The quest for happiness is frustrated materially and fulfilled spiritually
Congregation program at ISKCON, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors. so what a session the quest for happiness gaining the material or regaining the spiritual we all are innately pleasure seeking and when we seek happiness we are all driven by a very deep rooted conviction that happiness is our right I deserve to be happy I want to be happy and we all feel that if we do certain things if we work hard if we strive in the right way we will become happy so the Bhagavad Gita explains that happiness is integral to our very core it is a part of our constitution now we are not not just material beings we are at our core spiritual beings when we look at the quest for happiness first of all the question comes up that who or what is it that is experiencing happiness or is experiencing misery if we look at our body from the scientific perspective then the body is ultimately made of the same fundamental particles atoms, molecules and particles below that level which same particles as this mic and yet this mic stand doesn’t have any consciousness whereas you and I have consciousness so nowadays computers are becoming more and more capable of information processing sometimes you may feel that computers or machines or robots they can eventually become intelligent sometimes you may see sci-fi movies in which there appear to be robots which actually have consciousness, emotions, life however these machines at their essence they are simply doing number crunching those of you who know electronics basically digital electronics all that essentially happens is there is a toggle between 0 to 1 1 0 0 1 states keep changing and by the change of those states at phenomenal speeds in phenomenally precise ways there are macro level operations performed but essentially a machine no matter how sophisticated does nothing more than number processing and number processing is very different from experiencing emotions so for example one of the breakthrough moments in computing is considered to be the time when the then world chess champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by a computer named Deep Blue now after that happened this happened almost more than a decade ago so Kasparov was frustrated there was a picture of him with his hand holding his head I was defeated by a machine now the makers of Deep Blue were jubilant our computer defeated Kasparov but significantly what was Deep Blue’s reaction Deep Blue had no reaction it had simply processed numbers and done some moves according to the database stored in it and it had done that processing of moves better than Kasparov but it had no understanding that it was playing chess it had no understanding of the excitement in the world in playing chess nor it had any sense of the jubilation of winning a chess match all that belonged to the makers of Deep Blue so essentially when we look at happiness the very desire for happiness it comes from something beyond matter because matter does not experience anything nor does matter desire anything matter is simply existing matter exists even without awareness of its existence for example do you exist? obviously we exist but we know we exist we exist and we know we exist but this might stand it exists but it is not aware of its existence so awareness is the foundation of happiness first of all I have to be aware then I can be thinking whether I am happy or not if a person is unconscious then that person if there is pleasant music going on or noise going on if there is consciousness only then there is no sense at all so awareness is the foundation for happiness and awareness itself is non-material it comes from something beyond our physical shape and that is why when we look at the quest for happiness unless we understand who is it that is seeking happiness we will not be able to find happiness so now most of us we live in a society which is highly materialistic and thus by default we equate happiness with material happiness and material happiness basically has two aspects to it one is possession and the other is gratification possession means I want to own this I want to have this, I want to have that I want to have the latest car, the latest phone, the best house so possess all these things and then you want to gratify, you want to eat you want to see beautiful things, touch soft things and enjoy through the senses so basically possession and gratification are the two phases of enjoyment at the material level and yet if we analyze the pleasure that we get through these there is one characteristic of this pleasure Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita he says that pleasure which comes from materialistic definition of happiness it ends in misery it leads to misery 14.12 Krishna says that when we have a materialistic conception of life the first characteristic is greed and ashamaha there is desire that is satisfiable and there is desire which is insatiable so quite often we think that okay happiness lies in the things out there that I don’t have right now okay I have a small car if I get a big car I will be able to drive around comfortably safely I have a small house so we are all crammed if I have a bigger house then I will live more comfortably now here there is this truth to this understanding but the truth is partial what is the partial truth? here we are actually equating comfort with happiness material things can provide us comfort but comfort is not necessarily happiness so to understand this sometimes if there are small children and some relatives come to meet the child just to have fun they may tickle the child now when the child is tickled the child will start laughing now the child starts laughing at that time is that laughter happiness? is that laughter happiness? child is laughing but that laughter is not happiness now if that laughter were happiness we all want to be happy we could all have our own perpetual tickling machines we could have our perpetual tickling machine and we will be lifelong happy whenever we want to be happy just tickle ourselves with the machine but happiness is not that simple so the laughter is a reaction to biological stimulus so when there is tickling we laugh as a reaction to it but it is all superficial that really doesn’t comprise happiness so like that comfort also gives some pleasure but it is external to our core now comfort discomfort is painful but comfort itself is not necessarily joyful A. I am in a very hot or a very cold room I feel uncomfortable but when I am in a room with a comfortable temperature that itself does not guarantee happiness in fact one of the paradoxes of modern materialistic civilization is that our comforts are increasing and yet while the comforts are increasing at one level even 50 years ago most people would not have been able to imagine that you could just be at any place in any part of the world and just press a few buttons and talk with someone in some other part of the world actually so what would have been difficult to imagine for most people what would have been dismissed as just fantasy a few decades ago now that has become a reality it is a very convenient facility it is comfortable but despite having so many comforts sociologists are almost unanimous in stating that people are more and more mentally disturbed mental health problems are actually increasing sociologists talk about an anxiety epidemic such as the AIDS epidemic or obesity epidemic we are talking about a pervasive anxiety epidemic and one of the intriguing features of this anxiety epidemic is that actually it seems to afflict the haves more than the have nots if you consider the first world and third world countries it is in the first world that people suffer from more anxiety and anxiety related disorders than in the third world so we have comforts and we have anxiety so that means people are comfortably worried we are comfortably worried we may be sitting in an AC environment we are comfortable but we are sweating that sweat is not because of heat it is because of stress, it is because of worry it is because of anxiety in 16.11 in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that till the moment of death this is the result of when one has a materialistic conception of life material things are what will provide me happiness and the result of that is there is worry so how does this worry work out actually when we live in a materialistic society then we think that okay, I have certain things but if I get the things which I don’t have then I will become happy that means there are wants, I want this, I want that I want that now when we want, want, want after that we don’t get things free so if we want something then we have to work for it and there was a famous essay written around the start of the technological age around 1910 it was saying that now that there are so many machines being developed 50 years down the line the biggest problem for humanity will be what to do with all the time you have because most work will be done by machines and we will have so much time that the only problem will be what to do with your leisure time but unfortunately that is not what has happened isn’t it although we have machines doing lots of things but still we have become busier so when the wants are a lot then there is work, work, work so we work, work, work and we work because we want to earn money and we want to get some relief from it all we want to fulfil our desires but then after that we want a break so we come back home and then we watch TV or we don’t even know where to come back home we have our phone, we browse a thousand channels or browse websites so work, work, work and after that come back and watch watch, watch, watch so actually we spend time watching TV and we think that when I start watching TV or watching movies or whatever it is I get relief now yes we do get relief from the tensions of our life but that relief is deceptive because through all the programs even if there is a 30 minute serial or a 1 minute 1 hour TV serial in fact quite often the amount of money that is spent on making the 54 minute serial say there are 54 minutes of serial and 6 minutes of advertisement so the amount of money spent on making the 54 minute serial is often lesser than the amount of money spent on making the 6 minute ads and those 6 minute of ads are actually they are permeated with the power to inflame desire within us to inflame desire within us and once the desire gets inflamed then we start craving so we watch TV, watch movies we watch programs but there itself we see lots of sensuality, lots of material prosperity the desires come up and there are explicit advertisements which are filled with desires and when these desires come up then we go and shop we go out to shop and purchase this purchase this, purchase that in fact just like there is an addiction, alcoholism there is similarly an addiction called shopaholism so shopaholics are people who are compulsive shoppers there are books written about it, I saw one book shopaholism, the idea is you are what you shop so people define their self identity by what they are shopping and when this happens shop till you drop so people just keep shopping many times people shop things, they just purchase things and afterwards they don’t even turn towards those things now most of the time they just have them and earlier at least at one level our own desires are increasing but at another level the network of illusions is also increasing if we consider maybe 100 years ago, the economy was there were different shops for different things so if I have to go to one shop then I go with a list of whatever I want to purchase so now we have supermarkets now what happens in the supermarkets we go to purchase one thing but at that time we see 100 other things and all those things are positioned and shaped and designed in such a way that they kindle desire within us and then when the desire is kindled after that we say, I don’t have money no problem, you have a credit card so I don’t have money, the bank calls, oh you take a loan and we purchase things we keep purchasing things nowadays with online shopping we don’t even have to go to a shopping mall the whole world’s gadgets, the whole world’s products are available to us just by clicking some buttons so this is just there is the availability that has become much more but more than the availability there is also the promotion that happens through advertisements now if you consider the world just 100 years ago there were practically no advertisements we consider 150-200 years ago the only advertisements were like if there were shop vendors moving along they would call out their wares so advertising would go as far as the human voice would go now if some person is selling some vegetables some person is selling some sweets they will just shout out and people will get it, that was all that advertising would but as the industrialization happened instead of there being self-sufficient units with all villages basically having more or less what they needed we started having a more interdependent world where goods were manufactured in mass and when goods are manufactured in mass they needed to be promoted and that’s how advertising was born so advertising actually was born with the age of industrialization it is mass production so there was promotion required but even then if you look at the advertisements about 100 years ago most of the advertisements focused on how good the products were okay this product has this strength, this virtue therefore purchase it but around the 1920s the whole shape of advertising changed and the reason for that was there were some psychological insights into the nature of how the human mind works Sigmund Freud was a prominent thinker he is called the father of psychotherapy and one of his ideas was that we all have a rational side and an emotional side and humanity functions maturely when they work based on the rational side but he said actually our rational side is like a small canoe and below that there is a turbulent ocean which is our emotional side and if somehow the emotional side is activated the way you start becoming turbulent the rational side is just cast aside just like the canoe will get overthrown so similarly when people’s emotions are triggered then their rationality goes on a vacation so now his ideas soon became mainstream so he actually proposed his ideas how we need to develop our rational side very carefully but instead people took up many fields took up the idea and especially this idea was taken up by the advertising industry he said that means when we are telling people how good our products are we are appealing to the rational side but the rational side is not all that powerful if we can appeal to their emotional side then they will be captivated to take our products much more so most products thereafter they focus not on how good the product is but how good the product will make you feel so rather than the intrinsic value of the product this is how good the product will make you feel and this was demonstrated perhaps most graphically most brazenly in 1929 during the Independence Day Parade so at that time the cigarette industry their market had reached a plateau because they found that all the young men who had the financial resources to smoke they were already smoking and at that time the harmful effects of smoking were not known so much whatever surveys had come out they had been suppressed by the industry so people thought that smoking is just a glamorous thing it’s fashionable to have a cigarette on your lips while you are talking with people or while you are doing whatever things you are doing so they found that our market is getting saturated then one of them had a brain actually 50% of the market is not that good because women don’t smoke so they decided how do we target women and then on this 1929 Independence Day Parade what they did was some of the most popular female icons of America they were walking along the street at the most photogenic points all these icons were paid to take out cigarettes in front of everyone light it and start smoking it and all the cameras were clicking and then the journalists came and interviewed them what are you doing? and they said we are lighting the torches of freedom now that was the time when the suffragette movement was gaining momentum and the idea that was popular was that women had been repressed for so many centuries and now women are gaining freedom and somehow they tied the idea of smoking with the idea of freedom and that resonated so powerfully that literally within weeks thousands of women started smoking and in the passion that was evoked in the emotion that was evoked nobody asked the question how is the lighting of cigarettes related to smoking or how does lighting of cigarettes signify freedom that question was just swept aside and it was only several years later that the harmful effects of smoking came up and harmful effects of smoking for women especially harmful effects of smoking for women who were pregnant all that came up much much later but by that time many people were hooked to smoking so the point I am making through this is that actually not only are the products much more available to us but all the products are also much more aggressively glamorized through advertisements and because of that we never explore any alternative type of habits that means I pursue something I get it, I get some pleasure but afterwards I feel that there is not much pleasure so instead of looking what will truly make me happy then suppose I decide I see some new fashionable clothes that are advertised so then I want to get those clothes and then we get those clothes and we wear those clothes and we look at ourselves in the mirror and then we go out and you know actually in materialistic pleasure a lot of pleasure depends on the world’s acknowledgement if I wear new clothes and nobody notices it the same clothes I don’t know what is happening so Oscar Wilde said that fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to change it every six months so normally you think of fashion as beautiful but the same thing which is considered beautiful, when it goes out of fashion that same thing, you are wearing that old fashioned dress why can’t you be old fashioned, so I have to get a new dress so it becomes the same thing which is beautiful, it becomes ugly after some time not just ugly, it becomes intolerably ugly I have to change it compulsively so that’s how we actually get trapped so now I have got something, maybe I got a new latest cell phone, I got a latest computer now there is nothing wrong in buying the latest products what is wrong is buying into the underlying conception of happiness now if I need the latest product for whatever work I am doing, that’s fine, we get it but if we think that getting that product is going to make me happy then that is a problem so when this happens unfortunately, when we get one thing and second thing and third thing and then we find this is really not making me happy so actually this should stimulate us towards looking somewhere else for happiness but unfortunately there are so many alternatives available I don’t get this, that, that, that and then there are so many alternatives available that we feel if I want to watch TV, there are 1000 channels there must be some program enjoyable somewhere and most often, for people the time when they are watching movie, the most attentive they are is when they are surfing channels not when they are watching programs because when they are surfing, it is like the next thing might be better next thing might be better, next thing might be better we are eagerly waiting but once the program starts sometimes something enjoyable, something is boring something is just floated so actually at the material level most of the pleasure is in the anticipation of the pleasure when I do it, it would be so enjoyable but when we actually do it, quite often it is an anticlimax it is an anticlimax, just when I think oh I am going to enjoy so much at that time, what is this? ok, I did it, but what next? so it turns out to be an anticlimax so as long as we think that by getting something out there, I will become happy we will actually live like animals chasing a mirage a mirage means water is visible but not reachable I can see it but if I go there, it is just not there and that is how it is with happiness at the material level so no matter how much we gain we will not become happy because happiness does not lie out there there is a fundamental mistake when we confuse what we live with and what we live for money, comforts facilities, all these we need in today’s world but that is what we live with there are tools which are helpful for living but unfortunately, when materialism is there materialism is dominant then we equate what we live with and what we live for that means the means for living becomes the purpose of living and then such a life becomes purposeless activity there is no lasting satisfaction no matter whatever we do so Srila Prabhupada, the founder Acharya of ISKCON he came to America at a time which was very extraordinary, he came in the 1960s and there was the phase of the counter culture so in 1940 the world war 2 took place and although the allies won the war actually it was America which gained the most because very little war was fought on American territory except for Pearl Harbor, there were no direct casualties for American territory and America supplied weapons to the allies also so America’s economy boomed after that and so those people who came back after the world war 2 then they married and they got children and their children became young they came to teenage adolescence by the 1960s and these people had lived in prosperity because their parents had provided them from childhood the things which they themselves had struggled for so now these young people they had all the things which most people seek and they found it all meaningless they wanted something higher unfortunately not knowing what to look for they got the notion that we will get happiness through drugs not just happiness, we will get spiritual happiness through drugs that was their idea so they were taking a drug which is called LSD LSD is actually an acronym for a chemical name but so strong was the idea that this LSD will give spiritual happiness that they renamed LSD that anybody who takes LSD joins the league of spiritual discovery so LSD is league of spiritual discovery that’s how they thought and at that time mainstream America was shocked at how many thousands of young people were just becoming hippies they were rejecting the mainstream education they were rejecting the mainstream government mainstream culture so Srila Prabhupada was once giving a lecture and at that time most of his audience were hippies he said you hippies are not appreciated in America because people say you are frustrated Prabhupada said but I appreciate you he said why? because human life is meant to be frustrated human life is meant to be frustrated why? he says when we become frustrated materially then we enquire spiritually and human life is meant for now enquire about spirituality so Prabhupada said don’t just go into drugs, enquire spiritually now when we enquire spiritually what does it mean? so we at the material level when we don’t get satisfaction we change the form of happiness that means I didn’t get happiness by getting this gadget maybe I’ll get that gadget maybe I didn’t get happiness by getting this house I’ll get that house we keep changing the form of things but when we grow spiritually when we become spiritually aware we change not the form but we change the nature of happiness that we are looking for in the Bhagavad Gita 5.21 Krishna states that getting discharged this wise person doesn’t get obsessed with external pleasures becomes indifferent to them the person seeks happiness within and when they seek happiness within when they connect themselves internally through the practice of yoga then experience means immeasurable, inexhaustible experience happiness that is inexhaustible now what does it mean to look for happiness within is it like I look down and try to see what is there inside now actually look for happiness within means that within at our center we are spiritual beings and the Bhagavad Gita explains that right next to us is God Krishna exists in the heart of all living beings and there is an eternal relationship of love between the soul and God the ultimate purpose of yoga is to connect the soul with the super soul in a bond of love and it is in this loving reciprocation that there is the supreme satisfaction. Normally even within within the materialistic conception of happiness actually we understand at a subconscious level at least that happiness doesn’t come through things it comes through relationships now often we want to acquire more and more things we want to have the most fashionable clothes, the best gadgets the best car, the most attractive house because we think by getting these things I will become more lovable I will look more attractive if I have more flashy clothes, more flashy gadgets, people will become attracted to me and people will love me. So what we long for actually is love now yes if we have more and more materially flashy things we do attract attention but people are attracted not to what we are but to what we have and this actually sentences us to further insecurity because if I formed a relationship based on something external to me, based on my looks, my wealth, my position, my influence these are definitely parts of who we are but if that is the foundation of a relationship that we are forming and when those things go away then we become insecure, we become very worried that I will be rejected and thus our relationships also don’t provide us shelter they don’t provide us strength because they are also founded on the same insecure platform of materials so when we form relationships with the materialistic conception of life then the same insecurity and anxiety that comes to us when we are pursuing material things the same insecurity also troubles our relationships also and the Bhagavad Gita explains that actually we have an eternal relationship with God and we have two kinds of relationships we have a vertical relationship with Krishna and we have horizontal relationships with others and both these relationships are meant to be symbiotic that means when we have a relationship with Krishna and that relationship with Krishna when we meditate on Him when we lovingly remember Him because Krishna is sarva-akarshati iti Krishna He is the all-attractive supreme person when we remember Him, when we connect lovingly with Him we experience inner peace and joy prashantamanasam dhenam yoginam sukhamuttamam upaiti shantarajasam brahma-bhutamakalmasam Krishna explains in 6.27 in the Gita prashantamanasam dhenam when the mind becomes peaceful yoginam sukhamuttamam the yogi experiences sublime, supreme happiness all this happens when we connect with Krishna so when we connect with Krishna in a vertical relationship that gives us inner security and when there is inner security we can relate with greater maturity with others in our relationships now if we are internally peaceful even if there is some insecurity there are some ups and downs we are able to tolerate if we don’t have the security of a vertical relationship with Krishna then any insecurity in our horizontal relationships it becomes not just a problem but it becomes a personal threat that means if somebody speaks something harshly to me some harsh words to me it is not just that they are speaking harsh words to me I take it as if they are rejecting me as if I am unlovable but that is not the reality every relationship goes through ups and downs and when we practice bhakti yoga and we connect with Krishna internally then we understand that actually Krishna always loves me Krishna will never desert me Krishna is always there in my heart and nothing can ever make Him abandon me and whenever we turn to Him in prayerful remembrance in devotional service attitude we can experience inner shelter in His remembrance so that gives us a security by which we can relate with more maturity in our horizontal relationships and simultaneously if we are also having our horizontal relationship with those who are spiritually minded family members, friends if our social circle is also of spiritually minded people then that horizontal relationship also inspires us in our vertical relationship so if our friends we see them studying spiritual books, we see them doing meditation we see them coming for satsang then we also can inspire to go there and thus the horizontal relationship strengthens the vertical relationship and this way when we function we actually get deep peace and satisfaction so sometimes some people fear that they have become spiritual so you look for happiness internally then we will become unambitious then we will not work, we will not achieve things in life that is not a necessary consequence actually when we practice spirituality the bhakti understanding is that in 18.46 Krishna says that by your work worship him some people translate this as work is worship actually work is worship is not the exact translation by your work worship him if work itself were worship then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper donkey works so hard now this is not to ridicule the idea of work is worship see work is worship is a valuable and valid principle as far as inspiring people to give dignity of labour to all forms of work to inspire people to work diligently whatever work they are doing so it is a good ethical principle but it is not a philosophical principle, it is not that just by working I am worshipping but rather through our work we can worship God what does that mean? that means that when we understand that ok I have been given some talents, I have some interests and these are what God has given me and then I am meant to do justice to these abilities so I work hard to transform those abilities transform that talent into achievement so what we have is God’s gift to us what we become is our gift to God what we have is God’s gift to us, we acknowledge that it is not that in the name of spirituality we reject whatever talent whatever abilities we have, it is not just that when we become self satisfied that does not mean that we become inactive or lethargic, it means that we function not from a foundation of dissatisfaction in materialistic life we want to work and achieve because we hope that will make us happy but rather when we are spiritually conscious we work because we want to do justice to the gifts that God has given us we want to make contributions in this world in a mode of service I will continue with one last point then you can have questions that I need that happiness is actually always a by-product it is never a product that means if I do something to become happy I will never get happiness if I go, whatever we do just for the sake of getting happiness it gives a little pleasure but afterwards it becomes boring if somebody says oh I like to play video games I will play video games for enjoyment, ok fine maybe half an hour, one hour, two hours but if I spend my whole day playing video games after sometime I get bored and what happens that boredom I may try to find some newer and newer video games to play and now this pokemon go there is a craze for that but after sometime what will happen is that people get bored with it and either they have to create some new features to stimulate people or they have to come up with new games so now in this case whatever we do just to become happy quite often that doesn’t give us happiness but rather if we work for some higher purpose and work to make a contribution then happiness comes as a by-product so if we look back at our own lives when we are working for some purposeful cause those are the moments which we cherish the most I was really absorbed at that time I was able to do something worthwhile so happiness is a by-product not a product, if I chase after happiness it is just like a mirage it just comes to me but never comes but rather if we live a life of higher values then happiness comes as a by-product and bhakti gives us the highest value to live for that is the value of loving contribution loving service we see our family members as also parts of the one hope of God and we see our talents as gifts of God which we are meant to contribute so it is not that bhakti takes away our ambition rather it gives us a spiritual foundation for our work, for our ambition and it is we work hard we excel in our work Arjuna was a top Arjuna of his time and he was a great devotee of Krishna it was not that because he was a devotee he was a lethargic person but his purpose was to serve, to contribute and then we have this attitude that when we are working with a materialistic conception and we are pursuing things then we think that by doing these things by acquiring this I will become happy but rather when we are working with spiritual understanding we use our talents in a mood of service and then we know that irrespective of whether we get recognition or not whether we get success or not we will get in due course but even if we don’t get we will be connecting with Krishna through our mood of service and that will give us inner satisfaction and that satisfaction is what will endure everything else in this world it will come and go but the inner connection with God which we develop that will give us lasting satisfaction and that is our nature so the process of bhakti enables us to regain our natural happiness I started by talking about how we are all innately pleasure seeking but before seeking pleasure we can look at what is it that is seeking pleasure so if we are just materialistic creatures matter itself has no awareness and awareness is the foundation of happiness so there is no awareness and that is why it cannot be happy it doesn’t even know what is happiness Diblu won the match against Kasparov but it did not even understand what happiness is so our very longing for happiness points to a non-material side within us which is what is looking for happiness and so the materialistic society around us it makes us believe that happiness lies in material things that means possessions, getting more and more things but we discuss that when we have the materialistic conception of life then basically want, want, want we want things and because of that we work, work, work and after we work we want some break so watch, watch, watch and then after we watch we think I will get some relief but there are so many more desires come up so there is shop, shop, shop so there is W, W, W, S this is work, want, work, watch, shop so that is what is the life story of people quite often so now people become shopaholics so that how in today’s world not only is there is a natural desire that I want to acquire things and be happy but today there is availability of things is much much more and there is glamourization through the supermarkets through the digital marketing availability becomes much more and then through the advertisements so advertisements actually systematically sideline our rational side and agitate our emotional side as it happened in the torches of freedom campaign which was used to get women to start smoking so like that when we succumb to this whole spell of this whole belief that happiness will come and things out there we become like animals chasing a mirage so most of the pleasure at the materialistic level is in anticipation when I get it I will become happy but when we get it, it turns out to be an anticlimax it never lives up to its glamourization but unfortunately because there are so many options available we don’t look for something higher for happiness just looking for something newer at the same level and thus we stay trapped but spirituality offers us a higher alternative towards happiness and not that we have to reject material things but it is differentiate between what we live with and what we live for, material things are the means for living they are not the purpose of living comforts are useful but comforts don’t bring happiness we can be comfortably anxious as is happening in today’s world and so spirituality helps us to turn inwards inward means we understand our spiritual identity and we understand our relationship with God whose parts we are determined and when we connect with him in a mood of loving service that connection brings inner satisfaction and we discussed about two kinds of relationships the vertical relationship with God and the horizontal relationship with others around us so normally in the materialistic conception of life we try to become more lovable in the eyes of others by getting more and more things but when our relationship is based on what we have rather than what we are then that relationship itself has a foundation of insecurity and that increases our anxiety so when we get inner security in our self worth in our self satisfaction by our connection with God then we can act more maturely in our horizontal relationships as our vertical relationships help us become better in our horizontal relationships and then our horizontal relationships if they are also spiritually minded people then they inspire us to strengthen our vertical relationships and lastly I discussed that it is not that spirituality will make us unambitious it will change the purpose of our ambition in the materialistic conception of life we are ambitious because we think that will grant me self worth that will grant me happiness but in the spiritual understanding with spiritual understanding we understand that happiness is not a product it is a byproduct if I chase for happiness I will never get it but if I work for some higher cause then by absorption in that higher cause happiness will naturally come so what we have is God’s gift to us and what we become is our gift to God so we work and we work diligently as did Arjuna in excelling in his archery but we work for making a contribution for doing justice to our God given talents and thus even if we don’t get external results because we are connecting with God so even by working in this world by connecting with God internally we get satisfaction so thus we can make our work into worship and become deeper in our inner connectedness with God and the spiritual satisfaction therein. Thank you very much are there any questions? I would like to say that don’t be a Varkahari don’t be a Tapa Hari, don’t be a Happiness Hari be, become a Krishna Hari oh, wonderful, thank you yes, nice, thank you for the comment I have a question about work and another big business by the way sometimes when we use our skills and talents as a work of worship what happens is that it’s part of the work when we show our talents, the tendency is that they do more work right, so because this guy is working well so they try to do more work so if we try to use our talents more and more then we are succumbing to this more work then how do we really balance this because we really want to work so in the corporate world if we use our talents then sometimes our boss may give us more work because we are so talented and they are so productive but then we get consumed by that and we may end up becoming our colleagues so how do we avoid that so there are principles and there are practices we should not confuse the two in principle we are meant to spiritualize our work and we can do our work in a mood of worship in practice how we do that will vary according to time and place circumstances so in general the principle here is that we should not just reject our work or neglect our work because it is thinking it is Monday actually we tend to separate oh this is all material life and this is spiritual life and spiritual life is important material life is not important it is not like that the essence of spirituality in bhakti spirituality is the mood of service and I can serve Krishna directly by going to a temple or doing various forms of direct devotional service and through my job through my family I am serving Krishna indirectly so both are forms of service I was just at a university program after that one student who was leading the university program he asked me how can I inspire my other students to also practice spirituality so I told him by studying nicely if you study well people will see oh you study well you do well in your exams you get good marks what makes you tick you know I practice meditation I have a spiritual side which helps you to focus so that will attract people so I told him that if you study well there is no guarantee that people will become attracted to bhakti but if you don’t study well there is guarantee that people will not become attracted because people will attribute that poor performance to spirituality so at least at that level we can see the connectedness between our spiritual practices and our social performance or our worldly performance so at the basic level we shouldn’t reject our material life thinking as material rather even the material is a way in which we can serve Krishna that is indirect when you serve Krishna or not as direct as devotional activities but that is the principle the essence of spirituality is the mood of service and that can permeate our entire life Krishna Prabhupada writes in 7th chapter that the jurisdiction of Krishna consciousness extends everywhere that everywhere we can be Krishna conscious and everywhere we can be serving Krishna that is the principle so don’t reject the work as mundane but when it comes to actually doing the work how we do it is is something which we have to use our practical intelligence so it’s that if I exhibit all my talents and do work and if I am getting burdened by work then it’s not that in the name of being spiritual I let myself be exploited so we may decide that this is the amount of time I am going to work and we decide you know maybe whatever 8 hours are there 10 hours are there whatever I am working at that time when I am working I am going to work whole heartedly I am not going to let my mind trick me this is material don’t do it so seriously no while I am working let me work whole heartedly and we can decide in this much time whatever I can do I will do so it could be the balance could be in terms of time how much time we spend for what and even when we decide that in life in life when we want a balance a balance is never static it’s not like I make a formula and that formula I can stick to throughout my life no life itself is dynamic and even balance will have to be dynamic that means say I was coming for the program today so initially there was traffic so at that time we were coming slowly when the traffic cleared we came to the express we started moving fast so like that sometimes in our life the traffic of material things may become too much in our office there may be a deadline there may be a project coming to a head so at that time the traffic of the material things in our life is more our spiritual journey may become slightly slower but when the traffic clears up it can speed up so the balance is more in sense of a in the sense of a compass rather than a clock if I think this time I will do this this time I will do this which is good to have like that but life doesn’t always work according to such precise control but we have a overall direction this is the way in which I want to grow in my life and sometimes I may have to do this more sometimes I may have to do this more so the practice is we have to use our God given intelligence how to implement that which field to work in how much to work how much to exhibit our talents all those things are something which we can use our intelligence to practically decide how to do but in principle we don’t reject the work as material but see it also as a mode of service to Krishna does that answer your question? Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Correct. I will answer separately. The first question is that spirituality all sounds very good but it is material things that give me pleasure right now and that’s why I feel inclined to pursue material things more than spiritual things. Yes it is true that material things often give us immediate pleasure now what differentiates human beings from the rest of the living world from the animals is our capacity for long term thinking that’s one of the main differentiating things so animals they can’t think long term even if some animals may save for they may save some food because it is going to be winter but they do it simply driven by instinct they don’t make a conscious choice it is just driven by instinct but we human beings have the capacity to look beyond the immediate future to the distant future and prepare for it and that’s how actually most of technological and scientific advancement has taken place even science sometimes people say seeing is believing if you show me God I will believe in Him but actually speaking even science doesn’t function based on seeing is believing say when Newton saw the fruit falling now most people would have just picked the fruit eaten and gone their way what did Newton do? He asked what made this fruit fall now the answer to that is he came up with the theory of gravity that’s his brilliance that he came up with the theory but at the same time what does it imply? he moved from a visible phenomena to an invisible principle the falling fruit is something which I see visibly but gravity is something which I can’t see it’s an invisible principle so scientific knowledge almost always implies moving from visible specifics to invisible principles so all form of progress it happens when we go beyond the immediate to deeper things that happens in long term way of living that happens in terms of scientific progress and that applies to spirituality also so when we start practicing spirituality at that time we need to use our intelligence yes these things feel good but how long? how much and how long? it feels good if I just eat and eat and eat it feels good but for how much and how long? people eat and eat and eat and then they get panicky oh I’ve eaten so much now and then people get eating disorders, bulimia and others because they feel compulsively they are afflicted with figure consciousness so any material form of pleasure how much and how long? yes there is pleasure but it’s not going to last we use our intelligence to look for something more enduring actually that is the sign of intelligence to look beyond the immediate to the long term and that is what has led to humans progress in various fields and the same applies to spiritual field also it’s gone down again Hare Krishna is it better? so similarly that’s one way of analyzing Hare Krishna is it better? no? ok so another way of analyzing this is that actually it is not that for the spiritual we have to give up the material rather it is just that we have to regulate the material so it is not that for spirituality we have to give up all immediate things even the worldly pleasures they can be enjoyed but in the duration in moderation and when we think that it’s like I have to choose between the material and the spiritual if that’s what we think of life then giving up the material for the spiritual is too difficult but rather we understand that spiritual life involves not just choosing the spiritual but harmonizing the material with the spiritual so it’s not that I am giving up the material in fact you may feel ok when I start practicing spirituality I have to regulate my diet but you know within prasad there is so much variety of delicious foods in the early days at least in 1960s people in America they had no idea of vegetarian food they thought if you have to be vegetarian that means you have to eat vegetables and that’s why when Prabhupada came in no meat eating people became panicky but then Hayagriva Prabhu who was one of Prabhupada’s early disciples he said we were delighted to discover that Swamiji Swamiji’s knowledge of vegetarian recipes was as vast as his knowledge of Sanskrit shlokas so they discovered that there is so much actually delicious food to eat so it’s not that if we consider music it’s not that we have to give up all music in bhakti itself there are so many different forms of music through which we can channel our material inclinations so that means what we need to give up is not the material but the obsession with the material or rather the unidimensional obsession with the material that means for the material I give up everything I give up the spiritual instead of doing that we focus on the spiritual and harmonize the material with the spiritual then we can have actually a regulated life in which we also enjoy material things like dharma, artha, kama, moksha in that artha and kama material prosperity and worldly pleasure they are also included in the progress of spiritual life so it’s not that they are rejected but they are integrated within a higher purpose and the second question is that when you talk about happiness being a by-product there are many people who get happiness through some higher cause such as philanthropic work yes definitely sometimes we see the material and spiritual as radically opposed now this is material I have to reject that and this is spiritual I have to accept that and then within the material we reject everything material as if it is equally bad so sensuality is bad and philanthropy is also bad it’s all material only but it’s not like that even within the material there are levels the bhagavata talks about tamoguna, rajoguna, sattoguna the mode of ignorance, the mode of passion, the mode of goodness and actually in one sense if we consider that our growth is in terms of growth in selflessness so when I am in the mode of ignorance I think only of myself for example if there is some food to eat then people when they are in passion they think I want the best of everything people in goodness they think let’s all take equally people in ignorance say not only I want the best I want everything so I want everything and those who are transcendental they want to serve others so in one sense even within the material there are degrees so in general the more selfless we become the more of higher happiness we get so if somebody is absorbed in some cause somebody is absorbed in philanthropic cause they do get deeper satisfaction through that and that satisfaction is actually much more deeper much more meaningful than a life of gross sensuality and sometimes we may be externally practicing bhakti we may be chanting Hare Krishna, we may be doing the rituals of bhakti but actually we may not have evolved to their level of selflessness so somebody may be doing material philanthropic work and actually they may be more evolved in their selflessness than we are in our practice of bhakti so to explain it say if we consider there is a 100 story building and somebody is climbing up the stairs and they have come to the 10th floor and say I am on the first floor right now but I am on the elevator that will take me to the 100th floor so I am better situated because I can get to the 100th floor fast because I am in the elevator but right now the person who is on the 10th floor is higher than me so quite often we may see that even people who are non devotees they may have better qualities than devotees they may be more gentle, more cultured, more sensitive more courteous, even more compassionate in a material sense and devotees may not be so bhakti does not itself mean that we have become evolved bhakti offers us a very rapid and easy way to become evolved but it is for us to rise and become evolved so in terms of the journey of evolution people who are engaged in some higher cause in some philanthropy they are actually doing laudable work and because of their absorption in something bigger than themselves they get happiness now bhakti offers us the biggest cause to become absorbed Krishna is the well-wisher of all living beings so when we absorb ourselves in Krishna we can get the greatest satisfaction because when we serve Krishna, Krishna wants the good of all living beings and through us Krishna works as channel for doing good for everyone so we have the highest cause to be absorbed in but that does not mean that we are already absorbed in the highest cause others may have a lower cause in which they are absorbed but if they are more absorbed in that cause they may actually be making more contribution in the sense of what they are doing in this world and they may also get greater satisfaction so we have the opportunity for higher absorption but that does not mean that we are already absorbed higher so if somebody is doing philanthropic work they need to be appreciated for their level of selflessness the problem comes when people think that philanthropy is a superior substitute to spirituality they think because I am doing philanthropy you people what are you doing, you are just chanting, dancing you are not doing anything practical for the world we are doing so much for the world therefore we are better than you if they think like that then their attitude becomes an obstacle on their spiritual growth so spirituality it cleanses the heart when it cleanses the heart it naturally makes people more selfless more compassionate and that way it contributes to the holistic rejuvenation of society also so it is when philanthropy is seen as a superior substitute for spirituality then it becomes an obstacle but otherwise those who are philanthropic people they are also evolved people and they need to be appreciated for that any other questions shall we stop thank you very much
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Hare Krishna I welcome all of you to today evening's program and thanks to you for taking time out as I said on the week evening so I'll be speaking on this topic of the quest for happiness in five parts first I'll talk about how happiness is so illusive and where happiness is expected to be found that is where it eludes us and I'll talk about different levels of happiness through possession, through gratification through disposition and through realization and then we'll talk about how we can integrate these various levels of happiness so most people equate we all have certain definitions of happiness and based on our definition of happiness we move forward and seek things in our life that means experiments have found that if a monkey a small monkey is kept in a box and there is a wall and there is something on the other side of the wall the monkey will not just stay peacefully there he'll just try to climb up the wall go on the other side of the wall to find out what is there to explore similarly researchers have found that say if we look at a fish now the fish naturally needs food and at the end of a fishing rod there is a bait which looks like food and the fish rushes towards that bait thinking that it will get food and often the bait that is kept looks very attractive it looks very delicious so that food which is there at the end of the bait it rushes towards that gets caught and is loses its life similarly there are mice which get caught by a cheese which is kept in a mice trap and now both these creatures say the mice or the fish they have their excuses the bait looks like food and they don't know in advance that it is a trap it looks like food and they don't know in advance that it is a trap but unfortunately we humans often don't have either of these excuses for example sometimes some people become addicts to certain substances may be alcohol or smoking or drugs now cigarette does not look like food to anyone isn't it and who doesn't know that cigarette smoking is injurious for health and despite this not just one or two millions upon millions of people fall prey to addiction so here nobody goes to nobody goes to get get some disease by smoking but it is the search for happiness which in this case is disastrously misdirected and when it is so disastrously misdirected far from providing happiness it actually ends up causing misery it actually ends up leading to great trouble now we are here in America and America is considered to be the world leader and it is considered the land of opportunity freedom prosperity and yet sociologists have found some very peculiar statistics there are many books one book by sociologist David Meyer called American Paradox so misery in the land of plenty and he compared statistics from 1960 to 2010 roughly and he said comparison of statistics was that he found as compared to what it was in 1960 and what it is now in 2010 he found that actually leave alone any leave alone any spiritual or religious or any such parameters of morality or measurement even from materially measurable parameters what he found is that in these 50 years the divorce rate has doubled the teen suicide rate has tripled the recorded violent crime rate has quadrupled the prison population has quintupled the percentage of babies born out of marriage has extupled and depression has gone to 10 times more than what it was in the 1960s so now these are all indicative of a society that is not exactly happy and if you compare relatively speaking say the technological facilities that were there in the 1960s the material comforts that were there and what they are now they are enormously more now and yet something seems to be missing seriously missing because of which the material parameters such as depression suicide addiction crime relationships getting ruptured all these are indicating that something is wrong and sadly enough the similar statistics increase as the materialism spreads even in the third world so in India sometimes you may hear of farmers committing suicide or you may hear about violence against some lower caste or whatever now all these are very serious problems but in India the suicide capital is Bangalore which is considered to be the software capital of India so it is it is puzzling if you think of it that way that where there is progress and prosperity there it is accompanied by frustration to the extent of self destruction throughout the history of the world there have always been people who have had problems but never before in the history of the world have so many people been inclined to commit suicide now WHO statistics say that for every successful suicide actually there is no success in suicide but successful suicide means a person attempts to end their life and they actually end their life as compared to that there are 10 to 12 attempts that mean actually the number of suicides itself is 1 million every year 1 million every year means it is 1 suicide every 40 seconds that means since we started this talk almost 15 people have committed suicide and this figure of 1 million is actually more than the number of people who are killed by others be it in wars be it in homicidal crime or be it in terrorist attacks more than the number of people who are being killed by others are the number of people who are killing themselves so never before in the history of the world have so many people attempted to commit suicide nor have so many people succeeded in committing suicide so what is it that actually is missing Martin Luther King said that we have guided missiles and misguided men guided missiles a tremendously powerful technology but something is wrong because of which people are misguided now let's look at different conceptions of happiness and then we will see where they fall short so we live in a aggressively materialistic culture where there are tremendous amount of advertisements and most advertisements tell us buy this and you will be happy get that and you will be happy so at one level happiness is thought to be found in possession possession if you get this car if you get this phone if you get this house if you get this if you get that that will make you happy now certainly we all need material things in life and yes what we possess is important but actually possession itself does not bring satisfaction once I saw an advertisement there was a young man driving a car and there was it was a very attractive car and there was a girl looking very admiringly at him and from behind there is a another young man who is glaring at him and the caption of the advertisement was buy this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour's eyes enjoy the envy in your neighbour's eyes actually this is such a terrible level of enjoyment that means my enjoyment is not by what I have but how much what I have can cause misery to others and the greater envy is basically misery when you feel envious of someone for what they have we are miserable and if we think that that misery will give me pleasure then it is such a low level of pleasure and not only is it a low level of pleasure that my pleasure depends on someone else's pain but also it is such an unreliable level of pleasure once there were two people who were praying to the goddess and they were neighbours and what happened the first person came the goddess appeared to both of them and the goddess appeared to the first person and said what do you want he was about to speak and he said the goddess told him yes see your neighbour is also neighbour is also praying to me so whatever you ask me I will give the double of that to your neighbour so this person his whole idea was I want to be better than my neighbour but this is not going to work so what he asked please make me blind in one eye why the neighbour will become blind in both eyes so unfortunate now in the Mahabharata there is a story of Duryodhana Duryodhana was the eldest among the hundred Kauravas and he was always envious of his cousins the Pandavas he tried to dispossess them of their rightful share of the kingdom and eventually the Pandavas by the arrangement of the lord although he tried to have them burnt alive they eventually married Draupadi who was the daughter of Drupada a very powerful king and then Littharastra realising that he could not antagonise such a powerful king he decided to give the Pandavas half of the kingdom but he gave them half which was practically forested there was no no prosperity over there say a father has two companies and one of the companies is booming and the other is practically bankrupt and while giving inheritance the father gives one company to one child and the other gives the bankrupt company to the other child it would be it would be outrageous kind of settlement outrageously unfair but the Pandavas accept it and they go to the forested area Khandavprastha and they by Krishna's mercy transform it into Indraprastha it becomes phenomenally prosperous and they perform the Rajasuya yajna and there Duryodhana he he knows that he already has envy towards the Pandavas but then he chooses the service because it's in the family the sacrifice that is being performed they are all the same family so he also has to do something some service over there so he takes the service of receiving gifts on behalf of the Pandavas and now that causes his envy to grow even more first he comes and sees how magnificent their palace is they already have so much and now they are going to get more they are getting so many gifts so many gifts so throughout the Rajasuya sacrifice there is a fire sacrifice where the fire is burning but a bigger fire is burning in Duryodhana's heart and whereas that fire is auspicious this fire is inauspicious at the end of it all he returns when he is returning back at that time he is breathing heavily he is exasperated cursing anyone who passes by his way at the end he goes to his father Dhritarashtra and Dhritarashtra tries to console him saying that now what do you lack? what do you lack O Duryodhana? you have palaces you have chariots you have army that you command everything that a person would want you have that and Duryodhana's reply is what man can be happy when his enemies have more than what he has so now this is a sadly misconception it's a very tragic misconception about happiness where we define our happiness in terms of what others have and when that happens then we can never be happy because no matter how much we have there will always be someone who will have something more than us and this is actually made into a whole special art by the advertising industry what happens is the advertising industry specializes in showing us all the things that we don't have and thus no matter how much we have we stay dissatisfied because we are always seeing oh I have this phone but a new phone is coming I have this car but a new car is coming and when we see the many many things which we don't have it causes perpetual dissatisfaction so possessions are necessary for functioning for living in this world but there is a difference between what we live with and what we live for possessions are something which we live with but when we mistake what we live with and what we live for live for means what is the purpose so when possessions become the purpose of life the result is tribulation the result is dissatisfaction because whatever we have it is never enough so what we live for and what we live with these two are different things and unfortunately that distinction is lost in an excessively materialistic civilization where the idea is oh if you just get this you will become happy if you just get that you will become happy so along with possession there is another definition of another source of happiness thought in the materialistic civilization is gratification gratification means we all have our senses the eyes the ears the tongue and the idea that if the senses come in contact with the sense objects then I will be happy if my tongue gets to eat delicious food if my eyes get to see beautiful forms so in this way sam sparsh jaap hoga the Bhagavad Gita says in 5.22 that sam sparsh jaap by the contact to the senses with the sense objects it is pleasure Krishna talks about his pleasure again in 18.38 when he says what is the nature of this pleasure vishayendriya sanyoga yathagre amritopamam pariname vishamiva tatsukham raje samsmatam he says when there is contact with the senses and the sense objects yathagre amritopamam initially there is nectar there is nectar oh this is so delicious but then pariname vishamiva afterwards there is poison that's like no I was talking earlier about advertisements now the advertisements today pull people in two different directions with respect to say especially food now a days if you see healthy foods are not all that advertised how many times do we see advertisements of fruits and vegetables no usually fatty foods fast foods they are not advertised so on one side there is advertisement eat this eat this eat this eat this and then the advertisements also show you know people who have very attractive slim figures so what happens is the conception of beauty is you have to look like this look like this look like this so on one side eat this eat this eat this and look like this look like this look like this the two are impossible to do both at the same time and thus people get ripped apart by different desires and the idea is that so some people may say that oh ok you know eat and I will enjoy so initially there is it's dectable oh I eat it's so delicious it's so delicious but as I keep eating as I keep eating eventually the body the stomach's capacity to eat is limited and once the capacity of the stomach gets exhausted even if there is delicious food we can't eat it and afterwards when that same thing causes when we eat too much it causes a lot of problems not just with the figure but with the health also and then there is there is poison at the end many of you have heard of the Egyptian pharaohs some of their bodies are kept in mummies so they tried to some of them were Epicureans Epicureans means people who live simply for the pleasure of the senses so they tried to find a way around nature and what they did they wanted to eat a lot so they had their physicians at their time develop some painless vomiting pills so they would have their golden bowels in which they would get feasts and they would eat it and after eating it when the stomach was full they would get a painless vomiting pill they would take that pill vomit it all out vomit it all out and they get another plate and eat it again and they tried to do that now eating is not just a matter of accommodating things in the stomach actually when the food goes inside through the alimentary canal and then it has to be expelled out again all that causes severe damage and then after that for 2-3 generations they tried this and all those people who tried this they died young and terrible so now on one of the pyramids a saying is engraved the saying is one fourth of what you eat maintains you the remaining three fourth maintains your physician so according to some surveys people in the first world especially and increasingly in the third world also which has become modern they spend 40 times more money is spent on weight loss treatments than what is required for removing all starvation in the world 40 times more now what is happening over here the craving for pleasure when it is directed towards food then that sabotages our health sabotages our looks and thus we end up neither getting pleasure ourselves but we also end up depriving resources from others similarly there is a male-female attraction in which there is thought there is great pleasure so once I was in an airport and I saw an advertisement on the overhead TV there is a Bollywood star there is a young man who is walking along the street and then suddenly a Bollywood star came over there and then there was a bevy of young young women and they all squealed and called out his name and rushed to him and started hugging him and kissing him and this young man was standing there nobody was looking at him also and then the Bollywood star comes to him and says do you want to know my secret and then he says my secret is some shampoo and then after that this person goes and pears the shampoo and he comes and then when he comes and then he is walking along the street and then the girls come and they start squealing and calling out his name and they come and hugging him and kissing him now such an advertisement is actually an insult to both male intelligence and female intelligence why is that? that actually to say that a woman will fall for a man just because he has applied some shampoo in his hair that's an insult to female intelligence and the idea that men will believe such fairy tales that is an insult to male intelligence but actually this is not seen like this because the craving for pleasure is so great that we end up believing anything and everything in the hope that he gives us pleasure but the pleasure through gratification is limited there is some pleasure available but that pleasure does not last for long and that same pleasure eventually causes many troubles so beyond the pleasure of gratification is the pleasure through disposition some people say happiness is all a matter of attitude if you have the right attitude you will be happy so don't look at how the glass is half empty look at how the glass is half full don't be pessimistic be optimistic and this is good optimism is always better than pessimism but suppose say now I am thirsty and say right now this glass is full but assume this glass were empty I request someone please can you give me some water I say no I say the glass is empty can you give me some water why are you so pessimistic just imagine that the glass is full and drink the water now I may imagine that the empty glass is full but that is not going to satisfy my thirst isn't it so to say that empty glass is full is not optimism it is stupidism it is stupidism first I have to admit that the glass is empty and then after that I can look for how I can fill the glass and then I can get water so there is an attitude and there is a reality the attitude doesn't change the reality I may have a positive attitude but if there is no water in the glass my attitude is not going to produce the water I accept that I can have a positive attitude in the sense that even if there is no water over here maybe I can find water so in that I can have a positive attitude but positive attitude does not come from denial of reality it comes from acceptance of the present reality but also having the attitude that the present reality is not the permanent reality ok I don't have water right now but I can get water so similarly when we think about happiness the Bhagavad Gita tells us that there are four happiness destroyers in life janma, mrtyu, jarā, vyādhi duḥkha, doṣān, darshanam in the 13th chapter Krishna says that old age, disease and death and then in the future rebirth these are things which will take away our happiness no matter what we achieve it is not going to last with us and therefore a wise person asks where can I where can I get lasting happiness say for example suppose a student is told that you can get a degree say you can get a medical degree after studying for 15 years and they told that after you study for 15 years you get a degree but that degree will be valid for 2 years after that you no longer have doctor's qualification and say what is the point of it all if I work for 15 years to get a degree and then it is going to last only for 2 years, it is pointless similarly when we look for look at life we believe that certain things will give us happiness and we pursue those things but the nature of life is that actually we the whole life story can be summarized in 4 words W, W, W, W what is W, W, W the first W is want I want this, I want that I want that, I want that there are hundreds of things that we want Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that there are millions of desires which drag us here and there so want, want, there are so many wants which we have now when we want something things don't come free then we have to work work, work, work, work so we work working is not pleasant all the time then after that if we work still there is no guarantee that we will get what we want and even if we get what we want there is no guarantee that it will stay with us so there is uncertainty whether I will get what I want and there is uncertainty whether I will preserve what I want and that causes worry worry, worry, worry, worry chintam aparimeyam pralayantam upashita kamopabhogaparama etavaditinichita in 16.11 the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says there is unlimited anxiety that comes up and this anxiety stays till the moment of death aparimeyam chintam immeasurable anxieties there is worry, worry, worry will I get it, will I be able to preserve it and then at the end of it people often especially in their youth they think I will work very hard I will do a lot and I will achieve a lot and I will learn a lot so at that time often work unregulated maybe 12 hours, 15 hours, 16 hours they get stressed, they get hypertension and still they think oh I am growing in life so people lose their health in youth and middle age to gain wealth then afterwards health becomes too much of a problem then they lose their wealth to gain their health I have to go to a doctor I have to do this, I have to do that and in the end they lose both their health and their wealth we lose everything at the time of death now this doesn't have to be our life story the Bhagavad Gita tells us that these things are not going to be changed just by disposition that old age, disease and death are going to take everything away this is not pessimism this is simply reality but the Bhagavad Gita asks us a fundamental question suppose now that there is an essential incompatibility between us and the world around us now we all want to be happy we feel happiness is our right and yet if we look at the world around us, if we think deeply, we will observe that actually all around the world the things that promise happiness, they don't deliver happiness they actually produce misery there was an existentialist philosopher Albert Camus, he said that actually he analyzed the world and he said there is so much misery in life there is no way you can remove this misery so his whole philosophy, his conclusion was that actually life is misery, so the only philosophical question worth asking is should we commit suicide today or tomorrow so now at the material level if you think about life life ends in gloom and doom whether we like it or not but the Bhagavad Gita asks us this question why is there this incompatibility we want happiness but the world around us thwarts our longing for happiness see now if you come into this house there is a floor which is made up of tiles and suddenly on that floor if we see a golden ring you naturally get the question where did this golden ring come from if everywhere around is stone tile, this golden ring is so out of sync with what everything else is there, we naturally get the question where does it come from where does it come from so similarly if we look at the world around us there is frustration there is no real satisfaction over there in whatever other things around us and yet all of us have an innate longing for happiness and we have a strong belief that happiness is our right so where has this longing come from if I am in a world where happiness is the search for happiness is thwarted then where has my longing itself come from we see in nature our basic drives are satisfied we feel thirst and there is water in nature we feel hunger and there is food in nature we need light and there is light in nature so whatever are our basic needs they are provided for they are there somewhere so the question comes up happiness is also our basic need so how where is it to be fulfilled so the Bhagavata explains that actually happiness comes from our spiritual core so beyond possession beyond gratification beyond disposition is realization realization realization means that actually happiness is our nature we are at our core souls and soul the atma is sat-chit-ananda the atma is eternal, the atma is conscious and the atma is joyful so the more we realize our nature the more we naturally become joyful suppose a person suppose there is a family there is a young man who is there and the father has given some inheritance as a house and the father son thinks that oh this house this is a simple house, there is not much money over here, I will go to some foreign land and I will earn money over there and that son goes to one country second country, third country and tries to earn and earns something but never gets enough and then that son comes to know that actually although my house was simple in the backyard of my house my father has hidden a big treasure then wherever the son has gone, the son will come back and then he will unearth the treasure and the unearth enormous amount of wealth is there waiting so here what is required is the wealth is there one does not have to go and explore all over the world wealth is not a matter of exploration it is a matter of excavation it is hidden underground, you have to excavate it similarly now we are looking for happiness and happiness lies deep inside us at our core so there is a process of spiritual excavation and that spiritual excavation is done from the process of yoga now there are different processes of yoga most of us associate yoga with sitting in a particular posture and closing our eyes and twisting our body in different ways yes, that is one aspect of yoga and today yoga is often practiced for improving health and figure that is preliminary just like there are yogic postures every posture has a particular purpose just like in cricket different batsmen have different postures some may spread their legs far apart some may raise the bat up but the posture is not the ultimate thing, the purpose of the posture is so that when the ball comes the batsman can hit the ball if the batsman just stays in the posture and the ball comes and goes what is the point of the posture? the purpose of the posture is to hit the ball similarly, the purpose of yogic postures is to launch our consciousness upwards the purpose of yogic postures is so that the batsman can hit the ball best in a particular posture like that there are different postures which are meant to launch our consciousness upwards from the physical level to the spiritual level and as our consciousness rises to the spiritual level we naturally experience more and more happiness that happiness is our nature and we start realizing it just like a person when they dig under the ground and find the treasure they get wealth so the process of bhakti yoga is the easiest way to do this spiritual excavation Krishna talks about process of yoga in the sixth chapter and he talks about going to a forest sitting in yogic postures and renouncing worldly possessions and at the end of it he says the highest yogi is one who practices bhakti and he says among all the yogis the best yogi is one who devotes oneself to me remembers me within one's heart and therein finds great happiness so some people think that so in the broad vedic tradition there are three strands of thought one is the thought of karma path of karma, the second is the path of jnana and the third is the path of bhakti so the path of karma is that oh we work hard, we get more possessions, we get more ratification and then we'll become happy so this is the path wherein this world karma actually romanticizes the world romanticize means oh this world is such a wonderful place, we just have to adjust some things, then we'll become happy there is another path which is the path of jnana which says actually whatever promises pleasure in this world that only causes misery therefore stay away from the pleasure of this world that is the path of renunciation renounce the whole world and the path of jnana actually if you consider a pendulum karma takes to one side it romanticizes the world jnana goes to the other side and it demonizes the world dad, this world, whatever promises pleasure, that will give misery, so renounce it but the path of bhakti these two are extremes romanticize and demonize the path of bhakti is the balanced path of, either don't romanticize the world, don't demonize the world, utilize the world utilize the world means that we see that whatever we have in this world this world belongs to god and everything that we have is actually a gift from god so the path of bhakti tells us that happiness comes through realization but realization of what? we are souls and the soul is eternally a part of god so god has many names in different traditions the bhagavad gita reveals this thing as krishna, the word krishna means all attractive sarva akarshati ti krishna mamaivam isho jiva loke jiva bhoota sanatana the bhagavad gita says that we are all parts of krishna so we are a part of god but now we are apart from god we are a part of god but presently we are apart from god when we are apart from god then the mind and senses drag us do this you will be happy, do that you will be happy and we get entangled so the path of bhakti tells us that whatever we have we use it in god's service and by using it in god's service we experience happiness because we connect with god krishna so at the spiritual level of reality happiness is our nature and when we connect with krishna then we realize this natural happiness, I will conclude with two points now about the nature of happiness and bhakti bhakti has two aspects to it one is inner remembrance when we love someone we remember that person and there is outer service when we love someone we want to do something practical for them to please them to satisfy their needs so in bhakti we cultivate inner remembrance of krishna, so for example right now before the class we are singing kirtans and when we sing these kirtans we musically meditate on krishna through his holy name and such chanting actually gives us some mystical experience of some mystical happiness even people who are non-believers if they come and participate in spiritual music they experience some happiness they experience some peace they experience some joy now this is not simply musical joy the music can provide some joy but this is actually music that raises our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level so internally when we remember krishna we experience happiness it's like if say outside it's very hot and then we come into an air conditioned room the moment we come to the air conditioned room we experience relief the heat is still there outside but by coming to the air conditioned room we experience relief, so similarly in this world there are many things which you think about and quite often the more we think about those things, the more we become agitated, the more we become dissatisfied but if we just bring our thoughts to god just like we get ourselves into air conditioned room, we feel happy we feel relief from it, similarly when we get our thoughts to krishna, when we remember krishna what happens? we get relief it is said that dhautatma the soul who is pure what happens? when they think about krishna they experience relief from misery and the example for this is given just as a person who has gone out for a long journey, when they come back home they feel relief now i am home, now i am safe now i am comfortable so similarly when we bring our thoughts to krishna we can all experience this relief, we come to a temple we participate in kirtans, we pray to deities, we can experience relief and the more we cultivate bhakti, the greater and greater will be this relief the greater and greater will be the joy that we experience there so this is the happiness that comes through inner remembrance and this happiness through inner remembrance actually stabilizes us, strengthens us and then whatever we are doing in the outer world we can do it with greater effectiveness and secondly other aspect of bhakti is outer service so what this means is whereas the path of jnana says to go towards god we have to give up everything in this world but bhakti says we don't have to give up we have to use everything so the bhakti vision of life is that what we have is god's gift to us what we become is our gift to god what we have is god's gift to us, we all have certain talents certain abilities, certain resources so they are god's gift to us and what we become using those talents, using those abilities using those gifts, that is our gift to god so that means our whole life becomes an offering of love for god, so some people may have certain abilities and they use those abilities in god's service we have family members we develop those relationships keeping god in the center, that he is the person around whom all our relationships are centered and when we have this attitude when we bring krishna in the center of our life then everything else that is there possession that is there gratification that is there disposition that is there all becomes harmonized so it's not that we don't have to possess things we can possess things but we don't believe that the possession itself will make us happy no, what we have doesn't make us happy, what we do with what we have makes us happy and the path of bhakti helps us to use what we have properly similarly gratification itself is not wrong, we will be having prasad, it's delicious food but it is offered to krishna and that food when we take it, then it not only nourishes our body, it purifies our mind, it awakens our soul similarly disposition actually a devotee normally people can have positive attitude thinking that things are going wrong, eventually things will work out that is fine, but a devotee has the ultimate positive disposition, but because that positive disposition comes from focus on the supreme positive reality that is krishna because krishna is god and he is omnibenevolent he always desires our good and to the extent our vision is focused on god, we can actually have we can have a positive attitude that is not simply sentiment but it is actually based in reality it's like if I got a disease I may think things are going to be alright that is a sentiment but I have a disease but even in that time when the disease is there, still what I find is that sometimes I get cough, sometimes I get vomit sometimes I get pain, I don't know what is happening things are going wrong I am assuming, but if I know there is a doctor, who competent doctor is giving treatment, then even when things are going wrong, from my perspective, the doctor has a plan and things are going right from the doctor's perspective similarly when we connect with krishna when we become devoted to krishna krishna explains that if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace and that is the supreme foundation for optimism so through realization that we are souls, we are parts of god, we are meant to love and serve god through that realization, all other sources of happiness can be harmonized with the reality of who we are and thus we can have a truly fulfilling life where we are as happy as possible in this life and at the end of our life we are souls, we reunite with krishna in his eternal abode for a life of eternal happiness I will summarize then you may have a few questions if you have time I talked about how happiness is what we all long for, but happiness seems so illusive the fish and the mice what promises them happiness that's what brings them death but at least they have excuses their bait looks like food and they don't know it's anger we humans often don't have those excuses, so we discussed first happiness which comes through addiction that people get addicted to certain things and the very thing that promises pleasure actually brings trouble then we discussed further levels of happiness, we discussed through possession so what we live with cannot take the place of what we live for we need possessions for living in life but they are not the purpose of life we discussed how Duryodhana was not satisfied no matter how much he possessed the advertising industry specializes in showing us the things that we don't have and therefore keeps us perpetually dissatisfied we discussed the statistics of sociology from America as compared to 1960 to 2010, the parameters even of material happiness such as suicide, depression, violent crime, divorce all these have worsened despite substantial technological and material progress, why? what is wrong? possessions are increasing gratification is available, we discussed about gratification, our body's capacity to enjoy is limited the pharoahs they tried to escape their capacity but it didn't work you cannot eat more and vomit it out it ruins the body so like that at level of gratification at the level of possession there is some pleasure but it is never enough for us the pleasure is followed by trouble at the level of disposition, it is good to be optimistic but optimism is not denial of reality to say that I am anti-glasses fool is not optimism, it is stupidism so the reality of life is that all that we work for achieving it will be taken away from us you remember the W what are the four W's want work worry I didn't mention the last one last one was weep I said that people lose their health to gain wealth then they lose their wealth to gain health and in the end they lose both their wealth and their health so in the end we lose everything that we have that's when we are left to weep it's tragic but why is it that our search for happiness is thwarted like this we discuss incompatibility if somebody finds gold in a place like this we wonder where does this gold come from all around us the sources of happiness actually don't deliver happiness and yet we feel happiness is our nature and our right so if happiness is not to be fulfilled why do we feel that it is my nature and right that is because we have a core that is different from the world around us the world around us is material whereas we at our core are spiritual and that spiritual nature is what we need to realize so if we think that by getting the things of this world I will become happy we will not, but if we realize who we are then we will become happy discuss the story of the young man who travelled all over the world exploring for happiness but he had to come back and excavate in his own backyard and then there was a treasure meeting similarly for us happiness lies at our core when we realize who we are as souls, as parts of God it happens, so yoga is actually a process of spiritual excavation the yogic postures they are like a batting posture the batting posture is meant to hit the ball yogic postures are meant to launch the soul launch our consciousness in the journey to the spiritual level and the easiest way to practice yoga is through bhakti yoga and bhakti yoga mentioned that there are these three ways of looking at the world karma romanticizes the world oh it is just something that life will be wonderful jnana, what does it do? demonizes the world everything in this world is a place of misery you just have to renounce everything but bhakti is the balance what does bhakti say? utilize the world and in terms of utilization we talk about two things we all think about something but quite often the very things we think about they cause an anxiety and misery so bhakti tells us, learn to think about God and then just as if you come to an air conditioned room from a hot place we feel relieved like that when we bring our thoughts to Krishna we feel relieved we feel joy like a traveler coming home like that we feel relieved there is inner remembrance in bhakti and it is not just inner remembrance it is outer service outer service means that what we have is God's gift to us and what we become is our gift to God so we envision our whole life as a loving service to God and in this realization of our spiritual nature we can harmonize all other social factors also there can be possession, there can be gratification there can be disposition, attitude and all these can be spiritualized and they can all contribute in our quest for happiness thank you very much for your kind attention amidst a significant amount of disturbance so are there any questions? how do we get rid of envy? there are two aspects to it first is that we become envious when we feel that we are in competition with others when there is this conception that I want to get into this college and there are only 10 seats over there and there are 1000 students competing then if another person gets it, that's the expense of what I am going to get so when we have a material definition of happiness to a large extent envy is unavoidable because at the material level the sources of happiness are limited whereas the people who want the happiness is much much more so that's why we need to redefine happiness when we define happiness in terms of our bhakti ko Krishna, our relationship with Krishna, then we understand that Krishna being God is unlimited, He is omnipresent so He can be in your heart and be fully available for you, at the same time He can be in my heart and be fully available to me so the more we realize that spiritual happiness is not of a competitive nature when we define happiness in terms of a soul that is non-competitive then we can actually foundationally stabilize the fight against envy, so without that it is very difficult so once we redirect our eyes and our heart towards Krishna then envy goes down substantially because we understand that no matter how much others have, that doesn't matter for me my relationship with Krishna is secure and if I develop my relationship with Krishna then I can be happy and if others are more advanced, doesn't matter I can take inspiration from them and I can inspire others that is with respect to the spiritual side now while we are living in the material world, yes we will see that some people have more things, some people have less things, it can be things in terms of possessions it can be things also in terms of talents and abilities so here what we need to do is we need to focus on what we have rather than what others have say now suppose after this talk there is going to be food there is a feast but suppose you have gone for a special kind of feast where everybody has different items in their plate and now I have got a feast in my plate but I am looking at what does he have, what does she have oh she has got this, I don't have this oh he has got that, I don't have that well I have a feast in my plate so like that actually all of us have gifts all of us have abilities sometimes some gifts may be a little hidden, we have to look around in the plate and see what all is there but our situation often at the material level becomes that we are looking at what is there in everyone else's plate without looking at what is in our plate so what abilities we have are enough for our pursuit of happiness even if from an objective point of view somebody might have more abilities somebody might have less abilities as I said, what we have doesn't determine our happiness what we do with what we have determines our happiness so if we focus on the gifts that we have and we strive to use them properly we will get happiness so by focusing on connecting with Krishna and by focusing not on what others have but on what we have with the faith that what I have is enough for me if I use it properly we can actually counter enemy any other questions? yes yeah the thing is like we are here like 50 people today and we got this pass because of the destiny gentleman here we spoke and you visited this place how about like if there are several other people here they didn't know you are here so they are they are not getting this benefit since you are here so how this matters in our all these three yogas what you have said right karma yoga jnana yoga ok so what role does destiny play in us coming to know about spirituality about the paths of yoga actually destiny determines what happens to us free will is how we respond to what happens to us some people have the idea destiny means everything in life is controlled that is a misunderstanding destiny we could understand it in a approximate way is that we could consider destiny like a like a road map or a weather forecast say people if a plane is going to say go from here to New York then before it starts off itself the weather forecast is given here there is calmness here the temperature is very cold whatever so now like that in our life now our life does not begin with birth we are souls and as souls we have existed in previous lives and based on the way we have lived in our previous life certain karma has been done and its reactions are going to determine the trajectory of our life but still within that we have choices so the path that we will we will meet in our life journey that is fixed but how I respond in that path that is up to me so for example say if a person gets into a particular plane from here to go to New York now for the next say two hours or one hour whatever it is the person is going to be in that plane but what they do in one hour that is up to them suppose they talk with their neighbor and they find ok that person is a businessman and they make a business contract they may have a big business contract by the time they come out or if someone tries to do some stunt and they get into trouble with the law they come out then policeman handcuffs will be waiting for them they might just go to sleep and do nothing and one hour just goes like that so like that destiny determines the broad circumstances of our life but what we do with those circumstances is up to us and so that means with respect to specifically the situation yes those who get the opportunity to know about the path to God they are fortunate but those who take that opportunity they are intelligent fortune comes to many yes it may not come to everyone but it comes to many no actually if a person wants to turn towards God the Bhagavad Gita says that Krishna is present in the heart of everyone and Krishna will take that person to the right path so you know we should focus on doing our part if we have a desire to know about God then it is God's responsibility to guide us to a place where we will come to know about God now at what particular time who will come to know about God that may vary so what we should see is that if we have come to a particular spiritual path that means it is our fortune but if we take it up that is our intelligence so by destiny we may get fortune just like sometimes some people are born to very wealthy parents so by destiny they got their wealth but if they are not very responsible if they are very profligate in spending money then they may lose it all so again what I said what we have is not as important as what we do with what we have so we have got a spiritual opportunity to know about God about spirituality and then we take that opportunity that is our intelligence does it address your questions thank you we will come back to it does anyone else have questions no thanks so much so calculation after the birth and the death so we talk about the Mo and Maya and all these yogas during our entire life but with the matter of destiny and the calculation after the death and before the birth there is something there is some calculation so that decides who is going to take the birth in which family some people get at the birth time they are handicapped or some kids just get birth and then afterwards they die some like they come over from the disease or they do well afterwards so that calculation is there any guideline for that ok so when we are born we go from one life to another life different people meet different fates some people are born physically handicapped some children die young some children overcome diseases what causes this difference is there any parameter for this yes we can consider our karma to be like a water tank now if there is a water tank there is an outlet from which water is going out there is an inlet from which water is coming in and there is a total quantity of water that is there in the water tank so the total quantity of water that is there in the water tank is called the Sanchit Karma the accumulated karma the water that is going into the water tank that is the Kriyaman Karma Kriyaman Karma means all of us by doing the action that we are doing right now we are creating some karma if we are doing good we are getting good results we are going to get good results if we do bad we are going to get bad results so that is like the water going inside and there is the water that is coming out that is in two parts that is called the Prarabdha of Prarabdha Karma so Prarabdha means that it is like the vehicle that we get some people may have a very smooth car other people may have an old slow car some people may have a helicopter so like that all of us have different bodies some bodies have a lot of talents and abilities some bodies don't have so many talents some bodies are very good looking some bodies are not all that good looking so this is the starting point that we get and then as we are going around this body certain things keep happening in our life also so now by the Sanchit Karma that is there that karma comes to us distributed over multiple lifetimes and supervising this all is the Paramatma the Supreme Lord so for different people different portions of that karma may come in different lives so for some children say who die at birth or die when they are young that means by their past karma they were meant to live in this particular body for that much time and then that particular karma gets exhausted over there when they live in that body and they leave that body and then they go on to next body where they continue on their journey so what we meet in this life is a result of our Sanchit Karma coming out as the manifestation of that karma does it address your question? thank you any other questions or should we stop here? ok so we are starting Prasadam now and if you have questions we can discuss during Prasadam also thank you very much Hare Krishna.