When advice works and when vice works – 2

[Seminar at Abudhabi, United Arab Emirates]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so Pandu had to go to the forest, so Pandu had to go to the forest, so Pandu had to go to the forest. So, I talked about the relationship between Dhritarashtra, Vidur and Duryodhana. So, Vidur was virtuous, Dhritarashtra was characterized by weakness and Duryodhana was characterized by wickedness.
So, basic theme was that when somebody tries to advise someone, when does that advice work and when does it not work. So, Vidur’s advice to Dhritarashtra did not work because Dhritarashtra was very attached to Duryodhana. And then I talked about what is it that makes people weak or wicked or virtuous.
The soul is pure but there is a conditioning around the soul that shapes the character of a person. And then I talked in the second part about how when a particular person, it’s for that person to choose whom they’ll be influenced by. And because Dhritarashtra gave too much attention to Duryodhana, his sense of deprivation that I could not be the king, the pent-up resentment for that came out as I want to give everything the best to my son.
And thus he pandered to every single of his desires and couldn’t tolerate even the slightest displeasure. And thus he ended up going down from weakness to almost wickedness, very sanctioned, terrible things which Duryodhana did to the Pandavas. So, today we won’t be able to go through the full life story, but I’ll focus on two main points.
First I’ll talk about, so when advice doesn’t work, what to do? So Vidur was giving advice but his advice was not working. And then lastly, how to understand the situation has changed by which if you are giving advice to someone, that advice will work at that time. All of us are often, we are in a position where we are responsible for someone else, we are guiding someone else, we feel that we can give them some good advice.
Of course, it’s said that generally people are reluctant to give charity. It’s my heart and money, my heart and possessions, to give charity, it’s natural to some extent. But there is one charity that everyone gives freely.
What is that? Advice, yes. There is nothing people give as freely as advice. So, now, advice, it may be well-intentioned also.
Vidur was always the well-wisher of Dhritarashtra. Vidur was well-intentioned and Vidur was also learned, Vidur was also expert. And yet his advice did not work on Dhritarashtra.
So it is a very difficult situation for us when we know that someone is going on the wrong track. And we don’t want them to go on that wrong track. But our words have limited influence on them.
So, in fact, the words sometimes lighten a person. In fact, the word enlightenment, what it essentially means is light comes up within. So when a person is able to give good advice and the other person is able to accept that advice, then there is light that goes on.
Person becomes enlightened. But for Dhritarashtra, actually, there was not light that came from Vidur’s words. What came was lightning.
Now, what is the nature of lightning? Sorry? Thunder, yeah, but what about, what is the nature of the light that comes from lightning? Burns. Yes, short time. Lightning means you see everything for a few moments and everything becomes dark after that.
So, for Dhritarashtra, there were times when Vidur’s words made immense sense. Yes, what he is saying is right. You want to do what you want to say.
But the attachment was so strong that it all, the light that had come, it just went off. One dramatic incident in which this happened is the Asat Sabha, the assembly in which the Pandavas were dispossessed of their kingdom and eventually Draupadi was attempted to be dishonored. She was dishonored, attempted to be disrobed.
So after that Krishna intervened and normally for us when we hear the pastime, Krishna’s miraculous intervention and the protection of Draupadi is the climax. However, when somebody is attached, nothing can remove the blindness of the attachment. So although Dushasan failed in his heinous attempt to disrobe Draupadi, but everybody applauded Draupadi’s chastity because of her chastity she has been protected.
But after that the Kauravas evil intentions didn’t stop. They said that take Draupadi to the inner chambers and she is our maid servant, let her clean our room. And all along Vidur was vehemently warning Dhritarashtra, stop this.
And finally Vidur told Dhritarashtra that the sacrificial fire that you were burning from your youth, he would make sure that that fire would never get extinguished. He would ask his attendants to keep putting oblations into it. So it was considered a sign of auspiciousness.
He said that fire which would never get extinguished has now got extinguished. And Dhritarashtra heard this and was shaken that now things have gone too far. And things have gone too far, at that time he felt that he has to pacify.
So he told Draupadi, he realized that Draupadi was the wrong party and the Pandavas would not be in a mood of hearing anything. So he appealed directly to Draupadi and he told her that actually I had called this gambling match just to test the gambling skills of both the parties. Actually what he spoke was lie after lie after lie.
If it is a test of the skills of the gambling of the two parties, why have Shakuni play instead of Dhritarashtra, instead of Duryodhana. But he is just trying to pacify and he said, you know, things have gone too far. If Gandhari and I have ever done any good to you, please remember that and forget what has happened.
And ask for some blessings. And then he asked for two blessings and she says that first let Yudhishtira be released from slavery. And then she says, let all the Pandavas along with their weapons be released.
He says, I don’t want anything more. Ask for more. He says, no, a Kshatriya should never ask for more than two blessings.
Dhritarashtra says, I am not satisfied. So I give you back everything that was lost in the assembly. And then please leave in peace.
Now when the Pandavas are going, Dhritarashtra feels at least the danger is averted. But then Duryodhana comes along. And Duryodhana says, oh father, what have you done? All that we had done, you undid it in one moment.
So do you think that the Pandavas will be pacified just because you have given their kingdom back to them? Because even now they will be plotting revenge. Now there is no safety for us. We have antagonized them and confrontation is inevitable.
The best thing we can do now is disempower them. And how do you disempower them? He says, call them for another gambling match. And in that gambling match, the stakes were that if anybody loses, what are the stakes? 12 years of exile then, incognito.
And then after that only they will get the kingdom back. So 13 years. And again Shakuni, what happened was, he was a professional gamester.
So he just, the dice, he won it. And the Pandavas are exiled. So here, what happened is, Dhrashtra was, he allowed something wrong to happen.
His conscience came back and he stopped it and he undid it. But again, he did the same thing again. Same thing again.
So that is how the nature of attachment is. Bhagavatam says that sometimes we give up something and yet again we do the same thing. I was in America, I was speaking at a mental health care center where there are addicts.
And after that I was talking with the doctors. So there are people, he said that there are some people who become alcoholics. And normally if you think of somebody as an alcoholic, we may have that image of a person who is a drunk, falling down on the streets, unconscious.
But there are sometimes people who are very well educated, well situated in society. In their other part of their life they are normal and respectable in fact. But they become addicted.
So such people earnestly want to give up the addiction. So what they do is, so researchers, there is a way to deter somebody from taking an addiction. So what is the deterrent? That actually there are some substances, that there is a particular chemical or medicine, a pill that you take.
After that if you take alcohol, immediately the person throws up and has severe painful experience. There is no pleasure at all. It is immediately there is severe reaction.
So people who want to give up alcohol, what happens? They start taking that pill regularly. And then what happens, in alcohol at least when they are drinking there is some high. But in this case there is no high at all.
They take it, as soon as alcohol enters the body, immediately the body starts reacting in a painful way. And they hope that way they will be able to give up the alcohol. But what happens with people is, that they take the pill and they know that if I do this it is going to cause me suffering.
But still when the craving comes, they still take it. They still take it. And the desire can be so overpowering, that it just seems impossible to resist it.
Krishna uses the word Asha Pasha Shatair Bhaddha. In 16.11 and 12 he talks about this. He says that our desires are like shackles that pull us.
Now sometimes it may appear that when a person is very attached, almost addicted, it is almost as if they have no free will. There is a British author who said that giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I have done it over a hundred times.
So I gave up smoking, but smoking didn’t give me up. So when the attachment catches, it is important to understand that normally we think it is just a matter of willpower. Just give it up.
Yes, it is a matter of willpower, but willpower alone is not enough. Why is that? An example we can give is of a snowball. If there is a hill on top of which snow is there.
Because I think in the Middle East snow is a remote imagination. But in a place like America or Kashmir or Canada, snow is quite common. So when a snow pebble is formed on the top of a hill, it is just tiny.
You can just kick it with a toe and it will crack apart. But then as it comes down, comes down, comes down, it starts gaining mass and gaining momentum. And then as it becomes more and more and more forceful, that by the time it comes to the bottom of the hill, even a fully grown up person will be knocked over by that.
So initially when somebody is indulging, it appears as if it is just a matter of willpower. Do it, don’t do it. But if they keep indulging again and again and again and again, that the desire’s power becomes like a huge snowball.
And at that time, it’s very difficult for a person to give it up. So now when there is addiction, so now there are two ways of looking at it. One is that it’s just a weakness of willpower.
It’s true, but after some time the willpower can become so weak, it’s almost impossible to give it up. Not entirely impossible, but almost. So what is required then to give it up? If you look at Dhritarashtra’s life, he was not exactly addicted to a substance.
But he was, you could say, addicted to a person. Normally we don’t talk about addiction in terms of a person, but there is something called co-dependency. Co-dependency means a person becomes totally dependent on the other person.
Emotionally, physically, in terms of one’s identity, every way one person becomes dependent on another person. And then whatever that person does, this person’s life becomes completely oriented around that person only. And then such a person is actually, they are weak and they are empowering the weakness of the other person.
Say if somebody is an alcoholic, and they have a brother, they have a spouse, they have a friend, who keeps covering things up for them. So that whatever consequences that person would have to face, they don’t face the consequences. Then what happens? They may say, actually, you know, what will happen? What will people think about this? Let me take care of it.
Yeah, that intention might be good. But what may happen is that person, as long as they don’t experience the consequences of their action, they will continue doing it. So this is the weakness of the person is that they are so attached to that person.
And by that, what happens? The weakness of the codependent actually empowers the weakness of the addict. So what happens with Rashtra is, he was weak, but his weakness kept empowering the hunger for power, the wickedness of Duryodhana. And thus it became a deadly combination.
So what is the solution in such a situation? If we look at Dhritarashtra’s life, Vidur gave the best advice, but it never worked. Eventually, Vidur just left. So he had to choose between Vidur and Duryodhana.
And he tried to keep Vidur on his side, but he always took the side of Duryodhana. Then eventually when Duryodhana grievously insulted Vidur, then Vidur just decided to leave. That was just before the Kurukshetra war as described in the Mahabharata.
And then Dhritarashtra could not see, but he had to hear about the destruction of all his sons. Not one, not two, but hundred sons, all of them. So Dhritarashtra had to lose everything before he lost his attachment.
He had to lose everything. All of his sons, who were his dream, whom he was living, all of them were annihilated. And it’s striking that he had to pay that price.
Eventually, even after that, he was still living as a, almost like a parasite on the Pandavas. The same people whom he had conspired to kill. Now he was living at their expense and Yudhishthira was so gracious that Yudhishthira still offered him all honor.
Now Bhima couldn’t tolerate this. Everyone has their personality. Yesterday we were talking about individuality.
Now Bhima just couldn’t tolerate this. So what Bhima would do is that he would come near the chamber of Dhritarashtra and there he would speak loudly. He would slap his thighs.
These were the arms by which I killed all the Kauravas. Not one of them could escape. Those who dishonored Draupadi, every one of them were destroyed.
And he spoke this all within the hearing of Dhritarashtra. And Dhritarashtra would feel very pained by it. Then eventually, finally this went on for some time and Vidur came back.
And Vidur came back. Vidur spoke. What did he speak? He says, what are you doing with your life? He says, you are doing nothing except producing cough.
You have grown old, you are doing nothing. He says, you are living like a household dog eating the remnants of Bhima. Now actually, it’s not true.
Dhritarashtra was not giving him food as a remnant. He used to give him royal dishes. But this is a way of speaking.
For a king to be compared to a dog is bad enough. For a king to be compared to a dog who is eating someone’s remnants, that is worse. And for a king to be compared to a dog who is eating the remnants of the person who he resents the most, that is the worst.
So here Vidur was giving Dhritarashtra shock treatment. Just realize, what are you doing? Not shock treatment in the sense of giving artificial electrical shock, but shock treatment in the sense that he had become so stupefied that he did not realize the reality of his situation. It’s only when he realized the reality, then he got jolted.
And then he became ready to go with Dhritarashtra, with Vidur. And then when that inner eye awakened, at that time he realized that I cannot wait. He decided I will not even inform Yudhishthir.
I will not even inform Sanjay. Because he knew that he had been weak so many times. Now if his mind got some excuse, Yudhishthir will say, oh no, you don’t have to go to the forest, you stay here.
You can do your tapasya, whatever you want to do, you can do here. And he would get deterred by that. He would just use that as an excuse.
So he decided to give his mind no chance at all. Just left immediately. And then under Vidur’s guidance he performed austerity and he was able to attain an elevated destination thereafter.
So here, what was the difference between Vidur when he was earlier giving advice and he was now giving advice? The difference was that, what was the difference? Was the attachment destroyed? Wickedness of Duryodhana was not there, that’s true. In terms of the attachment what had happened? So what did that do to his attachment? Was the attachment gone? The object of attachment was gone. So what had happened is, the hope of fulfilling that attachment was gone.
So there was a situation where he had to lose that false hope which he had of getting happiness through Duryodhana. Then he could turn. So in Vidur’s words, they did not affect till the right time came.
So everyone, especially when we are trying to share Krishna Bhakti with others, we have to sometimes, what happens, we become too pushy. And I remember when I was in, I was working company, there is, in religious circle there is called the zeal of the new convert. That means somebody has started practicing something new, they have such a zeal.
They just want everybody to take, the intention may be good, but it is, I now use the word, it is selfless stupidity. Why is it stupid? Because sometimes you don’t just think. So what happened, I can share my experience.
So I used to work in a company and it is a one hour drive to the company. So and usually when I was in the bus, I would read something, read some Bhagavad Gita or something or chant some japa. Mostly I was busy.
I would not talk with anyone. So one day, one of my colleagues, he made the mistake of asking me, what are you doing? And then, we had this six session Bhagavad Gita course. So six hours of that session, six hours, I concentrated to one hour.
And he asked the question when our bus started, he would come two stops after me. And in fifty minutes, I proved to him the existence of God, existence of soul, the validity of the Vedas, reincarnation, material world is a reflection of the spiritual world. And I was congratulating myself.
Impressive feat. Concentrated everything. And by the end, his eyes were glazing.
And then after that, whenever, so I would get into the bus first and then he would get into the bus after that. So whenever he would come to the bus, he would come from the door, look from where I was standing. And then he would come from the other door.
So I realized afterwards, he is now in Seattle. So I met him there. We both laughed at the way I dealt with.
He is a nice person. He is now becoming quite favorable to Bhakti. So actually, there is a time when people need to be given their time.
So we, it is our responsibility to tell people about Krishna. But we can’t force anyone to do anything. If we try to force, we simply alienate people.
Sometimes while preaching, we may say that, oh, I made so many people into devotees. This person came to Krishna because of me. This person came to Krishna because of me.
Now we often count, OK, how many people came to Krishna because of me. But we may have no count of how many people didn’t come to Krishna because of me. Because of the way I might have been proud.
I might have been arrogant. I might have been domineering. So I was in Texas.
Texas is in America called the Bible. It’s a red state. It’s called Bible Belt State.
So there I saw on a car bumper, there’s a slogan written. Oh God, please save me from your preachers. Now God saves us through his preachers.
But the preachers are holier than thou, domineering. Hell and brimstone. Hell and brimstone is the word that is used to say that if you don’t do this, you’re going to go to hell.
And then brimstones are like fiery stones. They’re going to fall on you and they’re going to burn you. So there are some preachers who are like that.
So, of course, there are some, some people are extremists. If you don’t follow this path, you’re going to go to hell. And then there are extreme fanatics also.
Not only are you going to go to hell, we will help you get there fast. So usually when we are trying to share Krishna Bhakti with others, there has to be three main things that are there. First is that we have to have the maturity to know how and what to share.
Second is they have to have the receptivity. And third is that there has to be the overall right dynamic. I’ll explain what I mean by this.
That first is that our, we have to have the maturity. Maturity means that we need to know what to speak to whom. Sometimes when we think of sharing Krishna Bhakti with others, it’s like as soon as you see a new person, it’s like a button of a robo is pressed and we have certain specific lines.
You’re not the body, you’re the soul. Chant Hare Krishna. That’s all good.
But what is the person needing? What is the need of the person? How can we address the need of the person? See our purpose is, Prabhupada is clear, our purpose is not to convert people. Our purpose is to elevate people. It is.
We are not interested in increasing the ranks of one particular organization. We are helping people rise in their consciousness. And based on our experience, we have found that the Krishna conscious process offers us a lot of facilities for raising our consciousness.
But the purpose is to help people to raise their consciousness. These three examples, these three points of maturity, receptivity and environment. Let’s look at it from the perspective of car driving.
Say sometimes somebody is trying to drive a car and then the car doesn’t start. You’re trying, you’re trying, the car doesn’t start. Does it happen here? In India it used to happen quite a bit.
It happens sometimes. So when that happens, the car is not starting, the car is not starting. What is to be done at that time? Kick.
Or sometimes some people come. You call the people and then they all push the car. So the person inside is moving the steering wheel, changing the gear, trying to push the accelerator and they’re trying to move the car from inside.
And from outside, the car is being pushed by others. And together, when it is done, the car starts. So like that, everybody needs a little push.
So the soul is inside the car or the body and we are outside. So everybody needs a little push to go on the right track. It’s not just people to practice bhakti.
Even people to live morally. For us also to do some things right in our spiritual life. We all need a little push.
And giving that push is just a matter of affection. It’s a matter of responsibility. At the same time, we have to see what is the response of the other person when you push.
Suppose say people from outside are trying to push the car. And the person inside has gone to sleep. Then that is the person is pushing is simply wasting time.
Or worse still, the person inside is pushing the brake. Then you have to understand that this person is not yet ready. This person doesn’t want to move.
So generally for us, we sometimes when we are trying to get other people to do the right thing, we sometimes make it into almost like a prestige issue or ego issue. I am telling you to do this, you must do this. Every soul has their free will.
And when that happens, sometimes people are interested. But they want to do things at their pace. Sometimes people are not yet ready.
So if we find that we invite somebody for a program, we invite and encourage somebody to start practicing bhakti and they don’t seem to be responding much. So what do we do at that time? It’s like we have seen invited repeatedly, but they’re not. They’re like the person in the car, but the car is not.
You don’t want the car to move. Then at that time, it’s important for us to understand that we are not the soul doers. We are doers.
So we need the right time to come. Now till the right time, what do we do? Till that right time comes, Vidur, we see that he never gave up his relationship with Dhritarashtra. Although Vidur walked away, he did not speak any harsh words to Dhritarashtra which would alienate Dhritarashtra.
We see that there is another character in the Ramayana who was in a similar situation like Vidur. Who is that? Vibhishan. Now you see that Vibhishan, he actually went to the opposite side.
He went to the side of Ram. But Vidur did not go to the side of Pandavas. Why is that? Because we see that in the case of the Ramayana, the king was the main villain.
There is no chance of redeeming him. Ravan was the main villain. And Vibhishan had tried time and time again to persuade him.
But he was not willing to listen. So then he had no choice. He wanted to make sure that he show Ram that your war is not against the Rakshasas.
Your war is against one Rakshasa king. And there are Rakshasas also who disagree with what Ravan is saying. And because Vibhishan went on the other side, Ram told him that.
I have no intention of annexing Lanka. Ram, when Vibhishan came to his side, what did Ram do? Ram accepted him and coronated him as the king of Lanka. That was an audacious thing to do.
When Ravan heard this, he was shocked. He finally dismissed. He says, one beggar has coronated another beggar as the king.
But he minimized. But Ram was sending a very strong message. He was so confident of victory that he was already coronating Vibhishan.
But by coronating Vibhishan he was saying that he doesn’t want to destroy, plunder Lanka. And he will entrust Lanka to a Rakshasa. So we generally see in the Ramayana as well as in the Mahabharata that there are different kings with their different cultures.
And even in the Pandavas, they perform the Rajasuya Yajna. They don’t try to homogenize everything. Each kingdom has its own king.
And even the Pandavas defeat them. But they find somebody from that kingdom itself who is supportive. And they make him the king.
So when Jarasandh is killed, Bhima doesn’t become the king of that kingdom. He makes Jarasandh’s son the king. So usually there is this recognition of diversity and there is this acceptance of diversity.
But there is diversity and there is perversity. Perversity is when somebody is going against Dharma. When somebody is disrupting and destroying things.
Then that has to be stopped. But in the name of stopping perversity, it is not that diversity has to be crushed. Anyway, coming back to our point.
Now Vidur did not go to the Pandavas’ side. Why? Because here the main villain was not Dhritarashtra, it was Duryodhana. So Vidur felt that there was still a chance that Dhritarashtra could be redeemed.
But if Vidur had been a part of the army that killed Dhritarashtra’s sons, then that would have alienated Dhritarashtra from that person. You killed my sons, what advice can you give me? You are not my villain, you are my enemy. So Vidur just moved away from that scene.
And when Vidur came back, so basically by not fighting against Dhritarashtra’s sons, Vidur maintained his relationship with Dhritarashtra. And then when the right time came, when Dhritarashtra was receptive, his words entered into the heart of Dhritarashtra. So that means that sometimes when we try to give some good advice to someone and that person is not ready to take it, then at that time the important thing is that we don’t spoil the relationship.
We maintain the relationship on cordial terms. Like suppose sometimes we invite someone, please come for this program. We open the door and they say no.
And bang, we bang the door in their face. That would be so rude. Okay, if they don’t come, that’s fine.
We would be happy if they came, but if they don’t, we maintain a good relationship. So we don’t have to condemn them or reject them. na buddhi-bhedam janair ajnanam karma-sanginam joshyam sarva-karmani vidwan-yukta-samachara na buddhi-bhedam janair, which means don’t disturb the minds of people.
Engage them according to their level. So yesterday I mentioned the point of how there’s a time to preach and there’s a time to not preach. So when Prabhupada was in America, the devotees had a small apartment which was like the center.
There were two apartments. One was on one side, the other on the other side. And there was an old woman staying on the other side.
And when the devotees came there, when Prabhupada came to that place, the devotees told Prabhupada that she’s complaining against us. She said we make too much noise. And we have so many people crowding over here.
And she had complained to the local municipal authorities and the devotees had to curtail some of their activities. So generally for devotees, if anybody opposes devotion, they are demons. So then devotees told Prabhupada, you know, she’s a demon.
She’s opposing our chanting of Hare Krishna. Now they had gone, Prabhupada, they had gone for a morning walk and when they came back, at that time Prabhupada went over straight to the other side where she was staying. And then Prabhupada knocked on the door and then he came out and Prabhupada started talking with her.
And Prabhupada was talking with her, just talking some typical old people talk. Okay, how are you? Where are your children? How is your health? And Prabhupada talked with her for 15-20 minutes. And the devotees were thinking, when will Prabhupada chant Hare Krishna? Now Prabhupada did not speak one word, one word like that.
And then they had a very cordial talk and then Prabhupada left. And all the devotees had a big question mark on their face. What about preaching? And Prabhupada said, sometimes old people get lonely.
And when they get lonely, they start complaining. So Prabhupada just went and talked with her. And then after Prabhupada left, and then the devotees met her again and they said, Swami is such a nice person.
And then after that she stopped complaining about devotees. So all that she needed, she had nothing against the devotees. So Prabhupada just looked at the cause and he addressed that.
So therefore, we, most of the times, we need to establish a human connection with people before we can establish a spiritual connection. A human connection means people should feel, it’s a nice human being. I met a nice person.
So if we can connect with people at a human level, then that is the beginning from which we can connect with them at a spiritual level. Of course, some people are already very spiritually interested. And then there can be a direct connection at the spiritual level for them.
Is this mic too humble? It’s going in the wrong direction. But I hope I am audible behind. So when the right time comes, then if we have a human connection, then the spiritual connection, we can bring it out.
Some people are already looking for a spiritual connection. And then we just give them the message of Krishna Consciousness and they blossom. Just take up bhakti in such a way that you may start feeling it.
They are advancing more than us also. So there are some special souls who are like that. But there are more souls whose spiritual instinct has to be fanned.
It has to be activated and it has to be fanned. And for them, the human connection first is important. And then through the human connection at the right time, the spiritual connection can be established.
So how do we recognize? First point I said I’ll talk about is that when the advice is not working, then we take a step back and we maintain a good relationship. Basically at a human level. Then how do we recognize when the time is ready? So Vidur, he came back at the right time.
And he spoke and his words had the effect. So everyone has their own life. And in their life, there are many things going on up and down, up and down.
So actually we could say that for everyone, when they go through life situations, their conceptions of life also changes. So broadly speaking, spirituality can be presented in three ways. So I call this as rejection, complementation and improvement.
Rejection means, it’s talking about the relationship between material life and spiritual life. That material life is temporary, this world is filled with distress. Just give up all your material ambitions.
Give up your material life. Just practice bhakti. Chant Hare Krishna.
So now this is a model or this is a way of presenting spirituality. That is what say Vidur spoke to Dhritarashtra. Just renounce everything.
And Sri Prabhupada also spoke that to the hippies when he went to America. Now when he went there, at that time it was a very unique time in American history. After the Second World War, America became very wealthy.
And those Americans who came back, they had a lot of wealth and their children. In 1945, the Second World War ended. Then 1960s, the time when the children of the people who came back in 1945, they were in their teens.
And these people had everything. The great American dream as it is called. The good life.
They had it from their childhood itself. And they felt this is not enough. We want something more.
And said, OK, they had a home, they had a car, they had prosperity, they had everything. And this isn’t satisfied. We want something more in life.
And that’s when somehow they got the idea that through drugs we will get something more. And they started going into drugs. But the point was people were eager to look for something else.
They had rejected their mainstream society. So Prabhupada says very insightfully that when the hippies were there, he said, they had already done sarva dharman parittaj. They had given up their duty to their family, to their career, even to their own bodies.
They’re not taking care of their hygiene. He said, they were doing sarva dharman parittaj here. They had already done.
I taught them how to do mam ekkam sharanam raja. How to surrender to Krishna. And it worked wonderfully.
It worked wonderfully. Hundreds and hundreds of people became devotees. This is the model of rejection.
Now when Prabhupada came back to India, India was not in that mood at all. India had just become independent, maybe 20 years. And there was a lot of hope of material advancement.
But there was also the desire for, we could say, nationalistic pride. Not pride in the negative sense, just pride in the sense of we are also someone, we also have our identity. So there was this idea of cultural nationalism.
And Prabhupada tapped into that. If you see, among the people who became devotees during Prabhupada’s time in India, very very few people actually became committed disciples of Srila Prabhupada. But hundreds and thousands of people became well-wishers and patrons.
So Prabhupada recognized the time in India and he created the life membership program. And life membership program was where, basically you could say, complementation. Versus rejection is that, give up material life, practice spiritual life.
Complementation is, material life is good, but you need spiritual life also. You need spiritual life also. That you are doing all this, but where is God in your life? What are you doing for your future life? What are you doing by which you can have some meaning and purpose for your life? So Prabhupada did that.
So the idea was, you have your family, you have your career, but take Srila Prabhupada’s books, have the facility to come to temple, stay in the temple, give some financial contribution. And that way establish a connection with Krishna. And in that way Prabhupada was able to connect with thousands and thousands of people.
And in fact that was his plan also. And how did he get people to connect? He said that, people were amazed that, oh this culture which we are thinking whether it is useful for us, our culture is Americans are practicing. That means our culture must be something very special.
India we say is a cricket mad country. But actually India is not a cricket mad country. India is an international cricket mad country.
What does it mean? A cricketer may make a double century, triple century in some Ranji trophy, nobody will notice. But in an international match, one cricketer hits 2-3 sixes and he becomes a national sensation. Because through that we are seeking an identity that is validated by the west.
Against them we played so well. So Prabhupada tapped into that mood of cultural nationalism. And he would tell people that, in India to teach Bhagavad Gita is the book of Indians.
But in India to teach Bhagavad Gita I have to get people from America. So this is your knowledge, learn it and share it all over the world. So Prabhupada used the model of complementation.
So for people who are materially who have achieved something. So if somebody is at the end of their life, more or less at that time the rejection model is what is required. Just now you have to focus on Krishna.
Somebody who has achieved a reasonable amount of material success in their lives, but there is something more, the complementation model is what works. Many people by the time they 35-40 they come, people often get a midlife crisis. I have achieved something in my life, but it has not given me the contentment.
So what do I need to do more now? Maybe I need to, some people change their careers, some people try to retire early, some people become even more ambitious to achieve something. There is a time when there is a little bit of existential search. What do I want to do with my life? So at that time, what you have achieved is good, but there is more to life.
And that more is spirituality. So the complementation model works. These people are not ready to give up their material ambitions.
They want something more. So if you tell you are not the body, that is difficult. Philosophically it is okay, but for most people the journey to realizing you are not the body begins with accepting I am more than my body.
I am more than my body. There is something more to my life and there is some spiritual side that also has to be nourished. So material life is good, but there is something more that is needed.
That is how it needs to be presented. And then people connect. A lot of people who are looking for meaning to their lives, they take up, spirituality is presented as bringing meaning and purpose and a sense of fulfillment to life.
See material life can provide us achievement. I achieved this, I achieved that, I achieved that. But that achievement doesn’t bring fulfillment.
Fulfillment comes when we feel that I have done something valuable in my life. Not just in subjective sense, but in a really deeply meaningful sense. And a third way spirituality can be presented is improvement.
Improvement means that your spiritual life will improve your material life. So that is the main way in which most popular spiritual teachers are presenting spirituality. I was in America, I was speaking in Silicon Valley.
I spoke at Salesforce, Intel, Google, Microsoft. Now all these companies, they are very open to spiritual talks. And mindfulness, mindfulness meditation is very big because they have found that all these employees were stressed and distressed if they do some meditation.
They do some spirituality, their stress levels go down. So to manage one’s emotions better, to manage one’s relationships better, to be more in harmony with oneself, more in position of one’s emotions. For that is what people look for spirituality.
So spirituality, if we are presenting spirituality to a young student who is ambitious about their exams and about their career. Chant Hare Krishna and you develop love for Krishna. Well, love for Krishna.
Just hear. Chant Hare Krishna and you will be able to decrease your anxiety. You will be able to calm your mind.
You will be able to focus on your studies better. With a calm mind you can do everything better. So that is what will connect.
I can put one last point here. The point is not just to get it right. The point is to get it across.
To get it across means to communicate the message in a way that it registers in people’s minds. That is relevant for people. Suppose some very learned spiritual teacher comes and gives a class in Sanskrit.
And nobody in the audience understands Sanskrit. Of course, some of you are understanding. Then you are exceptions.
But suppose nobody in the audience understands Sanskrit. And the speaker gives an excellent class in Sanskrit. They got everything right.
They got nothing across. Isn’t it? So things have to be communicated in a way that it registers for people. So when we give any advice, people have to feel that this advice will add some value to my life.
The worst thing that we can do about Krishna consciousness is present it as a set of rules. What is your Krishna consciousness? No meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication, no illicit sex. Then you say no Krishna consciousness.
Actually, look at any product. Say a new iPhone comes out. Say iPhone X or something after iPhone X. Say iPhone X is the latest one.
XS. Okay. Say iPhone XS.
Say Apple promotes iPhone XS. If they start advertisement, will they start with the price of the phone? No. They will start with the features.
This feature, this feature, this feature, this feature. And then you will have to click on something and then you will find the price. They will not even tell the price.
They will tell first all the features. Similarly, when we are presenting Krishna consciousness, what we do is if you tell no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication, we are first telling the price. I don’t want this.
It’s too unaffordable for me. Now, of course, sometimes some person who has already bought an iPhone and they want to parade. You know, I got this iPhone.
And they want to brag how wealthy I am. Then they say, oh, you know, this costs $1,000, $1,200, whatever. Oh, you are so wealthy, you want such an expensive phone.
Okay, you stay with that phone, I can’t buy it. People will think like that. So when we are practicing bhakti, sometimes we get that sense of pride.
And then we tell that to the world. And they tell that to the world. People think this is too much.
I can’t do it. So nowhere in no communication is the price told before the product is explained. But unfortunately, we do that.
And when we do that, then what happens is people just feel alienated. So if we understand the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, then the regulations make natural sense. How do they make sense? Because, say, if somebody has to go on a particular route to a particular destination and then there is a route to the destination, then all that they are doing is, if they don’t turn left, don’t turn right, well, they’re not deprived, don’t turn left, don’t turn right.
They know they are on the route and they’ll get to the destination. So if they have the map by which they understand this is the route and this is the destination I want to go to, then they will naturally go towards the destination. And even if there is something, some attractive park here, some stadium here, some beach there, say, no, I don’t want to go there right now.
This is where I want to go. So similarly, if we understand the philosophy, then the rules, following the rules is simply like going along the route. So philosophy acts like a map.
This is the route and this is the destination. But for most people, when they don’t have any philosophical understanding, they just say, oh, you’re not going to turn left, don’t turn right, don’t do this, don’t do that. Then they just get eliminated.
Why should I do all this? I was at an interfaith conference in Washington. So there was one Christian pastor who was speaking. He was talking about how, it was a conference about how to increase spirituality among the youth.
And he said that we preachers have done a very bad job of communicating. So he said, I was at a college and he was in plain clothes, just trying to get a sense of what youth think about preachers. So there was one young person who told him that a preacher, they say they have a priest or a pastor, depending on whether you are a Catholic or a Protestant.
So he said among the youth, the impression was that a priest is someone who is constantly worried. That’s OK. Thank you.
So a priest is one who is constantly worried that someone somewhere is having fun. So if young people think a priest’s only purpose is to stop us from having fun, then who would ever want to practice a new religion? So what happens for many of us especially, we came to Krishna Bhakti because we understood the philosophy. And then the culture with all its practices came up.
But when we want to give Krishna Bhakti to our children, they get all the rules first. And the philosophy, it comes gradually to them. They hear classes, but often the systematic way which we learn the philosophy, asking questions, getting answers, they don’t get that.
They may feel it’s too restrictive. So it’s not restrictive actually. Once you understand this is the root, this is the destination, everything makes sense.
But if we present Bhakti as a set of rules, we do a lot of disservice to people. Bhakti, Prabhupada especially, when he gave some guidelines to those who were doing college preaching during his time, he said the greatest disservice you can do to a person’s spiritual life is to present spiritual life to them as a set of rules. It’s not a set of rules.
It’s a set of principles that helps us achieve a meaningful and joyful life. So that philosophical worldview first we give and then people start practicing at their level. So being relevant means not telling what we are interested in telling, but understanding what the person, what will connect with the person, what will make sense to the person, what will add a value to the person’s life.
And when we do that, then we’ll find that lot of people are interested. If we let people practice spiritual life at their pace, they are interested, they are open. But when we thrust things down on them, then they feel, okay, I don’t want this.
So Krishna also at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, what does he do? Yathechasitathakuru vimrishaitadasheshina yathechasitathakuru. This is 18.623. Yathechasitathakuru. That means Krishna acknowledges the independence of Arjuna.
You are a soul. You have your free will. Do as you desire.
But it is not simply do as you desire. There is something very significant before that. Vimrishaitadasheshina.
Deliberate. Deliberate. Think.
What I have told you, please think about it. And then do as you desire. So Krishna is not telling, I have the instruction, you have to follow this.
I have given you a world view, think about it and do as you desire. So if we don’t give people something to think about, and then you tell, do as you desire, then we are not doing a proper service to them. We have a philosophy to explain.
We have a map for life. We have to give it to them in a way that makes them think. Please think about it and then do as you desire.
So if you are present in that way, then a lot of people will take things up at their pace. Some will take up wholeheartedly and some will take up gradually. So it’s like Krishna conscious outreach could be like a pyramid.
A pyramid at the top is thin, at the bottom is broad. So some people will become very serious about practicing spiritual life. Some people will be favorable.
They will practice but at their pace. Some people will be well-wishers. Some people will be appreciators from a distance.
But they will all be at least looking towards Krishna at their pace. Sometimes what happens is we, if we preach in a very confrontational, domineering kind of way, then a few people come to the top of the pyramid. But in the process, all the people who are in the middle, we kick them away.
You are not serious, you are in maya. Go and stay in maya. Not like that.
Actually everybody will take at their pace. And what we need to do is that recognize what aspect of spirituality will make sense to them. How can I present bhakti in a way that is relevant? How can I get it across? And if we understand this, then we will find that people will take it up.
So that is rather than simply giving philosophy, we try to understand where people are coming from. Understand what their needs are, what their interests are, what their concerns are. And then present bhakti accordingly.
And by that we will be acting as instruments of Krishna for aiding them in their spiritual journey. And then it is not we who actually make anyone into devotee. It is Krishna who in our hearts and Krishna in their hearts.
So Krishna in our hearts will give us the right words to speak. And Krishna in their hearts will give them the right receptivity to hear. And then they will take it up.
So we are not the soul doers. We are actually co-operators. So when we give advice, the first thing we can try to do is that try to pray to Krishna.
That was Prabhupada’s mood when he went to America. He said that, my dear Lord, please, alankrutha korivara kamata tomar. Please make my words ornamented.
Ornament my words. Make my words understandable to them. So we, that’s why if we practice our bhakti nicely in a way to connect ourselves with Krishna, then that Krishna in the hearts of others will make them receptive.
And we’ll find that Krishna conscious outreach, rather than creating tension and frustration because people are hostile, we’ll find that Krishna conscious outreach will become joyful. Because we will make more and more human connections and we’ll make more and more spiritual connections. So I’ll summarize.
I spoke today on the theme of how, when vice works and when advice works. Second part. Yesterday I talked about when vice works, if a person is weak and they’re attached to somebody who’s wicked.
But when advice works, we talked about Vidur, Vitharashtra was not ready because he was so attached. Now, when he had to lose everything, to lose all hope of fulfilling his attachment, then he became receptive. So talking about attachment or addiction, it may seem to be just like a willpower issue.
But it’s not just willpower. The snowball starts coming down and no power is enough to stop it. So similarly, sometimes people may be just overwhelmed by their attachment.
So when we give spiritual knowledge also, it will not be light. Generally, the light stays temporarily and goes off. So what do we do if somebody is not ready? How do we understand that? We invite them.
They don’t come in. We are like pushing the car, but they are stopping the car from inside. They’re not at all helping.
Then if they’re not interested, then don’t bang the door in their face. Just maintain a cordial relationship. Before we can establish a spiritual connection, let’s establish a human connection.
And that way they’ll feel he’s a nice person. And when the right time comes, they’ll be receptive. How do we know when the right time comes? For that, we have to see what they are going through, what stage they are in their lives.
I talked about presenting spirituality in three ways, rejection, complementation and improvement. So for those who are already frustrated with material life or at the end of their lives, then the rejection model. Forget everything else, just focus on Krishna.
For people who have achieved something in their lives, maybe going through some midlife crisis, searching for what will give meaning to my life, for them, present as complementation. Prabhupada in America presented it as rejection because the hippies had already rejected everything. And Prabhupada gave them the thing to accept.
Indians were actually in the process of making India great after independence. So then Prabhupada tapped into that mood of cultural nationalism and complementation. Yes, you’re progressing materially, but progress spiritually also.
That’s how he had the life membership program. It was enormously effective. And then today, whatever spirituality is popular is primarily the improvement model.
That your spirituality, your spiritual life can improve your material life. It can help you better manage your emotions, better manage your mind, become more mature in your relationships. Mindfulness is big because it has been shown to help people manage their emotions better.
So similarly, when we practice, when we are presenting bhakti, the point is not just to get it right. The point is to get it across. And getting it across means that we don’t tell the price first.
We tell the features first. And then that attracts people. If we present Krishna consciousness as a set of rules to be followed, we will alienate people.
But if we give them a philosophical map and we show this is the route and this is the destination, they will naturally follow because it’s just the way to live in a way that is meaningful and purposeful. And if we see Krishna conscious outreach like climbing up a pyramid, then different people will have different levels of favorableness or seriousness. And they will all be looking towards Krishna and moving towards Krishna at their pace.
If we just tell people do as you desire, then we are not giving them the map. So we explain Krishna consciousness in a way that makes sense. Vimrishayita, deliberate.
And then we acknowledge that they have free will. So they take it up at their pace. If you present in a way that can make sense to people, then we’ll find that our spiritual connections, our spirituality will enhance our human connections.
And will help us develop some more spiritual connections also. And thus we can all move forward in this journey of consciousness towards Krishna. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Thank you. Are there any questions? Do we have time? Yes, you can speak.
I noticed that the role of preach or practice what you preach is not much happening because I have been in this course for 17 years and I have seen speakers talking about you should not be egoistic. You should live all your wealth and power. They talk about all these things.
But I have seen Bhagavad Gita and they come and fight with me for two Dirhams and three Grams. I am so surprised actually and I am not able to contemplate what is happening actually. And I see them buying cars and investing in loans and gold.
I am not able to see what they are talking. Because there are people who are actually taking the words as it is and they are converting, changing their lives actually for a little bit. But see the commitment is not happening from their side.
For small small reasons I get into these things and sometimes it troubles me a lot actually. Being a salesperson and distributing books. I will repeat it.
So sometimes we see some devotees who may also be preachers. They speak about giving up everything, renouncing the wealth for Krishna. But then they seem to be possessive of a few small Dirhams or they are investing in stocks and they seem to be mad for money also.
So what is being preached is not being practiced. So how do we deal with this? There are some principles when we come to association of devotees we need to understand that our spiritual life is our responsibility. So we could say that if there is a stock exchange, everybody goes to a stock exchange to earn money and for that they have some starting capital.
They invest that capital and they need to invest intelligently so that it increases. Now if they are careless, the stock exchange is there so that they go there to make money. But if they are careless, they may end up losing their money also.
So we can say that the Krishna consciousness movement is like a spiritual stock, it is a bhakti stock exchange. We all come with a little bhakti. Anybody who has come, at least some favorable, some things favorable is there.
So we come with our little bhakti. And then if we invest this bhakti properly, it will grow. But if we are not careful, we may even lose the bhakti that we have.
How may that happen? Even in the devotee association, everybody is not necessarily a devotee of the same caliber. And not everybody is a devotee who will be able to inspire us. Some devotees may inspire us, you know, Oh, how can a devotee be so wonderful, so selfless, so giving? How can any human being be like this? How can a devotee be so wonderful? And sometimes some devotees, we meet them and we see them.
How can someone like this be a devotee? We get that question also. So it’s just that we have to see that different people have come from different backgrounds and everybody is on a spiritual journey. But there are different points in their spiritual journey.
So we have to focus on that association that inspires us. That means even within devotee association, Bhaktivinoda Thakur very categorically says, we need like-minded association. Like-minded association means what? An association where we share a definition of success within bhakti.
A definition of success would mean that if for us, we love to study scriptures, say memorize verses, understand the subtlety of scriptures, then if say somebody, their main service is, okay, we want to raise funds to build a temple, then if we talk with them, say, you are so money-minded, always thinking money, money, money. And they will say, you are so impractical. Just verses, verses, what are you doing? Now both of them are serving Krishna in their own way.
But their way of serving is quite different. So we need like-minded association. And if some devotees, we see, we feel, observing them that they are not practicing what they are saying, then we just keep a distance from them.
We have to see ultimately that there is Krishna who is here, and Krishna is inspiring me through different people. So through a particular person, I don’t feel inspired. So then I look to see from where Krishna inspires me.
And I move forward with that. Now if that devotee is not doing what, not practicing what they are preaching, if that is not just disturbing me, but that is personally hurting me, maybe they are doing something which is underhanded, and we are being cheated, or we are being defamed or whatever, then we may have to take a more assertive action, go to the appropriate authorities and explain things. But most of the times, if we are Vyavasaya Atmika Buddhi, I am here to practice Krishna Bhakti.
And even in devotee association, let me see who whose association can inspire me. And sometimes even devotees whom we may feel are very money-minded, they may be money-minded for Krishna’s sake. We don’t know that.
Somebody might be very very conscientious about money, but then their plan is they want to give a lot of money to Krishna. So for them they are seeing money as a tool to serve Krishna, but for us we may be seeing money as just something material, which is to be given up for Krishna’s service. So it’s very difficult for us to know what is going on in whose heart.
Now if somebody’s actions are disturbing to us, we can keep a distance from them. But their actions are there and their motivations are there. We don’t know what their motivations are.
So rather than judging and especially labeling somebody, this person is hypocritical or this or that, we might go into the zone of offending devotees. But at the same time, in the name of not offending devotees, we can’t offend our own intelligence and say everything is wonderful. No, this just doesn’t make sense to me.
Then what we have to do? We keep a distance. And then maybe ask some senior devotee, who knows us and who knows that person also. And then we understand what is going on.
They may explain to us. When I went from India to America, I’ve been going for last several years now, but first time when I went, I went to America and I saw that, I saw very different kind of devotees from what I was in a very conservative Brahmachari ashram in Pune. And then it’s a very different experience.
I saw many devotees had pet dogs. Just couldn’t digest it. Prabhupada, you know, if you don’t love God, you’ll love dog.
So now there was a very senior, wonderful senior devotee, whose classes I used to hear when I was in India. And I liked his classes and he was a very wonderful person when I met him. And he would give beautiful classes of God and then he had a dog in his home.
I couldn’t digest it. But then I got a little close to him and then I asked him. So then he told me.
It’s a little difficult to ask, you know, why do you have a dog? But I just asked him politely. So he explained to me that actually, Is it for security purpose? No, it was even deeper. It’s a good reason, but it was something much deeper.
Actually, he said that he has epilepsy. And there are these therapy dogs who are trained that when somebody gets a stroke, they anticipate that the person is going to get a stroke. And they come and cushion the person when he falls.
And then they bark and they have a particular kind of badge around their necks. So when they are barking, people nearby know there is some medical emergency, they immediately call the ambulance. So he told me that twice this dog has saved my life.
So he was climbing up the stairs and just as he was climbing up the stairs, this dog started barking and started pulling at his tooth. Don’t go up, don’t go up. And he said, what? I want to go up.
Just kept pulling him. And then he stayed there and then suddenly he felt a swoon. And he fell and the dog cushioned him.
So now I had no idea that dogs could do anything like this. So their dogs were trained for that purpose. So we often look at people from a particular perspective.
So our perspective is limited. After traveling across the world for a few years, I have come up with my own working definition of humility. Humility means to acknowledge the complexity of reality.
That reality cannot just fit into my conceptions. So something doesn’t fit in my conceptions, it will not inspire me. But that doesn’t mean I have to condemn it.
If it is important for me, I can clarify and find out why this is happening. But if it is not, let me focus on doing my service and move forward towards Krishna. Does this answer your question? It means to acknowledge the complexity of reality.
Yes. You spoke about not presenting Krishna or Krishna as a set of rules. Now how does this balance with following one’s own principles? I mean sticking to one’s own principles, particularly when we are near the office or amongst non-devotees.
I am trying to inspire them. But they somehow or the other always identify a person by what his ideas are. When we interact with people, we first judge what their ideas are.
And then we interact with them and develop a relationship with them. So more often than not, when people see me in the office, or I don’t know if this happens to other people also, they always say, this person’s ideas are very strict. He is in Krishna Bhakti, he doesn’t eat outside.
It is better that we stay away from him because his ideas cannot be followed by us. They somehow come to a conclusion. So how do we handle it? So when people observe us following so many principles, and then they feel I can’t follow this, so how do we not present Krishna as a set of rules? Today the world is moving towards multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism means people are very accommodating of different people following different things. Now when we are following something, how we present it is important. I say there are three ways, call it as prescriptive, normative and descriptive.
Prescriptive is, you do this and you should not do this. So somebody asks us, why don’t you eat meat? And then we tell them, one who eats meat, their stomach becomes a graveyard. Stop eating meat.
So stop eating meat. So when we present what we are following as a prescription for them, then people feel threatened by that. Don’t intrude in my lifestyle.
Normative is, this is norm. This is the right thing, anybody is not doing the right thing, they are doing the wrong thing. This is the norm.
And descriptive is, this is what I do and this is why I do it. So why don’t you eat meat? Actually I came to know of how much suffering the animals go through when they are slaughtered. I saw some videos, I realized that meat eating is also harmful for health.
That’s why I don’t take it. Now we could say implied in this, is there an instruction? It’s very implied. We are simply telling how, what we are doing.
What we are doing and why we are doing it. If you present spirituality in a descriptive way, people don’t feel threatened. Let me say, to become like him, I’ll have to do like this.
Then we can tell them, if people ask us that, we can say, first there is a philosophy to understand and once you understand the philosophy, then you can practice it whatever way you like. So presenting in a descriptive way is perfectly fine. We can present in a way that doesn’t threaten people.
It doesn’t even have to make sense to them. We just explain to them how it makes sense to us. So even if something is not acceptable to people, we can make it intelligible to them.
Intelligible, yeah, I don’t agree what you are saying, but I understand where you are coming from. So we can, if we present in a descriptive way, at least it becomes intelligible to them. Any other questions? So what is the difference between free will and willpower? Free will is the innate feature of the soul.
It’s like consciousness is innate to the soul. So free will is also innate to the soul. Willpower refers to the extent over which the free will can act.
An example to illustrate this could be that even an alcoholic who is totally addicted to alcohol, even an alcoholic has free will. Their free will may be, should I drink whiskey or brandy? Not whether I can, should I drink or not, that question doesn’t come in their mind only. But even within that, they have free will.
So free will means the capacity to choose. Now because they have drunk so much, that the area over which they can exercise their free will has become very less. That means they can only choose this drink or that drink.
Whether to drink or not, that choice is not there. So to the extent we misuse our free will, misuse our free will means engage in unwanted indulgences, then their hold on us becomes stronger and stronger. And then by that the area over which we can exercise the free will decreases.
That’s when we say the person’s willpower is less. That means they may decide to do something but they are not able to sustain it. So willpower can be lost but free will can never be lost.
Now even with the little free will that we have, if we use it properly, by that the willpower can gradually increase. That means somebody may not be able to give up drinking. But even a person who is a compulsive alcoholic, they don’t drink 24 hours a day.
So in between their drinking, what are they doing? If at that time they try to do something constructive, try to do something spiritual. For us, alcoholism may not be an issue but we all sometimes get angry, we may sometimes feel greedy, whatever. So I don’t want to get angry but we keep getting angry.
Then those anger comes as surges which we can’t resist. But what do we do in between the anger? If at that time we are trying to justify the anger, if we are trying to prove how others are wrong and we were right, then what will happen? We are only reinforcing the anger within us. But even between that time, we are trying to purify ourselves, practice bhakti, trying to learn philosophical knowledge, get devotional impressions.
Then what are we doing? Till next time when anger comes, we may get angry still. But we have strengthened ourselves. So what has happened? We are slowly increasing our willpower.
So when the urge to become angry comes, we are not able to resist it. That much willpower we don’t have. But still we have free will and with that free will, in between those urges, we can act constructively.
And as we keep acting constructively, in between those urges, gradually we will become strong enough to then fight the urges also. So by proper use of free will, our willpower increases. And the question about Dhritarashtra, about Yudhishthira.
Why did Yudhishthira second time accept Dhritarashtra’s call to come and play the gambling match? Actually, Yudhishthira was a very idealist kind of person. Just after the Rajasthi Yuga got over, Vyasadev told him that a great war, you have got the kingdom, but it’s not stable for you. A great war, I see, a great war will be fought in the future.
And after that, your kingdom will become stable. So when Yudhishthira heard that a great war will be fought, he said that, I don’t want a war to be fought. I will try my best to avoid it.
And he said wars are fought because of dissension. When people have strong differences. Dissension happens because of disobedience.
So he said, I resolve, I will never disobey my elders. Anyway, he was respectful to his elders. And he considered Dhritarashtra to be like Pandu, his father.
In general, he wanted to respect him, but at that particular time, he also took a resolve. So because of that, he felt that when Dhritarashtra called him, he couldn’t say no. So in fact, the first time also when Vidur came there, at that time, Yudhishthira’s first reaction was, if we gamble, we will fight.
And he didn’t want to go. Even Vidur didn’t want to go. In fact, Vidur had also told Dhritarashtra that, don’t have this gambling match, it will cause disaster.
But Vidur was forced by Dhritarashtra and Yudhishthira was forced by Dhritarashtra. And when Yudhishthira came to the gambling arena also, the first thing he said, Oh Duryodhana, why do you want to take the wealth with which I want to serve the Brahmanas? He did not see his wealth as simply for his enjoyment. I am maintaining dharma by this.
Duryodhana had one response to him. If you are afraid, then don’t gamble. Now for a Kshatriya to be accused of being fearful, that was not something which he could digest.
But eventually, after 13 years of exile, when Dhritarashtra again tried to give some instruction, Dhritarashtra was very cunning. What happened was that after the Pandavas came out of the Ajnaatvas, incognito exile, then Drupada sent his Brahmin priest to tell them that now the exile is over, so please give us our kingdom back. So Dhritarashtra said, I will send Sanjaya back with my message.
And then he gave a very cunning message. He said, human life is meant to be progressive. So everybody who is a grahastha eventually has to become a vanaprastha.
Oh Yudhishthir, you are so fortunate that you are already vanaprastha. Why do you want to become a grahastha now? You are already living in the forest, why do you want to come back in the kingdom now? So he said, stay contented where you are. If you are not contented, you will never be happy.
He was giving philosophy to him. So why do you want to fight a war against your own relatives to get a kingdom which you will eventually have to renounce? Very clever sounding argument. So Yudhishthir was hurt.
He said, who said I want to fight a war? He said, I don’t want to fight a war at all. That’s why we tolerated all the atrocities of the Kauravas. That’s why we stayed in the forest.
He said, I only want to do my dharma. And there is a time for his dharma. He says, we are not yet ready for the vanaprastha.
We have our duty to our ancestors. We have to have children, we have to train our children to take the royal responsibilities. And when the right time comes, we will take vanaprastha.
So he at that time did not blindly, not blindly is a strongly negative word, but he did not uncritically just adhere to whatever Dhritarashtra was saying. So that means, this is a whole big subject that there is morality, there are two concepts in morality. Morality is categorical and morality is contextual.
Categorical morality means this is right and this is wrong. No matter what happens, everything that is in this category is right, everything that is in this category is wrong. So, for example, obeying one’s elders, that is good thing to do.
So the categorical morality is that one should always obey one’s elders. But contextual morality or contextual ethics means that we also have to look at the context. So speaking truth is good.
Speaking truth is good. But suppose we have a friend who is being chased by terrorists. And he comes and please save me.
Give me shelter in your home. And then we hide him somewhere and then the terrorists knock on the door. Is he here? Now what will you say? Yes.
If we say yes, we will be actually doing great harm. So isn’t it? That means normally speaking truth is good. As a category, to be truthful is ethical.
But in the context, speaking truth will be dangerous, will be lethal for that person. So that means contextual ethics means we have to look at the context. And Yudhishthira by this time, so we could say earlier he was following categorical ethics.
Elders always to be obeyed. So now even afterwards also elders always to be respected. He always respected Dhritarashtra.
But not always to be uncritically obeyed. So we could say he also evolves in his life from categorical ethics to contextual ethics. After the first game, like Drupadi was saved by Krishna.
So then what did Krishna play the role? Because Krishna was always put in front of us and he was giving guidance and everything. And how he was allowed or what are the instructions or he given any instructions or not? What was the role played by Krishna when he came, when he saved Drupadi? So when Krishna saved Drupadi, what was, what does he want to teach by that? What was the role played? What was the role played and when Yudhishthira Maharaj said second time Yudhishthira Maharaj, why he didn’t stop? So why did Krishna intervene first and not the second time? Firstly, Krishna never intervened directly. Sometimes you may see this Leela where Drupadi is raising her hands and Krishna is up there and Krishna is raising his hands in blessing.
And from his hand the garment is coming out. Now that is more of an artistic depiction. So actually at that time all that happened was Dushasan was trying to pull off her rope and it was just not getting over.
So the rope turned out to be inexhaustible and this robber became exhausted. And then how it happened nobody understood. So Krishna did not appear directly over there.
He just felt something miraculous happened. Now later on in the forest when Krishna comes to know that all this has happened, Krishna immediately rushes from Dwaraka to meet the Pandavas. And then he tells them that actually at the same time there is a demon Shalva who is attacking Dwaraka.
And I had to protect, I had to be there to protect. That’s why I couldn’t come. I said I didn’t know also.
If I had known I would not have allowed the gambling match to take place. So Krishna in the Mahabharata, in general when Krishna descends to the world, it is not always he acts like God. He also acts like a normal human being.
When Drupadi, she is so upset, she says Krishna I am your friend, I am your devotee, I am your relative, I deserve your protection. Why didn’t you protect me? So Krishna takes almost like a human role. He says I didn’t know, I didn’t know Panchali.
If I had known I would have come immediately. But rest assured those who have wronged you will never go unpunished. They will have to pay the price for what they have done.
He is angry. He is with her. So in the Mahabharata it does not show God as up there passing judgements on us.
Now it is God as one among us. Being with us, helping us go through the ups and downs of life. Now why did Krishna intervene first and not later? Even if not directly but indirectly.
Ultimately the purpose of what Krishna does is to teach us dharma. And for some people dharma has to be taught by instruction. For some people dharma has to be taught by discipline, by punishment.
By as we say, laato ke bhoot, laato se nahi maante. I once was giving a class in English and this spontaneous saying came up and I tried to translate it into English. The ghosts of kicks don’t learn by words.
These are words which no one will learn anything. So these are non-translatable. So basically Krishna ultimately teaches us different lessons to different characters.
So through this whole pastime at a broad level Krishna demonstrates how he protects his devotees when they are in danger and they call out to him. He protects Andhra Pradesh. But at the same time Krishna also demonstrates that actions have consequences.
That when Yudhishthira gambled he lost everything. Sometimes people say if Yudhishthira gambled then why can’t we gamble? But the Mahabharata lesson is actually the exact opposite. Even if a person as virtuous as Yudhishthira gambled he got into trouble.
If we gamble how much trouble we will get into. So the lesson is that actions have consequences. So broadly in our life there is a spiritual principle that Krishna protects.
But there is a material principle that material actions have material results. So now Krishna can intervene but that is not the way normally Krishna works. And that is not the way a devotee expects from Krishna.
Say somebody has got diabetes and then somebody offers them sweet prasad. And this is prasad, this is transcendental. Yes, prasad is transcendental but all prasad is transcendental.
Why do you want to take only sweet? So prasad is transcendental but if our body is vulnerable at a material level then taking that sweet will have its consequence. You may become purified by that prasad also but it will be painfully purified. So material actions have material consequences.
And also when Dhritarashtra acted, Duryodhana acted in that way, Krishna also demonstrated through that that how brazen Duryodhana was. How brazen is shameless that it’s actually one thing to break the law. It’s like say he is dishonoring a respectable woman.
That itself is a terrible thing to do. But when somebody is trying to do like that they will do it privately so nobody sees it. But to dishonor a respectable woman in public, that’s terrible.
If first is bad, this is bad square. But if somebody goes inside a police station and there tries to dishonor a woman, now that is outrageous. So this assembly was the place where kings and those who are the guardians of society were there.
So to break the law in the presence of those who are the protectors of the law, that just shows how brazen and arrogant he was. Like in some places the mafia is so strong, if somebody gets robbed and they go to the police and they try to complain to the police, why did you go there? Even we don’t go there. So that simply indicates that the mafia is so powerful.
The mafia can come and do violence in the police station also, they can’t do anything there. So through Duryodhana’s brazenness in trying to violate dharma in the presence of Kshatriyas, through that Krishna also shows how evil Duryodhana had become. And then by that eventually the Kurukshetra war takes place.
Nobody can blame the Pandavas that they caused the war. It was they tolerated all this atrocity. They lived in the forest for 12 plus 1 years.
And still after that when he was not ready to give the kingdom back, then there was no alternative. So through this whole pastime Krishna demonstrates Draupadi’s devotion by which he intervened and protected her. But he also demonstrates how our actions have consequences.
And even a virtuous person like Yudhishthira, if he is circumstantially pushed to act wrongly, there will be consequences. And he also shows how Duryodhana had become so brazen. There could be many other points also which Krishna does through one action, many many things.
But these are broad. From the narrative of the Mahabharata, we can infer that these are the things that can be learned.