Prabhupada writes in one purport that when we enjoy the senses, when we enjoy the sense objects, most of the pleasure is actually in the anticipation.
Because we think, oh, I’ll eat this, it’ll be so nice, I’ll enjoy this, I’ll enjoy. The mind is anticipating, the mind is imagining. And when we actually get there, the pleasure gets over so quickly.
So quite often the anticipation lasts, the imagination lasts much longer than the actual reality. So what happens is the mind also functions more or less at the sensory level. The intelligence is above that.
The intelligence can actually, so if there are the senses, there is the mind, there is the intelligence. The intelligence can go both ways. I discussed how science is a product of intelligence, but the products of science are not used for intelligence.
They are being used for pandering to the impulses. So what happens is the intelligence can also be used for pandering to the senses. So, for example, people want to surf the internet and they don’t want others to know which side they surf.
So what they do is they use their intelligence to surf in the private mode. So there’s no history left over there. What is that? That is the use of intelligence.
We are meant to use our senses to control the enjoying mentality. But we are habituated to enjoying intelligently. Enjoying intelligently.
Actually, that enjoyment is not intelligent, it is unintelligent. But we are using our intelligence to enjoy. Why is it unintelligent then? Because it is flickering enjoyment, short-lived enjoyment.
Not much enjoyment is there. So the intelligence can go down and be used to pander to the impulses. Or the intelligence can go up and be used to realise the soul and to relish happiness at the spiritual level.
And that is what Krishna recommends in the next verse. This was what I quoted in the beginning was 3.42. 3.43 is Evam buddhe. In this way with your intelligence.
Know yourself to be transcendental. Param. Beyond this body.
You are not material. In this way fix your consciousness on the spiritual level. In this way Arjuna conquer over the enemy of short-sighted desires.
Of impulsive desires. Krishna uses the word kama. Kama doesn’t necessarily refer only to lust.
Kama refers to any impulsive desire, any short-sighted desire. Krishna says how do you conquer it? By using the intelligence to situate oneself in the spiritual level. So Shri Jiva Goswami, one of our prominent Acharyas, he says that for the sadhaka and the siddha.
For the siddha, siddha means the perfected souls, those who are pure. They practise bhakti because of priti. They love Krishna.
And that’s why they naturally practise bhakti. But for the sadhakas, what keeps them in bhakti is their buddhi. Is their what? Buddhi.
Is their intelligence. Sadhakas, they don’t feel always attracted to Krishna. Yes, we also have some devotion to Krishna.
Some priti is there. But our devotion is like a sine wave. Sometimes it is up there.
And sometimes when it goes down, the sine wave becomes a sin wave. So then we do all sorts of non-demotional, anti-demotional things. So if we just rely on our feelings, Oh, when I feel like chanting, I’ll chant.
When I feel like coming to the temple, I’ll come. When I feel like studying the Bhagavata, I’ll study the Bhagavata. Then what happens is, we won’t be able to be consistent in our bhakti.
And we won’t get purified. We’ll get purified, but again we’ll do things which will make us impure. That’s why the buddhi is important.
So the intelligence, when we use our intelligence to situate ourselves in the spiritual platform, then Krishna says we can conquer over the impulsive desires and we can realise ourselves. Then we can relish lasting happiness. So the unique potential of us humans to be able to relish lasting happiness that can be fulfilled when we use our intelligence to realise our transcendence.
Use our intelligence to realise ourselves as spiritual beings, as parts of God. And we learn to love Him. That is how we can fulfil our potential.
To summarise, I spoke today about how we can tap our inner power, how we can realise our potential. So Krishna talks about a hierarchy of being, about the body is the senses, about the senses is mind, then intelligence and ultimately so forth. And then he discussed how the animals function primarily at the level of the senses.
So Newton, he could have acted by the impulse when he saw the fruit falling, just eaten the apple and just gone on his way. That’s what animals would have done. That’s what most human beings would have done.
But science progressed. He was able to postulate the theory because he did not act on the impulse. He acted with the intelligence.
What made this fruit fall? So when we act according to our impulses, it’s not always bad, but it is unwise. It is underutilisation. Just like a student who goes to university has to eat, but the purpose of going to university is not eating.
That would be underutilisation. So like that we have bodily needs which need to be fulfilled. But what is life’s necessity is not life’s purpose.
Our bodily needs, our biological drives, they are our needs. But they are not the purpose of life. The purpose is to realise ourselves spiritually.
And in that connection, this idea of spiritual realising, Krishna says that above is the soul. So then I talked about the two streams of thought about the soul in Western thought. Christianity, by mixing up biblical theology with Greek insights, they came up with the idea that only humans have souls because humans alone have the capacity to know God.
But then what about the rest of the animal world is just left to pointless existence merely as a backdrop. And evolution, when Darwin proposes, nobody has souls because all species have evolved from one to another. The problem with evolution is that the word evolution is used with different meanings.
One is change. The other is change within species. One is change from one species to another species.
Origin of all species. And third is explanation for everything. So what evidence is there for only variation within species? So now evolution proposes that nobody has any souls.
But the Vedic understanding is that actually all living beings have souls because consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Because animals also have consciousness. Birds also have consciousness.
So they also have souls. What is the difference between humans and animals is the development of the consciousness. So we have the capacity to know God because our consciousness is moulded.
But animals also have consciousness. And with this developed consciousness, when we use it to know God, then we are actually using our intelligence constructively. Otherwise we are underutilising our intelligence.
Just like science requires tremendous intelligence to develop science. But then if that all our intelligence is used to pander to the senses, we use our intelligence to study engineering and then we make idiot boxes by which people become idiots. What is the use? So it’s underutilisation.
So science, religions and arts, they are actually the same human being progressing. When we subordinate our impulses to our intelligence and explore the world of matter, that leads to science. When we explore the world of creativity, that leads to art.
And when we explore the world of spirit, that leads to religion, philosophy, spirituality in general. And discuss about how the sciences today or the product of intelligence, if it is mostly used for pandering to the senses, then we stay caught at the lower level of reality. But when we practise bhakti, we are using our intelligence to connect with higher reality.
What is that higher reality? The reality of who we are and whose we are. We are at our core souls. As souls we are parts of God and loving him, we can get lasting happiness.
So I discussed about Maya. Maya is not hallucination. It is illusion.
The world has many objects which are attractive. So the illusion is not that they are attractive. The illusion is that they are so attractive that they will give me lasting happiness.
No, they will only give flickering happiness. They are like sparks. Krishna is like the full flame.
So when we practise bhakti, we use our intelligence so that rather than as per our impulses we get attracted to the worldly objects, instead we direct our attraction towards Krishna. And by that, the process for directing our attraction from the world to Krishna is bhakti. Bhakti yoga.
And in bhakti yoga, the pure devotees, those who are already purified, they will be motivated by priti. They already have affection for Krishna. We will have to motivate ourselves by buddhi, by our intelligence.
So to the extent we use our intelligence to understand, this is impulsive, I will not do it. This is intelligent, I will do it. Then we can grow in our bhakti.
And I concluded that once we get into the issue, this is right, this is wrong, then moral relativists, they just raise their, they just go on a campaign against it. You are imposing your moral standards on us. Actually, nobody can be a moral relativist.
There are some things which everybody agrees they are wrong. So in that sense, although nobody is a moral relativist, but once we get into the zone of what is moral and immoral, what is right and wrong, people become very defensive. So instead we can focus on what is wise and what is unwise, what is intelligent and what is unintelligent.
So if we analyse from the philosophical perspective, acting according to our impulses is unintelligent. And subordinating our impulses for a higher purpose, that is intelligent. And the highest purpose for which we can subordinate our impulses and direct our intelligence, that is realising ourselves spiritually.
So instead of letting the intelligence pander to the mind and senses, use the intelligence to realise the soul and relish the soul’s loving relationship with Krishna. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Any comments, questions? So one example is, thank you very much for your wonderful class. So one example of there being no moral relativists in the world is everyone has to stop at a red signal because not doing it will result in a fine. So no one can disagree, that is something that I will do and no one can stop me from just jumping a signal.
So I was just thinking about that. But one question I had about intelligence. So you gave the example of using intelligence to pander to biological impulses and then using intelligence to try to transcend basically the bodily platform, living on the basis of bodily platform.
So what is intelligence actually? Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that from me comes remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. I am the intelligence of the intelligent. So is intelligence a function of the super soul, of our free will or is it a function of the consciousness? I am not very clear with my question.
I am just trying to understand. Because we can use it, as you said, we can very intelligently try to enjoy matter. At the same time we can try to transcend.
And you mentioned that our best bet is to use our intelligence to seek the higher pleasure or the higher platform. I got the question. So what exactly is the intelligence? We say that it comes from Krishna.
So is it a gift of Krishna or is it a use of our free will? So how can we understand what the intelligence is so that we can use it properly? Otherwise people can use the intelligence also very improperly. We can look at the intelligence in two ways. One is that it is a faculty that we have.
And second is that it is a gift that is given by God. I’ll reconcile both. Let’s look at first the faculty we have.
Just like say we have some muscles. Now just by being born and having a body, we have some energy level with us. We can lift up certain weights.
But if we go and do workouts regularly, we exercise, then those muscles become stronger. And when the muscles are stronger, they can lift bigger weights. So you can say at one level, the intelligence is like a faculty which we have.
So this is a faculty which enables us to differentiate between the short term and the long term. Between say the immediate and the ultimate. Between the philosophical perspective and the material and the spiritual.
Basically intelligence is the discerning faculty. That discerning faculty is something which we human beings have been given. By which we can prepare, we can foresee the future and we can prepare for the future.
So this is a gift which we have. All of us have this. And depending on how much we use it, just like how much we exercise our muscles, the muscles will grow.
Like that, how much we use our intelligence, depending on that, it will develop. So this is, I could say, the intelligence as a faculty which exists independent of its purpose. It is simply dependent on its use.
See purpose means why it is being used. Use means simply it is being used. Somebody can exercise their muscles and become a big body builder and then they become a thug.
They beat up others. Or somebody can build their muscles and they can use it for law protection, for protection of others, for the purposes of law. Both ways is possible.
But muscles are muscles. If you have them, that makes you strong. So like that, intelligence is intelligence whether it is used for godly purpose or ungodly purpose.
And this intelligence can be developed. So there are different kinds of intelligence. Some people have musical intelligence.
Some people have linguistic intelligence. Some people have logical intelligence. There can be different kinds of intelligence also.
And depending on how people develop them, they will become strong in that field. So intelligence in this understanding is a tool, whichever way we use it. But there is a difference between intelligence and muscles.
Because whereas muscles are simply tools which we can use for various purposes and intelligence is also a tool. But intelligence is a tool which is categorically different because it is a tool that also guides us about how to use various tools. My muscles don’t guide me what to do.
But my intelligence is a tool and it also guides me what I should do, what I should not do. One of the aspects of intelligence or the central aspect of intelligence we could say is deciding what to do, what not to do. That is not the only aspect.
But that is also an important aspect. So from the spiritual perspective, the decision making capacity in terms of what is short term, what is long term, that is what is the most important aspect of intelligence. So Bhagavatam often talks about how somebody might be a Brahmana but that person may not be a devotee and compared to that somebody may be low born but that person they are devotees.
After Lord Maharaj in his prayers to Narasimhadeva in 7.913 states that actually that my Lord, if a Brahmana is proud of one’s intelligence and is not devoted to you, then that Brahmana cannot deliver oneself. On the other hand, if there is a low born person, if that person is devoted to you, then what to speak of oneself, that person will deliver one’s whole dynasty. So there are two different points.
There is we could say the content and there is the consequence. In terms of content, the Brahmana has intelligence. This is also his quality.
There are twelve qualities of a Brahmana. They have those qualities but they don’t have devotion. On the other hand, somebody doesn’t have that content in terms of intelligence.
But because they are devoted to Krishna, the consequence is auspicious. Supremely auspicious. This means that there is the intelligence which guides us, there is the aspect of the intelligence which guides us about how to use our intelligence and how to use everything else that we have.
Not just the intelligence but everything else that we have. That is the discerning capacity within the intelligence. And it is that which is primarily developed by scriptural study.
By sadhana. By svadhyaya and sadhana. What happens is, so I earlier talked about different kinds of intelligences, musical intelligence, logical intelligence, linguistic intelligence.
But from this philosophical perspective, there are these two things. There is discerning or discrimination and there is determination. Discrimination means the capacity to understand what is right and what is wrong.
And determination is the capacity to do what is right and to avoid that which is wrong. So these are the faculties of the intelligence that are the most important for spiritual growth. In fact, actually they are important for growth in any field.
Even if somebody wants to become a champion athlete, they also have to be determined to keep training, keep practising wisely. But let’s focus on spiritual growth right now. So, Therefore Krishna says, with your intelligence, sorry with scripture, know what is to be done and what is not to be done and act accordingly.
So scripture practically guides us in terms of discrimination. Svadhyaya will lead to our discrimination faculty increasing. So discrimination is called as viveka in Sanskrit.
Viveka buddhi, viveka is discrimination. And then there is dhruti, dhruti is determination. Determination is what is developed by sadhana.
When we chant, when we associate with devotees, when we connect with Krishna through purifying activities, then our determination becomes stronger. Yes, I want to do it, I’ll do it. So it is not necessary that say a person who is not very linguistically intelligent, just by practising bhakti they will become very linguistically intelligent.
By linguistically intelligence I would say that, say the capacity to memorise verses. Verses deal with words. Some people are just brilliant at that.
And some people, you know, for them, memorising verses causes them so much tension. I can’t do this. Now yes, we all, as I said, they are like muscles.
Everybody can improve their muscles by some workout. But, you know, we also have some innate muscles and it’s not that everybody can become a big body builder just by exercise. The body also has some amount of limitations to it.
So it’s not necessary that by the practise of bhakti our linguistic intelligence will improve or our musical intelligence will improve. Not necessary. Or our artistic intelligence will improve.
But by the practise of bhakti, our discerning intelligence, the discrimination and determination, that will definitely improve. So, now this is what Krishna says, I will give you that. So when Krishna says, buddhir buddhim tamasmi, he’s talking about in two different contexts.
One is, whenever we see an intelligent person, naturally we’re impressed. Somebody can say, multiply 13 digit numbers in their head and give the product. Brilliant.
So you should understand. In India there was a mathematical genius, Shakuntala Devi. She could do like this.
The calculator will take more time than her. And at least the calculator will type the numbers. You just speak the numbers and she gives the answer.
She’s asked, how do you get the answer? She’s not like doing calculations. Oh, okay, this into this is sum, I carry over. Nothing.
These two numbers are given to her and the answer comes from within. That’s what she said, I just get the answer. So how is that coming? That is, Krishna is giving that intelligence.
Just like some people have good memory capacity, some people have good mathematical capacity. So when we see somebody who has a lot of intelligence, we get attracted by that. What we should see is, that their intelligence is coming from Krishna.
If this person is so intelligent, how intelligent Krishna must be. So I can respect the person for their intelligence, but I focus on Krishna. So when Krishna says, I am the intelligence of intelligent people, that is meant to help us redirect our attraction from those intelligent people towards Krishna.
Now that is one kind of connection between Krishna and intelligence. That intelligence is a gift given by Krishna to them. But it can be, rather than getting attracted to them alone, we can get attracted to Krishna.
The other is the decision-making faculty. Krishna says, Krishna says, Krishna says buddhi. In 10.10 he says, if you practise bhakti, then I will give you the intelligence by which you can come to me.
So buddhi yoga is a compound word. Now there are different kinds of yoga. There is karma yoga, jnana yoga, there is ashtanga yoga, there is bhakti yoga.
There is no particular process called buddhi yoga, distinctly. What does buddhi yoga mean? It means two things. Compound words.
It is the buddhi that enables us to do yoga. It is the buddhi that enables us to do yoga. Yoga is, the word yoga means connection, connecting with God, ultimately, connecting with supreme spiritual reality.
So the intelligence that enables us to connect with supreme spiritual reality, that is buddhi yoga. So the buddhi that enables us to do yoga, that is buddhi yoga. Another meaning of buddhi yoga also, if you take the second word as meaning, the yoga that leads to buddhi, that will refer to bhakti yoga.
So Prabhupada uses that second meaning whenever he translates buddhi yoga as bhakti yoga. Bhakti yoga is the yoga by which Krishna gives us intelligence and we move closer to him. So for us, as sadhakas, we can try to exercise and develop our various intellectual faculties, whatever we have.
We can try to become more musical, we can try to memorise more verses, all those things we can try. And by practise, we can improve a little bit. But what is most important, what is Krishna’s mercy is, is decision making practise.
As we keep practising bhakti, right now, say, we are struggling our attachment, against our attachments. Say no to something and then again the temptation comes and we fall for it. Again we say no, again the temptation comes and we fall for it.
This is a struggle through which we will go through at present. We may go through for a long time. But at one particular point, you know, Krishna will give us that realisation.
This is not enjoyable. Why am I doing this? This is simply causing me suffering. Why do I need to do this? Just let me give it up.
So that clear insight, which comes, which makes the decision so clear for us, that is Krishna’s mercy. So that will come over a period of time. That is purification, that is realisation.
That will also come. So to summarise, I gave a long answer. Intelligence is a faculty, which we have, which we can develop by practise, just like muscles are developed by practise.
But intelligence is a distinctive faculty, because it is a faculty that guides us to use all other faculties, including intelligence itself. So the intelligence as a faculty in terms of processing matter, whether it is music or words or places. Some people have very good geographical intelligence.
They are driving, just go one place, they remember. Some people, they go ten times and they come here before. So this sort of, so intelligence and the capacity to process matter, that may not change drastically for people, even if they practise bhakti.
But intelligence as a faculty of understanding what is the purpose of processing matter, and what is the purpose of living itself, that intelligence is developed by bhakti. So whatever I have for what I use, that intelligence is developed by the practise of bhakti, by which we can make right decisions. And thus we can move closer to Krishna.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions? Yes.
I think I have a question which is kind of in the same line of thought. My question is how do we make sure that while practising bhakti, when we are trying to develop our intelligence or find our intelligence, purify our intelligence, how do we remain simple? Because sometimes it so happens that while practising bhakti we tend to become too much calculated, too much over smart, I would say. And it kind of becomes an obstacle.
On the path of bhakti, because you know, how to remain simple while practising. So how can we remain simple while practising bhakti intelligently? Because intelligence can make us too calculated or over smart. There is simple mindedness and there is simple heartedness.
Simple heartedness means we have simply one purpose. We don’t have any ulterior motives. Our purpose is to move closer to Krishna.
Our purpose is to serve Krishna more and more. So that simple heartedness is what a devotee needs. So it’s not that I am practising bhakti and we all have other motives but we don’t nourish those motives.
I am not practising bhakti so that I will become famous, that people will respect me, how clever I am, how religious I am, how this I am. Those motives will be there but when they come, we beat them down. We don’t nourish them consciously.
So we need to be simple hearted. In terms of Krishna is our purpose. Simple mindedness means, actually it’s like a simpleton.
A person who cannot analyse things very deeply. A person who just naively believes anyone and everyone. So as bhaktas we are not meant to be simple minded.
We have to be simple hearted. Now as far as practising bhakti intelligently and becoming over smart or too calculative is concerned, calculation is not bad. Krishna also says, you see, when he talks about surrender, not Krishna, Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Padmapurana, when they talk about surrender, what do they say? That which is favourable I accept, that which is unfavourable I avoid.
Now that means I have to decide, isn’t it? What is favourable, what is unfavourable? And that requires a moment of calculation. The word calculative is usually used in negative sense. But again we can go back to the word discerning.
So what is favourable, what is unfavourable, I have to consider that. And there is nothing wrong in that. Say if I have limited time for practising bhakti, then if I spend that time chit chatting with a devotee who is going to just gossip about various things.
I may say I am in devotee association, but I am not associating spiritually with the devotee. Then I may say, okay, no, I just offer obeisance, offer respect to the devotee and I will associate somebody else who inspires me in my practise of bhakti. This is not being calculative.
This is just being purposeful. My purpose in coming to a temple is not just to gossip about who is doing what. That I could do in the material world also.
If I am coming to a temple, that is to go closer to Krishna. So being purposeful in that sense of what serves our purpose, that is actually essential for the practise of bhakti. So calculative is a negative word for it.
But a positive word is more of discerning. Now we could become calculative even in the practise of bhakti in terms of fulfilling our own agendas in bhakti. Oh, this person is in a position of power.
So if I please them, then they can do a lot of things for me. This person is insignificant. It’s a devotee, but we consider insignificant.
I don’t pay any attention to them. If we start doing like that, then what is our purpose itself has changed. Our purpose has become more get position, get power or whatever.
And if the calculation is done for that purpose, then that will be unhealthy for our bhakti. But if we are doing analysis or discerning for the purpose of what is favourable for our bhakti, then that is desirable. In fact, that is essential.
So over smart can also mean in a philosophical sense that whenever we hear the philosophy, we start asking questions, we start doubting, we start becoming critical. So that can become a problem because in any field we grow gradually. It’s not that when a student starts studying physics first day, all the questions about physics are answered.
One has to have faith. Okay, this teacher, he or she has taught for a long time. They know the subject.
It is that not all questions can be answered on the first day. So you have to have some faith. So it is said on the spiritual path, the intelligence should be our minister, not our master.
Minister is one who gives the advice. Master is one who tells us, do this, don’t do this. So our intelligence, we should definitely be taking guidance from the intelligence.
But just because, or rather than intelligence, we could use the word reason or logic, which is one aspect of intelligence. So everything in bhakti, may not, all the aspects of the philosophy, may not be immediately understood in terms of logic. Because Krishna is transcendent to everything.
That means he is transcendent to logic also. Jiva Swami says, he talks about achintatva of Krishna. Achintatva means inconceivable.
And he says that if the absolute truth is truly absolute, if the supreme is truly supreme, then that means he should be superior to our intelligence. And therefore, we will not be able to understand it fully with our intelligence. Sometimes we may find some aspects of the philosophy, which we don’t understand completely.
So it’s not that because I don’t understand this, so I’ll just not move forward. I will not practise bhakti. Unless you answer this question, no, I’ll not.
No, we have to use our intelligence. Okay, okay. I don’t understand how important is it really.
I can ask somebody else. I will find out later. And we move onwards in our bhakti.
So if we let our intelligence get us stuck in any one place and over one particular issue and don’t move forwards, then we will not, then also our intelligence will do disservice to us. So being simple hearted means, say for example, I study the Bhagavatam. The purpose of the Bhagavatam is to help Parikshit Maharaj remember Krishna.
It’s also to help us remember Krishna. If I come to the fifth canto, cosmology in the Bhagavatam, why does it make sense to me? How do I understand this? Well, there are devotees who have written books about reconciling fifth canto cosmology with modern scientific cosmology. If you really have interest, we can study that.
But you don’t have to become obsessed about that. This is just some pre-scientific mythology. I don’t believe in this.
I don’t believe in this Bhagavatam. I reject it. Not like that.
You have to understand, this is just, this is what helped Parikshit Maharaj to remember Krishna at that time. Now, if it is helping me to remember Krishna, I’ll study it deeply. If it is not, I’ll be respectful, but I don’t understand it and I don’t have the time or the energy to try to understand his writing.
Let me keep moving forward in Bhagavatam and let me come to the heart of the Bhagavatam. That is the remembrance of Krishna. So that way, intelligence, we can be purposeful in making sure that we keep moving towards Krishna.
So, if we use our intelligence to discern what is right and what is good for our bhakti and what is not so good for our bhakti, then that intelligence will never obstruct us in our bhakti. That won’t make us over smart. But if we let the intelligence alone decide everything that we are going to do, including whether to practise bhakti or not, then that can lead to problems.
Thank you. Any other questions? Do we have time? Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t have a presentation from the beginning, so I missed something.
One thing I wanted to ask you about is you know, we try to have proper understanding and use our intelligence and make the best choices or, you know, like you are saying, that we use our discrimination, what is the best for us. But I think there is another aspect which is very important, which we need to stress, which is not only what we understand what is the best for us from spiritual growth, but also where we are situated, where we are, what are our needs, and you know, the physical, because we know from the scriptures, like for example, for the men, we should live in the temple as brahmacharis and completely forget about women and be involved with the material world, mixing with material energy, because our intelligence is telling us that this is the best place, being a brahmachari, serving all day long, worshipping the deities, chanting the holy name, doing simple service, that’s the best for us. But we can see that not everyone can do it.
You know, our intelligence can tell us, yes, this is the best option for us, but still our capacity is not there. So if you could explain a little bit how to find the proper balance, or how to use our intelligence to not to get to the point that we are getting too fanatical about ourselves, because we can, you know, when we get to the stage, we can also ruin our family life, and everything, you know. So if you could… Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Important question. Definitely. Just looking for a verse in the Bhagavatam.
You’ll find it. Okay. So the question is that, say, with our intelligence, we may understand that certain thing is the best thing to do, but when we are not able to do it, then we may thwart ourselves, frustrate ourselves by that.
So how can we be intelligent and at the same time be not fanatical, be realistic? See, actually, in the Uddhava Gita, Krishna says, स्वे स्वे दिकारे या निष्ठा Basically, the verse says that, Uddhava is asking many questions to Krishna. And one of the questions he asks is, what is dharma? So he says, there the answer he gives is, dharma is determined by one’s adhikar. Adhikar means authority or level.
स्वे स्वे अधिकारे या निष्ठा So one’s faith is based on one’s adhikar. And then Krishna talks about how there is karma yoga for some people, there is jnana yoga for some people, there is bhakti yoga. So in the Uddhava Gita, it’s quite clear that the bhakti yoga is the best.
But Krishna also says, you cannot practise bhakti yoga, practise some other yoga. Practise some other yoga, just stay connected on the path of transcendence. So, as far as, say, living in a particular ashram or choosing an ashram is concerned, we have to be intelligent.
Ashram is one consideration, but anything else, it’s like anything, if I’m eating food, how much should I eat? I may see somebody else eating very less, but if I start eating like them, I find that I’m constantly starving. They may eat a little food and they go on with their life, I eat a little food and throughout the day I’m thinking of food. What is the use? I may need to eat more, and then I move on with my life.
So, when we say that spiritual life means to discover yourself, we need to know who we are. And knowing who we are is not just knowing we are the souls, that’s most important. But that I’m a soul, at the same time, I’m a soul in a particular kind of body.
I’m a soul with a particular kind of mind. And we may say the mind is the enemy, but then the mind is what I have to live with. I cannot kill the mind, I cannot get rid of the mind.
This is the mind I have. Just like sometimes some parents, they may have a child who is very naughty. Okay, you can try to discipline the child, but the child is by nature very restless, that’s how the child is.
The parents have to learn to live with that child and try to make the best with that child. So Krishna uses the word chanchala for describing the mind. Mind is restless.
Chanchala is also an adjective used to describe children. So the mind is like a child, and we have that mind with us. So we want it to grow, but the mind is what it is.
And we need to know that we can’t just change it overnight. The body is what it is, we can’t change it overnight. So knowing ourselves means knowing who we are, but also means knowing what are the tools I have with me.
So when we say knowing yourself, at a spiritual level it means that okay, I am a soul, and I am meant to attain Krishna’s abode. It’s like say, I understand that. Okay, so suppose, you know, say somebody is kidnapped, and that person runs away, but after they find out, or they are drugged and they are kidnapped, they come out of their drug is, where am I now? Which place is this? Where am I to go back? So that first level of understanding is, okay, this is where I have to go back now.
This is where I am here, this is where I have to go back. But after that, okay, how am I to go back? Do I have enough money to go by a plane? Or should I go by a car? Or should I go by a bus? Or do I have to hitchhike? That will depend on how much money I have. So like that, we could say that we all have a particular kind of body and mind.
So at one level, know yourself means to know that I am a soul, and the soul has to become connected with Krishna. But another level, what are the tools that I have to connect with Krishna? That is very important to know. And then I have to connect with Krishna according to the tools that I have.
So some people, so Varanashram, nowadays there is a lot of talk in our movement about establishing Varanashram. The essence of Varanashram is not simply dividing society into four Varanas. The essence of Varanashram is to help people live their material life in a way that is harmonious with their spiritual life.
So material life means we have to pursue our material needs. We have to gain material necessities. But we do that in a way that is spiritually harmonious.
So the expertise of Varanashram was that in this world, everyone has to face problems. But Varanashram allocates people the kind of problems that they like to face. That means a brahmana likes to study Shastra.
So if you tell a brahmana, you know in the Bhagavatam, there is a verse which says that sometimes for a good purpose we may have to lie. Can you find that verse? Yes, brahmana will do the research quickly and find the verse and get it back. But if somebody is a Vaishya, and you tell that person, please find this verse.
Thousands of verses in the Bhagavatam, where will I find one verse? Just pick the class without the verse. What is the problem? Who is going to notice? So that same thing which looks like a relishable thing for a brahmana, becomes like a burden for a Vaishya. On the other hand, somebody is a Vaishya.
We tell them, oh we have to build a temple and we have to raise a million dollars. Yeah, now I have something to do. I’ll meet this person, I’ll develop this contact, I’ll establish this.
And if you tell a brahmana, we have to build a temple, we have to raise a million dollars. After building a million dollar temple, you are going to study Shastra only. Study Shastra now.
Why do you need to raise all that money? So what happens is that both get the opportunity to serve Krishna. Both get the opportunity to practise Dharma. But they can practise Dharma happily when it is according to their nature.
So in today’s world, we don’t have Varnashram. So it is our responsibility in consultation with our spiritual guides to find out our nature, to find out our capacity and then serve accordingly. So intelligence means, I’ll conclude with this, three parts.
Intelligence means first is to understand the ideal and why it is the ideal. That I am a soul, I am meant to love Krishna. And why is this true? That intelligence I understand philosophically.
Intelligence means to understand the ideal and why it is the ideal. Then intelligence also means to understand what is practical and why it is practical. You know, this is what I can do.
It is good to fast nirjaroni kadashi but that is not practical for me. Why is it not like that? I use my intelligence. Maybe I have a body which cannot fast or whatever.
But then we cannot just stay at the practical level for the rest of our life. So then intelligence means to find out how the practical can be adjusted so that I can progress towards the ideal also. So we all have to eat but we need prasad.
We all have to eat. We all have to do various activities. So an intellectual will want to study.
But there are so many subjects that can be studied. But I study Shastra. Because that helps me to go closer towards Krishna.
So intelligence means to understand the ideal, understand the practical and understand the way by which the practical can lead to the ideal. So that way when we live, we will live harmoniously. Harmoniously with who we are and harmonious with the broader society also.
Does that answer your question? It will be always crooked one way or the other. And it doesn’t matter if we are in the Brahmacharya Ashram or the Trihasta Ashram. If we are not, how to say, if we are not aware of who we are or where we are, it will be always difficult to find the proper measures to progress.
Because either we will go to Panapurita or to India. And so I appreciate this. Krishna talks about Yuktahara Vihara.
So regulated. He regulated. Actually Prabhupada was transcendental.
But even he took care of his body. Daily he would spend substantial amount of time doing massage, having massage done for his body. Every day he would go for morning walks.
He would of course speak to his subjects, but he would go for a walk every day. So Prabhupada also here is an example of taking due care of the body. So we do have to do that.
No doubt. Thank you very much. Shreya Prabhupada ki! Shreemad Bhagavad Gita ki! Gaur Bhakta Vrinda ki! Gitai Gaur Kriyamananday!