What we are is God’s gift to us – what we become is our gift to God

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you Hare Krishna What we are is God’s gift to us What we become Is our gift to God This is a succinct Summarization of How bhakti infuses A divine dynamism Into our life Irrespective of where the quote came from What it means Can be illumined in a profound way When we see it in the light of bhakti wisdom So we’ll discuss this in four parts today About what we are God’s gift to us What we become And our gift to God So let’s begin with the first part What are we right now? We all have a particular identity A gender, a nationality, a dynasty And along with that We also have a certain set of talents And interests And of course limitations This is all that we are, or is it? Is there something more to us? Actually all this, the Gita explains Is the periphery of our identity So what we are at our core Is that we are eternal Spiritual beings We are Atma, the soul The Bhagavad Gita explains that The soul is the animating principle The source of life within the body The body is like a dress for the soul And at our core Being spiritual, we are indestructible So The soul is eternal, the soul is pure The soul is godly, being a part of God The soul is presently covered by the body and the mind So our identity at present Is spiritual, but along with that Based on the kind of body and mind that we have Based on the kind of society in which we are born We also have various other levels of Things with which we identify Now all this At one level Defines who we are So what we are presently is decided By both our present status and a significant part of it Is decided by our birth Our genes, our congenital endowments Our birth family, all this was determined And that significantly shapes Our life journey And at present also we belong to various different things All this that is there All this is actually Who we are Sometimes when we focus on the periphery If we look at The body that we have, the mind that we have Based on that we may compare with others And by that comparison we may unnecessarily discourage ourselves But when we understand that our core identity Is beyond this Then we can be much more positive, we can be much more confident So We are indestructible Whatever is Whatever the world uses to value us That is actually peripheral to us That is not central to us, that is not who we are It’s like if we wear a particular set of dress Particular dress Now people look at the dress of person They may judge the financial bracket to which the person belongs They may judge the kind of grooming Based on what kind of grooming the person has They may judge something based on that But all those are external, the person at the core is different So like that when we understand that we What we are The spiritual wisdom helps us to understand that we are different From the things that we identify with In the materialistic world view We often equate Our self worth with our net worth Depending on how much we are able to earn We think that is That is who we are But we don’t have to let one number define us Our self worth comes from understanding Our spiritual core As essentially pure, as essentially powerful As essentially godly Being a part of the omnipotent supreme lord Now what we are Is God’s gift to us God’s gift to us, now what does that mean Our very existence firstly Is a gift, is an expression of love Sometimes we say God has created all living beings God has created everything Now this creation is That God’s creation is not in a It’s not in a chronological or a time specific sense It is more in a philosophical sense of dependence Both we and God are eternal God is the supreme eternal We are the subordinate eternals There are many eternals Among them there is one supreme eternal So God Now our existence and God’s existence We are both eternal Our existence is for relishing the eternal ecstasy of love By learning to love the lord And by delighting in his unlimited lovability So our very existence Is a gift from God And our present existence at this material level of reality Which is separate from the spiritual level Where we belong This existence can be seen As a rehearsal, as a preparation For attaining the eternal level of reality We are Meant for eternal life and we can attain that eternal life If we see our present life As an opportunity for evolution For learning, for growth We can grow spiritually and we can attain Spiritual consciousness So what we are Right now is What we need to be For our progressive spiritual evolution Those who are aware of the philosophy of karma They may say that But what I am, isn’t it a result of my past karma You may feel that we have certain weaknesses Certain deficiencies This is a result of our past karma So if what we are is a result of our past karma Then how can we say that what we are Is a gift of God Here we have to understand that causality Is not simply linear Causality is multi-level It means that when things happen In material existence, there is causality in terms of That actions produce consequences And that is the basic principle of the law of karma But there is more to it In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that So he says in 9.10 Material nature works under my supervision It works under my nature, my supervision Everything which is moving and non-moving in this world It is under his supervision Material nature changes things But it is under the divine supervision That same point is later on talked by Bhagavad Gita 13.23 That whatever happens The Lord is the overseer and the permitter This means that even when our karma comes upon us It is not just a random Descent of consequences There is a plan underlying it So whatever we are right now If you look at it from the perspective of the past You can say okay, this is because of my past karma But when you look at it from the perspective of the future You can understand that what we are right now Is what is best For our spiritual evolution The situation that we are in is tailor made For our spiritual growth So in that sense what we are Is God’s gift to us So we have certain deficiencies They are result of our past karma We have certain abilities Also we can say they are result of past karma But what we are, it is not just a random imposition of Consequences based on causes Rather it is a planned arrangement Which is customized to be a suitable instrument For our spiritual evolution So in that sense the abilities that we have We can see them as God’s gift for us So whatever abilities we have We can see them as potentially divine They are coming from God And they are meant for God In the Bhagavad Gita in 7.8 Krishna says that In this section of the Bhagavad Gita 7.8 to 11 Krishna describes how he Permeates all of existence As the essence and in that connection he says that I am ability in human beings So whatever abilities we have We see them as manifestations of the divine Of Krishna So whatever abilities we have They are God’s gift to us And they are what we have been given So that we can make a positive contribution In this world They are given so that we can engage them For our purification They are given so that we can rise in life Through using whatever resources we have For a divine purpose So by understanding that What we are is God’s gift to us We can have a very positive vision of life Because in life we will always see a diversity Some people who are better than us Some people who are lower than us in certain abilities And if we Now society especially the culture the media Shows often the best specimens in everything So we will see the people with the best looks With the best figures, with the best abilities And when comparing with them we may feel inferior But when we understand that what we are Is God’s gift to us Then we can avoid such feeling of inferiority If God had wanted you to be someone else He would have made someone else He would have made someone else Now God wants us to be us Of course He wants us to be the best us Not the worst us If we act imprudently If we act unwisely Then we will bring out the worst within us But what we need to do is we don’t have to become An imitation of anyone else If at all we try to become an imitation we will fail At best we may become a second grade or third grade or fourth grade And why do we have to become a Xerox copy of someone else When anyway we can’t become an accurate Xerox copy Better that we be ourselves We become the best ourselves So this is the understanding Which we get when we understand that we are What we are is actually God’s gift to us And the same point can develop further When we look at the third part The second half of this is what we become is our gift to God So what we become Now the word become Comes from the word come Come means it talks about A physical change of location Where a person comes to a place of action He has come here, she has come here Now become on the other hand Come refers to a change As there is in come but it is a change in being So become means there is a change By which we become something different from what we are So whereas come refers to a physical change Become refers to an inner change And if we see We all have an innate longing To change things for the better To change ourselves for the better And this is what distinguishes humans From all other species Birds will live in the same kind of nests Year after year, generation after generation For millennia They will eat the same kind of food A cow will eat the same kind of grass year after year Generation after generation, millennia after millennia Only if the necessity for survival Causes them to do some adaptations they may change But they don’t take any initiative To try to improve things around them On their own But we humans take that initiative We have innate desire, that’s why we have Hundreds of kinds of houses Thousands of kinds of houses We have hundreds of cuisines in the world And each of these cuisines sometimes have hundreds of recipes So we have an innate desire To improve things And we all have a desire to improve ourselves So the bhakti wisdom tells us That this desire to become better That dynamism that is there At the core of our being That has a divine source That source is our spirituality And our spirituality is Defined by we being a part of the supreme So what we become Means that we are meant to change We are meant to make a positive change in this world According to our capacity But this change, this urge for change When we understand it, it comes from the spiritual stratum of reality Then we focus on change At the level of consciousness, on inner change When there is outer change, without inner change That outer change is unsustainable It is like building a building without laying a foundation Any shaking or storm The building will collapse But when there is adequate time to build a foundation And then we build a building, it will sustain for a long time So When we focus on changing ourselves At the spiritual level That is the best change that we can make And this change is what Bhakti brings about Bhakti actually Is the process, time-honored process By which we can change The direction of our loving propensity Presently our loving propensity Is splattered in various things in this world When we direct it towards the supreme lord When we learn to love the supreme By that we attain the supreme When we focus on practicing spirituality On practicing the process of bhakti yoga What happens is That we learn to love the lord And Krishna, God is all pure And contact with him purifies us And when we become purified thus The best within us comes out So there are Often we think of Success requiring Success either being based on talent Or success requiring simply hard work Actually success requires both, there is talent and there is commitment So talent plus commitment leads to achievement We need both for achievement Now our capacity for commitment Is often eroded by our own weaknesses Now if we have weaknesses such as Lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, illusion These prevent us from making any commitment From making any sustained effort In achieving anything And thus our talent cannot be translated into achievement The bridge of commitment cannot be built If there is no If we do not have Inner self mastery, if we do not have purity And that purity comes when we Practice bhakti So what we become, we are meant to become our best And we become that by devotion to God And that is what we become is our Gift to God This means that our gift to God God does not want anything from us ultimately The Bhagavata says that he is satisfied Even with very simple things if they are offered with devotion 9.26 he says that If you offer him a fruit, a flower, a leaf Or even a little water that is offered with devotion He accepts it and he is delighted by it He is happy with it At the same time that his willingness to accept And be satisfied with even the simplest of offerings that is His love for us.
Our love for us is that we want to offer the best that we can. And ultimately, what He wants is our heart. While we are in this world, we express our love by trying to purify our heart and hope, concentrating our heart on Him.
Along with that, we also work for offering the best things of this world to the Lord. And that means, among the things of this world which we would like to offer to the Lord are our talents. When we develop our talents, when we discover and develop the gifts that we have and we make them better and better, then those can be offered as a gift to the Lord.
The Bhagavad Gita is spoken to Arjuna who was a champion archer. How did he become a champion archer? By diligent practice. He had talent, but he had phenomenal commitment.
Every day in his military academy, when he would learn, whatever he would learn into the day, late into the night he would keep practicing tirelessly. That was his commitment. So, we are meant to offer as an expression of our devotion the best that we can.
And Krishna is so accommodating that He accepts whatever we can offer Him, whatever is our best. And this is where the diversity of endowments in this world can no longer be a disqualification for us. In the world’s pecking order, always some things will be more glamorized than others.
And say, nowadays in today’s educational system, if some students can memorize well, then they get a lot of marks. But what if somebody doesn’t have that capacity? Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita, that by engaging in your own work, you can attain perfection. Since Krishna is telling, that we don’t need to have some abilities which we don’t have.
Whatever abilities we have, whatever contributions we can make with that, Krishna accepts that and through that we can attain perfection. So, rather than trying to acquire talents which we don’t have, we can simply focus on developing the talents that we have. And that is our gift to God.
That is our way of expressing our devotion to God. And this attitude that we work hard in this world, we try to make our best contribution in this world, but we do it not for seeking recognition from the world. Because when our goal is to seek recognition from the world, the world may not recognize.
The world is fickle. Fame comes, fame goes. Recognition comes, recognition goes.
But Krishna is always there in our heart and He notes and He rewards a new course. So, the insecurity that comes when we work in this world, wondering whether we’ll be recognized or not, that insecurity will become free from it when we give a divine purpose to our work. We are doing our best to please the Lord.
And with this mood when we work, then we can achieve an inner connection with the Lord even while working in this world. And we can also make constructive contribution in life. So, in this way, our life, while being dynamic in this world, can also be diligently progressive in attaining Krishna.
So, to summarize, what we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. This what we are, we see that we are not just our talents or our efficiencies, our gender or our age level, that is all peripheral.
We are spiritual beings at our core. And this understanding frees us from equating our self-worth with our net worth. We are parts of God.
We are at our core godly. How is what we are God’s gift to us? What we are, we could say at one level is the result of our past karma when seen from the perspective of the past. But when seen from the perspective of the future, this is a customized take-off point for our spiritual evolution.
So, God has arranged our things in such a way that we can grow towards Him. We don’t have to be second grade imitations of someone else. We just have to be ourselves.
And we strive to be the best that we can be. God had wanted us to be someone else. He would have made someone else.
He wants us to be us and He wants us to be the best us. So, by seeing ourselves as what we are, as God’s gift, we can see ourselves positively. And then what do we become? We all have a desire to change, to make things better, to make ourselves better.
That’s why we’re as animals and birds, just eat the same kind of food, live in the same kind of nest. We human beings have so many varieties of food, so many kinds of houses. We want to change things for the better.
And this wanting to change things for the better is ultimately our hearts, our consciousness longing for the best reality, for Krishna and His abode. So, we can strive to raise our consciousness spiritually and that will make us the best that we can be because contact with the all-pure will purify us. It will not only purify us spiritually, but even materially when our weaknesses are less, when lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, illusion don’t trouble us, then we can contribute better.
A bridge from talent to achievement is built through commitment and commitment can be solidified when these inner enemies are not sabotaging us. And thus, we can see what we are doing as our gift to God. Krishna is satisfied even in the simplest of things.
But that’s His love for us, that is accommodating love for us. But our love for Him is that we express it by offering Him the best that we can. And among the things of this world that we can offer Him, our own talents honed and developed is what we can offer Him.
And through the talents, we can offer Him wonderful contributions. Even if we are not able to offer contributions sometimes and the world does not recognize us, Krishna will recognize. And thus, while striving in this world in a mood of devotion, we will contribute here as well as we will become elevated and attain Krishna ultimately.
In this way, materially and spiritually both, our life can be industrious, productive and ultimately successful.