Understanding what is our quota in material life – 1

[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Denver, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, thank you very much.
So, how can we know what is our quota? That is the theme which I will take based on this and the next verse from the Srimad Bhagavatam in today and tomorrow’s class. Now, the section from which we are discussing today is a part of the Uddhava Gita. And here Krishna is talking to Uddhava about how one can practise Bhakti Yoga in one’s life in such a way that it leads to perfection.
Bhakti-yoga-asya-siddhi-daha. Bhakti-yoga, by the practise of Bhakti-yoga, siddhi-daha, this will lead to perfection. It’s interesting.
Bhakti-yoga is the path to perfection. But the path has to be pursued. And when one pursues the path in this way, then it leads to perfection.
And in the Bhagavad Gita also, Krishna speaks in a similar tone in the sixth chapter when he talks about yoga bhavati dukkha. By such practise of yoga, dukkha, one’s distress will be destroyed. This is 6.16, 17, 18, that section in the Gita, where the more famous, this comes just before the more well-known verse, yukta-ahara-viharasya, yukta-cheshtya-sakarmasya, yukta-sapna-bhavodasya, yoga bhavati dukkha.
One is regulated in one’s eating, sleeping, recreation and work. That person, such a person, yoga bhavati dukkha. For that person, yoga will lead to freedom from misery.
And the previous verse is speaking the same point from a negative way. First we say, do this and don’t do this. So go in this direction and don’t go in that direction.
That means both ways are, both statements are two different ways of saying the same thing. One through affirmative emphasis, the other through a prohibitive emphasis. So the previous verse states in the Gita that, So he says over the air, Krishna, that one who eats too much, one who eats too much, here also the word ati comes over, one who is not well-diliged.
Krishna says, one who eats too much, nor one who eats too little, nor one who sleeps too much or one who sleeps too little, such people cannot become yogis. Now both of these are very categorical statements. The negative statement is, such a person cannot become a yogi.
The next statement says, by such practise, by regulation of one’s material life, yoga practise will lead to perfection. And even, and this declaration is even more significant because normally we think of regulation as something required in, for those who are in the material world, maybe for people who are householders living in the material world. But here when Krishna is talking about avoiding extremes and regulating, he’s talking about people who have renounced the world and gone to a jungle.
This section begins with 6.10 and 11, where Krishna is saying, in 6.11 and 11, in this way, once you go to a forest, a secluded place, sit on a seat of kusha grass and stay alone and focus one’s mind. So Krishna is saying, even for those who have renounced the world, even they cannot practise yoga unless they regulate their physical psyche. Normally when we talk about regulation, we usually think not doing something excessive.
But the excess can be in terms of too much and the excess can also be in terms of too little. So excess in terms of eating too much food, that affects our spiritual consciousness negatively. And if we eat too much, that also affects us.
How? Because we are distracted, always thinking about food, when will I eat, when will I eat? And then we can’t focus on Krishna and service to Krishna. So the basic thing I will talk about in today’s class is that matter should not become a competitor to Krishna. That matter and material things should not become a competitor to Krishna.
And material things can become competitors to Krishna in our attention, in our service, in our purpose. They can become competitors in two ways. One is, if we have, if we are too infatuated with them, we think only if I get, if only I just get this, I’ll become happy.
If I get this money, if I get this position, if I get this house, if I get this spouse, I’ll become happy. So if we think that the material thing is the key to happiness, and that by getting this, I’ll become happy, then all our desires, our aspirations get concentrated, get locked within that material thing. And we just can’t think about anything else.
So then in the pedestal of our heart, Krishna gets replaced by that material object. And then that’s how we can understand that through by attachment, we are not able to, if we attach to material things, we can’t focus on Krishna. So one way material things become competitors is if we think they are the sources of pleasure.
And they are not just a source of pleasure, they are practically indispensable sources of the only pleasure in life. The other way material things can become competitors is if we don’t have the things that we need. There are wants and there are needs.
If the material things that we need are not there, then it causes severe discomfort. Before we go into material things in general, let’s start with the basic material thing that is needed for survival. That is food.
If somebody is constantly thinking about food, what will I eat next time, when will I eat it, how will I get it, how will it taste, they are infatuated with food, then they can’t think about anything else. But conversely, if they don’t have any food at all, then again they’re worried about food. Here they’re not thinking about food in terms of a source of pleasure, it’s necessary.
So if the material is not available at all, then the material also becomes a competitor in our consciousness to Krishna. When it becomes a competitor, that means that instead of focussing on Krishna, we start focussing on material things. And somehow or the other I must get food, I must get food somehow or the other.
And that way our consciousness is no longer available for focussing on Krishna. That’s why when Krishna says that one who eats too much can’t focus on Krishna. Now why would one eat too much? Because one is caught with the notion that by eating I’ll get happiness.
Normally food is a biological necessity and our body signals to us when we have had enough. But beyond the biological hunger is the psychological hunger. When we crave for food, not as a source of nutrition, nutrition, we crave for food as a source of comfort, as a source of relief.
Now my mind is troubled by this, I’m depressed, I need some solace. And just cheating some nice food becomes like a comfort. So then we usually overeat and we are driven by food not as a biological need, but food as a psychological need.
So when we overeat, naturally our thoughts get distracted from Krishna. But similarly when we under-eat, then we may become sickly and we feel very weak. And then also we can’t think about Krishna.
So both extremes, they prevent us from the practise of yoga. That’s what the Bhagavad Gita says. Now the Bhagavad Gita has a flow of thought where Bhakti Yoga is described in the seventh chapter onwards.
In the sixth chapter where these two verses come, they come in the section of the Gita where Bhakti Yoga has not been talked about so much. There have been some references to the Gita through Bhakti Yoga in 2.61, in 5.29, in 4.35 and another will come in 6.47. But otherwise the Bhagavad Gita is talking about progression from Karma Yoga to Ashtang Yoga and then to Bhakti Yoga. So at this stage Ashtang Yoga has been talked about in the sixth chapter of the Gita.
And in Ashtang Yoga, the primary focus is on detachment from this world. Because understanding of this world is a place of misery. And as long as our consciousness is attached to this world, we will be miserable.
So we need to become detached from this world and then we will become free from misery. So even in a path that centres on detachment, there also Krishna is telling that don’t be excessive in rejecting material things. Yoga bhavati dukkha, that the path of yoga will lead to freedom from misery only when one is regulated.
So now I’ll give an example for this. What do we mean by the material things being necessary? In mathematics, there is a concept of necessary but not sufficient. Sometimes something is necessary for a particular thing to happen, but it is not sufficient.
It’s not a proof. It’s a beginning point. So say a person is sick.
When that person is sick, they are having some pain in the body and they also have, so they may be given some pain medicine, some painkillers for easing them of the pain. And along with that, they are also given some medication, some medication that actually treats the antibiotics or whatever it is. So there is alleviating medicine and there is curative medicine.
It’s something which is actually palliative, which simply mitigates the pain. So now, if a patient is in great pain, say a patient is going to be done surgery or something like that, or has just gone through surgery, and if somebody makes a principle, I will never take any painkillers. Well, some stoic people might be able to do it, but for most people, the pain would be so unbearable that they would just not be able to function at all.
And that acute pain may well interfere with their recovery. They are so tormented by the pain, the ribbing and shaking and then the surgery, whatever has been done, whatever treatment has been given, it doesn’t work so well. So the painkiller is needed to just manage the pain.
The painkiller doesn’t cure the pain, but if somebody goes on a campaign against a painkiller, a painkiller should not be taken at all. And for most people, without a painkiller, life would be unbearable. So the other extreme is somebody takes painkiller and feels relief from the pain and thinks, why do I have to take any other medicine? Just the painkiller is enough.
I take the painkiller, I feel good. But the problem is, with the painkiller, one feels good for a little time. And afterwards, as the painkilling effect goes off, the word painkiller, the name painkiller is actually, is a wrong name.
It’s a pseudonym. It’s a false name, not a pseudonym. It’s actually a misnomer.
It’s the wrong word because it doesn’t kill the pain. It kills our sensation of the pain. The pain is still there.
And as soon as the deadening of the sensation stops, then you start feeling the pain once again. So our material needs are like painkillers. If we don’t eat, we feel so much discomfort.
If we don’t take care of our biological needs, then it causes tremendous discomfort. It can be unbearable. But, so for most of us, most all of us, we could say, that we need to have our material needs taken care of.
Without that, we can’t function. At the same time, these material needs are simply the painkillers. If we start thinking, oh, if I just get good food, if I just get good, good sex, if I just get good position, good power, good material things, then I’ll be happy.
And that is like thinking the painkiller is the curativeness. And then that simply, whatever relief we get from our distress by pandering to our senses, that actually is very limited. It stays for some time and goes on.
And in the meanwhile, the painkiller doesn’t, not only, it not only doesn’t cure the disease, but actually those who are infatuated with the painkiller, when they neglect the medicine, in the meanwhile, the disease also worsens. So similarly with us, those who get infatuated with material things, their attachments keep increasing. And gradually, their suffering also keeps increasing.
So the painkiller is not meant to be a competitor to the medicine, to the curative medicine. The painkiller is meant to be a competitor. The painkiller is something which can be taken, the main thing is to take the medicine.
So now the curative medicine, along with that, okay, whatever level of painkiller is needed, people can take that and move on with their actual medicine. So going for a campaign for painkillers or going for a campaign against painkillers, both of them are distractions from the real business of taking the healing medicine. Similarly, in our practise of bhakti, the real purpose is connection with Krishna.
The essential cure is remembrance of Krishna. That for bhava-aushadi, 10th canto, it is said that for those souls who are caught in material existence, krishna-katha, the remembrance of Krishna, that is the medicine. So that is the main thing for us to take.
Now, while taking this medicine of krishna-katha, which is going to cure us of our material attachments, at that time, whatever our material side is, that needs to be managed. While managing that, naati sakto, naati nirvi, no, don’t be too attached, thinking that, oh, if I just, if this works out, everything will be wonderful in my life. If that works out, everything will be just fine in my life.
So, if somebody delays taking the medicine, taking the curative medicine, till the pain goes away, well, the pain is not going to go away. The way the pain is going to go away by the curative medicine. So, the curative medicine needs to be taken whether there is pain or not.
If the pain is there, a painkiller can also be taken. But taking the curative medicine should not be delayed. Same way, if somebody says, oh, I have this problem in my life, that problem in my life, therefore, I can’t practise bhakti now.
Yes, when we have problems, sometimes some specific forms of bhakti may not be so easy to practise. If we are caught in a financial bind and we have to work very hard, we may not be able to come to the temple. But we can still pray to Krishna, we can chant Krishna names, we can do whatever bhakti is possible in that situation.
Somebody says, no, I’ll not do any bhakti now. Afterwards, I’ll do it. That is like saying that, oh, because I have so much pain, so I’ll take only the painkiller.
Right now, all that I need is a painkiller. I will not bother about the medicine, curative medicine. That is unfortunately counterproductive understanding.
It will worsen the disease. So, whatever our material needs are, we take care of them. If one gets too attached with material things, thinking that they are the solution, that distracts one from bhakti.
But at the same time, nothing you may know. If one becomes too averse to material things, sometimes in our spiritual life, we tend to measure our spiritual advancement solely by our detachment from material things. Because I have given this up for so long, therefore, I must be very advanced.
Well, it’s possible that detachment can be a parameter of spiritual advancement, but it is not necessary. If we see, renunciation is one of the six opulences of Krishna. And beauty, strength, fame, wealth, knowledge, renunciation.
This is one of the six opulences that Krishna has. Now, if you consider the other opulences, if somebody is very beautiful, somebody is very wealthy, normally, we don’t think that just because they’re good looking or just because they’re wealthy, we don’t think that they are spiritually advanced. Now, beauty and wealth, we understand these are the result of past good looks.
Somebody has good looks, why do they have it? They did some good karma in the past, by which they have good looks. Similarly, somebody has wealth, they did good karma in the past, that’s how they got wealth now. So just as beauty, wealth or even knowledge, intelligence, these can be results of past good karma.
Similarly, renunciation can also be a result of past good karma. That means, some people, by their past karma, are naturally detached from material things. And because they’re detached from material things, now for them, say following the regularity principles or following the austerities, there is no big deal.
Now, just as if a person has a lot of wealth, then we could say to some extent, that can make their spiritual life easy. Because they don’t have to worry about money. Their financial needs, their financial security is taken care of, they can just focus on bhakti.
So just as money, which is an opulence, which comes from past good karma, can help in the practise of bhakti. Krishna talks about this, that the wealthy, that those who start the process of yoga and get deviated, their neck later, they go to heaven, and after that they are born in a wealthy family. Why wealthy family? Sri Prabhupada explains in that purport of 6.42, that actually they’re born like this, 6.41, 42, 43, he talks about Vrasta yogi, and then he says that, then if they have good wealth, then they don’t have to worry about the basic needs, and then they can practise bhakti with relative ease.
So just as wealth can be a facility which enables us to practise bhakti, similarly, detachment, renunciation is a facility that can help us to practise bhakti. So just as wealth is not a sign of spiritual advancement, necessarily, similarly, renunciation or detachment is not necessarily a sign of spiritual advancement. It can be, so that means, if a person is renounced, a person has become detached, it could be from various reasons.
One could be that the person is naturally attached by their past karma. We see even among people who are not practising bhakti yogis, or practising spiritualists of any kind, there are some people who are in the mode of goodness, who live relatively unattached lives. Now one of the, one of the most graphic paradoxes of how a person can be detached from something and be obsessively monstrously attached to something else.
The example is Adolf Hitler. Hitler, most of you may not, most of us may not know, was a vegetarian. He was a vegetarian, he never ate meat, and yet he caused the death of millions of people through the pogrom against the Jews and others that he started.
So now, vegetarianism, if it results in a person, because of their spiritual understanding, and because of their higher taste, that vegetarianism is, we can say, a sign of spiritual advancement. But if vegetarianism is just one thing, which because of their own past culture, their own intellectual understanding, they just develop that. But that is just one quality over there, and one has brutal in other aspects, so that vegetarianism is not, has nothing to do with spirituality.
So here the point is not to give a bad press to vegetarianism. The point is to simply illustrate that vegetarianism involves detachment from certain kinds of food that most people, many people today consider and enjoy. That detachment from non-vegetarian food, that may not have anything to do with spiritual advancement.
Similarly, the detachment that we get, the detachment that people have, that need not be anything, not have anything to do with spiritual advancement. So now, let’s consider people who have a lot of detachment from their past karma, and then they come to spirituality. There can be two aspects to what happens because of their natural detachment.
By natural detachment, I’m saying it is a detachment that is just born from their nature. It is not spiritual detachment. It is not detachment that has come from their spiritual advancement.
So with their natural detachment, they can practise bhakti easily. And by practising bhakti easily, they can advance also very nicely. Because the desire that torment most of us, they don’t torment them so much.
They can just focus themselves on Krishna, absorb themselves on Krishna, and march towards Krishna. So the detachment, the natural detachment can act as a very valuable spiritual facility for their spiritual advancement, for their growth towards Krishna. Conversely, it may also happen that because of their detachment, they may become paranoid.
You may start thinking, all these other people, they’re still struggling to control their senses. They’re attached. They’re materialistic.
They are, they’re fallen. Now, to think that others are fallen is itself to be fallen. Because others may be fallen because of lust or greed or whatever.
But when we think that others are fallen, and think that we are elevated, then we are fallen because of our arrogance, because of our pride. So what has happened is that renunciation, which is natural for them, that can lead to pride. And that pride will become an obstacle in their spiritual growth.
So when they are in the association of devotees, such people who have got natural detachment, they may just be looking at everyone else and thinking, how fallen this person is, how fallen this person is, how attached this person is. And they’re not thinking about Krishna much. They’re simply thinking about how much superior they are to everyone else.
And they can’t make much spiritual advancement. Although the detachment is a facility by which they could focus on Krishna, but the detachment leads to pride, then they can’t make much spiritual advancement. So now here, on the other hand, those people who are not so detached, say, they’ve come, those of us who have come from modes of passion and ignorance, and we are struggling now to resist our senses, resist our lust and greed, and such things.
For us, there are two possibilities. That our struggle against our senses, struggle against our lower desires, may make us desperately take shelter of Krishna. And actually, despite struggling with our senses, despite falling to ourselves occasionally, a person who is attached may actually be more conscious of Krishna than a person who is detached.
Why? Because the person who is detached is proud and is thinking about how good I am. The consciousness, there is much more facility to be Krishna conscious, but that facility is not being used. On the other hand, a person who is attached, but that attached person, they’re feeling helpless.
Krishna, please help me. Krishna, please help me overcome this attachment. Krishna, I need your mercy.
Without you, I’m lost. Those who desperately take shelter of Krishna like that, although they may be falling for their senses much more frequently than the attached person, but they may actually be more Krishna conscious. And by their Krishna consciousness, so the attached person may be at this level, much lower level.
The detached person may be at this level. Krishna is somewhere higher. The detached person is much closer to Krishna.
And the attached person much further away from Krishna. But the detached person is looking down and see how much lower everyone is. The attached person is looking up towards Krishna and is focussing on rising up.
Now, from the perspective of this world, say if you have a skyscraper and somebody in the 10th level in the skyscraper and somebody in the first level, there’s a big difference between the two. But from the perspective of something high up in the sky, now if you’re travelling in an aeroplane and we look down, even a hundred storey skyscraper looks so small. So from the perspective of Krishna, who exists in the spiritual world, from his perspective, whether somebody in the first floor or somebody on the 10th floor, it really doesn’t make much difference.
From his perspective, both have to rise out of the building and they have to come up to him. So from Krishna’s perspective, how attached we are or how detached we are is not as important as how eager we are to come to him. If somebody is in the 10th floor, 10th level or even a 100th level of a skyscraper, but they’re looking down at how low everyone else is.
And although they are closer to Krishna, they will not get to Krishna. They’re not looking towards Krishna. And when Krishna wants to lift someone up, for such people, Krishna says, when I elevate people out of the ocean of material existence, and soon I will do it, Krishna says, you just keep practising bhakti.
Those who fix their consciousness on Krishna say, soon I will elevate them out of material existence. So the important thing is that we, our eyes should be fixed on Krishna. Our heart should be aspiring for Krishna.
And how much we are attached to material things or detached from things, that is relative to where we have been in the past, to what kind of conditionings we are coming from. And if you just keep practising bhakti, over a period of time, where we have come from will not matter so much. What will matter is where we are going.
So if a person is helplessly calling out for Krishna, then that person is more Krishna conscious than a person who is proud of their detachment and is looking at others, looking down their nose at others. The, this is a, this is at one level, the trap by which the attached can suffer, so the detached can suffer, that they will become proud of their detachment and stay away from Krishna. The trap that the attached can suffer, I’ll talk about this more in tomorrow’s class, I’ll just mention it now, the trap that the attached can suffer from is, instead of fixing their eyes on Krishna and seeking Krishna’s help to rise, the attached may measure their spiritual advancement simply by their detachment.
Oh, you know, I can’t do this, therefore I am useless, therefore I can’t practise bhakti, therefore maybe I should just give up practising bhakti. So when we make detachment the standard of our spiritual advancement, detachment is one character, one parameter of our spiritual advancement, but if we make detachment the sole standard of our spiritual advancement, then we end up unnecessarily discouraging ourselves, because we all come from different levels and so the level of detachment that is comfortable for someone else may be impossible for us right now. And if you are comparing us, oh this person is so detached, I am so attached, for they can practise bhakti nicely, I can’t practise, let me just give up, then we unnecessarily deprive ourselves of Krishna’s mercy that can lift us up in a way that we may not even, we may not be even able to conceive right now.
So the point is, naati sakto, naati nirvino, naati sakto, naati nirvino means if we just make detachment from material things, we become disgusted with material life and we become, we think that giving up material things is the sole criteria of my spiritual advancement, then we have a wrong parameter for evaluating our spiritual advancement and that can cause us tremendous unnecessary discouragement in our spiritual life. So while determining the quota, which again I said I’ll discuss tomorrow more, that while determining the quota, now every person’s quota will depend on what is their natural level of detachment, what is based on their own past karma, where they are at. And if we don’t consider that natural level of detachment and we try to emulate, we try to imitate what someone else is doing.
What may happen is, the person who is naturally detached may become attached, they may come down if they don’t have right understanding. Or the person who is attached, they may think I have to be like that, if I can’t be like that, therefore I become discouraged. And so the quota, what will be the quota for whom will vary depending on where one is coming from.
So the basic point is, that which is our quota that helps us to live harmoniously with the law. Harmoniously means that we don’t feel too, we’re not too infatuated with getting the material, nor do we feel too tormented because of the lack of the material things that are necessary for us. In this way when we strive for a balance, then we can move forward with our focus on Krishna.
So I’ll summarise what I talked, I spoke today about how we can determine what is our quota in the practise of bhakti. So here Krishna says that bhakti yoga when practised in this way, when bhakti is practised in this way, then it will lead to perfection. That means he’s saying that bhakti yoga is a process, but automatically it doesn’t lead to perfection.
It has to be practised in a particular way. And the way he says is, don’t be too attached, don’t be too detached. We look at a similar verse in the Bhagavad Gita.
Krishna says, those who eat too much or eat too little cannot be yogis. Those who are regulated, for them yoga will lead to freedom from misery. So Krishna, even while talking about people who renounce the world for the sake of exclusive spiritual practise, living in jungles, even for them Krishna says regulation is vital for their liberation.
So how do we understand at this point that regulation is so important? Give an example of how if a person is sick and they’re in pain, they need a curative medicine, but along with that they need a painkilling medicine also. Now the two extreme approaches to the painkillers is, one wrong thing is, if I think the painkiller itself will cure my disease, I say then I think there’s no need for the curative medicine. That is not only illusory, it is actually counterproductive.
Not only will we not be cured, our disease will be worsened. So like that, those who think if material things alone, material arrangements alone will make me happy, then they cannot practise spiritual advancement. They cannot practise spiritual processes, they cannot make spiritual advancement.
This is all, it’s like food is a biological need, but when it becomes a psychological need and we seek food for comfort or relief, then we tend to overeat, we tend to become obsessed with food and we can’t think of anything higher apart from food. On the other hand, if somebody goes on a campaign against painkillers, we should not take a painkiller at all. Well, the patient may be in so pain that they just can’t function, they can’t live.
Like that, material things are necessary. And for people who don’t have any food, who have tremendous financial insecurity, they just can’t think about Krishna, they just can’t practise bhakti. So therefore, both extremes, both forms of excesses, excess in the sense of too much and excess in the sense of too little, extreme, both forms, both extremes need to be avoided.
And how do we know what is extreme for us? For that, we need to know what is the moderate, what is the medium or average level for us. And what is the average level for us will be different for different people. So detachment is not necessarily a sign of spiritual advancement, leave alone the sole sign of spiritual advancement.
Just as wealth and beauty can come from past good karma, renunciation can also come from past good karma. And so some people who are naturally renounced by their past karma, they have the facility to practise bhakti undistracted. But that natural renunciation, natural detachment can also make them proud and look down on others, and they can’t make spiritual advancement.
On the other hand, somebody who’s attached because of their past work, then they may be at a lower level than the attached, than the detached. But if they’re crying fervently for Krishna’s mercy, they are more Krishna conscious even now, and soon they’ll be elevated by Krishna far above the people who are detached right now. So from Krishna’s perspective, somebody on the ground level, on the 100th level of a skyscraper, doesn’t matter when Krishna is high up, it’s like for someone who’s high up in the plane.
So how attached or how detached we are, that is relative. And from the ultimate spiritual devotional perspective, it doesn’t matter. What matters is not where we are, but where we are looking.
A detached person looking down in his con and disdain at others is far less Krishna conscious than an attached person who is struggling and striving and begging to Krishna to be elevated. And lastly, I concluded with that for those who are attached, now their focus should be on connecting with Krishna. If they start comparing themselves with the detached and think, because I’m not detached like that, therefore I’m good for nothing.
Then they are judging themselves, they’re evaluating themselves by a wrong standard, and they get unnecessarily discouraged, and they cannot take shelter of Krishna, which actually helps them to advance. So what will be the level at which we can practise bhakti in a way that our mind is not too distracted from material things. So material things are necessary, but not sufficient.
That is something each of us will have to individually take stock and learn. And how to do that, I’ll talk a little bit more about it in tomorrow’s talk. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Any comments or questions? Thank you.
Krishna mentions to Arjuna that don’t renounce, but use it all in my service. Yeah, that’s true. Actually, tomorrow I was going to focus on that theme of seeing things from the Krishna-centred perspective.
Bhakti is not a process of attachment or detachment. It’s a process of commitment. We commit ourselves to the service of Krishna.
And so Arjuna was thinking simply from his perspective, not selfish in a gross sense, which we have. Oh, this gives me pleasure, that causes me pain. His perspective was self-centred in a more long-term sense, in terms of karmic consequences.
So, okay, by fighting, I’ll win the war, I’ll get a funeral, but I’ll get the bad karma of killing my people. Therefore, I don’t want to do it. But although it was extended, but still it was self-centredness.
So quite often, attachment and detachment are just the two sides of the same coin of self-centredness. Oh, this gives me pleasure, therefore I want it. This causes me misery, therefore I don’t want it.
And Krishna says that kind of renunciation, when we give up things, just because they don’t give us pleasure or they cause us misery. Krishna says that such renunciation is the mode of passion. And one gives up simply because of the desire for pleasure, and that doesn’t lead to spiritual advancement.
So bhakti is about going beyond goodness, passion, ignorance, towards transcendence. Yes, that’s why Arjuna’s example is very apt for this point. Thank you.
Great, Krishna. Any other comments or questions? Yes. Yeah.
So when we are practising bhakti, and we have to make decisions about say which ashram we want to be in, or what level of bhakti or detachment is to practise. Sometimes we may rely too much on others’ guidance of what we should be doing, and we may not reveal ourselves enough. So how do we achieve this balance? Yeah, in the Brihadbhagavatam, Sanatana Goswami says that ultimately the highest praman is anubhav, in experience.
The highest way of knowing is through experience. We have shabda, but shabda, when we live according to, it is meant to be with experience. A practical experience, we realise it.
Krishna also says 9.2 in the Gita. So regarding how we are to live our lives, no, our spiritual master cannot live for us. Our spiritual guide cannot live our life for us.
We have to live our life. So you have two simple examples for this point. Now, how much should one sleep or how much should one eat? It may be that, okay, one who’s, okay, you should sleep for six hours or five and a half hours or six and a half, whatever is our time.
We may decide that. But ultimately, we have to look at ourselves and see how much can I function. If I sleep for four hours, but if all my 20 hours are in a groggy state, I’m not doing much.
And if I may sleep for six, six and a half hours, whatever I need, and then I am fresh. That’s what I need. So we have to know that the process of bhakti has to work on us.
And the other example that Bhagavatam gives in the 11th Canto, the Gita itself is that, that when we eat food, we ourselves know that we are nourished. Now, sometimes in the heat of the moment or in the greed of the moment, we could say in this context, we may overeat. But after some time, we just feel so lazy, so heavy, we get some, we become overweight, our health gets spoiled.
This is not worth it. For a little food that I eat more, so much, so much of my time, energy, health gets wasted. So we ourselves come to know by doing and by introspecting, how much I should eat, or how much I should sleep.
Same way, we, there are certain principles that you can take from others. But their body is not our body. Their mind is not our mind.
So we have to see what works for my body and my mind. And that’s why there is Guhyam Akhyar Tipicchit. Others give us confidential instruction and we enquire confidentially, or we express ourselves confidentially.
That means, while the Guhyam Akhyar is talked about, Akhyar Tipicchit, the Guhyam is a confidential, is adjective for both for asking and for telling. That means, this is confidentially we speak and confidentially we are told. There are generic instructions that will come through scripture, that will come through classes.
But all of us have to ultimately, specifically apply the principles in our life. And so if we have spiritual guides who are accessible and who can give us guidance specifically for us, based on understanding who we are, where we are, then we are very fortunate. And if such guidance is not available so easily, then we have to understand ourselves better.
We may have to do some introspection, may have to pray, and then understand ourselves better. And based on that, sometimes if we understand ourselves better, then we can present our situation better also for guidance. And Krishna Prabhupada also writes in the Nectar of Instruction, in the introduction that when one comes to the mode of goodness, how to advance further is revealed from within.
So, sattva sanjayate jnanam, sattva guna gives us jnana. It does not necessarily the jnana of bhakti, but just the jnana of goodness. By that we can understand material things.
This is too much, this is too little, this is what is balanced. So broadly speaking, now the mode of goodness, the state which we attain by the gradual practise of bhakti, but even in our day-to-day practise of bhakti, there are times when we are in passion, there are times when we are in ignorance, there are times when we are in goodness. So if major choices or decisions are to be made, then they need to be made when we are in the mode of goodness.
So we don’t act impulsively, but when we are in the mode of goodness, we think calmly and then take a decision. So, by recognising that it is we who have to live the life of bhakti and the characteristics of life of bhakti is that we know that we have to advance a lot more and in that sense we may feel dissatisfied, oh I am so far away from Krishna. But in the basic sense of being situated where we are meant to be, there is a satisfaction, there is a peace, there is a tranquilly that comes just by being where we are naturally and moving forward from there.
So just as by our experience we can know how much to eat or how much to sleep, similarly how much to extend ourselves and there to draw a line in whichever particular activity we are going to do, we can take guidance. At the same time we need to, because we have to limit ourselves, so we have to understand our situation through introspection, through coming to the mode of goodness and then act wisely. Does it answer, address the issue? Thank you very much.
We stop here. Thank you very much.