Understanding the mind of God

[Bhagavatam class on 4.18.9 at Auckland, New Zealand]

Video
https://www.facebook.com/ChaitanyaCharana/videos/322363615310158/

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna so this morning the verse gives us a fascinating glimpse into the psychology of god into how god thinks see the psychology of how children think so I will speak this talk class in three parts first I will talk about how everyone even atheists are trying to understand the mind of god second I will talk about how scripture reveals to us the mind of god and how lastly I will talk about how that applies in our day to day life as we face life’s challenges so Stephen Hawking was considered to be one of the greatest physicists of the recent times passed away a few years ago and in one of his earlier books which is considered to be among the world’s most unread best seller many many people bought it not because it was considered intellectually glamorous to buy that book but very few people actually read that book so anyway that book was called the brief history of time and one of the last sentences he wrote is that science is searching for an equation that can explain everything what he called as the gut the grand unified theory and he says if we get that theory then we will know the mind of god now of course he kept that open ended what he meant by the word god he did not use god hardly any time in his book throughout but at the end he used it and he later on wrote a book called the grand design where he tried to overturn the arguments of these by saying that the universe is so grand that it is a design without a designer that is the grandness of the design of course his book was second book was of course filled with many logical fallacies for example he says that because the laws of nature exist so the universe can create itself from nothing now it is probably more difficult it is difficult to find one sentence with as many logical problems as this one sentence because the laws of nature exist now why do they exist yesterday’s class I was talking about how the laws of nature their existence is foundational to science but explaining their existence is extremely problematic for science but even if the laws of nature exist the laws of nature don’t explain anything they simply explain they simply tell us how causes and effects will correlate say for example if I ask you how much money do you have you say I have got 20 dollars and I give you 30 dollars how much money will you have 50 dollars now if I ask you how much is 20 plus 30 you say 50 does 20 plus 30 equal to 50 lead to 50 dollars in your pocket the laws of nature do not cause anything to happen when the causes are present then how the causes will produce an effect the laws of nature tell that anyway the point I am making here is that even a physicist like him he was trying to understand the mind of God so when he was an atheist what did he mean by the mind of God he meant the pattern by which things happen in the world how do things work out so scientists try to think of the universe as a machine that’s one of the prevailing dogmas of mainstream science that the universe is like a machine and a prominent atheist said that we are all like lumbering robots and our mind is like a computer so basically the whole idea is that we are machines and the universe is like a big machine and if you understand how a particular program works what is the programming by which a particular machine is working then we will understand everything so why do we want to understand the mind of God or put it in a more generic sense why do we want to understand how things work because we have to live in the world and if you understand how the world works then we can make it work for our benefit work to fulfill our ends so right now if we understand how this gadget works then we can make it work in a way that it will serve the purpose we want it to serve if we don’t know how the gadget works and we are trying to figure it out and fiddle with it we may not be able to get it done so just as we need to understand how a gadget works we make it work similarly we want to understand the nature of reality by which we can live in a way that is joyful and successful so in that sense everybody is trying to understand the mind of God and actually even atheists love to serve God but they love to serve God only in one role that role is as an advisor they want to tell God hey you should not have done like this they look at the design in nature and they say this is faulty this should not be like this this should not be faulty and their God normally is non-existent but whenever the atheists want to give advice that God pops into existence gratefully accepts their advice and then pops back into non-existence so everybody to some extent is trying to understand the nature of reality and if we consider God as the being who is in charge of reality understanding the mind of God means understanding how reality works so we are all trying to understand if I do this what will happen now what will happen means what I do alone does not determine the result if I do A B will happen and then if A plus B will lead to C and C is what I want to happen so we all live in a world which is very reciprocal that I do something and something happens so we are trying to understand the nature of reality by which we can make things happen the way we want the purpose we want to serve so for example I am speaking right now so I want to convey a message so while I am speaking I am observing is what I am speaking understandable or not or is it becoming too complicated sometimes when I am giving a class and suddenly the audience starts looking at me as if they are watching a foreign language movie without subtitles then I start understanding that probably I am speaking too abstract or too fast or whatever so we all want to do things in life and for that we need to understand the nature of reality so in that sense everyone is trying to understand the mind of God even people who don’t believe in God so when we are trying to understand the nature of reality so we all have certain underlying conceptions of the nature of reality based on which we try to understand it so science has the idea that nature okay can we fix this from somewhere I would like to do like this only no I want it to be so for science the underlying metaphor is that the universe is like a machine this is a presumption there is no necessary proof that all of reality is mechanical but that is the underlying presumption which is science works now within the broad Vedic tradition also there is the idea that nature is mechanical but reality is not mechanical nature means material nature in many ways works in mechanical ways but all of reality is not mechanical and the idea is we can have broadly two conceptions mechanical and personal so say for example if a plane is flying through the sky then the plane is a machine and it operates according to mechanical principles but behind that there is a person now the operation of the plane depends on both the mechanical structure of the plane as well as the personal expertise of the pilot so the scientific metaphor is that the machine is all that there is and if you can understand the laws by which the machine is functioning then we are successful we don’t need anything more after that but the scripture tell us that there is something more than the machine we don’t deny the reality of the machine mayadhyakshena prakriti suyate saccharacharam hetu nane na kaunteya jagad me parivartate 9-10 Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that material nature has its own laws and it works according to those but those laws are under my supervision so there is a personal agent behind the laws of nature and in this particular past time the personal, the emotions of that personal being are being talked about so the first point I said is everybody is trying to understand the mind of God, the nature of reality and second point is what scripture reveals to us about the mind of God so let’s see what is happening in this past time so there is this demon Hiranyaksha and he has exploited the earth and extracted outrageous amounts of gold from it and because of that the earth has lost its cosmic balance and has fallen into the cosmic ocean and sunk over there and the lord has now brought the earth out and he has kept it on the water and it’s floating there and he has invested his potency that was yesterday’s verse by which it is floating and now he is going to all this time this demon is he has got a big mace and he is yelling at the lord he is screaming abusive words now what does this past time mean one of the biggest discoveries or you could say some discoveries are pleasant some are unpleasant so one of the unpleasant discoveries of science is that nature is far more complicated than what we think it to be so that’s why we are having enormous amount of ecological problems because scientists thought that not scientists in general materialist thought that we could exploit this and gain this we could exploit this and gain this but nature has huge amount of subtle balances and what disturbing what will cause what disturbance where we can’t know so Hiranyak simply extracted gold and because of that the earth lost its cosmic balance so beyond the specifics of what happened it illustrates the principle that when we tamper with nature what will set what off we don’t know like sometimes we use a complicated device and we try to monkey around with it and we press one button and suddenly a fire starts and then in few minutes the whole device is on fire and then the whole house is on fire and then we panic what to do so Hiranyak has a very reductive view of reality this earth is simply a source of gold for me and I want gold and he did not see the earth beyond that at all so because of this reductive view of reality he exploited the earth and there is disruption and whenever there is disruption the lord intervenes to create order once again there is always some level of disorder in the world just like we can say in every country there are criminals and not all criminals are in the jail you could say that all criminals should be in the jail but there are different levels of wrong doings and when crime becomes extremely high there are different kinds of crimes small theft that might not lead to very serious punishment ok you made this mistake forgive it overlook it so what happens is when the crime rises beyond a particular level then the government just becomes extremely active just like recently in Christchurch there was a terrible shooting then the whole country became alarmed and security has been beefed up and so many things happened because of that so there is a normal level of disorderiness and there is an abnormal level of disorderiness so there is normally some level of adharma is always there in the world disorderiness is there but that the lord lets people deal with it themselves but when the disorderness becomes too much in the lord intervals and similarly in Kaliyuga this is we say Triyugi the lord one of the names of Vishnu is Triyugi now Triyugi has two different meanings one is that he comes only in Triyugas and if Kaliyuga is the darkest of age that is where we might say he is needed the most then why wouldn’t he come in Kaliyuga so one way of looking at it is that say in some cities like say Chicago or some other cities there are certain areas in Mumbai some parts where actually the gangs rule the mafia rules and if you go there and you are robbed and then you go to the police and complain the police will say why did you go there even we don’t go there so it is like the police have also abandoned that area so one understanding of Kaliyuga is that just like in the area where the gang rules everybody is a part of the criminal zone so the police said you take care of yourself we will not intervene so one understanding is Kaliyuga is like that all the souls here are so disorderly that the lord says I won’t intervene you just do whatever you want that’s one understanding but other understanding is that he is triyugi because in Kaliyuga when he comes he comes as a manifestation that is not just there for some time he is always there that is as the holy name so through the holy name his manifest experience can be there always of course another meaning also is that he comes as a channa avtar comes as a concealed incarnation but anyway the point is that when the disorderliness goes beyond a particular level that is the time when the lord descends so one aspect of understanding the lord’s mind is that he has created a structure of reality and when that structure gets too disrupted then he intervenes now the earth sinking indicates that there is a disorder of cosmic proportions like there is a small fire in our house we might extinguish it ourselves but if there is a big fire then we have to call the fire department if there is a huge fire if the local fire department cannot handle it then we have to call bigger fire tanks from maybe bigger cities or nearby places so similarly when there is a very big disaster the lord himself comes so the problem has to be escalated to a higher and higher level so the lord has descended over here now and the first thing he does is if you say Krishna Krishna is described in the Bhagavad Gita what is his purpose so he says that he protects the devotees he destroys the demons and he restores dharma so broadly speaking he does this in that sequence so here we see first thing in the previous verse it is described paritranaya sadhunam earth is afflicted fallen out of balance the lord has rescued the earth, the earth has come back earth is now back out of the ocean and he has not yet placed the earth back in its normal place but while it is on the ocean he has infused it with mystical potency by which it can stay afloat that means in emergency situations the lord can empower us to do extraordinary things but those extraordinary powers are not our powers I was just in America and I was talking with one senior Prabhupada disciple he was a prominent leader in our movement earlier so he said that when we would preach maybe at that time when Prabhupada was there immediately after that we would speak some sentences and people would be so inspired by that, people would be so transformed by that somehow if I speak the same thing now it doesn’t affect the people so I was thinking what happened and he said his realization is that when Prabhupada was there Krishna empowered those who were serving Prabhupada to do things far more than what they normally could do and that’s why the Krishna consciousness movement was spread of course the devotees were dedicated incredibly dedicated but along with that Krishna had empowered them to fulfill Prabhupada’s desire so sometimes when we are able to do extraordinary things it’s easy to take credit for I did something extraordinary but then the next day when we are not able to do it then what happened if you understand that something bigger than me is acting through me then we can do wonderful things and still maintain humility if we consider the way people think today as compared to the way people thought 500 years ago in the western world if somebody does something brilliantly we say you are a genius but if we consider pre-enlightenment Europe before the scientific revolution there people if somebody would write beautifully or somebody would paint beautifully somebody would dance beautifully they would say you have genius within you you have genius the word genius comes from the root where genius refers to some higher being that there is some higher being within you and that higher being is enabling you to do such extraordinary things so if the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that our abilities are gifts coming from him I am ability in human beings so to have ability to have abilities to have abilities is fortunate to know that we have abilities is even more fortunate because many people have abilities but they don’t even know like some people say I have many hidden talents but the problem is they are hidden even from me I don’t even know to know that we have abilities is a bigger fortune but to know that our abilities are gifts that is the greatest fortune then we can have ability and humility both the point is that here the earth is floating because the lord has invested it with special potency so the lord to protect those who are working for him he may sometimes give them extraordinary power and that power is not their power alone of course credit is to be given to them because they are surrendered enough but that power is coming from the lord so we see what is the lord’s priority his priority is not to first destroy the demons is to protect the devotees if the demons are immediately threatening the devotees the lord will destroy the demons also but his psychology is that he wants to restore the order and empower those who are establishing the order and disempower those who are disrupting the order so now with this mission what does he do that now he has placed the earth in a temporary state of security and then the demon is behind that the demon is chastising him he thinks I am a great warrior and he thinks why is this whoever this boar is why is he not fighting with me he thinks I am a hero so I won’t attack him from behind but I want to goad him to fight some people are just itching for a fight they will keep provoking provoking and then the other person just gets angry and hits so words can also hurt terribly in fact words can hurt longer and harder than arrows because arrows they hurt and if you remove the arrow the wound gets healed but harsh words they hurt and the memory of those harsh words can linger forever and so here it is said that when lord Varaha was chastised by Ranya where are you going why are you not fighting with me you coward he spoke harsh words and for somebody who is a warrior to have insulting words like to be called a coward is like the ultimate insult so at one level the lord tolerated him so while he was picking up the earth while he was positioning the earth he just tolerated the whole thing because he was putting first let me place the earth secure so Prabhupada writes in the purport by this the lord is showing Prabhupada says the lord could have finished off the demon within a few moments by his omnipotence but the lord is showing to the devotees by his actions that while we are going about our duties we should not get disturbed by the harsh words of the demoniac in general we human beings are very social creatures so naturally we are very responsive to how people around us are responding to us so for example if I am speaking and if everybody in the audience starts glaring at me and I start wondering what am I doing wrong am I speaking something wrong and I should be concerned maybe I am speaking something that is offensive so actually our behavior is constantly we could say monitored or it is modified according to the feedback that we get from others and that is a part of healthy socialization that we all whichever society we are in whichever group we are in we need to fit in say for example all of you are sitting and hearing this talk now everyone of you is reasonably confident that the person next to you is not going to turn at you and slap you in the face now hypothetically it is possible but practically it is unlikely to happen so we are all here for a particular purpose and we all behave appropriately according to that purpose so basically whenever the point I am making is whenever anybody is displeased with us whenever anybody is angry with us that causes us discomfort that causes us distress and the normal human tendency is that if somebody is upset with us somebody is angry with us we try to fix that situation and that is good we should try to fix but sometimes situations are just not fixable Krishna talks about this that he says that which is night for all living beings is day for the self realized and that which is day for all living beings is night for the self realized what that means is that there are certain values which are radically different among materialist and spiritualist and if we try to earn the appreciation of materialist by adopting their values and giving up our values then that is what the bible says don’t sell your soul what profit does a man if he gains the kingdom gains the world but loses the soul so we cannot give up our core values so there are some things which materialistic people do which we just can’t appreciate just now the cricket world cup is going on and I heard this day before yesterday but still I am stunned to hear it one of my friends in London told me that a person from India came there and he purchased India Pakistan cricket match I think tonight so he purchased a ticket for 2000 pounds 2000 pounds is something like almost 2 lakh Indian rupees so 2 lakh Indian rupees is enough for a poor person in India they can live for one full year on 2 lakh rupees so that much people has granted what is there in this so there are sometimes irreducible irreconcilable differences between materialist and spiritualist the easiest way to make ourselves miserable now who wants to make themselves miserable nobody but the easiest way to make ourselves miserable is to try to please everyone we are finite human beings and people are different we can’t please everyone so if we are trying to practice spiritual life some materialistic people will inevitably criticize us and the Lord shows by his actions Prabhupada says in his purport don’t get disturbed by it the dogs will bark but the caravan rolls on the caravan rolls on another way of looking at it George Bernard Shaw said that don’t don’t ever get into a don’t start wrestling with a swine why because the swine loves to be in the mud and all that happens is you get dirty so there are some things which are just not reconcilable of course that doesn’t mean that we deliberately provoke people or be insensitive to people there are certain things which are like sore spots for people and if we can avoid agitating them we should but the Lord tolerates the harsh words that Hiranyakshi is speaking because he wants to show to us that we also need to tolerate while doing our duties if people speak harshly to us just tolerate it and move on tolerate it and move on and then gradually maybe they will start appreciating what we are doing so the Lord not only does actions which reveal his omnipotence but the Lord also does actions which show us how we can function in our situation so then of course now it is said in the future verses the Lord also expresses his anger so he tolerated for some time but tolerance is not the supreme virtue, tolerance is the important virtue but tolerance also has a purpose the purpose of tolerance is to keep small things small so that you can focus on the big things so when Prabhupada was trying to build a temple in Jhansi the League of Devotees and a whole conspiracy came up against him and he was evicted from there he was told to leave Prabhupada could have fought a legal battle over there but Prabhupada decided it’s not worth it he said my spiritual master had said open temples in big cities, Jhansi is not a very big city it’s a small city and people are also very more pious than spiritual over here so let’s end it and he walked away from there but in Juhu when Prabhupada got a land and the owner was a double dealing kind of person so just now I was in America I was in California, I met Giriraj Maharaj Giriraj Maharaj was instructed by Prabhupada to write a book on the whole Juhu project so just now it’s completed, it’s magnificent several hundred, 800 pages book so as long as the Maharaj is going to publish it from the Australian BBT over here soon so Giriraj Maharaj was telling me about, we were discussing about the book, so Prabhupada fought and fought over there Prabhupada said that this Mr. N will not be able to get the temple even over my dead body some people say you will go over my dead body I will die but only then after you can do it, Prabhupada said even if I die you will not be able to get it so Prabhupada fought why did he fight? because he felt the Jhansi temple, if it is a small thing, forget it I have bigger things to do in my life tolerance means to keep small things small so that you can focus on big things but the Juhu temple, it was in Mumbai it was the land which was part of the area of Mumbai that was soon going to develop and become very big, Prabhupada felt we should not use this land, we should fight for it so the Lord is now going to turn and fight so when do we tolerate? when do we fight back? it depends on what is our purpose if something is a small thing, just keep it small and tolerate it, but if something is a big thing then we have to fight it so that is what the Lord is going to do here so how do we understand small and big things difference? suppose we are travelling in a train in India say we have local trains say the train coach capacity is 50 but there are 300 people in that coach everybody is squeezed together and every group of people there are some people who are bullies so we are standing and a bully is standing next to us and the bully starts pushing us and we push back and they push us, we push back we think we are so strong, I’ll show you how strong I am we push back, they push back if we get so caught in pushing each other that our station comes and goes and we are still pushing that would be foolish you are a bully, you want to push? I’ll just move somewhere else keep small things small so that we can get to our station and get along with our way but if that person starts pushing us out of the train itself then that’s a big thing then we can’t tolerate then we have to take a stand we have to protest, we have to complain, whatever so keep small when we keep the big thing in mind then we can know what is the small thing and what is the big thing but if you don’t have the big thing in mind then every small thing can become big sometimes people feel that actually there are so many differences in the world there are racial differences there are religion differences there are linguistic differences there are gender differences if all differences were removed then people could live happily ever after but suppose miraculously tomorrow everybody woke up with no differences everybody was of the same religion, same race same gender same nationality by tomorrow afternoon we would find 50 new things to fight over because these are not the causes of fighting these are the triggers for fighting the cause is the prajoguna, the passion within us the passion and ignorance which make us think small things are very big so we need to keep the big things in mind and that is where Krishna Consciousness is very important regularly hearing the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness reminds us of what is really important in our lives that brings me to the last point which I already started how does trying to understand the lord’s mind work in our life what scripture reveals to us about the lord’s mind how do we apply it in our lives so basically our eternal position is that we are servants of the lord and we can serve in various ways now broadly speaking we can say we can have service to Krishna by dependence on Krishna and by diligence for Krishna so this will be my concluding point what do I mean by those two things so we normally think of we should be always surrendered to Krishna yes that is true and probably we might think surrendered to Krishna means like Draupadi when she was being dishonored he just raised her hands Krishna protect me that is surrender but that is one way of surrender that is dependence on Krishna the Bhagavad Gita at its end tells Arjuna surrender in 1866 he says that and then Arjuna says yes in 1873 he says I will surrender to you but how does Arjuna surrender does Arjuna raise his hands no 1878 describes what has happened Arjuna has picked up his bow in readiness to fight so the way Arjuna surrenders is not by raising his hands it is by raising his bow what is raising his bow means he is exhibiting his surrender by diligence for Krishna broadly speaking in any situation in our life there are some things which are in our control and some things which are not in our control so for the things in our control we need to have diligence for Krishna do that thing as well as we can and for the thing that is not in our control there is dependence on Krishna Krishna you take care of this about 25 years ago when I first started giving talks in public a senior devotee gave me 10 guidelines about how to speak in public and the last guideline was depend on Krishna but in bracket depend on Krishna but only after you have prepared if I don’t prepare and say I depend on Krishna that will be a responsibility so what does this mean about the mind of God we understand by our intelligence what is in our control and what is not in our control and we understand what is in our control that capacity to control has also been given to us by Krishna and what is gone out of control that is also by Krishna’s will so if we have a service attitude Krishna for what is in my control please give me the capacity to do the best that I can please give me the strength to serve you please give me the strength to be diligent in your service and for what is not in my control Krishna you please take care of that and this dynamic dance of diligence and dependence is beautifully illustrated in Shri Prabhupada’s song which he wrote Markine Bhagwat Dharma which he composed on the Boston on the American shoreline when he saw America for the first time he says so Prabhupada he describes previously what is his plan wherever I go the way people’s heart is going to be purified is by hearing the Bhagavatam hearing the glory of the lord in fact Prabhupada in that whole song quotes a section from the second chapter of the Bhagavatam that is the section he describes how hearing regularly about the lord will purify us and then Prabhupada he so in one sense he has got a strategy what is he going to do he is going to speak about Krishna give people opportunity to hear about Krishna and that is going to purify that is his strategy but where is he going to implement that strategy where will he get a place to stay where will he get people to hear he doesn’t know that so he has what is in his control is what strategy I am going to implement or how am I going to transform people’s heart but where whom I don’t know so Krishna you take me to people where they will be receptive nachao nachao prabhu nachao se mate so if we try to figure out what Krishna’s mind is what Krishna is thinking it is almost impossible because we are finite and Krishna is infinite what to speak of Krishna being infinite even somebody who is finite if I try to understand what you are thinking it can become very complicated so rather than worrying about what Krishna is thinking we focus on seeing Krishna’s will manifesting in our life through looking at what is in our control and what is not in our control ok Krishna has given me this much control right now let me use it and be diligent for Krishna say we are trying to train someone and then if they are submissive and receptive then we can guide them and mold them in a particular way so that not that they become our image of how they should be but rather they become who they are meant to be by Krishna’s will but sometimes when we try to give guidance and people are just not ready to listen and they start becoming argumentative and they start becoming resentful then maybe we are not that means the power which we had to guide them that is now being withdrawn by Krishna so maybe we just be friendly with them Chanakya Pandit says this that pancha varshani lalayet dasha varshani thadayet prapte tu sodase varshe putram mitra vadachare when the child comes up to the age of 5 when they are very small just pamper them just offer love to them but between 5 to 15 discipline them because that is the time when they have to learn and after they attain adulthood beyond the specific ages the principle is once they attain adulthood just be like a friend with them don’t try to instruct them when they have grown up so there is an American author Mark Twain he said that my father when I was 15 my father was a fool now I am 25 and I am amazed how much the old guy has learned in the last 10 years now it is not just that the father has learned but it is more likely that when we come to 25 say somebody is a teenager at 15 and somebody is about to become a father themselves at 25 then they themselves get maturity and they start appreciating what somebody is telling so like that we all have to work with this dynamic dance of diligence and dependence so we are guiding someone if they are submissive we give them guidance if not ok it is your life I am here as a resource if you want guidance I won’t impose myself on you then we have to have dependence we pray to Krishna for their well being pray to Krishna that within their hearts Krishna give them guidance so when we understand that Krishna’s mind is revealed to us through how much control we have and how much control we lose that means Krishna is giving us that much area in which to act and if we keep responsibly being diligent for Krishna in whatever small area we have if we keep being diligent for Krishna then gradually Krishna will expand in that circle so Prabhupada was industriously writing his Bhagavatam purports even when he had no idea whether his Bhagavatam would even be published Prabhupada was industriously speaking about Krishna to small groups 2-3 people, 5 people, 10 people but then because he was doing industriously, he was diligent for Krishna within whatever area of control he had and one day Krishna reciprocated and not one day but over a period of times, it happened that thousands and thousands of people were there to hear from him and then his circle expanded and Prabhupada was able to do wonderful things in Krishna’s service so the Lord is demonstrating both tolerating as well as acting and similarly in our lives for what can’t be changed, we just tolerate and depend on Krishna and what can be changed, we act so both are demonstrated here by the Lord and when we learn to learn this dynamic dance of dependence and diligence then our devotional service can flourish both internally and externally. Internally in terms of giving us a connection with Krishna that will bring satisfaction and externally in terms of making a contribution in Krishna’s service which will enhance our satisfaction so I’ll summarize I spoke today on this theme of what how I’m understanding the mind of God so first point I talked about is that everyone is trying to understand the mind of God even atheists, Stephen Hawking said once we understand the equation that defines the world, then we have understood the mind of God but underlying the scientific attempts to understand the mind of God, there is the presumption that the universe is like a machine and it’s run by a program by an equation. If you just understand the equation everything is understood.
Scriptures tell us that there is an equation but beyond the equation there is a mechanical aspect but beyond that there is a personal aspect also. So just like a pilot driving a plane so there is the mechanical and the personal both so trying to understand, we all even atheists are trying to understand the mind of God in the sense that they are trying to understand the nature of reality if we consider God as the great force beyond us which controls things that matter to us then when I do this what will be the result of that? We need to understand the nature of reality by which we can act in a way that we can get the results that we desire. So what does scripture tell us about the mind of God? I talked about how the Lord descends when the disorder becomes excessive minor disorders just like the small fire, the local fire, people themselves can take care of it, the local fire department can take care of it.
But a big fire, maybe the national fire department will send its own, will itself come there. So like that when there is a big disruption, then the Lord himself comes. So here there is a big disruption and the earth itself sank because of the indiscriminate extortion of gold from it.
That indicates how when we interfere with natural ecological balances, then what problems will be set off? We don’t know. Nature is extremely complicated. It’s like we fiddle with a complicated electronic device and suddenly a fire or electric shock might come up.
So then the Lord gets the earth, he rescues the earth and gets it to float. What that means is although the earth cannot normally float on water, but it floats. That means when the Lord is doing one of his emergency rescue missions, then he can empower those who are a part of that mission to do things far better than what is their normal capacity.
So that’s how our movement spread enormously during Prabhupada’s times. Krishna empowered those who were serving Prabhupada faithfully. So to have ability is a gift.
To know that we have ability is a greater gift. To know that our ability is a gift is the greatest gift. And understanding this, we can function with ability and humility.
So then I talked about how the Lord turned towards the demon and is now going to fight with him. But before that, he tolerated. So we also need to recognize that when we practice spiritual life, there will be some values which will be irreducibly different from materialistic people’s values.
And the easiest way to become miserable is to try to please everyone. We don’t want to unnecessarily provoke or alienate materialistic people. But we can’t compromise our values.
We can’t sell our soul to gain the world’s approval. So even if people are displeased, the dogs may bark but the caravan rolls on. We need to move on.
So the Lord shows that we need to tolerate criticism and move on in doing our service. And then I talked about tolerance is not the supreme virtue. Our purpose, the big thing for us is most important.
And if we focus on the big thing, then we can keep small things small. But if the big thing itself is being interrupted, then we have to take action. And that brought us to the last point.
How do we understand God’s mind in our lives? We can’t figure it out. But we can see by God’s will how much we have control over and what control has been taken away from us. So for what we have control over, we serve with diligence for Krishna, doing the best that we can.
And for that which we have no control over, dependence on Krishna. So we are trying to guide someone. If they are submissive, receptive, then we try to give them guidance.
That means Krishna has given us the power to influence them. But if they have become rebellious and argumentative, then maybe keep a distance. That means we just have to depend on Krishna for their well-being.
So when we understand this dynamic dance of dependence and diligence, Prabhupada manifested that in his song and Prabhupada manifested that in his life. By being diligent with the small area of control that he had, the few people who were interested, by that Prabhupada expanded. Krishna gave him more and more influence.
Similarly, if we try to be diligent in whatever service we are doing, with whatever influence we have right now, then by that diligence along with dependence about other things for Krishna, what will happen is we will gain satisfaction internally because there will be a connection with Krishna and we will also get satisfaction externally because we will be able to make a contribution for Krishna. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Any questions or comments? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
That’s true. Yeah. That’s beautiful.
That’s true. That’s true. Good point.
So while doing preaching, how important are relationships and how can we maintain or develop those relationships while meeting new people and developing preaching? Yes, Prabhupada writes in the lecture of instruction in the purport to the six-fold loving exchanges that the Krishna consciousness movement is nourished by these six-fold loving exchanges. It’s interesting Prabhupada doesn’t say that that’s also true. Krishna consciousness movement is nourished by our chanting, by our hearing.
Yes, chanting and hearing, but it’s in a mood of loving reciprocation. So if we consider many of Prabhupada’s disciples, what are the most memorable moments of their life? It is some sweet interaction with Prabhupada. It’s a loving reciprocation.
Chaitanya Charitambul is such a sweet book because it’s filled with loving reciprocations. This Chaitanya Mahaprabhu actively preached for six years when he was traveling across all of India from the year 24 to 30. After those last 18 years, what he did was sit at one place and invite his disciples to come and he had very touching, moving, transforming reciprocations with Rupa Goswami, with Raghunath Das Goswami, Raghunath Batta Goswami and by that he became imprinted forever in the hearts of those who would carry his legacy forward.
So relationships are extremely important. That’s what is going to, that’s what our tradition shows and also in today’s world if you see, most people who come to spiritual path, there are four kinds of people who come to Krishna. Those who are distressed, those who are distressed, those who are distressed and those who are distressed.
Even if somebody is in need of money, they will not come to God. They will go to a bank for money. It’s only when they have some kind of unbearable, unmanageable distress that they start looking for spirituality.
And one of the major causes of distress in today’s world is loneliness, is alienation, is people want a sense of belonging and community and that will come through relationships. So it’s both from our tradition’s perspective, six-fold exchanges are important and from today’s need perspective, people come to spirituality not so much for spirituality as for community and if they get a sense of community, they stay and they adopt spirituality like additional thing. Most of us, when we come to a temple, we come of course to behold the deities but we also come to meet the devotees.
If there is a devotee who we know is there and that devotee treats us coldly, we may have darshan but that darshan will not uplift us as much as the devotee treating us coldly will agitate us because Krishna’s love is manifested through those who are here right now. And we may say I am not pure enough to manifest Krishna’s love. That’s true but somehow we have been chosen.
It’s the Krishna’s mission was furthered by the previous acharyas in the previous generations and in this generation, taking forward Krishna’s mission is our responsibility. The previous acharyas cannot act in this generation. Of course they can act but they act through the people in this generation only.
So all that we talk about Krishna’s love and the devotee’s love, that has to manifest at some level at least through us. That’s how people are going to experience that love. And with respect to preaching, I feel that for most people, philosophy is not a very important thing which either gets them to Krishna or takes them away from Krishna.
It’s just one thing among many other things. It’s say somebody says okay, everything is one. We may say this person is a mayavadi, this person is an impersonalist and further if you want to go, you are a demon to believe in mayavadi.
But even if somebody says everything is one, what does it mean? They might have just heard something somewhere, they might have experienced something. So basically, most people live in the modes of passion and ignorance. And if anything gives them a little experience of goodness, they think that is wonderful and that is their conception of spirituality for them.
So maybe they chanted some Om or they closed their eyes and envisioned that everything was one and they felt good because of that. And that is their conception of spirituality. And as compared to what they have experienced in the sensual world, that was much better.
Because gusatva is better than rajas and tamas. Even brahma, shunya is in many ways much more peaceful than rajas and tamas in the mode of passion and ignorance. So basically, imagine if somebody is very cold.
And the only thing they have to protect from their cold is a thin, torn, tattered cloth. And they have wrapped it completely around them and they’re shivering. And if we come and tell, hey this cloth, it’s torn, it’s tattered, it’s used, just throw it away.
I’ll give you a better cloth. I’ll give you a nice, thick comforter. Now, if that is the only cloth they have, and if not only we say, throw it away, we start pulling it away from them.
This is torn, useless. They’ll fight with their life for it to hold on to it. Because that is the only thing they have which is protecting them from cold at that point.
So instead of trying to take away that cloth or telling them to throw away that cloth, just put the comforter around them. And when they see how comfortable that comforter is, then they themselves say, I don’t need this torn cloth. They’ll push it away.
They’ll cast it away. So similarly, so that torn, tattered cloth is like their present conceptual spirituality. It might be, in any way, it might seem crazy for us.
There are people who do laughter therapy. There’s a laughter retreat in India. People pay something like 50,000 rupees or more to go for one day and do nothing but laugh all day.
And you know, you just laugh and then you cry and you laugh and you cry. Just express your emotions. You know, I can tell you a joke, you’ll laugh.
I’ll give you a slap, you’ll cry. What’s the big deal? But no, it’s not that simple. For them, that itself is like something very uplifting as compared to their daily life.
And if we dismiss that, it’s like ripping away their thin, tattered cloth. So instead of bothering with what their present conception is, just focus on giving them an experience of Krishna. Maybe through kirtan, maybe through some prasad, maybe through some, just explaining our philosophy in a non-confrontational way.
This makes sense. So if they get the comforter around them, then they will themselves accept it. So relationships is where we offer the warmth of Krishna Bhakti.
See, there is a light of Krishna Bhakti and there is a warmth of Krishna Bhakti. As preachers, we often focus mostly on giving them the light. You are in darkness, I’m going to give you the light.
But people don’t die of darkness. People die of cold. So similarly, people’s hearts, people’s spiritual inclinations, they may not grow in the darkness.
But they will not die because of the darkness. The soul is there and they will take it up soon. But you can die because of coldness, because of cold.
So if we try to think that our purpose of interacting with someone is to prove to them that they are fools and I am right. My tradition is right, my acharyas are right. No, our purpose should be to give people resources and reasons for raising their consciousness.
Resources and reasons for raising their consciousness. You are living in this consciousness. Life at a higher consciousness is better.
This is what higher consciousness means. This is how you can raise your consciousness. Try it out.
And if you provide it to them, many, many people are very receptive for it. Many times, those who are very successful preachers, they say that, I made so many people into devotees. Of course, we didn’t make Krishna made through us.
But still, Krishna made through me, not to anyone else. I made so many people into devotees. We may keep a count of how many people came to Krishna because of us.
But how many of us have a count of how many people went away from Krishna because of us? Maybe because of our judgmentality, because of our fanaticism, because of our insensitive speech. So, we all, at least I can think of many, many people who in my early days, the zeal of the new convert, I was trying to impose philosophy on everyone. So, in India, I recently met a friend of school, college friend of mine in Chicago.
So, both he and I were working in the same company. We were in the same college and we were working in the same company. So, when we had to about one hour commute to the company, and when we were going to that company, I would usually chant or I would read something or I would hear something and not talk with anyone.
So, then this friend was in the same bus and one day he made the mistake of asking what are you doing? And then the next one hour, I gave him like a concentrated dose of the science of self-realization. Everything from you’re not the body, you’re the soul, how the devatas are not supreme, Krishna is supreme, the spiritual world is the real world, the material world is the place of misery. And actually, I was congratulating myself for how well I condensed everything in one hour.
And then, by the end, his eyes were reeling. But I was in a self-congratulatory mode, I didn’t notice it also. But then what happened? So, usually I would get into that bus first, and his stop was two stops later, and then he would get in.
So, whenever after that, the bus would come, you know, he would come into the bus, peek in, and see where I’m sitting, and then he would come from the other door. So, after that, nobody made the mistake, mistake in double quotes of asking me what I’m doing. So, then I met him in Chicago, and then we had a nice laugh, and I remembered that incident.
So, I told him I should not have come off like that, so imposing on you. He said, that’s fine. So, his sister has become a devotee now, and he’s also become favorable.
So, I would say that if he becomes a devotee, it’s not because of me, it’s in spite of me. So, it’s very important that we see our interaction with others, not as making people believe or do what we are doing, but as an opportunity to give them some resource for raising their consciousness. And that’s what Krishna also does.
Deliberate and do as you desire, Krishna says in 1863. So, if people take to Krishna consciousness, that is wonderful. If they don’t take, they at least feel, oh, I met a nice person.
Not nice in a sentimental sense, but nice in a culture, gentlemanly, wise sense. Taupa was asked once, who are your followers? How do we know your followers? Taupa did not say the Chant 16 rounds. Taupa said, they are perfect gentlemen.
Perfect ladies and gentlemen. That means that they are well-behaved. Because people, what are they going to see? They can’t know what’s in our heart.
They can only see our behavior. If they feel that we are cultured people, then that will attract them. So, it’s very important that we see interacting with people, not so much as indoctrinating them in any way, but as just developing a relationship with them, by which they will become more open to receive the resources by which they can raise themselves, raise their consciousness.
Thank you for the question. I hope the answer is right.