​What goes wrong when one person gets undue control on others’ minds?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, what happens or what goes wrong when one person gets undue control or other person’s mind? See, all of us have been given free will by Krishna. And when we talk about free will, there is scope of the free will. So, scope of the free will means, say, if I or you speak something, we may influence a small number of people.
But if, say, the president of America says something, that person can influence many more people. So, the Bhagavad Gita refers to this as kshetra. Kshetra is the area of influence.
So, if an ant moves on the ground, the ant doesn’t affect many people. But if an elephant moves, the elephant can crush so many ants. So, the elephant has a far bigger kshetra, area of influence we could say, than the ant.
So, now, by nature’s arrangement. Now, why different people have different kshetra, different areas of influence? That is by their past karma. So, by the past karma, the elephant has a giant body.
By the past karma, the ant has a small body. By the past karma, somebody is an ordinary citizen. By the past karma, somebody is the head of state.
So, now, when people get certain kshetra, certain area of influence by their karma, then along with that comes the responsibility. Along with that is dharma. Dharma is the duty of how they have been given the position to influence others.
But how they influence others, that is up to them. So, within us, there is always the temptation to make others, to control others, to make others puppets in our plans. That is just a normal human tendency.
So, now, on one side, somebody has the power to control others by their past karma. By power, I don’t just mean political power. It can also be verbal power.
Some people, you can just speak in such a way that at the end of it, we must become ready to do whatever they are wanting us to do. So, the power can be in various ways. So, when the human ego is there on one side, which wants to control others, on the other side, there is a power which one has got in some way or the other.
When these two come together, that can become a toxic combination. And the people who are thus controlled, say, for example, Hitler, you know, he had by his past karma, whatever it was, he had the verbal power. From that verbal power, he got political power.
And he practically brainwashed the whole country. And he ended up killing millions of Jews, causing the Holocaust, causing the whole Second World War. So, when one person gets inordinate control over another person, then that first person can actually break the life of the second person.
So, now the process of Bhakti Yoga, when we come to it, at one level, it requires surrender to the spiritual master. In one sense, I give control of my mind and control of my life to my spiritual master. But if you see, the Bhagavad Gita has a double dynamic.
On one side, Krishna tells Arjuna, In 18.63, it says, deliberate deeply and then decide what you want to do. So, actually, Krishna is a God who respects human intelligence and human independence. You deliberate and you decide what you want to do.
And Arjuna voluntarily chooses, I will do your way. But Krishna actually equips Arjuna to think. So, education has to be done in such a way that those who have power, now they may direct others to act in particular ways.
But while doing the direction, they also give them the education of how they can make decisions. So, if the Bhagavad Gita was simply about the question, should Arjuna fight or should Arjuna not fight? Krishna could just say, do in a command, fight. And there would have been no Bhagavad Gita because 700 verses would have one word.
And that would have had no significance. But what Krishna tells Arjuna is not just the decision fight. He gives him the philosophical education on the basis of which that decision is made.
Sometimes it is required that our guides, our elders, they make decisions for us. It’s like parents make decisions for a child. Should you go to the school or the school? There are decisions required.
But the parents, as they train their child, eventually the purpose of a successful parent is not just to get a totally obedient child. Success of a parent is to get a thoughtful child who independently chooses to be respectful and obedient. That means the child understands.
But if the child is just controlled completely, then the child, when the parent is no longer there, the child will not be able to choose. So the spiritual master is not just meant to give instructions to the student. It’s important to give instructions to the disciple, but also to educate the disciple so that eventually when the spiritual master is not available, the disciple can also thoughtfully make the right decisions.
So there is, in one sense, we can never avoid this control. Because if we say I will not be controlled by devotees, we go out in the world, we are controlled by the world’s propaganda, the advertisement, there is materialism, they control us. So we cannot avoid control.
But we can choose the best controller. And that is from our perspective. If we take Krishna’s guidance, the guidance of Krishna’s devotees, then we will be guided so that we can use our free will properly.
At the same time, those who are acting on Krishna’s behalf, they can assume that because I am acting on Krishna’s behalf, I am chanting Hare Krishna, so whatever I am guiding, that is perfect. But rather, there has to be discussion, there has to be deliberation, there has to be education by which, even if my decision is right, how it is right, I have to explain to others so that they also evolve with their thinking. And that’s why Srila Prabhupada just didn’t want surrendered devotees.
He said, I want independently thoughtful devotees. So when they are put in a situation where there is no direct scriptural guidance available, at that time, how to decide? If they have their independent thoughtfulness, then they are going to decide at that time. Does it address the question? Thank you very much.
Shrimad Bhagwat Gita Ki Jai. Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai. Gaur Bhakti Vrinda Ki Jai.
Jai Gaur Parimal. Prabhuji, today I didn’t want you to come and I had so much trouble.