The way to Vrindavan is through Kurukshetra
[Congregation program at Dallas, USA]
Video:
The way to Vrindavan is through Kurukshetra
Q & A
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. I spoke today on the theme of how on Bhagavad Gita 9.14, the way to Vrindavan is through Kurukshetra. Started by how devotees to glorify Krishna need determination.
Because when we practice devotion, our purpose changes. But that doesn’t mean the nature of material nature changes. Material nature is a place of distress.
The physical, the social and the environmental distress come upon everyone. And if we are practicing bhakti, we live in devotee association, then in the devotee society itself, we might get some distress, some discouragement. It’s not that the particular devotee is the problem.
It’s just the nature of the material world, which is manifesting through the association that we are presently in. And for us to persevere through the discouragement, we need to have the fighting spirit. I talked about how Shri Prabhupada got so much discouragement from so many people.
Where we focus on social distress here is that frustration is a function of expectation. When we expect a pat and get a slap, it hurts us much more. So similarly, when Prabhupada expected his Godbrothers to help, but they didn’t, it must have been enormously demoralizing.
For us, when we are serving Krishna and we expect other devotees to help, they don’t, it can be demoralizing. But Prabhupada persevered. And that determination to fight against obstacles was what characterized Prabhupada’s devotion.
And I talked about to find ourselves, we have to free ourselves. That means to find out what we truly care about, we have to free ourselves from the grip of the many things that we have been taught to care about. So, how a sadhu, a sanyasi should live, where he should live, how he should conduct himself, Prabhupada actually put aside all those expectations.
He left a dham, he left a pious, clean environment. He left the association of people who are devoted and pious. And he went because he focused on what mattered the most, that is the spark of spiritual interest.
When we say, if we were to fight for Krishna, the focus is on what we are fighting for, not what we are fighting against. The Pandavas didn’t fight vengefully against the Kauravas. The Pandavas fought purposefully for establishing dharma.
Similarly, when we face obstacles in the practice of our bhakti, obstacles from other people, we don’t have to become antagonistic to them. Just stay purposeful in our service to Krishna. And in today’s world, we function within an institution.
At that time, we understand that the institution is a facility and the institution can provide us facilities. But if we want the facility, we may have to give up our freedom to some extent. And sometimes, in some situations, we may just need the freedom because we have a particular inspiration of how to serve Krishna.
Then, rather than demanding facilities and resenting that we don’t get the facilities, we take the initiative to create the facilities and act accordingly. Of course, with blessings of seniors, but then we work. If we want facilities, then we have to be willing to give up our freedom.
So, when we want freedom, then we fight the absence of facilities and create those facilities. When we want facilities, then we fight against our nature to demand for freedom and we exhibit submission. Devotion can be expressed through dependence on Krishna as well as diligence for Krishna.
Dependence for the things that are not in our control, diligence for the things that are in our control. By focusing on the purpose of serving Krishna, we can find the path to serve Krishna. Ganga always keeps moving towards the ocean.
Just as if we are determined to go to a program, if there is traffic, find some other path to get there. So, often the obstacles that come, they help us. We can see them as meant to frustrate us or meant to focus us.
The obstacles can take our vision away from the non-essentials and bring them or focus on the essentials. So, when we give up the expectation that certain conditions should be fulfilled so that I can serve Krishna, then Krishna can reveal opportunities to serve Him in entirely unexpected ways. I concluded the story of how the program date was wrong and the whole program was frustrated by Krishna’s arrangement.
Entirely unexpectedly, Radhanath Maharaj met by which he could reach to many many more people. So, Krishna has a plan for us and that plan centers on intensifying our purpose to serve Him without making that purpose conditional to the path or the facilities or the expectations. If we focus on that purpose, then Krishna’s plan will guide us through and we will find that through the determination to fight for Krishna, through the entering that Kurukshetra, we will experience thereby the absorption in Krishna and the ecstasy of loving reciprocation with Krishna.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments?