Why don’t we spontaneously act according to our svabhava?

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, you talked about Swabhava and Swadharma. So, something like Swabhava, shouldn’t that be natural to us? Why does somebody have to be told to act according to one’s nature? So, Swabhava Bhava means emotion or more specifically disposition.
Swabhava means one’s own disposition. Swadharma is the word dharma is multivalent. Multivalent means it has many meanings.
So, in this context, Swadharma refers to the occupation according to one’s nature. So, Swabhava is one’s disposition. Swadharma is one’s occupation.
Now, for many reasons, one’s occupation may not be according to one’s disposition. Because for students, certain careers are glamorized. Engineering and medicine are glamorized.
The student may have artistic inclination. But the student may be pressured to become an engineer. So, because of social pressures, because of glamorization in particular homes or activities, people may get again into activities that are not according to their nature.
So, that’s extra glamorization and pressure can be one reason. Another point is even at the time of the Mahabharata, there, when Namusha asks Yudhishthir Maharaj, you know, how is a Ramana defined? So, is it by birth? Is it by learning? He says, no. It is ultimately by qualities and activities.
So, then Namusha asks Yudhishthir. Namusha is the form of a serpent at that time actually. But then, if it is by qualities and activities, then what is the significance of the birth at all? Because we could say that anybody who is having those qualities and activities is a Brahmana.
Then why is a Brahmanical birth considered unique? So, he said, he implied that traditionally genealogy and quality move in the same line. That means, if a man and a Brahmana were united, then they would attract a soul who has Brahmanical distinction. And that’s how the qualities would flow according to genealogy.
But 5000 years ago, Yudhishthir Maharaj was saying that because of intermixing of the various castes, now the qualities do not necessarily flow according to genealogy. And that’s why the Brahmana has to return accordingly. So, if that applied 5000 years ago, that will definitely apply now also.
So, that’s why we may not come to know ours or how it is. It often takes time. Okay, what are my talents? What are my abilities? See, our problem is the modern culture, modern materialistic culture is a culture of dissatisfaction.
For the consumer economy, dissatisfaction is the essential fear. If people are satisfied, they will not purchase new mobile, they will not purchase new cars, they will not purchase new computers. And all the industries that are doing this, they will come back.
So, now, what happens in today’s economy is our vision, because of advertisement, because of glamorization of things, it always focuses on what we don’t have. The whole advertising industry is specializing, showing us all the things we don’t have. And because of which, what we have, we don’t see.
And this applies not only to possessions, it eventually applies to qualities. Quite often, the talents that we have, we don’t even notice them, we don’t develop them, because we are too busy lamenting that I don’t have the talents which others have. For example, suppose now, after this program, there is prasad.
Suppose after a program, there is a feast. But it’s a special feast where everybody is getting separate items. Everybody has a different item than the feast.
And now, when I am taking the feast, I am not looking at what all is in my plate, I am looking at what all is in whose plate. Oh, I don’t have that. Oh, I don’t have that.
And, that way, although I also have a feast, I am dissatisfied. So, that is what happens for many of us. Although we have certain qualities, we have certain abilities, but if they are not glamorized in society, some other qualities are glamorized, then we are too caught in the lamentation of not having those qualities rather than developing what we have.
That’s why discerning swabhav is not easy. So, if we, while in the normal conduct of our life, while doing our various activities, even bhakti, when we are doing various services, we need to observe ourselves. What are the things that I am good at? What are the things I am comfortable with? So, guna and karma, when we say guna karma, we can broadly translate it as that inner comfort and outer competence.
Guna is something with our quality, that means we are comfortable doing it. And karma means we are competent doing it. So, we don’t have to today, when we are trying to engage ourselves or engage others, we don’t have to necessarily put people in a bracket.
We just broadly recognize the principle. Okay, this person is good at this. And accordingly, this person can engage in this.
Or I can engage myself in this way. So, it requires observation of ourselves and guidance from those who know us well, by which gradually we can understand our swabhav and then we can choose aswadharma according to our swabhav. And even if it is not possible to radically change things, we shouldn’t assume that whatever I am doing is not according to my swabhav.
Because the nature of the mind is to always think that the grass is greener on the other side. So, if we live, if the search for our swabhav, if we live to a mental platform, the mind will say, whatever you are doing, that is not your nature. But that way, we will stay satisfied.
Whatever we are told, we do that. Whatever we are doing, we continue doing that. By the same time, we explore.
We observe. And by that, we learn about ourselves. So, when we say there is self-realization, we say, discover yourself.
The journey of self-discovery. It is not just that we did the journey of self-discovery course and we have discovered ourselves. Discovering ourselves is a lifelong process.
Firstly, we intellectually discover ourselves, then I am not the body, I am the soul. But even self, Krishna uses the word atma to refer to the mind also. Krishna uses the word atma to refer to the body also.
Why is that? Because at present, our self is three-dimensional. Body, mind and soul. We are all three combined together.
We are not just the soul. Essentially, we are the soul, but presently we are body, mind and soul combined together. That means, to know ourselves, to discover ourselves doesn’t mean just understanding I am the soul.
It also means understanding who am I at the subtle level. At the level of the subtle body. What is my disposition? What are my strengths? What are my intimations? I am documenting them in Krishna’s sense.
So, we realize ourselves spiritually, but we realize ourselves also subtly. What is my subtle nature? What is my nature in the subtle level? And then gradually, as we keep practicing bhakti, Prabhupada writes in the parabola of introduction and introduction that he says, as we keep practicing bhakti diligently and we come to the mode of goodness, then how to advance further will be revealed from within. That is when we come to goodness, we start understanding ourselves better.
This is what I can do. This is what I can avoid. And that way, we can become more harmonious.
Our practice of bhakti and our conduct in our life can become more harmonious with our nature. Does it answer your question? Thank you very much, Prabhupada. So, for raising our consciousness,