When there is disunity should we just surrender and wait for Krishna to restore unity or do something to restore unity?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So is it that if there is disunity, we just wait for the Lord’s mercy to restore unity or should we also try to do proactively something to be united? Prabhupada told us that your love for me will be shown by how you cooperate.
Yes, we see Hanuman did try. Hanuman was trying his best, but somehow his words didn’t affect Hanuman. So, we do try our best to maintain unity and sometimes things just don’t work at our level.
So, surrender to the Lord can often happen in multiple forms. Normally when we think of surrender, we think of Draupadi raising her hands, surrendering to Krishna. But, if you see the Bhagavad Gita, it also ends with a call for surrender.
Now, that is 18.66. 18.73, Arjuna is saying, yes, I will surrender. But then how does Arjuna surrender? Arjuna doesn’t surrender by raising his hands and helplessness. Arjuna surrenders by raising his bow and readiness to fight.
Sometimes surrender means complete dependence on the Lord. Sometimes surrender means complete readiness to do whatever it takes for the service of the Lord, including fighting for the service of the Lord. So, surrender can take many forms.
So, definitely, when we have the opportunity, we can take proactive measures. We can… Certain devotees are working together in a project. They come together, spend quality time together, share one another’s hearts, understand each other better.
So, then when we understand each other better, then when some problems come and somebody behaves in some unexpected way, we understand where this person is coming from. So, that way we can, using our God-given intelligence, take steps to come together, to understand each other better, even in the normal course of life. That’s one thing we can do.
Another thing we could do is also… The material and the spiritual are not competitive. They are complementary. That means at a material level, also, we may have to work practically.
In our moment, we also have… It’s called resolve. There are devotees who are trained in mediation. And if there are some devotees who have conflicts, they come together and they help to resolve the issues.
So, like that, there are practical measures which also can be taken. And that has… These practical measures have also helped. Sometimes we may also have to learn a little bit skills about how to communicate in a non-aggressive way, in a non-violent way, in a more sensitive way.
So, Arjuna, when he fought Krishna, he fought for Krishna in the Kurukshetra war. Now, how did he win the war? Was it by the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita? Or was it by the knowledge of archery that he had learned throughout his life? It’s both. The knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita helped him to get the inspiration, the conviction to fight.
At the same time, he also needed the knowledge of archery that he had learned throughout his life. So, even for a pure devotee like Arjuna, the spiritual was not the substitute for the material. He needed material skills to fight.
Yudhishthira was also a great devotee. But Yudhishthira could not achieve in the Kurukshetra war what Arjuna achieved. Because Yudhishthira did not have the material skills.
So, sometimes, some people, some of us may just not have the skills for communicating properly, negotiating. The skills alone are not the solution. But the skills may be a part of the solution.
It is not necessary that just by chanting Hare Krishna alone, all problems will be solved. By chanting Hare Krishna, yes, problems will be solved. But sometimes the problems will be solved by chanting Hare Krishna may give us the intelligence about what we need to do to solve the problems.
And one part of what we need to do may be that we may need to learn some skills. So, generally speaking, if a group of devotees is working together on something important, in advance only we can anticipate that problems are going to come. So, it is best that we learn to come close to each other.
We try to create some mechanisms by which conflicts can be resolved. I once, in Columbus, I gave a class on cooperation among equals. Having some policies in place for resolving potential conflicts, it is very important.
And, you see, it is a little jarring example. When the five Pandavas married Draupadi, Narada Muni came to meet them. And what did Narada Muni do? Narada Muni told them a story of two demons, Sunda and Upasunda.
They were inseparable. They were brothers and they had got a benediction that nobody would kill them except each other. And they were wreaking havoc.
So, what the gods did, they went to Brahma and they had Brahma fashion apsara, Tilottama. And as soon as both of them saw her, they said, she will be my wife and your sister-in-law. Others said, no, she will be my wife and your sister-in-law.
And they fought with each other. And they killed each other. Now, the Pandavas are all pure devotees.
Narada Muni told this story to them and he says that, now all of you married the same wife, it can lead to problems amongst you. And he sat with them and they made a plan. When Draupadi is with one of them, others will not intrude at that time.
So, even among pure devotees, with their potential sources of conflict, there has to be planning to resolve them. He will understand or she will understand. It doesn’t work like that.
Understanding has to be established beforehand. So, if we, using our body and intelligence, we find out these are areas which are likely to be areas of conflict, then create some policies in advance to either minimize the conflict or to create a mechanism for resolving the conflict. So, it’s not that just we depend on Krishna’s mercy.
No, Krishna’s mercy can come also in the form of, he may give us the intelligence of what we need to do to prevent problems or to minimize problems. So, surrender is both. So, when everything that we have done, nothing is working, that time surrender means just raise your hands.
But, it is not that that is the only form of surrender. Before that also, all the service that we are doing, that is also surrender. So, when I first started giving classes, I was given some, a devotee gave me some guidelines for public speaking.
And the last guideline was, depend on Krishna. And in bracket, but only after you have prepared. So, if I don’t prepare for a class, and I say I am depending on Krishna, well, the dependence on Krishna should have been not just when you sit on the Vyasa, it should have been before also.
And before it should have been in the form of preparation. So, we need to do whatever it takes so that our service can go on nicely. Does that answer your question? Thank you very much.
So, when there is so much to hear, how do we prioritize what to hear?