​Whenever I do anything, I feel distracted by the many other things in the world that are wrong – what can I do?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, whenever we do some activity, if we come to spirituality also, we feel that rather than focusing on that activity, my thoughts go to other directions. And then I feel, why are we doing this? Maybe we should be doing that.
Maybe we should be doing that. So, there are, we all have different kinds of mentalities, not mentality in a negative sense, but just a fact of nature. We have different kinds of attitudes, different kinds of minds, which make us think in different ways.
So, some people are just apathetic. As long as my life is going on well, I don’t care about others. So, that is one extreme where we just live in our own tiny shells.
But there are others who just get too consumed by what is happening everywhere. And in one sense, can there be like caring too much? One is extremely not caring, the other extreme is caring too much. Yes, it is.
If a mother has a child, mother should care for the child. But if the mother says, I cannot let my child go out of sight, and the mother doesn’t let the child go to school, that’s not going to work. So, no, not caring is a problem, caring too much can also be a problem.
So, we need to recognize what is my area of influence. What is it that I can impact? There are many things wrong in life, wrong in the world, and with my finite capacities, I cannot change all of them. In fact, I cannot even change many of them.
But rather than cursing the darkness, let me, let me light one candle. So, when I was introduced to bhakti, before that I was a social service. I was a college student and I was part of a social service organization from where we would go to slums.
And I would try to teach English, History, Maths, to slum children. And I found over there that many of the slum children, their parents were alcoholics. And then they would do domestic abuse after coming home.
Their lives were terrible. And these alcoholic parents, fathers, they were not evil people. When I would go and meet them, they were nice people.
But once they would drink alcohol or that craving for alcohol would consume them, they would become like a different person. So, we had our work towards making one village dry. We persuaded the fathers to give alcohol.
But then, there were some local municipality elections and the local candidate, he came there with two, three truckloads of alcohol which he gave free to everyone. And none of the fathers, even the children had drunk at that time. So, at that time I felt that this is, this is not the best way I can have.
There must be some other way. I can offer people education. I can offer students education.
But what we need is not just education, we need transformation. So, is there some way in which people can become empowered to make wiser choices? So, when I was thinking this, I discovered the Bhagavad Gita. And from studying the Bhagavad Gita, I found myself becoming a better person.
I was quite a short-tempered person at one time. I found myself becoming less short-tempered. I found one of my friends, he was into many bad habits.
He gave up most bad habits. So, I saw people being transformed. And I felt that by sharing the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita, I can assist people, empower them to make wiser choices.
The influence of this is limited, but it is still I feel something tangible. And I can see as I travel, as I write, that people are guided by the Gita’s wisdom. So, I would say that if we have this, if you have this concern for too many issues, as far as spirituality is concerned, the cultural aspects are there, we need to, we can ask specific questions about specific things to right people and get answers.
Why, for example, Abhishek is there. Usually in Abhishek, whatever is offered, it’s not wasted. It is taken as Charana Amrit.
And that is used, that is honoured, that is distributed. So, in that sense, it’s not waste. It’s sanctified and it becomes Prasad which is distributed.
So, there’s some, so, like, basically, if you have specific questions about specific practices, specific rituals, they can be answered. But broadly speaking, the cultural approach to spirituality can often be intellectually perplexing. Because in culture, why do you wear this? Why do you wear a particular dress? So many questions can come up.
So, I would say, in initial stages, don’t focus too much on the cultural aspect. Focus on principles. So, I say, the way I put it is, science can make things better.
Science can make things better. Spirituality can make people better. Science can make better gadgets, better phones, better computers.
So, yes, let me complete this. Spirituality, now, I am saying can. It is not that sometimes people may take the name of spirituality and do many things which can actually not make better, which can make things worse also.
But there’s a potential that is there. Science can also be used for making things worse. It can make nuclear bombs.
But the potentiality is there and broadly speaking, if we understand the principles of spirituality, in terms of if you attend a few classes on the Gita, you will understand the basic concepts of spirituality. And then, what you feel most inspired to do, you will be able to do it with a higher consciousness. It’s not that spirituality is something about changing what we do.
It is about changing why we do. So, what you do, say, you may have a particular zeal. Say, for example, if you have a zeal for animal rights or animal protection.
Then, spirituality is not going to tell you don’t do that or that is unimportant. But, infuse that with a spiritual consciousness. And you will be able to do it better, more effective.
So, in ISKCON also we have ISKCON Cow Protection. A whole body is there, global body. Many devotees also work quite vigorously for protection of cows.
So, we can see bhakti as a big umbrella within which whatever cause we have inspiration for, that can be incorporated. What bhakti offers us is that certain empowering principles by which we can bring out the best within us. Now, for what cause we direct that best, what specific cause in this life, that can vary based on individual inspiration.
So, if you can focus on understanding the basic principles of the Gita, then you will also become clearer about how you can best contribute in your life. It’s not wrong to feel confused. Because, life is confusing.
So, when you go into specifics, life can be confusing. When you focus on principles, then the confusion decreases. Then you can focus on specific specifics.
And then we can be effective in whatever we are doing. Does that address your question?