Tap your inner power – TAB acronym with Srila Prabhupada’s example

[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, St Louis, USA]
Video

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you today. And I’ll speak on the topic of tap your inner power. We all seek power.
Even if we are just living in our own homes. Even if a small baby, just new born, the baby seeks power by crying as loudly as possible. What is that power? Baby cries loudly, so everybody else drops what they are doing.
Sarva Dharmaan Parinthaj. We just give up everything and run to attend to the baby. Now, of course, sometimes the babies may be in great pain and they need help, need attention.
Sometimes, they may just be crying because they want attention. They don’t have any other need. But whatever it is, for a baby who is just born and is hopeless, the realisation that by crying, I have some power.
I can attract others to come and attend to me. Similarly, when we grow and learn language, that gives another level of sophistication to our ability to change things in the outer world. When we want education, the purpose is, Francis Bacon said that knowledge is power.
The idea is, we pursue knowledge, then we can have greater power. Power to earn money, power to have a position, power to have respect. Practically, everything that we do, at one level, we are looking for power.
Even, you could say, at one level, even relationships, we are looking for power. Every relationship begins with the hope that we will be able to change the other person according to our will. So, once a marriage counsellor was counselling Sir Copkins.
So, he asked all the men to separate in two groups. All the men who can control your wives, move on this side. And all the men who are controlled by their wives, move on this side.
So, all the men moved on the left side. Except, only one man moved on the other side. He asked him, do you really control your wife? No.
Actually, my wife told me to come here. Laughter So, essentially, every relationship at one level is an attempt to control. Now, of course, control or power itself is not bad.
It is the intent, the motive, for what are we seeking power. Now, parents want some power over their children, so that they can discipline and guide them, so that they can become responsible citizens. Now, we may want some control in the relationship, so that the other person can do what responsibility they want to do.
But basically, the point is, we are all looking for power. At a broader level, scientific research is all motivated by the search for power. We now have nuclear weapons, which have the power to destroy the whole world, many times over.
So, at one level, a search for power. However, there is one power, which very few of us even seek to discover. What to speak of actually discover.
And that is our inner power. We can have outer power to varying degrees. But, that power can slip away from us at any moment.
A month or so ago, I met a person who had been very wealthy, very popular, very influential. And somehow, a series of things went wrong in his life. And now, he was on a bed in an accident, immobilised.
He had lost his position. He had lost his fame. Many of his admirers had turned against him.
And he was broken. Now, when I thought about, and I was talking with him, it struck me that he still had reasonable amount of wealth. He still had reasonable amount of resources to live on.
He would recover from whatever disease he had. But I noticed that what hurt him most was the sense of powerlessness. So, life can sometimes put us in situations where we have no external power at all.
And those situations can become opportunities for us to discover our inner power. What is outer power and what is inner power? Outer power is the power over the things in the outer world. People, objects, processes, situations.
Inner power is the power over our inner world. The power over our thoughts, emotions, desires, intentions, ultimately actions. And sometimes, as we are moving forward in the world today, actually many of us by technology have got a lot of outer power.
But we have lost inner power. And that’s why our minds are troubling us so much. And for many people, many mental health problems, some of them may require attention, but many of them are just the mind hurting and tormenting us.
And suicide is the ultimate expression of the total loss of inner power. A person has no power over their mind and their mind turns against them and kills them. So, we all need inner power.
And how can we develop that inner power? So, I’ll talk about this using an acronym TAM. And I’ll illustrate this principle of inner power through the life of Srila Prabhupada. How he was put in a situation of utter powerlessness.
But there he exhibited inner power. So, suppose we are working on a computer. Some people, when they work on their computer, they have 25 tabs open.
And the 25 tabs open and they have some loud blaring music coming from somewhere. The 25 tabs open, three of them are frozen and they don’t know from where that noise is coming. So, what to do? We’re stuck over there.
We become stuck like that mentally sometimes. We don’t even know where we are stuck or how we are stuck, just unstuck. So, if there is some unwanted image that is opened up, sometimes some pop-ups come up on a computer or device and then you look around where do you minimise it? You can’t see it all.
Some deceptive pop-ups, they are such that the cross is merged with the background colour. You can’t find it only. Even if you can’t minimise something, you can just shift your screen to somewhere else.
Even if you can’t close a tab, you can still open a new tab. So, tab refers to three things, thoughts, attitudes and behaviour. So, when we are in an external disempowered situation, when nobody is listening to us, we don’t have good health, we don’t have money, we don’t have any of the external sources of power.
At that time, still we can have inner power. Inner power means, we can still have power over what we think about, how we look at the outer situation and what we do in the outer situation. So, let’s see how this power can be exhibited.
Nrsila Prabhupada, at the age of 69, went from India, or came from India to America all alone, without any money, without any contacts, without any institutional support. When he stepped onto that ship, Jal Dutta, all alone, it was one of the greatest acts of courage in human history. Old people, for them to go alone on such a journey, at least in India, he was respected as a sadhu.
Irrespective of which person’s house he would go, he would at least get some food, get some dakshina, could live. But in the West, he didn’t know anything. He didn’t even know at that time whether he would get vegetarian food.
He was vegetarian. He carried some vegetables with him. That’s all.
So, when he started coming there, as he came to America, the only resource he had was his body. Although his body was old, still his body was functioning well. But that resource also collapsed.
First he got severe seasickness and after that he got two devastating heart attacks. I have met people who have got heart attacks and nowadays if somebody gets a heart attack, immediately there is emergency resuscitation, you call one, call emergency and take them to the hospital and help them survive. But what to speak of calling emergency, there was no medical support on that ship itself.
So he had to bear it all alone. And he somehow survived it. So you could say that he had become from the external perspective completely disempowered.
Now Prabhupada wrote a diary at that time in which he reported his thoughts, his experiences, whatever were there. So in one of the diary entries he writes that I am reading about the Lord, I am reading Chaitanya Tamrita and thinking about the Lord is the nectar that is sustaining my life. Our thoughts can literally energise us or de-energise us.
You can see sometimes some people, if they have many many problems in their lives, when they walk, they are drooping, they feel as if the whole burden of the world is on them. And then they hear one more bad news, one bad thought comes in, they just collapse completely. So sometimes a thought pops up within us and we just get completely de-energised.
See suppose we have a phone and then we charge the phone but as we are doing our work, we are just doing our work and three hours we find the phone has only 10% battery left. Hey, what happened? I didn’t talk much. So what had happened is, maybe in that phone there are energy sucking apps which are functioning in the background and although we are doing nothing they are sucking the energy.
So for us our thoughts can become like those energy sucking apps in the phone. Sometimes we wake up and even without doing anything in a few hours we feel so tired. Some people, they wake up the only thing they look forward to after waking up is the next nap.
So when the thoughts the thoughts completely de-energise us. On the other hand, if we are having very burdened by things but if one positive thought, one sweet memory one good thought comes within us that thought can energise us. So our thoughts can have tangible effects on us.
And in that sense what we think about is important. So as I said, when we are lost, when we are in a situation where we have little or no outer power I have this problem, I have this problem this problem, this problem we can feel totally burdened by that. And we may feel what can I do? I have to think about this problem.
How will I solve it? Yes, we have problems and we need to think about them to solve them. But it’s not that simple because it’s not that if we consider the problem, a graph of problem solving capacity versus time. So if we think about the problem we get some clarity about it.
If I don’t think about a problem then that’s a problem also. If I have a problem, I have to think about it. The more we think about it, our clarity increases.
But this line does not go onwards infinitely. When we think about it, we get some clarity. Okay, if this happens, I do this.
If this happens, I do this. If I do this, I do that. But if we keep thinking about the problem, then that graph becomes flat after that.
We think, think, think, but don’t get any clarity. Any further clarity. And if we still keep thinking about it, then that graph starts going down.
We get more confused as a paralysis by analysis. Paralysis. We keep thinking, thinking, overthinking and just make a mess.
You have a fan over here. Normally when the fan goes round and round it cools us down. But when our thoughts go round and round, they heat us up.
We just get completely exhausted. So we do need to think about problems. But only to the extent that thinking is constructive.
Overthinking about a problem can also become a problem. And that’s why what we think about will determine that that is in our control. We have an outer problem and what we think about is still in our thoughts.
So when we practise when we practise Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Yoga is not just about coming to a temple and attending some Katha. It’s about training our mind. Training our mind to think about Krishna.
Bhakti is not about doing some ritual. Bhakti is about making our mind spiritual. Making our mind spiritual means that we learn to make our mind attached to Krishna.
Attracted to Krishna. And just thinking about Krishna because he’s all attractive, because he’s all powerful, because he’s all loving, even if we don’t understand all this consciously, just thinking about him can make us peaceful. Can give us a sense of peace.
Can give us a sense of clarity. Can give us a sense of confidence. And you can practically experience this.
Maybe very agitated, come to a temple, behold the lord, maybe hear his kirtan, and you start feeling calm. You don’t even understand from where that calmness is coming. But you start feeling some amount of calmness.
So even surveys done that even atheists, when they come to some holy place like a temple or some place like that, they also told that there’s something about this place. We feel calmer here. So we don’t necessarily say it’s a divine presence.
It’s just that some vibes are there over it. But the point is, when we direct our thoughts towards god, that gives us strength. It’s like say, outside, it’s very hot till we come into an air-conditioned room.
Then, the outside temperature has not yet changed. But we can get relief from that outside temperature. So similarly, when we have a lot of problems, it’s like outside it’s very hot.
When we start thinking about Krishna, what happens? At least we get relief. So, no matter how bad things are in our life, no matter how powerless we are, what we think about is in our control. And by practising bhakti, what happens is we gain more power to direct our thoughts constructively.
We first direct our thoughts towards Krishna, get calmness, and then we return rejuvenated to deal with the problem with greater freshness, greater vigour. So, this power is something which if we develop, even amidst difficult situations, we can have resilience. We can have strength to bounce back.
So, what is the acronym we are discussing? And T was? Thoughts. So, by practising bhakti, we can learn to think about Krishna and make our thoughts our friends instead of our enemies. Just as friends encourage us, thoughts about Krishna will energise us, encourage us.
Thoughts about the problems will keep de-energising and discouraging us. So, this power is something we all can develop. So, when we are chanting the holy names, when we are doing our puja, when we are doing our sadhana, when we are studying scripture, it’s not just a ritual to be done.
The purpose is to think about Krishna. And the more we think about Krishna, the more our mind will become attached to him. And then, thinking about him will become easier.
So, even when problems are there, we will be able to think about him at that time. But if we are not habituated to think of Krishna through regular bhakti practise, it will be much more difficult to think about him at that time. So, that is T. What is A, I said? Attitude.
Now, attitude means how do we look at the problem. The problem is there, but how do I look at the problem? We may have to live with pain, but we don’t have to live in pain. We may have to live with pain, but we don’t have to live in pain.
So, attitude means, I can think, oh, this problem is so big. It is so unmanageable. My life is, I am so powerless.
I am such a, my destiny is rotten. And we can make that, we can see that problem as big and unmanageable and start feeling sorry for ourselves. Or, we can say, yes, this problem is there, but problems have some purpose.
So, let me try to face this problem as well as I can. The problems, if we see that the problem is meant for some purpose, it is meant to help us teach something, help us learn something, help us grow. That’s what the Bhagavad Gita tells us, that the universe is a university.
That whatever happens in the world, it’s not just by random chance. These things happen and bad things also happen. And it’s not that, the Bhagavad Gita is saying that, when we say attitude, it’s not a naive, optimism.
That means, now, some people say everything happens is good. There are some people who put a Gita Saar in their homes, essence of Gita. And in Gita Saar, they say that jo hua, wo achha hua.
Jo ho raha hai, wo achha ho raha hai. Jo hone wala hai, wo bhi achha hi hoga. What happened was good, what is happening is good, what will happen will also be good.
Now, I have read the Gita over a hundred, several hundred times actually, but I have never found any words which say anything else. The Gita is not so much talking about what happens to us, as it focusses on how we respond to it. That’s the thrust of the Gita.
So, it’s not that everything that happens is good. Bad things do happen in life. But, everything that happens can be for good.
Everything that happens is not good, but everything that happens can be for good. That means, some good can emerge from the bad. What has happened right now, it’s bad.
I can’t imagine that it is good. It’s terrible. Sometimes we might get a horrible disease, sometimes our relationship might break down, sometimes we might lose our job.
So many things can happen. Bad things do happen in life. But, if you understand that there is some overarching plan for the world and whatever bad is happening, something good will emerge out of it.
Then, that attitude, the attitude that everything that happens is a part of a bigger plan, that can help us to look at things with greater positivity. Now, is this just some sentimental imagination or that everything happens for good? Not exactly. Because, if we see our own lives, even for our own existence, we are dependent on so many factors beyond our existence.
That means, say, we all eat food everyday. Suppose, after this programme there is prasad. Not suppose, I think prasad is there.
But, say now, when we are going to have prasad, we often worry about cooking the food and earning the money so that we can get the food. But, how often do we think about digesting the food? Usually, the only time we think about our digestion is when it doesn’t work. So, now, the food that we eat, if it were not digested, we would not get it.
And, we don’t digest it ourselves in the sense that we have not created the mechanisms by which it is digested. So, for our very existence, we are dependent on things which are beyond our power to control. Certainly, we have to put in some effort.
So, we also have a part in the plan. But, we are not doing everything. When a baby is born into the world, at that time, the most intimate acts of affection is when the mother breastfeeds the baby.
If the mother doesn’t do that, it will be very difficult for the baby to survive. So, certainly, it’s the mother’s love that she offers her own milk to the baby. At the same time, it’s not that the mother does something special to produce the milk at that time.
The same God, who sends the baby into the world through the mother’s womb, also sends milk in her breast so that she can feed the baby. So, there is the mother’s part in taking care of the baby, but the mother’s part is not the entire thing. And that same principle applies to every aspect of our life.
That our existence doesn’t depend only on our efforts. There is much more beyond our efforts, which also plays a role in our existence and whatever achievements we make in our life, whatever things happen in our life, there is a higher plan. So, the understanding that whatever is happening, it may be for bad, it may be bad right now, but it is for good.
This attitude is not just sentimentality, it is based on reality. When a bird, a baby bird is inside a nest, the same nest, sorry, not a nest, a baby bird is inside a shell. Initially, if there were no, if there were no shell, the baby bird would not survive.
But then that shell has to break. And breaking that shell is painful. But to the extent that shell is broken, then the baby bird comes out.
And if somebody just comes along and breaks the shell first, what happens? The baby bird comes out easily, but the baby bird’s wings are not developed enough. And it can’t carry its own weight, it can’t fly. Any predator can come and bounce on it and eat it.
When the baby bird is trying to break the shell, it requires a lot of energy, a lot of energy. Sometimes it just pushes and breaks the shell, and then part of its wing comes out, and then the shell just again falls in place. And then, baby bird is squeezed by that, but again it pushes.
Through all that effort, what is happening? The baby bird is developing the strength of its body, its wings. So, problems are like that. We are living in some shell, and we need to break that shell to come out.
So, bad things happen in life, but everything that happens can be for good. So, if you have the attitude, okay, this problem is there, it is terrible, but something good will emerge from it. Then, we will not beat ourselves up with our own negativity.
Some people can find solutions to all problems. And some people can find problems with all solutions. Whatever you tell them, no, this is not going to work, this is not going to work, this is not going to work.
Some people are sceptical. Sceptical means that they can tell in every plan what is wrong. Now, what happens with scepticism is, scepticism can only tell you what is wrong.
It can never tell you what is right. So, it’s not very, trying to learn, or trying to, if you grow with only a sceptical or even worse, a cynical attitude, then, we will never be able to do anything in our lives. So, now, what the Bhagavad Gita tells us is, that everything is happening under my control, Krishna is saying.
And I have a plan for everything. So, when Srila Prabhupada came to America, when he was just on the Boston pier, looking at the coastline, looking at the big expanse of American prosperity, at that time, he composed a song. And that song, he says, He says, My dear Lord, you must have some plan for me.
I infer this. I guess this. Prabhupada didn’t know what the plan was.
He is a lone person who has come to a foreign land. He doesn’t even know whether his accent will be understood by people around him. He doesn’t even know whether anybody will be interested in his message.
But he has come. He is saying, Krishna, you must have a plan for me. Otherwise, why did you bring me here? So, this was his attitude.
Krishna must have some plan. So, we may not know what that plan is. But, the attitude that whatever is happening is for some purpose.
Ultimately, we have to live with some attitude. Either we can be theistic or we can be atheistic. Theism, the bhakti world view, tells us that whatever problems we face, they have a purpose.
They are meant to help us grow. Grow in wisdom. Ultimately, grow in devotion.
They are meant for our spiritual evolution. To bring us closer to ourselves, to our soul. And to bring us closer to God, who is the soul of our soul.
That is what everything is meant for in life. Atheism, what it does is, it does not remove the problems in our life. It just removes the hope that problems have some purpose.
There are problems and that’s all that is. What do you do with it? Just live like that. There was a famous atheistic philosopher, Alberto Camus.
He said that life is misery. Therefore, the only philosophical question worth asking is, whether to commit suicide today or tomorrow. And he is not an exception.
Other philosophers also said that the most fortunate thing is to never be born. The next best thing is to die early if you have been born. And the most unfortunate thing is to have a long life.
Now, this is such a distorted way of looking at life. For them, life has no ultimate hope. This problem, this problem, this problem.
What is the point of it all? So, bhakti helps us not just in a sentimental sense, there is some plan. But bhakti helps us to get the philosophical understanding. How there is a plan, there is a purpose.
And with that attitude, when we look at the world around us, then what happens? We look at it with greater focus. We look at it with greater purpose. Generally, whenever we have any problem, whenever we have a lot, even if we have a lot of problems or little problems, if we have a sense of purpose, what am I meant to do over here? What am I doing over here? That sense of purpose gives us some power.
Let me do this. Say, if we are sick in a hospital and are in pain, when there are two cases, say there are two patients who are in a hospital in adjacent beds, both of them are sick and both of them are in pain. But one of them, their disease has not been diagnosed and there is no treatment being given.
For the other, the disease has been diagnosed and the treatment is being given. So now, at present, both of them are in pain. But their future is very different.
So the difference between a theist and an atheist is like that. The world is a tough place for everyone. Everybody will have problems.
But a theist has the attitude, whatever is the problem, this is a curable disease. Let me take the cure. But if a patient has the attitude, oh, the disease has no meaning, there is no cure for it.
This is going to increase their misery more and more. So, what the Bhagavad Gita tells us is, ultimately, we are disconnected from God. And that is the root cause of our suffering.
The more we become connected with God, the closer we go to Him, the lesser the difficulties in our life will be. Not that the difficulties will go away, but they will become more manageable. That’s the attitude part.
So, should Prabhupada have that attitude? Krishna, you must have some plan. So, that is the acronym. What was the acronym? TAB.
So, we have discussed T was? And A is? And last remaining is? Behaviour. Behaviour means how do I act in the situation? See, it’s remarkable that no matter how bad a situation is, how we behave in that situation is up to us. You know, one of my friends is a doctor.
He is not only a doctor, he is working in a hospice in Baledipur. He told me that when we are treating patients who are near death, there may be two people who might have the same cancer. And both of them might be in a similar amount of pain.
But, the two people can sometimes respond entirely differently. So, our actions are not entirely determined by our situations. Some people, when they are sick, they become so resentful, they complain, they yell at everyone.
And then, what happens, they are sick, but they make others sick. Of them. Not that they make others sick, they can spread the disease also, infection, but they make others sick of them.
So, it just becomes such a pain to deal with. But, some people, okay, thank you, at least I am getting this treatment. Thank you for helping me take this treatment.
So, how they behave, say for example, a sick person, how they talk with someone. They can snap and yell and complain, or they can be polite. That is always up to us.
So, our behaviour, our actions is not the product of our situations alone. And, so what can we do? When Prabhupada was in America, he didn’t know. He himself writes that, when I came out of the ship, I didn’t know whether I should turn left or right.
So, what did he do? In his same prayer, marking Bhagavad Dharma, from which I have been quoting, when he is entering into America, he has a purpose. I want to share bhakti wisdom with the western world. So, he, he concludes that prayer by saying, Na chao, na chao, Prabhu, na chao, say my dear, kaush dhere puttane jaata na chao, say ma de.
My dear lord, please make me dance. Make me dance. If you have brought me here to dance, then make me dance.
Just as a puppeteer makes a puppet dance, make me dance. Now, what he means by this is, my dear lord, if you have a plan for me, please guide me. What is your plan? Please make me act according to your plan.
Prabhupada was asked, what is the best prayer that you can offer to the lord? And Prabhupada said, pray to him, pray to him, oh lord, please give me the strength to serve you, always. Please give me the strength to serve you. So, whatever happens in our life, we, at our core, our souls, we are parts of Krishna and we are meant to serve him.
So, whether it is in our family responsibilities, whether it is in our professional obligations, whether it is in our taking care of our affairs, it’s all ultimately meant to be in a mood of service to Krishna. So, if you have that attitude, Krishna, I want to serve you. This is where, who we think of ourselves, I started earlier by talking about power.
So, if we think that I am meant to be a controller, then situations can come up that can completely frustrate us. Because, we might be put in places where we just can’t control anything. But, if we think, I am a servant.
I am meant to serve. So, how can I serve in this situation? Now, as a service, we can even make our plans in a mood of service to Krishna. But, if our plan doesn’t work, okay, Krishna, how do you want me to serve you now? So, we are attached to Krishna, not to our plans.
What happens sometimes, if we are very attached to our plans, if we think, I am the controller, I am the manager of this project, I am the lord of this house, I am the boss of this office, whatever, and we think based on that, things have to happen the way I planned them. So, our plan, say, this is, I am here, the plan is here. So, if, see, in bhakti, we are meant to hold our plans lightly, not tightly.
So, what do I, when I hold my plan very tightly, what happens? It’s like, the plan comes here, here, here, here, it’s right here. Around my eyes. Now, apart from my plan, I can’t see anything at all.
And, if my plan is not working, then I just become completely blinded. All that I can see is, why is my plan not working? Why is this not happening? Why is this not happening? Why is this not happening? Then, our plans, I am here, my plan is here and the reality is here. The plan is meant to help me shape the reality.
But, if, say, the plan is here and the reality is here, I can’t keep looking at the plan. I have to look at the reality and deal with the reality. And that is psychological flexibility.
Psychological rigidity means that we can’t think, except according to our plan. Psychological flexibility means, okay, my plan is here, now it’s not working, let me think about something else. So, suppose somebody is learning rowing and they have made a plan.
I will practise rowing and I will call my friends and when all of them are there, I will row smoothly and then everybody will click photos and they put them on Facebook and everybody will appreciate what a wonderful rower I am. And then, they have this whole movie planned out in their mind of how things are meant to work. And then they get into the boat, they start rowing and suddenly a monster wave comes and knocks their boat.
And the next moment, there is no boat under them, there are no boats with no oars with them. Now, if they still keep rowing, they will drown. So, now, now if they try to row, that’s useless.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t do anything. They can paddle, they can swim, they can get to the coast right now. So, if we are so attached to rowing that we can’t even accept the reality of what it is, then that psychological rigidity will drown us.
So, if we think I am the controller and everything has to happen according to my will, then we will be disempowered. But if you understand, I am a servant, I am meant to serve Krishna. My plan was also a service to Krishna.
If the plan is not working, okay, how can I serve now? Then, we will find that there is always some way to serve. There is always something that we can do in every situation. Even if it is a small thing.
I will conclude with one example and then we can have some questions. One of my friends was a bodybuilder. He was a boxer.
He had a very powerful body and he once got an injury called fracture. And then his hand was in a cast, he couldn’t move at all. And then his physiotherapist came to him and told him, okay, now you have to start exercising.
He said, what exercise? I can’t even get out of bed, I can’t even lift my hand. He said, okay, can you lift your little finger? He said, okay, yes. He said, lift your little finger ten times in the morning, ten times in the afternoon, ten times in the evening.
He said, that is your exercise. Exercise! He thought exercise means lifting big weights. That is not exercise.
He said, no, this is your exercise. Do it. That is not exercise.
He said, do it. The therapist told him, okay. He started doing it.
He did it for one day, two days. And then the doctor said, can you lift up your other finger? He said, yes. Then the arm, then the hand, then the forearm, and the full hand.
And within three weeks, he got back full mobility. But he had to begin with just a little finger. So similarly, for us, when we face big problems, at that time, we feel, I am powerless.
But behaviour means, okay, in this situation, what can I do? What can I do? The mind will say, you can do nothing. Everything is ruined. No, what can I do? No, you can’t do anything.
When the mind starts going on that one track, oh, you are powerless, you can’t do anything, you can turn around and ask the mind, mind the question. Okay, you are saying things are so bad, can I make them worse? What nonsense? Who wants to make them worse? Isn’t it? They are already bad. No, we don’t want to make them worse, but can I make them worse? Yeah, no matter how bad situations are, I can always make them worse.
We always have that power. We might be completely bankrupt, maybe living in a small room and we can create an explosive and blow up that room also. No matter how bad things are, we can make them worse.
And if we can make them worse, that means we are not as powerless as we think. We can make them better also. So, what can I do right now? So, behaviour means what can I do right now? What is the right thing that I can do right now? How can I fix the situation? At least take a step towards fixing the situation.
So, Prabhupada, he did not know what he was going to do. He just went wherever he got the opportunity. He had a place where he was staying.
He went there and when he was in Butler, Pennsylvania, at that time, the people over there, his hosts, they never thought he was going to come. It was like an embarrassment for them. And then, they got some of their guests to come and for them, he was like a curiosity object.
Oh, some Swami from somewhere has come. But Prabhupada used that curiosity to get an article published in a local newspaper. The Swami from India has come to DG Bank.
And from that, in a nearby university, there was a professor who was teaching Hinduism. And he said, I have got a real Hindu monk. I will get him to come and speak to you.
And so that small, small, small steps started happening. Then Prabhupada came to New York. He came to the Lower East Side.
Now, when he came there, Prabhupada started giving talks over there. For the initial talks, there was nobody coming practically. So, then Prabhupada at that time didn’t even have money to do any publicity.
Normally, if you have a programme, you try to make some posters, distribute some posts. There was no internet at that time. So, no social media.
So, Prabhupada used the oldest strategy, oldest publication strategy, publicising strategy. What was that? He just went out for long walks. And because he was in Saffron, it was quite an unusual sight.
And one day, he was going for a walk. And he went out for days and days for long walks just observing. Nothing happened.
But one day, he was going for a walk. And as he was walking, on the other side, he saw some young man with a long, big beard walking along. And he looked at him.
He was looking at Swamiji. And this young man was an English professor, English, Howard Wheeler. And he, he was planning to go to a friend and take some drugs.
So, when he saw Swamiji, hey, what is this? He was already a spiritual seeker. He had gone to India in search for God, for Guru. But he hadn’t found any Guru.
So, he had come back. So, he looked around. He saw this Swamiji.
Hey, what is this Swamiji doing here? Have you already taken drugs? Am I in high? And then a big truck passed by. He thought, will the Swamiji still be there after the truck goes? The truck went by. And he saw, Swamiji was still there.
And then he brushed his eyes and he looked once again. Another truck went by. And he saw another Swamiji had stopped.
And the Swamiji was looking at him. And then he crossed over and ran over. And he said, Swamiji, are you from India? He said, yes, and you? I am from America, but I have been to India.
And that person had a whole group of friends who were serious spiritual seekers. And they became Prabhupada’s first followers. And from there these things were expanded.
And they expanded in such a way that when Prabhupada came to America alone, penniless in 1965 and 1977, he had circumnavigated the globe 14 times on teaching tours. He had initiated over thousands and thousands of disciples. He had inspired millions of people to raise their consciousness and live a more meaningful life.
He had written over 70 books. In fact, there is a scholar of religion, I said that if somebody wrote a fiction book talking about a Swami, he went to a distant land and started a spiritual organisation. He says, no publisher would publish such a book.
Because this is such an unrealistic plot. He says, nowhere in the history of the world it has happened that some one person came to a distant land and his audience were culturally, linguistically, philosophically, educationally, religiously, completely different from him. And yet he inspired them and inspired not just one or two but thousands and thousands of people.
So when Prabhupada kept doing his part, Krishna had, Krishna was also doing his part. And Prabhupada kept, whoever he met, he talked with them. And then Krishna sent the right people.
And then things just took off. So our behaviour is in our control. And sometimes our actions, our right actions may seem to have no effect.
I am doing the right thing but there is no result from it. But sometimes we may just do one right thing and that can have a chain effect. And that chain effect, sometimes when you produce sound, there is a resonance.
We produce a little sound but when there is resonance it just goes up. So like that, when we keep doing our part, our part might seem tiny. And this problem is so big, what can I do? But if we just keep doing our part, behaviour, let me do this, one small thing, one small thing, one small thing.
Now Krishna is also doing his part. And when Krishna does his part, according to his time, things can change dramatically in one moment. So we focus on doing our part diligently.
And by that we can bring about a change. Everyone of us is significant because we are all parts of God. And God cares for us because He is God.
His love for us is not based on who we are. Now we may be virtuous, we may sinful, we may be somewhere in between. Now all of us are fallen.
And if we don’t think we are fallen, then we are really fallen. But, however we may be, Krishna still loves us because He is the all-loving Father, Lord of everyone. His love for us is not based on who we are.
It’s based on who He is. And He is present in our hearts. He is observing us.
He cares for us. He is not there in our heart to catch us when we do wrong. You did this? Now get this punishment.
That’s not His mood. He is there in our heart to catch us when we fall. It’s like a mother helping a baby.
The mother is watching the baby walking. The baby falls. The mother is going to clap the hand.
Oh, you fell down. The mother is going to run and catch the baby. So the Lord is there inside us to help us.
So if we understand that we do our part and He will do His part. So by that whatever situation we are in, we can have the positive purpose. We can have the positive power which can move on.
Now the dramatic thing that Prabhupada was able to do, we may not be able to do that. But in our own way, we can create light. If we open a new tab in our own lives, at the very least, we will light our own heart.
There can be the darkness of negativity in our own hearts. At least that darkness will go away. We will light our own heart.
And if we light our hearts, we may encourage or inspire others to light their own hearts also. We may not be able to light the whole world, but each one of us can light our corner of the world. And suppose suddenly power goes off, everything is dark.
We turn on one candle or we turn on our flashlight. And seeing us, somebody else turns on their flashlight. And somebody else turns on their flashlight.
And then beautifully, even in the darkness, illumination will come. And we will find a way ahead. So in this way, opening a new tab in our lives is the way by which we can tap our inner power.
And by the grace of Krishna, create a better life for ourselves and create a better world around ourselves. I’ll summarise. I spoke today on the theme of tapping our inner power.
Everything that we do, right from a baby learning to cry loudly, is actually a search for power. Not necessarily in a bad sense. The purpose behind the power can be good or bad, but we are all looking for power.
Scientific advancement is also a search for power. Technology has given us a lot of power. But unfortunately, this pursuit for outer power, we have lost our inner power.
Our thoughts are going wild. And for many people, their minds are hurting them and even killing them. So even with outer power, if we don’t have inner power, we’ll hurt ourselves and others.
And sometimes if outer power is taken away from us, and if we haven’t developed inner power, then we will feel completely powerless and broken down. So, we all can and should tap our inner power. And for tapping that inner power, I talked about an acronym.
What is that? Thoughts, Attitude and Behaviour. Thoughts, we give the example of Shri Prabhupada. He was alone, penniless, contactless, and even his body broke down.
He was utterly powerless. But he was getting strength by thinking about the Lord. So our thoughts can energise us or de-energise us.
If we think negative, we feel powerless. If we think positive, we become enlivened. And this thinking positive is not denying problems.
It is just recognising that thinking about problems constantly can itself be a problem. I talked about the graph, how a problem-solving capacity increases as we think about a problem up to a particular point. But beyond that, it flattens and then goes down.
So, if we can learn to direct our thoughts towards something constructive instead of obsessing over the problems, then we can get power. And the most constructive object is God, Krishna. Bhakti Yoga is not just to do some ritual.
It is to make our mind spiritual. That means to make our mind habituated to thinking about Krishna. Thinking about Krishna amidst all the turbulence of the world is like coming in an air-conditioned room amidst the heat.
We get relief. And with that relief, then we can get rejuvenated and face the problem. So it is not running away from problems, but it is getting strength to face the problem.
Then A goes attitude. When the problems are coming, we can either have the attitude, oh life is life is, life stinks and the world is a terrible place and my life is doomed. And that can completely dishearten us.
Or we can have the attitude that bad things happen but everything that happens can be for good. There is a purpose, a plan. And this is not just a sentimental idea.
We look at our own very existence. It depends on things that are beyond our power. We don’t digest our own food.
We don’t produce the milk in our mother’s, it’s not that the mother produces it. So there is a higher, something higher which is supporting our existence. So we do our part and that day we do their part.
So Prabhupada when he was, he didn’t know what to do. He said, Krishna you must have some plan. And Prabhupada focused on doing his part.
Doing his part brought us to behaviour. Behaviour means that whatever happens how we act in that situation is up to us. If we think we are controllers and if we are attached to our plans and the plans will blind us we won’t be able to do anything.
But if we have psychological flexibility not rigidity, okay my plan was here but I am not attached to my plan. This plan doesn’t work okay how can I function? How can I work right now? So then we will be able to deal with reality as it is. And if you just, even if somebody’s heart is fractured you can just lift a little finger.
So like that what is one thing right I can do in this situation? Krishna how can I serve you in this situation? We do one right thing and one more right thing and one more right thing. And by that Prabhupada just kept trying to talk about Krishna with people and Krishna brought him in contact with serious people then who helped him spread the message all over the world. So our right actions we seem to have no result.
But if we keep doing them at one particular time by God’s grace then we change the action. And we set off a chain by which by higher plan the right thing that we are doing will have a multiplier effect. So if we just keep doing our part we tap our inner power by opening a tap within us then even if there is darkness all around us we can create light inside us and we can create light around us.
So by tapping our inner power we can create a better life for ourselves and we can contribute to creating a better world around us. Thank you very much. Applause So we are kind of running a little bit late on time but you know we can open this platform.
Some questions? Anyone have any questions? So one or two questions we can take if it’s okay. Yes. Talk a little bit louder.
We face bigger problems in our life. So suddenly the mind stops working and then you start questioning to the Lord that why it happened and everything till the situation cools down a bit and then you come to the consent that whatever bad happens may be for good and give me strength to face the problem. But when we suddenly hear some problem comes to us or our loved ones then we start questioning.
So is that not a good attitude? And if we consider Lord to be our father then is it wrong to ask him for something? So if something bad happens initially we may start questioning the Lord. So is that a bad thing? And can we ask him, if we consider him to be our father, can we ask him for some things? Okay. First of all, every relationship, for it to be true and meaningful it will have a whole gamut of emotions and then the relationship will not reach.
So when bad things happen it’s understandable that we may sometimes question the Lord. That happened to Draupadi. When Draupadi was attempted to be disrobed she called out to the Lord and sometimes in movies in Mahabharata we might see Krishna coming over.
But nobody saw Krishna. All that happened was her garment became inexhaustible. And later on when she was in the forest Krishna came to meet her over there.
And she broke down and she protested. Krishna, I called you. Why did you come? He said, I am your devotee.
I am your relative. I am your friend. I needed your help.
Why did you come? And Krishna didn’t say, I am God. How dare you question my plan? Krishna didn’t say that. Krishna gave a very almost humour-like explanation.
Krishna says, I didn’t know this gambling match was going on. He said there was a demon, Shalva who had attacked Dwarka and I was busy defending Dwarka from him. As soon as I got the news, I immediately came here to meet you.
So, God is big enough to accommodate even our doubts. Even our questions. Even our anger.
God is big enough to accommodate whatever emotions you may have. And it’s just natural. Something terrible happens.
To feel frustrated. To feel disheartened. To feel doubtful.
That’s just human. Being spiritual is not denying our humanity. Or suppressing our humanity.
It is actually expanding our humanity. That means, yes, I feel like that. But, what do I do now? We feel like that, so sometimes those feelings will come, but gradually they diminish.
So, one of my friends is a firefighter. He’s telling me that whenever a firefighter sees a big fire, at that time, even the most experienced firefighter may panic for a moment. Horrible big fire this is.
But the difference between an experienced firefighter and a new firefighter. A novice firefighter, when they see the big fire, they panic so much that they drop their hose and they freeze. Whereas, an experienced firefighter, they may also panic, but because of their training, their trained instincts come into the picture and say, okay, this fire is very big, but let’s attack it from here.
So, for a few moments, the unwanted emotional reaction may come. But training means, those moments don’t last for long. Those moments get diminished and the right reaction comes up quickly.
So, similarly, as we keep practising bhakti, we train ourselves to connect with Krishna, then even if the unhealthy or unwanted emotions come up, they won’t last for long. So, if we think they should not come up at all, that’s unrealistic. It’s understandable.
Sometimes, when bad things happen, some troubles may come up within us, but we don’t have to let them dwell, we don’t have to let them grow. So, as far as asking the Lord for something is concerned, certainly we can ask. The important thing is that we don’t make our devotion conditional to the fulfilment of that request.
So, we can say, my dear Lord, my life is devoted to you, I want to serve you, and for my service to you, this is something which I need. Please let this work out. And this is also my service to you.
But, when we offer this prayer, it’s perfectly fine. We don’t have to worry too much about this material or spiritual. The important thing is, for a devotee, if we’re doing it in the mood of service, it’s a part of spiritual things.
The important thing is, we connect with the Lord. And we can also have an element of surrender. My dear Lord, if this is not going to be done, then please guide me how I should move forward.
I want to serve you, and this is the way I feel I can best serve you. If this is not working, then how can I serve you? So, to have desires is just natural, even within bhakti. I desire it should be like this.
But to have demands is not good. So, we can certainly pray to the Lord, just like we might ask our parent for help, but we don’t make it a demand. And we don’t make our devotion conditional to the fulfilment of the prayer.
My dear Lord, I’m your servant, and this will help me to serve you, but please arrange for this. And if not, then please give me the indifference how I can serve you. Did I answer your question? Thank you.
So, if there are more questions, may I request to hold your questions, and Prabhuji will be here, because we are a little bit late, and we have an announcement to be made tonight. So, can we hold, or is it okay? And then we can talk to Prabhuji. I think Prabhuji, more people benefit by answering.
He’s not the best person, but maybe, you know, he comes very rarely. Maybe we can hold another few minutes. Thank you.
Thank you. So, you’re not attached to your plan? If you voted once, we had to serve. Not glorifying my question, you know, I thought many people can answer, and, you know, I started reading this book, the lowest one, Gita Delhi.
In that book, you write that, you know, we can live in present, something kind of paraphrasing. Like, most of all, we are living in future, that, you know, something happens, then I’ll be happy, then, when I get retired, then I’ll be happy, and, you know, kind of, but then, we can be happy at the current moment. Then, I think, the title is, I mean, present is the only thing we have.
Yeah, okay. So, coming to your tab, you know, attitude, that, you know, this miserable thing is going to pass soon, and I’m going to get better. So, how do you reconcile both things together? Okay.
So, it’s often said that, live in the present. But then, if you have the attitude that things will become better in future, how do we reconcile the two? See, live, we should live in the present, but we shouldn’t live for the present. Live in the present means, focus on what I can do in the present right now.
Don’t worry about this problem in the future, don’t lament about that problem in the past. Focus on what you can do in the present. So, the behaviour part is what will connect to the present.
What can I do right now? Things are very bad, but right now, what is one right thing that I can do? So, that is about the present. But, we have to live in the present, but we can’t live for the present. In fact, intelligence means to see that the present is going to lead to the future.
And then, I shouldn’t just live in a way that because of the way I’m living in the present, my future will be dark. A child might just want to play, but the parents tell the child to study. So, the child may just live for the present.
I’m enjoying this, why should I study? But the parents see the future. So, when we talk about live in the present, the point over there is, focus on what you can do right now. But, don’t live for the present.
That means, what can I do right now in a way that means, I can play my part in creating a better future. So, we by our very nature, strive to make things better. So, that’s just the human initiative.
So, that idea that we can make things better in the future, at least at some level, in some ways, that’s what drives all human actions. And, that’s why we act. So, I would say that both are fine, both are perfectly reconcilable.
Because, what vision of the future do I have? And, what am I doing in the present? Going back to the sick person’s example, if a person is very sick, and they’re in pain, and you tell them, live in the present. Well, my present is all in pain right now. Don’t think about the future.
Well, only the future that my health will be better, that’s what will help them to live. Isn’t it? Isn’t it? So, but, just don’t think I’ll be healthy in the future. Take the medicine now.
If you have to do some exercise, even if it is painful, do some exercise now. So, live in the present means, take the medication, do the exercise. But, don’t live for the present means, don’t think that this is the situation you have to always face.
Things will become better. Does that answer your question? Thank you. You had a question here? Someone? So, thank you very much.
So, this is my first visit here, and it is wonderful to see the vibrant devotees here. It is wonderful to see the vibrant devotee community here. Many, many sincere, serious devotees, eager to hear about Krishna and learn and apply the principles.
So, my best wishes and prayers to all of you in your individual journeys towards Krishna. Hare Krishna.