The spiritual is beyond the social, national cultural and traditional

Youth meeting at Nasik

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
This is a good question. Other things can also be good but they are not spiritual.
And quite often a lot of confusion comes in our spiritual life. When we mistake people who are authorities in other fields to be authorities in spiritual field. For example, now there are hundreds of commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita.
And there are many Indian national leaders who wrote commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita. If you look back at the history, some of them, many of them were heroic, many of them were very courageous in combating the British rule. It’s all good but quite often when did they write their commentary on the Bhagavad Gita? When the British government had arrested them and put them in jail.
So, in jail they had nothing to do so they wrote a commentary on the Gita. And in fact many of them write, at the start of the Gita they write, you know, I have written this commentary on the Gita without reading any of the traditional commentaries on the Gita. So that means this is pure speculation.
Krishna talks about pure devotion but here we have pure speculation. So now, yes, they are nationalist leaders and their contribution as patriotic leaders can be valued. But that doesn’t make them authorities on the Bhagavad Gita.
So, their commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita often range from various extremes. So, for example, there is one commentator, one person wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. And he said that actually, you know, at that time the only Indian political party was the Congress.
So, he wrote a commentary that just as Krishna had incarnated in the past to destroy Adharma, so now Adharma has come in the form of the British rule. And Krishna has incarnated as the Indian National Congress. Krishna is talking about Dharma and he is talking about Dharma in terms of timeless spiritual principles.
He is not talking about political strategies. There is another commentator who said, you know, India’s great mistake is India did not follow the Bhagavad Gita after independence. Okay, how is that a mistake? He says, if India had followed the Bhagavad Gita, you know, within one day of the creation of Pakistan, India would have attacked and eliminated Pakistan.
That is his idea of following Bhagavad Gita. So, now this is not the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. So, some other commenters may go on the other side and they say that actually, you know, the Bhagavad Gita is a book of non-violence.
Well, the Bhagavad Gita is neither a book of non-violence nor is it a book of violence. The Bhagavad Gita is a book of transcendence. And for the sake of transcendence, the Bhagavad Gita focuses on doing what is required.
So, at that time, Krishna tells Arjuna to fight the war. So, to say that Bhagavad Gita is a book of non-violence is not exactly the correct understanding of the Gita. So, the point which I am making over here is that we are all coming from different backgrounds.
And based on our culture, our tradition, our nationalistic orientation, our social interests, we have certain appreciation for certain things. And when we come to the spiritual life, we may find within spirituality also certain things which we like. So, for example, some devotees may come to the Krishna Consciousness Movement and they may see that oh, there are so many people from different parts of the world.
They are becoming devotees. And yes, this is glorious. This is glorious.
It’s true. People from America, people from Australia, people from Russia, they are all becoming devotees over here. That’s good.
But just because they are becoming devotees, that doesn’t make Bhagavad Gita valid. Bhagavad Gita is independently valid. That might be an additional faith booster.
So, the point is that we may come because of appreciating certain things. And that is good. But we need to gradually develop proper philosophical understanding by which we get a clear understanding of what is authentically spiritual and what is not really spiritual.
So, for example, nowadays in India, it’s quite common to say that there are many spiritual teachers and often they claim that I am God. Or their followers claim that he is God. Or there is one famous spiritual teacher.
He said, you know, there are many gurus in the past who came, who said that they are God. He says, I have not come to tell you I am God. I have come to tell you, you are God.
Now this can be very flattering for the false ego. Oh, I am God. I saw when I was in my university in Queensland, recently I went to Australia.
In Queensland, a New Zealand student had a slogan on his T-shirt. I was an atheist till I discovered I was God. So, the idea is that people think that this is a very flattering kind of spirituality.
And suppose this particular spiritual teacher, again they do a lot, they quote a lot of scriptures, they do social service, they feed the poor, they open hospitals. Now, all that is good. But that does not make them God.
That does not make them spiritual authorities. So, here Krishna says, chittam nirudham yoga sevaya. That by the practice of yoga, we have to stop the material movement of our consciousness.
That means, if we want to rise in spiritual platform, then we need to cut down on the material conceptions that we have and focus on getting an understanding of spirituality in spiritual terms. Not in social terms, not in cultural terms, not in traditional terms. There may be things in the tradition which are good, there may be things in tradition which are bad.
There may be things in the culture which are good, there may be things in the culture which are bad. But just because something is traditionally good, does not make it spiritually valid. So, just because something is culturally wrong, does not necessarily make it spiritually bad.
We have to see things from the spiritual perspective. Spiritual perspective means what? That means what takes me truly closer to Krishna. And what takes me away from Krishna? Anukulyasya sankalpa, pratyakulyasya darchana.
That which takes me closer to Krishna, accept that. That which takes us away from Krishna, avoid that. That’s what we need to steadily advance in our spiritual life.
Just like if a person is sick and they are sick, suppose say I have got a stomach infection. Then is it that at that time I start thinking, okay, there is Ayurveda, there is allopathy, there is homeopathy, there is naturopathy, there is Yunani medicine. You know, maybe I should study all these medicines.
Then after I study all these medicines, then I will find out which one of them works. And then which of them makes more sense. And after I find out which makes sense, then I will take medicine.
At that time, my stomach pain can kill me, isn’t it? It is not that when we are sick, we think that I have to exhaustively study every form of medicine before I start taking the treatment. How do we take a treatment? No, we go to a doctor, we see the doctor’s diagnosis makes sense. And then if it makes sense, if my stomach is upset and doctor tells we have to amputate your leg, it’s what? If my stomach is upset, why do you need to amputate my leg? That doesn’t make sense.
So, if you say, okay, if my stomach is upset, then, okay, you have got acidity in the stomach and take this medicine. You take it for three days, you will get cured. Yeah, this makes sense.
And then we try it for three days. It works good. Now, if one doctor works for us, we don’t have to go out and explore every other doctor to see whether they work or not, isn’t it? If this works, that’s fine.
And then if this doctor works, the guidance of the doctor can understand, okay, this medicine is for this purpose. This is for this, like this, like this, we can understand that. So, like that, some people say that if I am practicing spiritual life, you know, there are so many different paths and I should explore all those paths.
And then I will conclude which is the best path, then I will follow that path. And that is fine. As a theoretical approach, it might seem fine.
But practically, who has the time to explore all the spiritual paths? We have to understand that ultimately, each one of us is guided by Krishna. Krishna is there in our heart. And it is by Krishna’s mercy that we have come to the path of bhakti right now.
So, you follow the path. And once we follow the path, at that time, as it makes, we study the philosophy, we understand things, we see it makes sense. And then as we start practicing bhakti, we start becoming purified.
So, as we become purified, we understand, oh, yes, this does work. You know, my anger goes down, my lust goes down, my selfishness goes down, my sensitivity goes up, my maturity increases, my stability increases. I start seeing that positive effects happening in my life.
And more importantly, apart from all this, you start seeing that actually our attraction to Krishna increases. Bhakti, now how do I know? I will conclude with this point. We can have a few questions, if there are any.
That there are many different saints, whom we may say that many different spiritual teachers or spiritual authorities, whom we may say that they have, they are also spiritually advanced. Yes, they can be. But is there some way to know this in an objective way? So, the Bhagavatam 11th canto states, bhakti pareshan bhava viranti ranganam ca.
Bhakti is a process. And what does that process do? It gives paraisha anubhav. It gives anubhav, experience of what? Paraisha, of that Lord who is transcendental.
Paraisha anubhav. And when one gets that paraisha anubhav, then what happens? Viranti anyantracha, one becomes detached from other things. One becomes detached from other experiences.
Why is that? Because the experience of Krishna is so fulfilling, that one feels, I don’t need this other experience. I want more and more of Krishna experience only. And this, so, the experience of Krishna within, that is the internal symptom of bhakti.
When there is bhakti, what happens? We experience Krishna within. And how do I know that somebody is experiencing Krishna? Viranti ranyantracha. That person no longer craves for worldly experiences.
And this is the speciality of the process of bhakti as is given in the Bhagavad Gita. When we practice bhakti yoga, we will see that that some habits which you may have struggled to give up earlier, you can give them relatively easily. And the attraction to Krishna, the commitment to Krishna, it becomes so strong and steady and sweet.
So, parahishaanubhaviranti ranyantracha. There are devotees all over the world who practice bhakti and share bhakti. So, once there was a folk song festival in Russia.
Folk song festival means different people from different cultures, different traditions, they are told, all of you come and sing your folk songs. So, when they came there, at that time, these devotees had planned that, okay, they were going to have some stall where around 6.30, they will start the kirtans. After one hour, we will have kirtan till 7.30 and 7.30 to 8.30 we will have class.
After that, maybe some more kirtan, then we will end the program. So, then they had one stage where the devotees were singing and then they had a pandal kind of thing where people could come in. It is more of a stall, not as big as a pandal.
But a tent where the people would assemble and they could also participate in the kirtans. So, the people were just going through various stalls. And now, here when they came, the devotees had put the Hare Krishna Mahamantra in big print behind.
And then they started singing. And in all the other places, it was more of performance to be watched. But here there was participation.
They could sing and you could sing. So, people came and started singing and they were singing Jubilant. And because they had no idea of the responsive nature of kirtan.
So, what they would do is, when the kirtan person was singing, they would sing. And when the kirtan person was not singing, that time also they would sing. They just kept singing.
6.30 started, it became 7.30. And then the devotee was leading the kirtan. He stopped singing, but the people kept singing. And the people kept singing, the devotees saw these people are so Jubilant singing.
Let us continue the kirtans. And it became 8 o’clock. It became 8.30. It became 9. It became 10.
The devotees were singing, their throats were becoming sore. Devotees were playing Pradhanga, their fingers were becoming sore. It became 11 o’clock.
It became 12 o’clock. It became 1 o’clock. At 1.45, the amplifier started giving smoke.
So, at that time, the devotees thought this is Krishna’s signal. And then they ended the program. And the next morning, the devotees were waking up and then they were doing their japa.
So, a young couple came there. And they were Russian, they did not know English. So, this devotee was leading the group over there.
They said, we have some questions. So, yes, yes, yes, yes. And so, there was one devotee who was in between translating from Russian to English.
He said, what is your question? Yesterday, we came and we sang and danced. And it was such a wonderful experience. So, this young couple, the boy said, actually, we had come here for our honeymoon.
And yesterday, when we were singing, that was the best night of our whole outing. So, and then he said, we want to know, I want to know, you know, we were singing and we felt so happy. What was it that you were singing? So, they had just come there, they had no idea what they were singing.
So, they did not know Krishna is God. They did not know that they were singing the names of Krishna. They were singing the name of God.
They could make out there’s something religious, but they had no idea of anything. But they experienced Krishna. So, here what we see is that the experience of Krishna, which is spiritual, it goes beyond the cultural, it goes beyond the traditional, it goes beyond the linguistic, it goes beyond the intellectual.
They had no intellectual, cultural, linguistic, traditional familiarity with Krishna. And yet they experienced Krishna. So, what we need to focus on is this experience of Krishna, and the experience of Krishna that is transformational.
There are many people in India, especially, who may chant the names of Krishna and who may chant the names of Ram. And they may have some genuine bhakti for Krishna also. And if they have that, we can respect them for that.
At the same time, that alone does not make them spiritual authorities. Because quite often, people chant the names of Krishna. So, for example, nowadays there is TV where there may be Ramayana, there may be Mahabharata on television and people watch that.
So, in Ramayana you see how Jatayu fights heroically. And Jatayu fights and fights and fights heroically. And then Jatayu becomes a martyr.
And then Jatayu dies, people may just cry tears. How much Jatayu sacrificed? I think all these people are crying such tears. They have so much devotion for Ram.
But then the Ramayana ends and the cricket match starts. And the cricket match starts and Virat Kohli gets out on zero. And then the crowd crying at that time also.
So, what is there? Here there is no viraktir anyatra cha. So, bhakti, if bhakti is there, there should be paraesha anubhav. And paraesha anubhav should lead to viraktir anyatra cha.
So, actually there is attraction to Krishna. But if that attraction to Krishna is not leading to detachment from other things, then that is not really a very deep attraction to Krishna. That is not a transformational attraction to Krishna.
And in the authentic bhakti traditions, what we get is this, not just this feeling of some tears coming when we hear about Krishna, but it is good if it comes. So, this transformational attraction to Krishna comes when we are authentically connected with him spiritually. And that spiritual connectedness is what we should focus on.
And that is what Bhagavad Gita offers us. And with this, then what happens? yatra parama chaichittam niruddham yogasevaya yatra chaivatmanatmanam pashyam aatmanitushyati aatmanitushyati One experiences spiritual happiness at the spiritual level. sukham atyantikam yathat buddhi grahayatimriyam The happiness that one experiences at the spiritual level, it has got nothing to do with anything material.
Nothing, nothing to do with the culture, nothing to do with the tradition, nothing to do with the nationality. Anyone and everyone can experience it. atyendriyam vetti yatra na chaivayam sthitasya vipodaha One is completely fixed and realized in this happiness.
And yam labdha cha param labam manyute na adhikam tatha One thinks, once I have gained this, there is nothing more to be gained. This is life’s highest achievement. And gunapi na vicharyate Now, we all want to achieve different things in life.
Some of you may want to achieve a high paying job. Some of you want to go to America. Some of you want to start your own startup company.
Yes, we all have different ambitions. Now, whatever we may achieve, Krishna tells us, what is the characteristic of the topmost achievement? He says, the topmost achievement is that achievement, after achieving that, we don’t crave for any other achievement. yam labdha cha param labam manyute na adhikam tatha And he says, after achieving this, tam vidyadukhayun sanyogam yogam yogasampritam After that, there is no more affliction by this.
There may be misery, but one will not be disturbed by misery. So, even if somebody becomes a millionaire or a billionaire or a trillionaire, and tomorrow the stock market crashes, then their spirits also crash. Their happiness is dependent on something external.
And when it is dependent on something external, it is always uncertain. It cannot last. So, we can achieve external things in our life.
But that is not the most important achievement. The most important achievement is that which connects us with Krishna in our heart. And that connectedness gives us the supreme happiness.
That is life’s supreme achievement. And that is what the Bhakti tradition offers us. When we understand it properly as a method for spiritual transformation.
So, I will summarize. I started by talking about the Bhagavad Gita verse on samadhi. And to explain the difference between chitta and chitta, I talked about how a person watching a cricket match, consciousness gets projected from, say, Pune to Chennai.
All the two places are physically disconnected. So, like that the soul and the body are disconnected. But through the mind, which is like the TV screen, the soul’s consciousness gets projected into the body and the soul experiences various emotions.
And Krishna is next to the atma, like the person watching a horror movie, and the child watching the horror movie and the mother next to the child. So, the spiritual is different from what is actually being depicted on the TV camera. So, now Krishna is a manifest in this material world as the avatar.
But he is of a different category. He is not like any ordinary being. So, he is still spiritual.
And when Krishna’s bhakti tradition comes to us, that may come through the culture, that may come through the tradition, that may come through the philosophy, that may come through the nation, whichever you are a part of. But it is beyond all this. And there are different people who may be authorities in these different fields.
But just because somebody is good in social service or somebody is good in language or somebody has done a lot of national veterinary activities, that does not make them spiritual authorities. Just like a person who is, say, a MIT graduate or a national JEE topper, that does not make them qualified to fly an airplane. So, there are different fields of specialization.
And to the extent we recognize that the spiritual is beyond the cultural, beyond the national, beyond the social, we appreciate people for whatever they have done in their fields. But the spiritual is different. There may be some overlap.
But the spiritual remains transcendental. What is spiritual? We discussed that bhakti, pareshanvam, viraktiranyam. But the spiritual is that which gives us experience of Krishna.
And that experience of Krishna leads to detachment from other experiences. And that detachment from other experiences requires a transformation of the heart. We discussed how people may seem to shed tears on hearing the Ramayana Mahabharata.
But then if they do not have detachment from other things, then that bhakti is not very deep and it will be transformational for us. So, what we need is to recognize the spiritual and focus on the spiritual. Krishna says that there can be, if something is not directly following scripture, then we have to evaluate it in terms of its own merit.
We cannot just say it is right or it is wrong. We evaluate its merit and since we have limited time, we cannot go about exhaustively evaluating everything. Just like we do not try to find out the merits of every single treatment before we take a medicine.
We see if something makes sense and something works and then we take it. Similarly, if we practice the path of bhakti yoga as it is taught in the Bhagavad Gita, we will see ourselves being transformed. Millions of people all over the world have been transformed.
And we too can be transformed. And then the process of bhakti yoga can take us to life’s topmost achievement. Which is what? That achievement having achieved which we do not crave for anything more.
And that achievement after having which even if misery comes, we are not afflicted by that. No worldly achievement can promise us that. But the bhakti connection with Krishna, the achievement of love for Krishna will give us an eternal fulfillment, which will give us complete satisfaction and which will give us insurance of security amidst any worldly suffering that may come in our life.
So, thank you very much. Are there any questions? Yes. Good question.
So, I said the highest spiritual achievement is when we do not crave for anything more. Does that mean that we cannot progress materially while we are progressing spiritually? No. It means that we need to learn how to harmonize the material with the spiritual.
It does not mean bhakti, a common, one of the most common words in today’s fragmented world view is or, this or this. But the process of bhakti is not the process of or, it is the process of and. That means, it is not that material or spiritual.
It is spiritual and material harmonizing the spiritual. So, we understand that we at our core are spiritual beings and we have material bodies. But both the body and the soul are energies of Krishna.
And bhakti means not just to realize I am the soul. Bhakti means to realize that I am a soul who is a part of Krishna and I am meant to love and serve Krishna. And when I love and serve Krishna, I use whatever material resources I had in his service.
So, if I have certain material talents, I should use those talents. If I have intelligence, then I use my intelligence to do well in my studies. I do progress in my career.
It is not that we have to give up these things, but we have to connect them with Krishna. So, we need certain amount of time for our sadhana, for our practice of spiritual life, so that our heart is connected with Krishna. And once our heart is connected with Krishna, then whatever time we have in our material life, we do work diligently and what we have to give up is not material progress.
What we have to give up is the notion that material progress alone will make me happy. Yeah, getting a more paid job, getting more marks in exam, getting into a big college, getting into a big company. These things alone will not make us happy.
These things don’t have to be given up, but if they are done in a mood of service to Krishna. Like Krishna, you have given me some abilities and I will use them in your service. What we have is God’s gift to us.
What we become is our gift to God. So, sometimes when we practice spiritual life, we tend to become passive. Ultimately, I have to rise to spiritual consciousness.
So, why do I need to work so hard at the material level? So, how to avoid this passivity? So, spirituality is not lethargy. It is not laziness. Laziness is in the mode of tamasic, in the mode of ignorance and spirituality is transcendental.
So, there are three different things here. One is lethargy, the other is hard work and the third is over endeavor. Over endeavor means, so lethargy means, I will just move from this side.
Lethargy means that one does not want to work hard. And then one uses spirituality as an excuse for not working hard. Krishna says that if one thinks, oh, this is very much hard work.
Therefore, I will not do this work. And therefore, one renounces the work. Krishna says this is renunciation in the mode of passion.
It will not work. This will not lead to any constructive fruit. So, lethargy is definitely not spiritual.
It is tamasic. And then the other extreme is, so if you consider pendulum, one extreme is lethargy, the other extreme is over endeavor. Over endeavor means that one works so hard that one has no, what to speak of, having time for spiritual life, one does not even balance on material life properly.
There are people who become workaholics. Like there are alcoholics, there are workaholics. They just work so hard, work so hard, work so hard that they do not even take care of their health, they do not take care of their family.
They are just like unidimensional programmed achievers. And they may achieve a lot, but their lives are empty. So, that is also rajasic.
Because what is happening? They are just focusing on one aspect of life and neglecting everything else, neglecting other aspects of material life also, what to speak of spiritual life. So, that over endeavor is certainly undesirable. We need a balance.
And over, so lethargy is undesirable, over endeavor is undesirable. Now, what will be the balance? That will vary depending on person to person. So, some people may have a lot of talents materially and they may have a lot of zeal to achieve things materially.
And then they can drive, they can go in that field and achieve some things. That is like when somebody comes to engineering. There are different people who come to engineering with different motivations.
Some people may really come because they are interested in a particular field. They want to do research in that field, they want to become specialists in that field. If that is their drive, there is no need to stop them from doing that.
They can do it, but do it in a devotion. For others, engineering is basically just a career. They are not really interested in engineering.
They are not interested in going deep in the subjects. Now, then they can just do whatever is required for building a career. And they can focus on what is their interest, which interest may be devotional or whatever.
So, the balance, what is the balance between not being lazy and not being over endeavor? That balance is not just one line. That balance is like a spectrum. And where is the proper situation in the spectrum that will vary for different people.
And even for the same person, that may vary. That person may, when they are 25, 30, they may work very hard. And by the time they come to 40, they say, no, I do not need to work so hard.
So, that can vary. So, we have to maturely, by understanding our own nature and by consulting our spiritual guides, understand what balance we should need to achieve so that we can give due attention to spiritual life and also do the necessary in our material life. Does that answer your question? Thank you.
Any other questions? Yes. My question is, when I was traveling in China, I was doing a book distribution program. So, someone asked me, he said that you are doing business, this is a religious book.
So, you have to pay a cost. So, what should I answer? Okay. So, if somebody is distributing books and somebody says that, now you are doing religious activities, so you should do it free of cost, why are you doing business by charging money? Yes, that something is to be done religiously, that does not mean that it should not be done without involvement of money.
To do something for God means to do it without selfish motive. It is not that, actually the Vedic understanding is Vishnu or Narayan, his eternal consort is Lakshmi. So, here when they are saying you should not have any money, that means they are saying you separate Lakshmi from Narayan.
So, Narayan should not have Lakshmi, Lakshmi should be for my enjoyment. That is the idea. No, that is not the right understanding.
Of course, they may not have that kind of attitude. But the point is that we, you can tell them that I am not doing this for any selfish motive. I am not earning anything from this.
I am doing this in a mood of selfless service. And even from the practical point of view, you see the Bhagavad Gita is such a big book, usually it is hard bound. And if you see the printing cost of the book, if you took a similar book which is over 800, 900 pages, it will not be for 100 rupees, it will be for 400, 500 rupees usually.
So, we are not doing this for money. We are doing this as a mood of service. So, firstly, I am not getting any benefit out of it.
Now, I am doing this on behalf of a spiritual movement. And the spiritual movement, how much is it charging? The book, we are not here for the purpose of earning money. If you see the cost of the book as compared to the cost of production of the book, the cost is hardly anything much.
And further, the primary purpose of not distributing things free is that free things are taken cheaply. So, we have to take, if we are distributing these books, then the point is if we distribute it freely, people will just put it aside. But if people invest some money in it, then they will think about it.
Okay, I spend some money, let me spend some time, let me see what is this about. So, from their perspective, they are investing their money in it increases their likelihood of their reading the book. That is one thing.
Second thing is that they are investing their money also means that there are people, that they are using their money for a spiritual purpose. The money that they are investing, that is going to be ultimately used for sharing spiritual message, for decorating the deities, for beautifying the temple, for enhancing the preaching. So, first of all, that Lakshmi, whatever is there, it is used for production of the book itself.
And beyond that, it is used for further sharing Krishna message. So, they are actually giving charity to valuable cause. It may be in the form of money, but their money is being used for a charitable cause ultimately.
Thirdly, the point is that the Bhagavad Gita is a spiritual work. And if that is to be freely distributed, then you can tell them, yes, we are not interested in doing money, but whatever is the money required for printing of the books, what is the money required for maintaining the spiritual organization. If somebody is ready to give a sponsorship for the Gita, we will use that sponsorship and distribute the book at a lower cost or distribute it free.
Usually, we do not distribute the Bhagavad Gita free. We distribute it at subsidized cost. Why? Because if people pay something, they will value it more.
But there are many people who do donate for the Gita and then we distribute it at a subsidized cost. So, the point is that this whole notion that something which is done for God should not have anything connected with the money with it, that itself is a misunderstanding. Actually, everything belongs to God, even the money belongs to God.
So, in the spiritual, while doing something for God, what should not be there is selfish motive. It is not that money should not be there. Lakshmi is meant for Narayana.
The purpose and perfection of Lakshmi is to be used in Narayana service. So, Lakshmi that we have, it is meant for Krishna. And what we are doing is that we are actually sharing Krishna’s message with people so that their heart can become attracted to Krishna.
If they read Krishna, their heart will become attracted to Krishna. And in meanwhile, so the purpose of Bhakti is to give our heart to Krishna. But when we cannot give our heart to Krishna because our heart is caught with so many other things.
So, then when we cannot give our heart to Krishna, we should give what is in our heart to Krishna. And a thing that is prominently in our heart is money. So, when we give our money to Krishna, at that time we give Krishna a place in our heart.
And that is why, oh yes, I gave this money for this book. Let me read what this book is about. This is a book about Krishna.
And because we have given that money for Krishna’s sake, so we become purified, become closer to Krishna. So, we want to ultimately connect our whole being with Krishna. And for that purpose, we connect whatever resources we have.
And money is one valuable resource. By connecting with that with Krishna, we move closer to Krishna. Does the answer make sense? Thank you.
Does anyone else have any questions? We will come back to you. Okay, you can ask then I will go now. So, may I read then some verses about Krishna there, so that they will be interesting.
The Bhagavad Gita 17th chapter talks about dana, charity. It talks about charity in the mode of goodness, passion, ignorance. So, if you read the 17th chapter, you can even take out the Bhagavad Gita and refer them to the 17th chapter.
And that they will tell about charity in the three modes. And charity is a very important principle. Krishna talks about it repeatedly in the Bhagavad Gita.
And he says that by doing dana, one can actually move closer to Krishna. Dana is also a yajna. You can look at 4.28 in the Bhagavad Gita, which talks about dana.
Thank you very much for your questions. My question is someone is innocent and he is seeking for absolution. And he gets in connection with something which is not authoritative.
What is he following? He is following that thing correct, very ignored. Means whatever he said, he is doing the thing. So, he basically is correctly following the wrong authority.
So, how much he is correct in his path? And second is, the second part of the question is, is innocence or ignorance an excuse? If somebody is correctly following a non-authoritative spiritual path, what is going to be their destination? And is innocence or ignorance an excuse? Yes, if someone has a sincere desire to learn, then Krishna will guide them. And so that is why, if we start seeing the spiritual path from a material perspective, I am in this organization and he is in that organization. I am belonging to this group and they are belonging to that group.
Then we are actually missing out on the essence. The essence is that we are connecting with Krishna and others are also who are trying their own way to connect with God. Whatever be their understanding of God right now, whatever be their understanding, they are trying to connect with God.
ईश्वर सर्वभूतान प्रतेश्य अलुदिष्टति ब्रामयं सर्वभूतानि अन्त्रा रूधानि मारेवा Krishna says that, ईश्वर सर्वभूतान, he is present in the hearts of all living beings and he guides their wanderings. So, if a person sincerely wants to learn, then Krishna will guide them forwards. If not in this lifetime, in a future lifetime.
So, sometimes somebody is connected very strongly to some particular path and by following that path, they may come, they may be right now in रजो गुणा, they might come somewhat towards सत्व गुणा and that is the kind of elevation that they are going to do. They may not go back to Krishna in this lifetime. But they will make that limited spiritual elevation.
The important thing for us to do is, we should elevate people’s faith. We should not damage people’s faith. So, damaging people’s faith means, say if somebody is doing a particular pooja of some person and while they are doing that kind of work, following some particular path, you know, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.
And then they go there and then they hear, So, what happens? We criticize them and then they go there and they hear something and they criticize us with those particular spiritual path and then this person gets confused, you know. Hey, should I follow this person, should I follow that person? And in the process, this whole spiritual business is very confusing. Better let me not get involved in something.
And they become multiplicist, they become atheistic. What have we achieved by that? We have not achieved anything. नभुद्धिवेदं जनये अज्ञानां कर्मसंगिनां Krishna says in 3.28 in the Bhagavad Gita, don’t agitate the minds of people, don’t disturb people’s minds.
So, if someone is following a particular path, we can appreciate them generically for having spiritual interest, for having spiritual inclination and encourage them to introspect deeper. So, rather than saying that you should follow what I am following, you say, why should I follow what you are following? That’s a natural question they may get. We can instead focus on telling that, you genuinely pray to God, please guide me what is the right thing.
And rather than criticizing what they are following, what we can do is, we can gently help them arrive at a proper understanding. That’s what we can do. So, Krishna will guide them from within their hearts and sometimes Krishna can use us also as instruments for guiding them.
But our process should be to elevate them as much as possible. And if we can’t elevate them, yes, they are following a path which may not be the right path right now. And accordingly, Krishna talks in the Bhagavad Gita that based on whether that particular path is Saptamoguna, Rajoguna, Tamoguna, they will attain a particular destination.
So, what about innocence and ignorance? We have to understand that ignorance is not just the cause of wrong choices. Ignorance is also the result of wrong choices. That means, if a person is presently put in a situation.
So, for example, if we consider say, there are some people, there are some say, some poor children were born in Afghanistan or Pakistan. And since their childhood, they are taught maths by saying, you know, So, they are taught maths in terms of murder. So, they are just filled with hatred.
Now, naturally at that time, they will grow up and they will start hating others. So, this kind of indoctrination at one level is child abuse. And the society that does things like that, that is horrible.
At the same time, we also have to recognize that why are they born in that situation? Just as we understand that if somebody is born in a poor country, why is that? That is a result of past bad karma. Now, that does not mean that they should always stay poor. From our point of view, if somebody is in poverty, we have to do things that is possible to remove the poverty.
But we recognize that they are born in poverty because of their past wrong choices, their past bad karma. So, just as deprivation of food or non-access to food is a result of bad karmic choices in the past, similarly, non-access to spiritual knowledge is also a result of past wrong choices. So, that means, as devotees, we do not have to get too much caught in why people are in a particular circumstance.
We should focus on trying to help them come closer to Krishna. So, certainly, somebody who has, so, somebody who has grown up thinking that, some Muslim has grown up thinking that Hindus are all murderous people. And that person, if that person commits a crime, becomes a terrorist, that is bad.
But if somebody who has actually lived among, say, Hindus and they say, Hindus are also nice people. Some of them may be bad and every community has their nutcases. But see, that it is not just as all, it is not that all Muslims are terrorists.
Similarly, the Muslims are not all, Hindus are kafirs, they are bad. Does that person actually interact and say that? No, there are good people also. But then after knowing this also they commit wrong, then that is even more culpable.
So, certainly, wrongdoings done with knowledge are worse than wrongdoings done without knowledge. But even when a person is in a state of not having knowledge, that state is also a result of past wrong choices. So, for example, say, somebody is born and brought up in a family where they consider a particular guru to be God.
And then that is why that person goes up and thinks this guru is God. But if that guru makes an elaborate pretense, you know, maybe today I will give darshan of Krishna, today I will give a darshan of Vishnu, today I will give a darshan of Amar, they do all this kind of things and they do a lot of, you know, they may say, I am lifting Govardhan and it is just nothing, there is some magnet or something by which Govardhan is being lifted. Now, if the persons who are a part of that whole team, who are orchestrating that illusion, they know that this person is not truly lifting the mountain, but they are just creating a show of that, then that person is even more culpable.
So, culpability is variable depending on how much a person is aware of what is right and what is wrong. And that is why we should try to in a as non-judgmental, non-critical and compassionate way as possible, help people understand what is right and what is wrong. So, if people do not know, we should not think that is their own bad karma because they do not know, that is why they are suffering.
No, we should try to do the knowledge. If people do not know, that is our problem. If people do not know the right thing, we should think that is our problem and we should try to help them understand the right thing, not just judgmentally tell them, you are wrong, and I am right, not like that, but systematically try to help them understand, systematically, sensitively try to help them understand.
And if they do not do the right thing, that is their problem, then that is between them and Krishna and Krishna will give them lessons gradually, maybe the school of hard knocks, and they will have to learn, maybe it will take many lifetimes after getting consequences of their wrong choices, they will learn. Overall, when we interact with people, our first purpose should be that we should give them a positive impression about Krishna and Krishna s devotees. Yeah, I met a nice person, I met an intelligent person.
If they get that much appreciation, that will make them a little more open, next time they interact, they may want to learn a little bit more. And gradually we can help them come closer towards Krishna. It is not that in one dose, somebody is following a particular path, we can remove all the misconception and make them surrender devotees towards Krishna, it is not going to happen.
So, there has to be gradual sharing of spiritual knowledge, and sharing of spiritual knowledge should be done in non-judgmental, non-critical way, gradually helping people develop their faith in Krishna, they have faith in something else right now. So, right now, first we want to do is try to help them develop their faith in Krishna, in Krishna s devotees, and in Krishna s message, and gradually, in the light of Krishna s message, they will themselves challenge what they have heard earlier, and they will come to the correct understanding. Thank you very much.
A story from the Ramayan, which reflects the challenges