To blame is to be lame – stop seeking scapegoats

[Class at ISKCON, Naperville, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today evening.
Thank you for coming. Am I audible clearly behind? So, as was mentioned, I will speak today on the topic of to blame is to be lame. I will speak this based on the Bhagavad Gita, especially its analysis of the three modes.
In the 18th chapter, Krishna talks about knowledge in the three modes of material nature. He talks about knowledge in goodness, in passion and ignorance. I will explain what these modes are a little later.
But let’s look at what knowledge and ignorance refers to. This is 18.22 in the Gita where Krishna is saying this is knowledge in ignorance. Normally, we think of knowledge and ignorance as two opposite things.
So, what do we mean by knowledge in ignorance? What it means is, it is the knowledge that actually increases our ignorance. Knowledge doesn’t actually increase our understanding. It deepens our misunderstanding.
That is knowledge in ignorance. And what is it characterized by? यत्तु कृच्णवद एकस्मिन् That यत्तु कृच्णवद. One thing we take, एकस्मिन्.
We take it into everything. This one thing is all that is. यत्तु कृच्णवद एकस्मिन् कारे सक्तम् अहैतु कम् कार, one becomes irrationally attached without understanding proper cause and effect.
अतत्वार्थवद अल्बंज़ अतत्वार्थवद One does not have understanding of truth. But what does one have? अल्बंज़, one has meager knowledge. So when one works in such a way, when the knowledge one acquires in this way is called knowledge in the mode of ignorance.
So after I started, after I became a devotee, actually I have not yet become a devotee, after I started practicing bhakti, so a few years after that, I fell very sick. And I was in Pune and I was admitted to the hospital over there. And somehow that hospital, there was some medical mess over there.
Some of the doctors were on strike or something like that. And I had a minor flu. And in the hospital, I got TB.
So normally you go to the hospital to get cured. But after going to the hospital, I got infected. And I got TB over there.
And already my immunity was very low, so TB just advanced very rapidly. And initially I was so furious. I was angry at the doctor.
I was angry at the devotee who recommended the doctor. I was angry at the people who said, we could have gone to any other hospital. Why did we have to go to that hospital? And I was so much angry at that time.
And at one moment, it was Krishna’s mercy. I just felt, what is the use of blaming anyone now? What is the use of blaming anyone? Let me just focus on the treatment. We all understand this at an intellectual level.
But somehow, by Krishna’s mercy, at that moment, that thought sank into me. And I can still remember, it was almost like a liberating moment. Till that time, I was just carrying this burden of anger, burden of irritation, burden of resentment, burden of blaming others.
And it’s not just blaming others also. I was blaming myself also. I could have thought that doctor, I knew that something, things were not so good in that hospital.
I could have chosen to go to some other hospital. But, when I decided, please stop blaming. It was like a liberating moment.
And one thing that stimulated that for me, it is not consciously that this stimulated that, but Krishna Consciousness works at subtler levels also. In the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, there is the incident of the cow and the bull being persecuted by Kali. And at that time, Kali is masquerading as a king and is tormenting, hitting the bull.
So Parikshit Maharaj comes there and as the protector of dharma, he is furious. Now before punishing Kali, he turns towards the victims to take their testimony. And he asks the bull, please tell me, what is the cause of your suffering? Now at one level, this question itself is ridiculous.
You saw this person was beating me, why are you asking me the cause of my suffering? Isn’t it obvious? But, the bull’s reply also seems equally puzzling. The bull replies, actually determining the cause of suffering is extremely difficult. Some people say it is because of our own past karma.
Some people say it is because of destiny. Some people say it is because of the nature of this world. Some people say that it is just an illusion created by the mind.
In this way, understanding the cause of suffering is very difficult. And as if these two interactions were not confusing enough, what Parikshit Maharaj replies seems to be even more confounding. He says, bravo! That one who blames another for one’s own suffering attains the same destination as the causer of the suffering.
That means, he is saying if the victim blames the victimizer and the victim gets the same destination as the victimizer. Now, what does this mean? How is this possible? If one person beats up another person and the second person points at him, he beats me up. Are they both going to get the same destination? It doesn’t seem to make any sense at all.
But to make sense of it, we have to understand the whole context of the Bhagavatam. The Bhagavatam itself is actually taking us beyond immediate causes. Sometimes we have some adventure movies in which, say the hero is there, maybe some Indiana Jones movie or something like that, where he has to get to a particular thing.
If he doesn’t get it in time, then he will be killed, everyone will be killed. So, it’s a race against time to get there and get that treasure or get whatever it is and save it. Otherwise, he is going to die.
So, Parikshit Maharaj, at the start of the Bhagavatam, is cursed to die in seven days. And, after seven days, he dies. So, what is the story? I wonder, somebody tells you this is a movie, a movie starting with person is cursed to die and at the end of the movie, person dies.
What is going on over there? What is the question about it? So, the Bhagavatam’s vision is that actually things happen at multiple levels. So, at the material level, Parikshit Maharaj dies. But, is it that the Lord who protected Parikshit Maharaj when he was in his womb, when he was in his mother’s womb, that Lord forsook him later? No.
That Lord protected him at that time also. And, he protected him how? By manifesting as a Bhagavatam. The Bhagavat katha gave him shelter at the spiritual level.
And, the Acharya has described that the snake came and bit him. Parikshit Maharaj had already left his body. He had already gone to the spiritual world.
So, it was not that the curse killed him. It was rather the hearing of the Bhagavatam delivered him. And, the curse simply acted at the material level.
And, again it’s interesting, Parikshit Maharaj does not at all blame Sringi. Sringi is the Rambana boy who is cursed for a minor infraction. But, he doesn’t hold him responsible at all.
What does he do? He says, this is just an opportunity for me to turn towards Krishna. And, to take wholehearted shelter of Krishna. And, saying this, he just renounces the world, focuses on hearing the Bhagavatam and attains Krishna.
So, if we look at how things happen in the world, there are multiple levels of causation. Say, if, normally say, if I get, like I got TB. I went to the hospital and I got TB.
Now, there may be other people in the hospital they did not get TB. Why not? There may be two people in the same house, one of them gets malaria, the other doesn’t get malaria. Now, is it that the mosquito likes one person and dislikes another person? But, the mosquito went and bit the other person and did not bite the other person.
Sometimes, two people may be twins. And, they may be, their health may be more or less equal. But, still, one of them falls sick with some infection, the other doesn’t fall sick.
Why the difference? So, actually, there is the immediate cause of things. But, the immediate cause is not the only cause. The distresses that happen in our life, we can say that there are multiple levels of causes for them.
The immediate cause is what we see. A mosquito bit me. A germ came into my body, that’s why I got the infection.
That’s why I got the disease. That is the immediate cause. Beyond that is the remote cause.
The remote cause is my own past karma. So, two people are in the same house, their immunity is more or less equal, but one falls sick, the other doesn’t fall sick. Why? Because the karma of both of them was different.
And the remote cause is also responsible for what happens. And beyond that is the ultimate cause. The ultimate cause of all distress is forgetfulness of Krishna.
We are in this world, disconnected from Krishna, and that’s what puts us in all distress. We are souls who are parts of Krishna and are meant to be living happily with him. So now, if you look at this, this is the thing that has happened.
Immediate cause, remote cause, ultimate cause. Bhagavatam’s vision is that go beyond the immediate cause. So, each scripture has its own mood.
Bhagavatam’s mood is to transcend the world. Bhagavad Gita’s mood is also to transcend the world, but Bhagavad Gita’s stress is on transforming the world. Krishna tells Arjuna, you have to fight to establish Dharma over here.
So, he wants to transform the world, change who is the ruler over here. But the Bhagavatam’s mood is, yes, something is happening, it’s unavoidable now, just accept it and transcend the world. So, basically, when we blame someone or something for the distress that comes in our life, we are focusing only on the immediate cause.
This person did this because of which this happened. Now, when we blame someone, we say, you did this because of which this happened, or we blame ourselves. Blaming others is bad, blaming ourselves is equally, if not more bad.
Why? Because, ultimately, we are our only resource. We are our only resource. Whatever we want to do in our life, even if we want to seek someone’s help, it is I who have to take the help.
So, if we blame ourselves for our mistakes, I’ll talk a little later, there is a difference between blaming and finding out who is responsible. Or who or what is responsible. If we blame ourselves, that means, we just like take a stick and beat ourselves.
Beat ourselves. Why did you do that? You are useless, you are hopeless, you are worthless, you are good for nothing. Now, when we blame ourselves like that, we are beating ourselves up, by that we simply de-energize ourselves.
We dishearten ourselves. And we just can’t do anything. We become emotional wrecks.
And sooner or later we become physical wrecks after that. So, if we are blaming ourselves, that is also very damaging. And if we are blaming others, then also it is damaging.
Because, that person did like this, that person did like this, that person did like this. Now, even if it is true that the person is the cause of this particular mess. But still, what do we practically get by blaming that person? It’s okay, that person did that.
But then, it is whatever power I have to change the situation, as long as I am holding that person responsible, I don’t have that power. Fixating on it. The whole world, I won’t recognize.
This person made the mistake, this person made the mistake, this person made the mistake. Okay, what are we doing to correct the mistake? What are we actually doing? So, when we start blaming others, we dis-empower ourselves. Why? Because whatever power we have to change the situation, to improve the situation, instead of using that power constructively, we concentrate all that power on fixing the blame on the other person.
Now, of course, as I said, we live in a practical world, and sometimes, who is responsible has to be recognized. But that can be done with proper knowledge. So, there is knowledge in ignorance, there can be knowledge in passion, knowledge in goodness.
Now, I will take a little back step and explain what these modes actually are. The three modes of material nature, they are subtle forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness. The way we look at things, that is, we are conscious beings and the world is out there.
The way we look at things that is shaped by the modes. So, if we consider for all our actions, there is contemplation internally and action externally. In goodness, sattva guna, there is contemplation first and action later.
I think, and then I decide and I do it. In passion, there is first action, then contemplation. So, we could say that, look before you leap.
That is mode of goodness. There is a slogan of a shoe company, just do it. That is the mode of passion.
So, we could say, some people speak to express their thoughts. And some people speak to discover their thoughts. They speak something, I didn’t mean to say that, sorry.
So, we all have slips of tongue. How many of you have experienced some embarrassing slip of tongue? At some time or the other. Yeah, it’s just, it can be very embarrassing, because we speak, but we don’t think what we are speaking.
So, when that happens, there is, action is there, but the action comes before the speech. So, that is the mode of passion. Now, the mode of ignorance is where there is neither contemplation nor action.
There is simply delusion. There is simply, oh, this may happen, this happened like that, that went like that, that went like that. Krishna described these characteristics in 14.11, 12 and 13.
In 14.11, he says, the characteristic of the mode of goodness is prakasha. Prakasha means illumination. When there is illumination, say, this door is dark, you don’t know who is coming in, who is going out.
But the door is lit, we can see who is coming in, who is going out, and we can decide, the child is slipping out, no, don’t let the child go out. The thief is coming in, don’t let them come in. So, like that, if our doors of senses are illumined, that means, we can contemplate, analyze and decide what should come into our body, what we should perceive and what we should express.
But in the world of passion, One is impaled to act. I have to do something right now. Just can’t think much.
I have to do something. And in the mode of ignorance, 14.13 says, प्रमादो मोहे वच, तमस्ये तानी जायंते, विरुद्धे कुरुनन्धन, There is neither prakasha, neither illumination, nor prakasha, nor action. What is there? प्रमादो मोहे वच, There is madness, intoxication and illusion.
So, one is just, this happened like that, that happened like that, that happened like that. One is just living in the head, imagining things. Not doing anything at all, practical.
Just daydreaming or lamenting, resenting. That is in the mode of ignorance. So, some people make things happen.
They plan, you do this, I do this, we will do this together. They are in the mode of goodness. Some people watch things happen.
They are in the mode of passion. They try to do one thing. But it’s like one thing, they don’t plan so well.
So, one thing leads to second and third. What’s happening? Some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen.
And some people wonder what happened. So, people in ignorance are just lost in their own head. They don’t even know what is going on around them.
So, these three modes shape how we look at things. So, broadly we could say that, now when we live in the world, there is something which is in our control and something which is not in our control. So, in the mode of passion, we have so much zeal to do things that in the mode of passion, we tend to overestimate our capacity to control things.
In the mode of ignorance, we underestimate our capacity to control things. So, for example, if some mistake has happened, some mess up has happened, in the mode of ignorance, nothing can be done. Nothing can be done.
And the only thing I can do is, let me not be blamed for it. Let somebody else be blamed for it. We look for a scapegoat for it.
So, in the mode of passion, in the mode of ignorance, we look for a scapegoat because we don’t feel anything can be done practically. In the mode of passion, we look for power. Power.
If I get more power, I will prevent such things from happening in the future. But in the mode of goodness, we look for insight. We look for understanding.
We try to properly understand what is in my control, what is not in my control. So, in the mode of passion, some people may think, whatever problem is there, just throw money at it, you can solve the problem. No.
Get the right contacts, get more power, you will be able to fix the problem. So, now, yes, at one level, if we have, if somebody has a disease, then if we have medicines, if we have money to buy the medicines to take the treatment, we can be cured. But some diseases are incurable.
So, money is important. Power is important. But it alone cannot fix all problems.
In the mode of passion, we think, yes, we want a quick fix. Throw this at this problem and solve it. Now, with respect to problems, the modes shape how we perceive things.
And that’s why, when we are affected too much by the mode of ignorance, then we want, we feel, there is nothing that I can do about it. And then we just try to fix the blame on someone. This person did like this, this person did like this.
So, by this, we disempower ourselves. Just like if somebody becomes lame, then they can’t walk. Similar to blame, is to make ourselves lame.
We just disempower ourselves, we lose the capacity to do anything. Now, going back, going back to the earlier discussion of three-level causation, immediate cause, remote cause, and ultimate cause. So, in the mode of ignorance and in the mode of passion, more or less, we see only the immediate cause.
But in the mode of ignorance, we feel the immediate cause is so powerful, so overwhelming, that nothing can be done about it. In the mode of passion, we see the immediate cause is, I’m going to fix this. And use all our energy to fix the immediate cause itself.
So, in the mode of ignorance, we will just passively blame, you know, find a safe scapegoat, but passively blame someone. You know, this person is responsible, this person is responsible, this person is responsible. In the mode of passion, also we may blame someone.
But then, it will not just be passively blaming. It will be actively seeking vendetta. No.
At well way, I will take revenge against this person. I will destroy this person. No.
In Hindi, they say, tum sher to mai sabha sher. You know, if you beat me twice, I will beat you thrice. So, you know.
So, the idea in the mode of passion is, that we want to not only fix blame on someone, but we actually want to take revenge against them. So, in the mode of goodness, we try to understand things more holistically. We try to gain proper understanding.
So, what is this proper understanding? That the immediate cause is important. But the immediate cause alone doesn’t determine everything. It’s a simple example.
Nowadays, all of us practically are concerned about because our lifestyle is so sedentary. The food tends to be so fatty. We all worry that we may get overweight.
And now some people, their bodies are such that they eat a little bit extra, immediately their health gets spoiled, their body balloons up. And some people, they treat their tongue like a conveyor belt. They take anything and they eat anything and everything and nothing seems to happen to them.
They still stay healthy, they still stay fit. So, two people may eat the same food, but the consequences will be entirely opposite. Now, why is it that if there is a law of karma, there is action and reaction? So, why there is big reaction to this person and no reaction to the other person? That’s because law of karma is not simply a linear connection between action and reaction.
Law of karma, there is action which leads to reaction. But, in between action and reaction is also our past karma. Our past karma determines whether the present karma will give a big reaction, a small reaction or no reaction.
Say, how does it work? Some people, by their past karma are meant in this life to have a sickly body. And some people by their past karma in this life are meant to have a healthy body. So, then somebody who is meant to have a sickly body, a small mistake on their part, immediately the body’s vulnerability comes up and they fall sick.
Somebody else, they are meant to have a healthy body. So, they subject their body to all kinds of disorderly conduct, even abuse, but the body stays healthy. Why? Because that past karma comes in between the present karma and its reaction.
Sometimes, it may also happen that the present action is just a stimulus or a trigger for the past karma to provide a reaction. Like, say, water has fallen over here. Now, three of us may walk along and two of us may just walk by the water and one of us may walk on the water, slip and fall.
Now, why did one person slip and fall? Now, actually all three may be talking with each other. So, none of them was looking at the floor. So, if you want to say being inattentive, all three were inattentive, but only one person fell over there.
Or sometimes, it may be that two people may fall down but one person may just get a bump and the other may get a fracture. Why the difference? So, in this case, the immediate cause is there, but the immediate cause is a trigger or an instrument for some remote cause to act. So, for somebody, there was no remote cause over there.
There is no karma whose reaction is going to come over there. So, then, they may just walk over the water, they may just slip a little bit, they pull themselves and balance themselves. Somebody else slips and falls flat.
So, the immediate cause is not the complete cause. Sometimes, it’s just simple. I get a sore throat because yesterday night I ate ice cream or too many ice creams.
I get a cold or whatever. That’s a simple thing to understand. So, the law of karma can work in different ways at different times.
Sometimes, a small incident may just have a small reaction. Small action may have a small reaction. Sometimes, a small action may have a big reaction.
Sometimes, converse may also happen. A big mistake may have no reaction also. Now, when I do programs in colleges, many times students say, I studied so much but I didn’t get good marks in my exam.
So, if I know the students well, I ask them, can you think of the times when you didn’t study much but whatever you studied came in the exam and you got good marks. That also happens to us. So, sometimes, we just do little good but we get lot of result by that.
So, karma, our past karma also affects the connection between present cause and present effect. So, now, why are we talking about this? So, if a particular mistake has happened, we have landed in a particular mess and some person has done something because of which we landed in that mess. Now, is that person responsible? Well, yes, but is that person completely responsible? Not necessary.
The modern material vision focuses or we can say almost obsesses on dealing only with the immediate cause and dealing with the immediate cause is also important. If I go back to the starting conversation of between Parikshit Maharaj and the bull, what is the cause of your suffering? So, now, what is Parikshit Maharaj asking by this? You can obviously say the immediate cause of suffering is this attacker, but Parikshit Maharaj is not asking that. He is testing and he already has a sense that this is no ordinary bull.
So, therefore, he wants to know who this bull is and that’s why he asked the immediate We are talking about the remote cause. So, what is the remote cause? It’s very difficult to know. Okay, you can say my own karma, but what karma, when did I do it, why is that karma coming now? It’s simply karmically both of them are equally culpable.
It means simply that both of them will stay in the same ignorant material consciousness. The victimizer is thinking that this person, if I just punish this person, if I just exploit this person, then my plans will be successful. Just looking at the immediate cause.
And the victim, if this person did this, then the victim is also staying in the same material consciousness. So, in that sense, both of them will stay in spiritual ignorance. In the Ishopanishad it says andham tamah pravishanti ye vidyam upasate tato bhuya ivate tamo yo vidyayam vrata It says those who are in ignorance, they will go into the darkness.
But, those who are in so-called knowledge, they will go into deeper darkness. Why? Because they think they know when actually they do not know. So, when I think I know this person is the cause of my misery, then actually I am presuming to know when I actually don’t know.
And therefore, I will complicate the situation. In hitting back at that person, I will only start a, you could say, a hate saga. I hate this person and that person hates me.
Many times in dynasties, this goes on. Your grandfather did this to my grandfather. And therefore, your father did this to my father.
And therefore, I am doing this to you. This goes on generation after generation after generation. So, when we function in the world, especially if we are in the mode of goodness, in the mode of passion, we just want to address the immediate cause, either blame the immediate cause and feel helpless or hit back at the immediate cause and think we have done the work.
But when we come to the mode of goodness, then we see the deeper picture. We see beyond the immediate cause to deeper causes. Sarva-bhuteshu ye naikam bhavam avenikshate avibhaktam vibhakteshu tad jnanam vidya sattvikam Krishna says that when we see beyond matter to spirit, when we see the one imperishable spirit existing in all living beings, then we are seeing in knowledge, our knowledge is in the mode of goodness.
So how does this apply practically for us now? If I want to see in the mode of goodness and if I should not blame others, then what should we do? There is some mess that has happened and we want to correct the mess at this level, at a practical level. Now for correcting, there are different ways to correct. If somebody as an immediate cause is responsible, then that can be pointed out.
Okay, I did this, they did this and this is what happened. Okay, I might have made some small mistake, they made a big mistake, but rather than blaming, the focus is on learning. Learning means what? Learning, not just learning okay, how we can do this better, that’s also one thing to learn, but learning also about the nature of the world.
Sometimes, just things go wrong and whenever something goes wrong, at that time, it appears as if this is catastrophic, this has gone wrong, my life is shattered by this. But if you look at the mind, the mind you could say like a, the mind is like a drama queen. Some people are so dramatic, one thing has happened, some kids you know, they’ll call mummy, mummy, and start screaming.
So, what has happened? Some small thing has happened, they scream as if the whole world is shattered. So, like that, the mind takes some problem, now if we look back at our life, maybe now we may have some problem which we feel, this problem is not solved, my life is going to go to, I’m going to be shattered. But if you look back, if you can think objectively, one year ago, there might have been some other problem, five years ago, there might have been some other problem, ten years ago, there might have been some other problem.
So, at each time in our life, there has always been some problem which our mind told this is going to ruin your life. Yes, we all survived those problems, some problems have scarred us more, some problems may have scarred us less, they make some scars on us, but we have survived them. So, the mind tends to catastrophize problems, oh this problem is so big, it makes it much much bigger than what it needs to be.
So, when the mind catastrophizes problems, the intelligence needs to contextualize the problems. Contextualize means, see them in a bigger context, that it is not just this person causing this, but, okay, this person has done this, but this person’s action is simply the immediate cause, beyond that there are other remote causes also. So, now, what are we meant to do? Bhakti Siddhant said, how do we, if there is some problem that is there, somebody has done something which is wrong, so what do we do about it? Bhakti Siddhant Sir Thakur wrote an essay, it was like the first, we could say, first writing that he wrote, first book that he wrote, explaining philosophy, it was called Bengali Samajikta, Sociality in Bengal, and that time he was responding to western British criticism of India, saying, Indians are so passive, they just don’t do anything, they don’t work hard, they have no zeal, no ambition, so passive, if things go wrong, they just passively accept what is wrong.
So, this is a common criticism, that Indian culture is very fatalistic, some British would say that the way, if famines occur, if droughts occur, if this happened in our country, then we need to leave, but Indians are passively tolerated. So, Bhakti Shankar Thakur says, that actually, we as souls interact with the world in two different ways, one is through our gyanendriyas and the other is through the karmendriyas, through the gyanendriyas, through the senses by which we acquire knowledge, we observe, analyze and understand, so the karmendriyas will act to change things. So, he says, that the definition of success of western civilization and Indian civilization is different, that in western civilization expertise in karmendriyas is considered to be a sign of progress and success.
How much change can you do in the outer world? In the Indian civilization, he says, expertise in gyanendriyas is considered to be a sign of progress and success, that means observe the world, try to understand the world, get more insight, so gaining more insight into the nature of reality is considered more important, whereas in the western civilization, changing things is considered more important. So, that’s why he says, by these two perspectives, if you look from the western perspective at India, you’ll feel, why are these people so passive? Why didn’t they do anything at all? So, now, both these are important. Now, it’s not that Indian civilization was not good at karmendriyas.
Arjuna was an archer, he was a champion archer and he fought for Krishna also. But, it’s a relative emphasis. So, if the emphasis becomes excessive only on gyanendriyas, just observe, analyze, learn, that is good, but that if it taken to excess, it can lead to passivity, it can lead to fatalism.
Fatalism means, everything is destined, nothing is in my hands. So, some people say, meri kismati phooti hai. My destiny is rotten, what can I do? Well, actually, everything is not destined.
We always have free will and we can make positive genius. So, if we go too much to the extreme of just passively tolerating, that can enable abuse of behavior also, because people can exploit. But the other extreme is, when we focus on fixing all problems, changing, change, change, change, change, change, this is a problem, change this, this is a problem, change this, this is a problem, change this.
The result of that is that, there is very little capacity to tolerate and there is very little capacity to commit. Because, the whole idea is, this doesn’t seem to be working, change it. And that’s how, that’s one of the main reasons why relationships are not stable.
If a particular relationship is not working, just change it, change it, just, people just break marriages and people just break relationships. So, when there is excessive emphasis on change, that also becomes a problem. Then there is no steadiness, there is no commitment.
So, both ways, it can be a problem. Now, going from external speaking, externally, the mode of goodness and the mode of ignorance, look very similar. Isn’t it? Why? Because, as I said earlier, in goodness, there is first contemplation then action.
In passion, there is first action then contemplation. In ignorance, there is neither contemplation nor action. But, externally speaking, a person in passion will be active, a person in ignorance and a person in goodness will be inactive.
So, now, say, who is in ignorance and who is in goodness? Now, two people may be sitting and hearing a class. Now, one person may be motionless because they are so absorbed. The other person is motionless because they are so lost.
So, externally, goodness and ignorance can appear very similar. So, actually, the traditional Indian culture was based on goodness. Don’t try to fix things so much.
Don’t try to change things so much. Try to tolerate, try to learn, try to grow internally. But, you could say that if goodness is not understood properly, then goodness and ignorance can become very similar.
And, there can be external tolerance with internal growth. Or, there can be external inactivity with internal delusion. I am not doing anything but internally also I am not learning anything.
So, I am tolerating sometimes because I want to grow in my life. But, sometimes I am just resenting, resenting, resenting. I am not doing anything externally but I am not growing internally also.
So, here, the idea which I am moving towards in this discussion is that when some mistake happens. So, if we just fix in the more, if we just, you are responsible for this. Or, you beat somebody up, that is not good.
We have to try to see, ok, this situation happened, what can I learn from it, how can I rectify this. And, sometimes rectifying may require changing the externals, sometimes rectifying may require tolerating the externals. Sometimes, a person may have done something wrong, but, you know, that relationship may be more important for us, that situation may be a little sensitive situation.
Ok, even if that person, my purpose is not just identifying, you are to be blamed for this. My purpose is, ok, how can this thing move on, how can we rectify the situation, how can we improve the situation, that is the purpose. Our love for Krishna should free us from the need to prove that we are right in every situation.
If there is ego battle going on, you are wrong, I am right, that’s how it will be. But, if there is a loving relationship between two people, yeah, ok, I don’t have that egoistic insecurity, because of which I have to prove myself right in this situation. Ok, even if you have this understanding, fine, let’s move on with life.
If it is something not very important, then it’s ok. So, if for rectifying the issue, identifying the specific cause of the problem or impounding the blame on someone is not very important, then just move on with life. Sometimes it happens that we may be blamed for something which we have not done, but sometimes we also get credit for things which we have not done.
So, this is how our present actions and our past actions play together. That’s why rather than simply trying to fix the blame on someone, we focus on what is important. What is important? So, Prabhupada writes in the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Purport that intelligence means to see things in their proper perspective.
To see things in their proper perspective means to see what is more important and what is less important. It’s a simple example to illustrate this. Say, if we are going in a crowded local train in Mumbai, the train’s capacity is 50 but there are 200 people over there, so everybody is squeezed and some people just like to be bossy.
So, we are standing and the person standing next to us is pushing us. We get angry. How dare you push me? You push me, I push you back.
And I start pushing back. They start pushing us. We start pushing them.
And we get so caught in pushing each other that our station comes and goes and we start pushing each other. That is ridiculous. Okay, if that person wants to show off their power, okay, you push, just move a little bit aside.
This is a short distance, why bother about it? So, sometimes some issues are not very big. But we make them big. Life is meant for much bigger things than pushing back people who push us.
So, if my purpose is clear, I have to get to this destination. And for that purpose, okay, this person is just being bossy. I’m not going to be in this train for a long time.
Sometimes, if our purpose is clear, this is not so important. So, there are many times if we recognize the purpose and focus on the purpose, then tolerating becomes easier. Tolerance simply means keeping small things small so that we can focus on big things.
Tolerance means keeping small things small so that we can focus on the big things. Is this person pushing me? The important thing is I have to get to my destination. Now, is there a limit to tolerance? Yes, certainly.
If that person starts pushing me out of the train only, then I can’t tolerate that. But I have to take a stand. So, if that person’s actions start obstructing my purpose itself, then I have to take a stand.
If they don’t allow me to do my purpose at all, then I have to oppose. I have to take a stand. I have to do something to counter it.
So, if in every situation, I’m here, I’m in different relationships, different situations, different interactions, ultimately my purpose is to grow towards Krishna. And for going towards Krishna, I do need a certain level of harmony, certain level of peace, So, if that is going a little up or down, it’s okay. No need to make a big issue out of it.
But if somebody’s actions are troubling us so much that we just can’t do anything, that we’re not able to chant, we’re not able to be peaceful, we can’t do anything, we’re getting agitated by their actions, then we may have to create some distance, we have to create some arrangement by which we create a buffer so that their actions don’t affect us so much. So, now it’s not, it’s not necessarily wrong to point out who is responsible for particular things. Sometimes we all need to learn and if some debacle has happened, okay, this person did this and that’s how it happened.
But the point over there is that the success is not pointing out who is responsible. The success is how to get this thing moving again. How to make sure, if some person is making the same mistake then that is creating the same kind of problem again and again.
Then maybe it means they are not really meant for this service. They can serve in some other way and pointing that out can be done in a mood of service. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses.
So when instead of blaming in an objective way, in a cultured way, we explain this is what happened and this is how this is happening, then there is a greater possibility that things can be resolved satisfactorily. So we, if we keep our purpose in mind, purpose is get this thing moving. I want to serve Krishna, I want to move this relationship forward, I want to move this project forward, I want to get this thing done and what is the best way to do it.
So generally when we blame, what is happening is we are, we correct and condemn. Correct means blame that person. We, you know, you did this wrong, you did this wrong and our focus is on you have to correct yourself.
And condemn means we tell the whole world. We tell them you are wrong, that is correcting that person. And condemn means we tell the whole world.
And by this that person feels extremely hurt, that person is infuriated and they try to get back at us. But instead if we focus on complementing and complementing. Complement means c-o-m-p l-i-m-e-n-t-e and c-o-m-p l-e-m-e-n-t-e.
Complement means to appreciate, everybody has some good in them and we appreciate that. And complement that means if they are deficient in something, then we make up for that. Rather than you can’t do this, just see how well I can do it.
Ok, I can do this better, let me take care of this, you take care of that. You don’t get involved in this, I will take care of this part. So, if we focus on this, if in any relationship that we are working, in any situation that we are working, if we just try to shift our focus on what is good in the other person and we complement them for that, then they stop being so defensive.
If my focus simply, you know, you are responsible for this mess, you are to be blamed, then their whole energy will be, no, no, I am not, I am not, I am not. The whole energy goes on, it shifts from the issue to just affixing the blame. But if we are appreciative of others, then what happens is, the war is not, the confrontation is not between you and me.
This issue is here, we have to deal with this issue. Yes, and if you deal with it in this way, it creates some problem. If I deal with it in this way, it might be better.
Once we can shift the issue rather than seeing the other person as antagonist, as an opponent, we see, we all have our conditionings and rather than seeing that you are hurting me or that you are hurting me, we see that we all are hurting under our conditionings. Everybody has their conditionings and their conditionings hurt them and sometimes they hurt others also. So, if we see that we are all ultimately fighting against the same material nature, we are all subject to same material nature, I have certain defects, you have certain defects.
So, if we appreciate the good in others, we complement and what is their weakness? We try to make some arrangement as we make up for that. We take care of those things, we make some arrangement to take care of this. Then if we learn to complement and complement, many volatile or explosive situations can also be diffused.
And that way we can move forward more peacefully and more purposefully in our service to Krishna. So, Ashila Prabhupada said that, your love for me can be shown by how you cooperate. Now, cooperation, how will it happen if we are criticizing and condemning, correcting and condemning? That will not lead to happiness.
Now, does not also mean cooperation includes operation. If somebody is not operating properly, how can you have cooperation? So, we have to find out how can this person operate well, what is that they can do and what is that I can do? And then that, when we do it, we can move forward properly. So, in the mode of goodness, we learn to see things properly.
What is in my control? What is not in my control? Similarly, we learn to see what is in this person’s control to change? What is not in this person’s control to change? Because some conditions are just too difficult to change. It may take a long time, so then okay, this is something they are not good at, let them not get involved in that, let somebody else take care of that. So that way, if we learn to complement and complement, then we will be able to cooperate, we will diffuse volatile situations and we will find that our minds and our lives will become much more peaceful.
The internal friction within us and around us will go down substantially and as the friction goes down, the devotion goes up. Because when the friction goes down, then our mind becomes available for connecting with Krishna. Otherwise our mind is completely consumed by this person, this person, that person.
So when our mind is available for connecting with Krishna, that is when bhakti becomes joyful. Because the more we connect with Krishna, then Krishna is the reservoir of all happiness. We connect with him, then we experience that bhakti is it is joyfully performed.
It is joyful to perform. So I’ll summarize. I spoke today about to blame is to be lame.
Stop seeking scapegoats. So I started by how Krishna says knowledge in the mode of ignorance means to say one thing to be everything. So we look at one cause and make that the complete cause.
Sometimes it may be true that small issues lead to big. You go to the hospital to get cured but you get a new disease over there. So it’s naturally infuriating.
But if you can stop blaming, it can actually be liberating. That burden of anger, resentment, it just crushes us. So how can we become liberated from this burden of blaming others? For that I talked about how knowledge in the mode of ignorance means we perceive one thing and make it everything.
whenever anything happens to us, there is immediate cause, remote cause and ultimate cause. The immediate cause is slip and fall. The immediate cause is somebody put water over there.
The remote cause is I had some karma which because of the reaction I fell and I got injured. The ultimate cause is forgetfulness of Krishna. So if we are no longer available for fixing the ultimate cause, that is forgetfulness of Krishna.
So we discussed about how the bull Dharma says Parikshit that I don’t know what the cause of my suffering is. Why? Because the Bhagavatam is not focusing on immediate causes and looking beyond those. Not even Parikshit Maharaj says yes it was because of some karma where I got this reaction but is focused on the ultimate cause.
Let me absorb myself in Krishna and thus transcend this world. And Krishna protects Parikshit Maharaj even in this situation by manifesting as the Bhagavatam which shelters him even before the snake bites him. In our life when some mess happens we want to if in the mode of ignorance I talked about goodness means first knowledge first contemplation then action passion means first passion first action then contemplation in ignorance there is neither contemplation nor action simply delusion so in the mode of ignorance we just want to fix the blame on someone and we feel sorry for ourselves in the mode of passion we want power power for what power for seeking vendetta get back at the person you did this that’s why I will do this in the mode of goodness we try to seek understanding properly if we focus too much on the immediate causes so the Indian civilization focused more on remote cause and tolerate this is your karma learn to tolerate it and move forward in life now because goodness and ignorance look very similar so the tolerance which is involving internal growth can be mistaken to be impotence where there is nothing happening internally or externally so tolerance doesn’t mean passively accepting everything it means keeping small things small so that we can focus on big things so for that we need intelligence to analyze what is a small thing and what is a big thing so if you have a purpose for our life just like in a train ride when to just tolerate somebody pushing and when to push back it depends on what is the purpose so similarly for us in the we may think we are in goodness but we may go in ignorance and somebody may think this person is in ignorance but they may be in goodness so passion means change change and that leads to lack of tolerance and lack of commitment and that leads to so when we want to fix a mess the important thing is not assigning blame the important thing is moving forward and rectifying the situation so our love for Krishna our love for others should be big enough so that it frees us from the need to prove our rightness in every situation focus on how we can move forward instead of criticizing correcting and condemning others our point is let us compliment and compliment if we see the good in them and speak their good then they stop seeing us as antagonists and rather than the battle between us and them what are the various levels of causation of what happened in 9-11 this is a question which will have to be asked to the paramatma generally when things happen in this world we can always have various theories of why something happened but broadly speaking we have to act in a way that helps to rectify the situation so if somebody is a victim of something at that time it is not at all right philosophically or emotionally to focus on their culpability if a thief has robbed a person and the victim of that robbery goes to the king and says please help me and the king says it was your own karma because of which you were robbed well what is the victim’s karma is not important there what is important is what is the king’s dharma the king’s dharma the person’s karma but that is not the immediate thing that is not the focus the focus is the dharma of the king sometimes the king may try their best and still not be able to recover the money catch the king it was your karma that you lost the money but otherwise the king has to take action so we look at the generally the immediate and the remote cause they don’t have to be in competition when some immediate cause is assignable then that immediate cause has to be looked at and has to be addressed if somebody has got lung cancer and they are in exceptional situations but generally if an immediate cause is perceivable so there are people who make religion into a means for fulfilling their own ego’s ideas of gaining power and they spout hatred last Sunday I was in India and important that immediate causes need to be addressed at a practical level so say greater security greater addressing of the threats which are causing this that is required but then we have now what does that mean for us that in every religious tradition there are moderates and there are extremists I have a Muslim friend who says that I can communicate better with moderates of other traditions than extremists of my own tradition so it’s like people in goodness in different traditions can talk with each other a person in goodness and a person in ignorance can’t connect so in general for the world’s well-being we need to help raise the mode of goodness so we educate ourselves by a practice of bhakti if we are coming more to goodness and we try to help in creating structures by which those in goodness are encouraged and empowered then the conflicts in the world will be addressed more effectively any other questions or comments yes please is a thief god while robbing okay if while robbing the thief god gets hurt what should the king do again here immediate factors have to be dealt with immediate level if somebody is hurt somebody is injured somebody is threatened they have to be their physical wounds have to be addressed and the idea is that if we have done some actions we have to be held accountable for those actions so there has to be a fair trial and then after that if the thief has robbed the thief has to be punished so it’s not necessary that you know that one karma compensates for other karma it’s that oh the thief got injured while robbing that injury is not the is not the punishment for the robbery because that injury is simply incidental or whatever it may happen so karmas don’t cancel out that way so if we do good good results come if we do bad bad results come so each of these two issues just occur simultaneously but that doesn’t mean that both of them have to be conflated so it has to be addressed separately okay thank you any other questions yes we’ll come to that later okay so India got independence from the British after more than 200 years so are Indians in the mode of goodness or in the mode of ignorance both are there there are there are many thoughtful people in India see it’s you cannot you culture because of which the passion and ignorance may not come out in entirely gross ways.
But it does come out. So but still the facility for goodness is there. There is some innate piety that is there in Indian culture and if it is facilitated it can grow quite fast.
Can I answer your question? Yes, please. Thank you so much for this talk. It was wonderful.
Great to have you here. So my question is, if we are looking at our karma and what that would bring for any future lives, and hopefully we are all going to God that we are not coming back, but what can we do in this life in terms of cultivating good karma, good actions, from material level, mental level, emotional level, spiritual level, you know let’s say for example, you know at a spiritual level something like, you know, ten kirtan, or book distribution, things like this, you know, helping the temple, saving, you know material levels, you know, with good deeds, what would you recommend are the highest actions that we can make for ourselves to for all of us to cultivate good karma. Okay, yeah.
So what actions can we do in this life so that we can create good karma and ultimately we attain Krishna. Basically, we are all in a deceased condition in this world. And when a patient is deceased, the most important thing is to take the curative medicine.
But along with the curative medicine, if the patient is in great pain, then a pain killing medicine is also given. And an expert doctor knows how to balance the pain medicine and the curative medicine. So, the pain medicine is meant to mitigate the immediate pain and the curative medicine is ultimately heal it.
So, going back to the earlier analysis of Karmendriyas and Jnanendriyas, Western civilization focuses more and more on administering better and better pain medicine without even analyzing about the curative medicine. On the other hand, Indian civilization, especially you could say the monastic or the ascetic aspect of Indian civilization, it focuses on don’t take any pain medicine. And then when you feel the pain, that will impel you to take the curative medicine more and more intensely.
So, the idea is in the curative medicine alone, the pain medicine alone is counterproductive. Because the disease is worsening internally. Although one appears to be comfortable.
That is how Western civilization right now is very comfortable at a physical level. But still there is distress at the mental level. Huge amount of suffering.
Mental health problems are skyrocketing. I say people in the Western world are comfortably distressed. Physically comfortable, mentally distressed.
But the other extreme of taking only the curative medicine, that can become too unbearable for most people. So, that’s why Bhakti-Shopanishad says, विद्याम्च विद्याम्च यस्तद्वेदो भयंसव। अविद्धयाम्रत्युम्तीर्त विद्यायाम्रतमश्णुते। That we need avidya. Vidya doesn’t mean ignorance.
It means knowledge about this ignorant material world. How to function effectively in this world. And vidya refers to the knowledge by which we can go beyond this world.
So, for us, bhakti-yoga, the practice of bhakti-yoga in terms of the core practices of bhakti, chanting and studying scriptures, worshipping the deities, these are like the curative medicine. And we have to make sure that we keep taking those diligently. But at the same time, we have to live in this world also.
And when we are living in, we have to, many many years we have to live, our children have to live, future generations have to live. So, you have to also create systems by which the stay in this world is not unbearably painful. The world is going to be a distressful place.
But our actions can make its distress worse or it can make it lesser. When Krishna says this world is dukkhalayam, that does not mean that he wants everyone to be miserable. Arjuna was in tears at the start of the Gita.
At the end of the Gita, he was composed, his tears went away. So, Krishna did not say, oh Arjuna, you are in tears, now you are understanding this world is dukkhalayam, stay dukkhi, stay distressed. No.
So, pain is a feature of the world. But pain is not the purpose of the world. It’s like in a hospital, pain is there.
But the purpose of the hospital is not to cause pain. The purpose of the hospital is to cure pain. So, the world is like a hospital.
So, here we need to have overall mode of goodness interactions. Our relationships need to be in mode of goodness. So that at a physical level, there is a more orderly functioning.
At a mental level, there is less agitation. So, if we learn to deal with each other in a more cultured way, Bhagavad Gita says that austerity in the mode of goodness for speech means speak in a way that doesn’t agitate others. Anudvegakaram Vakyam Satyam Priyahitam Jayat.
We speak in a non-agitating way with others. If we just learn this, so many of our interactions, they would become so much less painful. We have to speak the truth.
Think, okay, how can I speak this in a way that will not hurt the other person so much. So, if we learn that, then at a mental level, the agitation can go down. At a physical level, what can we do? We all have particular areas in which we work.
We have been given certain talents. We use those talents to make a positive contribution. Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, I long for the day when the high court judges will be wearing tilaks.
That means there will be high court judges will be devotees. Now, how is this going to happen? One way we could say is that in the future we have a devotee government and the devotee government appoints devotees as judges. Well, that is possible, but that seems to be a very long way off.
More realistically, it could be that devotees who are well-educated, who are responsible, they become judges or judges become devotees and they do their work of judging so responsibly that they are appointed as in top-notch position in society. So we have to also, whatever abilities Krishna has given us, we use them constructively in His service. And when we do that in an effective way, then that will also create positive perceptions about Krishna Bhakti among people in general.
And even if they don’t take up Krishna Bhakti, if they come at least to the mode of goodness, by practicing some aspects of Krishna Bhakti, that will also make the situations less agitated and more conducive for harmonious living. So that’s how we all can contribute to not just ensuring that our ultimate destination is auspicious, but our journey towards that destination is also as less agitating as possible. Does it answer your question? Okay.
Yes. Do we have time, Athenji? No, I think it is 9 o’clock. Yeah, okay.
It is a working day. Yes, sure. We have some prasadam downstairs.
So I would recommend that those of you who would like to get some device, you can go into that room. But before you all go, there are twenty-