Why we need shakti along with bhakti, Sacramento – Chaitanya Charan

Thank you very much for coming today. Today, I speak based on the Bhagavad Gita, and we talk about the principle of how God and God’s actions in this world when we say God protects. So how does Krishna protect? What does God protection mean and how does that protection work about? So many times if we look at scripture, we look at Shastra, there are two kinds of stories that are discovered.

There are some stories in scriptures. There are some stories which majority are those which are remembered are the stories of protection to say how Draupadi was protected by the Lord or how Arjuna was victorious in the crucial war. But then in the scriptures, there are also stories where there is devastation. Arjuna, although surrendering to Krishna and although being faithful and devoted still lost his son, Abhinav. So where what does Krishna’s protection mean?

And how does Krishna protect us? So I use three principles over here to explain that there is there is Prakruti, then there is Vikruti, and there is Sanskriti. So prakriti, vikruti, and Sanskriti. Prakrti means what does the word prakriti literally mean? Nature.

What does Sanskriti mean? Sanskriti is sanskar culture. And what is vikruti? So we have nature, we have culture, and we have culture. Well, yeah, so it’s perversity.

So the vulture sometimes it’s like a vulture culture is the word that some values. Vulture may go high up, but from there it just looks for corpses. It doesn’t look for any beautiful sight that can be seen from high up in the sky. It looks for where I can find it dead flesh so that I can eat it. So now when we use the word like in the Mahabharata there is a sentence that those who are followers of dharma will be protected by that.

The Bhagavad Gita is also a search for dharma. Arjuna is asking Krishna, Ruchami Tlam Dharma Sammoog Jethaha. So asking what is dharma? So now dharma has many different meanings. And I’ll focus on one meaning, and then we’ll see how other beings fall within that.

Dharma essentially means harmonious belonging. That whatever we belong to, we belong in a harmonious way. So in every situation, we will all will have some dharmon. For example, if say now we are having a spiritual talk so when we’re having this talk at that time my dharma the way I belong harmoniously if I am playing the role of a teacher is that I prepare the subject and I am ready to speak it properly and the dharma for those who are participating over here is that they come and join that they participate in a say you’re attentive you’re participating now if suddenly somebody’s phone starts ringing very loudly Then that’s an annoyance. Now if all of you are sitting together, now right now, now many of you may know each other, some of you may not know each other, but all of you are reasonably confident that the person sitting next to you is not going to suddenly turn upon you and slap you in the face.

Don’t look at the person next to you. Now is that possible? You could say anything is possible, but we understand that if somebody has come here for a spiritual talk they will have enough discipline enough awareness of situation and they will behave in a proper way. So whichever larger unit we belong to, there has to be harmony. So we need to belong in a harmonious way.

So for example, if you’re driving on the road, then we are being a part of the road transposes. Our dharma will be to follow the rules of the so we belong in a harmonious. So dharma in that sense has two components to it. There is individual and there is social. So individual Dharma means that I need to belong in a harmonious way and when I belong in a harmonious way, the society, the larger unit to which I am belonging should also reward me appropriately.

So there we follow the traffic rules, but then those who are overseeing the traffic rules should also be just. That means if somebody breaks the law, then they should pull them over, they should fine them, they should maybe take away their license, arrest them, but if somebody is not breaking the rules and still there is it, that will be a problem. Sometimes discrimination happens against certain groups of people. So dharma is both individual and social. For harmonious belonging to be possible, there has to be the all the components the individual and the collective should work properly.

Now if we consider in the Bhagavad Gita itself both meanings of dharma are seen. In 2.7 Krishna is asked being asked by Arjuna, I want to know what is dharma. It’s interesting he is not just asking what is mama dharma? What is my dharma? That’s of course the implied question, but he is asking a more universal question.

What is dharma? What is the right thing to do? Now when Krishna later on speaks in the Bhagavad Gita in the fourth chapter in the famous verses which describe the avatar, So now when he says I come to establish dharma, what does that mean? Does it mean when Krishna comes everybody will follow dharma at that time? Well, no.

There will always be people who will misuse their freedom. But at least the social order is made in such a way that those who are just those who are virtuous are rewarded and those who are vicious are punished. So, when Krishna comes to establish Dharma, that’s at a collective level. Now, even Krishna does not force Duryodhana to become dharmic. He persuades and doesn’t listen.

So dharma has a voluntary aspect. If the police cannot force people to follow the traffic rules. They don’t follow the traffic rules, there’ll be consequences. So there are in general, in life there are choices and there are consequences. Now, normally speaking if there is Dharma in society, if there is virtue in Buddhist society then positive choices will lead to positive consequences.

If somebody is helpful, kind and then they will be appreciated, they will be praised. If somebody is mean, somebody is cruel, they’ll be criticized, they’ll be content. So negative actions will have negative consequences. But when there is Adharma in society, what do you think happens? What do you think happens?

Positive actions lead to negative consequences. Somebody who is kind and helpful, that person gets exploited. That person gets abused, mistreated, taken for a ride. On the other hand, if there’s negative, then what happens? There are positive results of that.

Somebody, for example, is mean and cruel and exploitative, they say, you know, it’s clever. That’s not clever. That’s terrible. Isn’t it? So sometimes, you know, if we all know there are certain destructive habits, if taking drinking alcohol.

You see, in the western world, the general idea is that drink but don’t become drunk. That’s the idea. In fact there was a western thinker, European thinker who said taste of wine is the proof that God loves us. If God did not exist and God did not love us, how could something as tasty as wine exist? There are so many tasty things in the world.

Why fix it on that? But the point is that normally if a person is disciplined, regulated, if somebody says, you know, oh, I don’t drink, then, yeah, you’re a disciplined person. You’re a good person. Regulated person. That’s how society should be.

But if somebody doesn’t drink and say in college sometimes kids tease each other, you know, you are just, baby drinking your mother’s milk. When will you grow up? As if growing up means, drinking alcohol. So when somebody is doing something good and they are mocked for it, they are ridiculed for it. That is one sign of other.

Similarly, if somebody does sometimes people have drinking competitions. Now who can drink more? And if you drink more and more and still you act as if you are sober. Wow. Drink doesn’t affect you at all.

So that’s drinking you’re taking poison into your body. So Adharma is not just some religious morality given by somebody and if you don’t follow that, that’s Adharma. Yes. Religious morality is there, but Dharma is a universal principle of existence that we all need to belong to whatever unit we are a part of. And we need to belong in the proper way.

And if we belong in the proper way, then we should be rewarded for that. So, that is the principle of that. So, now if we look at this, Dharma means harmonious belonging. Now, let’s go back to three terms I use Prakriti, Sanskriti and Vikriti. Now what is Prakriti?

Now each of these levels have dharma. In Prakriti, the dharma. Dharma means the harmonious way of belonging. His mind is right. This is the rule of nature.

The rule of nature is survival of the fittest. Now, of course, it is true even the fittest don’t survive. Everybody dies eventually. However, what Darmaine talked about is not entirely wrong. It’s and it’s not what he talked about.

It’s a basic fact of nature that in nature, might is right. So in nature, if a deer can’t run as fast as a tiger kissing it, what will happen? The deer will die. Now the deer may say, you know, I’m harmless. I’ve never hurt anyone.

Yeah. It doesn’t matter. That this is the mind, relevant bite is speed. Now if the tiger or the lion doesn’t run fast enough. The deer speaks, You dear, how dare you run away from me?

I am the king of the forest. You are the king but I want to run away. Krishna says nuganam rugesh broham. Among animals I am the king. He talks about lion.

But still doesn’t matter. In nature the rule is might is right. So whoever has strength, that person wins. In the there is a saying jiske lathi, buske beis. So the idea is this is a basic rule of nature.

So prakriti that’s why we said there’s a law of the jungle and especially now if in a society law and order breaks down. If say the the police stop function. If in a society the criminals take charge then what happens? There’s a law of the jungle. Then there are criminals in charge in society.

They will not care who is who is law abiding, who is law breaking, all that they will say is who has well, let’s steal the intro. So so basically society in can also degenerate to the level of animal world. That is human society can also become existing at the level of the jungle. At the level of the jungle, it is might is right. So this is prakriti.

In prakriti, the dharma is might is right. As in the language of our old friend, it’s survival of the fittest. So now interestingly there is sanskriti. Sanskriti means culture. Now sometimes you say Sanskriti means wearing a particular kind of clothes, eating a particular kind of food, putting particular kind of markings on our head.

These are all parts of Sanskriti but they are not the essence. The essence of Sanskriti is that the Dharma here changes. Dharma means the harmonious way of belonging is here might plus virtue is right. Mind plus virtue is right. Now, it’s interesting that here also might is important.

See, Sanskriti is built on Prakriti. Sanskriti does not reject Prakruti. So, what does it mean? Here, it is not survival of the fittest, it is often sacrifice by the fittest. Sanskriti means sacrifice by the fittest.

So, what does sacrifice by the fittest mean? That it means that if say there’s a fire, in Los Angeles, there’s a horrible fire month or a couple of months ago, devastating loss happened. Now at that time, there are trained firefighters and they are expected to be fitter than everyone else and then they could say that, you know, there’s fire happening in their home. Let me go. No.

They are fit. They’re expected to run into the fire and save those who are and save those who are in danger. So, in Sanskriti, we don’t leave it to survival of the fittest, if you are unfit you die. Even if you are unfit, the fit will come to help. In Sanskriti means say, if a person is blind, he is trying to cross the road.

It is not that people with eyes push that person, get out of the harbor. Sanskriti means those who have eyes will help that person. It is maybe they’ll be in a hurry, but no. Okay. This person is not as fit as I am.

Let me help this person. So now still the law of nature is still there. What is the law of nature? That the stronger people will be stronger. The stronger people might will still be right.

If a person is very weak and that person goes into a burning fire to save someone else, that person will not be able to lift anyone. That person will not even walk out themselves. If a person can’t swim and the person says I will save someone who is drowning. They will not save someone who is drowning. Somebody will have to save save them when they start drawing.

So might remains the defining reality in the world. The might can be different kinds of might. It can be it can be physical strength. It can be skill. It can be intellectual power.

So for example, if terrorists have AK 40 sevens and the police have simple pistols. Now what is going to happen? Who is going to win? The terrorists are going to win. So might is still going to be right.

Nobody can change that principle in life. Might is right. Even the Pandavas in the Mahabharata as long as they didn’t have power they suffered. When they didn’t have power Bhima was poisoned. When they didn’t have power then they were attempted to be born alive.

It was eventually when they married Draupadi when an alliance was formed with another powerful king And that’s when Dhritarashtra had to take their claim for kingship seriously. And even then Dhritarashtra tried to whistle away out by giving them a barren half of the hill. But the point is that might is right is a fundamental principle of existence. But cultured society will be where there is sanskriti. It is not just might is right.

It is might plus virtue. That is why Krishna says two things indicating the seventh chapter and the tenth eleventh verse he is talking about. And he also says that Balam balavatam cha kam raaga vivarjita. So, Bala will be there everywhere, but that Bala is to be recommended which is not driven by selfish desire. Kam raaga vivarchita.

So, Sanskriti is where might plus virtue is right where those who are virtuous are protected by those who are might. Where the strength is used in the service of Marjana. Now as contrasted with this so there is prakriti and there is Sanskrit. Now if we had survival of the fittest as the rule in human society, it is partly a rule in human society. No doubt.

But it cannot entirely be the governing principle. In a family, say if one child is not very intelligent, maybe the child is not very competent. Then what happens? Other family members take care of that child. We say that cannot be cannot take care lifelong and each each person has to learn to be responsible.

But the idea is that in any group of people where there’s a sense of community, if one person is in trouble, we don’t say that’s oh you are unfit. Yes. It’s your problem. No. Others come to me.

That is Sanskritly. So, now as contrasted with this, there is Vikranti. Now in Vikranti what happens? Might plus wise is right. When there is difficulty in society, might and strength is used for the innate protection and perpetuation of vice for selfishness, for anger, for greed, for lust.

So, that is Vikrant. So, when Krishna said dharma a viruddho hute shu kamosmi vraddarsha. This is kama that is that can mean desire in general and it can be sexual desire in particular. Now kama needs to be in the pursuit of that. Karma should be engaged in in a way that a person can belong harmonious.

Belong harmoniously means what? Right? Karma is directed within the institution of marriage. But when that is not there? Vikruti is that a person who has who has lust, that person gains might and that person that person does anything in empathic.

Now that might could be physical power by which they overpower others. That might could be charming words that they speak that might could be the looks that they have by which they seduce others, renewed others. So, Ravana’s abduction of Sita that is Vikruti where might plus vice becomes right. Now when there is Vikruti in society then the vicious are rewarded. Like I said here what happens is dharma is when we do positive we get positive and we do negative we get negative.

Adharma is when we do positive and get negative. We do negative and we get positive. So this is the situation of Adharma. And this Adharma is where Vikruti becomes dominant. So now in every society we consider that Prakruti is the default reality and from Prakruti, we can rise to Samskruti or we can go down to Vikruti.

Now, this is a so so site choice for society, but this is a choice for every individual and at every moment sometimes it’s in a big way sometimes it’s a small way say no we are hungry And say, there are gulab jamuns. There’s there are 10 guests, and there are 10 gulab jamuns. Now we all want to enjoy good food. So for kruti means I’m hungry, I want to eat. Sanskriti would mean, okay.

Even if I get first to the fridge, I can’t eat all the gulagins. I should divide it. Vikruti means that I gobble down as much as I can and I hide the remaining and say, oh, there’s no gulagas today. So that would be Vikruti. So basically, for us at each moment, each moment there is a choice.

For example, the words we speak. Sometimes if we have power, we can dominate others and we can force them to do what we want them to do. Now that we that having that power that authority that is that is prakriti but we could use it to educate others. Okay. This is the right thing to do.

Therefore, you should do it or we could use it to exploit others. If you don’t do this, I’ll destroy you. So this choice between from prakriti to sanskriti or vekrti. That is a choice we have to make at every moment. Now Dharma as I said Dharma means harmonious belonging.

I’ll make two more points and then we’ll open for question answers that and each of these points will take one and a half hours each. So the Dharma as I said it means harmonious belonging. So each one of us belongs to many units. So for example we belong to a family. From a family we get something and we are expected to kill somebody.

So similarly we may be working in a company. We work in an office. So when we belong in the office we get salary from the office and we are expected to do work as the way to belong to our movies. We belong to a community. We belong to a country.

So each of us belong to many larger units and thus we have many different dharmas. For each unit that we belong to we have a dharma over there. So if we are in driving in America we drive on one side of the room. If we go to India we drive on another side of the room. The specifics of Dharma may have any but we are meant to belong to whichever whole we belong in a harmonious way.

And like this if we consider there are larger and larger wholes and then the largest whole is God is Krishna. So, when Krishna says, so, he is not telling that you give up Dharma. The emphasis is take up the So say if we are working in a company and sometimes if you are working in software company, you might be a part of we might be a part of two teams. In one team, we are expected to do one thing, another team we are expected to do another thing. And now if both team leaders want us to work at the same time, what do we do at that?

That is a Dharma Samgata. So we are belonging to two holes and two holes are pulling us into different directions. If say there is a deadline in our workplace and we have to be there in office at the same time maybe our child has got into trouble in school and we are as parents have come into the school in which I have met with the accident or child has got in some kind of trouble. Now okay should I go to school or should I stay at work? That is Dharma Samkut.

When there are two dharmas pulling us in two different directions so which hole do I belong to? That is something which has to be decided and we all need to be able to decide that care And this can be a tension this can be a cause of tension. For those of us say who have come from India to America then for us our identity still we are Indians. Although we are born in America, we live in America, we may have American citizenship. I have seen that Indians, they live for thirty years in America, but they are much more interested in Indian politics than they are in American politics.

Now American politics affecting them, so they are more alert to it. But we all have a certain sense of belonging. Now children, if they are born here, then what happens is they have two dharmas. As well as children who are born in America, they are like coconuts. What do you call coconuts?

They are they are brown from outside but white from inside. So what happens is that when the skin is brown, so you could say genetically or genealogically or ethnically they’re Indian. But psychologically, culturally often they think like Americans. So then what do you do? You know which identity do we highlight?

That becomes the conflict. It’s a Dharma Sankat. There’s a term called ABCD. Have any of you heard of this? Yes, American born confused they cease.

Some people are confused. That’s a Dharmasankat. What do we do? In today’s world for example, women face this competing dharmas especially. See, one of the big emphasis of feminism is, oh women should have a career and it’s fine.

It’s like women having a job is nothing against traditional culture. The in the gopis used to sell butter. There’s a fruit vendor over there in Krishna Lila also. But there’s one dharma is okay I want to have a job, I want to have a career, I want to have my own identity. Now other dharma is, I want to be a mother, I want to take care of my children.

Now these two dharmas, sometimes they pull us in different directions. Now which dharma is important? What is happening is that while both dharmas may be important biologically there’s a choice is do I want to be something to someone or do I want to be everything for some? You know, like, if somebody just goes into a career, okay, you become a software engineer, you become this, you become that. No.

We become like an interchangeable or replaceable unit in a large associate. Nothing bad about that. But for a month, for a child, the mother is not interchangeable or replace. To some extent that we can apply the same thing to the father also, but specifically nature has arranged that the mother is the primary caregiver, not just biologically, but even psychologically. Mothers are much more attuned to be able to take care of children.

So now what happens is two dharmas may pull us into different directions. So which dharma do we decide to belong to more? In the West, it has happened that more and more women choose career and then often the propaganda comes that marriage and motherhood are like traps. And then the result of that is they by the time they were 35, 40 or some 45 income, they feel very lonely and empty and they’re like, what am I doing? What do I have in my life?

And it’s another big problem is sociologically population is decreasing in the Western. The population will decrease enormously unless if there had been no immigration. Only immigration that is keeping the population balanced to some extent. Immigrants generally bear bear more children than the than the what they call the Vast, right? Anglo Saxon protesters, Americans, Caucasians.

So in many of the big cities in America among the white population, the number of pets is more than number of children. So what happens is that the need to nurture is there and we don’t have a need to nurture, we don’t address the need to nurture by taking care of a baby when we get a pet. I was at the Govardhan Eco Village and it’s a place in India where there’s a lot of spiritual opportunity and atmosphere for for people for anywhere but especially for westerns. And lot of yoga teachers come over there. They come to learn yoga, the yoga students come, their teachers come to learn to further deepen their practice, they bring their students.

So I met one person over there, I said, yes, I asked him what do you do? American person, he said I am a yoga teacher. And what? Yoga? He said, no, dog teacher.

Says, what is dog? Doga is yoga with dogs. I want to do everything with my dog so actually if you see Google there are pictures like you know the person will be doing yoga stretching and the dog will be searching its paws and the person that shifts us and I don’t know how dog will do shifts us but whatever so there is dooga and then there is koga what is koga Yeah, cats. So basically the need to nurture is there and that is now missed there is elected elsewhere. So but the point is it’s attention is the concept of dharma and dharma samovar different dharmas pulling us in different directions.

That is something which is universe. Universe, we cannot avoid that. So when I was in, when I think I started coming to America for twenty fourteen. So 2015, I came by the coast of actually. 2060, ’20 ’70.

So I was once in Texas. I was giving a class, and after in that class, an American girl asked a question, why don’t religions fight among each other? And I gave an elaborate answer. And I could say I talked about three more. They talked about extremism and everything.

She was quite satisfied with the answer I could see. Then after the class, I was talking with people, and then she came forward and said this question had been burdening me for a long time. You have relieved me. I’m so grateful. Can I give you a hug?

Now I’ve been told that this possibility is there. And in the western culture, hugging is just a normal expression of affection. That doesn’t seem like that for us and certainly as a Brahmachari. So now what happened for me that as a Brahmachari obviously I have to say no. But as a teacher of Bhagwadida, as a preacher, I should not discourage it.

So I had talked with my spiritual guides and they said that for them, that’s an expression of their appreciation and attention. We cannot reject that. So then I just look at the devotee was with the host over there, organizing the provost. I figured, please help me. So he helped me, but in the most unexpected way.

He said, he’s a monk. On his behalf, you can hug me. And his wife was next to him. When the wife said, I’m his wife on his behalf. So I told this incident to my spiritual master, Raghav, but he was laughing and he said that.

No. We cannot accept the expression of affection, but we cannot reject the affection that has been offered. So we have to find a sensitive way in which to deal in such situations. So the point is that we all have multiple identities, multiple roles, multiple dharmas we have and often there will be a tension between them. So when Krishna says Sarva dharman parit jama mekam sharanam raja what does he mean?

He means that when two dharmas are pulling us into different directions, should we do this or should we do that? Let us focus on Krishna and let us think of how best can we serve Krishna in this situation. So ma ekam sharanam ji. For Arjuna, the two dharmas that were pulling him in two different directions were at that time Arjuna was a Kshatriya and Arjuna was a Kuru Nandena, he was a Kuru Mancha leader. So as a Kshatriya as a Kshatriya dharma was fight.

Anybody who is a aggressor, anybody who is a aggressor, that person needs to be killed. But now he was not just he had a he belonged to the Guru Amisha he was a Guru leader. He was a Guru. He had a Kula Dharma. Kuladharma is if we are belonging to a particular community, a particular race, a particular dynasty, a particular family, we are going to protect the Hinduism.

So Kshatriya dharma told him fight. And Kuladharma told him, both fight. So does he had a what do I do in such situations? So now what does Krishna tell over here? That if two dharmas are pulling us in opposite directions instead of looking here and looking there and getting confused look upward look upward to see ultimately I belong to Krishna.

I’m a part of Krishna and in this particular situation, how can I best search? How can I best search? So there Krishna wanted that Dharma we established in society and for that purpose Arjuna needed to fight. So when Arjuna says I will fight, how did he fight? He is not saying I look I am Kshatriya and therefore I am fighting.

He says Krishna, I will do your will and if your will means fighting, I will fight. So going back to the earlier example I gave that somebody is working in the company and they have two team leads. They belong to two teams and each team lead wants them to do the same something at the same time. What can they do? I suppose that they have access to the CEO and the CEO they write into there is two projects whatsoever the CEO says you know okay you work on this project but what about the other team that team need to get get angry with me I’ll take care of him.

I’ll deal with him. So the idea is that Krishna is not telling Arjuna to give up Dharma. Krishna is telling Arjuna to have a higher vision of a bigger belonging, a bigger belonging. For example, in the Mahabharata said that for the larger whole, sometimes the smaller whole is being supervised For the sake of the family, one member will sometimes be sacrificed. For the sake of a village, one family will be sacrificed.

For the sake of a country, one village will be sacrificed. Now, of course, ultimately, it says for the sake of the soul, the whole world can be sacrificed. But the idea is that there is higher dharma and dual dharma, and the highest dharma is our dharma for Krishna, belonging to Krishna. Having said this, so what are we discussing over here that how does Dharma work in this world? So sometimes there will be tension between Dharma.

Dharma basically is might is right. So, but might with virtue is right that will be sanskriti. That is the kind of dharma we want in society. Not that the law of the jungle. So, now that brings us to the last call Janik that when Arjuna won the Kurukshetra war did he will because of the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita or because of the knowledge of archery that he had learnt throughout his life?

What do you think? Both. Sorry? Both. Both.

Yes. Now both. Why both? Because the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita gave him a purpose. Okay, what am I meant to do?

And the knowledge of Archery gave him the tools. So we need the purpose. What what am I meant to do? Why am I meant to do it? And then we need tools for it.

So if Arjuna had not been that great in Archer, he could have fallen to the fox. Karna could have killed him. Dhruva Pratyakshmi. So Abhimanyu was not that great messenger. Of course the opponents resorted to Adharma.

They fixed up the attacker but eventually he was killed. So in this world for us if we want to do some service, so I’ll close with one diagram. This is epitomized by Hanuman. It is actually also Hanuman like Arjuna, he’s a great devotee, he’s also great warrior. So Hanuman’s folded hands, they signify bhakti.

Now bhakti in one sense is the ultimate dharma. We want to belong to Krishna. So that is dharma taken to his ultimate. Hanuman, the mace that he hands is in his hands that signifies Shraddi. So for us to succeed in life, we need Shakti and we need Rakti.

We consider four quadrant diagram. We need Shakti and we need Rakti When both are there then there will be success. Now suppose somebody is asked to cook for a festival and they have bhakti. They cook in a very devotional prayerful mood, they have they have nice picture of deities, the kirtan is going on, they also pray to Krishna, they will start cooking but they just don’t know So they have bhakti, but they don’t have shakti. When they cook, Krishna will be pleased by their cooking, and only Krishna will be pleased.

Isn’t it? So bhakti without shakti, there will be spiritual but there’ll be material failure. There is spiritual success but at a material level, there will be success. So if you want to be successful in the material world, we need to acquire the required shunt, whichever field that might be. If somebody wants to lead a kirtan, they may have a great devotional heart, but if they don’t know how to sing, they may sing off off tune, and Krishna will be pleased with the singing, but you know others will not be.

So the idea is that if there is no bhakti and no shakti, you know that there’s only failure, material and spiritual failure. Now if there is Shakti but no Bhakti then what will happen? Like industrial success. Shakti there’ll be material success but there will be spiritual in it. So now what we want is both bhakti and shakti in our life.

So through our practice of, the sadhana we do our chanting, we do kampasat samura, we all try to increase bhakti. But by all this we can also develop our shakti. Sometimes we have particular Shaktis already. We can use them in Krishna. Sometimes the practice of bhakti uses clarity.

K. These are the gifts that I have been given. These are the gifts that I can use. And then we can use those in Krishna’s sense. So if you see Arjuna Shakti was different from Bhima Shakti.

Bhima had great physical prowess and Arjuna did not have. Now Yudhishthira Shakti was different from Yudhishthira Shakti. If you consider the perspective of character, you cannot think of two brothers who are as different as Yudhishthira and Bhima. Yudhishthira was a Kshatriya, but he was almost like a Brahminical Kshatriya. That bend backwards and but try to avoid conflict.

Bhima was a Kshatriya Kshatriya He was not like Duryodhana. He was not out to abuse his power for selfish purposes. But still he was different. So the point is that we all will have different kinds of Shakti. And when Krishna says Maa Anusmarat Yudhye Chah.

Maa Anusmar is our bhakti. Yudhye Chah is with our particular skills, with our particular strengths we fight in this world for whatever service we are called upon to whatever dharma we are called upon to do. And when we do both that’s when we’ll be successful. Srila Prabhupada’s life if we consider he had always great Bhakti who read his writings written in 1940s the way back to God that he published over there. He is filled with profound realization.

However, at that time he did not have any followers. He did not have any references. His message did not go very far. The message was potent. When he came to America, he got followers.

When he had that shakti, then Shakti I am talking into the material manifestation of the Shakti. When that happened the Prichy ex now this is expanded. So this is the principle each one of us when we want to serve Krishna, we want bhakti and we also want Shakti. Shakti means whatever particular service we want to do we need to have the appropriate skill set for that sense. And when Srila Prabhupada asked how will the Krishna conscious movement spread?

He said it will be by organizational intelligence. One of the questions he was asked towards the end of his life. Now he did not say you should wake up and attend mughalati every day. He did not say that you should charge him to stay in a hotel. Of course, all those things are important.

But if the Krishna conscious movement is to spread in the material world, we need the appropriate material skills. We need the appropriate material skills. What is material skills? We need to plan properly, we need to follow-up properly, we need to organize properly. So if we are not doing that then we won’t reach.

One of my friends, he has now become a devotee. He he told me that when he was searching for his path, he wrote he wanted to this was before the Internet 02/2007, ‘2 thousand and ‘8. Internet and email had not become that big. So he said they were there. He said he wrote through 25 temples, big temples in India.

He does an email, send physical mail asking what what you know I want to learn more about Hinduism. I want to learn more about Bhagavad. I want to learn more about Dharma. Can you teach tell me some things? Said I wrote to 25 temples and I wrote to 25 churches.

And among the 25 temples, not even one temple was put. Not all of them were called temples. You know the way these temples. Among the 25 churches, there was not even one church that did not respond. He said all of them responded within one week, ten days.

He said five of them, they send me free Bibles. And two of them actually send a representative to give a Bible to me at my home. So now in this world, might is right. Those who market themselves better will reach better even if there’s some substance is not not that great. So might is right will always be a truth.

Now it is this is not to criticize Christianity as adharma. I’m just talking about a principle over here that those who are competent, those who are at a material level having the appropriate skills and working appropriately, they will reach more people. That’s just a fact of life. So when the war started, when the Islamic rulers were attacking India, Indian Kings would fight on elephants and the Muslim kings would come on chariots. Now the elephant has a certain level of majesty but just because you are so high up makes you also vulnerable.

So if one Muslim king would shoot one arrow and a king is killed, the whole army would collapse. Shivaji Maharaj changed the complete dynamic. If you see Shivaji Maharaj, the famous king in Maharashtra, you will not see a single image of him on a chariot. He is always on horseback. The Muslims would come on chariots.

Now horses without chariots run much faster. So he was outnumbered. The strategy he used was sudden attacks. Guerrilla warfare. As nowadays they call it asymmetric warfare.

So it was Asymmetric. He just did not have the forces. So what did he do? He used the Shakti of speed. So the Shakti we all whatever battles we need to fight we need to acquire the right Shakti.

To the extent we acquire the right shakti, to that extent we will be success. So shakti and bhakti are both required. At the end of the Bhagavita, Krishna says Yatra Yogeshwara Krishna, Sanjay says actually. Where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna? There there will be victory.

So there there will be glory. There there will be happiness. So in this way Krishna and Gita calls all of us to actually grow in our lives in both Shakti and bhakti. Well, someone writes what I discussed today. I talked about the Gita’s teachings three principles how we can apply them in our life.

So I talked about first is that there are three terms. The first is prakriti. I the first the first part is I basically introduced terms. Prakriti means might is right. Now on that basic truth, we can move in two directions.

Sanskriti means what? Anyone remember? Yes. Might will always be right, but it is might plus virtue. So it’s Sanskriti is the rule of the jungle.

In the jungle, if an animal animal becomes weak, animal becomes, become develops, becomes lame or blind, They just fall prey. It will just be devoured by others. But in human society, if somebody is weak, it is not sacrificing, surviving of the fittest, it is sacrificing of the fittest. That is Sanskriti. As compared to that, Vikruti is what?

Might plus wise. Might plus wise is right. That means though might is right will always be a truth, but above that we can have various truths. And then I talk about Dharma means harmonious belonging. So Dharma has two aspects.

There’s individual aspect that I do my part properly. If I am driving, I follow the rules of traffic. And then there’s a social part. Social part is where that I do my part rightly, and I’m not pulled over because I belong to a particular community and I’m not just allowed to go scot free just because, I belong to a privileged community. So there’s individual dharma and the social dharma.

So individual dharma means we make right choices. We belong harmonious. And social dharma means that the right choices will lead to the right results, so the right consequences. So the positive will positive actions will give positive rewards. Now Adharma means the opposite.

Adharma means that those who do positive get negative and those who get do negative get positive. So now how might Adharma occur? Adharma may occur when there is Vikruti in suicide. When those in charge are not concerned about virtue, they become concerned about vice. So might becomes used in the service of vice.

Then I talk about Dharmasanphet or Dharmasanphet. We belong to we have because we belong to many different roles. We all may sometimes feel pulled by different roles. Like a parent may feel pulled. Should I continue working at home or should I go and take care of my child who is having some crisis?

So basically we all belong to multiple holes and we could say each one is larger than others and the largest one is is Krishna. So that is God. So when we feels that means one duty is pulling us in one direction and other duty is pulling us in the opposite direction. For women their maternal and professional roles may pull them in opposite directions. For a preacher culture may impen them to do one thing but compassion may require them to do another thing or sensitivity may require them to do another thing.

So we are pulling in different directions. So what is the solution? At such times we need to look upwards look upward towards Krishna and see how best can I serve Krishna in this situation and then act accordingly? And then lastly we discussed that we should resolve dharma properly and then we talked about the principle that samskrti has to be built on top of pranupati that we all we need to acquire the appropriate shakti in our life. We discussed this diagram that there is shakti.

Shakti is not just physical strength but skill that is required for service and that is good. This is the best situation where there is all around success, material and spiritual success already. So now he if we have Abdi Vadhu Shabdi, we’ll have spiritual success but not material success. Now if we have neither there’ll be no success at all and there can be material success if there’s shakti but there’ll be no spiritual success. So it is our responsibility to develop bhakti by sadhana but also feel responsibility if you want to do a service at bhakti then we also need to develop the right shakti.

So seva if you have a seva vow, if you have a service attitude, that means the Bhakti has not just devotion, but devotional service. So devotion is seva vow means we try to increase our bhakti, and we also try to increase the shakti which we can do our own. So if you want to build a temple for Krishna, bhakti that intention is good. We do nice kirtan, we do nice identity worship but we may also need to raise funds for that. And so Bhakti and Shakti when both come together that’s when we could actually practically transform the world.

And each one of us may have different Shaktis which you can use in Krishna’s Essence. Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? Yes. So you’re talking about the response, Kriti.

How would that be applied in a corporate culture? For example, this start helping somebody who does not have correct strength. That would also be leading to, ineffectiveness of the organization that you are spoon feeding somebody in higher that can be solved. How would you worry about this? Good question.

I need to go to get into politics. I understand. Yeah. So this basically this is the fundamental question of conflict between the political left and the political right. You know, what is the idea of the political right?

The right is all about the right are conservative. Those on the left are liberal. So what we can understand is those who are on the right are concerned with what is right in the existing structure. And those who don’t fit in that structure, that’s your problem. You exist.

You settle. So the right are concerned about they see how many things are working in society. Preserve that. Now the left are concerned with those who are missed out by the existing system. So the right and the left both have any concerns say for example if we have say consider credit in India now credit is immensely popular but say probably ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.

The cricket coaching academies and cricket talent scouts they’ll mostly be in the big cities. Mumbai has a disproportionate number of players being a part of the Indian cricket. Is it that Mumbai has more talented cricket players born in Mumbai than anyone else? That could be one possibility. Other possibility could be that that the the support is a supporting environment, is much more.

So now the the right will see, this is working. We are getting so many so many good candidates coming over. But the left will say, oh, good. All other part of the country is left out. We should have coaching and there also.

We should be. So now who is right? Sometimes the right is right, sometimes the left is left is right. What that means is sometimes we need to conscript that this is still and it’s working and we can’t just reject the system because some people don’t fit into it. But sometimes it may be that the left is right.

Okay? Not many people are left out of it or the people who are left out of the system. There’s a they they are suffer severely. So for example, now in in the case of right, they focus a lot on individual response. You know, you work hard.

You raise yourself up by your bootstraps. In the left, there’s a lot of emphasis on social justice, social change, systemic adjustments that so now which is required will interpense. It’s not that there’s one absolute answer. Sometimes so now in the case of your specific question, if people are incompetent, can they become competent? Maybe, maybe not.

So everybody needs a bit of a helping hand sometime or year and we should have an ethos when we offer children a helping hand. But it shouldn’t happen that somebody offers a helping hand and the other person expect that your hand should be there all the time for the rest of my life. Everybody then you can actually take a response. So in general competence is like Shakal. People need to have basic competence.

If people don’t have competence and people don’t have the commitment to develop the competence then helping them is really not helping. Like I think it was in Harvard there’s a big court case There’s an Indian boy. He wanted to get into medicine and he had nearly 3.94 perfect cGBA. He didn’t get it. He was in South India.

So he did some some kind of underhand things and then he brought some kind of genetic connection and he claimed that he is black and he got his meditations from all I believe universities. He actually he entered in and studied for one year and then he just dropped out and he is going to book out with experience so exposing the college. So basically Indian and Chinese students they sued Harvard because they found that now a student with maybe 2.9 c g p a from certain communities could get in and somebody with 3.9 c g p a wouldn’t get in now. So actually in many ways Indian universities are much more transparent about their admission quotas or admission systems. Now if you have what above this much percentage there’s a cut off.

So although the law will get admission, although the law will not get. But many of the big universities in America they don’t reveal their their priority rights. They’re very non transacting. So now America prided itself on being a meritocracy. But you know if say if merit is not there I have a devoted friend who works in in Harvard although the whole environment is a leftist and he said I cannot speak this public name.

He says that when through this diversity quota students come in they just can’t cope. Like some everybody in the class has a IK of 141 student has got IQ of one twenty. Then what happens is you can either you have to slow down everyone to fit that one person or that person’s still are they struggling to catch? And then that often these people just drop out and they feel very they feel I failed with my life. Instead of going to Ivy League College, they could have gone to a middle level college and they would have actually succeeded.

So the point is Shakti will always be required. Now sometimes support is needed. So this giving support cannot change the reality that competence will be required. So a person does not have a basic level of competence then just creating social change is not going to correct those changes. So that’s why the broad answer will be a support should be given but support should be given so that the person starts learning and growing and taking responsibilities.

The person either is not willing to do that or the person is just not able to do that. Then maybe the way support should be offered is give that person some other group or help them encourage them to find some other group. Just a follow-up, probably. So in society, it is different. In, organization, it is different.

Society, we may even the person is not able to raise him up for the competence, we may still help out. Yeah. But in organization, it’s not like that. It it it works everywhere also. Society also to what extent can you do it?

Many countries now especially which is that? There are some countries where the China is facing this problem, Japan is facing this problem. They will have a very large older population and the younger population is not there at all. So there is no very few people who are wealth creators and there are large number of people who are dependent on socials their version of social security or whatever. So So how much can society support image?

I think in Italy, in two countries, I think Italy and Poland, they have arranged that that actually, like, any couple who has more than two children, then the pope will personally baptize their child. There’s that much of a crisis over there. So they release they have they have financial incentives that the government provides some support But the thing is that society can support only up to a particular point. So I think the extent of support will differ from the particular organization that one is part. So especially if one is in a very competitive field.

Say, for example, if somebody in the military, if you don’t have competence, you will be killed. You will cause other people to die. So if somebody in some other field where it’s not so high stakes, then, you know, more support can be given. So I think it which which four you do not also make a difference. Yes, sir.

Okay. I understand. Hello, Krishna, Progy. You said, Progy, when we are in the two dharmas in opposite direction, We need to look up to the lord of Narsisha. Correct.

But in that situation, our mind will not go there. Our mind will go this two situations one. Correct. How can you talk? Well, you have to get frustrated looking in two directions.

So that is one way. The other is we have some devotees who guide us somebody who is looking upward and they help us look upward. See ultimately every one of us has to come to terms with the finiteness of the human condition. That means that we are all finite beings and we cannot do everything that we like. We cannot even do many things that we want to do.

So we have to make choices And the idea is that ultimately when we look up, it is not just in frustration. It will be a lot of frustration. But eventually, it is by the understanding that God has a part for me to play. But that does not mean I have to do the whole thing. Now I have a part to play and I meant to play my part as well as I But then when we surrender depend on Krishna that doesn’t mean you don’t play our part.

It means I will play my part but that doesn’t mean I have to control everything and to make everything else. So that’s why sometimes we have to decide that this if you connect with Krishna we may be able to understand the Dharmi Yogam from Krishna says that we will get a little bit of clarity of confidence that okay this is the part I should play right now I should prioritize right now. Other things will be taken care of afterwards okay I take care later Rokshana will take care things will work out so that understanding that I am a part of a team We say often this we use that as a shloka to beat bioethics. The philosophical implication is that the eternal parts of Krishna do not become one with Krishna. But its psychological implication is that if we are always parts of Krishna that means we will always have parts in Krishna’s plan.

Krishna will always have a part to play for us. Say somebody take a cricket team and now they will only if they are in the cricket team of India, they will have a part in the team. Now what is that part? Are there crit keepers, fast ballers, media pacers, spring baller, and attacking batsmanner, sheet time, middle order batsman, whatever. I think that will be but they have a part.

So we are always on team Krishna. We always have a part. Which part it may be that we’ll gain? Sometimes you may have to accept that this part I can no longer play. And I’ll focus on this part and then play this part.

So the last question before we start with thank you very much.