Vritrasura lila analysis 2 – The heroic leader and the hidden devotee

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna today morning we are discussing about the pastime of Ritrasir and in this particular verse Ritrasir is exhorting his soldiers other demons to not flee from the battle so in the previous verse it was described how when the demons attack the demigods all the demigods the demons efforts were in vain and seeing this the demons became disheartened and they were about to give up and when they are about to give up what happens is Ritrasir has to exhort them actually one of the biggest responsibilities of a leader is not just to show people the way but it is also to inspire people to go along the way so I once wrote an article about Krishnabali I am writing a book about Shila Prabhupada for this 20th anniversary so I wrote about how Prabhupada knew the way walked the way showed the way and took along the way so Prabhupada did all the four things in this world so there are so many scriptures and each verse can be interpreted in so many ways and we have so little time and even in that time our cell phone rings we get distracted so therefore when there are so many obstacles focus on the essence the whole essence Tamal Krishna Maharaj wrote a thesis his PhD thesis on Shila Prabhupada and he said that Shankaracharya talked about some Mahavakyas certain scriptures he took and called them as Mahavakyas Tamal Krishna Maharaj’s reason in his thesis that Prabhupada’s Mahavakya was if we want to succinctly summarise Prabhupada’s teachings in one sentence it is Krishna is the supreme personality of God that is Prabhupada’s Mahavakya so just take the essence and focus on that so Prabhupada had that magnetic potency extraordinary leadership quality that not only did he want to love Krishna when devotees were with him they felt that we should just drop everything else and love and serve Krishna that that is the capacity of a leader not just to show the way but to inspire others to go along with it inspiration happens by many things there are walking and there are talking we need to speak and we need to act in both now yes our life should be inspiring but along with that the words are also required if Prabhupada had just gone to America and lived a devoted life people would not have understood what is he doing people were attracted because he talked and he walked sometimes talking may be over unemphasized and if a person doesn’t practise what they are preaching then that is uninspiring but if a person simply walks and doesn’t talk then people will not understand what are you doing you know if Prabhupada is just going around and is worshipping some small deities chanting the holy name strange old man doing something strange so there has to be walking and there has to be talking both has to be there so when a leader is like that a leader actually commands respect rather than demanding respect the leader is actually both talking and walking wonderfully inspirationally then leader actually commands respect and Rudrasur is here trying to do that Rudrasur is here he is the leader of his soldiers and the biggest thing that people require to go onwards in a cause it is said in a war if the morale is lost then the war is lost the fighting spirit of the warriors is lost then the warriors will stop fighting and then even if they have a winning army they will lose so in many wars the strategy that is used is to try to destroy the morale of the opponents so for example when the allies and the axis powers were fighting in the second world war the axis powers thought Germany and others they thought that we are intercepting the secret intelligence messages that are being sent by the among the allies but the allies knew that other messages were being intercepted and they deliberately inflated the count of how many soldiers they have how many fighter tanks they have how many ships they have, how many planes they have and this demoralised the Germans, Italians and the axis powers so the point is that in a war often the warriors try to intimidate and demoralise the other side and by that if their fighting spirit is lost then they can easily defeat them, that’s why we will see even in the Krishna book or in the Shantoksha Bhagavatam when the Kshatriyas are about to fight they actually in one sense brand their powers they say today I will send you to the abode of Yama today your body will become the food for vultures and dogs today the earth will leak your blood so why they speak like this? On one side they want to boost their own morale and they want to by their confidence it may be over confidence, it may be a show of confidence, whatever it is but they want to intimidate others so morale is very important and if somebody can break the other party’s morale then winning against them becomes much easier and on the other side if our own group’s morale is broken, the morale goes down then inspiring them forward is very difficult so here Uttarasur is trying to boost the morale of his forces when they are seeing that this is such an army we can’t fight, we are not able to win, our weapons themselves are useless against them so what should we do? so at that time they just shrink back and start fleeing so at that time Uttarasur calls them and he is speaking to them, trying to galvanise them and he here calls upon their sense of honour he says that what is the use of living if you live like a coward Shakespeare said that a coward dies a thousand deaths before his death that means a coward because of living cowardly is insulted by others and falls down in one’s own eyes and all this falling down is like death so a coward dies a thousand times before his death and even after dying those thousand times the coward cannot avoid death death will come sooner or later so here Uttarasur is taking a similar line of thought and he is saying what are you going to achieve by running away from the battlefield you are not going to escape death there is no one without exception everyone is mounted Krishna uses the same word and in Bhagavad Gita 2.28 when he says that for one who is born death is certain there are people who try to do word jugglery try to escape death there was a Greek philosopher he says that as long as I am there death is not there and when death is there I will not be there therefore I will never die one may try to do word jugglery like that but one will have to undergo the agony of death Woody Allen said it’s not that I am afraid of death I just don’t want to be there when I die so people try to evade or deny the fear of death in various ways but it doesn’t work so here especially in the time of war when death is a reality which is right in front of one’s eyes and it is a reality that may befall one in the next moment at that time people may become cowardly and here Uttarasur tells him okay you may avoid death now but can you avoid in the future you can’t so why for the sake of protecting life which cannot be protected forever why are you losing your honour if you act heroically two things will happen you will attain the heavens and secondly you will become famous in this world so in both ways Krishna actually uses the same argument for Arjuna also he says in 2.37 he says if you die if you are killed in this war you will attain swarga because Kshatriyas who die in a heroic war they attain swarga that’s the understanding the Vedas and if you win you get the earth so here he is telling that what is the loss that you are going to actually there is no loss therefore fight now here what is going to happen is that the warriors don’t listen to him his soldiers keep running away and Uttarasur walks his talk he keeps fighting and he keeps fighting heroically and as he keeps fighting heroically he actually starts crushing the demigods demigod warriors under him big fight takes place and Indra has got his Kavachi Indra has got his Kavachi with which he is undefeatable and he has also got his Vajra his goddess very powerful weapon so he holds that weapon of Uttarasur and Uttarasur just effortlessly catches it and not only catches it he swings it around and flings it back and that goes and hits Airaavath and Airaavath is flung back several yards and Airaavath just crumbles in the ground never has he been bested like this its like to give a contemporary example suppose there is a cricket very famous spin bowler and he bowls his best googly ball a ball that is guaranteed to clean bowl the best batsman and that batsman just hits that ball for a sixer the bowler will be completely bamboozled what do I do now? not only my best weapon has been countered but my best weapon has been dismissed so Indra is completely demoralised just puts his hands aside puts his weapon aside what is the use of fighting with such a weapon? if my best weapon is not going to work then what is the use of fighting? and at this time Uttarasur his whole demeanour changes Uttarasur is speaking and what he has spoken here a similar thing he will speak in future he says oh Indra, everyone is going to die in this world but we are all puppets of the supreme lord by his will we live, by his will we die and that supreme lord so actually Uttarasur first vents his anger and he says oh Indra, you are a wretched person you are the killer of your you are the killer of a brahmana you are the killer of your guru you are the killer of my brother we know that he had killed Vishwaroopa who was Uttarasur’s brother in the same time both of them came from the same father so Vishwaroopa was performing the yajna for Indra and Indra had in a fit of rage killed him you are the killer of your guru you are a brahmana, a guru and my brother and therefore I will kill you he says today he used the Kshatriya chivalry to say that I will destroy you today but if I am not able to kill you today then I will lay down my life here in this battlefield I will offer my life in sacrifice on the fire of this battlefield and by this, from this point his transition takes place it’s on the war field, he is talking with Indra and sometimes you know, it would happen with Srila Prabhupada that he would be giving a class on a few occasions, he would just go into a trance the audience would disappear for him once Srila Prabhupada in I think it was New York or San Francisco he was doing kirtans, he was saying Jai Radha Mata and after the class one Mataji, Jadurani Mataji asked about the Goswami’s feelings of separation from Krishna and as Prabhupada started speaking Prabhupada said very nicely, he was smiling as he was speaking and as he was remembering the Goswami’s how they were separated from Krishna he went into a trance he closed his eyes and Ayagirupa writes about it the silence that was there was a deafening, everybody was observing Prabhupada, it was as if Prabhupada had left his body and it’s gone to a different level of existence, where he was with Radha Krishna experiencing the intimate ecstasy of love so like that Rudrasura is speaking and while speaking to Indra, suddenly his focus changes and he starts praying to the Supreme Lord and Rudrasura is actually a very fearsome demon he is a Rakshasa and he looks he is not particularly attractive to look at, for humans it would be a cause of great fear and terror even for the Devatas also the Devatas soldiers they get overwhelmed by fear just by seeing how huge he is and how fearsome he is but from that fearsome looking form comes such sweet gentle and sensitive prayers he suddenly turns towards the Lord and starts praying to the Lord knowing that now my death is coming priyam priyaiva vishitam vishanna so he prays, my dear Lord my mind my mind hankers for you my mind hankers for you, how? and he gives three examples just like a ajatapaksha ajatapaksha is a bird ajata means that it is not born unborn bird means that the bird has not yet developed the wings the bird doesn’t really become a bird till it develops wings and can fly so the bird that does not have wings is utterly dependent on its mother and the mother has gone to get food and the bird is waiting the baby bird is waiting just as the baby bird waits in the mood of utter dependence ajatapaksha evam taram khaga like that, my dear Lord, I am longing for you I am waiting desperately for you, when will you manifest, O Lord and he gives another example so he gives three different examples here the first example is of a bird which brings food so the bird is separate and the food is separate and the baby bird wants the food that the bird will get, second example he uses that just as a calf, a tender calf longs for the cow now the calf also wants milk from the cow but the milk is in the breast of the cow, it’s not something separate that the cow is going to get so there the connection is more intimate the calf wants the mother, the calf wants the cow the cow’s milk is in her own body so it’s not that she’s going to get something else the mother is still getting the milk and in that sense it’s a more intimate example that it’s not that we want something that God is going to give us, we want God himself so often people go to Krishna and ask for his blessings but Krishna is Krishna’s greatest blessing if our heart becomes attracted to Krishna, that attraction to him causes him to manifest in our heart and when he manifests in the heart, Krishna is Krishna’s greatest blessing and the third example which he gives that directly talks about this blessing, he says the third example is suppose there is a wife at home and the husband has gone away far and then actually means lovers there is a lover so the lover is waiting at home and the beloved is coming back so the woman waits, when will the man come back, when will my lover come back and he says he longs to come now in this case the lover, she wants the beloved to come and she wants to love and serve the beloved so like that he says my dear love I want to serve you so here how is it that here there is a demon who is in a fearsome form and he is praying with such tenderness such sensitivity, such beautiful examples and further he prays before this another prayer he says that he says I don’t want any of the things which are very powerful in this world I don’t want Indra’s abode, I don’t want Brahma’s abode I don’t want even earth supremacy I don’t want even the hellish planet supremacy I don’t want yoga sadhvis, I don’t want liberation what do I want, my dear love, I just simply want to serve you, so now the question may come up, if Uttarasura doesn’t want to conquer Indra’s kingdom why has he attacked Indra’s kingdom so it is still this point Uttarasura is acting like a before this point, Uttarasura is acting like a typical demon and suddenly he starts manifesting exalted devotional symptoms so how does this work actually often we tend to judge devotees or we classify devotees based on maybe when they have come to Krishna consciousness ok, I came 10 years ago, you came 3 years ago therefore I am senior to you yes, as a matter of etiquette seniors should be respected but it may well be possible that somebody might have been a devotee in a previous life and it is not that if somebody is a devotee in a previous life, in this life they are born with a beedi bag in their hands, it is not like that they may have a normal childhood and if they are not somehow for some reason if they are not born in a devotee family Krishna says that the deviated yogis there are two main trajectories he talks about one is that they are born in a devotee’s family second is that they are born in a brahminical family or they are born in a wealthy family a third possibility is also these two possibilities Krishna talks about they are about yogis who practise yoga but are unable to complete the journey that means it is somebody in a normal life of piety and then takes a life of spirituality but is not able to complete the journey, then that person that person has done a lot of spiritual growth, then they may be born in a next life as in a devotee’s family where they can just take off and complete very fast on the other hand they have done a little bhakti and they will be born in a wealthy family or in a brahminical family where the culture or the financial security both make practise of spiritual life relatively easier but there is a third possibility, third possibility is that if somebody is practising bhakti and then isn’t just not complete the practise in one life but falls away from bhakti falls away means there is there is a life of punya, there is a life of bhakti so if somebody falls from the path of bhakti to the path of punya then that person will go to heaven and then be born in a brahminical family but from the path of bhakti if somebody falls to the path of papa now in Arjuna for him it was not a choice between papa and punya Arjuna’s choice was actually between punya and bhakti Arjuna’s choice was between punya and bhakti in Kaliyuga most people are not living pious lives so Kaliyuga either it is Vedic culture offered a slow path to elevation which will take bhagunam janmanamantri and bhakti is a rapid path to elevation but in Kaliyuga this slow path to elevation is practically non-existent now nobody lives a very pious life in this age so in Kaliyuga actually we have in the Vedic culture the two options were the slow path to elevation and the rapid path to elevation in Kaliyuga the two options are the rapid path to elevation and the rapid path to degradation in the mainstream society that is there you know we may use the word oh all of them are karmis but actually people in today’s world are not karmis they are vikarmis karma, the word karma in a technical sense means karma kanda karma kanda means pious activity so people are not karmis they are actually vikarmis vikarmis means they are actually not being pious they are breaking their yudha principles they are sinful so we are not judgemental about these people but the point is that the slow path to elevation is practically non-existent in Kaliyuga there are people who are pious very very few as compared to the majority so now if somebody is on the rapid path to elevation and that person falls back not to the gradual path of elevation but that falls to the rapid path of degradation that means that person goes to sinful life and for such people they may be born in low families as a reaction to their sinful activities that means they may be born in a low class family it says that such people they fall from sinful life from bhakti their bhakti will not go away their attraction to Krishna will remain but they may be born in very sinful families as a reaction to their sinful activities and that’s how it may happen that somebody may be born in a country where people have never heard about Krishna and suddenly those people somehow they see some devotee chanting and they come along and then they become extremely serious practitioners in just a short time how is that? because they have practised some bhakti in a previous life however after practising bhakti in a unconducive circumstances and when they are born in unconducive circumstances their bhakti is not manifest for a long time but suddenly some traumatic situation comes and some spiritual stimulus comes and everything becomes manifest so Vrudrasur is undergoing such a transformation is undergoing such a transformation so this says he is born in a demon family and he is born with life mission ordained for him by his father his father has given birth to him with the express purpose of killing Indra but of course the mantra went wrong and that’s why instead of killing Indra he is going to be killed by Indra now he is born for that purpose and he is acting for that purpose however as he comes closer and closer to death as he faces death right in the eye now then the conditioning just dissipates whatever is there and his devotion manifests and as his devotion manifests he starts speaking such beautiful prayers and earlier he had thought he had said that he is fighting so that he can avenge the death of his brother he can kill the killer of his brother but now he says I am fighting so that I can end my material existence so that I can become liberated from material existence and attain the supreme law and he says very beautiful prayer one of the prayers he says Indra actually the lord has protected me from the blessings with which he has blessed you now we say we want protection from curses we don’t say I want protection from blessings somebody say let me be protected from your blessings a person will feel insulted, what do you mean? blessings are to be received, cherished not to be protected from but what he says in that verse is that actually the three purusharthas, dharma, artha, kama they are also blessings if somebody has financial prosperity that is a blessing, if somebody has a happy family life that is a blessing but these blessings can become obstacles if one becomes satisfied with them and if one thinks as Krishna says in 2.42 in the Bhagavad Gita people think that there is nothing more than this in the Vedas, there is nothing more than this I have a happy family, I have money my children are doing well now I am successful, people think like that so he says this is the blessing O Indra, you got prosperity you have apsaras which you can enjoy you are the king of heaven and you want to continue that but this blessing the lord has protected me from it because this blessing makes one materially satisfied and if one becomes materially satisfied one loses the impetus to practise spiritual life so he says the lord has protected me from this blessing the lord has allowed me to come towards him to attain him and therefore O Indra, just kill me kill me the lord has given you the weapon by which you can kill just use that weapon if you use that weapon you will be able to kill me and you will attain me similarly, remembrance of Krishna is the weapon by which we can defeat maya but when maya troubles us lust, anger, greed all these anathas trouble us and we try to fight against them but we don’t remember Krishna we try to fight against maya by our own determination by our own will power but without focussing on the remembrance of Krishna if we do that then we are not using the right weapon just like if say this room is dark and if when the room is dark and I come into this room and I stumble against the chair and I fall and I start cursing the darkness so dark, so messy angry with the darkness I want to drive away the darkness I curse the darkness, I shout at the darkness, I punch at the darkness I swear at the darkness I can do everything with the darkness but the darkness will not go away for the darkness to go away there is a method that is required and that method is finding the source of light and turning on that light once the light is turned on darkness cannot stay darkness has to go away so similarly we in our bhakti we don’t worry too much about defeating material desires we need to focus on remembering Krishna and focus on serving Krishna we focus on remembering and serving Krishna then automatically the material desires will go away but if we focus on defeating material desires what is going to happen yes one material desire may go away another desire may come third desire may come and in that way there is no end to these desires so if our focus is on defeating material desires we will always feel as if I am never winning but if we focus on remembering Krishna strive to remember Krishna strive to become committed to Krishna’s service then our connection with Krishna will become stronger and stronger and as the connection with Krishna becomes stronger maya will be driven away don’t we shouldn’t try to empty the mind of Krishna we don’t try to empty desires from the mind we try to crowd them out crowd them out that means if somebody unwanted is there in this room it has to get out that person may not want to go out but if so many people come into this room and it is completely crowded let me go out so like that we shouldn’t try to empty our mind of worldly desires we can try to crowd them out fill the mind with Krishna so our focus should be just on continuing the practise of bhakti no matter what happens you know in tennis there are two players who are playing now in tennis a player say there is player A and player B now the player A can win the point in two ways one way is that the player A plays a very good shot and hits a winner which the player B cannot return that is one way for the player A to win the point the other is the player A just keeps playing the point and waits for B to make the mistake B hits the ball into the neck or B hits the ball out of the court then A wins the point so now if A focusses constantly on trying to hit winners now to constantly hit winner is not possible for any player and the more you try to hit winner hit winner means what? the players on this side will try to hit at the other side of the court trying to hit winners all the time it also gives a lot of room for error and in the attempt to hit winners one may hit an error and then one may lose the point but if the player just keeps playing keeps the ball in play eventually the opponent will commit an error and he will get the point so like that now our trying to defeat material desires is like trying to hit winners there are limited number of winners we can hit and no player is perfect for no player every single shot will go right but if we just keep the ball in play keep the ball in play means somehow or the other keep serving Krishna keep remembering Krishna keep trying to stay connected with Krishna then in due course of time the material desires will weaken material desires will weaken if you stay connected with Krishna Krishna will also become stronger and then we will march onwards towards him so this dramatic transformation has happened in the Thrasur where suddenly he realises the world realises that he is a devotee and this will raise a question which will lead to the discrimination of Chitra Ketu past time suppose there is a big fight going on between the hero and the villain and therefore just when the villain’s climax is going to come and the villain is about to attack the hero the hero may even die at that time the villain just puts aside his weapon and shakes hands with the hero and then you find out actually the villain is not a villain, the villain is also a hero then you know whoever is watching the movie what is happening how did this happen, how did this villain turn out to be a hero its like say two armies are fighting and there is a commander on the opposite side who is attacking the army on this side and then you come to know that that actually commander is a double agent no its a spy from this side only who is there on that side then whoever is watching the movie they will want to know tell me the story, who is this person, how did he come here so like that similarly Parikshit Maharaj will ask the question, Nudrasar was a demon but how did he have such extraordinary devotional qualities how did he have such realisations how did he have such devotion and then he will describe the story of Chitra Ketu and how Chitra Ketu Maharaj was cursed by Parvati Devi because of which he got a demoniac body and this way seamlessly this narrative leads to the next narrative so actually the next narrative is chronologically the older narrative so in the Bhagavatam this is the narrative which happens in the Soyambhu Manu, Manvantara but from here it will go backward to another Manvantara when Chitra Ketu Maharaj is cursed but for us the important lesson which we can take from this purport and this pastime the purport is that we all have our devotional duties and sometimes it may appear as if we may not succeed in our devotional duties means we may have the service of preaching, we may have the service of book distribution we may have the service of temple management and it may seem that nothing is working out so at that time of course we need to introspect and see if we can learn something and improve ourselves at the same time we also need to remember that if we are serving Krishna with Krishna with determination then Krishna is watching and that is a victory it means you will never become discouraged because if you keep fighting eventually you will be victorious just as here he is saying to the demons that you keep fighting even if you die you will attain heaven so the devotee keeps trying to serve Krishna then even if the devotee is not successful even if the devotee dies in the service of Krishna that is the ultimate perfection Jatayu could not save Sita Jatayu died while fighting for Ram but Jatayu he was successful he was victorious in defeat he lost the battle against Ravana but he won the war against Maya he won the war against the illusion of material existence he won the war against the bondage of material existence and he was liberated so for a devotee who is determined to serve Krishna the determination itself is victory the determination to serve Krishna is itself victory and it will herald victory in future and how did Uttarasur attain the supreme victory in defeat although he is defeated although he dies but it is actually Indra who is defeated because Indra stays on material existence whereas Uttarasur becomes liberated and attains Krishna that will be further discussed in the future verses I started by talking about how here Uttarasur as a leader is trying to restore the morale of his forces and how he does it is by reminding them you will attain glory by fighting both in this world and the next world so Prabhupada was a leader who knew the way, who walked the way who showed the way and led along the way so leaders if there is only walk and no talk people don’t understand what you are doing if there is only talk and no walk people are not inspired but when there is walk and talk both then such a leader doesn’t have demand respect, the leader commands respect and we discussed further about how Uttarasur is fighting as a demon and he keeps fighting single handedly and Indra loses heart at that time he starts goading Indra to fight and then as he is goading Indra to fight he realises that I am going to die now because he sees that Indra has got the weapon which Vishnu has given him and as he starts contemplating he sees the weapon, he remembers Vishnu and that sight of the weapon of Vishnu reminds him of his dormant devotion to Vishnu becomes awakened and suddenly he goes into a trance we discussed about Prabhupada when you are talking about exalted devotional subjects and in that connection we also discussed how people suddenly seem to manifest with advanced devotion how does that happen? it happens because they have practised bhakti in a previous life so normally somebody who has practised bhakti in a previous life is born in a devotee’s family or in a cultured or prosperous family but sometimes they may be born in a low family also if they have done some sinful activities so the spiritual credits of bhakti remain but the material reactions to that sin comes in the form of a low birth but when a spiritual stimuli comes along then suddenly their great devotion manifests so for here Vithrasur sees Vithrasur’s devotion suddenly manifests and he starts inspiring Indra and his pastime urges us to go beyond externals Vithrasur may look like a fearsome demon but he has such a tender heart such tender and exalted emotions he is speaking of affection for the supreme lord and thus he is going to give up his body but he is going to invoke Indra fight and do your duty I am doing my duty even in the face of death you are going to win why I am not doing your duty so like that we discussed how when we are fighting against maya we have the weapon to conquer maya but we lose morale if we lose morale we lose the fight and that’s why we need to just rather than worrying whether we are winning or losing the war we focus on holding on to the weapon of remembrance of Krishna or service to Krishna by that we will sooner or later win so we should focus not on driving out the darkness but on turning on the light not on overcoming material desires but on staying connected with Krishna not on hitting a winner but just keeping the bow on in the game so not necessarily eliminating material desires but staying in the service of Krishna no matter what happens and by doing this we will like Krishna as we have seen even if in this world we are not successful even in this world all the death is inevitable there is a jatayi who is victorious in defeat we will be victorious both in this world and the next thank you very much are there any questions or comments yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Something wrong in this life The mind can Impel, it can’t compel Impel means it can push us to certain things But we have the capacity to counter push The mind can’t force us to do something Although it may appear that it is forcing us, the mind can impel it Do this, do this, do this It can’t literally force us, give an example to illustrate this suppose say You’re driving a car Now you are focussing ahead on the road and moving along the road, but suppose there is a very Naughty pesky child next to you. Hey, look at that.
Look at that. Go there. Go there See this, see this nice picture, see this toy, see this, see this Now the child’s presence will be irritating Will be distracting and it can be dangerous also But no matter what the child does The child is not knocking you off the driver’s seat.
We are still in the driver’s seat and it is we who Drive the car. So the mind is like the child sitting next to the driver If the driver is not very discerning, the child says, hey, look at that. Let’s go and see that.
Let’s go and see that Go on so If so the mind cannot The mind is not the child is not taking a car of the car wheels and pushing and taking the car the mind is Persuading or insisting or boding begging whatever the driver to go in that direction So like that it is we Who take the decision? By our past life karma Our mind may be very troublesome Some people’s mind may be less troublesome. Some people’s mind may be more troublesome And of course all our mind all our minds trouble us, but our minds may trouble us in different directions Some people may trouble more by lust. Some people may trouble more by anger Some people may trouble more by greed.
Some people may trouble more by pride whatever but All of our minds trouble us in different ways still the mind cannot force us to do anything It is we who choose but If we are not introspective If we do not understand the dynamics of the inner world In terms of there being a mind which is not me the mind is different from me If we don’t understand this the voice comes from within and we accept it and react on it So it may appear As if we are forced to do things Arjuna also talks about this subjective perception in 3.36 when he says पापम् चरति पूर्वशः अनिच्छन्नपिवार्ष्णेय बलादिवनियोजितः He says अतकेन, by what? प्रयुक्तोयं, am I engaged? पापम् चरति पूर्वशः By what is a person impelled, engaged in sin? अनिच्छन्नपिवार्ष्णेय अनिच्छन्, as if I don’t want to do it But, बलादिवनियोजितः, as if by force I am engaged So what is it that seems to force me against my desire to act sinful? And Krishna says it is कामा So कामा refers not only to lust, कामा refers basically to selfish desire, any kind of selfish desire So the point is that When we are being, when we are pushed by our desires, at that time it appears as if we are helpless It appears as if we are forced but We do have free will so now Because we have fed the mind, we have said yes to the mind so many times in the past Because of that the mind is very strong and we are very weak already Suppose, you know, there’s a big thief who is going to come inside this house, into the room to steal whatever wealth is there And inside this house, there is a small child The child will try to close the door, but the thief is just so powerful If the child keeps the door locked on itself, then thief can’t come in. But if somehow the child leaves the door open and the thief starts pushing, then the child may find it very difficult to close the door So like that, even we with our conditioning, if we keep the door locked, that means we keep ourselves focused and absorbed in Krishna Then Maya can’t come in But sometimes we may just leave the door open, that means we let ourselves be distracted We let ourselves think of this, think of that. We keep, as they say, If we let the mind fill in the blanks, then the mind doesn’t just fill in the blanks, the mind overwrites the sentence Mind changes the whole story We give the mind a little time, the mind doesn’t take that much time only It takes that time and it takes the future time also.
It makes us do this, do that, do that, do that And so much time goes away afterwards So we try to focus on Krishna, not just chanting and chanting Krishna, but focus on Krishna means doing constructive activities in the service of Krishna, in various ways, in our job, our family, all these are ways in which you can serve Krishna So if we keep ourselves busy, the mind’s influence will be lesser and sometimes we will all by our by our being in this world, be exposed to temptation. Sometimes we will relax and a thief may just come in So even if it happens, a thief comes in and steals something Now after that the thief goes away, we don’t have to keep the door wide open We can again relax the door. That means sometimes in our initial stages, it may appear as a The force, the conditioning of the past is so forceful that I just can’t resist It may appear like that.
If I appear like that, fine. It’s like whatever happens, after all we should get up and start practising bhakti And by practising bhakti, then the child gets strength, the child grows up The child that is inside, the child becomes strong, hefty, muscular So then even if that thief comes in, even if the thief is very strong, we can resist him. So our capacity to resist the mind increases in two ways First is, at first when we recognise this mind is different from me and I should resist it.
That comes by studying scripture That comes by analysis, introspection. This is not me speaking, it is the mind speaking It is not my desire, it is the mind’s desire So we start catching the mind And then secondly, so first we have to develop that scriptural study and introspection and then secondly, by remembrance of Krishna, by chanting Hare Krishna By connecting with Krishna, we develop spiritual strength So first we should get the intelligence to know that I have to fight And second is, we have to get the strength to fight So by scriptural study, we get the intelligence and by the purification coming from bhakti, we get the strength As it becomes stronger, then whatever had seemed irresistible earlier, will become more and more managerable, resistible and we will be able to fight it back Eventually, it will not trouble us much and we can also see that Say, some of us, before we were introduced to bhakti, we might have been eating meat And some of us might have found meat very difficult to eat We could not even thought of giving up meat, or maybe suppose tea or coffee So we might have felt that it is very difficult to give up But now, even if somebody had been eating meat earlier, most devotees, almost all devotees, if they see meat, practically nobody is attracted to meat Prasadam has literally higher taste So now what has happened? The desire was there earlier, but the desire has gone Not only was the desire was there, the desire was like a forceful craving earlier, but it has gone. How has that happened? That is the purificatory potency of bhakti So we can all, when we feel that the past karma is pushing me to do things and I am just not able to resist it and we start feeling discouraged because of that, we can remember in our own life, how some of the conditionings which were very forceful in the past, for us, they have decreased, they have gone away in fact And by remembering that, we can know that the process of bhakti does work But for some conditionings, because those conditionings are very deep-rooted, it may take more time to work So just keep that in mind Another problem comes up, with respect to meat-eating, most of the time, we say no meat-eating and we just give it up So it’s like, I understand this is a rash, if I scratch it, it will become worse, so I stop scratching it and I take the medicine Apply the medicine, the rash gets cured But for many other desires, for example lust or for pride We apply the medicine but we also privately, secretly scratch the rash And because of scratching the rash, it stays and it keeps itching So the desire will keep seeming forceful if you also indulge in it The medicine applying is always good But if along with applying the medicine, I stop scratching the rash, then it will heal faster If I keep giving in the desire to itch, then the itch will keep coming again and again It will not go away so easily Anyway, whether I can stop the itch, stop scratching the rash or not, I should always keep taking the medicine And if scratching the rash, the urge to itch seems to be irresistible Then you should know that actually it is not irresistible And even if it seems irresistible, okay, sometimes I just give in to that I may be forced to do that, it might seem like that to me But still let me apply the medicine as much as possible So don’t worry too much if by past karma it appears as if it is impossible to give up something Focus on practising bhakti And then what seems irresistible will become irresistible in due course of time By the purificatory potency of bhakti Does it answer the question? Thank you Great We stop here Thank you very much