Today on the sacred of teaching, I will speak on the topic of Krishna’s or God’s love for us and our love for us. Specifically, I talk about the topic of, does God care? There are so many things that go wrong in the world. So many things go wrong in our own lives. And when such things happen, it’s natural to get this question.

That even if we accept that godliness, does god care? And oh, lord. He is god in whatever manifestations, conceptions of god are there across the world. For god Nasimuddin, they are one of the happiest manifestations. So the lord, his anger is actually a demonstration that he cares.

So, generally, we get angry about things that we care about. And his his very anger at every form that is manifesting on the Bible, that indicates that he cares, and he cares deeply. So the Lord in his form of Nasimadev is half man. He’s half loyal. He’s half man, half loyal, and full God.

He’s fully manifesting divinity, especially in the divine manner, matter of divine power and divine, specifically, anger. So I recently written a small book on the Bhagavad Gita. It is praise inspired word. Can all of you see this? Yes.

So we will read something from this book and how it relates to the theme of how the lord cares and what does it mean. So basically, in this book, I have taken verses from the Bhagavad Gita and we use them as inspirations for offering prayers to the lord. The Gita is not just a source of wisdom. The Gita is not different from Krishna. The Gita’s verses are like mantras.

They are also like Krishna. So you can offer prayers inspired by those verses. So I’ll take one such one such verse, and then we talk about the Lord’s so basically, in this book, there’s one beautiful picture of deity of Krishna on each page. Then there is one prayer which is like a spiritual or emotional affirmation. Then there’s the Gita words, and then the translation of the Gita words in a poetic form, so that you can feel a more emotional connect with Krishna and with the words of the Gita.

After all, the Gita is a song. But sometimes the philosophy of the Gita, we may forget it’s a song. And then there is a prayer offered based on that. So I will talk about this. So let’s so I’ll read something out.

Do we have a second mic for any chance? Second mic for people to ask your reader or facilitate it. I’ll need to set one up with you. No. It’s okay.

No. It’s okay. So anyway so you can repeat after me. You just repeat. My dear lord My dear lord.

Let your smiling amid my suffering strengthen my faith, not weaken it, This is the context of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna is just beginning to speak to Arjuna. Krishna starts speaking from 2.11. This is 2.1. So those of you comfort with Sanskrit can decide the words after me.

The Lord of the senses spoke with a gentle grace. A doming smile playing upon his divine face. Between the eyes, standing calm and bright, he so laced Arjuna was blending his bride. So this is Krishna and Arjuna in the battlefield. And the key point in this verse is that the contrast.

Arjuna is crying. Arjuna is tears. And Krishna is smiling. The different, people are born in your own families unless they have different reason. What what is the reason?

This is, I have so many problems in my life. Whenever I go to temple, Krishna is smiling all the time. So, yes, it can appear that we are facing so many challenges in life. And does Krishna care? Now we may have some challenges.

If you look at the story of Prahlad and Nasim, Prahlad faced far more challenges than what he faced. It was not just challenges, it was threats threats to his life. And if you see, Prahlad could have had the reason to ask this question even more than us in many ways. Because for him, Sikhiweg, our problems may come from many sources. Generally, when we face problems in life, the problems are broadly because of three factors.

The problem will come because of just the nature of the world. Nature of the world means that if we live in a place which is very cold and it complains so cold, it’s so cold, it’s so cold. Now let’s just say what you’re saying is so old, so old, so old. You get used to it. That’s how it is.

Sometimes the problems may come because of the nature or more precisely it could nature or behavior of the Mhmm. So nature of the world that blocks broadly in many contexts is called as Adi Dahi Klish. Just the nature of the world. Then there is Adi Bhauti Klish. Nature of people or the behavior of people.

So there could be mosquitoes which bite us, and there could be human beings who bite. There are mosquitoes, there’s and then there’s mother-in-law. So we have problems coming from people around us. The nature of people or the behavior of people. And then the third source of problem is the nature or behavior of ourselves.

This is sometimes a hard pill to swallow, But many times, if you see the problem that have come in our life, they have come because of our own actions. Sometimes we get angry over trivial things. Sometimes we end up indulging in things we should not be indulging. Sometimes we make some rash moves, and then we get into trouble. So these are broadly they are are the ethnic.

So now when the sufferings come in life, naturally, we may not miss God. Please help me. Please help me, oh lord. So when sufferings come because of the nature of the world, that’s one thing. You just have to okay.

I’ll look with it. It. Now in the case of Prahlad so this boy has talked with him afterwards. I don’t know what it was typical, teenage adolescence is just going through that phase. The hormones are growing, one is trying to deal with peer pressure, trying to find one’s place and buy.

It’s a difficult phase. I once I did I have done some writing seminars, attended some, I have conducted some also. So many times people say that, I would like to write, but I don’t have ideas. Where do you get ideas to go? Some people have too many ideas, but they don’t have the patience to translate the ideas into reality.

So this is a so one of the answers I give is if you have survived image, you have enough stories to tell for a lifetime. Especially if you have survived image in a culture that is radically different from our traditional culture, our family culture. This is a very tough period. But there are just a group of pains that are there. But if you consider the situation of Prahlad, his pains, we could say, among these three which are the category of the pains you said?

Was it because of nature of the world, nature of people, nature of others, his own behavior? Which was it? The nature of the people. People. Sorry.

How the Bhagavad Gita is depicting this or how the story unfolds that his own father is out to kill him. And this is about to happen. It is probably for the child who is growing up. It’s the most psychological scarring thing that can be imagined. The person who’s supposed to be a protector.

Now, sometimes the parents are just negligent. That itself is a problem. But if the parent is violent, now it is violent because of okay. He will drink alcohol, and we are alcohol abuse, these domestic violence, something like that. That’s terrible.

But this is it is not, like, anger that is causing come from somewhere else, and this was the child gets caught in the crossfire. It is anger directed at the child itself. And it’s knowingly it’s not just like a rush of temper. We’ll talk about why it is not. It it can be enormously scarring for a person, for a child who is growing up.

The very person who is supposed to be a protector is out to destroy me. What kind of world is this? What kind of god would be there who would allow such a thing to happen in the world? So he could easily have asked this question. And now, is it now why was his father angry with him?

Because of his devotion. So he could say that Prahlad could have said that it is not because of the nature of the world that the problem is coming my the problems are solely because of my devotion to you. Isn’t it? It’s all not all, but the main thing Hiranyak Kishipu wanted was that, Prahlad, you stop worshiping Vishnu. He considered the one point of Vishnu to plead like a disease.

He says, this is a terrible thing. Stop it right away. See, for us, most of the times, we consider the relationship if we are practicing devotion and our situation in the world. So whatever situation you’re going to do, if you practice devotion, we expect that the devotion should improve our situation. Now that in many ways, we expect it to improve.

We may in the past, it was more of a karma kanda where God, that, oh, father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, givers are dealing with them. So people in the past will look for physical needs, physical improvement, to all in daily rains so that any harvest is bound in. And now people may turn towards god, not so much for physical needs, but more for psychological needs. Oh, god. Please give me peace of mind.

One of the most common reasons that we ask people, why do you come to a temple? It is not many people come because of the love for god. Nothing wrong with it. It’s to appreciate whatever reason we come. We come for peace of mind.

And that’s also improvement. It’s a big improvement. Now it’s, it’s very you can’t just buy peace of mind with a pen. So we expect that our devotion should improve our worldly situation. Now in the case of Prahlad, his devotion itself is the cause of the worsening of his worldly situation.

Now when this happens, you know, we practice bhakti. Use a very wonderful, definition of Krishna consciousness. It’s how he says he asked, how will you know that we are Krishna conscious? So he says, if you come in from the temple, come in the temple, come in from the deity. And if you feel that deity is asking us, Krishna is asking us, what are you doing for me?

What are you doing for me? We are all meant to be of loving service to the lord. So, naturally, the lord will ask, what what service are you doing? So if you have that mood, if you feel that, that Krishna is asking, what are you doing for me? That is Krishna consciousness.

Now many times when people come to a temple, their question is, God, what are you doing for me? I have this problem. I have this problem, and I did this pooja, and I did this tapas. It’s time for you. It’s time for you to pay up now.

Come on. Do something. So So, normally, we expect our devotion to improve our situation. And if even the situation does not improve, we get agitated. We start thinking, should I be worshiping god?

Okay. Well, I think this is not working for us. So so now but if our situation starts worsening because of our is natural for any person when they practice in bhakti to get the question. So let’s look a little bit at the prayer order. So do we have another mic?

No. It’s gonna take some time. No. I’m not touching one. So maybe someone has a mic in their throat.

Somebody will hear it loudly. Oh, yes, sir. Please. Can you read the first paragraph? Oh my lord.

Many are the times when I feel lost and lonely, confronted with the perplexities of life. At those times when nothing I do seems to be working, I cannot help but wonder, do you, oh lord, know my plight? Yes. So now we will theoretically know if Krishna is commissioned. Krishna knows everything.

But does Krishna know my situation right now? But does Krishna know how to cope with the situation right now? And does Krishna knows that he came for the situation. So Prahlad is being threatened. He he was practicing his devotion, and he was not even trying to impose his devotion with his father.

It was only his father to ask some questions. That’s the time he would speak. He wanted to learn in your school, and he would speak sublimely sweet points, And those sublimely sweet points would drive his father into a wild rage. So and his father, it’s like the the story that he undergoes, we will go over the story and especially focusing on the climax and on the simulated audience. So how things evolve at that particular time.

So essentially, we see the descent into into depravity, into brutality. Redekashiko is a brutal person, but even everybody, no matter how bad they are, they have some boundaries. That, say, if somebody’s a criminal, they say, I want to rob, but, you know, I don’t want to hurt anyone. Or even somebody who’s a Okay? I will kill, but I am not gonna be killed.

You know, so everybody has certain boundaries. So initially, when Hiranyakashipo sees that his son is, is talking about bhakti, He, Hiradevan Shubhas defined his life by being anti God. He’s not just an atheist, he’s a anti theist. Antitheist. His purpose of life is to destroy Vishnu.

He’s teasing that I will perform more and more austerities, and by the power of Tapasya, I will destroy an issue. And he thinks that, okay, he thinks that Vishnu is so scared of him, Vishnu has disappeared. So I can’t find Vishnu anywhere. If I find him, I’ll destroy him. But till I can’t destroy him, I will destroy all signs of worship of him.

And that’s why he sends his demons to destroy all the sacred releases, all the Yedgesthales. Right? Yedgesthales over here. So, watching that again, remembering this past in this past, what he said is, destroy all signs of worship of him. That and, like, eight people he he has a great ego, and people who have a lot of ego, what happens is the one thing they cannot tolerate is being ignored.

You have a person who has a lot of ego and they come to a particular place, and nobody notices them. They are enraged. So he now he has a lot of ego. He wants to throw around this weight and dominate people, so he thinks Vishnu is like that. So he thinks that if I stop the worship of Vishnu, if I completely end the worship of Vishnu, then Vishnu, because of his ego, will come out from where he is.

And then I can catch you and I can kill you. That’s why he stops all worship. And then his situation is he stops the worship of Vishnu practically all over the universe, and then he finds that very worship of Vishnu which is stopped all over the universe, that worship is happening in his own home. So this is infuriating for him. He thinks that so, he thinks, okay, my child is a small child.

So, normally, what we try to do is that if we like someone, then even if they do something bad, we try to give them the benefit of the doubt. And that’s how it should be, that if we like someone and, say, they eat too much food. Maybe we have prepared meal for four people, and they eat the meal of three people. And then one person has to the remaining three people have to share one person’s meal. Or maybe they have a special dessert and they eat two of the dessert.

Then if we dislike that person, we’ll say, so what a clatter? No sense control. But if we like that person, we’ll say, oh, maybe maybe he was very hungry. Maybe he didn’t do little limited food. We’ll try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

So generally, what happens, we try to find the blade somewhere else. So like that, Virani Krishu says, okay, my son is nice, but maybe some of these Vaishnavas have somehow come and infected. So although he has tried to remove all devotion, but he still know that some people still are practicing Magdi. So he first warns his students, his teachers, you should watch out. You should not let my children, my child associate with bad people.

So for him, devotee the bad people. Not associate, not let them associate. And then he let them off with a warning. Second time it happens. Again, Maharaj said the same thing.

This time he’s angry here. This knocks for a lot of time. Oh. And then he again calls his teachers. He says, okay.

Okay. Now we’ll take care of it. So now that the sequence that is described in different narrative, there is a, there is the Mahabharata, there is the there is Simma Purana, there is the Vishnu Purana, there are other Puranas where some is some narrative is the sequence is described slightly differently. This could refer to how different Kalpas things happen. But the point is that slowly, he starts recognizing first he gets he get he blames the Vaishnav also coming.

Then he blames his teachers, his students’ teachers. You are not taking care of him. And then finally, he says the act, this child, this child is the problem. And then, there is a difference between anger and danger. So anger generally is hot headed.

When we are angry about something, it arises from the circumstances and it stays for some time. Anger is hot headed. But what Hiranyakashipu exhibits is not anger, it is hate. Hate is cold blooded. It is not just one moment of anger that is, oh, this Palla needs to be killed.

We always speak like that. I’ll kill you if you do this. One devotees suddenly showed me, that that child had run up run away, and then the child came back. And then I was talking with the child. It was just a small misunderstanding.

The child had just taken too seriously. The parents but the parent, the father showed me a small clipping, and they were laughing. So there’s a there’s a mother. Her daughter has run away. And she’s a Christian.

She’s praying to God. Oh, God. Please let her be please let my child be safe, and let her come home safely so that I can kill her. So the idea here is that sometimes you may use the word and kill you. So that’s in a very nonlitrous sense.

It’s an expression of anger. But in this case, it was real. He said that, you know, if a part of the body gets infected, then we need to cut out the part, otherwise everything will get infected. So he said like that, and therefore, I need to kiss him. So see, here, what he’s doing is, sometimes when we do something bad, we might just do it in a rage.

So when anger comes up, anger just sidelines our intelligence. No? Sidelines means this put pushes aside. But when hate comes, hate doesn’t sideline the intelligence. Hate recruits the intelligence.

Recruit the intelligence means we use our intelligence to make a plan how to do it and how to justify it or stop it. This is where we rationalize. And if you heard the word rationalize? So when we rationalize, what happens? We tell rational lies.

And when we rationalize, we tell rational lies. So he’s justifying the killing of his own son by saying this is like a seizure, the disease has to be removed. So then, it tries to kill I was talking earlier about boundaries. Even bad people have some boundaries. One of my friends is awarded for a jail.

So he says, even more prisoners, if the prisoners come to jail because of some child abuse, even prisoners look like children. Then the child those child abusers are kept in some kept in some they’re kept in seclusion, solid confinement. Otherwise, prisoners will harm the person there. So everybody has boundaries. So even Hirany Kishipu has some boundaries initially.

He thinks this is my son, I cannot kill him. So he tells others to do the dirty work. He says he has assistance. You kill him. Now they all try to kill him, but none of them succeed.

And often, this is seen as a miracle. And yes, it is. That the miracle is he’s thrown down a mountain and nothing happens to him. He’s kept at a burning fire. He is bitten by snakes.

He’s put in the path of trumpeting elephants. And none of those efforts, they were injured. So that is a miracle. However, if you look at Vaishnavacharya’s commentaries, look at the commentary, that is not the biggest miracle. See, miracles are basically broadly, they could be of two kinds.

One is things that happen to us. Things that happen to us. To us means that something as she happens. So here, he’s threatened, and he’s he’s no power, Prahlaj, just a small five year old boy. As a five year old boy, how can he defend against anyone?

He’s cut. He survives. So that’s a miracle. But if you look at the Bhakti tradition’s commentaries, the bigger miracle is not his safety. That his safety is definitely miracle.

But the bigger miracle is the things that happen through us. That the bigger miracle is his his purity, his determination, his devotion. The technical word is fidelity. Fidelity is faithfulness. That despite all this happening, his devotion is not cheap.

And that is the bigger miracle. Srila Prabhupada would sometimes be asked, can you perform some miracles? And Prabhupada would often point to his some of his disciples, and he would say, these are my miracles. But what is the miracle over here? The biggest miracle that matters is the change of the human heart.

There can be many miracles that you can have. Somebody can make somebody can make an object disappear, somebody can make an object appear. Many different kind of miracles can happen, and they have some bad now. But the biggest miracle is the change of the human heart. The change of the heart means what?

A person’s heart is directed towards selfishness, towards ego, towards dominating others, and that person becomes selfless, gentle, caring. That’s the change of heart. That’s the miracle which will actually make bring real happiness in our hearts, and that’s the miracle that will bring happiness in the world. So the miracle from the Bhakti tradition is not just that Prahlad survived all these attacks. That is true.

It’s also that Prahlad’s devotion survived. Prahlad’s fidelity to the Lord, his faithfulness to the Lord was unshaken. Not even once did he have second thoughts that I should worship the Lord a lot. And and that is the glory of Shivrabhu bath also. Shivrabhu Bhat came to America.

In many ways, everything that could go wrong went wrong. You know, if some people believe a lot in fate and some people believe in science, you know, okay, this is educated that God wants to do this is educated that God wants to do that. Now, sometimes that’s a science can tell us something, but if you look at the science of what happened, there’s so many signs for Prabhupada. Right on his journey, he got a heart attack. Hey, this is why God doesn’t want me to do this.

And then after that, everywhere he went in Pennsylvania, people the his host treated it like a curiosity object, not a spiritual teacher. He don’t want to give it from me. Then he got to pure heart, and there the person said that, okay, he didn’t say it but he can’t speak, because then his philosophy was different. And finally Prabhupada came to counter culture and just when something good seemed to be happening, there’s one person David Allen who seemed to be about to And then what happened, this person went on he took he had a he used to take drugs before he had a, drug and relapse, and he went crazy and came to attack the robot. And well, is this mission gonna work, ma’am?

These people ever change? No. The fact that Bhopal did not give up his mission, that itself is an error. Even if Prabhupada had not succeeded, the fact that Prabhupada built hundred day temples and all 70 boats inspired millions of people to become devotees, that is definitely miraculous. But the fact that Prabhupada’s devotion survived all their tests, that is also a miracle.

So Pradhalad’s devotion surviving is a miracle. And when the threats come in our life, the question comes, does God care? So when the whole world seems to be screaming to us, no, he doesn’t care. If God had been caring, why would Pranlal be subject to such a danger? Why would Prabhupada have his prospective disciple turn against him and ready to attack him?

So when the world’s world’s evidence seems to be screaming to us, no, God doesn’t care. At that time, are we ready to turn away from the world? Are we ready to hear a source beyond the world? So that is what Purna loves to me. Let’s look at the next paragraph.

Will anyone else like to read? Sure. Yes, please. Yeah. Go on.

If you if you do know is that the one you want me to read it? Yes, please. Yes. If you do know my suffering, then why do you not step forward to stop it? If instead of stepping forward to help me, I came to know that in those moments, you were smiling while I was suffering.

Oh, lord. How would I be able to maintain my devotion to you? Thank you. So basically, here, Arjuna is suffering and Krishna is smiling. So if we come to know that when we are going through something terrible, terrible situation, then the lord is smiling.

Can you even get it? How can you be smiling with this situation? If somebody goes to a therapist and the person is breaking down and the therapist is smiling, you know, probably, the client will sue the therapist for emotional wounds, emotional injury. Isn’t it? How can the child smile, mister Chaim?

So the so at such times, you know, when the world’s evidence doesn’t seem to support our emotion, at the time we need to look beyond the world. We need to look at scriptures. We look at the times in scriptures when there have an interaction between the things in the law. Because Krishna has arranged this world in such a way that the evidence of the world will always be mixed. That sometimes the evidence of the world will strengthen our faith in God.

And sometimes the evidence of the world will question our faith in God. Why? Because this world is made for those souls who do not want to become anything to do with God. Now when I was introduced to Bhakti about thirty years ago, I started, actually, I was introduced to Bhakti my childhood, but I was reintroduced to the philosophical dimension of Bhakti, I’m happy here. So, Satapur, I don’t have anything to do with God.

I don’t need God for anything. So for people that, if this God came Yeah. I don’t care if God cares or not. This we can be apathetic towards it. But for those who are a bit devotionally minded, so so people may come to such conclusions because the world’s evidence will never be completely unambiguous.

So that it’s saying that believers need no reasons, non believers accept no reasons. So the word is such that believers, those who have faith, they will have experiences from within their hearts and confirm their devotion to them. And those are non believers that will come up with some explanations for somehow that actually just takes explanation how this doesn’t go anything. So that’s how things will go on. So that’s why we cannot rely on our eyes alone for the evidence of God’s presence, God’s training, God’s love.

But in history, there are some times when this veil of Maya rings, and then the Lord appears. And the Lord’s love manifests in the world. And those are the times that we need to dwell on. Those are the times which should become the homes for our heart, the homes for our thoughts. And it is by remembering those incidents that we gain strength, we gain perspective.

Now hybrid tradition has such powerful founding stories. So for example, the Jewish tradition, the the journey of the people to the chosen land, that’s the story that they enter it derives straight from. In our tradition, it is the Ramayan, the Mahabal, it is the Mahagotam. Why? Because in daily history, we may not see God’s hands all the time.

But there are some times in history that God’s hand is seen. And those who are to be devoted, they need to be able to remember those times. And that’s how our beings are staying our way. So can we go to the next part? Yes.

Oh, like today? Any other lady? Question, Navees? Yes, please. What is this?

Bless me, darling. Bless me to remember, oh lord, that you are never smiling because I am suffering. It is through my suffering that I’m becoming more open to your calling. So Krishna is not suffering smiling because we are suffering. Krishna is smiling because, say, a a a if there’s a doctor.

And sometimes the doctors, they can they can observe someone, and gaze, you got this disease, you got this disease, but the patient is in denial. I don’t have any disease. So then, the if the disease symptoms are more so slightly, And that’s when the patient comes to doctor. Please, I need your help. So the doctor smiles not because the patient is okay, but because the patient has come to a place where they will get cured.

So it is that when we are going through difficulties, it is not that Krishna doesn’t know our difficulties. We can read this once again. You, my lord. You know my pain. You know my pain.

You feel my pain. You feel my pain. And you want to heal my pain. And you want to heal my pain. So the lord is there, not just somewhere up there, high in the sky, far away.

The lord is in here with us in our own hearts at the bottom. So he knows what we are going through. And if he’s not intervening, then that there’s a reason for that. Now what is that reason? We’ll talk about that, and I’ll conclude.

So this last part will take two hours. So basically, now what we’ll talk about is this one graph which is four quadrant diagram, which explains this concept. That is love and then it’s anger. Now, love and anger, can both of them go together? There are four possibilities.

If there is no love at all and there is no anger, then there is simply apathy. You know, I don’t care for you, and because I don’t care for you, I don’t care what you do also. Once I’ve tried to do mediation between two people, and one of them said, I know you are handling it to other person. No. I’m not handling it.

But if you don’t care for a person at all, it’s apathy. Now if there is no love and there is anger, then that is envy. So there is love no love at all. There is hate. The opposite of love would be hate.

Especially if there’s anger, then that is envy. Now as far as Krishna is concerned, Krishna is never in this category. Krishna always loves everything. So we are talking not from our love perspective. We are talking about the lord’s love.

We are talking about the does the lord care? Does the lord care? So this I can tell you your interpretation. I’m the beneficiary of all many beings. We’ll talk shortly about how.

He’s the beneficiary even of inner. Now now if there is love and there is no end, No. That is sweet expressions of love are there. So when we are someone who cares for us, celebrating these cool sweet ambiance. Now we could talk about romantic love, where there’s a lot of, emotions and hormones and all that.

But when there is not not those hormonal kind of infatuation, but here, there’s a deep sense of ease that is there. We call it serenity. When there is love, and there is nothing to agitate the mother. We’re just being we are happy with being with that person. So that is serenity.

And there are times when there is love and desire. And that actually shows the intensity of the love. So now love can be seen in both ways, through the absence of anger and through the presence of anger. Say, for example, somebody has done something which hurts us a lot. But because we care for that person, we don’t yell at that person.

We try to stay calm. That shows love. Normally, we’ll get very angry and yell at the person, but because that person is very important for us, we try to stay calm. So that’s one aspect. Now suppose somebody is an suppose a child is Mother will give a scolding to the child.

But that scolding is also an expression of love. Now scolding should never be the only expression of love. Then what happened is love is not seen at heart. But the thing is that it is only because I care for you that I’m angry. So sometimes you’ll be angry with the child, you say, for I’m not some mischief or if somebody’s hurting our child.

You know, we will anger that person. That would also be a sign of love. The point is that in the world, that Krishna’s love is there, Krishna when a devotee is going to suffer, it is not that Krishna does not care. So most of the times, that love is seen through the serenity of Krishna. Most of the times what happens is Krishna is severely.

Now now we talk about Krishna and there are a few times in history when Krishna’s anger comes out. That Krishna’s love is expressed through his anger. So now when Krishna is serene, Krishna is peaceful, that doesn’t mean Krishna never cared? Well, not exactly. Krishna cares, and Krishna shows his care by enabling us to also experience serenity even in the middle of the air, even in the middle of the pain.

So this is the amazing thing of bhakti that in bhakti, you will say, what is God doing for me? Does God care? If by bhakti, it’s not just emotion, it’s not how much we dance in khipus. It is not how much we roll in ecstasy. A bhakti is actually how much is our heart centered Krishna.

How much do our thoughts find their own in Krishna? Our thoughts’ own is in Krishna. What does it mean? See, we may for various jobs, we may go to various places, but yeah. You can.

Yeah. Various, jobs, we may go to various places, but as soon as the job is done, we come back home. So like that, we may have to think of various things in the world, but as soon as the things are dilute, our thoughts come back to each other. So for us, when we practice bhakti, what happens is almost mystical, there’s an internal effect of bhakti, and there’s an external effect of bhakti. The internal effect of bhakti will be that we will find that we are peaceful even in chaos.

That if we start practicing bhakti, how do we know Krishna is carrying the external problems are there? But in the past, those problems would have shaken us, shattered us. Now, when you start practicing those problems will seem to affect us so much. And that is Krishna acting from within our heart to calm us. Now Krishna can do that, Krishna will do that, but we need to turn towards him.

We need to fix our memories. We need to remember him. And that’s what I said is the miracle. So was Lord Nrsimhadev not helping Prahlad till all the time when he was being prosecuted? Yes.

Dhanushimade was there. And it was because of the Lord’s presence in Prahlad’s heart that Prahlad would stay calm. Prahlad was not affected. So this is something which I I earlier I said people feel peaceful when they come to the temple. How does that happen?

Actually, we’re coming closer to the presence of Krishna. So essentially, when we grow spiritually, when we habituate ourselves remembering Krishna, Regularly, we practice Bhakti. We come to temple. We do our mantra jamba. We do our kija.

What happens? Initially, for us, the world is very big, and Krishna is very small. And in fact, this is what Indra says in his prayers. He says, we used to worship you before, but this Hriday Kashi was terrorizing us, and that’s why we had to stop worshiping. But as we grow spiritually, as we become advanced devotees, the world becomes small and Krishna becomes big for us.

So this was the situation of Indra, and this was the situation of Prahlad. And so although there was a huge threat for Prahlad, for him the world was small. Krishna was pleased with him and he was worshiping Krishna. So if if the world is big, then what happens? The world’s ups and downs, they also become very big.

Sometimes our mind makes them even more big. But if the world is small, then the world’s ups and downs also become very small. So that’s how, as devotees, if we practice Bakfi regularly, we will find that our resilience will increase, that life will still batter us with problems, but we won’t be that affected by the problems. The problems will not shake and shatter us to that degree because we will have a connection with our lord. And that, the lord is the bigger reality.

The lord has a bigger plan for us. So when we understand Krishna is the bigger reality, Krishna the world is smaller, Krishna will take care of things that the world will do for us. When a devotee if we have the devotional vision, what happens is, I understand that my vision is a finite vision. And this finite vision is not the final vision. The finite vision is not the final vision.

So right now, within my finite experience, I may not be seeing Krishna intervening and helping me, but this is not the final vision. There are times when Krishna is helping the past. There are times when Krishna will help me in the future. Right now, let me not make my present experience the basis of all my decisions. So Krishna, when he doesn’t seem to be active, he doesn’t seem to be doing anything.

He doesn’t seem to be concerned. He’s still active, and he’s giving us strength and certainty from within. Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over the obstacles of the world. What does that mean? The world along with its ob along with its obstacles will become smaller.

And by my connection with you, you will become big enough to go over those problems. So Krishna’s love is seen by the peace that we experience when we go through the difficulties. When you you know that I have both here. So in February I was at 11, I was once really chanting in one of the temples in India. And when I was chanting, I didn’t notice, because somewhere, at those times, I I would not use crutches.

I used to wear a brace. My the brace had a walking stick. So I was walking, and I didn’t notice that there was a little water over there somewhere. And my leg went under the water, and I slipped. I slipped, and I completely fell.

And this leg was already very weak because of, polio, and I had osteoporosis and other things. And I felt it was a minor fall, but a severe fracture. Yes. Several hours of surgery had to be done. And I have an old friend who’s named East.

He said to me, he wrote the name and said that he was in, you were in the temple of God. You were chanting the news of God. And at that time, you had an accident. So what is the use of your worship in God? So, actually, that was one of the most transformative spiritual experiences for me.

I I fell out of this terrible pain. I tried to chant, but I just don’t focus on the chanting. See, Bhakti is our mechanic. So, one month, what the way I connect with Krishna the most is through the Bhagavad Gita. Reciting the Bhagavad Gita’s words says, remembering the Bhagavad Gita’s words says, contemplating.

So I thought Gita’s also were not just source of wisdom. They are, like, personal friends for you. So somehow, at that time, I started reciting the Gita’s verses. And I started reciting the verses of the Gita, and I felt as if the pages disappeared. I said, what happened?

Then I stopped chanting, again the pages came back. And initially, we thought it was not a very big fall. We thought it got a problem. But, the pain kept persisting. Then we went to, doctor.

The doctor’s we need his excellency, and he said, hey. This is you’ve almost been severely ill. I said, time. And I found that I was almost lifted above the fever. When I finally I came to the hospital where we have the only hospital in Mumbai, I was chanting the verses, not out of devotion to Krishna, but out of wanting to avoid the pain.

I hope one day I’ll chant my devotion. But the point was, and I told him this, see that same experience which from an atheistic perspective will be, what’s the point of worshiping God? In the temple of God, while chanting the ring of God, you fell down and you had an accident. But that same experience from an external perspective and internal perspective. Is there any doubt?

No. That was one of the experiences that convinced me about the reality of Krishna consciousness to elevate oneself, elevate us above our body situation. That doesn’t mean we get ourselves into pain unnecessarily. It’s not that we put ourselves into pain and see, let us see if I can remember it, so I can go walk. No.

Not like that. But the point is that Krishna may not seem to be intervening, but Krishna is intervening. So, Pabralla, the fact that Krishna was there was what enabled him to stay fixed in his devotion. And there are times when Krishna manifests his anger. So finally, when Hiranyakrishiko decided enough is enough, what happened?

He sent the sun back to school, and he said, let’s see. Maybe this is just a phase that can go through. Some people think when you practice Bakhtin’s satisfaction, they go away. His father said, now I will take matters in my own hands. He wanted to not just kill Prahlad himself, he first wanted to kill Prahlad’s spirit.

And therefore, he said, where is your Vishnu? You claim to worship him, Dimuganar Singh, saying he’s everywhere? Is he here in this pillar? And that’s it. Very noisy, I’m thinking.

Like, almost a matter of yeah. Of course, he’s there. And then, Hiranyakashi was fully confident that he will now prove to Allah to be false. Which the problem with the world is that often the foolish people are super confident. And the bigger problem with the world is that the wise people are super doubtful.

So atheists are confident there is no God. And thieves are worried when God is in the God, really there will God help you. But this sound was so scary. And this time when the Lord manifested, that form that had never been seen before, that form was seen. Namroka Namahamushan.

Not an animal, not a human being. Hiradekashipu had many blessings by which he thought he would never be killed. But in every blessing, there is some room bone. He could have immediately hurt Hiranyakashipu apart. But he was waiting.

He was waiting till it was sunset. And then it was sunset. Hiranyakashipu thought that, you know, see, in this particular battle, Hiranyakashipu was smaller. Normally, the odds are against the devotees. But in the similar way, he manifested it in giant form.

And Hiranyakashipu thought, I’m still winning. But then within a few moments, when the Lord saw the sunset, the twilight, he just grabbed Hiranyakashipu, dragged him to the place between the inside and outside of the room. And there, just now he was dragging an a knock and he was just trying to get out. Now Viranya Kashipu had wanted to break the spirit of her, and the Swindale broke the spirit of Viranya Kashipu. Because for her dedication, she knows, I am so powerful, I can control everyone.

And the Lord came there, but before he came there, he was completely dominated. It’s like, you know, sometimes two boxer, somebody I’m a charpit boxer, And there, one boxer catches the other boxer in one deadly group. Then I’ll go away. I can’t do anything at all. It’s reduced to complete helplessness.

And then Lord, this is what they Europeans go to India for health tourism. They get surgery done over there because it’s cheaper there. So an American came there. He said, what is this? This is the original subject.

So were they successful? Yes. Operation successful? Patient. So now lord Nasimuddin, but he was very angry at Tiranakashipu, but that anger was not towards the soul of Tiranakashipu.

And it was Prahlad also, he he saw his father being killed. He did not he did not feel joy. Oh, you tried to kill me. Now you have been killed. Nor did he feel remorse.

Oh, my father has been killed. Dad, what is his emotion? His emotions concern. Because there could be joy, but you tell it now, you try to challenge me, my devotion, that’s not what happened to me. Sometimes some devotees get pleasure in some bad happening to those who are forced to doubt.

The father was not getting that joy. And the same time, his emotion was said, oh, people will think because of me, my father was killed. His emotion not at all self centered. The emotion was centered around his father’s. He said, he did a pray to him, Narasimhadev.

Please deliver my father. And what did the Lord say? That actually, that 40 generations of a devotee’s family are all amplified because that person becomes a devotee. So for the lord, although he was angry with Rendi Gashibbu, that anger was not a when he was basking and bathing in the Lord’s presence, the Lord smiling joyfully on him, the Lord listening profusely, the Lord seeping him on his lap, the Lord putting his hand on his head, So for him, even after he got the word, the word did not suddenly come big for him. He still remains small, the Lord remains big.

So there are times in our life when we will see Krishna’s end in our life. We’ll see things happen in such a way, yeah, this this good can happen without Krishna. There is synchronicity, there is what we call serendipity. Things do happen. And there are things like that have happened in history.

So when those happen, we gain conviction from those vapes that actually Krishna is there and Krishna cares. And because Krishna cares, that is why he is he it’s not that he cared at that time, he doesn’t care now. He always cares. So let me remember your smile, Amit, I saw to him, as a sign of your confidence and competence that you can tackle in any and every problem no matter how gigantic it seems to be. So last sentence, who would like to read this?

Yes. Not that the Lord doesn’t care. If we are suffering and the Lord seems to be smiling, that doesn’t mean he does not recognize, he doesn’t care. It just means the Lord is having some plan. He’s taking his time.

He is capable. The Lord could have been killed in a negative way. The Lord let this time pass so that the world would know the glory of the beloved. And how glorious is the devotee that Sometimes it is seen through the actions that happen in the world. Many times it is seen through the actual changes that happen within our God.

In how our hearts stay steady in the love of our Lord. So let’s summarize. I talked about three main points. I talked about how we understand that Lord’s love as does Krishna care, does the Lord care? That was the compliment that.

Yes. When we were discussing this, normally, when we practice bhakti, you know, we have a certain expectation. What is God doing for me? When we go through life, we practice devotion, and we expect it to improve our worldly situation. And that’s a reasonable expectation.

But sometimes, instead of improving the worldly situation, what happens is our situation may worsen. And at that time, how do we process? So if we look at the world itself, the world’s evidence can sometimes strengthen our faith, because some things happen which can strengthen our faith. But many things can happen in the world which can weaken our faith. So that’s why we cannot rely on the world for our faith.

Then what what do we do? We turn towards scripture. And there we discuss the divine dynamic that there is the dynamic of love and anger. So the lord is never having apathy that there’s no love and no anger. The Lord never has enmity towards anyone.

So these two are not true at all. And what is true? That the Lord when his love is there, but there doesn’t seem to be any anger, there doesn’t seem to be any concern, that is where the Lord gives us serenity. The Lord helps us to experience an almost mystical calm, even when the world is a permanent place. So this is where what happens, we are here and initially the world is big and God is small for us.

But eventually what happens? The as we grow spiritually Eventually, what happens is that the world becomes for us, the world becomes small, and Krishna becomes big for us. So, this is the situation of Hralal. This is a a serious devotee. This is the situation of Indra who represents more of a materialistic kind of devotee.

So, now this serenity comes because Krishna has become bigger than the world. And we see the last part. So when there is there are times when Krishna experiences expresses intensity. Intensity is where the lord’s love becomes manifested in his word. So the lila that is performed over here, this lila and such lila, not only lila, these should become the home of our hearts.

It is by remembering these things, these past times that the lord intervened, that the lord protected devotees. The lord’s protection became manifest at a material level. Like, the he was Jagra Upadam is Jagra America, is this, like, it is written in the nectarian pastor in Jagra Jedda that is giving me strength, so this becomes the home for our cause. And then, with that, what happens? We accept that my finite vision is not the final vision.

So we, with faith, with patience, we wait. We keep maintaining our devotion to the Lord and that devotion will be vindicated. He said, Prahlad was glorified. The Lord had a bigger plan, but he did not intervene at a particular time. So maybe the Lord will intervene in this time.

And the miracles that the Lord does and miracles can sometimes be external where the situation just changes dramatically. That the miracle can also be internal, where we can be peaceful even amid the chaos. The external miracle is the chaos just disappears, the trouble disappears. The external miracle is that the trouble may remain, but we don’t really trouble. We may have it with trouble, but, you know, we live with pain rather than pain rather than in pain because we now live with our Lord.

So let us pray, you are the simile that, my dear Lord, the day you have demonstrated your Prahlad’s love for you and your love for Prahlad, Let this Ghela become the home for my heart. Let me remember that this historical evidence of your love for for those who are devoted to you, and let that remembrance sustain me In times when I feel the load, when I feel the problems are overwhelming, let me remember you, oh lord, and find serenity and shelter in strength in that remembrance. Let’s recite this once. My dear lord, can you repeat after me? My dear lord, lord.

Let your smile in. Let your smile in. Amid my suffering. Amid my suffering. Strengthen my faith.

Thankyou.

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Transcript:

So, during, it was one to two weeks ago, and we mentioned that everyone should have a service, and not having service is an issue. So, in our temple community, we find that devotees are naturally attracted towards different types of services, and for my sake of understanding and realization, I have categorized them into intellectual and physical services.

And I see there is a phenomenon that sometimes some devotees are naturally enthusiastic about intellectual engagements, such as kirtan, preaching, studying, discussing scriptures, when others take up physically demanding some devotees, like teaching, healing, deity worship, and maintenance and so forth, and so on. But there is sometimes imbalance, like physical services are often undervalued or neglected, leading to disorganization, payouts, some mismanagement, and sometimes even uncleanliness in the temple. And also it leads to unfair distribution of services, like some devotees have a heavy burden of physically demanding services, and I am not saying that intellectual services are not demanding physically as well as intellectually, but I feel there is unfair distribution.

And also, there is also limited opportunities for mutual growth in both categories of services. So I feel how can we, my question is how can we cultivate a more balanced and respectful culture, where all types of services are valued equally, and where devotees are given great opportunities to participate in both physical and intellectual services for the holistic growth and smooth functioning of the temple. Sorry, I just asked Chaitra to make it better, whatever I want to talk.

That’s all I am getting at. So, I don’t know how much I am qualified to answer this question because I have not done many physical services, there are few physical services I can do physically because of the situation. But, I would say that, I don’t know whether kirtan can be called as an intellectual service, but I appreciate the broad classification.

See, there are some services which are more visible and even glamorous. There are some services which will be less visible and less glamorous. Now of course there are some services which are more intellectual, intellectual can be glamorous also.

Now some intellectual services are not very glamorous also. Somebody becomes a preacher who is a crowd puller, that is much more glamorous. But somebody is a preacher who becomes a shastra teacher, you know, that person doesn’t really get new people to come, that person is cultivating devotees.

Then that’s also glamorous to some extent. But it also depends if somebody is a nice krishna katha, then that person is a crowd puller, but somebody is going to siddhanta, teaching bhakti shastra, bhakti vaibhav, there is not so much glamour in that kind of service. But broadly I appreciate the question that there are certain services which people may want to do, devotees may want to do more.

Other services devotees may not want to do. So what do we do in such situations? See there is at one side the individual and the other side is the institution. So now one principle of dharma, the word dharma has many different meanings, but one simple meaning of dharma is that harmonious belonging, that we all belong to the larger roles.

If you are travelling, if you are driving a car on the road, then we belong to the road transport system, we are participating in that. So then we are taking the facility from the road transport system and we have to do something for that road transport system, that is follow the rules, pay the taxes, whatever it is, follow the rules. So dharma essentially is harmonious belonging.

So if you are sitting for this class, if somebody sits right in front, then they are back towards the speaker. So that is just harmonious belonging. Let me disrupt you for a second.

So this harmonious belonging is dharma. So when we belong to an institution, then we also need to learn to belong harmoniously to the institution. Now harmonious belonging has to happen in both ways.

And Krishna uses the word dharma, he uses it both at the individual level and the institutional level. At the individual level Arjuna is asking, vichamiton dharmasamudhichitah, see what is the right thing for me to do? And Krishna says, dharmasamsthapanarthaya sambhavani. At that time he says, I come to establish dharma.

What does that mean? I come to establish the social order. That is virtues, that is guru. So for example, now when we are being a part of the road transport system, say if the road transport system is also just and fair, that means whoever follows the rules, they are allowed to go peacefully.

Those who break the rules, they are pulled over. They are penalized, they are fined or whatever. But if the road transport system, the legal system in this case, the law and order system is personal and partial.

Say people from one community are allowed to go free even if they break the rules. People from other community are pulled over more. Then what happens is the dharma has to work both ways.

The collective has to take care of the individual and the individual has to contribute to the collective. That’s the ideal way to practice dharma. But then it’s a dharmic society with dharmic individuals in the society.

Now from our perspective, what happens is that we are individuals, some of us may also be leaders. Then we have to play our role in contributing to the community. But then we may also be leaders who are upholding the community.

So it depends a lot on the community leaders. If the community leaders show favor or especially praise certain services, then what happens? Everybody wants to be appreciated, recognized. And that’s not a part of the ego.

That’s just a human need. The world is so big and our existence can seem so tiny even within the movement. We all want to be valued.

So whatever is the ethos that is built in the community, then that is what everyone else will want to do. So if some communities are focused very much on say, fundraising for building a temple. And then fundraisers are constantly glorifying.

Or some communities focus only on food distribution. Then food distributors are glorifying. Some communities focus on youth outreach.

Then only those who do youth outreach are glorifying. Others are not. Then what will happen is, it’s like the rewards from the community are coming especially for one group.

And everybody will want to belong to that group. And other services will get neglected. And I’ve seen this happen in almost every community.

Now naturally, the leader of the community or the leaders of the community will have certain inspiration themselves. And they’ll prioritize some things. But the challenge is when prioritizing some things, other things should not be devalued.

All of this is valuable. This is what is most valuable for us right now. So that is one big aspect that what is the dharma of the community that is being followed.

So if all these services aren’t recognized, there will be appropriate forums for recognizing those services. Say sometimes, after the Super Marathon, there may be some, or after fundraising or whatever, there’s a celebration. And there’s a, for everyone, not just for the big fundraisers, but all those who contributed to the service.

Then what happens is everybody feels valued. So that harmonious belonging requires that the harmony also come from top to the bottom. That’s one side.

The other side is from the bottom, the individual towards the institution. Within that, there is a, there is, you call it dharma and then apad dharma. Apad dharma is emergency duty, emergency emergency.

So in general, one principle of foreign ashram is everybody serve according to their nature. Now, of course, what is whose nature? That’s also, it takes some time to figure out. And if we leave it completely to individual, individuals leave it to their mind.

So what is your nature? The mind will say, whatever service you are doing right now, that is not according to the nature. But the mind always keeps us dissatisfied. There will always be some, even in the services that we like to do, there is something which we don’t like.

Isn’t it? So there’s never an ideal situation in the world. Even if somebody likes to preach, but then along with preaching, you have to make sure the logistics are right. I don’t want to arrange the logistics.

I only want to preach. Okay, then you can become a travelling preacher and others will arrange the logistics for you. But then you have to arrange the travelling.

Isn’t it? So now, even in the services, if somebody thinks I’ll only do whatever I like, then that is not the spirit of dharma. What Krishna says to Arjuna is that, sarvaarambhahi doshena dhume naagme. That every endeavour is covered by thought.

So individuals also need to recognize that we cannot just be doing what we like to do with advantage. Because even in what we like to do, there is something which we don’t like to do. And we are belonging to a community.

So sometimes we may need to do things which we may not like to do. So which we may feel is not our nature. So in general, in the initial stages of a community, devotees need to be trained or in the initial stages of spiritual life also, devotees need to be trained to do whatever service they are called to do.

And that way, that mood of service attitude is inculcated. However, as time progresses, each devotee, because we don’t just want devotees to serve, we want devotees to sustain themselves in service. And for that purpose, if a devotee can understand that sabhaav and serve according to sabhaav, then that ethos is healthy.

Because if we are serving according to our nature, we will be self-motivated in that service. Nobody else needs to push us. If somebody likes to study shastra, they will study shastra.

Nobody is watching them, so they will be studying shastra. Somebody likes kirtan, even though nobody is watching them, they will be learning new tools, they will be learning new things, they will be improving their kirtan skills. Somebody likes to keep.

Even if there is no big service, no senior devotee coming to college, they will be honing their skills. So for the purpose of longevity of a devotee, we need to eventually engage devotees in services according to their nature. What they feel naturally drawn to do, whatever they feel inspired, whatever they are talented in doing.

So one system that I have seen work in certain communities is that for the first five years, for the first three years, for the first ten years, whatever, for the first few years, the devotees are trained to do whatever services. And then after some time, by mutual discussion between the authorities and the subordinates, the devotees move towards the service of their own. And that becomes an understanding within the community.

That initially you learn service attitude, and as you grow senior, then you also understand your subhava better. And then you move towards the services that you naturally feel inspired to do. So if that principle is applied fairly, then what happens is everybody accepts that principle.

And then afterwards it moves forward. So then what happens is we give room for individuality. So like I was in Radha Gopinath community, we asked Radha Gopinath Maharaj.

Some devotees are introvert. For them to be together with people is very exhausting. Three, four of us had gone to Radha Gopinath.

Coming for the morning program, it’s like emotionally draining. It’s spiritually energizing, it’s emotionally completely draining. Just meeting people, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.

So we asked Maharaj. Maharaj said that if that is really the case, you have been practicing bhakti for 15-20 years, you have to assess what gives you spiritual strength. Because if you don’t want to come for the morning program, you know, I trust you.

We won’t go enforcing it for those who are practicing. But if we don’t enforce it for anyone, then nobody will be trained. So there has to be some accommodation for people according to their nature.

Nature is not just permanent. Nature can be made in different ways. So the thing is that, but that cannot be made the norm right from the beginning.

So in the Radha Gopinath temple, for the first 5-10 years, devotees should be very serious about their morning program attendance. For the first 3-4 years, I am talking about the Brahmacharya Ashram family, they do whatever service they are told to do. And as they move forward then, they find themselves according to their Swabhava and they engage accordingly.

So that’s one system that has over collapsed. So the other way is that, some way, the other thing is that, when we are talking about Artha, that was the theme over here. See either the devotee has to find Artha naturally in a particular service.

For some devotees, visible services are overwhelming for them. I would much rather be in the background. That could be humility, but that could also be their nature.

They just naturally like to be in the background and do some services. Some devotees may like to do physical services and that’s great. So either the Artha comes naturally for them or the Artha has to be created.

Created means what? You have to show them the Artha. That what is the Artha over here? This is how this is. So maybe in the classes, those themes are emphasized.

Or there are some other ways in which those devotees are recognized and valued. So when that is taken care of, then it happens that both the individual and the collective. The individual training has to be there and the collective managerial vigilance also has to be there.

So that then, there are different kinds of Artha that will take us towards Paramartha. So it’s like, we can say this is Paramartha and this is Artha. So if people start thinking that there is only one path from here, that say for example, during Prabhupada’s time there was a notion that who distributes for peace, Prabhupada not.

That is true. When Prabhupada was asked, what pleases you the most? He said, Love Krishna. So it is not that there is one path from here to here.

And then everybody, whichever service and only then you can grow towards Krishna. That’s not the understanding. We have had some very moving stories of devotees who were never visible and very prominent features and then the last moment they had some extraordinary experience of Krishna and they were all in the background doing some small services.

So the idea is, it is from wherever you are, wherever we find Artha, from there we can move towards Paramartha. So there is a story of Prabhupada’s in Vrindavan and there was one widow. Prabhupada would see from her window that every morning she would go and pluck flowers even if it was cold and she would go and sometimes she would wake up the Pujari and tell these are the flowers for the ladies.

And Prabhupada said that because she is doing this service, she will go back to Krishna. So it is not, if we create that ethos that every service can actually take you closer to Krishna and that we value you for the service. Naturally based on the phase in which the community is, some services will be glorified more than others.

So generally in the morning program we glorify the book distributions. That itself leads to that book distribution being glorified as a very important service. We don’t mention any other services.

Now other services are also quantified. In some temples they don’t just glorify the book distribution, they also add fundraisers. They say this person raised this much funds, this much funds.

Now okay, that was not the tradition but maybe that is required at that particular time. But then we can’t make a list of all the services that are done throughout the day and make it less glorified. Within the existing system, some services may be glorified.

But then it is important to create the system for appreciating and valuing other services also. So it’s like that Artha has to be going back to this particular diagram. So it is that individual should feel the Artha in that thing and the collective should also create that sense of Artha.

When both happen, then it will move forward very nicely. So I was once a judge with Maharaj and we were talking various things. I said Maharaj, what has given you faith in Krishna Consciousness? We often ask questions, what brought you to Krishna Consciousness? So once I was trying to start a podcast, what kept you in Krishna Consciousness? I am going to talk about all the skeletons in our closet for that.

So I often ask this to devotee at an individual level. So Maharaj was amazing. He said that there is a Pujari in Vrindavan.

He first departed. He said that Pujari whenever I go to Vrindavan, I see him. He is an elderly devotee.

Sometimes he does Pujari service. He is there Sarvanchana. So he said that he has been there for years.

He is not a very well-known devotee. He is not a world-famous devotee. That the devotee has been able to do this service year after year after year is the proof that Krishna Consciousness is there.

That without any recognition by the world that he is getting some satisfaction. That’s why he is doing the service. And now that is a remarkable level of recognition.

There is no recognition in the institutional apparatus. But one particular institution is recognizing this is important. So we need to have that system of Artha.

Infusing Artha or infusing value and meaning to his services. And of course devotees need to be encouraged to see the Artha in the service. So both may happen.

It is possible that the community can be properly taken care of. And so the temples or the organizations needs, the devotees needs and the community needs. Both can be harmonized.

So tension, it needs continuous monitoring and discussion and negotiation. But it is possible.

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Everybody needs a bit of pushing because spiritual growth doesn’t feel like a need for nuisance. So, that’s why a little bit of pushing is required. Now, we have to see whether the pushing is actually pushing them towards spirituality or away from spirituality.

So, I was in Texas, not this year, last year, few years ago and there was a car ahead of me and the bumper sticker had a quote Oh God, please save me from your preachers. Save me from your preachers. Normally, in the Christian tradition, God saves us through his preachers.

But if the preachers are too pushing, they are too judgmental, they are too fear-inducing earlier than now. So, we also need to recognize that spiritual growth for many people is a multi-lifetime journey and not everybody will grow at the same pace. So, maybe for some people, what may happen in this lifetime is the Gyan Sukhati.

That they get some favorable appreciation for spirituality. So, we would like everyone to go on the entire spiritual journey. This is spiritual appreciation.

Who knows? They may not take it up now, but it may be that it’s not just we are trying to help them become spiritual. Krishna is in their hearts and Krishna is also wanting them to have a relationship. So, if we open the doors for them, they may not walk through right now, but maybe they go through certain things in their life, one year down the line, five years down the line, and then a big thing happens.

And then if we have opened the door for them, they walk through. But if we open the door and drag them through, then yes, they are not worth it. They will have such a bad experience, they will go, and they will not want to come back.

So, I think little pushing is required, but we have to be observing. What is the pushing doing? If the person is becoming alienated, antagonistic, then don’t stop pushing.

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Hare Krishna………

Joyous sweet Krishna.

Namaste. Krishna. So welcome, everyone, for our Sunday program. So let me start with thanking today’s sponsors. Today’s main sponsor we have is from BISAL, Gochan, and, sponsoring for Liam Gautam’s first grand ceremony, Anna Prasan.

So can you please come up? Okay. Thank you. Let’s take picture. They got married here many years ago.

How many years ago? Five. Five years ago. Okay. That’s Thank you.

Thank you very much. So next, we have Shivani Bagel sponsoring for her birthday. Happy birthday, Shivani. Can you please come up? Hare Krishna.

Thank you. So next, we have Mandira Srestha sponsoring for husband, miss Sombar Srestha. Sabi Badev, Sombar ji, please come up. Happy birthday. Thank you.

Pastor, thank you. So the next we have in the memories, we like to request everyone, please and for three times. We have Imangshu and Archana Srivastava in memory of Krishna Srivastava. If you can come up. Hare Krishna.

So the next we have P Chandra Chudamani in memory of P Parvati. So like to chant one mantra for three times. The next, we have Ram Kumar Kasap in memory of his sister-in-law, Okay. Okay. Can everyone see the screen?

Okay. So so today, today’s program, we have, chanting Kirtan usually happens after the program here. We move to 02:00 because at, we’re going to have a class. My highest grace, probably here at the temple. Yeah.

Yeah. Right here. So the will be starting at 02:00. Okay. And, Hindi class means not Hindi speaking class, but in in Hindi will be downstairs by Sam Krishna Prabhu.

And connect with it. Oh. To you, one bath. Okay. And we have a program down in the same place.

Our old Yeah. Next to the bathroom where my office is to be. So so there and then what we have is right below us. Okay? There is a sign there that says.

Yeah. And, that’s all. Will be also downstairs. Right? Yeah.

Okay. That’s good. I’m giving a is here. Haribol. Hare Krishna.

Is Sachi Prabhu here from Nivindavan and his wife downstairs? Mataji is here. Can you please stand up? So we like to welcome our new newly moved in devotees at the temple. So family, Shaji Prabhu and Mataji and two kids, they’ll be helping us with lot of catering, hopefully, restaurant, and so on.

Let’s welcome them with big round of applause. Thank you. And we also like to welcome Gorvani Prabhu. Haribo, welcome. I just saw him singing with he was singing and Soni Nigam was sitting next to him, following him.

So that was good achievement. Thank you. Thank you. Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Thank you all for coming today. Am I audible to everyone today? So, I’ll speak today based on the Bhagavad Gita on the topic of spiritual growth. So I’ll answer three questions. I’ll be writing something and drawing something over here.

So what do we mean by spiritual growth? Why would anyone pursue spiritual growth? And how can we pursue spiritual growth? Nowadays, the word spirituality is used very widely and often it is used to mean anything that makes us feel good. Oh, I went to that mountain trek.

It felt so spiritual. Or I went to this place. It felt so spiritual. So we often associate spirituality with anything which makes us feel calm, good, peaceful. Yeah.

That’s one aspect to it. But we will speak about this based on the Bhagavad Gita that spiritual growth can be explained in a simple way through one diagram. So everything that I speak today will be centered on this one diagram. See, normally, when we go through life, for us, there is the world. And the world is very big.

And God, even if he exists, he’s small. So when I started my spiritual journey about thirty years ago, I when I came to know about the Bhavita’s wisdom, I started sharing it with everyone. And one of my uncles told me, yeah, I believe in God. He’s happy there. I’m happy here.

So the idea is God doesn’t feel very important or relevant for us. The world is very important. World means that, okay, what kind of job I have? How is the weather today? Do people respect me or not?

Or how many people are following me on social media? So the world is very big. Now this bigness is in terms of not just the size, but we think the world matters a lot for me. The world will determine how much happiness I get in my life, and the world will determine how much distress I get in my life. So it’s big not just in physical terms, but in psychological terms in terms of how much it mattered to us.

But if this is this path of spiritual growth, as we grow spiritually, what happens is the world becomes small and God becomes big for us. That what happens in the world matters. But our relationship with God, that matters even more. So, This is the basic journey talked about in the Gita from 7.16 to 7.19. At 7.16, Krishna says different reasons people may come to him.

But in 7.19, he says, That’s a person who understands God as the supreme reality. Krishna is what matters most in my life. Such a person is very rare. So for the person whom the spiritual matters more than the material, the source of the world matters more than the world, that person is a spiritually advanced person. Now, when we say God becomes bigger and the world becomes smaller, why why would somebody do that?

In one sense, we see the world in front of us and yes, I can eat this, I can watch this, I can buy this, I can wear this. These things are tangible. So in one way to understand this is, the world refers to the externals, that is things. And God is inside us. So we all want to improve the quality of the things inside outside.

But God is the one who can most enrich the quality of our thoughts. We may have the best things in the world but one of the things most lacking in today’s world is peace of mind. People go, oh my mind is so restless, mind is so agitated. Because we are so caught in improving the externals that what effect it is having on our internals, we are not that concerned also. What to speak of being aware of it.

So, God can enrich us with wonderful things externally. But what? When God becomes big, that means our thoughts become enriched, our thoughts become elevated. So broadly, this is spiritual growth. Spiritual growth means the invisible reality, the reality of our thoughts, their quality, and the direction of those thoughts going towards god Krishna, that becomes the most important thing for us.

So now so I said I’ll answer these three questions. What? I’ll keep some time for question answers also. So what is spiritual growth? God becomes bigger in the world for us.

Now why may somebody pursue spiritual growth? Broadly, there are two reasons. Generally, most of us, if we consider this is the world over here, so most people are caught in the world. No. I want to become famous.

I want to become wealthy. I want to become powerful. I want to become popular. And if God is above us, when will our vision turn from the world to God? There are broadly two reasons.

The first reason is when we think, I am not good enough for the world. I am not good enough for the world. That means, oh, I have this problem and I can’t solve this. Or, I have this desire, I can’t fulfill it. Maybe some maybe some money is up there that God will help me.

When I was in India, I was staying in Pune in our the ashram where I was staying, the temple was right next to a school. And we realized that April and May seemed to be the month of students’ devotion. That the students would not come throughout the year, but April and May, they would start coming. Why is that? Exams.

Oh, I’m not really prepared well enough for the exam, but, oh, God help me. So, when we face problems in life which we feel we can’t solve, that is the time this is where we feel I am inadequate, I am insufficient. That the world is big, the world is troublesome, and I need some resources beyond myself to help in facing the world. So, in the Christian tradition, there is that prayer, oh father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Give us our daily bread.

The idea is that at a time when there was scarcity, where there was shortage, so people were not sure whether they would get bread. And then we go to God for getting something which we feel we cannot get on our own. Nowadays, most people, especially in the world, western world, are not really worried about bread. They may be worried about butter for their bread, but bread is so, that particular prayer may not resonate. So, God is not so much seen nowadays as a cosmic supplier, as a cosmic therapist.

We go to God, but I am not good enough to control the world, to get things right. I don’t have peace of mind. So you go to God to get peace of mind. But basically, at this point, I am not good enough for the world. And so Krishna talks about this as people who are distressed and people who are desirous.

So distress means, oh, I have this trouble, I cannot deal with it. Desire is, I want to get this, but I’m not able to get it. So please, oh, God help me. So yesterday was Hanuman Jayanti. A few months ago, I was in India in Varanasi, and I was going for a talk and I saw there’s a small Hanuman temple on the side of the road and on top of the Hanuman temple it was written.

I was quite amazed by that prayer. It’s in Hindi. I’ll say it in Hindi further. I’ll speak in English. You are a celibate from birth.

Please give me a woman. So it is you’re praying to God, but what we are praying is, okay, I cannot get something God by order. Oh, God, please help me to get it. So this is where I am not good enough for the world. Now this was also to some in some ways, my introduction to spirituality.

Many of you noticed when I came in, I need crutches for walking. So when I was one, my mother took me to a polio clinic, to the hospital, to get a polio vaccine. But somehow, we live in a small town in India, and the fridge in which the vaccine had been kept was had had a poor outage the previous night, and the caregivers didn’t notice that. So because of that, when that vaccine was given to me, the germs had increased because of the increased temperature, and the vaccine, instead of preventing polio, ended up causing polio. So now I don’t remember that, but my first memory of that was I was about two and a half or three, and a distant relative had come to meet, that she was consoling my mother.

It’s so sad your son got polio. And I remember my mother’s voice, very calm, clear, confident. She said, whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him intellectually. Now, I don’t know why she said that, but somehow they had stayed with me. And I found that, yes, as I grew up, I couldn’t play outdoor game like other kids could.

I could say this was unfair. I didn’t do anything to do deserve this physical disability. But then as I started studying, I could read things fast. I could remember things quickly. I could articulate things well.

So I some part of me told me from inside that, yeah, I didn’t do anything to deserve this intellectual ability either. So, life is unfair, but in the big picture, life is fairly unfair. Fairly unfair means sometimes we get more than what we deserve and sometimes we get less than what we deserve. So, basically, when we pray to God, sometimes our prayers may be answered, sometimes they may not be answered. But at this level, we go to God because I have problems and I feel I can’t solve them on my own.

And so this is where I am not good enough for the world. Now there is now in this case, what happens, even when we approach God, the interest is not in God. The interest is in the world. So basically, God is like the means and the world is the ends for us. That so if God fulfills our prayers, thank you, God.

Bye bye. And if God doesn’t fulfill, what is the use? I’m not going to come here again. So at this level, it’s good that we are starting a relationship with God, But this is not a very steady relationship. And most of the religions in this world, they operate at this level.

So here, God is a tool to get the things that we want. But God is happy that at least we are connecting with him for that reason. I’ll be connecting with him that, oh, even if you’re in trouble, like a child who has become young and has gone away from the parents, child gets in a lot of trouble and finally comes to the parents. Can you help me? Are the parents going to say, you know, you remembered only when you needed some help from us?

No. The parents are going to say, if you’re in so much trouble, why didn’t you come earlier to us? Well, the parents are going to be happy with the child connected with them. Similarly, Krishna says the word Udaraha. Udaraha means, oh, you’re charitable.

You are so good that you are connecting with me. And Ramanacharya in his commentary here explains that normally, you know, if there is a charity, there’s a giver of charity and there is a receiver of charity. So normally, we would consider the giver to be charitable. But here, it is we who are going to God. And Krishna says, if we go to God, Krishna says, it is we who are charitable.

So how when we are receiving charity, why would Krishna consider that charitable? Because Krishna is so eager that we have a relationship with him. Like the parents are so eager to have a relationship with the child, even if you need money from us, at least stay in touch with us. So that is Krishna’s love for us, that he wants us to be in touch. So even when we are the receiver, Krishna says, oh, you are so kind, you are so charitably.

So he says that in 7.18 in the Bhagavad Gita that even if you come to me for any reason, that is good. So why might somebody consider, going back to the starting diagram, so when we are not able to fulfill our desires, at that time we may consider, oh, the world is big, but maybe there is somebody bigger who can control the world and who can make things happen that I can’t make them happen. So at that time, God becomes bigger than us. Now the other dynamic, there’s another reason why we people may turn towards God. That is if the world is here in front of us and God is above us.

The first reason is that I am not good enough for the world. The other is the world is not good enough for me. The world is not good enough for me can seem very egoistic, but this is not a matter of ego. It’s a matter of realization. Realization that the world promises many things, but it doesn’t deliver on those promises.

Even when our desires and dreams are fulfilled, still they fall short of our expectations. They don’t live up to the promise. So that’s when a person starts thinking, maybe there is something more in life. I I want to be happy always, but nothing in this world really provides lasting happiness. Maybe there is something beyond this world.

This is the fourth category which Krishna calls as gyan. Among the categories of people who come to him, he says in seven sixteen, that those who have got the knowledge to understand the insubstantiality of the world, that what the world offers is not enough. And that is the time they turn towards God. Okay, I can get fame, I can get power, I can get wealth, I can get lots of things. But all of us to some extent have had some of our desires fulfilled.

Nobody can say all their desires have been fulfilled, but it takes a sharp intelligence and of course some divine mercy to recognize this one truth, you know, that fulfillment of desires does not equate with fulfillment of heart. If one can get this particular realization, it’s one of the strongest stimulations for spiritual growth. We all have many desires that drive us. I want a bigger house. You know, I want more designer clothes.

Now I want more followers on social media. We all may have many different kinds of desires. I want to be the CEO of my company. Yes. Now these desires may drive us and yes, we can all have desires and we can pursue them.

But when we start thinking that the fulfillment of these desires will make me happy, in reality we find, yes, it makes us happy. But not for very long. For a little bit the happiness is there and after that it just disappears. So that’s so the whole world’s propaganda is, okay, fulfill this desire and fulfill that desire and fulfill that next desire. Most people will say that’s the nature of life.

You know, you fulfill one desire and then you move to the next desire. You move to the next desire. But, you know, fulfilling every desire is hard work. And how long are we going to keep walking on this treadmill of desires? Try to fulfill it and when?

When will we actually get fulfillment? So what the Gita’s message is about, no, it is fulfillment of desires that are largely associated with getting things. Improving the quality of things that we have. But that does not fulfill the heart. So you could say over here, here it is that we approach God as a shock absorber.

Shock absorber means that life gives us a lot of shocks and life does not fulfill our desires, life hands us unwanted trouble And then we turn to God, like, oh, I want to soften the shock of life. But at this particular point, when the world is not good enough for us, this is where God becomes a goal transformer for us. It is at this point, we don’t turn towards God to turn back towards the world. No. This is not the we turn towards God because we are interested in God.

So this is the state of being, of being wise, of being enlightened. When I was studying my engineering, since my childhood, I always had the desire to be number one in my class. And India is a country where there is a lot of academic pressure for performance. And I was very good at my studies. There are many times when I was joined number one.

There’s one year when I became number one in my class, but somehow my teacher did a wrong assessment and another student came number one. Then when I looked through the question, answer paper, I saw that actually I had she had given me a wrong answer for an answer that was correct. I told her that and she said, yeah, it’s true. Actually, you are the first. But, she said, This is my first year in the school.

And, if a teacher makes a mistake, it’s a problem. But, if the mistake is very visible. Who comes first to the class? It will be very embarrassing for me. Can you let it go?

One part of it, I didn’t want to let it go. I want to be first. But I talked with my mother. The mother said, you know, if she’s requesting you, she’s your teacher. You should listen to her.

So I let it go, but a part of me was still craving. I want to be the first in my class. Unambiguous, like, no. This undistinct number one. So then, I studied engineering.

At that time, I gave the, GRE exam for coming to America. And since my childhood, I allowed English and English words, so I was very good at vocabulary. Often, Indians, when they do GRE, they’re always good at math and analytics, but language, they are a struggle. So when I gave GRE, I came first not just in my college, it was the first in the history of my college. I was first in the entire state of Maharashtra.

There’s several millions of people and students also. So I was on top of the world. Yahoo! Kind of thing. But then, you know, when the mark sheet came by post, at that time we didn’t have emails.

So, I was very happy. But after five minutes, I realized that looking at the mark sheet doesn’t give much happiness. And then, the congratulations started pouring in. I became a celebrity in my college. And everybody was congratulating me.

I was very happy. But then somehow it happened that three of my friends, you could say acquaintances, not very close friends, but three of people whom I thought were friends, they all forgot to congratulate me. And now, when the first person forgot to congratulate me, you know, at that time, I was annoyed. When the second person forgot to congratulate me, I was irritated. When the third person forgot to congratulate me, I was enraged.

What is going on? I didn’t want to sound pathetic by asking them, why are you not congratulating me? It would sound so needy. So I was wondering what to do, and somehow, it was at that time, I felt as if I had an out of body experience. Not literally, but almost conceptually.

I felt as if I was looking down at myself from above. And that part of me which which was looking down at me from above, it said, hey, wait a minute. You thought coming number one will make you happy. But instead of making you happy, it has only made you more dependent for your happiness on others. Isn’t it?

That in the past you could just hang out with your friends but now you are becoming so needy for their appreciation, congratulation, felicitation. So I looked ahead in my life, I thought whatever I plan to achieve, you know, I might come to America, I might get to an Ivy League university, I might write some award winning papers, whatever, I might do some discoveries or make some inventions, whatever I thought would be success, I realized that all of it would still keep me dependent on this external validation appreciation. And I started wondering, is this really what life is meant for? Is this what will bring me happiness? That’s when, fortunately, a friend gave me the Bhagavad Gita.

I read the Gita in my childhood, but it’s only as a book of official piety to memorize my some verses, to please my parents, to win some Gita Shloka celebration contests. But here I pour it as a book of wisdom. And then I found a verse six twenty two in the Bhagavad Gita. Says that and that state, this is talking about the state of spiritual growth. What I talk about here, God becomes big.

Says at that stage, what happens? We become free from all external dependency. See external dependency when we are when the world is very big for us then what happens? Two things. You know, we are always craving for something more.

Whatever I have, I crave for something more than somebody does not have. And then we are also lamenting for what we have lost or what we may lose. So it says that in this stage, when Krishna becomes the biggest reality for us, when we become absorbed in Krishna at that time, there will be no more craving. Things will go there will always be things which we don’t have in life, but there will be no more craving for those things. And even then things will go wrong in our life.

But that won’t disturb us so much. Why? Because our consciousness will be directed somewhere higher. That’s when I felt this is what I want to achieve in my life. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do for the last thirty years.

I’m still on the journey, but essentially what happens when we come to this stage of where Krishna becomes the world becomes smaller and Krishna becomes bigger for us as compared to when the world is big and Krishna is small. So what happens? Two things. So this topic I’m discussing is, why do we seek spiritual advancement? So when the world is big, then what happens?

The world always has ups and downs, and those ups and downs also affect us. We’ll always be unsteady. In fact, for some people, the world’s ups and downs affect them even more. Like, when good things happen, they go way up. When bad things happen, they go way down.

Like, when they when good things happen, they almost become manic in their energy. They feel like they’re gonna shake the whole world. And when something bad happens, they go so down that it seems the whole world can’t shake them out of their bed also. So, it is psychologically this is often called as the manic depressive personality. At one time they have huge energy, positive, completely no energy at other time.

So when the world is very big for us, the world’s ups and downs, they become very turbulent for us. And then we we can’t be steady. We can’t be counted on because we become very temperamental and moody. So, when the world becomes small for us, the world becomes small and the world’s ups and downs also become small for us. So basically, when the world becomes small, then what happens?

If the world is small for us, we become materially or externally peaceful. So we become steady, we become calm. This is what what is very much lacking in today’s world is the peace of mind. We may achieve a lot of things in life, but the peace of mind is lacking because many reasons, but one of them is the world has become very big for us and anything going wrong in the world feels like the end of the world for us. Especially now with the political upheaval that are happening.

You know, if we are too obsessed with the world, too fixated with the news, we’ll be in a constant stage of not just restlessness, but turbulence. So now the world is important, no doubt, but it is not the most important thing. Why? Because ups and downs keep happening. If you look at our own life, we look at say five years ago, ten years ago, if we really remember, there is some problem troubling us at that time and we thought, if this doesn’t work, it’s going to be the end of my life.

And we survived that. So, yes, life is tough, life has its ups and downs, but the world doesn’t have to be so big. Now the problem is why people want the world to be big is because many people think the world is the only source of happiness. If the world becomes small, then they think that the source of happiness also becomes small. Isn’t it?

But the thing is, the world is not the only source of happiness. When God becomes big for us, then we access happiness in our remembrance of God, in our relationship with God. Which is composed by Kulushikar Maharaj, he says that he has been a king, a very powerful and prosperous king. He probably had luxuries and comforts and pleasures that most of us can only dream about. And yet he is saying that among all the pleasures that I have enjoyed in my life, there is no pleasure that comes anywhere as close as the pleasure of remembering my Lord.

So what happens is, we become materially peaceful, but we become spiritually or internally joyful. So this is the state of spiritual growth. Materially peaceful, spiritually joyful. Externally, yeah, life will have ups and downs, but they will come and go. External things, they don’t matter that much.

That is not that we neglect the world. Here the world also matters to us, but here for us, the world is the means and Krishna is the ends for us. That means that, yes, if I can get a bigger house, I could have a bigger altar in my home, I could have spiritual programs. If I have a bigger position, I can do more service. So it’s the world is important, but it’s not the most important thing.

If it works, well then good. If it doesn’t work, it’s not the end of the world. So why grow spiritually? For these two reasons. I talk about that because it can that is what will actually make us peaceful externally amid life’s ups and downs.

And that’s what will give us a joy, give us access to a joy that does not depend on external things. That is through our remembrance of the Lord, through our love for the Lord. Then I talk about the last part then we can conclude with a few questions, is how. So how do we grow spiritually? So I talk about spiritual growth means that the world starts becoming smaller and God starts becoming bigger.

And how do we do that? That’s basically by two things. Krishna talks about this in 6.35 in the Bhagavad Gita. The way to spiritual growth is through abhyasa and vairagya. Now these two words can be understood in many different ways.

But I’ll explain this in a in a simple psychological way over here. That abhyas means persistence. We keep doing something. Vairagya means abstinence. So, what does persistence and abstinence means?

That if we expose our mind to God, then just that repeated exposure will make God bigger in our mind. If we keep coming to the temple regularly, if we keep hearing about Krishna regularly. So, by hearing that, we’ll understand Krishna’s glory, we’ll understand throughout history, throughout the history of humanity how God has protected people, how God has enriched people’s lives, becoming the association of spiritually minded people. We’ll see that that’s not just a historical truth, it’s a truth that is happening even today. So persistence in exposure to God.

So just coming in holy association, coming to temple, chanting the names of Krishna, by this exposure, God will start becoming for us, bigger for us. And abstinence means, abstinence again, persistence in exposure and abstinence in exposure to the world. Now we cannot function in the world with closed eyes, but there are many things which just keep agitating us. If somebody is constantly scrolling on social media, oh, you know, this happened over here, that happened over here, that happened over there. It just keeps us restless.

So abstinence doesn’t mean no exposure. It just means we minimize the exposure. The more we expose ourselves to the world, the more the world starts becoming bigger and bigger. Nowadays, with social media and breaking news, anything that happens anywhere in the world, it just becomes so constantly there in our mind. And sometimes, we are more concerned about, say, what is happening in Serbia than what is happening in our spouse’s life.

We become completely disconnected. I saw one cartoon where one man was telling his friend, yesterday, my broadband Wi Fi went down. So I spent some time with my family. They seem to be nice people. So abstinence.

No need to expose ourselves unnecessarily. Doesn’t mean we’re ignorant or oblivious, but there’s no need to expose ourselves constantly. And how do we bring about persistence? Persistence is best brought about by bonds. Bonds means make a commitment.

I’ll come every week to the temple, or every day, I’ll put some time aside for my sadhana, for my puja, for my chanting. And abstinence is established through boundaries. So bonds and boundaries. Boundaries means, you know, I’m not going to spend, say, more than fifteen minutes on social media. Or if I have to watch TV, I’m not going to spend hours watching TV.

Okay? For some time. Whatever it is that agitates our mind, infatuates our mind with the world, set some boundaries for it. Bonds and boundaries are very simple and powerful ways by which we can actually grow spiritually. When Srila Prabhupada started the Krishna consciousness movement, he gave us bonds and boundaries.

The bonds at the time of initiation are chant Hare Krishna, and we chant a prescribed number of rounds. And the boundaries are the things which agitate and addict the mind to the world. Gambling, intoxication, unrestricted sexuality, those kind of things, we minimize our exposure to that. So I’ll conclude with a diagram which can be a checklist for us. If we feel that we are not growing spiritually, we can see for us, there are bonds and there are boundaries.

So now if there are no bonds and no boundaries, then spiritual growth will be impossible. If I’m never going coming to the temple, I’m never exposing myself to Krishna at all, I’m unrestrictly exposing myself to the world, then there is no chance for spiritual advancement. We are not giving ourselves the chance at all. Now, if there are bonds but no boundaries, that means, yes, I am practicing spirituality. I do my sadhana, I do my japa.

I do my puja. But after that is done, it’s like the you turn into a completely different person only. And then people, after their ritual is over, like, they’re as materialistic or more materialistic than newness. Then what happens is, it’s like the bonds are lighting the spiritual fire and then the no boundaries is extinguishing the fire. So what will happen is, we will not grow much.

On the other hand, if there are only boundaries but no bonds that means, don’t do this, don’t do this, don’t do this. Then what will happen is if there is no it’s like okay don’t expose yourself to the world. But we all need happiness. We all need some higher sense of purpose and progress. When that is not there, then there will just be suffocation.

The bonds are there. We are exposing ourselves to Krishna. But But what is happening? Because sorry. The bonds are not there.

The bond are there. Don’t do this. Don’t do this. Don’t do this. Many people who grow up in a traditional culture, if they they just get the rules on the traditional culture.

But the purpose of the rules is not told to them. And then it becomes, you know, this is so suffocating. There is an atheist, gag against Christianity and that can apply to any religion. In the in the bible, it says in the beginning was the word and the word was God. So what this atheist gag is that in the beginning was the word and the word was no.

The word was no means what? No. You can’t do this. You can’t do this. You should not do this.

You should not do this. So Srila Prabhupada once told some of the devotees who were doing youth outreach. He said, if you present Krishna consciousness, to young people as just a set of rules and regulations, he says, you are doing a great disservice to them. That it’s not it’s not about rules. It’s about a relationship.

Now every relationship has some rules naturally, but the rules don’t feel suffocating if the relationship is important for us. So when we focus on that point of having a relationship with Krishna, then when we have bonds and we have boundaries. Krishna is important for me. So it’s not that I won’t do this and I I won’t do I I don’t wanna spend too much time on TV, I don’t want to spend too much time on this, I don’t want to spend too much time on. It’s not that.

There is something else I want to spend time on. This is what is much more important for me. So this, if we have bonds and boundaries, actually, we will be flourishing and we will be relishing. We’ll be flourishing spiritually and we’ll be relishing spiritual growth. This is the stage which is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called us It said we get entrance into an ocean of happiness and every moment becomes increasingly joyful.

Life will still have ups and downs. And yes, life is tough, but we will have an inner shelter, an inner source of satisfaction. And that happens when we embrace both the bonds and the boundaries. That’s how spiritual growth becomes dramatically transformational for us. So I’ll summarize.

I’ll discuss about the topic of spiritual growth today and broadly three points. The first question was, what is spiritual growth? So we had this diagram that initially for us, the God is small and the world is big. But as we grow spiritually, the world becomes small and God becomes big for us. So essentially, God, in this case, we could say God is the enricher of our thoughts.

So our inner world becomes bigger for us. And the world is basically associated with things. So what kind of things we have, they become not that important. The second part was, why? Why would anyone seek spiritual growth?

So I talked about why in terms of two aspects, the causes and the effects. So what is why would somebody seek spiritual growth? The causes are twofold. One is as a shock absorber that I am not good enough for the world. So if I am here, the world is here, and God is above.

So when would somebody turn towards God? That I am not good enough for the world. That, oh, I have this problem. I have that problem. I can’t deal with it.

So maybe God will help me to deal with it. And the second is as a goal transformer. That here, the world is not good enough for me. That I have achieved many of my desires. But here, I understand that fulfillment of desires does not lead to fulfillment of heart, and therefore, we turn towards something higher.

We turn towards God. And, when this happens, what is the result of spiritual growth? Broadly, when we grow spiritually, as God becomes bigger and the world becomes smaller, then what happens? The world’s ups and downs also become small for us. So we become materially peaceful.

So this is in terms of the this is what the causes. Now the effects of spiritual growth is that we become materially peaceful and our connection with God increases, then we become spiritually or internally joyful. And then how do we go about doing this? It is by the two principles of so this was 7.16 to 19. This is the journey that Krishna talks about in the Bhagavad Gita.

Then, I talked about this in terms of 6.22 in the Gita. And the last was 6.35. So how do we grow spiritually? How? There are two parts over there.

One is the persistence. We keep ourselves ex exposing ourselves to God. We keep singing Krishna’s kirtan, keep coming for darshan, keep doing puja, and there is abstinence. So we abstain from exposing ourselves excessively to the world. So persistence is what we can do through establishing bonds, making commitments, and we can have abstinence by establishing boundaries for ourselves.

And if we do this for every one of us, the world will become smaller and God will become bigger. That doesn’t mean we reject the world here. The world, at this stage initially for us, God is the means and the world is the ends. But here the world becomes the means and God becomes the end. We still care for the world, but not more than God.

And each one of us can check. If we don’t seem to be growing, then what is the reason for that? We discussed this this four quadrants that if there are no bonds and no boundaries, then spiritual growth is impossible. There are bonds but no boundaries, then spiritual growth becomes difficult unnecessary difficult because we are lighting the fire and dousing the fire. If there are only boundaries and no bonds, it feels suffocating.

Why can’t I do all these things? But then here, if there are bonds and boundaries, our spiritual in our spirituality, we start flourishing and then we start relishing our spirituality. This is where the Bhagavad Gita can take each one of us in our spiritual journey where all of us can experience inner happiness. We can become peaceful with respect to the ups and downs of the world and we can become joyful in our relationship with Krishna. So let us pray to Krishna.

My dear lord, please help me to grow on the path of spirituality and come closer to you and find joy in you and be more peaceful with ups and downs of life. Thank you very much. Do we have few minutes for questions or questions we have? Okay. Does anyone have any questions?

Okay. Do we have a mic for that? Okay. Before mic comes to you. So much of what I spoke today is from this latest book of mine, Gita for the CEO.

As Harper Collins asked me to write this, because many people are interested in eastern wisdom and how that can help us to grow in spiritual life or in our professional life. So I presented the Gita as a conversation between two corporate leaders and a very simple diagrams like the kind which I drew to explain the concepts. But this is one book. Then there’s another book here called prayers inspired by Bhagavad Gita that I talk about making God bigger for us. So this book is a very easy way in which you can just have some simple meditations.

Each book has a picture of Krishna and a small prayer and a verse from the Gita and it’s poetically rendered and a small prayer reflection. So like that, there are one twenty two prayers from the Bhagavad Gita. And whatever our prayer needs might be, you can look at the table of contents and find. It’s very easy book if you want to do your daily chanting, you wanna calm your mind devotionally, that can be helpful. And this is a small book, Living with the Ramayana.

So if anyone want to know about how living the Ramayana, how the Ramayana system is applicable in today’s world, it’s also available. So any questions? You have the mic? Yes, please. Okay.

Sorry. How do we grow sadhana? How do we Grow sadhana. Grow Our sadhana. Grow our sadhana.

Yes. I think the way is two fold. First is that each one of us is to find out that what are the activities that give me an experience that that God is bigger than this world. So the point of sadhana is not just to meet a particular target or to reach a to follow a particular rule. It is to get an experience of God.

So, think of which activities actually give us that experience. Maybe it is when you confront our deities and pray. Maybe when we get a kirtan. Maybe when we go to a holy place. So, cherish those activities.

Try to do those activities more. Remember those activities. Write down those memories. So we all need that some experience that there is a reality beyond the reality that experience on daily basis. And then with that as our motivation.

That experience that glimpse of a higher reality that will be the spur for us. What I experience once I can experience more. I want to experience more. And the second thing is so personal experience second is association. Try to whichever limb of sadhana we want to strengthen, try to see who are the devotees who are taking that more seriously.

Try to spend more time with them. Try to associate with them. And with their association, we’ll also get the inspiration to become more serious about the hardhana. Okay? Yes, please.

Okay. So if yeah. Correct. So if you’re feeling guilty, I would say that two things that guilt can be a good thing if it inspires us to avoid doing things which are wrong. But sometimes, what happens is we may just not have the capacity to do something.

Say, a particular standard, maybe just we don’t have a schedule, we don’t have that particular level of spirituality. So if I consider I am here, and here is Krishna on one side, And here is some temptation, some wrong action. Now guilt should come here in between me and the wrong action. So this guilt is healthy. So when I’m doing something wrong inside me I feel bad.

I should not do this. But sometimes what happens is guilt ends up over here. So when this is actually pseudo guilt. If something is pseudo means false. If anything is discouraging us from connecting with Krishna, they said this is Maya.

I’m not going to feel bad about this. I’m going to do what I can in my capacity to connect with Krishna. And maybe that standard is not possible for us right now. That standard will come later. So what can I do right now?

Let me do that, and let me take a step forward upward from that. So we move that way. We’ll find that that that guilt will be something which we can deal with. In general, consulting with some devotees, some guides, some friends will also help us understand whether we are actually sliding down and we have to stop ourselves from that, or whether we are in our situation being too hard on ourselves. So whether our guilt is actual guilt or pseudo guilt through our own introspection of its effect on us and through association, talking with somebody who is trustworthy and taking the guidance, we can respond to it properly.

Yeah. So which boundaries we can apply at our particular level? The boundaries are not fixed. So some devotees can say can pass without water. But some devotees may not be able to.

They shouldn’t have to feel guilty for that. But that doesn’t mean, you know, we have to eat seven times a day. Isn’t it? So we all can have a boundary that works for us and gradually we can, we can extend those boundaries or strengthen those boundaries. Thank you.

One last question. Yeah. Krishna Krishna asserts that you should detach yourself from the fruits of your labor. Correct? Right?

Mhmm. But you corroborate that by saying when you are, at the best of your spiritual growth, your world happiness is like this, and your spiritual happiness is like this. But can you argue that you should have your positives be happy, kinda like a boost, but then the negatives you ignore so that instead of your happiness being like this, it’s kinda like this. So what’s wrong with that idea? Yeah.

What’s wrong with that idea is that it’s psychologically not possible. That if say, if I love cricket and when India wins, I’m extremely happy. India loses, I’m detached from cricket. It won’t happen like that. To the extent I take joy when India wins, to that extent I’ll be frustrated when India loses.

So if the world is all that we have in our eyes, then to the extent we get joy in the positives, to that extent the there’ll be pain in the negatives. That’s just the nature of duality. But your point is well taken. There is validity in that point. Thank you.

You know, the so the way the point is to be applied is by having a higher vision. So when I Krishna says be detached from the fruits of the work. Detached is not apathetic. Detached is not irresponsible. Now the same Krishna, if you see in February, that is the verse Here Krishna is saying be detached.

But just six verses earlier, two forty one he says, He says, be one pointed. Don’t have too many goals. Don’t get caught in too many things. So now how can we be both one pointed and detached? So the key is, it is be detached from results.

Be one pointed in goals. Now what is the difference between goals and results? Goals and results are not the same thing. Goals are what we set before we do an activity. Results are what we get after we do the activity.

So before we do an activity, we should have a clear goal. And that’s how wholeheartedly we’ll be able to work for it. But what we understand is that the results don’t come solely because of my efforts. There are many factors beyond my effort that shape the results. And sometimes those factors will work in my favor, sometimes they may not work in my favor.

So it’s detachment is not lack of commitment. Detachment is recognition that there is a bigger reality. So the way we can have the in the positives we are happy, in the negatives we don’t become unhappy is if we are not attached to the results, but we are attached to Krishna. Krishna, I want to offer you the best in the world. So I would like to get the best so that I can offer it to you.

But if it does not work you work still I will offer my heart to you. So that way with the positives you can be happy, with the negatives we won’t get that disrupted by it. Okay? Thank you very much. Thank you.

Many guilty thoughts which are coming in between the prema bhakti for Krishna. Would say that. Mhmm. Don’t let the rituals and your ability to follow rituals affect you so much. Okay.

Focus on the point that ultimately, Krishna is Bhavagraha. Okay. Focus on the point that ultimately Krishna is Bhavagraha. Bhavagraha. Bhavagraha means he looks at the heart.

Heart. Not Want to offer our heart. No. And now rituals also have their value, like, in this kind of Shuddhi. Mhmm.

But the important thing is to connect with Krishna. Mhmm. And sometimes some people can get so caught in the Mhmm. That because of that, they don’t connect with Krishna, and they become judgmental toward them. Mhmm.

So so mainly, like, focus on dos rather than don’ts. You would say that that’s true. But my what I would say is that even among don’ts, don’t take all don’ts to be the same. Mhmm. So for example, if you’re not able to wash our hands particularly in a particular way before doing a particular product, that’s one thing.

Mhmm. Somebody says, I’ll eat meat. Mhmm. I’ll eat meat. That’s That’s a completely different Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So there are some tones that are important Yeah. Yeah. But some tones are not that important.

Got it. So try to get a sense of perspective. Krishna. Hi, Krishna. Good to see you again.

Oh, so good to see you. Hey, buddy. A year ago, I ordered the two the Maya two books, two park book. Okay. And I was supposed to come.

I waited, like, one year. I never got it. Do you have the other part, the two two part in my your book? You ordered it last time? Yeah.

And Madhava was gonna give me the double set, and he gave it to someone else. Doesn’t matter. I still love him, the people who sponsored me. But I’m waiting now. It’s time for me.

I’m right ready to go. Two parts, not just one. You had this one already? No. I don’t have it.

Either one. This one, I’ll give you. This is this is the second part of the book. The first part that I’m gonna give to you, I’ll I would send to you. There should be some more books here.

Alright. Okay. That okay? Love you. Yeah.

I feel like he has given a lot of healing and relief for you. My family’s dead. This is Passover. They gave me COVID in the hospital. This is miss, blood clots all over, and I will die early.

Christian saving me all over. Micro blood clots. For her surgery in in in the ICU when I woke up. No mask. 02/2020.

The nurses’ aid Life is quite adventurous, sir. Okay. But how do I get the other Other am I? The other part? I’ll just take Prem Sindhu.

You know Prem Sindhu? Oh, Prem Sindhu? Prem Sindhu? I’ll tell him about you. He will give you the property.

He’s outside. I’ll tell him. Okay. And I wanna buy this one too. I don’t know the $10.

Yes. I think I should have that. Okay. It’s outside there. I’ll just give it to you if you want.

This thing is is, inside of top of the list. We we need we need you to keep accessing. I would love to come soon. Why won’t you come back again? Just tell me.

Krishna is gonna see. I’ll try to come earlier. I would love to come earlier. I would love to come earlier. You’re very important to this temple.

You have a long line, so I can’t tell you everything, but I’d love to tell you something else. I think you’d be a great help in getting more Americans here. Okay. Great, Krishna.

Thankyou!

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Hare Krishna Prabhu. Prabhu, oftentimes we face reversals and difficulties in life when it’s really hard to look beyond the present. Now at that time how do we maintain the faith that there is a plan from Krishna and it’s working in background? How do we do that? Yeah, see when we can’t see the future we generally need the association of someone else who can help us see the future.

So generally speaking see for us if I am here there is the present which is just around me right now and then there is the future ahead of me and then there is the past behind me. So among the three phases of time and now we could say Krishna is the controller of past present and future. So Krishna is everywhere in the past in the present in the future.

So among these three phases right now I see chaos in my life. So then what do I do? So for me to be able to see beyond I need to have someone else who can help me to see beyond. Now if I don’t have that then it is going to be a problem.

That’s why I need to cultivate those kind of friendship those kind of relationships where somebody will help me in those times. Having said that faith ultimately is a matter of choice. That either I can accept that there is no plan and everything is just chaotic or I can accept that there is a plan and it’s not chaotic.

See atheism, now we may not say that I’m an atheist philosophically but functionally we sometimes say where is God? Is God playing any role in my life? See atheism it doesn’t remove life’s problems. Atheists have the same problems that everyone else has. That is life has physical suffering, mental suffering, environmental suffering, social suffering.

Everybody has that. So atheism does not remove life’s suffering life’s problems. It only removes the hope that life’s problems may have a purpose.

That life’s problems underlying them there is or there may be some purpose and in that sense we are just left with the existential hopelessness. So if there’s no association to help us then it’s ultimately it’s just a matter of choice. What am I going to do over here? This is what the way life is right now.

I can say that there is some higher plan or I say there’s no higher plan. So then what is going to help me to live the best quality life right now? It is considering that there is a higher plan. There are many many atheists like Sigmund Freud and others they said that basically religion is like a pathology and religion is a disease but almost 60-70 years of medical research has again and again proven that people who have some kind of religious faith are actually healthier than people who don’t have any such faith.

They’re physically healthier, they’re mentally healthier, they fall desperate to addictions and such kind of destructive behaviors. They are able to deal better with the moods and the ups and downs of the mind. So there’s one famous researcher he said that if religion is a disease then we should all want to be infected by this disease and if religion is an opium then we should all seek to become addicted to this opium.

So the idea is that even if it were an illusion it is a healthy illusion. So the way it’s like almost in chess you have you have checkmate or in boxing you have knockout. So what it’s like there is Krishna is the reality and Maya is the illusion but what atheists try to say is that actually Krishna is an illusion.

The way Krishna has orchestrated scientific research to come out is that even if Krishna is an illusion it’s a good illusion that makes the reality better. So even if you believe only the material world is the real world and there’s no spiritual world and therefore there’s no God but accepting God will actually improve the quality of your life in this world. So in that sense it’s it’s a positive thing to do and time will vindicate it.

Most of you know that I have polio so when I was one I got polio and my mother had taken me to a polio clinic to get some vaccine but somehow the fridge in that clinic had got off its power supply had gone off and that’s why the vaccine’s percentage of germs increased a lot and the vaccine instead of preventing polio ended up causing polio to me. So now I don’t remember that so I was just learning to walk at around one and I fell and I couldn’t walk normally. But my first memory of that is when I was about two and a half or three a distant relative had come to our home and she was consoling my mother saying that it’s so sad your son got polio and I remember my mother’s voice very calm clear confident said that whatever he lacks physically God will provide him intellectually.

Now I don’t know why my mother said that at that time at a day of two and a half or three what she saw in me and unfortunately she passed away afterwards so I didn’t soon afterwards so I didn’t get to ask her that but somehow that stayed with me and that has shaped my life in many ways. As I grew up I saw that that I couldn’t play outdoor games like other kids could but I started reading I could read fast I could remember well I could articulate nicely so somewhere at the back of my mind it settled that yeah I could say that it’s unfair that I have this physical disability I didn’t do anything to deserve it but then I could say that I didn’t do anything to deserve this intellectual ability also isn’t it so life may be unfair but in the big picture life is fairly unfair.
Thank you!

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So Prabhuji, often times in life we’re so used to saying this is Krishna’s plan for every coincidence that happens. So how do we know if we’re actually living according to Krishna’s plan for us or if we’re just interpreting everything as Krishna’s plan but truly only living with our own plan? Yeah, I’m thinking whether you’re asking me this question of Krishna’s plan. So see, we are not really meant to keep second-guessing ourselves throughout our life.

Is this Krishna’s plan? Is this Krishna’s plan? Even when Krishna was with Arjuna and Arjuna told Krishna, I’ll surrender to you, I will do your will. Even after that what happens? It is that, not that Krishna is micro-controlling Arjuna all the time. It is not that before Arjuna shoots each arrow, Arjuna is thinking, he’s shooting this arrow Krishna’s plan for me or not.

So the idea of harmonizing with Krishna’s plan is not meant to make us, to slow us down or to make us get into, as they say, paralysis by analysis or to make us constantly worried. The point of saying that Krishna has a plan for us but it is also Krishna, one part of Krishna’s plan is that we have our individuality and that we express our individuality. Krishna wants our individuality to be enriched, to be enhanced, to be expressed.

So therefore, it’s a more a matter of we trying to have the intention of serving Krishna. That Arjuna knew that I’m fighting this war for Krishna’s purpose. So we have the intention of serving and then with that intention of service, we are observing and course-correcting.

This is what I want to do. Is this what is happening? And if that is not happening, then we evaluate, like the river has the intention of going toward the ocean and while it is trying to go toward the ocean, it keeps evaluating. If I’m not going, then I have to course-correct.

So in that sense, we don’t have to keep worrying too much. Thank you.

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Transcribed by: Raji Nachiappan (Melbourne)

Question: How can a student practice bhakti?

Answer: It is fortunate that an opportunity to connect with Krishna comes in youth itself. Youth is a time when we have energy, intellectual sharpness and a lot of drive-in our lives. If at this time, we can get Krishna into our lives, then all our youthful energy, intelligence, and drive, they can all be constructively utilized.

One of the biggest temptations in youth is to postpone spiritual life for later. The idea of wanting to postpone spiritual life for later comes because we think that spiritual life only has other-worldly benefits. However, spiritual life also offers us these-worldly benefits. When we practice spiritual life seriously, it enables us to become more focused, calm, and self-controlled by which whatever we do, we will be able to do it better.

The vision of life that bhakti offers us is – What we are is God’s gift to us and what we become is our gift to God. Whatever talents, abilities, and resources we have are God’s gift to us and when we use them in a mood of service to develop those abilities and to become better, that is our gift to God.
The studies that we do as a student, we do not just do to get a degree or to get a job, but we do it as a service to Krishna. Earlier, we may have studied to get good marks, however, if we study well as a devotee and do well, then when our friends enquire about it, then we get an opportunity to tell them about the spiritual life. We should see our studies also as a means to serve to Krishna.

That way if we focus primarily on direct devotional activities as much as our studies allow, then we can move onwards to Lord Krishna even through our other activities, including our studies. If possible, finding other devotees in the same age group will enable like-minded associations,s and that way we can progress.

End of transcription.

Hindi translation:

प्रश्न: एक छात्र भक्ति का अभ्यास कैसे कर सकता है?

उत्तर – इसे सौभाग्य ही कहा जाएगा यदि किसी को श्रीकृष्ण से जुड़ने का अवसर युवावस्था में ही प्राप्त हो जाए। युवावस्था वह समय होता है जब हमारे भीतर ऊर्जा, बौद्धिक कुशाग्रता और कठोर परिश्रम करने की क्षमता भरपूर होती है। यदि इस समय हम कृष्णभक्ति को अपने जीवन में अपनाते हैं, तब हम अपनी युवा ऊर्जा, बुद्धि और परिश्रम करने की क्षमता, सभी का, रचनात्मक उपयोग कर सकते है।

वर्तमान समय में युवाओं में यह सोच बहुत गहरी बैठी हुई है कि “आध्यात्मिकता तो वृद्धावस्था के लिए होती है”। इस प्रकार का विचार उनमें इसलिए है क्योंकि वे सोचते हैं कि आध्यात्मिकता का लाभ मात्र परलोक में मिलता है। हालाँकि, आध्यात्मिकता का लाभ वर्तमान जीवन में भी, अर्थात् इस लोक में भी, प्राप्त किया जा सकता है। जब हम आध्यात्मिकता के अभ्यास को गम्भीरता से अपनाते हैं, तो यह अभ्यास हमें और अधिक एकाग्र, शान्त और आत्म-संयमित बनने में सहायता करता है। परिणामस्वरूप, हम जो भी कार्य करते हैं, उन्हें और भी अच्छे ढंग से कर पाते हैं।

आध्यात्मिकता अर्थात् भक्ति हमें जीवन जीने का सही दृष्टिकोण सिखाती है। हमारे गुण हमारे लिए भगवान का एक उपहार हैं। इन गुणों के कारण हम जो जीवन में सफलता प्राप्त करते हैं वह भगवान के लिए हमारा एक उपहार है। अर्थात्, हमारी प्रतिभा, योग्यता और संसाधन ये सब भगवान ने हमें उपहार स्वरूप दिए हैं। जब इन संसाधनों का उपयोग निष्काम सेवा की भावना से किया जाता है तो ये गुण और विकसित होते हैं, हम पहले से और अधिक श्रेष्ठ बनते हैं, और यही भगवान के लिए हमारा उपहार होता है।

एक छात्र के रूप में हमें अध्ययन केवल डिग्री या नौकरी पाने के लिए नहीं करना चाहिए, बल्कि श्रीकृष्ण की सेवा के लिए करना चाहिए। भक्ति अपनाने से पूर्व, हम अच्छे अंक प्राप्त करने के लिए अध्ययन करते थे, किन्तु एक भक्ति अपनाने के बाद यदि हम अच्छी तरह से अपना अध्ययन करते हैं और अच्छा परिणाम प्राप्त करते हैं, तो जब हमारे मित्रगण हमारी सफलता के बारे में जानने की उत्सुकता दिखाऐं तब हमारे पास अवसर होगा कि हम उन्हें बताऐं कि कैसे आध्यात्मिकता अपनाने के बाद हमारे अध्ययन की गुणवत्ता में सुधार हुआ। इस प्रकार हमारे मित्रगण भी आध्यात्मिकता को अपनाने के लिए प्रेरित होंगे। अतः, हमें अपने अध्ययन को भी श्रीकृष्ण की सेवा के अवसर के रूप में देखना चाहिए।

यदि सम्भव हो तो अपने ही आयु वर्ग के ऐसे छात्रों को खोजें जो समान रुचि वाले हों ताकि एक संग बन जाए जिससे भक्ति करने में सुविधा भी हो और प्रगति भी।

इस प्रकार अध्ययन के साथ-साथ भी प्रत्यक्ष भक्ति करके हम श्रीकृष्ण के निकट पहुँच सकते हैं।

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Answer Podcast Hindi

Transcription by: Srimati Tanvi Tayal Mataji (Noida)

प्रश्र: हम अपने भीतर सत्वगुण को कैसे बढ़ाऐं जब हम जानते हैं कि हम तीनों गुणों के हाथों में कठपुतलियाँ हैं?

उत्तर: हम इन गुणों की कठपुतलियाँ हैं, इसका अर्थ यह है कि हम इन गुणों से पूरी तरह स्वतंत्र नहीं हैं। किन्तु हमारे पास थोड़ी बहुत स्वतंत्रता है जिस से हम यह निर्धारित कर सकते हैं कि हमें किस गुण से प्रभावित होना है। इसका अर्थ यह है कि माना कि हम कठपुतली हैं किन्तु हम किस गुण की कठपुतली बनना चाहते हैं इसका निर्णय हमारे हाथ में है।

हमें यह समझना चाहिए कि हमारे पास एक नियमित दायरे में असीमित स्वतंत्रता है। जैसे एक गाय को रस्सी के द्वारा खूँटे से बांध दिया जाए तो उस रस्सी की लम्बाई के अंदर उस गाय के पास चलने फिरने, उठने बैठने की असीमित स्वतंत्रता होती है। किन्तु उस नियमित दायरे के बाहर हमारी स्वतंत्रता असीमित नहीं है। उदाहरणार्थ, जैसे हम पक्षियों की भाँति उड़ नही सकते क्योंकि हमारे पक्षियों की तरह पँख नहीं हैं।

हमें अपने भीतर उन प्रवृत्तियों की ओर ध्यान देना है जिनपर निर्णय लेना हमारे हाथ में है। संभव है कि इन प्रवृत्तियों में से किन्हीं को हम न बदल पाऐं। उदाहरणार्थ, हम किसी प्रख्यात गायक की तरह गाना न गा पाऐं। किन्तु हमारे भीतर कई मनोवैज्ञानिक प्रवृत्तियाँ ऐसी हैं जिनकी मात्रा को कम या अधिक करना हमारे अधिकार क्षेत्र में है। जैसे कुछ लोग अधिक आलसी होते हैं ओर कुछ कम। इस प्रकार की प्रवित्तियों को हम बदल सकते हैं। कैसे? अपने विचारों ओर अपने बाहरी वातावरण को बदल कर। जैसे एक व्यक्ति देर से उठता है और इस कारण वह अपने अध्यात्मिक नियमों का उचित ढंस से पालन नहीं कर पाता। यदि ऐसा व्यक्ति ऐसे वातावरण में रहे जहाँ सभी लोग देर से उठते हों तो इससे तमोगुण और उत्तजित होगा। किन्तु यदि वही व्यक्ति ऐसे लोगों के साथ सोता है जहाँ सब लोग सवेरे जल्दी उठ जाते हों तो इन सभी लोगों के सात्विक गुणों का प्रभाव उस पर भी पड़ेगा। यह एक बड़ा सीधा-सादा उदहारण है जिसको विस्तार कई अन्य परिस्थितियों पर किया जा सकता है। यदि हम ऐसी परिस्थितियों का चुनाव करें जो एक किसी गुण विशेष में स्थित हों तो हम उन गुणों को अपने भीतर बढ़ा सकते हैं।

यदि हम अपने भीतर किसी विशेष प्रकार के विचारों को घुसने की अनुमति देते रहें तो हम उन विचारों से सम्बंधित गुणों का विकास करेंगे। उदाहरणार्थ, अत्यधिक रजोगुणी पुस्तकें पढ़ना, अत्यधिक समाचार पत्र पढ़ना और फिल्में इत्यादि देखना, इन सब से रजोगुण बढ़ेगा। किन्तु इसके विपरीत यदि हम अध्यात्मिक पुस्तकें अथवा सात्विक साहित्य पढ़ते हैं तो उससे हमारे भीतर सत्व गुण बढ़ेगा।
खाली समय में हम किन बातों पर चिन्तन करते हैं उससे भी हम अपने भीतर गुणों को प्रभावित कर सकते हैं। सात्विक विचारों पर चिन्तन से सत्व बढ़ता है किन्तु रजोगुणी विचारों के चुनाव से रजोगुण बढ़ेगा। हमारे चिंतन के चुनाव द्वारा भी हम अपने भीतर के गुण निर्धारित करते हैं।

भूतकाल में हमारी आदतों के कारण कई परिस्थितियों में हमारा चुनाव एक निश्चित ढर्रे पर होता है। इन आदतों को बदलने के लिए संभव है कि हमें एक बड़ा प्रयास करने की आवश्यकता हो किन्तु यह सम्भव है। हमें डटे रहना होगा। अपने लिए बाहरी और भीतरी परिस्थितियों का चुनाव कर हम अपने गुणों को निर्धारित कर सकते हैं।

ये छोटे-छोटे निर्णय होते हैं जो हम अपने दैनिक जीवन में ले सकते हैं किन्तु लम्बे समय में इनका प्रभाव बहुत गहरा हो सकता है। इन निर्णयों के उचित चुनाव द्वारा हम अपने जीवन को एक नई ऊँचाई पर ले जा सकते हैं।

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