Where is Gods karuna in todays Corona

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Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Om Gyanatminam Tasya Om Gyananjana Shalakaya Chakshurum Nidamnena Dasmai Shri Gurudev Namaha Namao Nrishnupalaya Krishnapreshtaya Bhutale Shrimate Bhaktivedanta Swaminitinamine Namaste Saraswati Deve Gauravani Pracharine Nirvishesha Shunyavadi Pashyatya Deshatarine Jaya Kalpataru Ghascha Krivasindhubhyaya Vacha Vakitanam Bhavanebhyo Vaishnavebhyo Namo Namaha Jaya Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda Shri Advaitha Gadadhar Shri Vasadhi Gaurabhatta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Thank you very much for coming today evening. Today we'll try to shed some spiritual light on an issue that is probably darkening the minds of all of us with some apprehension, some anxiety, some fear that is the rapid and alarming spread of the coronavirus. And I'll start with an anecdote.

I was in Canada last year and after a talk, one six-year-old boy came to me and he asked me, why do bad things happen to good people? Now generally, if somebody asks this question on a personal level, if I have the time, I try to make sense of where they are coming from. So then I asked him, what happened? He said, today morning I was taking my milk and my biscuit and my biscuit fell into the milk. So for him, at that level, that was the bad thing that happened.

I lost my biscuit! So we all get this question when something unexpected, something undesirable, something terrible starts happening to us and depending on our situation, now what is a bad thing can vary for each one of us. But this is an existential perplexity for humanity for as long as humanity has existed that things seem to go wrong. And when things go wrong, if we have a broad understanding of God's existence and we have some faith in God, then how do we see God's role, God's grace, God's hand amid the difficulties that we are facing? So I'll talk this in three broad parts.

But the basic theme will be this, that if you want to see compassion, see God's grace, see his compassion, bad things will happen in life. And we can't always be grateful for all situations. But we can be grateful in all situations.

For all situations means, the specific thing that has happened, sometimes terrible things happen. And it's almost impossible to be grateful for that terrible situation in itself. But even in that situation we can be grateful.

And how is that? That will be the main theme of this class. I'll use a metronome called ACE. So ACE your life with gratitude.

So how can we look beyond the situation? In three ways. Look around the situation, look, something bad has happened, look for the good around the bad. Then C is look for the good to counter the bad.

And then thirdly, look for the good that may emerge from the bad. So when bad things happen, they've just happened. And whatever reasoning we may give, but it's already there.

So, and it's bad, no amount of philosophical or logical or any kind of reasoning is going to very easily change that bad thing's vision for us. So what we need to do is expand our vision. So look for the good beyond the bad or around the bad.

Now, of course, we could look at a broader level and we can say that we live in a world that is technologically advanced. And so at least there is awareness, there is spreading of measures of what are precautions to be taken. So I will talk about this primarily from a philosophical and then philosophical practical perspective.

I will try to make sense of contemporary events also. So at a material level also, the awareness and the preparedness that we are capable of doing, that is something we can be grateful for. And the black plague hit Europe.

At that time, people didn't even know for a long time what hit them. In fact, initially, researchers, now you could use the word scientists, but actually the word scientists came in the 19th century. Newton never referred to himself as a scientist.

The word at that time was a natural philosopher. So whatever was the equivalent of scientists, when the black plague hit Europe, they tried to find out what was the cause. And they noticed initially that wherever there are cats, there is a black plague.

So in several towns and in several cities and several countries in Europe, they started killing all the cats. And when they killed the cats, they found that the black plague increased. So it has been caused not by cats, but it has been caused by rats.

So what happens is that rats and cats more or less co-exist. So in logic, there is causation and there is correlation. Causation means A is there, B is there.

So A causes B, that's causation. But correlation, A is there and B is there. But that doesn't necessarily mean that A caused B. It's like researchers have found that people with bigger hands have better vocabularies.

Really? Bigger hand? What has bigger hand got to do with better vocabularies? Actually, people who have bigger hands are older. So naturally they know more than people who have small hands and small children. So bigger hands and better vocabulary, that is a correlation.

That's not a causation. So in the past, when we had disasters hit us, often we were just groping in ignorance trying to find out what was the cause. So at a material level, we can be grateful.

At least we know what we need to do to some extent. Awareness and preparedness. Now let's try to look at it from a spiritual perspective.

So this is a continuation of the same point. Knowledge to make sense of what is happening. So what is this disease that has come? We have some knowledge at the level of science, at the level of medicine, in terms of preparedness.

But we also look at it from a spiritual perspective or from a philosophical perspective. That when something happens in the world, now what is its cause? So broadly, when things happen the way they do, there are three levels of causation or three broad causes usually. There is God's will, there is free will and then there is evil.

So what do we mean by these three things? Now everything that happens is not necessarily God's will. Suppose we do some foolish mistake. Now was that God's will that we do that mistake? No, it was our forgetfulness or foolishness.

Similarly, some bad people, some wicked people do terrible things. Now is that God wanting them to do these things? No. So there is a difference between God's will and God's sanction.

Will refers to his intention. This is what he wants. Sanction refers to what he allows.

What he wants and what he allows. Because God has given each one of us free will, so sometimes we may use our free will wrongly. And to some extent, God may allow that free will for us to use it wrongly for some time.

So then there is God's will is one of the causes but it's only one of the causes. It's not the sole cause. So when bad things happen, it may well be because some people have acted foolishly.

Somebody said, drives drunk and then they hit someone and that person gets seriously injured. That's not God's will. That's that person's misuse of free will.

Now there is free will and its misuse. But there is something worse than that. Evil is not just occasional or incidental misuse of free will.

It is when somebody keeps doing something wrong again and again and again and again, then they become dead into it. So whenever we do something bad, we feel bad after doing that bad thing. But if somebody doesn't feel bad after doing bad, then they are terribly bad.

It's a simple level. Say if you are walking in a crowded room and you step on someone's foot. As soon as you notice, you move your foot back and say, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

But suppose somebody steps on someone else's foot and they notice it and then deliberately they raise their foot and bang it down. Hey, that's terrible. So that's evil.

So now, so let me say, going back to the car driving example, suppose somebody deliberately wants to run over somebody and it's not that they are drunk and they are driving, they are deliberately catching someone, pointing at someone and then run their car over that person. That is evil. So when something happens in this world, there could be God's will, there is free will and there is evil.

Now within evil, there are broadly two categories. There is moral evil and there is natural evil. Moral evil, for example, Hitler called the Holocaust.

He incited a whole nation to hate Jews and Gypsies and estimates vary from 6 million to 11 million people were killed. But in moral evil, people did terrible things. And then there is natural evil.

Natural evil means nature leads to certain events by which some bad things happen. So for example, Tsunami, we could say. Now if you consider the coronavirus, where would it fall? Naturally.

So whenever some things happen in life, there is God's will, there is free will and there is evil. So now when we talk about natural evil, what does it mean? You could say there is a difference between another way to term it, there is a difference between evil and tragedy. Say like, suppose there is a flood and the water overflows and there is a loss of life and property because of that.

That's natural evil. That's a tragedy. But suppose somebody deliberately opens the door of the dam and causes the water to flood.

Then that's moral evil. So now, in the Bhagavad Gita, how karma works is very difficult to understand. So now, among these things, if you consider the God's will, free will and evil.

And within evil, there is natural evil and moral evil. Now what is in our control is that it's a free will. It's our free will, we try to use it as well as we can.

And we try to avoid moral evil. So now, some people say that in Wuhan when this virus originated, the Chinese government initially was more concerned with maintaining its reputation than ensuring the protection of people. And that's why, for almost a month or two, they didn't take any action on it.

And they even took action against those doctors who were trying to alert it. And then suddenly when they realized how bad it has gone, they shut down the whole city. In fact, 5 million people they shut down.

5 million people. It's unprecedented history of humanity as far as we know it. So many people were shut down at one time.

You consider from our perspective America, the four biggest cities in America. New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago. All four of them combined together is less than the population of what was shut down.

A complete blockage. So now what happens is that natural evil will come on its own course. we all may have different, people may have different philosophical opinions.

I believe this philosophy, I don't believe this philosophy. But one thing that we can all agree, I would say two things that we can agree. One is that life is tough.

Whatever happens, life is tough. Even for people who feel life is easy, well we can say that they have not seen life much. Sooner or later life, there are difficulties in life.

So life is tough. This is the given truth. And second is that our responses to life can make life tougher.

There can be terrible situations in our life, but no situation is so terrible that it takes away our power to make it worse. Now, because that means natural evil may come on its own accord. But if there is moral evil or if there is misuse of free will, then that can make things worse.

So when we are trying to look at how do we see God's hand in whatever is happening, we will look at in terms of to make sense of what's happening and find our role within that. So that at least whatever suffering has come, we don't make it worse. And as much as possible, we try to minimize it.

So, during the talk, if any point is not clear, feel free to raise your hand and ask a question. And of course at the end of the session, we will have time for questions. So now I will look at this from another perspective.

So this is basically why things happen the way they do. So now, I told moral evil is people doing bad things. Natural evil is nature bringing tragedies upon us, nature bringing calamities upon us.

So now, why would nature do such a thing? For that, we need to look at the principle of Karma. So here is another perspective. When suffering comes upon us, what is its cause? That cause could be at three levels.

There is an immediate cause, there is a remote cause and there is the ultimate cause. So the immediate cause in this case is the virus, suppose somebody gets sick, then the virus coming to their body is the immediate cause of their sickness. Now beyond that, there is a remote cause.

Whenever any situation happens, everybody is not afflicted or affected equally. Some people may now, all the people who will be affected by the coronavirus, according to some people, say between 40-60% of the world's population may get affected if it is spread like this. But they are saying that most people will recover.

They have to be in isolation for some time. But it's only people who are having very low immunity or they have already some respiratory tract issues. They may find it difficult to deal with it.

So now, the same stimulus affects different people differently. And why is that? That is where past karma comes into the picture. The immediate cause is a valid explanation.

It is a correct explanation. It is not, however, the complete explanation. In the same house, suppose one person gets malaria.

Now, for mosquitoes, all bodies are just sources of blood. The mosquito does not discriminate. I am going to bite this person, not bite that person.

But now, isn't it that the mosquito bit only one person, didn't bite the other person? Isn't it that the mosquito bit one person and bit the other person also but the other person didn't get infected? Now, you might say that, okay, this person had low immunity. That's why they didn't get the disease. But if you look at medical history, you quite often find that sometimes people who have low immunity, they don't get infected.

I know one friend, he got malaria and his doctor told him, your condition is very serious. And he said, if you don't treat this, you may even die. Because he had other health complications also.

But then, what happened was, this friend is still alive and his doctor died of malaria. So, what happens is, the immediate cause is a connect cause, but it is not the complete cause. So, in a house, there might be five members.

Why does one person only get malaria and others don't get malaria? There is a past karma involved also. There is present and past. And then, there is an ultimate cause.

Why are we at all in this world, which is a tough place, where we are prone to distress? That is because of our disconnection from God. That is, we are disconnected from Krishna. And that's why we are in the material existence, where there is distress.

So, in 12.9, Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, in this material world itself, we are all prone to old age, disease, death and rebirth. So, now, the point, what is the main acronym we are discussing? Everyone remember? So, we are looking for the A part. Look for the good around the bad.

So, what is the good around the bad? We have some knowledge to make sense of life and what happens in life. That's what we are trying to understand. Now, I'll come to this part a little later, of how to counter it.

So, the next point here is that, why does something happen at a particular time? So, the present, the way by now things have unfolded, the reactions we get are an unpredictable combination of our past and present actions. Some people, say, suppose, by their past, by their past karma, they have a sickly body. And then, they are ultra careful about their diet.

If a little imbalance, the food is a little spicy, a little oily, their whole health gets disrupted by it. Some people, they have a very healthy body. They seem to treat their tongue like a conveyor belt.

Anything and everything goes on their tongue and still, they seem healthy, they seem slim. Life just goes on for them. So, what has happened is, the immediate cause is there, they may be eating inappropriately.

But, what happens to a particular person is an unpredictable combination of the immediate cause and the remote cause. So, that's why, at a particular stage in our life, why something happens, specifically, that is difficult to understand. That's why I said, we can look for the good around the bad.

We can make sense of life in general and the events that happen in their life. But we may not be able to pinpoint one particular cause for why something happens. So, now if we move on, now we look at to counter.

Now to count, when we are going to counter something, we have to look at what we have, not at what we don't have. In the Ramayana, when the Vanaras had to fight against the Rakshasas, the Rakshasas, they were in home territory and they had sophisticated weapons. They had maces and cudgels and bows and arrows and swords.

The monkeys, they didn't have any such weapons. They would just pick up rocks, they would uproot trees and they would just fight with their own bare fists. But if they had focused only on their weapons, we don't have anything, then they would have lost the morale to fight.

So we all, at each time, there is something we don't have, there is something which we have. We have to focus on what we have. Our mind will keep looking at, oh, this is not right, that is not right, that is not right.

Mind may say, oh, there is no vaccine for this. Well, okay, but we can prevent it. And it is not intrinsically a fatal disease.

If you look at the history of the world, there have been many terrible diseases and some of them have been far more lethal, fast acting than the present. So now, what do we have? Again, at a material level, we talk about, we have certain resources. We at least have some preventive knowledge.

We have some knowledge at least. But now let's look at the spiritual level. What is it that we have to be able to counter this? Three things.

Look within, look up, and look ahead. So with spiritual knowledge, we can guide our vision. So Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that we should function with Gyan Chakshu.

Utkramantam Siddham Vapi Bhunjanam Vagunamitam Vimodhananam Pashyanti Pashyanti Gyan Chakshu Shaha This is Pashyanti Gyan Chakshu Shaha. In 1510 in the Bhagavad Gita, he says that, learn to see reality with the eyes of knowledge. So spiritual knowledge is meant to equip us that we can look at things with a more informed view.

In fact, if our spirituality does not inform and transform our vision of reality, then that spirituality is not of much use for us. It is just one more set of theoretical knowledge. And actually speaking, we don't see just with our eyes.

We see with the knowledge that enables us to make sense of what we see with our eyes. Suppose somebody lives in a remote tribal kind of community and they have no knowledge of modern economics and they come to a stock exchange. And there are hundreds of people sitting in the stock exchange.

They are looking at a giant screen and there they see the stock exchange index crash down. They see the exchange the line go down and they are oh no, they catch their head. And this tribal thing what happened? Just one line went down on the screen.

So now everybody sees the same thing. But we don't see with our eyes alone. We see with the intelligence that helps us make sense of what our eyes are seeing.

So gyana chakshu is required at one level in each area of life. So our knowledge enables us to see things better. Same way what does spirituality help us to do? So look within.

Look within means beyond our virus prone bodies, we are virus proof souls. We are at our core indestructible. We, our bodies may be vulnerable, our minds may be agitable.

But the soul is indestructible. And this understanding that at our core we are indestructible. We are safe.

That can itself calm us down. Actually for all of us, whenever we face any difficulty it is that the difficulties out there, but the more the difficulty seems to threaten us, the more we get agitated by it. Say a simple example.

Suppose we are standing on a road and somebody comes and pushes us. As they walk by and they push us, we get a little shaken. We may be annoyed.

We may glare at them. We may yell at them. But that's it.

But suppose we are standing somewhere and the earth under us starts quaking. That will allow us much more. Why? Because that seems a much bigger threat for us.

So similarly, if we identify ourselves with the body, then anything that seems to damage and destroy the body seems to be a threat to our very existence. It seems like the ground under us is quaking. But when we understand that I am a soul, then, yes, it's a matter of somebody pushing me over.

I have to balance myself. I have to check what I can do to not fall down. But it's not that big a threat.

So, first we understand that we are spiritual beings. We look within. Look within with dhyana chakshu.

Dyes of knowledge. You understand I am the atma. The body is virus prone, but the soul is virus proof.

So, in many, on many, many, many occasions, whenever there is a problem, there is some danger, there is some threat, there is panic. In crowded places, for example, say, in a movie theatre or a sports stadium, some fire occurs. The fire may not cause as much damage as the panic running of people which causes stampede and kills people.

So, often, our reaction to a problem makes the problem worse. Or, our reaction to a problem is a bigger problem than the problem itself. So, by looking within and understanding I am a spiritual being, we can ensure that we don't panic.

We don't let ourselves become overwhelmed by fear. There are different kinds of phobias. Some people have hydrophobia.

What is hydrophobia? Water phobia. Some people have arachnophobia. Do you know what is that? Spiders.

Some people have germophobia. They are constantly fearful. If somebody is 10 feet away from them, cuffs, they will run away from them.

They are paranoid. So, of course, phobia can come as a medical condition. But, our fear, the irrational fear can make things much worse.

So, now, look within. That can calm us down. Then, look up.

Look up means that just because things are out of our control, doesn't mean that they are out of control. That is, everything is within God's plan. Everything is not necessarily God's plan, but it is within God's plan.

Within God's plan means that God can accommodate whatever happens. Just like in a school, the school's purpose is that the students study well, pass their exams and get promoted to the next level till they eventually graduate. But, if a student fails, if a student doesn't study and flunks, the school has a plan to accommodate them.

If it's one of those subjects, you go to the next class, but you redo the subjects. Many subjects they fail, then you redo this level again. So, the student's failing is also accommodated within the school's plan.

The student's failing is not the school's plan. But, it is accommodated within the school's plan. Similarly, the things that happen in the world, that everything is within God's plan.

Things are not out of control. And, the world can hurt us in many ways. But, greater than life's power to hurt us, is God's power to heal us.

So, when we look up. Now, when I'm talking about look within and look up, this is not just sentimental or intellectual. Sentimental means, God is there to take care of everything.

Intellectual means, we philosophically understand God's existence and we rationally accept that God's plan. It's important. But, it is actually spiritualizing our consciousness.

These principles, what we're talking about, they may make sense to us intellectually. And, it's good if we try to use our intelligence to understand this. But, when we actually practice spiritual processes, say when we practice Bhakti Yoga, when we chant the name of Krishna, when we worship Krishna, when we do, when we try to fix our mind with the Lord, that is when we start experiencing these things.

So, now, the philosophical knowledge is important as a guide for our practice. It is practice that will give us realization. Philosophical knowledge is like a map.

And, the practice is like driving along the map. So, what we're discussing is when we say look up and look within. These are not just intellectual conceptions.

They're actually intellectual guides for our spiritual journey. So, look up. And then, beyond that, we say okay, I may look up, I may look within, look up.

But still, there is this problem. I have to deal with it. So, what do I do about it? So then, there is this third part, look ahead.

Look ahead means that look one step ahead. What is today's problem? Today's problems can be always managed with it. But it's only when we pile yesterday's problems and tomorrow's problems on today's problems that even today's problems become unmanageable today.

It's like, say, we have to carry a lot of luggage into our car or we're moving, so we have to carry the luggage to a truck. Okay, we can carry one suitcase at a time. But, if we have that one suitcase, we put a second suitcase, we put a third suitcase, we put a fourth suitcase.

And then we, I can't do this at all. We feel powerless. So, when we look ahead, we need to understand that the Lord, Krishna has arranged the world in such a way that there is the past, there is the future, and in between there is the present.

And, all that Krishna expects us to do is deal with the present. So, look at one step forward. Faith can be understood in different ways, but one definition of faith is the willingness to take one step forward even when the full path is not clear.

Faith means the willingness to take one step forward even when the full path is not clear. This is what I can see. I take this step forward.

And the way to do this is by Seva Bhaav, by service attitude. We can function in the world either with a controlling attitude or a service attitude. Controlling attitude means, this is how I want things to happen.

If I have a controlling attitude, then I need to see the whole path. But if we understand that we are all parts of Krishna, our eternal relationship with him is of love and service. Our eternal identity is of serving him.

Krishna says, all living beings are my parts. And we are all meant to serve him lovingly. In whatever situation we are in, how do we look ahead? Krishna, how can I serve you now? How can I serve you now? In this situation, how can I serve you? So we do this.

Okay, there is something, some mess that I made in the past, or others made a mess of my life in the past. In the future, some things might come up. But what can I do right now? How can I serve you right now? If we have that attitude, then we find that we can.

That we always have that capacity to take one step forward and move ahead. Now, going back to the philosophy, we talked about the three levels of causes. So look ahead means I have to do something practical.

So what do I do at a practical level? So cure at the level of the immediate cause. We talked about immediate, remote and ultimate causes. So we look at how we can by our small steps address things at all three levels.

At the level of the immediate cause, we understand that we should at one level take precautions. At the second one, take precautions. But at another level, even when some researchers find some medical breakthrough, they find some cure, some vaccine, whatever it is, it is all the breakthroughs that happen in major fields of knowledge, they are actually God's grace.

They happen by inspiration. This is the solution. And that inspiration, how does it come? It comes by God's grace.

So we can pray that a cure be found soon. And when a cure is found, Aham Aushadham, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, that I am the healing herb. It means even the power of medicine to cure is given to that medical, that substance by God's grace.

So we don't see God's cure necessarily coming in some paranormal or miraculous ways. Even the normal healing potency of things also comes from God. I was in a hospital in India.

It's a spiritual hospital, so they have a slogan over there. We treat, He cures. So we treat.

Medical science is incredibly sophisticated now. And the sheer amount of study that has been done is extraordinary. At the same time, there are so many medical mysteries.

Sometimes somebody has an ordinary flu and you give them medicine and this doesn't work. Sometimes someone has a terrible disease and they are still living normally as if nothing is wrong with them. So there are factors beyond what are ordinarily perceivable words.

They are called as medical oddities or medical miracles or medical mysteries. And there are many like this. So the idea is that when a medicine cures, Balaschini Asharanam Pitram Narasimha It's a beautiful verse, 9th Chapter, Bhagavatam, where Prahlad prays, My dear Lord, the immediate cause is not the complete cause.

He says when a medicine is given to cure a person, the medicine is the immediate cause, but the medicine alone doesn't cure. It is you who cure through the medicine. So we can pray that a medicine be found and the researchers get the inspiration to find the medicine.

Until that time, we do what we can to protect ourselves. So then, cure at the level of remote cause. Remote cause means that there is karmic complications involved.

Now, this particular disease originated in the Mohan market where flesh was being sold. If we consider today, almost every day more animals are slaughtered than the population of New York and LA combined together. That many animals are slaughtered every day.

So, throughout human history, people have eaten meat. We have canine teeth. And we can eat meat which we want.

Biologically speaking, we are omnivorous. But our body gravitates more towards vegetarianism than non-vegetarianism. But the canine teeth are few.

And similarly, throughout history, meat has been a small portion of people's diet. It is the first time in human history that organized slaughterhouses where millions and millions of animals are grown solely for the purpose of killing. And not only are they grown, they are sometimes artificially distributed to grow faster, to have more flesh.

So, when we inflict pain, there will be reactions for that. There is individual karma and there is collective karma. Individual karma means we do something wrong and we get the reaction for it.

But if you are part of a society where something wrong is being done in an organized way, then there will be consequences for that. So, at the level of the remote cause, we all can learn to act more responsibly. And we can create awareness that we are all responsible for our actions.

There will be consequences for our actions. Now here, that brings us to an important point. There is a difference between a cause and a purpose.

Cause is why something happened. From where something has come. Purpose is where that food is taking us.

So, now we may not specifically know the cause of the things that happened to us. But we can know the purpose. The purpose is that we are all souls.

This is, we are talking about addressing at the level of the ultimate cause. It's like, say, if a woman is pregnant and she is nearing delivery. At that time, the contractions happen and the labor pain starts happening.

Now, even the best scientists may not be able to find out why each particular pain comes. The cause of the pain, sometimes the pain is a lot, sometimes the pain is less. So, the specific magnitude of the pain, the specific way the pain comes, that cause is not so easy to know.

But it has a purpose. The purpose is, the child is coming out of the womb. And then we through it all, a fresh life, a new life will be there in the world.

So, for us, similarly, we are all souls and we are caught in the womb of a womb of material nature, where we are in ignorance. At one level, actually, I was in Canada, I was staying at a devotee's place. Just to become a devotee.

And he had a construction company. His construction company slogan was, Our houses, our homes are as comfortable as your mother's womb. Now, from a biological perspective, actually the mother's womb is a very comfortable place.

It has been designed in such a way that the shocks and the jerks, they are minimized. The amniotic fluid surrounds the embryo. And it is comfortable.

But it is no biological perspective. However, we consider from the perspective of a conscious being, being constricted inside a small cabin, a small bag, it's painful. Probably the nearest experience to that we might get is maybe in the locals of Mumbai.

And the capacity is 50 and 500 people are squeezed in. So what happens is, at one level, the present we are in, the present situation we are in, it will be comfortable also. But how long is it going to stay comfortable? So now, for the child in the womb, it might be, although it's a constricted place, it's a dark place, but it might be comfortable and the child is coming out of it.

It's traumatic. What's happening? And it's because of the trauma when the child comes out, the first thing the child does is cry. If I am so ironic, that if the child doesn't cry, the parents start crying.

What's wrong with our child? So, the thing is that that whatever difficulties come in our life, if we are on a spiritual journey, those difficulties are meant to help us come out of ignorance. They will help us to come to a higher, to evolve to a higher level of knowledge. To evolve to a more expanded spiritual consciousness.

And if we understand this purpose, then we try to understand the cause as much as we can at the immediate level, deal with it, at the remote level, deal with it. But most importantly is, the ultimate cause is that we are disconnected from Krishna. And the ultimate purpose of everything that happens is we reconnect with him.

And this can inspire us to become more spiritual. We address the ultimate cause that by absorption of Krishna, we get the anchor to weather life's storms. So, life will have ups and downs.

And this cannot be avoided. We are at a, I mentioned earlier, the world is a tough place. So, one metaphor to illustrate the toughness of the world is an ocean.

The world is often called as Bhavasagar, the ocean of material existence. And in this ocean, waves will come. Some small, some big.

Now, when the waves come, the small waves, we might be able to tolerate. The big waves, they can hit us and sweep us away. Now, no matter how strong we may be, it's impossible to stop the waves.

It's also impossible to ourselves, by our sheer powers, stop ourselves, protect ourselves from being swept away. But if whatever power we have, we use it to hold on to an anchor. And the anchor is strong.

If the anchor is unshakable, then the more we hold on to it, the waves may hit us, the waves may swing us, but they won't hurl us away. So, for all of us, Krishna is the anchor. He is the ultimate immovable anchor.

And our the Bhakti Yoga practice that we do is the means by which we train ourselves to hold on to that anchor. And the more firm our grip has become, the more expert we have become in holding on to that anchor, the less we will be shaken by life's storms. Now, compassion has two aspects to it.

We need to be caring, but we also need to be careful. So, how is this related to what I was speaking? That when we are at our level, if we have some spiritual knowledge, we have some spiritual resources, we might experience some inertia, internal security like us. We want to share it with others.

Just as by dealing with the coronavirus, the medical staff who is treating somebody with the coronavirus, they have to be caring. They have to administer the regular medicine, but at the same time, they have to be also careful. So, if someone is only caring without being careful, then they won't be able to be caring for very long.

In fact, after some time, others will have to start caring for them. Similarly, we, while we are practicing bhakti, we have to make sure that we don't get so caught up in worldly things. Oh, this happened over here, that happened over there, that happened over there.

That in getting so caught up in worldly things, we lose our grip on the anchor. Nowadays, with social media, we can hear about almost everything that is happening everywhere. And somehow, there are three modes.

There is goodness, passion and ignorance. Now, in these three modes, what happens is, if we are in the mode of passion, we want to fight. If we are in the mode of ignorance, what is the other thing? Flight.

So, the typical fight or flight response. So, when we are in the modes of passion and ignorance, as most of us are, what happens is, our attention often gravitates towards the bad news. Oh, this has happened over here, that has happened over there.

Oh, what can I do? Our mind wants to run away from it. And that way, we sometimes want to stay in touch with the world. But in trying to stay in touch with the world, we stop being in touch with ourselves.

We lose touch with ourselves. We lose touch with our own spiritual understanding and our connections to the spiritual reality. So, we may want to be aware, we may want to be prepared, we may want to help others.

But we can be caring. We also need to be careful. So, don't get so caught in anxiety about how to deal with the coronavirus that we neglect our spiritual practices.

At a practical level, be careful. And be caring towards others also. But at the same time, make sure that we stay spiritually grounded.

And then that brings us to the last part. Emerge. We are talking about economic immersion.

I talked about how to counter. And then I am talking about what will emerge. So, you have to understand that we don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.

Who is it who holds the future? Krishna. Krishna says, I know past, present and future. So, we know who holds the future.

If we hold on to him, he will guide us about how to face whatever storms life may send in our heart. And at one level, if you understand I am a soul, if you understand, this world is like a drama. Not drama in the sense of unreality, but drama in the sense of it is one level of reality.

And we have roles here, we have responsibilities here, but we exist beyond our roles and responsibilities. And sometimes we might be a part of one scene which is terrible. It's a multi-scene drama and suppose in one scene the hero is getting beaten, beaten, beaten, beaten.

What kind of drama is this? Who is the director? And the hero is getting beaten. But maybe that is what is setting the scene, how the hero becomes stronger and eventually becomes victorious. So, we should get caught too much in one scene.

नप्रःरिशेन प्रियं प्राप्य नोध्विजेन प्राप्य चालप्रियं सिरबुद्धिर असमूदो ब्रह्मवित ब्रह्मनिस्तितः Krishna says don't become too elated when good things happen. Don't become too rejected when bad things happen. Rather, stay spiritually connected.

ब्रह्मवित ब्रह्मनिस्तितः So, we can, okay this is a dark phase that we are going through, but let's see what Krishna has in store. And, the present will give rise to a brighter future. Conclude with two reflections.

Now, we may have to live with fear, but we don't have to live in fear. Live with fear means, when there is danger, we need to be aware of the danger. And, we have to live with it.

But, live with fear means, fear is a component in our consciousness. Live in fear means, that fear is the container of our consciousness. We can't think of anything except the danger and the fear caused by it.

Now, how does that happen? How can we live with fear instead of in fear? It is when our consciousness expands. If our consciousness is fixated on the source of the fear, then whatever happens, we feel, we just interpret it in terms of danger and we just stay fearful. But, if our consciousness is expanded, this fear is there, but my life is much bigger.

So, the ACE acronym is basically meant to help us to expand our consciousness. That, yes, there is danger and there is a healthy fear of the danger. But, we don't have to live in fear.

The more we practice bhakti, the more we expand our consciousness, then the fears will be in our consciousness, but they won't overtake, they won't dominate our consciousness. And, we understand that we are always with Krishna in our heart. And, we don't know what kind of karma we have done in the past.

We don't know what kind of karma we might do tomorrow also. We might sometimes do something foolish. But, whatever karma may get us through, Krishna will get us through.

Krishna will get us through. Krishna assures in the Bhagavad Gita, mat-chitta sarva-durgaani mat-prasada tarisisi So, sarva-durgaani, whatever obstacle might come in your life, Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. So, Krishna's grace is not in removing the obstacles, but in giving us the resources to raise our consciousness above the obstacles.

So, where is Krishna's karuna in today's corona? The karuna is in the resources for us to become conscious of it. And, the various resources that can help us to become Krishna conscious, thereby, this thread doesn't take over our consciousness, but remains as one part of our consciousness. So, if we look at those resources, we will find that, yes, God's grace is still available.

God's mercy is still available. And, with that mercy, we can face whatever challenge life sends our way. So, in summary, I spoke today of this topic of, where is Krishna's karuna amid today's corona.

So, I talked about it in three parts. First, I said that if you have to look at compassion, we can't be grateful for all situations, but we are grateful in all situations. And, there's an acronym.

What was the acronym? A.S. So, what was A? Look for the good around the bad. So, I looked for the good around the bad. I said, we have the philosophical knowledge by which we can make sense of life and what is happening in life.

So, in that, I talked about the principle that whenever something happens, it's not always God wanting it to happen. There are three levels of causes, or three factors involved in anything happening. What are the three things? God's will, free will, yes, thank you.

Then, evil, I talked about the two categories. Moral evil and natural evil. That's excellent.

So then, life is tough, but moral evil can make it much tougher. So, at the very least, what we can do is, we can avoid ourselves indulging in moral evil, or we can encourage people or guide people so that they don't do that. And then, I talked about how natural evil is basically a reaction to our karma.

Then, there, I talked about three levels of causes. What are three levels of suffering? Immediate cause, remote cause and active cause. So, with respect to the current pandemic, what is the immediate cause? The virus.

The remote cause? Past karma. Not everyone who gets exposed to the virus will get afflicted equally by the virus. So, this immediate cause is correct, but it's not complete.

And then, what is the ultimate cause? Disconnection. Disconnection from Krishna. So then, it's good.

So, I talked about, around the bad is the knowledge to help us make sense of what is happening. And what is C? Look for the good to counter the bad. And then, within that, I talked about three directions for our vision, by which we can get some security amidst this uncertainty.

What are three things? Look within. Then, look up. And then, look ahead.

Look within means that beyond our virus-prone bodies, we are virus-prone souls. And then, look up. Look up means that everything is within God's plan.

Even when things appear to be out of our control, they are not out of control. They are under God's control. And look ahead means that take one step at a time.

So, does anyone remember the definition of faith I mentioned? The full path is not clear. The readiness to take one step forward, that is faith. And that faith we can have by cultivating service attitude.

Krishna, how can I serve you in this situation? And then, with this, when you are able to take one step, how can our one step lead with the problem at the three levels of causation? So, at the level of the immediate cause, we take practical precautions and we understand that when some medicines are provided, they are also by God's grace. It is God giving the inspiration for researchers to find the medicines. At the level of the remote cause, we understand that there is collective karma and we are living in a society that is brutal, where humanity has brutalized the rest of existence.

So, there will be some consequences for that. But we at least, at an individual level, can try to become more responsible in the actions that we do. And at the level of ultimate cause, we talk about there is an anchor.

Yes, we hold on. Life storms may come in. But if we hold on, the storm won't shake us that much.

And then, when I talk about there is a difference between the cause and the purpose. It's like, for the child as well as the mother, the labour pains are traumatic. But through that, something wonderful will come out.

So, the specific which pain comes why, that's difficult to understand. Similarly, we are all currently in a state of ignorance and can evolve to a better situation. So, rather than fixating on why this particular problem is coming, focus on the purpose.

That is, evolving our consciousness towards Krishna. And lastly, I talk about emerge. Emerge? I talk about how? That by Krishna's grace, He can guide us.

He is always with us. That we may have to live with fear. We don't have to live in fear.

By the practice of bhakti, our consciousness expands. And whatever karma may get us through, Krishna will get us through. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Does anybody have any questions? Does anybody have any questions? Yes.

Prabhuji, You say, due to corona virus, but you see that every year in India, 5 lakh people are killed. But for that, nothing has been done. So, is there any rationale behind it? In what context are you saying 5 lakh people are killed? Due to road accident.

5 lakh people are killed every year in India alone. For that, we don't slaughter anything. And we are not afraid of driving anymore.

We still drive around. So, how do you see that? Okay. So, So now, when we talk about say, there is a mass karma and the animals are being slaughtered, what are your reactions for that? But see, 5 lakh people die in road accidents every year.

And that's in spite of, say, although the animals are not being slaughtered, but still people are being killed. See, one thing is, with respect to karma, it's very difficult to understand a one-to-one correlation. No, no.

My question was, due to the virus, 5,000 people are killed. But due to the road accident, 5 lakh people are killed every year alone. Do we need to be more afraid of driving a vehicle or about the virus? Okay.

But we have a topic here on coronavirus. But not a road accident. So, where is that? Okay, that's a good question, yeah.

So, far more people are killed by road accidents than by… I mean, in India itself, more people are killed than what have been killed all over the world by the coronavirus. Yes. See, death is a fact of life.

And certain forms of death over a period of time become normalized. See, everybody grows old and dies at one time or another. Now, for that person, it's traumatic.

But for India, for others, we understand. We grow old and we die. So, although death in any form is traumatic, in certain forms of death, it becomes normalized.

So, at one level, growing old and dying become normalized. Similarly, we drive on roads and road accidents happen. People die because of road accidents.

Now, we would be horrified if something like that happens to us or our loved ones. But, because it happens, it gets normalized. So, when something becomes normalized, then, it doesn't catch our attention.

It doesn't consume our attention so much. So, basically, in the world, there is distress at some level or the other constantly. But when some distress or some danger is not normalized, it is abnormal, that's when it screams and demands our attention.

It surges up in our consciousness and catches our attention. So, that's one way. It's already caught our attention.

So, if you could discuss, look at my talk. The coronavirus was one example which I used to talk about the broad principles of philosophy that can help us to make sense of things. So, if road accidents were a major concern, then that topic could have been used.

The principle here is that there are timeless truths. But, the more timeless a truth, the less time people have for it. Okay, sometime in future.

But, it's only when the timeless seems timely that we want to hear it. The whole principle in spiritual knowledge is Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita does not necessarily speak something which is strikingly new to Arjuna. Of course, it integrates things together in a particular way and presents them in a way that is relevant to Arjuna.

But, that philosophy becomes urgent and relevant for him because at that time he has to decide should I fight or should I not fight? So, it's a principle in the tradition itself that the timeless has to be presented in timeliness. So, the deaths which have become normalized, they don't consume our attention much. But, when the death has not become abnormal, it allowances.

And, to some extent, we as human beings are also affected by the situations that are present. So, the idea is for most people, Krishna this is the world and this is Krishna. So, now, why should I stop looking at the world and start looking at Krishna? Some people might do that because they are already spiritually perfect.

But, the whole principle of the Bhagavad Gita is that we need to learn to see not just God beyond the world but see God in the world. So, we see spiritual truths not just as transcending the world but spiritual truths as manifesting in the world. So, that's how we use this coronavirus as a launching pad for discussing about timeless truths that can equip us in all times including the time of the coronavirus.

Does that address your question? As far as the hyper extra attention, that's human attention what it will go towards it's very very difficult to see. I think maybe a year or two ago there was a cricketer who, Australian cricketer who died in a… not a road accident, a bouncer hit him I think he hit him on his neck or something and he died because of that. So, now if you consider in football at least in American football it's far far more brutal.

People get… they just hammer into each other and they bring injuries and there are so many casualties that happen in cars and this and that. So, sometimes what will catch people's attention that can vary from person to situation to situation. So, now if you understand these principles even with respect to road accidents we can make more sense of road accidents, we can learn to drive more responsibly and these principles can equip us for all situations.

Prabhuji, you spoke about God's will, free will and evil. How about situations where somebody is like take a cat if you corner it, it will try and attack back. So, in that case it's not cat's free will that it's trying to attack us and it's not evil either but because we are trying to corner it it is trying to attack us.

So, where do we see this kind of situation? Okay. So, if we try to corner a cat and it tries to attack us back so, where does this fall in this three frame of God's will, free will and evil? See, you have to understand that there are certain things which are more or less we could say programmed in nature. So, if I step off a 10-storey building and I fall down, well, is it God's will? Well, ultimately everything is God's will but it's our misuse of free will and there's a reaction to that misuse of free will.

So, we may forget gravity but gravity will not forget us. So, there'll be actions to that. So, when we are broadly speaking, we understand that animals are a part of the natural world.

Although animals also have free will, they are souls like us, they also have free will but their free will is largely very limited. It is, say, a cow is eating grass. It finishes eating grass in one row.

It has the free will but that should be grass on the left side or the right side. But it doesn't have much free will beyond that. Say, when a cat sees a mouse, the cat can't think, oh, today is Ekadashi.

So, today is a sinful day, I'm going to pass. No. If it's hungry, it'll bounce on it.

So, for practical purposes we can say that when we misuse our free will to corner some elements, corner some beings in nature and they react to us, that's a reaction to our own misuse of free will. So, now, some people might be out to hunt because it's just a profession. Some people might be sadistic when they enjoy hurting others.

If it's enjoying hurting others, then it's free will. So, any free will, this is a broad principle, that every free will for analysis is like a map. The map, on a map, you can say we can have very neat divisions.

Say, if you consider India is here, Pakistan is here, China is here. But if you actually go to the border, there is no one thing, one clear remarketing line everywhere. So, a map is useful to get a broad sense of the territory.

But the territory is always much more complex than the map. Similarly, any analytical frame that we use, it is like a map. It gives us some sense of the territory, some sense of the reality.

But the reality is always more complex than the analytical framework that we use to analyze it. So, we use this like a map. Not exhaustive description, but a indicative value.

Thank you. Yes, please. After this coronavirus emerged, there are many mass worships that are happening, people gathering in temples, Ignas and Gomas are happening.

Should people even do that? Would there be any positive effect because of this? If at all there is any effect, what's the explanation behind that? Okay. So, when this coronavirus is coming, so people are doing Yajnas and Gomas. And will it have any effect? Okay.

There are certain practices which I talked about the immediate cause, the remote cause and the ultimate cause. So now, there are certain practices given in certain traditions which can address the remote cause. So, if there is, if those practices are done, then they can have a positive effect.

Now, how does it exactly happen? Again, there are multiple levels of explanations for this. I have a friend in IIT Mumbai who did his PhD study, PhD on the environmental benefits of fire sacrifices. So now, for example, in the Rig Veda, it is said that there is a particular sacrifice that will lead to rainfall.

You set up that Yajna. Now, today's rational mind might dismiss it. What? How can a fire over here cause rains? But what he found is that if you take the specific elements that are mentioned in the Rig Veda, the specific kind of wood, the specific kind of ghee, specific proportion of the fire, of the sacrificial oil, then by that burning, the smoke that is created, the smoke contains chemicals that can cause cloud seeding.

Now, cloud seeding is the phenomena where there are clouds in the sky, but the clouds are just not giving rains. Now, when we call it artificial rains, sometimes scientists have induced that. What they do is, they send helicopters into the clouds and they try to put in chemicals over there which will cause the clouds to precipitate and give rains.

That's cloud seeding. So, that's what we are doing, cloud seeding by sophisticated means. With that, the yajna seems to have a similar effect.

So now, there is much scope for scientific research in this area, but so, his thesis is that many of these yajnas at one level will cleanse the environment. So, if the yajnas are done with the specific ingredients mentioned in the Vedas, then they can cleanse the environment. So, this is something which we can understand at our national level.

The universe is much more complicated than what we perceive. So, modern science has one way of perceiving the universe and it's powerful, but it may not be the only way to perceive the universe. So, there could be the scientific and the spiritual ways may not be contradictory, they can be complementary.

I'll give you a couple of examples to illustrate this. Suppose, there is a billiards ball and then, somebody has a camera right on top of the billiards ball and then they observe what is happening to the camera. And they see, this ball starts moving and this ball moves and that hits that ball and that ball hits that ball and that ball goes into the field.

Now, this whole event of starting from this ball's motion, that ball is going into the hole. This whole event can be explained in terms of the laws of physics. It came at this momentum, this speed, this angle and that's why that ball went into the hole.

Now, that is a correct explanation. Simultaneously, if we expanded the camera further, we could see that that ball was hit by an expert player with a stick. So, why did the ball go into the hole? Was it by the laws of physics? Was it by the expertise of this player? Both explanations are valid.

They are complementary, they are not contradictory. So, there can be a mechanical explanation for events and there can be a personal explanation for events. And both can work together.

So, of course, reality is much more complex and this is just one example I am going to illustrate at this point. But the principle is that that science looks at the universe like the camera is focused only on the millions board. Science, right from its beginning, if we look at the history of science, we start with Francis Bacon and other pioneers of science.

They divided reality into what they called as primary properties and secondary properties. According to the scientific method, the primary properties are those which are measurable. Say, length, breadth, viscosity, density, luminosity.

Those parameters which are measurable, they are called as primary properties. And secondary properties are those which are not measurable. So, taste, beauty, kindness, love.

These are non-measurable. So, science focused on the primary parameters and tried to come up with mathematical formulations which could explain the correlation between various primary parameters. And it has been extraordinarily successful in that.

At the same time, what has happened when attention focuses on one thing it goes off to other things. So, now, the scientific way of looking at the world is powerful. And it is important.

It is important to look at it that way and learn from it. But that needn't be the only way we look at things. So, if we look at our own day-to-day experiences, we are not primarily interested in the primary properties.

Say, if you go home and say, you know, say you go to some place and you meet some person. And you go home and say, you know, I met a very interesting person. How do you like him? Tell me more.

Say, this person is £150 in five years. How do you like him? If some person has some extraordinary dimensions, we might be interested in that. But when we look at people, the primary parameters are not their physical dimensions.

It's their qualities, their interests, their personalities, so many things. So, we, for the world of science, or what science considers the primary properties are not the primary properties in our world of daily living. So, to explain this a little more philosophically, one philosophical term for this is a term called cognitive dualism.

Cognitive dualism means two realities. So, cognitive dualism means, cognitive is the process of perception, cognition. Cognitive dualism means the same reality can be perceived in two different ways.

Say, if you have a beautiful painting, now, you could look at it and see what is it that is depicted through the painting. It could be some starring image of some heroic act done by some person. But you look at it from another way and you could just see that as a combination of various colors.

And that is also a valid way of looking at it. But if I look at it only as a combination of colors, I will see the image that has been depicted. So, basically, reality is multidimensional.

And we can have cognitive dualism. So, science looks at the things from one way and the spiritual vision looks at it another way. Say, if you look at a computer and you show a computer a painting, you know, with Google access, the computer might recognize the painting.

But the computer won't experience anything. It might be a dazzling, inspiring painting, but the computer won't feel the experience and inspiration. So, there is a mechanical way of looking at it and a personal way of looking at things.

So, now, these two, at some areas, they interface. But the two are also distinct ways of looking at things. Now, all this is not to say that any and every ritual that is done is valid.

We have to look at what practices are being done, on what basis they are being done, how well they are being done, and what effects are they having. So, we don't critically, uncritically accept anything that is done as beneficial. But we don't skeptically or cynically project everything as mere superstition.

We understand that reality is more complex and there are practices which might tap aspects of reality which the scientific method does not tap. So, the principle here is that there are, why I am talking about these two levels of perception, that within another level of perception, there are higher realities, there are higher beings. There is the Supreme Being, God.

There are Devatas. And in certain Yajnas that are performed, these satisfy those higher beings. When those higher beings are satisfied, then they can unleash cosmic powers by which certain disasters can be averted in ways that we humans can't do.

So, that is the purpose, how authentic and how effective a particular practice is, that has to be evaluated on a case-to-case basis. Thank you. We'll stop here.

Are you making an announcement or a question? A question. Prabhuji, there are too many suitcases and you are only carrying one suitcase and just taking it one step at a time, sort of thing. So, sometimes in life there are too many suitcases that get put on you, you know, you can't carry them and you feel overburdened.

But sometimes all those suitcases come at once. So, you can't select and only choose to pick up one. All of that, all of the calamities come at once.

How do we understand the situation and how do we get through those sorts of situations? So, if multiple calamities come at the same time, so we may not want to pick up many suitcases, but many suitcases are piled on top of us. So, what do we do at that time? At that time also, it's important that we divide our working frame into small units. So, amid amid unmanageably difficult times, we need to reduce our working frame to manageable units of time.

Okay, I have these 10 big issues to deal with. In the next one hour, what can I do? Let me deal with this one issue fully, give my attention as best as I can and move on to the next issue. In one hour, it will be half an hour.

You see, life can overwhelm us, but we need to know that the future can't hurt us in the present. The future may be dangerous, but the future can't hurt us in the present. So, actually, all that we have to deal with is the present.

The present is going to lead to the future. So, I'll have to deal with the future also. Yes, but the way to deal with the future is by dealing with the present.

So, what that means is that we can use our intelligence at times to decide, okay, why do I have to deal with all these issues? This is the most urgent. This is the most important. We focus on this.

But then, we deal with things one at a time. And if we understand that we are souls and we are parts of God, then we can actually discover that we are stronger than what we think we are. At one level, difficulties may make us realize that we are not as tough as we thought.

That's true. Alone, we are never tough enough to deal with all of life's problems. Sometimes we might be, but sooner or later they become too much.

But with God, we can deal with problems far bigger than what we thought we would. And the way to stay connected with God is through a service attitude. In this situation, my Lord, how can I deal with this situation? One thing at a time.

Do it. See, we live in the present. We live in the present, but we don't live for the present.

We live for something bigger than the present. Like we live for God. Suppose somebody is sick and in terrible pain, I would tell them, live in the present.

And the present is miserable. No, so they have to live in the present, but they have to live for something bigger than the present. So, we understand that Krishna is the ultimate reality and we are serving Him.

And the way we serve Him is in the present, for the present. If we try to maintain that service attitude, gradually, one thing at a time, we will find that we are tougher than what faces us. Bigger than what faces us is what graces us.

What faces us may be very big, but if we take shelter of God, bigger than what graces us is what graces us. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.