Websites from the ISKCON Universe
HG Mahatma Prabhu narrates the story of Lord Nirshinga’s defeat of the demon Hiranyakashipu, bringing relief to the oppressed. Various celestial beings celebrate the end of Hiranyakashipu’s reign of terror, highlighting the significance of divine intervention in restoring order. The class underscores the necessity of virtuous leadership and the unwavering protection granted to devotees. ISKCON
A recent discourse at Bhaktivedanta Manor explored the essentials of community building within the Hare Krishna tradition. Speakers emphasized the need for respectful deliberation amid differing opinions, highlighting Lord Chaitanya’s example. The discussion underscored the value of cooperation over competition and the importance of engaging youth by providing them with meaningful roles and spiritual education.
King Prataparudra, ruler of Odisha and a devoted patron of Lord Jagannath, yearned deeply for the grace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. However, Chaitanya, adhering to a renunciant lifestyle, avoided interactions with royalty to shun worldly attachments. The king sought help from close associates like Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and Ramananda Raya, who attempted to mediate but faced
Gregg: This 8MM Reel to Reel I found. I made a movie from this Reel to Reel for your enjoyment. This is the only devotee film or Iskcon film that was found. Viviana: You can see how surrender they were, in a world where everything was against them they were so determine to serve Srila
Translation [Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued:] Although Lord Balarāma had stopped killing the impious, Romaharṣaṇa’s death was inevitable. Thus, having spoken, the Lord killed him by picking up a blade of kuśa grass and touching him with its tip. Purport Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “Lord Balarāma had avoided taking part in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, and yet because
“Jesus Christ was such a great personality—the son of God, the representative of God. He had no fault. Still, he was crucified. He wanted to deliver God consciousness, but in return they crucified him—they were so thankless. They could not appreciate his preaching. But we appreciate him and give him all honor as the representative of God.
Of course, the message that Christ preached was just according to his particular time, place, and country, and just suited for a particular group of people. But certainly he is the representative of God. Therefore we adore Lord Jesus Christ and offer our obeisances to him.”
(Science of Self-Realization, Chapter 4)
“Just like Lord Jesus Christ. He was being crucified. Still, he was saying, ‘My father, they do not know what they are doing.’ Is it not? He is so much compassionate that ‘These rascals do not know what they are doing, rascals. Still, I request You to forgive them.’ This is Vaiṣṇava. Personally he is suffering, but he is still compassionate.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Rome, May 27, 1974)
Join us from 11:00am onwards for an ecstatic Kirtan Festival on the Divine Appearance Day of Lord Nrsimhadeva at 1229 Coatesville Riverhead Hwy, Kumeu (Sri Sri Radha Giridhari Temple - ISKCON Auckland)
Sri Nrsimha Caturdasi, the divine Appearance of Lord Narasimha Deva will take place on Sunday 11th May 2025.
ISKCON Auckland invites you and your family to join us for the morning (Mangal Arati) program at 4:30 am. Participate in the Maha Yagna of Lord Nrsimhadeva at 4:00 pm. Followed by Abhishek, Arati, Maha Prasadam Feast & Sayana Arati.
Sri Nrsimhadeva ki jaya!
So now, what does bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna mean? It means, it can mean two broad things. One is that when we live in the world, so there are certain internal things, internally we are attracted to certain things, and externally there are some attractive things. Now we can call the external attractive things as maya, as sense objects, and that is true, but that’s one way of looking at it.
We could call them as these external objects, we could call them as vishaya. Vishaya is sense objects. But another way of looking at this is, it is vibhuti.
It’s what Krishna talks about in the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. There are many attractive things in this world, and if we can develop the vision to see that the attractiveness of these objects comes from Krishna, then this is already in our consciousness and we can connect with Krishna. So if somebody has a great interest for art or music or decoration or whatever it is that they have interest in, then those things will naturally be there in their consciousness.
And can they connect that with Krishna? Okay, so for them they can remember Krishna in many different ways, but if they have to do some art, they just get completely immersed. If they have like, they all get into some music, they get completely transported to another domain. So what is naturally in our consciousness, that could be because maybe that person grew up in a place where there was a lot of beautiful art, a lot of musical culture was there, whatever it is.
It could be externally, it could be internally. So internally, when we are internally attracted to something, we can say that that is, in a negative sense, it’s our vasana. We all have lust, anger, greed, all this.
But our internal attraction could also be the vritti that we have according to our varna. Varna means, it’s not simply category of Brahman, Kshatriya or Shiva. It’s actually the natural attraction of our consciousness to certain things.
So if we are naturally attracted to some things, then we could use those to connect with Krishna and to serve Krishna thereby. So what does this mean practically? That if we already have some natural interests or talents, so say if somebody has a lot of interest in say, architecture, then would say the interest in architecture is mundane. Or maybe they say, I like to see different architecture, but let me look at say, architecture that is connected with sacred things.
Maybe what kind of temples were built? What is the architecture in that? So the interest in architecture is already in our consciousness. We can bring it to Krishna. So to bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna, that is also one way to cultivate Krishna consciousness.
And that way, because that thing is already in our consciousness, it will be easier for us. We can very, you could say comfortably and joyfully connect with Krishna in this way. So it is important for all of us to find that.
It is important to help our children find that. I was in America and staying in one devotee’s home and I was in, America is here only. So anyway, so this is the only that the mother is a double PhD, the father is a PhD, the brilliant, you know, that those combined genes are there in their kid.
So this kid, he was 10 and he was in the, he was in the part of the American National Robotics team. Apparently, the robotics Olympiad is there. And he was going to represent America.
And I was talking with the kid, he was brilliant. And then his mother was telling me, till 5, he was very interested in Krishna. And then he discovered robots and he forgot Krishna.
So now, he was always talking about robots only. So then I was talking to the parent, then this boy came and started talking with him. And then I asked him that, when you make robots for these competitions, what kind of robots do you make? So he said that mostly it’s Amazon which is funding the robotics industry.
They want very efficient robots for packing, unpacking, transporting. They want to replace labor with robots as much as possible. So they are the main driver.
So robots with efficient movements of body. That’s what we look for. So then when I was asking a few questions about robots, it was, he was so enthusiastic.
It was like the Ganga flowing through his mouth. When my pundit asked Keshav Kashyap to glorify Ganga, he spoke 100 words spontaneously. So I felt he was so enthusiastic.
I asked him that, in these robotic competitions, do you like innovative ideas? He said, yeah, innovation is appreciated very much. Then I said, what do you think about making a robot of Krishna speaking the verses of the Gita? So he said, no, that’s not a good idea. And he walked away.
Then I continued talking with his parents. And after five minutes, he came back, you know, that’s not such a bad idea. Nobody else will think like this.
And then he said, nowadays there’s this whole emphasis on diversity and inclusivity. So I’ll think about it. Then a week later, his parents called me and he says, you know, he’s now reading the Bhagavad Gita to find out which verses will sound cool on his robot.
So the idea is that if there are some things you’re naturally attracted to, we don’t have to simply dismiss them as mundane. Sometimes we have to be a little more creative in seeing how those things can be connected with Krishna. So let’s bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna.
Thank you very much.
The post How can we be Krishna conscious by taking what is in our consciousness to Krishna? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Yes, Prabhuji, so we often hear that Krishna has unconditional love for us no matter what, but if we commit some mistakes that are even beyond what we would have expected from ourselves, does Krishna’s opinion of us change or does it still remain unconditional love and how do we understand that? Okay, so is Krishna’s love for us, is it unconditional? Well, again, all the answers to the questions are yes and no. So, why? Because, see, at one level, love itself, you can say love should be unconditional, but love itself is a condition, you know, it’s a condition, it’s a state of heart, isn’t it? So, now when you use the word condition, when you put it this way, the word condition, it can mean two different things. It can refer to terms.
Like somebody tells them, we have a warranty on this product, but conditions apply. They’re like terms. But condition can also refer to a state.
You know, what is the health, what is the condition of the patient now? So, what is the state? So, love, you could say, are there conditions in love? But the thing is, love is also itself a condition. So, it’s because love is a condition of the heart and that condition of the heart has to be cultivated. So, basically, now we are talking something differently.
We’re talking about does Krishna love us always? Yes, Krishna loves us always. There’s no doubt about it. So, in that sense, whatever we do, Krishna is not going to abandon us.
अपिचेदसि पापेभ्यः सर्वेभ्यः पापकृत्तमाः सर्वं घ्यान प्लवेनेव वृजिनम् संतरिश्यसि Everyone, no matter how many wrongs they have done, they are still loved by Krishna and they will be elevated and liberated by Krishna eventually. So, one advantage of we being, of our finiteness, of the fact that we are finite beings, is that, that we as finite beings can never do anything that will stop the infinite’s infinite love for us. So, the finite can never stop the infinite’s infinite love.
So, we don’t have the power to do anything that will make Krishna stop loving us. At the same time, love, from Krishna’s perspective, he will always keep loving us. But love also requires a condition of our heart.
Krishna loving us is one thing, but we experiencing Krishna’s love is another thing. So, the sun always gives light to everyone, but if I close my eyes, I cannot see that light. So, is the sun still giving light? Yes.
So, Krishna always loves us, but our actions change the condition of our heart. And that’s when we stop being able to experience Krishna’s love. So, Krishna still cares for us always, but it’s just that we don’t experience his care, or we experience his care less and less.
So, another way to put this is that if Krishna is here, then around Krishna there are circles of love. So, everybody is in one such circle, but these circles keep becoming bigger and bigger. So, for example, the Gopis of Vrindavan are in the innermost circle.
Then the Vrajavasis in Chandralaya are in another circle. Then we could say all spiritual world residents are in another circle. Then we could say pure devotees, even in this world, are in another circle.
Then we can say all devotees are in another circle. And then we can keep going forward. We’ll have Krishna says, So, all living beings, even the most sinful of sinful people, they are all in one of the circles of Krishna’s love.
So, in that sense, Krishna’s love is unconditional. But it is for us to decide if we are here, whether we want to move towards Krishna or away from Krishna. We will never go out of one of the circles of Krishna’s love.
But if we go to an inner circle, we will relish his love more. And the reality of his existence, his love, all that will become more and more evident for us. Thank you.
The post If we make some terrible mistakes, does Krishna still care for us in the same way as before, or is his love for us conditional or unconditional? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
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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My dear Lord, please guide us all so that we can learn from the example of your great devotee Hanuman and come closer to you by his blessings. Hey, Krishna. Thank you for coming today on this occasion of Hanuman’s Anwanji’s appearance day. And among the many adjectives that are used for describing Hanumanji, one of them is buddhimatam varishtam. He said to be an extremely intelligent person.
Buddhimatam. Buddhimatam is one who is intelligent and varishtim is the best among those, the greatest. So today, we’ll discuss from Hanuman’s life about how he exhibits great intelligence in his the most important mission of his life. Which is the most important mission? Sorry?
That is a life mission, but within that, he has a particular mission. Yeah. Search for mother Sita. And within that also at a particular time, the projector is gone. Oh, wow.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Sure. So today, I’ll discuss about how Hanuman exhibits extraordinary presence of mind and intelligence and wisdom in dealing with the situation that he faces when he is in Lanka.
So we are these are all divine characters that is. At the same time, we are looking at them today from the perspective of what we can learn in our life. So I’ll try to make the situation as relatable as possible to us so that we can look at some things and learn from them. So here, if you look at the life of Anumanji, what exactly has happened? He has now come alone to Lanka and in Lanka, he is going to search for Sita.
So I’ll talk about four ways in which he exhibits. Is this my screen? That’s not my screen, it seems. Okay. No.
It’s not coming here. Is it connected below or not yet? Okay. No problem. I’ll speak without it.
So when Hanumanji comes to Lanka, at that time, he has a formidable task. He has to find someone whom he has never seen or at least not seen at close quarters. He has seen Sita once when Rawal is taking over it and from high up in the sky, she drops on some jewelry. We just caught sight of her very briefly. And then he’s come to Lanka.
Not only does he not not seen her, but he doesn’t even know where she is. So the four steps that I’ll talk about is the four phases of the challenge that he faced and how he dealt with it. First itself was finding Sita. The second stage was earning the trust of Sita. Then the third was encountering Rawan.
The fourth was warning Rawad and each of these buddhimatam varishtam, he expert. He exhibits that. So when Hanuman goes into Lanka, okay, that is quite distracting. Okay. Leave it.
I’ll manage without it if it doesn’t work. So when he goes into Lanka, he naturally searches in the most expected places. See if you lost a key, then we look at the places, okay, this is where I normally keep the key. This is where I went. I might have dropped the key.
So he first goes into Lanka. Now he is, he goes across the ocean all day. When he gets in, he takes a very inconspicuous form so that he will not draw any unnecessary attention to himself. And monkeys, at least in that part of the world are not very suspicious or dangerous creatures. So some of the guards see the monkey and they try to shoo it away, but the monkey just goes a little bit distance and then he continues on.
So he goes from palace to palace to palace searching for Sita. Now he’s waiting for it to be night. The first point which I want to talk about is hope. So I’ll be using the acronym head, how he kept his head. So first is keeping hope.
Among, we need many things to succeed in life, face our challenges. The most important thing that we need is hope. If we lose hope, we lose everything. We can lose externals and that’s bad. Among internals also we can lose many things, but if we lose hope, there’s slight difference between confidence and hope.
Confidence is I can do it. Hope is things will work out. Now hope can seem very passive at one level, but it is not. Hope and confidence are both meant to go together. The we confidence is I can do my part, but life is so complicated and the world is so vast that even when we do our part the best, still things may not work out.
So if you consider sports, a batsman may bat very well. But if it rain, it rains and the matches wipe out. No matter how well the bats won bat, nothing is going to be of much help. So on one side, we need confidence that I, I, I can do this, but along with I can do this, things will work out. That’s hope.
So we need both. Hanuman didn’t lack in confidence, but as the journey went forward, hope started declining. It is a this is journey his adventures in Lanka are quite a turbulent ride. So he goes and starts searching the most expected places. He goes into Ravanas Palace.
He figures out, okay, which is the biggest palace. Ravan is the obviously, the king and he also has the biggest ego. The biggest ego will be seen in the biggest palace. He searches through that palace and he can’t find Sita anywhere over there. Yeah.
Okay. I have a tab here. You can see if it works with this. Till then I’ll just continue. If it doesn’t work, that’s okay.
So what happens? He comes in and he starts searching in the palaces. And there in the middle of Rauner’s palace, he sees a spectacularly beautiful woman. I think this is Sita Jumping in joy. Yes.
I found Sita. I found Sita. And then as he initiated his beauty, he’s not personally attracted to her beauty in a carnal sense, but her beauty is what makes him think this is Sita. But then as his excitement dies down, he looks at that sleeping woman’s face and he sees that she’s looking very peaceful, quite contented, happy. And he thinks Sita will not be like that.
Sita will not let it be. Something else is there. So So he starts thinking she’s so peaceful. Sita will be in agony and separation from Ram. He has seen the agony in which Ram is.
This cannot be Sita. And then he looks at her carefully. He starts thinking like, this is not Sita. His excitement dies down, and they keep searching, searching. He cannot find Sita anywhere.
On one side, he has to maintain his cover. He has to be very discreet. I search. As Raul kept her in his smaller palace, he goes after one palace, second palace, third palace. Wherever he goes, he just cannot find her.
And whenever we try to attempt something extraordinary, no, there’s a lot riding on it. There’s a lot of expectation, lot of anticipation, lot of energy, and Hanuman has already achieved us spectacular feat by coming all alone across the ocean. And now suddenly what has happened? Throughout his life, Hanuman until now has not been alone. The only thing that he had done alone was as a child, he had leaped into the sky to catch the sun and that had ended in disaster.
He had become somewhat deformed by that. So now after that, he has always been with Sugri, always been with other one. Is the first time he’s embarking alone and the signs look very ominous. We keep searching desperate and then he just is look through each and every palace in the kingdom. Where does he search for?
He’s exhausted, dejected, frustrated, the darkness in the sky reflects the darkness in his mind and heart. So far I have come and did I come so far just to feel? Was it all for nothing? And as that despair is gripping his heart, he starts thinking about the future. The mind is a funny thing.
How the mind will work, we can’t really anticipate it. But if we are determined, we have a basic level of determination. However, the mind works, we will find a right path ahead. So as he starts thinking, if I can’t find Sita, what will happen? I have to go back and tell all the Manaras.
They will be rejected. And then we have to go into the sugiri. Sugiri will be bitterly disappointed. Then we’ll have to go and tell Ram and Ram will be shattered by this. He’s already in so much pain in separation from Sita.
If he comes to know that Sita is never to be found, he will not be able to live. If Ram is not able to live, Lakshman will not live and sugri is already burdened by the guilt of being responsible for his brother’s death, at least partly. Now if he thinks that he failed ram and lakshm, failed ram who helped him gain his kingdom, so greed will not be able to live and then when the news reaches Ayodhya, Bharat already holds himself responsible for Ram being sent on exile. Although Bharat was not, still he felt for my sake, my mother did this, I’m responsible. If he comes to know while in exile, Sita, Ram, Lakshman, all of them perished.
The pain of that will be unbearable for him, and he will also not be able to live. So two entire glorious dynasties will perish all because of my failure to find Sita. I would rather die searching for Sita rather than going to such news. I will not let this happen. As long as I’m alive, I will keep searching for Sita.
He said that over my dead body, you will do this. That means you will not do this. So I will keep searching for Sita. As as from the dark trajectory of thoughts, where he sees some consequence that is so horrifying has to be unacceptable. Now when we foresee a con consequence that is horrifying and unacceptable, that may just make us more gloomy and dejected and hopeless or it can make us determined.
No. I whatever it takes, I will not let it happen. Or at least as long as there’s life in my body, I won’t let this happen. I will keep searching for Sita. And as that determination rises in his heart, that is reflected in the sky.
The the moon breaks free from the clouds and light streams across. And as he’s looking around, he’s already searched through the palaces. He starts thinking, where else can I search? And in the moonlight, which is also accompanied by, dawn is happening now. He searched all throughout the night.
So he sees the moonlight streaming on a nearby forest grove. Suddenly he thinks, hey, I have not searched in the forest grows. It’s quite likely that Sita would have refused to live in Ravan’s palace. He remembered how when Sugriva had invited Ram to come and stay in Kishkinda in his palace, Ram had said, my sentence was to exile to the forest, not just exile outside of Ayodhya into another kingdom because Janak Mahal had already offered him. You come and stay with me in my palace for the forty years.
So he says, so if Ram is taking that sentence so seriously, Sita will also do that. Maybe Sita is here. His heart becomes alive with hope And at the renewed spring in his bounds, he leaps across to the forest grove. And as he’s moving forward, so, oh, then he looks around. He suddenly sees Rawad, the same monstrous being who had been sleeping at night when he had seen.
Now he sees him marching towards somewhere. He looks very purposeful, even angry. No, Anurman moves back and waits and watches. So when we talk about our head, keeping our head, not losing our head, one aspect is never losing hope. So the way we maintain hope is by contemplate one way we maintain hope is by contemplating what is unacceptable for us and then deciding I won’t let this happen at whatever I can do.
I will do it to prevent this from happening. Now hope can come. It’s that’s why I said the mind is peculiar. Sometimes thinking of the positive can bring hope, but thinking of the negative can also bring hope. Things can go down so far.
I can’t let this happen. Things can become this wonderful. Yeah. I want that to happen. So hope can come both ways.
In the case of Hanuman, hope comes by contemplating the dreadful consequences of failure. And no, I cannot let it happen. So with that hope, he starts searching again. Now, this is where the acronym I was discussing was what? Anyone remember the acronym?
Head. So Buddhi’s intelligence or head. So I’m gonna talk four points about Hanuman’s journey in Lanka. So H was how he maintains his hope, even when like a hope against hope you maintain. So like that he maintains hope.
Now E is expertise. Now expertise, what does it mean in this context? It’s expertise in earning trust. Expertise can be many different fields. So now when Hanuman is watching, he sees Raman approach.
The forest grows and he sees there are, a group of, demonesses who are surrounding one particular tree and depart when they see Raman coming. And then he sees that there is a beautiful lady whose beauty is covered or concealed by the soiled clothes that she’s wearing and by the sad expression that is there on her face. And yet despite it all, like a jewel that might be covered by dust and dirt, it is still the full jewel. So despite her state of being disheveled and disheartened, her beauty is still striking. And the way she shrinks backward on seeing Raman come and recognizes this must be Sita.
He discreetly jumps from tree to tree and comes closer and tries to hear, but doesn’t want to raise suspicion. So he’s waiting and watching. He clearly sees that Ravan is trying to tempt Sita, threaten Sita Sita, but she pays no attention to him. And then Ravan turns towards the demonesses and yells at them. With you to threaten them that they should get her sit down to comply and he walks away in half.
Hanuman keeps himself to conceal us, Ravan goes away and then the demonesses base around sita and they are threatening it. They’re scaring her, threatening her, intimidating her, and then finally get exhausted. And one realizes this must be a daily occurrence. His heart goes out to Sita thinking what her plight must be. He he longs to just go ahead, assure her, comfort her, give her the confidence that Ram is coming soon, but he is a warrior and he understands the danger of doing this.
One is that Sita might be surprised and she might, she might scream when the demons will get attracted. He could fight and kill the demons easily, He doesn’t want to unless it’s necessary. And he, if he gets caught in fighting, he might not be able to talk with Sita. So he thinks what to do. See when two people are unknown to each other, one of the best ways to develop a relationship is to focus on what is a shared interest.
If two people may not two two people may not know each other, let’s say two of us are from the same country. If we are from, we are from, say India or some part of India, then we talk about something or India, that’s a shared interest. If we are working in the same field and we talk about the common field. So now Hanuman doesn’t focus on introducing himself. He starts singing gently, sweetly the story of Lord Ram’s life and Hanuman’s voice and his words are very sweet as Lord Ram has himself acknowledged before.
And Hanuman is using the very gift that he has been given, the gift for which Lord Ram has praised him. He’s now going to use that gift and he starts singing gently. Sometimes when there is, when there is a very close bond of love between two people, If say, for example, the mother is doing some work at home or in the kitchen and the baby is sleeping in the nearby bedroom. Now if the baby makes a slight noise, nobody else may hear that noise, but the mother hears. So when there is love in the smallest of sounds, they’re heard very loudly.
Now if there is anger or hatred, two people may scream at each other and still nothing is heard, So Anuman sings very sweetly. It’s a very soft and sweet voice. The demon says they don’t hear. They’ve gone a little distance and because he’s speaking about Ram, Sita’s ears work. Oh, who’s speaking about Ram?
Who in Lanka is speaking at the glories of Ram? She turns around and she sees, oh, the sound is coming from the tree. And she looks up and she saw, there’s a small monkey over there. And that monkey is sitting with folded hands and is singing the glories of Ram. She’s intrigued.
But as you say, once burnt twice shy. Sita has been burnt once when she trusted that person who looked like a sage and who turned out to be a demon. So she’s never going to go by appearances now. Is could this be Rawan? Could this be some of the demons of Rawan who have not taken this guard to somehow get her to lower a guard and then exploit her in some way.
So Hanuman very gently jumps down from one branch to another branch to another branch, and finally he comes in front of Sita without doing anything to alarm or threaten her. Just continue singing the glories of Ram. And as he’s singing, Sita’s heart is softening in this place. It’s who speak the glories of Ram? Who speaks with such sweetness?
While see, in the heart, there is one side of us which has doubts, other side which wants to have to put trust, to have faith. And both of these are important in their own way. If you’re driving a car, then the faculty of doubting is like the brakes and the faculty of trusting is like the accelerator. In a car, we need both the brakes and the accelerator. Now if we are always doubting and, like, we’re sitting in the car and we’re only pressing the brakes, The car will never move anywhere.
Or if the engine is moving, the car will just move round and round and not get anywhere else. On the other hand, if you’re in a car with only accelerator and no brakes, then we will go, but we’ll go where we don’t want to go. So now we need both faith and doubt together. So now in one sense, trust and doubt are worrying in Sita’s heart. Is this really someone from Ram?
Is this or is this some trick of Raul? So Hanuman keeps gently singing, and then he introduces himself. As he sees that Sita’s heart is softening from her face, he sees that suspicion is decreasing. And then finally, p introduces Sita still she wants to believe, but she’s still not ready. Then he took some takes out the signet that Ram has given her.
And Sita sees that and just takes it touches it touches it to her heart, and she feels Ram’s presence by that. And still, could it be that this is a demon who has somehow seized seized this particular signet from Rama and somehow brought it? And once he sees it, I still not understanding and not accepting. Now he doesn’t blame her. He’s in guilt her.
You know how far I went through? How many risk I took? I just did all this for you, and you’re not gonna trust me. No. He doesn’t get up get angry with her.
He doesn’t demand that trust. Now we may do a lot for someone, but sometimes when we come in front of that person, they want to see what do we do for them at that time. Whereas parents, we may work very hard for our children, but then we will say, I’m working so hard to earn money to send you school to do all the good things. But if in front of a child, we come and that time just snap at them and yell at them. Say, I’m doing so much for you.
And the only thing you are doing is shouting at me. That’s what the child will see, isn’t it? So it’s important to do many things in the background, but when we are with someone we care for, how we conduct us and at that time is very important also. So Hanuman does not demand that trust. Then he’s as he’s speaking the stories of Ram of then he starts speaking a very intimate pastime.
Now Ram has told him this pastime, and this is something which is known only to Ram and Sita. And there are certain intimate details. Sita knows that Ram would not tell this to anyone. That Ram has not told us even to Lakshman. There are something between the husband and wife, they stay with them only.
So the fact that Hanuman knows this means is that things. Hanuman must be very trusted by Ram, and that’s when, you know, the defensive wall for her own protection that is she has built that it breaks down. And Sita starts crying in joy. Yet, Ram has finally found her. Ram’s messenger has come and she asks him.
She asked Hanuman, how is Ram? What is he doing? And Ram tells Ram one says how Ram is can be constant agony thinking about her, calling for name, longing to be with her. He says she asked why has he not come for me? He says, he didn’t know where you are.
Now I will go and tell, and soon he will come. So Sita is gripped with a bittersweet joy that Ram has not forgotten her, that Ram still remembers that Ram is going to come for her. That brings joy. Still that Ram is in agony because he’s away from her. That is bitter for her.
And then as this moves forward, now Hanuman hears. He does his tell Hanuman, Al Ram to come immediately. Otherwise, he has Ravan has threatened me. This he has said that I am going to enjoy you one way or the other. No, that is in English as well, like we have Carnivorous.
So Carnivorous is one who eats flesh and enjoys. Now, Rawan is Rakshasa. Rakshasa is one who eats humans also. So he said that he wanted Sita to fulfill his desire. He wanted her to fulfill her, his carnal desire.
Carnal is basically sexual desire. They can’t fulfill her carnal desire, then she will fulfill his carnivorous desire. So he said that I will have my cooks cook you for my breakfast and I’ll eat you up. If you don’t submit within one year. And Hanuman here, this he gets alarmed.
He says that’s too much of a risk. You know, Ram will come immediately, but it’ll take time to come all the way. So it’s better you come with me. I’ll take you with me. Now all along, Hanuman is he has taken a very small form so that he will not be detected.
And when they’re talking also Sita turns around and Sita is Sita is are sitting so strategically that the demon is on the other side. They don’t see. So now Hanuman knows his power. What Sita thinks? Oh, monkey.
You are so tiny. How will you carry me? Now Hanuman has just exhibited supernatural powers leaping across Lanka. It likes like somebody who is very virile and masculine for them to have their strength challenged. It’s almost like an insult.
If somebody is a very well built person and we tell them, can you carry this bag? What do you mean? I can carry it with one finger. They may try to carry it with one finger and they’ll break their finger. That’s a different thing.
But yeah. So Haluman says, he he says, yeah. I can carry you. I had it, but he was so small. Just see how small I am.
I’ll show you. And then Sita is looking down at him, and Sita is increasing, increases, increases, increases. Sita has to look up at him now. So am I now large enough to carry you? So Sita says, yes.
Yes. You get kept. But he says, I I want to be rescued by Ram. So let him come and rescue me. Moreover, if you try to go with me, you’re carrying me, then the demons will attack you.
And with me, with you, it’ll be difficult for you to fight. Moreover, you know, I was already touched by a man other than my husband by force. I do not want that same thing to happen again. So, and one respects our wishes. This is where the Hanuman decides that, see, I should do I’ve done the service of finding Sita, but I should do something more.
So what are the economy we’re discussing? Head. So we deserve expertise in earning trust. Then after that, now is alertness. So alert means we are alert to dangers.
We are alert to opportunities. So some people just do what they are told to do and come back, But that’s not enough. And sometimes, you know, we have to think, we have to think about the big picture. Ultimately, if Ram has to fight a war, then what can I do to help Ram? If Ravan is threatening Sita, can what can I do to something to stop him from threatening?
Now sometimes people just, they don’t think of the big picture. One of my friends just telling me how nowadays many big companies or big government department, they work in complete silos. So it’s like, you know, if the three people who are employed to, to take care of a garden. So you wanna plant something in a garden. So you have one person who will dig the hole, the second person who will plant the seed, and the third person will fill the hole.
And suppose somehow the second person is sick. Well, the first person will come dig the hole. The second person doesn’t come, the third person will come and fill the hole. And the job is done. The most essential part of the job is not done, isn’t it?
So we need to do our part, but we also need to be aware of the bigger picture and to see how does my part contribute to the bigger picture. So Hanuman was told to find Sita, but now Hanuman thinks that let me do some more service. So he alertly looks for a portion. Now he’s already expanded his size. And when this size comes up, the demonesses, they can’t, but notice him.
Then they get alarmed and they asked the guards to come and Hanuman has traveled light. There’s no carry on bag, no check-in bag. He flies. So he doesn’t have any weapons. Just looks around and there’s a gate to the park.
He just goes there and he breaks the gate and rips apart one of the thick iron pillars that are there to the gate, the parts of the gate. And that becomes like his mace over there. Traditionally, Hanuman is symbolized with a mace. When he goes to Lanka, he does not have a mace with him. So he just use improvising weapons over there.
And then he starts destroying one after another after another, the various soldiers that are attacking him. So what is Anuman doing now? His job is done. Should he not go? He is thinking I should do some more service.
So then one after another after another, Rawa hears about his who’s the upset monkey has come. That particular gardener is his favorite gardener. It’s called Ashoka Vatika. That Ashoka Vatika becomes for Rahul Shoka Vatika. It’s just oh, one after another after another, his generals are all being destroyed.
Finally, he says Indrajit. Now Indrajeet also is not able to work up or power. Anuman by ordinary or even extraordinary weapons. Finally, he uses his most powerful weapon, The Brahmastra. When Anuman sees the Brahmastra coming, he just folds his hands.
You know, this is too powerful, but he has a blessing that the Brahmastra will act on him, but not for too long. It’ll temporarily overpower him and then he will be able to break free. So then when he’s arrested, now dictatorship is all about keeping people under control through fear. So Rawan is a dictator of Lanka. And for him, that there is some person who has come in the favorite forest grow of Rawan and has destroyed the forest grow and has killed so many of his soldiers and generals.
That is like a slap on his face. And in order to establish his power once again, What, what he tells us, this person has been arrested, parade him through the streets. Anybody who does challenge Ravana, let us show what happens to him. So then he’s paraded through the streets and while he’s paraded at that time, the soldiers are kicking him. The soldiers are insulting him.
The soldiers are whipping him. Now all this for a powerful warrior like Raoul, Hanuman could be humiliating, But Hanuman doesn’t bother about that. His focus is on seeing opportunities for service. So the demons have their own agenda. They want all the citizens to see what happens to anyone who dares to challenge the might of Rawat.
And so they are parading Hanuman through the streets, but Hanuman has his own plan. While he’s being paraded through the streets, he’s looking at all the military formations. What are the strong points? Where the weapons skipped? Where are the weak points?
From where can we attack? Later on after Indrajit, after Indrajit, fells Ram and Lakshman, and it’s presumed that they are dead. The Vana Raksha celebrating at that time, the Vana later launched a surprise attack. And that time Hanuman leads the attack based on his knowledge of the inside of Lanka. So sometimes we may be humiliated.
We will be disrespected and it’s going to be very painful when that happens. But through in that also, we can see, is there something I can learn? Is there some service I can do for a devotee? Service attitude is what always protects and that Anuman maintained that service. I had constantly looking for a port you deserve.
Now what is he doing? Like I said, he had completed business. Why didn’t he go back? He wanted to do reconnaissance. He wanted to also give a warning to Ravan.
In case Rama is not able to reach within one year, there’s a little delay. He doesn’t want disaster to happen. So Rahwan needs to be given a stern warning. So Hanuman lets himself be arrested and paraded because he knows eventually he will face Rahwan. And when he faces Rawan, finally he comes into the court.
Now this time he sees Rawan in his full regal majesty. He has seen Rawan thrice before. One when he was abducting Sita, then when at night and he was sleeping, Mandodari was next to him, then he saw almost like a half drunk, half awake stage going to towards Sita in Ashokwathika. But now Rawan in his full regal majesty sitting on the throne of Lanka. And it’s amazing what is the first thought that Hanuman has.
See, this person has such power, such splendor. If only this person had been Dharmic, if only this person had been a devotee, he would have done so much good for the world. This person could have become a protector of the gods who protect humanity. Unfortunately, so he’s he’s now a threat to everyone. So this is the the sign of a healthy mind is to look for good everywhere.
Now that does not mean we don’t see the bad, but we look for the good to see the potential for good everywhere. Sick. It only sees problems everywhere. It still only sees negativities everywhere. So Hanuman knows that Rawa is a terrible person, but still he sees.
So this person has power, this person has splendor. Only if this person had character, that it would be so good, and then they start speaking. So some of the demons are saying, you know, you should be punished and you should be killed. Raul is also very angry, but he says, I want to know who this person is. I want to know why this person came and did such a damage to my favorite garden grow.
So then he has him questioned. And Hanuman says, I am messenger of Ram, and I have come with a message. If you’re a messenger, you should have come here straight. Why destroy my career? He said, I’m a messenger.
First, you should give me a seat. He says, you didn’t act like a messenger. You know, you destroyed my forest floor. You destroyed my soldiers. You’d killed my generals.
You don’t deserve the respect for a messenger. Then Hanuman, what does he do? He expands his tail and he expands his tail and normally the court, the royal court, the king sits in the highest position. Hanuman expand his tail so much that tail becomes a higher seat than Rawan. And first time in his court, Rawan has to look up at someone.
That itself is infuriating. Then now Hanuman decides to play coy over here. He says, actually, I’m just a little monkey. I was hungry. I was eating some fruits while jumping from tree to tree.
The trees broke down. And when the trees broke, these soldiers attacked me. And in self defense, I attacked them. Most soldiers attacked me, they attacked them again. So he says, now he’s playing assessing the he’s trying to understand the mood of what is going on in the forest, in the palace.
Is everyone there with Rawan or are there some people dissenting over there? He’s observing everyone. And then that is he says, okay. But what is your message? Why have you come here?
So he says that I have come as a servant of sugri who is in alliance with Ram. And Ram has warned you return Sita immediately. Otherwise, an entire army will come and destroy all of Lanka. Now, Ravan does not like looking at anyone above him in his own court and to be chastised and warned. This is just unbearable.
He says, fool. Who do you think you are? You don’t know who I am. You don’t know what I can do. He says, we will kill you right now.
So Vibhishan intervenes. In many ways, here Hanuman is playing coy and is playing provocative just to see if there are some dissensions in Ramana’s rank. When he’s provocative, Ramana is going to attack. And then if anybody stands up for him, that means that is a person on their side who is not completely on their side. That’s why later when Vibhishan comes on the Ram’s side, that Hanuman is the one person who says that we should accept Vibhishan.
All the other one that I say, no, he’s a demon’s brother. He’s Rahu’s brother. How can we accept him? So then Vibhishan says he’s a messenger. He should not be killed.
He says, but still, you know, he just he killed kill my soldiers. He should be killed. So he says, but now the vision here appeals not to Rawan’s morality because that demon has no morality, but he says he appeals to his dignity. He appeals to his sense of fame. See long ago.
Now some people say the other kind of the Rama is interpolated because here, Vibhishan and Rama discussing and they’re saying that actually a messenger should should never be hurt or harmed or killed. But long ago, when Rawan had seized Lanka from Kuvera, when Kuvera was not there. At that time, Kuvera had sent a messenger. Saying this is my kingdom, give it back and Rawan had killed Kuvera. So Rawan had already done heinous things.
So they said, therefore, that whole section is interpolated, but that’s a very superficial argument. But anyway, at that time, Rawan was just establishing his power. At that time, he just wanted to be brutal in any way he could be. But now see what happens when even bad people, they rise to the top. They want to look good in people’s eyes.
Isn’t it? No. Bad. Everybody wants people, they become powerful, successful. They want all the good things in life.
If I say, I want power. If I melt, I want I want prestige. And then I want not just the prestige of having power and wealth. I want the prestige of having a, being a good person also. That’s not something wealthy people give a lot of charity.
Now they, they may earn the wealth by sucking the blood of poor people, but they will give charity to the poor people to look good. That’s not true for all wealthy people. But the point is that some wealthy people also want to look good. So he appeals to his sense of pride and he says, you know, what will happen to your good name if it comes to be known that you killed a messenger? So Rama thinks okay, but he said he should be punished.
These monkeys are very proud of their tail. And it is with this, that tail that he has humiliated me. Let us burn his tail. Now he has a plan. He thinks that his tail will be burned and then we’ll release him and he’ll go back.
And when he goes back to his family and friends, they will all see his charred condition. Either they will laugh at him or they will tremble in fear of my power. Either way, my purpose will be served. Hanuman gird himself. His tail is going to be burnt and he’s ready to tolerate the pain.
But then now all while this is happening, this is big news. There is no live broadcast over there, but what is happening in the code, they’re all in the sea. The whole kingdom is alive over there, abuzz. Because never before has something like this happened. Anybody coming into Lanka and penetrating Lanka and and threatening and threatening.
So there are people on the courts running around and telling everyone. So Sita also comes to know that Hanuman is to be burnt. His tail is to be burnt. And then Sita prays to Agni Dev. And he says, please don’t let Hanuman feel hurt.
No. Don’t let Hanuman feel pain. So Hanuman is ready and his tail is lit. And now the one that has the rakshasas, his tail is so long that to get to put some inflatable material on it, to tie it to inflatable, that itself is exhausting. But finally do it and they light it.
And then Hanuman sees he doesn’t feel any pain. He says, when are they going to light it, looks back, hey, huge fire over there and there’s no pain. And now see, when we are proud, proud people are very eager to take credit for things they are not done and humble people. They want to give credit to others, even for things they have done. So Hanuman said, see, I am so powerful that the steel doesn’t burn me.
But he thinks, you know, I don’t have this power. So how is this fire not hurting me? Immediately, he thinks. Now who who could who’s who could be doing this for me? He knows Ram is all powerful, but Ram does not know his plight right now.
At least he does not know whether Ram knows. So he thinks it must be Sita’s doing. And he he mentally thanks Sita. And then as he’s waiting and watching the one, the rakshasa are looking at him, why is this person not in pain? What is happening?
And then Hanuman suddenly gets an idea. This burning, but not hurting tail is a ready made weapon for him. So Rawan in trying to humiliate Hanuman has given Hanuman the weapon to humiliate Rawan. So Hanuman grabs the opportunity. That is the last part in the head.
Achrony D is deterrence. Deterrence is where if somebody is doing something terrible, then we need to show them that there will be terrible consequences if you do this. So in real world geopolitics, deterrence is very important. If the other person feel that they can get away with something, then they will do more and more and more of that thing. But as deterrence is there, then they will not do that much.
So India, Pakistan, China, there are three wars, many wars, but three major wars that happened between them. But in the late 1990s, since all three of them have got nuclear weapons, although there has been some tensions, but there’s been no outright war. It’s not a support of nuclear weapons. Just the principle of deterrence is being said that when people know that there’ll be consequences for their actions, then that deters them from doing crazy things. So Hanuman wants to deter Rawan from doing anything crazy.
He wants to give a stern warning to him. So he jumps up into this, jumps up and his huge tail is lit with him. He just breaks free of all the ropes. The Brahmasa long ago stopped having an effect, and one’s just waiting for the opportunity. And the Rakshas are stunned.
And Rawan wanted to humiliate Anuman, but what is more humiliating than a prisoner breaking free, not from the prison in the darkness of the night, but a prisoner waking free in the middle of the day in the court with everyone visible. So if Rawal wanted to establish the authority to fear, just Hanuman’s escaping itself with another big slap on Rawan’s face. And then first, Hanuman is shocked. How how did he how did he break free? What happened?
But then before he understand what’s going on, Hanuman jumps on to one of the, buildings. Now it is said that his building, his whole city is a golden city. Now gold does not melt very easily and for a golden city to burn, the temperature has to be immensely high. But Hanuman by this blessing, his tail is burning, but it’s not hurting. He uses that tail and he sets one place in one building on fire and another building on fire.
And the one other time the Rakshasa are trying to attack him, but Hanuman is expertly dodging them. And soon the fire starts spreading. And Ravan does not know, but Hanuman has a hidden ally. That is why you why you starts blowing. Whichever direction Hanuman goes, the wind starts blowing.
Like a small fire starts becoming like a forest fire. Recently, there’s this horrifying fires in LA. Now the fires occurring is not an uncommon thing there, but it’s like all the bad things happening at the same time, wrong things happening at the same time. A fire coming at the same time, there’ll be a stormy wind in the direction where there is human habitation. Then it’s devastating.
So Ravanas Lanka starts getting burnt. Hanuman doesn’t know, should he stop Hanuman? Should he stop the burning of the city? And he tries to do both and he succeeds in doing neither. And then within just a short while more than half of Lanka is burnt.
And then like in a movie, it’s a spectacular climax. So Hanuman climbs on the border wall and his tail is still burning and he raises his tail high above him. His long tail is like a blazing fire above him. So with that blazing fire behind him, Hanuman looks extremely scary. He looks like a angel of death or devastation.
And there Hanuman speaks in the most thunderous voice. Oh, Rawa, you just saw what one servant of Ram can do and I am the smallest of the Vanaras that will come in thousands to destroy your Lanka if you do not return Sita. And then Anwan jumps as if to more spectacular effect just by his jump from that wall, the whole wall crumbles and one leaps into the sky. As he leaps into the sky, the whole of Lanka is filled with shock and horror at what has just happened. Ravan and authority has been undermined like never before.
And if there is any chance that Ravan could have come to his senses, Ravan may not understand the language of morality, but would he at least understand the language of force that his entire army cannot stop one, one soldier, one person from the opponent army. What chance does he have to win? So Hanuman has done all that he can to deter Rawan from his course of either hurting Sita or even holding Sita on. And then he leaps into the ocean and extinguishes the fire in his tail and then leaps up again and goes back his mission to Lanka, spectacularly victorious. Sri Hanuman ji ki jai.
So I summarize what I discussed today. We talked about how Hanumanji is called as buddhi matam varishtam. He’s the more best among intelligent people. Why is it called like that? We discussed that from the activities that he does in Lanka.
So we discussed the acronym. What was it? Head. So h was hope. So when he’s unable to find Sita, he starts losing hope, but he gets his hope back by thinking of the dark consequences that would come.
I cannot live and see this happen. I would rather die trying to prevent this from happening. So sometimes hope can come by envisioning the wonderful that we want And hope can also come by envisioning the dreadful that we just will not accept with that hope he pushes on. Then next was he was expertise, expertise in earning trust of Sita. He doesn’t just go straightforward and demand it, you know, and proclaim himself.
I have come for you. He actually talks about Ram, glorifies Lord Ram, and slowly, sweetly earns her trust. He does not demand that I’ve done so much for you in coming here. He waits. And then by showing her the signet, by speaking with intimate pastimes, slowly he wins her trust.
So whenever we have to do service, it’s important to have hope, but expertise is also required. And then after that was alertness. Yes. We did our service, but that service is a part of a bigger mission. Can we do something more, not just operate in mental tunnels or have a tunnel vision or operate in complete silos?
So he thinks, what more can I do? So he decides, I will do reconnaissance to understand what are the strengths of Raul. And thus he challenges the demons, fights with them, even when he’s arrested and humiliated rather than focusing on his humiliation, he’s still focusing on observing what is going on. Even when he seems to play and provoke in Rawan’s court, he’s trying to see if there are any cleavages, any dissensions in his rank, which can be used by Ram. And then finally, D was deterrence where he decided that he wants Rawan, but he understands that Rawan is not a person who is going to simply understand the language of words.
So uses the language of force. Sometimes the smaller destruction may be required to prevent a bigger destruction. So when he destroys Lanka, the point is not just want an anger. The point is that he is, he sees by the alertness that I’m a burning, but not hurting tail is a ready made weapon. So Hanuman, he, what Ravana tries to use to burn, to humiliate our, Hanuman uses that against Ravana.
So then he uses that itself to burn Lanka. Sometimes there’s a trail blazing adventure. We say trail blazing is very extraordinary. So Hanuman’s adventure in Lanka is trail blazing and tail blazing. His tail is literally on fire and he is blazing.
And then finally, as this final sign of deterrence, what does he do on the border wall? He proclaims not just his own power, but the power of Ram and the power of those who are supporting Ram. And then with a spectacular visual demonstration of his power, crushing the border wall of Lanka, which has never fallen before, which is the symbol by which Ravan establishes proclaim this power. Then Hanuman leaves and goes back victorious. So we all can pray to Hanumanji that whatever challenges we face in life and whatever services we need to do, it may be always have hope, may be always be expert, and may be always be alert, and may be always in our devotion, use whatever is required including that deterrence to achieve whatever service we are called upon to do.
Sri Hanuman ji ki. Sri Hanuman janti Mahama. Sri. Sri la Prabhupa, the key. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Yeah. So much of what I spoke about, say, humanly about hope and and and, expertise, some of alertness, those things that explain in this book is not exactly what Ramayana, it is Gita for the CEO. Now a lot of people would like to know what is the practical wisdom, especially for professional success in spiritual books like the Gita. People want to know the art of war and other books like that. So the Harper Collins asked me to write this book and this is also the Gita is a conversation.
This is also conversation which explains the Gita’s principles through a conversation between two people or corporate leaders. One is a corporate leader who knows the Gita, the other one who wants to know the Gita. And there are some simple illustrations and diagrams which explain the concepts. It’s light read and it is explains how we can just take Arjuna, not just a great devotee, but also a great warrior. He was a great leader.
Like that, we’ll also be successful in all walks of life through the Gita’s wisdom. And this is a more devotional book, prayers inspired by Bhagavad Gita. This is 22 prayers. There’s a beautiful picture of deity of Krishna, one line summary prayer, then there’s a Bhagavad Gita verse, and that verse is poetically rendered over here so that we can get a feel of the poetry and the beauty of the Gita. And then the one page, prayer reflection on that verse.
So this is the way in which we can not just connect with the wisdom of the Gita through a prayerful devotional mode, but also connect with Krishna. We all want to if you want to pray, sometimes we can pray from our heart, we can pray scriptural prayers, but can we bring both of them together? We take scriptural verses and prayers inspired by us. So there’s a table of contents with about 22 titles. So whatever you feel is your prayer needed at a particular time.
If you’re going through hard times, you’re not able to make sense of life, your mind is going wild. So whatever it is, all that is, there are various titles you can just easily refer to it. It’s also a very good way if you’re doing your daily morning prayers or morning chanting, reading one reflection can calm the mind and put it in a devotional frame of mind so that we can pray more effectively. And much of what I spoke about Hanuman is in this small book, Living the Ramayana. This is about Hanuman’s adventures in Lanka.
So I read several books in the Ramayana, but this is one of smaller books applying ancient wisdom to modern times. So all these books are available outside. If any of you want, you can take them from there. I’ll also be here for some time if you want a signature or if you want to ask any questions. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna.
Thankyou!
The post Life Lessons from Hanuman | Chaitanya Charan | Washington DC appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Hare Krishna.
Principles means see, generally, as we say, a friend in need is a friend indeed. So now our choices have consequences. For Hanuman, that meant if he would go with Sugriyo, Walli would always permanently blacklist him. When Walli would send people to assassinate Sugriyo, if Hanuman came in the way, Hanuman would also not be spared. So there’s a heavy cost to pay.
It’s a heavy, heavy price to pay for him to make that choice to go with Sugriev instead of going with Wally. So this itself shows see, if somebody is very powerful, security guards and everything. Okay, you can take on the mafia there. It still requires courage, but actually at that time you have protection. But here what happens is he chooses side, and he has no idea how long he will have to stay practically in exile.
Just as Lakshman had no obligation to go with Ram when he went to the forest. Similarly, Hanuman had no obligation to go with sugriy. In fact, we could say that at least Lakshman was a brother. So a brother, brothers might want to stick with the brother. Now Hanuman and sugriy had no relationship, no blood relationship at least beyond that Bharat was not trying to constantly assassinate Ram.
So that choice of Lakshman going with Ram meant a sacrifice, but it was not that because of that choice, he will be persecuted. So Hanuman, it was principles. He calls principles. He paid a heavy price and that itself chose the opposite of having principles as being expedient. Expedient means whatever the easiest thing you do that, whatever is convenient to do that.
Some people are like chameleons. With one person, they speak one thing, another person, they speak another thing. Whatever will please that group, they’ll speak that. But here itself, Hanuman has made a very, very serious choice. And that too, if you see, he doesn’t have power.
If he had his powers, then he could have countered value itself. But at this point, he does not have powers. So to stick to principles without powers, that’s actually a very heavy price to pay. That itself is a sign that he’s no longer impulsive. Impulsive person, a shortsighted person, a mature person would not make such a choice.
And even if a person made such a choice, they would not stick to this. They say, oh, you know, this is too much. I’ll go back. I want to be I’ll it’ll go and apologize to Volley and make it good with Volley. So he doesn’t do that.
Then after that, then what is seen is his speech. The first meeting that is there between Hanuman and Ram. So Ram and Lakshman are walking through the forest, and Hanuman comes in the garb of a Brahmana. The Sugri has told him, check it out. Check out what’s there over there.
So Guru has become super suspicious. So anybody who comes in is very suspicious of that person. So when he sees Ram and Lakshman going through the forest and in the Kishkinder area, and Ram is lamenting. Now will we ever find Sita? It’s it’s so long now.
Who knows what has happened to her? And he’s crying. So Guru becomes alarmed, and he runs to his associates. And they peer through and Jammu and said, what is there to be alarmed about? These are just two hermits.
No. But they’re not hermits. If they were hermits, why are they carrying weapons? And look at their physique. It’s not like that of a sage.
So he’s suspicious. And he says, you know, if they’ll come to assassinate you, they would have come discreetly. Assassinate doesn’t come making a loud noise. But what are they doing over here? Who are they?
So they depute Hanuman. And Hanuman changes his form and goes. Now it’s interesting. He does not lost all his power, so he’s able to have some of his powers and he’s able to change his form. But then when he starts speaking, his speech, he just greets Ram and Lakshman, We all have our own natural voice.
As I mentioned, this fingerprint analysis we do for identifying a person, now it’s called voice print. We can try to mimic other people’s voices, but we can’t change our natural voice too much. Sometimes people can nowadays there are voice changer apps, or you can try to mask our voice, but our voice is what it is. So some people just have such a sweet voice about Krishna, the Gopis, and the Gopi get describe. They say your voice itself is sweet and your words are also so endearing.
Some people may have a sweet voice and they speak very harshly with the sweet voice. It’s terrible. Now, some people may not, may not have a very sweet voice. Some people have a little bit of raspy voice, but what they speak with that will be very pleasing. They’re very encouraging.
They’re very appreciative. So now with respect to communication, there are these two things. There’s our voice and there is our words. So now the best is if our voice is sweet and our words are pleasing. Our voice can be harsh.
Our voice can be graph or rough or raspy or whatever word you wanna use, and our words can be agitating. So now for a communicator, what is the best to be in among these four quadrants? Fourth, yes. You have a sweet voice and you have pleasing words that you speak. So they say about a diplomat.
A diplomat is a person who lies abroad for the good of their country, you know, lies abroad. So stays abroad but also applies to lie abroad. And to be diplomatic means what? If a diplomat says yes, he means maybe. If a diplomat says maybe, they mean no.
And if diplomat says no, that means he is no diplomat. So the ideal situation is where the speech is the words are pleasing and the voice is also very sweet. Sometimes some people, they have this combination. We might come with agitated mind, but if that’s the person that’s speaking, just calm down and calm down. Listen, like, babies, if they’re restless, mother, somebody sing a lullaby.
The idea lullaby itself has a soft soothing tone to it. And mother when they’re singing with love that also has a sweetness to it. The baby becomes peaceful and goes to sleep. So like that now for adults, we don’t sing a lullaby for them, but the idea is our mind can get agitated and somebody speaks very sweetly and pleasingly then the mind becomes peaceful so here Hanuman exhibits this quality that Ram is agitated because he feels a personal sense of failure. You know, Sita came out of her faithfulness to me.
I couldn’t protect her. Lakshman also feels guilty, but after she’s his wife, Ram feels the primary responsibility. And he’s feeling this. He’s so long we’re not able to find what is going to happen. And just when Hanuman starts speaking, that’s not Hanuman speaks any profound words of wisdom.
Just the speech of Hanuman. Ram turns to Lakshmi and he says, surely, this person must be learning all the Vedas. Surely, this person must be trained by the greatest of sages. Surely, this person must have done some great punya in a previous life. Surely, this person must have been brought up by cultured parents.
He infers all that from what is spoken. So this capacity to speak in a sweet and pleasing way is also a sign of maturity. So what has happened? Hanuman is not as impulsive. He doesn’t blow up his cover.
He doesn’t confront who are you. He is according to time, place, circumstance, behaving in a very appropriate way. What you mentioned about social awareness that is being depicted over here. So that also shows Hanuman’s maturity. Now just to complete this four quadrants, sometimes we really can’t control our voice.
We can to some extent, but not much. So we may not be able to always have a sweet voice, but we can always from wherever we are, we can move if you can move in this quadrant, that is the best. But if that is not in our control, if you can have our words pleasing and our voice sweet, that is the best. But if you can’t, this is the this is the best, but going at least second best. Let’s not speak in ways that agitates others.
Some people think that as a sign of their cleverness, they’re sarcastic and they are not there’s a time and place for sarcasm, but on a habitual level being insulting, using, using bad names to call others agitating speech and especially nowadays with social media available. People’s one person’s agitating speech can agitate hundreds and thousands and millions of people. So we need to be careful. This is the second sign of Anuman’s maturity, the speech that he speaks. And just by that speech, he helps in the forming of an alliance.
An alliance means sugri and Ram become friends. So if somebody’s playing a particular role, they need to play that role well. So Hanuman has his own relationship with Ram, which will manifest in due course. But at this point, what he does is he shows he is able to do the job that he is sent to do. He does it well.
He, by sweet speech, he pacifies Ram. He connects with Ram and helps build a bridge so that Ram and Sugri, you can form a relationship. So his speech forms a bridge. With he’s on the side of sugary at this point, a bridge between sugary and rama. So that is what is formed by his speech.
Now after that, the third stage is that he is also able to go back to the kingdom after Vali is killed. Now Sugri goes back to the kingdom, and what happens to Sugri? Sugri has been in a zone with no Wi Fi for many years. And suddenly, he gets full Wi Fi and he goes on a Netflix blinch. Binge.
He goes on a complete Netflix blinch, forgetting everything else. He just there’s there are all kinds of royal pleasures that are available to him and just loses himself in that completely. Now Hanuman has also been living in austerity, living in austerity and in fear. Hanuman doesn’t have so much fear himself, but fear of safety is there. Hanuman doesn’t get drunk.
Hanuman doesn’t get intoxicated. Hanuman stays sober. And when the four months of get over, he reminds, reminds whom? So we discussed that earlier, you know, that he, he, he cautions, He doesn’t, get he cautions to grieve. So this is again the opposite of impulsiveness.
So he’s showing his maturity that he’s aware that this is a like we talk about responsibility. Responsibility is being aware of what needs to be done when. So that is also sign of, responsive. Now he does it in a very appropriate way. Actually, Sugriyu, Sugriyu’s character itself is very interesting and, in many ways that is a separate subject.
Sugri is first told by Hanuman. Now although later on, Hanuman will seem to be much more powerful at this point, Hanuman is a assistant or minister of Sugri. So he is subordinate to him. Now after that, Tara wants him. Now Tara is in a peculiar position that she is being Sugri’s brother’s wife, but when Vali passed away, Vali told him that that, you know, you should stay in his shelter.
So in that culture, the had their own culture, then it was accepted. So she was like a senior to him in the sense that she was so she had certain position and Valley also told him, listen to. She’s very wise. I didn’t listen to her, suffered because of that, but you should listen to her. Tara wants him.
And then Lakshman comes. Now Hanuman, according to his position, is gently cautioning him. Tara is a little more blunt. And when Lakshman comes, Lakshman is super blunt. All you put is super sharp in what he speaks, and then, Subhri jolted out of his complacency.
And then Sugriva takes on responsibility thereafter, but just being aware of the responsibility. Now after this, then comes the next thing. So this is at this particular point, when they are about to go on a search, on the search for Sita. So this is the last part and this is fascinating and we could have a whole session on this, but I’ll just explain this here. There is, you could say, there is influence without position.
This is what Anuman demonstrates over here. If somebody appointed the leader of a particular group, then they have the position Then also and they have to get to get people to work with them. But if you are the boss, if you are the if you’re the boss in a company, a, people don’t listen to you, they just fire them. But if you’re just one of the members in the team, but you have some good ideas. Now to get others to go along with your ideas is not that easy, isn’t it?
So if you don’t have position and at that time we have to get things done, not just from ourselves, but from our peers and even our seniors. That’s not easy. So this is what Hanuman really, this is the Sundarkand begins when Lord Ram sends Hanuman, sends the whole team to go, in search of Sita. But it’s interesting that Sugriyo appoints whom as the leader of that group? No.
Angad. Angad is appointed as the leader of the group. We’ll talk about that. At the same time, now the it’s a very interesting group over there. Now Angad is the leader of the group, but Angad is neither the oldest nor the strongest.
Angad is appointed because there is still some tension between Angad and Sugri. Wally told Sugri Wally I’m sorry. Wally told Angad, don’t blame Sugri for my death. It was my own deal that led to his death. But Angad was just a young he was he was from our perspective would be a little in the late teens.
He was a young adult. And suddenly, he saw his father who was a king, one day just comes out and is killed. And he understands that Ram is not responsible, but he he there is some tension between him and Sugri. So now if we are working in a team or we are working in a company, and we have our boss and the boss has his boss or her boss, whoever it is. And if we know that we are accountable to this boss also, we are accountable to that boss also and the tension between the two of them.
It’s very difficult to manage that. And who do we listen to? We don’t want to annoy or anger our immediate boss, but in doing something that our immediate boss want, you don’t want to anger our bigger boss also. So here, Angad, he is dutiful. So Angad, what happens is that Sugri also wants to win Angad over.
Sugri also actually Sugri doesn’t celebrate when Vali is killed. Suguri regrets it. Suguri says, oh, my brother could have killed me anytime, but he didn’t. And I, as soon as I got the first opportunity, I killed him. What a vech I am.
I don’t deserve the kingdom. So that is very painful scene over there. But then Ram tells him, this is what what he wanted. This is your duty. You should become the kingdom.
So now Sugri wants to make overtures to Angad. And the Sugri makes Angad the leader of the team. The Lord Ram recognizes that Hanuman has Hanuman is special. That’s why he calls Hanuman and he gives him a special ring. That is this, you find Sita, show her this.
That’s how you will know that. She will know that you have come from me itself. And it has a confidential story also to Hanuman. So at this particular point, when they are going, initially they’re very enthusiastic. Yes.
They’re going out, they will find Sita and this is the group in which Angad is there, Hanuman is there, and there’s one more senior person. Who is that? Oh, wow. Yeah? Jambo.
Jambavan is has been far more powerful, but now he’s big aging. So he’s not that powerful now. There is two characters in the in the Ramayan who are actually confronted by the problem of aging. When I speak to, people who are older, I talk about this one. One is Jatayu and other is Jumbo.
And both of them are affected. Their names are from and they’re also affected by what is called a Jara. Jara is old age. So how they deal with it. It’s a challenge.
But at this particular point, when they go out search, they’re enthusiastic initially. But then things start going south. Just not able to find Sita anywhere. And then group start forming. You know, if any teamwork is to be done, they say the cricket team is there.
Then maybe around the captain of group forms, around the vice captain of group forms. And some of the tensions between the two can rip the team apart. So like that tension start forming. See, tensions, if we are winning, the tensions are not so messy, but we start losing and who is blamed for the loss, who should be blamed for the loss. That’s when the tension starts surfacing and they start escalating.
So here Hanuman slowly starts taking leadership without threatening anger, without undermining anger, without sidelining Angad, it’s organically start to lead us. So they are searching. They go into the heartland of Southern India. In the middle, it’s very, very hot, and they’re searching. Not only they don’t even find Sita, they can’t even find any food.
They kind of find the water, and they’re starving. And then they’re searching around. Suddenly, Hanuman notices that there’s a cave, and from a cave, a bird is flying out. And when the bird is flying out, its wings are dripping water. So then Hanuman points it out, and they all go in that direction.
And they’ll peer into the cave. These are one of us. They can send get a sense of what’s happening over here. Is it it’s a very dark cave and how long it is, nobody knows. So Hanuman suggest that let us all form one line and let each one hold on to the next one before and after.
That that none of this will get lost. Let us go in. And then Angad wants to lead, but he doesn’t have really much experience. When his father was the king, his father was so powerful that Ranga really didn’t have to fight any major wars. He’s heroic, but he doesn’t have experience.
And Ranga agrees. So Hanoi does it very discreetly. And the whole story of how they go inside this cave and there’s the there’s the celestial lady, Swayampraba. She she is she offers all kinds of foods and drinks, and she says, well, you just stay comfortably over here. No.
No. We need to go on this. His said that this is, I mean, arranged by Indra and he has arranged in such a way that anybody who has come into this cave, they can never go out. And Angad started getting angry. Tell us how to get out, otherwise I’ll destroy you.
And Jammu gently calms Angad. Sorry. Jammu says, wait, wait. Says, you know, we we mean no harm. I’m sure Indra must have had some purpose in that giving that boon.
He said, yes. He said he had created a lot of opulence over there and he didn’t want that opulence to be plundered. So anybody who comes in, they cannot go out. But he said, we saw the we saw this bird flying out. His the bird does not destroy the opulence over here.
The bird will not bring other birds who will destroy the opulence over here. Because we also do not want to destroy any opulence. We don’t want to plunder anything from here. We just want to serve Lord Ram. But but nobody who can come comes in can ever go out.
Then Angad is getting angry and Hanuman comes and says, but I’m sure, you know, you have the power to go out. You please take us out. So Hanuman here maintains his school. And what happens is here in this particular situation, if we go back, he is naturally taking leadership. Yeah.
So one he cautions sugary, and then he he keeps his cool. So there’s a procreate situation. He could have got angry. He could have got angry with or he could have got angry with Angadha, but doesn’t get angry with either of them. Both with and with Angadha, he keeps his cool And then so Emperor takes them out.
And they they come out and then they are searching. And she says, you’ll soon find you’ll come across the ocean and across the ocean, you’ll find Sita. And the one has become jubilant. You know, this is a this is a whole search for Sita is a high octane ride. This is a lot of emotions.
At one moment, there is hopelessness and despair, there’s starvation, and I’m with the excitement and jubilation. And then the vanaras, they charge toward the ocean. So I’m so they are actually in a mountain. So so emperor not only gets them out of the cave, but she gets them out of the cave on the side of the river. So side of the ocean so that now they don’t have to scale the entire mountain.
They charge ahead and they charge ahead. At that time, they’d say, oh, across the ocean, Sita will find her, but then they come charging to the ocean and then they stop. Wow. How are we going to this ocean is so big. How are we going to cross the ocean?
Their mouths their their this jubilant and their mouth shut, their eyes become droop, and they’re just completely confused. And it is this time that Jambavan speaks to Hanuman. But before that, we’ll talk that in the next session. But before that, one more thing happens. Actually, they come out of the cave and they start searching.
They, they, they start moving toward the ocean. They’re looking around the ocean to try to find out how will we get across. And I just can’t find it. So it’s not who tells them. They know that across the ocean, you’ll find.
That’s what has happened. They they they also known that around across the ocean. So they have that sense, but they just can’t see any way to go ahead. And the ocean is so big, they just don’t know what to do. And again, their spirit start dimming.
And this time, Angad just loses it. And Angad says, better we never go back. So Sugri, you see there are different ways of administering justice. There there are different ways of administering administering justice and for that matter, enforcing discipline compliance. So one of the things that he has told so, yeah.
So one of those things that Guru has told us, All the one of us should come back within one month. Is there anybody who delays returning beyond one month, they will be executed. That’s so harsh. You are executed. See, this is a serious and time bound mission.
Now Angad takes that and Angad says, we have been searching for Sita. Now what has happened is they have been searching for more than a month and they not found Sita. And already two opinions are formed. Should we keep searching? Should we go back?
Now Hanuman is of the opinion that we should keep searching. Some other of the opinion should go back. And now Angadha, he says, one of the one of the one of the side, he says that we should not go back. He says that actually, if we go back, then Sugri will have us executed. Then one of the Wanderers who is is more on human side, he says that, no.
No. Sugriva is a fair person. He would not do that. We tell him that we were actually searching for Sita and we got some clues. That’s why we kept searching.
Okay. So then Angad speaks. Angad says, you know, Sugriva had his own brother killed. Now he killed his own one who killed his own brother. Why would he spare an ordinary soldier?
Now in the terms of war, this is called as sedition. No. Sedition is what? You inspire rebellion against your boss, against your own authority. So sedition, it could also be called as treason.
Treason is where you go against your own authority. Now Hanuman could have taken Angad to task. Now how dare you speak like this about your king? You are saying your king is cruel. You are going against your king.
This is a punishable crime. But Hanuman does not do that. Hanuman understands that Angad does not have a bad heart. Angad is just frustrated. He’s lost his father.
He has been given an opportunity to prove his mettle and the challenge is so much that he’s not able to do it. So what Hanuman does over here is, this is where the maturity shown is, he shows empathy over here. He does not judge or condemn Angad. He he just keeps his calm. And one of the Vanaras from Angad’s side says that maybe we should go back into the Cave Of Swayamprava.
And we’ll hide there and we’ll live there forever. Swayamprava already had said we can stay over there. So now once one of the manas on Hanuman’s side says that, you know, if you anger sugary you, he will not spare us. He will find us and he will punish us. And then Angad said that’s what I was telling.
He’s a cruel person. And then while this fight is going on, finally, Angad says, no. We have just failed. Let’s accept it. He says, rather than going back and being humiliated in front of our family and friends, he says, better that we die over here.
And Angad sits down. He says, I’m going to fast to death. And he says, I’ll do a or that is called a prayavrata. Prayavrata, you know, it is very different. There is, have any of you heard this word?
You know, it’s, it’s something unfortunately not uncommon in today’s world, but everything in this world can be in the three modes. So Sattva, Rajas, and Thomas. So now suicide itself, you may say it’s Thomas, and it is, but somebody, they fast to death. That is considered way of ending one’s life. That is called as.
Means that one does decide that my life is enough now. I don’t want to live anymore. So they decide to abstain from food, abstain from drink, and then the body lives on as long it lives on and it ends the life. So that’s a respected way of ending the life, and many sages would do that. So that is basically, what are what he says.
Now, Angadasa says, this is what I’m going to do. Now as contrasted that, most suicide is tamasic. This is basically because of hopelessness that it is not only life is terrible, it’s I. I am no good. Generally, if we will all face loss in our life, that is just inevitable.
Now when we face loss, if in, you’ll understand, I have lost. That’s a reasonable, okay. I tried to get this interview. I tried to get this job. I tried to get this into this college.
It didn’t work out. If I’m somebody might say, I am lost. I am lost means I just don’t know what to do. I’d spent so much time and energy in this particular thing, I am lost now. But somebody in Tamoguna, they’ll process that same thing as I am a loser.
So they will take that failure too personally and that failure will become a part of their self definition. I am a loser. Now what happens is if we were if you’re in a relationship with someone and and if you start thinking that person is a loser, then we would want to end that relationship. I don’t want to stay in a relationship with the person who is a loser. We want to break up.
But if we think I am a loser, what are we going to do? We can’t break up with ourselves or can we? So suicide is actually a tragic way to try to break up with oneself. So now Sugriyu, so sorry, out of while anger is expressing anger at Sugriyu, it is basically he is hurt. So as they say, my word hurt people, hurt people.
Hurt people who are hurt, hurt others. So the harsh words spoken towards they’re not coming from a malicious heart. They’re coming from a hurt heart. So Anuman understand this, but even this is beyond his power. Because Angad, these are not he says, no.
The two opt the three options now for them. Either they keep searching or four option, they keep searching, but they don’t know how to search because where how far will they go? Where will they go? How will they cross the ocean? That’s one thing.
Second is that they just stay over there. That’s not an option. They are going to. That’s not really good option. They go back.
Angad doesn’t want to do that. It’s a difficult decision, and Anuman is not the team leader. So the one are split into a group. And some of the sit down, and they said, we are going to fast. They are supportive of Angadha, and they say, we’ll fast to death.
And when they see this, a a pile of gloom settles over everyone. The one who are not decide not to fast also, they also don’t know what to do now. We are already as a whole team, we are not able to search and find. If our team depletes to half, what are the chance that we will find even now? So when they are sitting Angadha starts lamenting, Angadha, he speaks, alas, we went on this mission to serve Lord Ram, but just that that heroic Jamba failed, we too are destined to fail.
Now when he speaks this, he speaks it at a particular juncture. What happens is they are sitting for fasting to death and then a giant vulture comes over there. That vulture is some is Sampati. Sampati is Jatayu’s brother. And that vulture comes along and vulture starts looking and you can see the vulture licking its lips.
So, oh, today, I’m going to feast. Another one, I’m ready to die, but it’s one thing to be ready to die and another thing to know that we’ll be ripped into pieces and you turn up. In a person who dies, at least they hope for a dignified burial or a dignified cremation. So, so what happens is that seeing this, they just get a node and that’s where Angadasa speaks, alas, we are meant to fail. And that giant vulture who is walking around them looking, licking his lips suddenly freezes.
What did you say? What did you say happened to Jatayu? And then the monk is surprised what happened. And then at that time, he says, I am Jatayu’s brother. And, please pray tell me, has something happened to Jatayu?
I have not seen my dear brother for many years, And that’s when he’s told he’s told, Angadha speaks, Hanuman speaks, and they tell the story. So some party is shattered by that. But then, Angadha and Hanuman are still thinking. See, Hanuman has not antagonized Angadha, and nor has Hanuman spoken songs. Angadha still has a heart that wants to serve.
Sangat starts thinking that the jatai that some party is completely rejected. Just please, you know, I can’t move. I was I my wings got burned long ago. It is a longer story. He says, I just want to offer some water for my brother.
Can you take me to the coast? And they help me over the coast. He offers water. They can see he’s very, very shaken by this. And then Angad says, the Jatayu, he sacrificed his life in search of Sita.
And the Sampati is lamenting. You know, I couldn’t do anything for my brother, but I can’t do anything to get back at the person who killed my brother also. Because I don’t have any things. And suddenly, I’m not the things. He says, you know, actually, he says, I believe you have very sharp vision.
Do you know where Sita is? Did you see Rawa taking Sita? Yes. He perks up immediately. He raises into this full light and he says, yes, although my body has weakened, my eyes are still strong and I can see that Ravan still has Sita with him across the ocean in Lanka.
And I can see that you will soon find him. So what happens, it’s like a this is what is called as serendipity, something accidental discovery. So the one that’s about to give up hope. At that time, the Sampati comes to eat it. That’s terrible.
But then Sampati comes to eat them and that another will speak some words. And those words lead to a transformation, and then they find the way ahead. So I’ll while Angadha has lost hope, Angadha has not been embittered by Hanuman or anyone else. So Angadha has some hope, some desire that I can serve, and then the opportunity comes up. So Hanuman’s empathy plays a significant role over here.
And then comes a time when Hanuman comes into his full prime. So here till now, he’s one among the Vanaras slowly is showing his leadership skills. But then from that, it now when he goes across the ocean, it will be like a solo performance for him. One man performance that will be showing. So that is where but this particular point through all these dangers, how Hanuman has navigated expertly shows his maturity.
And does Jam Bowman is reminded, and Jam Bowman will remind Hanuman of his great powers that we’ll discuss in the next session. So I’ll summarize what we discussed today. We’re discussing Hanuman’s life story. So I first said the c in what way we are discussing it. I said the acronym does anyone remember the acronym lead?
L was literal, ethical, allegorical, and devotional. So we are discussing from which perspective? Ethical perspective. Ethical means it’s a guide for decision making. And in that a person’s life story can con con convey the four c’s.
What are the four c’s? Choices, consequences, and the choices happen because of conditions conditions and conditionings. So if you look at these four things, then we can understand the character of the character. What is the substance of the person? Then you start in this story and then we look at this story.
There are similarities and there are dissimilarities. It’s dissimilar in terms of the ability and the arena. Arena is where the incident is happening, but it’s similar in terms of that everybody has limitations in their life. And they live within the limitation. And then there are accountability in this and that everybody has actions for which there are consequences.
The exact consequences may not come immediately and they may not come in the same way that we face them, but that principle is there. So within that, how they make choices. So we discussed about Hanuman, how he was given, he had ability and he had to develop maturity. So initially, Hanuman was in this quadrant one and that’s when he was mischievous and that’s why he was cursed. Not exactly a curse, but it was just a forgetting of his abilities.
So today, what we discussed was Hanuman’s journey from quadrant one to quadrant four. So journey from immaturity to maturity. So Hanuman is a child and Hanuman as an adult. And within that journey to maturity, we discussed five stages. The first was his living according to his principles.
Okay. So Guru was not wrong. Wally was wrong. So principles are easy to follow and there is no price to pay, but then the principles come with a heavy price that shows a deep level of maturity. Then was his speech, the way he helped form a bridge between Ram and, Sugriyu and the way he very manifested speech that is both sweet in tone or sweet in voice and endearing in words.
The voice and words. So Ram is very pleased by his speech. And after that, he exhibits his caution. He warns Sugriyu about the about his duty to Ram. And then finally, we discuss about two incidents where he shows leadership without position that he doesn’t have the official position of the leader, but still, one is it, or does he show in that queue?
He said keep stay cool. Amid provocations, stays cool with everyone over there. Swayamprabha also with Angad also. And finally, when Ambad Angad starts, express speaking bad things about sugaryu, he doesn’t get on his case. He has empathy.
He understands that he’s hurting. And in this way, in all these ways, when he shows maturity, then the time comes for him to regain his ability. This is the Mahavai Hanuman that will manifest in Sundarkand and take over the narrative of the Ramayan practically for that particular story that will, that Hanuman is going to soon manifest. So let us all pray to Hanuman ji that this he’s eternally a liberated soul, but this is through his journey. Just as you manifest Hanuman ji, the journey to maturity help us all become mature that we can also use the ability that we have fully so that we may also be blessed with more ability, so that we can do more service and make more of a positive difference in our own lives and the lives of those around us.
Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? There are some questions here. Yeah. Hare Krishna.
Thank you Prabhu for, your talk today. I wondered if you might speak on on the journey to maturity as a teacher. I see a lot of moments that you mentioned with Hanuman’s journey in his own learning. And, I want I was really curious to hear maybe, like, a short reflection just about about, a teaching incident or experience where you, like, could share with us that, it was a moment that repeated and you realize, oh, I’m I’m doing this in a more mature way or something. Okay.
So you’re asking about the the time when I noticed, something from my what my own journey towards maturity. Yeah. I’d say that, see, as we grow, we also start one aspect of maturity is that we understand what really matters. So once I was giving a class in Pune and somebody asked a really a question that I felt was a bit arrogant. And I gave a sharp answer.
Man, I said it was logical. It was it was, this person was something like it was I could I felt clearly as a completely anti feminist, like a completely aggressive feminist. And he says, you know, this all these Hindus, this Hindu religion itself is against women. And he said, that’s why we don’t celebrate Radhashtami. We only celebrate Janashtami.
That’s So we don’t celebrate festival long way. So we celebrate the dance festival. So I said, okay. Is for one day. No.
Is for nine days. Which other deity has a celebration for nine days? Even Diwali is not for nine days. So everyone clapped, and I was also happy with the clap. But then afterwards, there’s one devoted friend.
He had brought this friend, And this person, he felt very insulted. And he said, you do. Yeah. I’m never going to come back to the temple. So now I was just interested in giving a sharp answer.
And I would say that my answer was not wrong in the content, but the way I spoke it. And not just the way I spoke it, the way everyone responded to it. And then it is I was thinking, okay, how clever I am. I can say one sec. I can give a clever answer.
But then, any years later, something similar happened. Then so actually, it’s similar is exactly the same question came up. This is a common question. It’s like we’d if we try to apply today’s values to the past, then nobody will stand according to today’s values. People live with a different system of values over there.
So the feminist angle applying it, the concerns are valid, but nobody is saying that we have to go back to the past now in today’s world. So but this critic is there can apply to any religion, any tradition, any thought system. It’s just there. So anyway, so the same question came up again once, and I gave the same answer, but my first thought was that I don’t want this person to be hurt. So I said, yeah, that’s an important question.
And it is unfortunately true that there are times when, there is, there’s there’s discrimination or there’s exploitation, gender discrimination, exploitation is there. And sometimes it’s justified in the name of religion. At the same time, it’s very questionable whether I have my doubts whether this is the reason for that. And then I said the same thing that that there’s a nine days is there. And then everyone started clapping.
And then he says, don’t clap over here. He says, I’m not here to score brownie points. You know, I’m here to actually have a discussion. And then afterward, that person came and talked with me, and we had a nice discussion. He basically he was in a he had always he had grown up in a family where there’s domestic violence, and the father was, father was quite abusive.
It was all justified in the name of religion. It was a very complex situation. And then I realized at that time, everybody had laughed out or made fun of him. You know, he would have been really hurt and damaged by that. So I talked with him and then give various examples of how, you know, protection is still important thing in our tradition.
So Indhra Pradesh was dishonored, the whole war was fought for that. So it’s not a small thing that this kind of violence. Anyway, my point is that one way I have to recognize maturity is that it’s not just showing how clever you are. It is trying to help the person who’s asking a question or person there to try to get a better understanding. Okay?
Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. I’m not sure if I’m asking the right question. Did drama had limitations?
Did Rama? Had limitations. Did Rama have limitations? Well, he’s God, so he does not have limitations. But when he comes in this world and performs Leela, he often acts like a human being.
So that means he does not always exhibit his omnipotence. The one why I was giving this, telling the story of Sita being abducted and we know the story of how Maricha is a deer. He took Ram far away and then when Ram’s arrow hit him, he screamed in the voice of Ram. So I was telling the story in Texas, and one boy asked this question. You know, when Maricha screamed, Lakshman and Sita, why didn’t Ram scream?
That’s not me. That’s Maricha. The whole problem could have been avoided. But the point is that Ram is playing Narila. Narila means he’s a human being.
He is acting not a human being. He’s acting like a human being. And within that cosmic hierarchy, the rakshasas are physically more powerful than the manavas. They’re even more powerful, but the rakshas are more similar power. The others are slightly more powerful.
So the Rakshasa’s voice was much bigger than the Manuva’s voice. That’s why Ram’s calling out would not have reached across the distance. So Lord Ram does not have limitations, but when he comes in this world, he acts within limitations. He does not act omnipotent or omniscient all the time and especially in the Valmiki Ramayan, Lord Ram’s divinity is substantially downplayed. Because the Valmiki Ramayan emphasis is more on doing the right thing and understanding who’s the ideal person who does the right thing.
And you are God, then you are all powerful. They can always do the right thing, isn’t it? So that does not emphasize Ram’s divinity so much. The Ram is a person who faces adversities and he does the right thing even in the face of adversities. Okay.
Right. Yes, please. We have two more questions. Only one question we have, Aarti, after that. Okay.
Aarti, we’ll start now. Okay. Hare Krishna, Prabhu ji. I have one doubt, this choice and consequences. So basically, you are saying, like, when we make any choices, so at the back end end of the mind, we have, think about the consequences.
Like, whatever choices we made, there is some consequences. So shouldn’t we surrender it to Krishna? Like, why, why we overthink on this? Like, I want to understand this part because I face during this application, like so I want understand this part. Like, should I overthink on my choices and, all Well, if you use the word overthink, we should not overthink, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think.
And the whole point is that it’s like depending on Krishna, Krishna is not just out there, Krishna is in here. Krishna also is so depending on Krishna also means using the intelligence that Krishna has given us. If I think it is my intelligence and become proud of it, that’s different. But if I see the intelligence as a resource that Krishna has given me, then using the intelligence is my responsibility. Arjuna surrendered to Krishna.
Arjuna, Krishna, you are God. You only kill those. Ajurad took his bow and was ready to fight. So generally, in the in this world, God does not take center stage. This is the world where God allows us humans to take center stage, but we need to take center stage in a way that is in harmony with God’s will.
So, yes, we should we consider what choices will lead to what concerns? Of course, we should consider. Otherwise, what is the point of Krishna giving any scripture? Krishna basic scripture are telling us do this, don’t do this. Now there are some some situations where the choices are moral.
Some places the situation choices are just logistical. We don’t it’s not a moral moral element over there. Should I take this job or should I take that job? No. Should I stick my home over here or there?
But these choices also have results and we need to use our intelligence to make good choices. So it’s using our intelligence is not acting independent of Krishna. It is depending on Krishna by using the resources that he has given us. Okay? Thank you very much.
We stop here. I think we can take later. Sure. So thank you very much. So we will have next class at 01:15.
So we have Aarti here itself. So we have Aarti or if somebody want to get fresh, please feel free to use. And if you have any question, Pujid’s here. I think now or later, you can ask. That’s the time to ask.
Okay? So thank you so much. Hare Krishna. Very nice to have your association again. What is your name?
I’m box of Sam. Sam? Mhmm. Oh, okay. Yeah.
What are you doing currently, Sam? Now I work in, telecom, and I work Namaste.
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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!
The post Especially when things are going all wrong in our life how can we maintain faith that Krishna’s plan is still working in our life? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Shri Rupa Goswami mentions that one should bathe in Radha-kunda on Kartika Bahulastami. In “Mathura Mahatmya” (420), He cites the Padma Purana: “One who bathes in Radha Kunda on Bahulastami in Kartika becomes Haripriya, very dear to Shri Krishna.”
However, it is Shri Jiva Goswami who clearly mentions the time of the most glorious appearance of Shri Radha Kunda. In Shrimad Bhagavatam (10.45.3) tika, Shri Jiva Goswami says, “Shri Krishna killed Aristasura on Caitra Purnima (full moon: March-April) when Krishna was 11 years old.”
Conclusion
Caitra Purnima is Radha Kunda appearance day, whereas Bahulashtami is Radha Kunda’s discovery day by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
For Balarama Rasa-yatra, we shall read from Srila Prabhupada’s summary study of the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, called Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, about Lord Balarama’s visit to Vrindavan after He and Krishna had been away from Vrindavan for many years.
In our meditation on the deity of the Lord, we begin from His lotus feet and then gradually progress upward to His ankles, knees, thighs, waist, navel, chest, neck, and face. Srimad-Bhagavatam is also a form of the Lord, and so we begin its study with its lotus feet, which are the First and Second Cantos, and gradually progress upward until we get to the Tenth Canto, which is compared to the Lord’s smiling face. The topics in the Tenth Canto are very elevated and can actually be fully appreciated only by liberated souls—because Krishna’s pastimes with His pure devotees are enacted on the liberated platform—but on special occasions such as Balarama Rasa-yatra we do explore such topics.
Some years ago, I was in Vrindavan at this time, tending to a disciple, Arca-vigraha dasi, who was preparing to leave her body. Many senior devotees would come every day and read to her, discuss with her, and chant for her, and on this particular occasion I read the same pastime—about Lord Balarama’s visit to Vrindavan—from both the Tenth Canto and the Krsna book. The basic features of the pastime are the same in both texts, though there are little differences in terms of details and revelations of insights into the pastime. Today I shall read from the Krsna book, Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead—Chapter Sixty-Five: “Lord Balarama Visits Vrndavana.”
TEXT
Lord Balarama became very anxious to see His father and mother in Vrndavana. Therefore, with great enthusiasm He started on a chariot for Vrndavana. The inhabitants of Vrndavana had been anxious to see Krsna and Balarama for a very long time. When Lord Balarama returned to Vrndavana, all the cowherd boys and the gopis had grown up; but still, on His arrival, they all embraced Him, and Balarama embraced them in reciprocation. After this He came before Maharaja Nanda and Yasoda and offered His respectful obeisances. In response, Mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja offered their blessings unto Him. They addressed Him as Jagadisvara, or the Lord of the universe who maintains everyone. The reason for this was that Krsna and Balarama maintain all living entities. And yet Nanda and Yasoda were put into such difficulties on account of Their absence. Feeling like this, they embraced Balarama and, seating Him on their laps, began their perpetual crying, wetting Balarama with their tears. Lord Balarama then offered His respectful obeisances to the elderly cowherd men and accepted the obeisances of the younger cowherd men. Thus, according to their different ages and relationships, Lord Balarama exchanged feelings of friendship with them. He shook hands with those who were His equals in age and friendship and with loud laughing embraced each one of them.
COMMENT by Giriraj Swami
There are many points in just this one paragraph. First, Lord Balarama offers obeisances to Nanda and Yasoda, who are playing the roles of His parents, and they in turn offer their blessings to Him—yet they refer to Him as Jagadisvara, the Lord of the universe. It appears contradictory that the Lord of the universe is offering obeisances to Nanda and Yasoda, and that they, His parents, are offering blessings to Him. But in transcendental pastimes, there are two considerations: rasa and tattva. Rasa means the transcendental mellows exchanged between the Lord and the devotee in a loving relationship, and tattva means their existential positions. Although in terms of tattva, Balarama is the Personality of Godhead, visnu-tattva, and Nanda and Yasoda are devotees, in terms of rasa, in terms of their transcendental relationship, Nanda and Yasoda are in the position of parents to Balarama and Krishna (vatsalya-rasa).
Queen Kunti prayed to Krishna,
gopy adade tvayi krtagasi dama tavad
ya te dasasru-kalilanjana-sambhramaksam
vaktram niniya bhaya-bhavanaya sthitasya
sa mam vimohayati bhir api yad bibheti
“My dear Krsna, Yasoda took up a rope to bind You when You committed an offense, and Your perturbed eyes overflooded with tears, which washed the mascara from Your eyes. And You were afraid, though fear personified is afraid of You. This sight is bewildering to me.” (SB 1.8.31) The image of Mother Yasoda with rope in hand and Krishna trembling in fright with tears in His eyes—though Krishna is feared by fear personified—caused Kunti to become transcendentally bewildered.
In Krishna’s pastimes there are many such intricacies that can bewilder the intellect, and so we should mainly just hear and relish such topics; that is our first business. Once, when we were in Indore with Srila Prabhupada, a disciple asked him, “In some places we read that Lord Brahma is born from the lotus that sprouts from the navel of Lord Vishnu and then creates the different planets (as described in Srimad-Bhagavatam), but in other places we read that all the planets, the different planetary systems, are contained within the stem of the lotus that sprouts from Lord Vishnu’s navel. How do we reconcile these two versions?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “It is inconceivable. We cannot understand these topics with our tiny brains. Our only business is to love Krishna.” So we study scripture. Bhagavata-sravana, hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam, is one of the five most potent processes of devotional service, and we want to understand the science of Krishna consciousness—rasa and tattva and other elements—but we cannot really fully comprehend, or accommodate, these vast topics in our tiny brains, so ultimately we just surrender and hear and relish.
Another point is that Nanda and Yasoda address Balarama as Jagadisvara, as if to say, “We hear that You and Your younger brother are the Lords of the universe. Why, then, do You not protect Your elderly parents?” There is a slightly sarcastic, accusatory tone. On a very high level of Krishna consciousness, a devotee, out of pure love, can accuse or quarrel with the Lord. On the transcendental platform, we find the full range of emotions; everything exists there, but in its original, completely pure state (suddha-sattva), beyond the modes of material nature. Everything there is done out of love for Krishna. In the material world, anger is usually mixed with hatred. But in the spiritual world, the anger—transcendental anger—is mixed with love.
The Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu and Caitanya-caritamrta and other scriptures inform us that beyond even the stage of prema there are further developments of transcendental love. The general progression is given in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.4.15–16):
adau sraddha tatah sadhu-
sango ’tha bhajana-kriya
tato ’nartha-nivrttih syat
tato nistha rucis tatah
athasaktis tato bhavas
tatah premabhyudancati
sadhakanam ayam premnah
pradurbhave bhavet kramah
“In the beginning there must be faith (sraddha). Then one becomes interested in associating with pure devotees (sadhu-sanga). Thereafter one is initiated by the spiritual master and executes the regulative principles under his orders (bhajana-kriya). Thus one is freed from all unwanted habits (anartha-nivrtti) and becomes firmly fixed in devotional service (nistha). Thereafter, one develops taste (ruci) and attachment (asakti). This is the way of sadhana-bhakti, the execution of devotional service according to the regulative principles. Gradually emotions (bhava) intensify, and finally there is an awakening of love (prema). This is the gradual development of love of Godhead for the devotee interested in Krsna consciousness.” (Brs 1.4.15–16, as Cc Madhya 23.14–15)
Generally we understand that devotees progress from sraddha, sadhu-sanga, bhajana-kriya, and anartha-nivrttih to nistha, ruci, and asakti and all the way to bhava and prema, but in the spiritual world there are developments beyond prema.
prema krame badi’ haya-sneha, mana, pranaya
raga, anuraga, bhava, mahabhava haya
“Love of Godhead (prema) increases and is manifest as affection (sneha), indignation (mana), love (pranaya), attachment (raga), further attachment (anuraga), ecstasy (bhava), and sublime ecstasy (maha-bhava).” (Cc Madhya 23.43) Beyond even prema is mana, a sort of transcendental anger, but that is possible only beyond the stage of simple prema and only for the residents of Vrindavan.
TEXT
After being received by the cowherd men and boys, the gopis, and King Nanda and Yasoda, Lord Balarama sat down, feeling satisfied, and they all surrounded Him. First Lord Balarama inquired from them about their welfare, and then, since they had not seen Him for such a long time, they began to ask Him different questions. The inhabitants of Vrndavana had sacrificed everything for Krsna, simply being captivated by the lotus eyes of the Lord. Because of their great desire to love Krsna, they never desired anything like elevation to the heavenly planets or merging into the effulgence of Brahman to become one with the Absolute Truth. They were not even interested in enjoying a life of opulence, but they were satisfied in living a simple life in the village as cowherds. They were always absorbed in thoughts of Krsna and did not desire any personal benefits, and they were all so much in love with Him that in His absence their voices faltered when they began to inquire from Balarama.
COMMENT
The different stages of advancement are hierarchical, and the qualities of prior, or lower, stages are also included in the subsequent, higher stages. In the description of the residents of Vrindavan, Srila Prabhupada describes them in terms that apply to any pure devotee, on the platform of uttama-bhakti:
anyabhilasita-sunyam
jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanu-
silanam bhaktir uttama
“When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action. The devotee must constantly serve Krsna favorably, as Krsna desires.” (Brs 1.1.11, as Cc Madhya 19.167)
As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam’s First Canto:
tulayama lavenapi
na svargam napunar-bhavam
bhagavat-sangi-sangasya
martyanam kim utasisah
“The value of a moment’s association with the devotee of the Lord cannot even be compared to the attainment of heavenly planets or liberation from matter, and what to speak of worldly benedictions in the form of material prosperity, which are for those who are meant for death.” (SB 1.18.13) By such association, beginning with even one moment, one can eventually attain pure devotional service and, like the residents of Vrindavan, have no interest in elevation to heavenly planets or merging into impersonal Brahman, what to speak of enjoying the opulences of this world. The Vraja-vasis were interested only in loving Krishna and serving Him. Their mood fits the basic definition of pure devotional service, which applies from the beginning stages of sraddha and sadhu-sanga up to the most advanced stages of anuraga and maha-bhava. So, too, with the different rasas: the elements of santa-rasa are included in dasya-rasa, the qualities of dasya are included in sakhya, the qualities of sakhya, including santa and dasya, are included in vatsalya, and the qualities of all four are included in madhurya.
It is not that when we become advanced we then desire material things. No. One disciple said to Srila Prabhupada, “When we are liberated, when we become paramahamsas, then we can do anything and it won’t affect us, because we will be on the transcendental platform. So then when we are paramahamsas, we can also have sex.” And Srila Prabhupada replied that this was foolishness and told a story of a king’s servant. The king sometimes rode in a boat on an excursion, and the servant would walk alongside on a path that ran along the river and pull the boat from the land. The king was very pleased with the servant’s work and told him, “I am very pleased with you. I will give you whatever you like.” The servant replied, “I would like a velvet carpet to be placed along the path so that when I’m pulling the boat it will be soft under my feet.” Srila Prabhupada said that this was foolishness—the servant could have gotten anything and he wouldn’t have had to pull the boat anymore. He could have attained a boon far greater than doing the same thing but in a little different way. So, in response to the devotee’s comment—“Oh, if I become a paramahamsa I can have sex”—Srila Prabhupada said that when you are a paramahamsa you are in a position to relish on a much higher platform than that. Asking for sex after attaining the transcendental platform would be like asking for extra facility to pull the boat on the thorny path. The idea is param drstva nivartate, that on the highest level one experiences a higher taste and has no interest in elevation to heavenly planets or merging into impersonal brahmajyoti, what to speak of enjoying worldly pleasures that are meant for those who are bound for death.
Now the residents of Vrindavan are about to speak to Lord Balarama with faltering voices, feeling separation from Krishna.
TEXT
First Nanda Maharaja and Yasodamayi inquired, “My dear Balarama, are our friends like Vasudeva and others in the family doing well? Now You and Krsna are grown-up married men with children. In the happiness of family life, do You sometimes remember Your poor father and mother, Nanda Maharaja and Yasoda-devi? It is very good news that the most sinful King Kamsa has been killed by You and that our friends like Vasudeva and the others who had been harassed have now been relieved. It is also very good news that You and Krsna defeated Jarasandha and Kalayavana, who is now dead, and that You are now living in a fortified residence in Dvaraka.”
When the gopis arrived, Lord Balarama glanced over them with loving eyes. Being overjoyed, the gopis, who had so long been mortified on account of Krsna’s and Balarama’s absence, began to ask about the welfare of the two brothers. They specifically asked Balarama whether Krsna was enjoying His life surrounded by the enlightened women of Dvaraka Puri. “Does He sometimes remember His father Nanda and His mother Yasoda and the other friends with whom He so intimately behaved while in Vrndavana? Does Krsna have any plans to come here to see His mother, Yasoda, and does He remember us gopis, who are now pitiably bereft of His company? Krsna may have forgotten us in the midst of the cultured women of Dvaraka, but as far as we are concerned, we still remember Him by collecting flowers and sewing them into garlands. When He does not come, however, we simply pass our time by crying. If only He would come here and accept these garlands we have made. My dear Lord Balarama, descendant of Dasarha, You know that we would give up everything for Krsna’s friendship. Even in great distress one cannot give up the connection of family members, but although it might be impossible for others, we gave up our fathers, mothers, sisters, and relatives. But then Krsna, not caring a pinch for our renunciation, all of a sudden renounced us and went away. He broke off our intimate relationship without serious consideration and left for a foreign country. But He was so clever and cunning that He manufactured very nice words. He said, ‘My dear gopis, please do not worry. The service you have rendered to Me is impossible for Me to repay.’ After all, we are women, so how could we disbelieve Him? Now we can understand that His sweet words were simply for cheating us.”
COMMENT
This word of accusation against Krishna is quoted in the Caitanya-caritamrta in the discussion of these very high states of love of God exhibited by the Vraja-vasis in relation to Krishna—that they call Him a cheater. Srila Prabhupada explains that Krishna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, also wants some variety. He gets tired of always being worshipped by Vedic hymns and mantras and elaborate sacrifices. Sometimes He wants someone to chastise Him, but who can chastise Him? Only the purest devotees.
One example is Mother Yasoda with the whipping stick chastising Krishna for His naughtiness in breaking the butter pots, eating butter and yogurt, and feeding His friends and monkeys. Another is the gopis chastising Him for being a cheater.
Srila Prabhupada told the story of Lord Gladstone, the prime minister of Great Britain. Ordinary people can’t see the prime minister, but a big man came to see him, and the prime minister’s secretary said, “Please wait; he is engaged now. He will see you after some time.” The man waited and waited, but there was no news from inside. So he pushed open the door a little to see what was happening, and when he looked in, he saw the great prime minister of the United Kingdom on the floor on his hands and knees with his grandson on his back directing him like a man riding a horse: “Get up! Get up! Go right! Go left!” He was still the prime minister even when he was playing the part of a horse for his grandson, but sometimes he wanted to take a break from his position; he wanted to forget that he was the prime minister and just enjoy with his beloved grandchild.
So, Krishna also likes to take a break, so to speak, from being the Supreme Lord, the ruler of the universe—not just the universe, but all the universes—and just relax with His intimate loved ones. That is His Vrindavan lila. It is said that He enjoys the chastisements of His friends in Vrindavan more than all the Vedic hymns because that chastisement comes from such a deep level of pure love.
Here the gopis are saying that Krishna had said, “I cannot repay My debt to you” and just as He was leaving Vrindavan for Mathura had said, “Do not worry, I shall return” but then not come back. They were making garlands for Him, thinking, “Oh, if He comes today, we will be prepared,” but He never came.
TEXT
Protesting Krsna’s absence from Vrndavana, another gopi said, “My dear Balaramaji, we are of course village girls, so Krsna could cheat us in that way, but what about the women of Dvaraka? Don’t think they are as foolish as we are! We village women might be misled by Krsna, but the women in the city of Dvaraka are very clever and intelligent. Therefore I would be surprised if such city women could be misled by Krsna and could believe His words.”
Then another gopi began to speak. “My dear friend,” she said, “Krsna is very clever in using words. No one can compete with Him in that art. He can manufacture such colorful words and talk so sweetly that the heart of any woman would be misled. Besides that, He has perfected the art of smiling very attractively, and by seeing His smile women become mad after Him and give themselves to Him without hesitation.”
Another gopi, after hearing this, said, “My dear friends, what is the use of talking about Krsna? If you are at all interested in passing time by talking, let us talk on some subject other than Him. If cruel Krsna can pass His time without us, why can’t we pass our time without Krsna? Of course, Krsna is passing His days without us very happily, but we cannot pass our days happily without Him.”
COMMENT
We are on a platform where it is easy to forget Krishna. It is nothing for us to forget Him. In fact, we have to do everything we can to remember Krishna—and the gopis are trying to forget Krishna but can’t. No matter how much they try, they can’t. But that actually begins in the stage of sadhana. In his Madhurya-kadambini, Srila Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura elaborates on this verse in two verses from Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu—adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango, and so on. He describes that at the stage of asakti, just before bhava, if your mind wanders from Krishna, it automatically comes back. You don’t even know how it comes back; it is automatic. In the earlier stages, when we chant japa, we have to try to fix our mind on the sound of the holy name, and even then, after a while—we don’t even know how much time or how many beads have passed—we realize that our mind is somewhere else. We don’t know how we left the holy name or how we got onto a different topic, which then led to another topic and then another topic, and so on.
But at the stage of asakti it is the opposite: if your mind wanders, it automatically comes back. So, what to speak of the gopis, who are on the highest stage: they are fully absorbed in remembrance of Krishna, and even if they want to forget Him, they can’t.
TEXT
When the gopis were talking in this way, their feelings for Krsna became more and more intense, and they were experiencing Krsna’s smiling, Krsna’s words of love, Krsna’s attractive features, Krsna’s characteristics, and Krsna’s embraces. By the force of their ecstatic feelings, it appeared to them that Krsna was personally present and dancing before them. Because of their sweet remembrance of Krsna, they could not check their tears, and they began to cry without consideration.
COMMENT
Why did Krishna leave Vrindavan and remain away for so long? After all, the residents of Vrindavan, and especially the gopis, were His best devotees. They had the greatest love for Him. One answer is that when Krishna was in Vrindavan the gopis were always afraid of His separation. There is a very exalted stage, where you can be with Krishna yet feel separation from Him. This was demonstrated in the pastime of Prema-sarovara. Radha and Krishna were together, sitting next to each other, and a bumblebee was hovering around Them and causing some disturbance and Srimati Radharani wanted the bumblebee chased away. So Madhumangala chased away the bee and came back and announced, “The madhu has gone and will not come back.” Now, the word madhu can refer to a bee, but it can also refer to Krishna; it is a name of Krishna. So, even though Srimati Radharani was sitting right next to Krishna, when She heard that “Madhu is gone and will not return,” She took it as referring to Krishna and went into a deep mood of separation and burst into tears. And even though Krishna was sitting right next to Her, He could not bring Her out of Her ecstatic trance of separation. Then He, too, began to cry, and Their tears of love created a pond, which became known as Prema-sarovara.
So, Krishna perceived that as long as He remained in Vrindavan, the residents, especially the gopis, would always fear His separation. They would feel separation from Him and would be preoccupied with His physical presence and absence. He thought that if He left, the gopis wouldn’t focus on that. They would feel separation, but in the intensity of their feelings of separation they would feel Krishna’s presence, unlike when He was physically in Vrindavan and they would feel His presence only when He was physically with them. If He left, they would feel His presence all the time—through their intense feelings of separation.
This point is elucidated in Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta with the example of fire and ice. Sometimes if something is very cold, like dry ice, it burns. Dry ice is so cold that if you touch it, you get burned. So, when the feelings of separation become extreme, intense, they lead to the experience of meeting, of being together. The gopis and other residents of Vrindavan could have gone to Dvaraka, but they actually preferred not to, because the happiness they were relishing in separation was even greater than the happiness they would have relished in Krishna’s association in Dvaraka.
Here we can see that in expressing their intense feelings of separation from Krishna, the gopis are feeling His presence even to the extent of seeing His lotus eyes and His smile and experience His dancing with them and even embracing them.
TEXT
Lord Balarama, of course, could understand the ecstatic feelings of the gopis, and therefore He wanted to pacify them. He was expert in presenting an appeal, and thus, treating the gopis very respectfully, He began to narrate the stories of Krsna so tactfully that the gopis became satisfied.
COMMENT
Here is another way that the gopis—and any devotees—can feel the presence of the Lord: by hearing about His pastimes. The verse tava kathamrtam tapta-jivanam says that krsna-katha is the best medicine for those who are suffering tapa. Tapa means “misery,” or “heat.” It can mean material miseries—that is also there. By krsna-katha one gets relief. But it can also refer to the misery of feeling separation from Krishna. Krsna-katha also gives relief from the fire of separation.
TEXT
To keep the gopis in Vrndavana satisfied, Lord Balarama stayed there continuously for two months, namely the months of Caitra (March-April) and Vaisakha (April-May).
For those two months He kept Himself among the gopis, and He passed every night with them in the forest of Vrndavana to satisfy their desire for conjugal love. Thus Balarama also enjoyed the rasa dance with the gopis during those two months.
COMMENT
An important point mentioned in commentaries on this chapter is that there were two sets of gopis—Krishna’s gopis and Balarama’s gopis—so it is not that Balarama enjoyed the rasa dance with Krishna’s gopis. That would have been rasabhasa, a disturbance in the rasa. He enjoyed it with His gopis, who were attached to Him in madhurya-rasa. And He pacified the other gopis—those who were attached to Krishna—by speaking about Krishna.
TEXT
Since the season was springtime, the breeze on the bank of the Yamuna was blowing very mildly, carrying the aroma of different flowers, especially the flower known as kaumudi. Moonlight filled the sky and spread everywhere, and thus the banks of the Yamuna appeared very bright and pleasing, and Lord Balarama enjoyed the company of the gopis there.
The demigod known as Varuna sent his daughter Varuni in the form of liquid honey oozing from the hollows of the trees. Because of this honey the whole forest became aromatic, and the sweet aroma of the liquid honey, Varuni, captivated Balaramaji. Balaramaji and all the gopis became very much attracted by the taste of the Varuni, and all of them drank it together. While drinking this natural beverage, all the gopis chanted the glories of Lord Balarama, and Lord Balarama felt very happy, as if He had become intoxicated by drinking that Varuni beverage.
COMMENT
Varuni is a devotee, and when Balarama was drinking the Varuni beverage, He was actually drinking Varuni’s love and devotion. In a similar way, Krishna would drink Mother Yasoda’s breast milk, but it wasn’t ordinary milk; it was her love in liquid form. So, Varuni is also love in liquid form, and Balarama was drinking it and becoming intoxicated.
TEXT
His eyes rolled in a pleasing attitude. He was decorated with long garlands of forest flowers, and the whole situation appeared to be a great function of happiness because of this transcendental bliss. Lord Balarama smiled beautifully, and the drops of perspiration decorating His face appeared like soothing morning dew.
While Balarama was in that happy mood, He desired to enjoy the company of the gopis in the water of the Yamuna. Therefore He called the Yamuna to come nearby. But the Yamuna neglected the order of Balaramaji, considering Him intoxicated. Lord Balarama became very much displeased at the Yamuna’s neglecting His order. He immediately wanted to scratch the land near the river with His plowshare. Lord Balarama has two weapons, a plow and a club, from which He takes service when they are required. This time He wanted to bring the Yamuna by force, and He took the help of His plow. He wanted to punish the Yamuna because she did not come in obedience to His order. He addressed the Yamuna, “You wretched river! You did not care for My order. Now I shall teach you a lesson! You did not come to Me voluntarily. Now with the help of My plow I shall force you to come. I shall divide you into hundreds of scattered streams!”
COMMENT
All the entities in the spiritual world are conscious and personal. The Yamuna is also personal. In fact, it is described that she has her own identity and is also the gopi Visakha in liquid form. Everything is personal. There is no dead matter in Vrindavan. It is all conscious and personal.
TEXT
When the Yamuna was threatened like this, she became greatly afraid of the power of Balarama and immediately came in person . . .
COMMENT
The personified form of the Yamuna River came to Balarama.
TEXT
. . . falling at His lotus feet and praying thus: “My dear Balarama, You are the most powerful personality, and You are pleasing to everyone. Unfortunately, I forgot Your glorious, exalted position, but now I have come to my senses, and I remember that You hold all the planetary systems on Your head merely by Your partial expansion Sesa. You are the sustainer of the whole universe. My dear Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are full with six opulences. Because I forgot Your omnipotence, I have mistakenly disobeyed Your order, and thus I have become a great offender. But, my dear Lord, please know that I am a soul surrendered unto You, who are very affectionate to Your devotees. Therefore please excuse my impudence and mistakes, and, by Your causeless mercy, may You now release me.”
COMMENT
She was repentant. It happens—devotees forget the Lord’s supremacy. In krsna-lila, which is nara-lila, Krishna and Balarama resemble ordinary human beings, and one can forget Their position. It happened with Brahma when he stole the cowherd boys and calves, and it happened with Indra when he sent the torrents of rain. But because the Lord is affectionate to His devotees, if they repent—and any genuine devotee will repent—the Lord rectifies them and brings them back to His service, properly situated again.
It is described that when Indra sent torrential rain down on the residents of Vrindavan, for a moment Krishna thought, “He is such a disturbance; let me just kill him,” but then He thought, “No, I should be merciful to him. I should curb his false pride and bring him back to his senses.” In gaura-lila, when Vallabha Bhatta was proud of his knowledge and scholarship, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu humbled him just like Krishna humbled Indra and brought him to a better position in devotional service.
So, Yamuna-devi sincerely regretted her offense in not obeying the command of Balarama. In a genuine mood of repentance, she asked to be forgiven. She knew that He was affectionate to His devotees, and she wanted Him to show that affection toward her because she was His surrendered devotee. She was just temporarily covered by some illusion, some misconception.
TEXT
Upon displaying this submissive attitude, the Yamuna was forgiven, and when she came nearby, Lord Balarama enjoyed the pleasure of swimming in her waters along with the gopis in the same way that an elephant enjoys himself along with his many she-elephants. After a long time, when Lord Balarama had enjoyed to His full satisfaction, He came out of the water, and immediately a goddess of fortune offered Him a nice blue garment and a valuable necklace made of gold. After bathing in the Yamuna, Lord Balarama, dressed in blue garments and decorated with golden ornaments, looked very attractive to everyone. Lord Balarama’s complexion is white, and when He was properly dressed He looked exactly like the white elephant of King Indra in the heavenly planets. The river Yamuna still has many small branches due to being scratched by the plowshare of Lord Balarama. And all these branches of the river Yamuna still glorify the omnipotence of Lord Balarama.
Lord Balarama and the gopis enjoyed transcendental pastimes together every night for two months, and time passed so quickly that all those nights appeared to be only one night. In the presence of Lord Balarama, all the gopis and other inhabitants of Vrndavana became as cheerful as they had been before in the presence of both brothers, Lord Krsna and Lord Balarama.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Sixty-fifth Chapter of Krsna, “Lord Balarama Visits Vrndavana.”
COMMENT
Hare Krishna. Sri Balarama Rasa-yatra ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Are there any questions or comments?
Raxit Jariwalla: When we hear of the pastimes of the Lord, we understand that we cannot emulate Krishna’s activities, that we cannot copy or imitate Him. So, what is a devotee to take from these pastimes? Is it the simple contentment of hearing them and knowing that these activities are going on in the spiritual world, or is there some more significance or benefit?
Giriraj Swami: Yes, there is benefit on both levels—rasa and tattva. By hearing about the Lord’s pastimes with His devotees in the spiritual world, we can become attracted to them and aspire to join them. There is a verse at the end of the five chapters dealing with the rasa dance that says that in order to bestow mercy upon His devotees, Krishna displays humanlike pastimes so that they will become attracted to Him and His pastimes and want to engage in His service.
anugrahaya bhaktanam
manusam deham asthitah
bhajate tadrsih kridah
yah srutva tat-paro bhavet
“When the Lord assumes a humanlike body to show mercy to His devotees, He engages in such pastimes as will attract those who hear about them to become dedicated to Him.” (SB 10.33.36) By hearing these pastimes, we can think, “I want to go to Vrindavan. I want to live in Vrindavan eternally and have a relationship with Krishna as a servant or a cowherd boyfriend or as a parental figure or as a young gopi.” By hearing about Krishna and His loving relationships with His devotees in Vrindavan, you may develop that desire.
Hare Krishna.
[A talk by Giriraj Swami on Balarama Rasa-yatra, April 16, 2011, San Jose, California]
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 21, No. 14
By Krishna Kripa Das
(Week 14: April 2–April 8, 2025)
Where I Went and What I Did
For the fourteenth week of 2025, I remained living at ISKCON Tallahassee. I chanted Hare Krishna every day at Landis Green, behind the main Florida State University library. In Tallahassee I distributed several “On Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlets and sixty-five little cups of halava to promote our Krishna Lunch at the campus. I chanted with one other devotee at First Friday, and many, many people played the shakers and danced with us.
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam and his letters. I share quotes from With Srila Prabhupada in the Early Years and The Delaware Diaries by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami and a quote from Golden Avatar by Yogesvara Prabhu. I share notes on classes by Govinda Kaviraja and Adhokshaj Govind Prabhus, speaking in Tallahassee. I share notes on online Vyasa-puja ceremony for Jayapataka Swami.
Many, many thanks to Satyaraja Govinda Prabhu for his very generous donation on the Vyasa-puja day of his guru, His Holiness Jayapataka Swami.
Itinerary
Chanting Hare Krishna in Tallahassee
One student got the lunch the very day I told him about it, and he came back to tell me how much he liked it. When he saw us at First Friday later in the week, he played the shakers along with the kirtan for several mantras.
The response at First Friday was impressive although our harinama party consisted of only Melanie and myself. I brought four shakers for people to play, and I kept them in the upper left pocket of my kurta. At least five different groups of people played the shakers with us as we wandered through Railroad Square, and often all shakers were engaged and those who did not have shakers would dance. Some groups of people would play with us for five or ten minutes and some groups numbered as large as ten people. It was so absorbing I did not even look at my watch till 45 minutes of the harinama had elapsed. One student at the community college must have chanted the mantra with us for five minutes, and we passed out several “On Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlets to those most enthusiastic. My only lamentation is so few devotees ever join me for the First Friday harinama although it is a wonderful experience of giving many people a little taste of Hare Krishna kirtan.
Govinda Kaviraja Prabhu chants “Sita Rama” on Rama Navami in Tallahassee (https://youtu.be/DXXaKphqXa4):
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.33.27 text and purport:
“Situated in eternal trance and freed from illusion impelled by the modes of material nature, she forgot her material body, just as one forgets his different bodies in a dream.”
PURPORT
“A great Vaishnava said that he who has no remembrance of his body is not bound to material existence. As long as we are conscious of our bodily existence, it is to be understood that we are living conditionally, under the three modes of material nature. When one forgets his bodily existence, his conditional, material life is over. This forgetfulness is actually possible when we engage our senses in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. In the conditional state, one engages his senses as a member of a family or as a member of a society or country. But when one forgets all such membership in material circumstances and realizes that he is an eternal servant of the Supreme Lord, that is actual forgetfulness of material existence.
“This forgetfulness actually occurs when one renders service unto the Lord. A devotee no longer works with the body for sense gratification with family, society, country, humanity and so on. He simply works for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. That is perfect Krishna consciousness.
“A devotee always merges in transcendental happiness, and therefore he has no experience of material distresses. This transcendental happiness is called eternal bliss. According to the opinion of devotees, constant remembrance of the Supreme Lord is called samadhi, or trance. If one is constantly in trance, there is no possibility of his being attacked or even touched by the modes of material nature. As soon as one is freed from the contamination of the three material modes, he no longer has to take birth to transmigrate from one form to another in this material world.”
From a letter to Yadunandana in 1968:
“We do not condemn any religion, because the Bhagavatam says that a religious process is the best if one can attain love of God by practicing it. So we are teaching love of God, not any particular type of religion. Our Krishna Consciousness movement is not a religious movement; it is a movement for purifying the heart. Modern civilization is defying the authority of the Personality of Godhead; the more a man advances in material adventures, the more he becomes covered by the illusory energy.”
From a letter to Satsvarupa in Boston on August 19, 1968:
“We are especially interested in the younger generation because they can accept this philosophy very quickly.
“In the Srimad Bhagavatam it is recommended by Prahlad Maharaj that unmarried boys should accept this Bhagavat dharma, or Krishna Consciousness, for their life’s benefit. We have to convince them about this, that this life is very valuable. Material education had misled them, because it is without Krishna Consciousness. So when Krishna Consciousness is added to material advancement, it becomes aromatic gold. Gold is very beautiful, but if it has some aroma—aromatic gold—if that is available in the market, it will have greater value. So material civilization is very good for the comforts of the body. Now if we do not utilize the strengths and comforts of our body for Krishna Consciousness, our body will beused for sense gratification. And that will degrade our position. So the younger section of this country should take very seriously that they should take to Krishna Consciousness, and the next generation will be a different public. Those in the Western world who are materially and spiritually advanced will be happy in this life as well as in the next.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From With Srila Prabhupada in the Early Years:
“Although a blow to my ego, being exposed or defeated by Prabhupada always seemed to be a gain for me, and I wanted to bring many things before him for his judgment, just to see what he would say about them.”
“I took the book [Srimad-Bhagavatam] with me and read it wherever I went—on the bus, in my Suffolk Street apartment, and even at my office desk. I thought the Srimad-Bhagavatam was the most direct and authentic book about God I had ever read. It was filled with logical arguments to prove God’s existence, and constantly praised His glories. I read quickly, retaining little, but feeling good whenever I read it.”
“I also try to follow Prabhupada’s example with faith, realization, and dedication. For instance, I follow Prabhupada’s daily schedule: rising early to write books, chanting japa, stopping my work before noon to bathe, taking rest after lunch. And most important of all, I try to follow Prabhupada’s example of dedicating himself to the devotees, sacrificing, traveling, and preaching to the non-devotees. We can follow all these things.”
“Prabhupada is writing in reference to our ista-gosthis. Usually ista-gosthis were divided into discussions of business and philosophy. It was usually the kind of meeting guests are excluded from and candid exchanges are allowed.
“Not only would the president present his items, but others were also allowed to speak. Ista-gosthi would be a chance for the cook to remind the devotees not to leave food out to spoil; it would be an opportunity for the pujari to make a Krishna conscious speech about the importance of attending the aratis or how to develop a special relationship with the Deity by doing individual services; it would even be an opportunity for different anarthas or temple politics to be exposed.
“Prabhupada expected we conduct these meetings with a decorum befitting devotees; ista-gosthi is not a name-calling free-for-all. Yet we could treat festering issues openly, and it was the proper place for discussing controversial items, although that would also be done by respecting the jurisdiction of the temple authorities. Ista-gosthi was a competent way to settle many problems that gathered during the week.
“In the philosophy part of the ista-gosthi, I began reading Srila Prabhupada’s letters. I invited devotees to ask philosophical questions about things they didn’t understand. To draw every devotee into the discussion, one devotee would pose as a Mayavadi and challenge the others in the room. If executed in a loving, lively, and parampara fashion, the ista-gosthi, ‘discussing what the spiritual master has said,’ can still be a vital method of maintaining the ésprit de corps of the temple.”
From The Delaware Diaries, Volume 2 (Tachycardia):
“I pray to You from ground zero. Please pick me up. Show me a glimpse of Your mercy in Your holy names. Let my mind wander under Your auspicious influence to that of Your wondrous pastimes and Your desire to include me.”
“I heartily recommend that all devotees read Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta, and allied Vaishnava literatures to keep in the fire of devotion. Then their minds will be purified of gross matter, and they can taste transcendental happiness.”
“A writer seeks words to break his silence. We are imprisoned by our silence, and writing releases the self.”
“I am feeling tired. We had to go out and look at property. But Krishna is never tired. He is always ready to kill demons and play with His friends. He is ready to trick the gopis. He is ready for me to come to Him.”
“After reciting the Sanskrit prayers, I go over each one in English and briefly linger on its meaning. In gayatri, we have been given a profound meditation in five minutes, and it should be given due attention.”
“Writing is sometimes grinding, sometimes flying. You use it for your self-realization. It is an art. It is an artless journal. Writing is a series of semaphore signals given to guide other ships. It is an old-fashioned, still-used form of communication. Writing will not be replaced. The world’s best and oldest books are preserved in writings. Writing is put down anew and in the latest thoughts. My writing has a place in the canon.”
“Godbrother is coming to see me. At first I thought it would disturb my free write session of speaking to You, Lord Krishna. But helping others is as good as direct utterance and prayer to You. My brother thinks he is being threatened by his past lives, in which he inflicted pain on other living beings. He thinks they have been reborn in this life and are seeking retribution. I will tell him that when we take seriously to devotional service, our karma is broken, and the sinful reactions do not have effect. He should not be frightened. You have pardoned him. But I have spoken to him many times and have not been able to dislodge his hallucination. I will at least sit with him and try to offer friendly consolation. Please help me, Lord, to be useful to a friend and bring him to Your shelter.”
“I confess my sins of commission and my sins of omission.”
“I know You are present for the touching, and I eagerly desire to reach You.”
“Write something nice about the holy names. They flow from your mouth and bring you to Krishna. It is the dharma for the age. There is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way to reach Krishna in Kali Yuga except by chanting the holy names. I was feeling desirous of chanting in the early morning. I swam into it, like bathing in the Yamuna.”
“Why do you like to chant alone? Because I can chant better without distraction from another person. I like to hear myself chanting clearly.”
“What do you like best about chanting? I like the fact that I am chanting. Prabhupada used to say that chanting leads to more chanting. I like to build up the numerical strength and see it growing and growing. Do you think you can improve your attitude? Certainly. I am bound to get better as I practice at it. I am not disappointed. I like my chanting, although I know it is very poor. I have hopes that Krishna will help me improve my attitude. I feel I am on an uprise.”
“I like the saying that the best gosthyanandi is a bhajananandi who preaches. You have to chant well in order to become a preacher. Chanting well and talking about the chanting is one of the most important forms of preaching.”
“You are present in my fingertips. You are present in my aspirations. And when we bow down to You. You like it when I tell the devotees about You. I can tell them how You lifted Govardhana Hill and how You stole yoghurt from the gopis. I can tell them how, in Your adolescent form, You danced with the young gopis at night. I can tell them how You descend to the material world when there is discrepancy in religion and how You protect the devotees who are anxious to see You in Your Vrindavan form. I can tell them how my heart aches to know You better. I can tell them how I tear words from myself just to reach You.”
“I want to know Your pastimes and exchanges with Your recognized devotees. I want to hear of them repeatedly and rejoice in them. I want to study them as a scholar of rasa and tattva. I want to be a devotee who is possessed by Bhagavan. And I want to go beyond Bhagavan to know You as Mother Yasoda and the gopas and Srimati Radharaṇi know You, as their dearmost, beloved son and friend and lover. You want me to know You in that way, but I have to learn it through the gradual steps of faith, following the guru’s orders, attaining detachment from matter, feeling taste, reaching bhava, the bud of love of God, and finally attaining prema, pure love of God. That is a long road, and it has to be reached in the association of devotees. It has to be reached by chanting of the holy names and by sharing Krishna consciousness with others.”
“Srila Prabhupada interceded for us. He prayed and worked to convince us to become Your devotees. He sacrificed all his physical and mental comforts to come to America. I am eternally grateful that he turned me into Your worker. Otherwise, I would have died in a miserable condition, without You. When I see him, I am reminded of Krishna, because he is a maha-bhagavata, the highest category of pure devotee. He sees that it is possible for all kinds of people to become Your devotees, regardless of their birth or bad habits. I praise Lord Krishna because Prabhupada has given me the means and realization to do so.”
Yogesvara Prabhu:
From Golden Avatar:
“With regard to efforts to introduce Chaitanya’s movement in Nazi Germany, an article by the German scholar Theodor Steche appeared on January 8, 1936, in the book section of the official newspaper of the Nazi Party in Berlin, the Volkischer Beobachter (“Popular Observer”). Titled “From Asian Cultures,” the article outlined the Nazi reaction to missionary efforts by disciples of Bhaktisiddhanta. The article made clear that, due to the Gaudiya Math’s universalism, which gave equal status to all human beings as sparks of Krishna, Chaitanya’s mission could have no place in Nazi Germany. (Cited in Sardella, 2019.)”
Govinda Kaviraja Prabhu:
After Akrura brought Krishna to Mathura, he invited the Lord to come to his home. Krishna replied that He would come but later. This is an important point. Krishna does answer all His devotees prayers but in His own time.
One Prabhupada disciple really wanted to get initiated in the Ramanuja sampradaya. Their acaryas discouraged him, but he persisted. So they agreed and explained all he had to do. When he got to the last step, getting the mantra from the guru, the secret mantra the guru gave him came from Bhagavad-gita, and the guru said, “Follow Srila Prabhupada, follow Srila Prabhupada, follow Srila Prabhupada.”
If I have faith then I can peacefully talk to you about our philosophy, but people who have no faith became very aggressive in their preaching.
Adhokshaj Govind Prabhu:
From a lecture on Rama Navami in Tallahassee:
How can we increase people’s faith?
Logical arguments based on the scriptures is one way.
Also good association increases faith.
Science does not say what was before the Big Band.
Vaishnava aparadha can cause even people who have faith to fall down.
Sati was telling her husband Lord Shiva, “You are worshiped by so many people as being so great, but who do you worship?”
Lord Shiva said that he worshiped Lord Rama, who had recently appeared in human society. Sati saw Rama lamenting the absence of his wife, and she doubted that such a person could actually be God. Thus she decided to test Rama, so she appeared to Rama in the form of Sita, and Rama greeted her, and asked her where her husband, Lord Shiva, was. She felt very embarrassed about what she did, so she decided to leave, but wherever she looked, she saw Lord Rama, including in her heart.
Indrajit attacked Rama and Laksman with the serpent arrows, but Hanuman rescued them by getting Garuda to cut the serpent arrows. But then Garuda had a doubt, how can be Rama and Laksman be God if I have to rescue them.
When Vali was mortally wounded by Rama who shot him from behind a tree, Vali protested that the way he was killed was against dharma. Rama explained that Vali had kidnapped his brother’s wife which was a bigger act of adharma. As a representative of King Bharata, Rama said he had to remove adharmic elements from society as a matter of duty. Vali accepted Rama’s argument and divinity, and asked him to protect his son, Angada.
Rama did not want to disappear in the presence of Hanuman because it would be too painful for him, so he let his ring slip through a crack in the floor and sent Hanuman to find it using the mystic power that Sita had blessed him with. While Hanuman was gone, Lord Rama disappeared.
Comments by me:
When people hear the loud chanting of the holy name, they attain faith.
Kadamda Kanana Swami said that Bhaktivinoda Thakura said that if we have attained the platform of nistha, we can give people sraddha.
Comment by Govinda Kaviraja Prabhu:
We can see that people who follow the Vedic knowledge, both now and in the past, have a better life. This increases peoples’ faith in that knowledge.
Sundari Radhika Devi Dasi:
From a Facebook post by Lila Purusottama:
“During my visit to Milan, Italy, I met a bhakta who was previously a Buddhist monk. When I asked him how he became a Vaishnava, he said he once had a teacher who taught shaolin kung fu. He would come to a Buddhist monastery to teach the monks.
“One day when he came, he was singing. He brought a harmonium and sang very beautifully. When I asked him later what he was singing, he said he was singing ‘Damodarastaka.’ I wrote down the name and later searched for it online and found out that it is about Krishna.
“The next time I saw him, I asked, ‘Who is Krishna?’
“‘He replied, “Oh, that's a very good question.” Then he gave me the Bhagavad-gita.
“‘I took it home and couldn’t leave it. As I read it, I realized that I have found the Absolute Truth. I was so happy I cried. As a monk, I was calm, but not happy; something was missing. I missed you, Krishna. While reading the Gita, I prayed to Krishna for forgiveness for my insults. After all, Buddhism is voidism – very insulting! ”
“When I asked a bhakta if there was any place I could learn more, he said there was a temple I could visit or even live in as a monk. So I came here, in Villagio Hare Krishna, not far from Milan. I’ve been here since July, and by Krishna’s grace, I don’t want to leave.”
“He added that the Buddhist path prepared him for Krishna consciousness. In the Buddhism he practiced, everyone followed four regulatory principles. He would only sleep about three or four hours a night – very strictly. Now he is called Giriraja dasa.”
Jayapataka Swami Vyasa-puja Notes
Pritirupa Vasudha Devi Dasi:
The followers of Jayapataka Swami have developed a “My Sadhna App” to help people increase their commitment to sadhana. It even will send their sadhana report to Jayapataka Swami.
Krishna Gaurakisora Prabhu:
Jayapataka Swami gave a four-hour lecture in Madhurai recently telling the qualifications of the guru and encouraging more people to become gurus. His point is that we want many people to become devotees and for this we need many gurus. He stressed the main qualification is that the guru just presents what Krishna has said and no concotions of his own.
Susevini Guru Gauranga Devi Dasi:
There was once a GBC meeting on a very important topic. Jayapataka Swami said he wanted to ask Srila Prabhupada before making a decision. He prayed to Srila Prabhupada, and when he got a response, he made his decision. Some GBC men did not believe that Jayapataka Swami could ask Srila Prabhupada. For years Jayapataka Swami on important decisions always asks Srila Prabhupada and waits for his response to give his decision.
Krishna Kripa Das:
I came from the era of the eleven gurus, and I thank Jayapataka Swami for being the most reliable one of them.
I lived in Alachua, and he regularly visited there. During one visit he would give a japa class during japa period and later the Bhagavatam class. Then he would discuss about the Mayapur temple exhibits with Sadaputa Prabhu, who I was working with at the time. Then he would do a home program in the evening. That continued for several days. When he left, I took a two-hour nap after breakfast to recover, but I knew he would just go to another place and continue with the same amazing schedule of service.
Once I saw him in Atlanta in June at the New Panihati festival. I then saw him on Indradyumna Swami’s Polish tour in July. On my return to America, I saw him give class at Soho Street temple in London in August. After class, I said to him, “Wherever I go I see you!”
He replied, “I was thinking the same thing about you!”
At the beginning of one of his visits to Alachua, Pancatattva Prabhu had a home program to receive him. Maharaja is always concerned to help the devotees, and he sincerely asked, “Krishna Kripa, is there anything I can do for you?” I do not like to take service from devotees, especially senior devotees, so I just said, “No, Maharaja, everything is alright.” Later in the evening he asked again, and I again said, “No, everything is OK.” Later on he asked for a third time, and my mind flipped out, I just reacted saying, “Yes. There is something you can do for me.” Then I had to think of something. I do not know practically how advanced these gurus are and what they could actually do for me, but I know Jayapataka Swami has a lot of devotion for Lord Caitanya, so I said, “Could you bless me that I might have as much devotion for Lord Caitanya as you do?”
Then he did a mudra of benediction with his hands. I have not yet attained that level of devotion to Lord Caitanya, but I have no doubt I will. At least I have enough devotion to Lord Caitanya to do three hours of harinama every day.
Thank you for allowing me to speak some stories about Jayapataka Maharaja.
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Because we are chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, composed of the divine names, Hare, Krishna, and Rama, sometimes people ask us what the names mean. My favorite definition of the name Rama is given by Srila Prabhupada in the purport to his Bhagavad-gita As It Is, verse 5.22, where he quotes this beautiful verse from the Padma Purana. I shared it with my Facebook friends last Sunday on Rama Navami:
ramante yogino ’nante
“The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasures from the Absolute Truth, and therefore the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is also known as Rama.”
Let us follow the mystics who obtain unlimited transcendental pleasures from the Absolute Truth, who is known as Rama, instead of following the materialists who achieve insignificant material pleasure from sensual enjoyment and miss the special opportunity that human life affords them!
Hare Krishna Prabhu. Prabhu, so when someone does something wrong to us, how can we know that it is Krishna’s plan, that we are in that situation? Should we tolerate or should we fight back? Okay. So, at one level, we can say that nothing happens without Krishna’s sanction.
Sometimes the word is used that not a blade of grass moves without God’s will. But you know the word will has a spectrum of, has a range of meanings. Will can refer to intention, but will can also refer to permission.
Intention is where I want you to do it and you do it. That’s my will. But permission means that, okay, you want to do it, I’ll let you do it.
So, not everything that happens is Krishna’s intention. But nothing happens without Krishna’s permission. So, these two different things are there.
It’s important to understand this. So, for example, if we keep these two in mind, let’s say if this is Krishna above us and we are here below. So, something is happening to us.
Now, of course, it’s not just something happening to us. We could say that there is someone who is doing something to us. And now, is it Krishna who is allowing that person to do that thing to us? Well, yes.
So, in that sense, what is happening is Krishna’s plan in the sense of Krishna’s permission. If that person is doing something bad, that may not be Krishna’s intention. It is Krishna’s permission.
Now, the important thing to understand is that Krishna’s plan doesn’t just happen to us. Krishna’s plan is also meant to happen through us. Krishna’s plan is meant to happen through us also.
See, that’s why surrender has these two distinct dimensions. Surrender is, I like the way Draupadi surrenders. How does she surrender? Raises his arms.
At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna says, I surrender to you. Now, does Arjuna raise his arms? No, Arjuna raises his arms. He raises his bow in readiness to fight.
So, Draupadi and Arjuna, both are surrendering, but the mode of their surrender is very different. Draupadi is accepting Krishna’s will. Krishna, whatever you want to happen, I accept it.
On the other hand, Arjuna is accepting the responsibility to do Krishna’s will. That to do Krishna’s will. Krishna, this is what you want me to do, and I will take up the responsibility to do that.
So, the principle of surrender is the same. The mode of the surrender is almost opposite. See, there are two things in life.
There are some things in our control, some things not in our control. And there are some situations where nothing is in our control. At that time, we just accept that whatever is happening is Krishna’s will, I accept it.
But when we are in a situation where things are in our control, at that time, we have to accept the responsibility to do Krishna’s will. So, that is Arjuna’s mode. So, when I started giving classes 26-27 years ago, one senior devotee had given me 10 points about how to give classes in bhakti.
And the last point was, depend on Krishna. But, followed by the bracket, depend on Krishna, but only after you have prepared your class. So, before I give the class, I have to prepare.
I can’t just depend on Krishna and be irresponsible. So, the idea is that we cannot equate accepting Krishna’s will with passivity. So, that this person is doing something bad to me is Krishna’s will.
But then, in essence, it is Krishna’s plan. But what does Krishna want me to do at this point? And how do I know that? For that, I have to consider how can I best serve Krishna in this situation? And how can I best serve Krishna? This is a slightly long answer. But for us to understand that, should we just tolerate or should we fight back? Well, it depends on what is the best way I can serve Krishna in this situation.
So, often tolerance is talked about a lot in the bhakti tradition. And it’s very important. But tolerance, its importance can sometimes be misunderstood or misapplied.
Before Krishna talks about tolerance in the Bhagavad Gita, he talks about intelligence. Before telling Krishna, before telling Arjuna, tam siddhi kshesu bharat, tolerate, Krishna says, understand that the soul is the real you. So, we could say tolerance, what Krishna means by tolerance.
Does Krishna mean that, oh Arjuna, the Kauravas have committed so many atrocities against you. Just tolerate them all. Is that the meaning of tolerance? No.
The meaning of tolerance in the Bhagavad Gita for Arjuna is, you have to fight against Bhishma and Drona. And that’s very painful for you. But you have to tolerate.
So, the intelligence is required to know what to tolerate. Without that, we may end up tolerating that which should not be tolerated. Isn’t it? So, how do we know what to tolerate and what not to tolerate? Intelligence tells us what are the big things in our life and what are the small things in our life.
If our intelligence is not very good, then we make small things into big things. And that’s how big things end up becoming small things. So, our intelligence helps us to understand what is a big thing and what is a small thing.
And then after that, it is tolerance that enables us to keep small things small. And when we keep small things small, then we can keep big things big. So, you can keep big things big when you can keep small things small.
So, both of them fuel each other. So, the point is that, say, when somebody is hurting us, somebody is treating us badly, so at that time, we have to decide what is the big thing in the situation for me. Now, if that person is just one-off in a bad mood, or they had some bad day, and because of that they are doing it, and, you know, okay, it’s not a big deal, let me keep it small.
And let me just live it, forget it, and move on with life. But if that person is doing it regularly, and because of that, my mind is so disturbed that I can’t do anything at all. I can’t function, I can’t be peaceful, I cannot serve Krishna.
Then that has become a big thing over there. So, that is interfering me from doing the big thing. And maybe that person is doing that to others also.
And then everybody is getting disrupted by that. If that has become a big thing, then we cannot treat it as a small thing in the name of tolerating it. So, when to tolerate something, when to not tolerate something, we don’t focus on the principle of tolerating, we focus on the principle of serving.
How best can I serve Krishna? And for my service to Krishna, what needs to be tolerated, and what does not need to be tolerated? That becomes the criteria for us to decide. Does this answer your question? Thank you.
The post When someone is doing something wrong to us how can we know what Krishnas plan is for us in that situation? Should we tolerate or should we fight back? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Sri Syamananda Prabhu, Srinivasa Acarya and Sri Narottama dasa Thakura were the internal associates of Sri Gaurasundara. They incarnated in this world in order to spread the teachings of Sri Gaura-Krsna after His departure from it.
Sri Syamananda made his appearance at Utkala in the village of Dharenda Bahadurpur. His father’s name was Sri Krsna Mandal and his mother’s name was Sri Durika. Everyone said that this child would be a very high-souled saintly person.
Sri Krsna Mandal was himself a very advanced devotee. Seeing that his son was always absorbed in thinking of Gaura-Nityananda. He told him that he should be initiated into the divine mantra.
The boy replied, “Sri Hrdaya Caitanya is my guru. He is at Ambika Kalna. His guru is Sri Gauri dasa Pandita. The two brothers, Sri Gaura-Nityananda, are eternally present in his house. If you give your permission, I will proceed to there to become his disciple.”
Sri Hrdaya Caitanya initiated him and said, “From now your name is Krsna das.” Sri Hrdaya Caitanya could see that his new disciple was extremely intelligent and at the same time very devoted, so he ordered him to go to Vrindavana to study the literatures of the under the tutelage of Srila Jiva Gosvami.
Srila Jiva Gosvami was extremely happy to receive Duhkhi Krsna dasa into his care. Krsna das very carefully began to serve Jiva Gosvami as well as study the literatures of the Gosvamis.
Srinivasa Acarya and Narottama dasa Thakura also came to Sri Jiva at this time to study under him. Thus Krsna das had the opportunity to meet them.
Krsna das requested Srila Jiva Gosvami for a special service. Sri Jiva instructed him to sweep the forest grove of Sevakunja everyday. From that day he began to carry out this service with great pleasure. He felt that his life had become successful.
The Lord of Vrindavana and His consort were very pleased with the service of Krsna das, and desired to grant him Their darshan. One day while Krsna das was cleaning the kunja, his heart filled with love. Just then he happened to notice a very beautiful ankle bracelet lying in the dust. He picked it up, touched it to his head and then bound it in the corner of his upper cloth. “I’ll give it to whom ever it belongs to when they come to look for it,” he thought.
The next morning the were quite shocked when they noticed that Srimati Radharani’s left ankle bracelet was missing. Radharani explained, “Last night, when I was dancing in the kunja, it must have fallen off. Please look for it and bring it back to me, who ever finds it.”
When the gopis came to search for the bracelet, Visakha devi noticed Krsna das sweeping the grove. She asked him, “Have you found an ankle bracelet here?” Duhkhi Krsna dasa was so mesmerized by her sweet words and radiant form, which was like that of a demigoddess descended from heaven, that he simply stared at her dumbfounded. Again she asked him, “Have you found an ankle bracelet here?”
Duhkhi Krsna made obeisances and humbly replied, “Yes, I found it.” After a few moments, Visakha devi returned with Srimati Radha Thakurani who stood in the shade at the foot of a large tree. Visakha called out to Krsna dasa, “Bhakta, the person who lost her ankle bracelet has come to receive it.”
Duhkhi Krsna das completely forgot himself while gazing, even though it was from some distance, at the unparalleled, brilliant splendor of Sri Vrsabhanunandini. In great joy he handed the ankle bracelet to Visakha. At this point, Duhkhi Krsna dasa could sense that something very profound was about to take place. His eyes filled with tears and he fell down on the ground to offer his obeisances. In great ecstasy he rolled in the dust.
Visakha then told him, “O best of the devotees! Our Sakhi wants to give you a benediction to express her gratitude.”
Duhkhi Krsna dasa saw the holy waters of Radha kunda before him. After offering his obeisances, he immersed himself in her waters. Thus he attained a transcendentally beautiful feminine form. Coming out of the sacred kunda, he stood before Visakha devi and offered prayers. Taking this ‘forest sakhi’ by the hand, Visakha approached Srimati Radha Thakurani, and the new sakhi fell down at Her lotus feet. Then Srimati Radharani decorated her forehead with tilaka using the ankle bracelet and the kumkum of her lotus feet.
“This tilak will remain on your forehead. From today you will be known as Syamananda. Now you can go.” After She said this, Srimati Radha Thakurani and Her sakhis were no longer to be seen.
After reciting prayers hundreds and hundreds of times to Sri Radhika, he finally returned to Srila Jiva Gosvami. Sri Jiva Prabhu was struck with wonder when he saw the brilliant new design of tilaka on his young student’s forehead.
Sri Syamananda, Srinivasa and Sri Narottama began to pass their days in great bliss, studying the literatures of the goswamis and begging a little to eat from door to door. The three of them resolved to continue in this way and thus devote the better part of their time to serving and worshipping Sri Krsna in Vrindavana.
The goswamis held a council together and decided that these three should be sent to Gaudadesa to preach the teachings of Mahaprabhu as presented in the gosvami literature. One day Srila Jiva Gosvami called the three of them together and informed them of this decision. Thus the three of them accepted that order on their bowed heads.
By Dandavats Staff WriterDiscover profound insights and inspiring moments from the latest updates on Dandavats! Dive into the transformative power of sincere chanting with HG Vaisesika Dasa, where every service we offer finds its true meaning in heartfelt intention. Explore Srila Prabhupada's timeless wisdom on leadership and the path to spiritual destruction. Stay informed with an urgent alert about preserving your temple's Facebook videos. Plus, experience the essence of Prabhupada's teachings through meditations and reflections shared by devotees worldwide. Join us on a journey of spiritual growth and community connection at Dandavats! . Continue reading "Whispers of Bhakti: Echoes from the Heart of Devotion! April 10
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So, how much should we be concerned if the South Indians who are coming to ISKCON in North America also start talking about South Indian pastimes and forms of worship, just telling Tirupati Balaji stories or having pictures of Vishnu more than Krishna in their slides when they give talks? Answer? There are three points in this to consider. First is the purpose of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. Second is the needs of the people who are coming.
And a third is the authority that we as individual leaders have for bringing about change. Now, Srila Prabhupada started the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and he gave seven purposes of ISKCON. Interestingly, in the seven purposes, there is only one purpose which talks specifically about Gaudiya Vaishnavism which is to spread Sankirtan according to the teachings of Lord Chaitanya.
And Srila Prabhupada, in his own writings and in his teachings, emphasized Bhagavad Gita and the broad universal philosophical truths of Krishna Consciousness and spiritual practices much more in the specifics of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. So, for example, he did translate Chaitanya Ritavrata and even in the Bhagavatam, he gave Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as an example of the ideal Bhagavatam in the introduction itself. Beyond that, many traditional Gaudiya Vaishnav groups, be they Gaudiya Math or the pre-Gaudiya Math followers of Bhaktivinoda Thakur or the pre-Bhaktivinoda Thakur followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, they often feel ISKCON even in India is not Gaudiya enough that what we are doing are broad devotional practices and not specific Gaudiya Vaishnav practices.
And our leaders have not taken that criticism very seriously and a few devotees have focused on Gaudiya Vaishnav mood specifically in terms of becoming immersed in Lord Chaitanya’s pastimes and sharing those stories and sharing those values and focusing on the stories of our Acharyas. So, while that is an important purpose, I want to say that is either a defining purpose of Shila Prabhupada or it is not a defining emphasis of the successors of Shila Prabhupada both in terms of the Gurus and in terms of the managers, the GBC. That doesn’t mean it is not important.
It just means that it may not be the most important thing for them. As far as the needs of the audience are concerned, when they come here, most people come here because, most Indians come here because this is a cultural home for them. And often the fact that we have Deities and that we have traditional clothing that is recommended, all this makes them feel that this is culturally like home.
And to some extent, they will want to make it more and more like a cultural home for them. So, from their perspective, they have many choices. They can go to Tirupati Bajaj Bali temple, there are so many Venkateshwar temples over here.
There are so many other temples. They will go where their needs are fulfilled the most. Now, of course, we cannot define what we do solely by their needs.
However, their needs and our purpose, where it can intersect, that is something which we need to see. So, in India now, many temples have started celebrating Vaikunthai Kadashi. And we don’t do anything special in Vaikunthai Kadashi.
We just say that there is a Vaikunthai Kadi celebration. We have a talk. We have Kirtans going on.
We have Prasad distribution and crowds and crowds of people come on Vaikunthai Kadashi. Similarly, many temples have started celebrating Mahashivratri also. And a few other festivals which were not celebrated earlier.
The idea is, somehow other people are connecting with Krishna. Now, the challenge is that those who become our leaders, in their classes, they start speaking such stories, speaking more generic Vaishnav stories or Sri Vaishnav stories rather than Gaudiya Vaishnav stories. Then, it is something which is a matter of concern.
So, my understanding would be two, three things. Before that, the third point is that how much do we have the authority to change this? My understanding is that generally our GBC and our spiritual masters are preoccupied with many things. And not for many of them, maintaining the temples, expanding the temples, building grand temples, distributing books, these are their primary areas of focus at this point.
And of course, people becoming devotees and taking initiation is there. So, the specifics of what is taught in classes has not been a major point of emphasis for them as far as I know. There is some discussion going on at some leadership levels on what people call as the Hinduization of ISKCON.
And this is more led by western devotees who feel that ISKCON is becoming much more Hindu than what Srila Prabhupada wanted. And many Hindu practices that were not given by Prabhupada are being adopted over here. These are not just western devotees.
They are also first generation devotees or Prabhupada disciples and who have some experience of what Prabhupada emphasized and what Prabhupada wanted. Having said that, they are also happy that Indians are coming and quite often qualified and educated Indians are coming. So, the solution I see is 2-3 things could be done.
One is that when there are festivals about Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition directly, about Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharyas or about Mahaprabhu, then we emphasize that more and make sure that time maybe we have a series of talks, invite some speaker or have some online speakers and make sure that the devotees hear about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the Goswamis and the Acharyas. Specifically, making sure that those opportunities are fully utilized. So, rather than trying to tell others to decrease something, the stories of our Acharyas and our saints and Mahaprabhu are themselves so attractive that if they are heard regularly and presented properly, they will attract the hearts of so many people directly, even those who are from a somewhat Sri Vaishnava background.
Second is that if somebody is telling some stories from Sri Vaishnava tradition, I don’t think that is a problem unless they don’t tell anything from the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition at all and they become the defining speakers in our movement, in that particular place. So, as long as they are one such speaker and there are other speakers who speak more balancing things also, then again people will also understand, okay, this is one flavor. Everybody, when they are practicing Bhakti, we want to develop our spiritual attraction to Krishna.
But till that spiritual attraction is developed, we all have our cultural attraction to the Lord and that cultural attraction is often based on the region where we grew up and what kind of manifestation of the Lord we were connected with. So, try to have, rather than telling that person, not really try to have a balance. The third would be that see if you can invite travelling speakers who focus on Gaudiya Vaishnavaism and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and let them tell the pastimes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and even you could organize online classes and that way it will work out very well in terms of people getting the necessary nourishment.
So, because a top-down effort at this stage is not happening. So, for us at that level, we need to focus more on what is doable for us and what is seen as success by the general devotee community as well as by the leadership at a higher level in our movement. And I think that is making more devotees, distributing books, building temples and of course beyond that taking care of devotees in general.
Thank you.
The post Is ISKCON in America losing its Gaudiya focus due to being populated by South Indians appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
By Vijaya DasFor February 2025, Mayapur was again the #1 temple in the world with 80,389 book points. As when he was here with us, I'm sure Gopal Krsna Maharaja would like to see New Delhi competing with Mayapur for the top position. Come on, Delhi distributors, we know you have it in you to do big! Among Medium temples, Salem, India had the biggest increase with 1,972 book points. Also, the Salem devotees have almost finished building the only solid stone temple in ISKCON. The last I heard the plan is to have a Grand Opening next year. After the opening, I know the devotees will be inspired to distribute more books than ever! Continue reading "WSN February 2025 – World Sankirtan Newsletter
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By Dandavats Staff WriterThe latest updates from the ISKCON community featured on Dandavats offer a rich blend of spiritual inspiration, personal reflection, and community celebration. Highlights from the life and dedication of His Holiness Jayapataka Swami, honoring his unwavering service to the Krishna consciousness movement. The ISKCON temple in Chowpatty was also featured as a vibrant center of devotion and outreach, showcasing the ongoing efforts of the community in spreading spiritual wisdom and service. Continue reading "In the Light of the Dham: Stories of Service and Spiritual Awakening! April 9
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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.
The post How can we know whether we are living according to Krishna’s plan for us? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
The Bhakti Centre, which was formerly in Surfers Paradise, moved to a new location due to the building sustaining serious damage from Cyclone Alfred. It was a good opportunity for the devotees to find a new location because the old place was run down.
On the occasion of Rama Navami, the new centre, which is in the suburb of Ashmore, was opened. This is a fairly modern building with a lot more rooms and facility for the growing congregation. We had a wonderful inauguration and celebration.
By Dandavats Staff WriterAcross digital platforms, joyous echoes from London resonated through Harinama Sankirtan and Jayadeva's transcendent melodies, underscoring the universal appeal of bhakti yoga. Notably, from Mumbai's ISKCON Juhu to the bustling streets of London and live sessions from ISKCON Punjabi Bagh, devotees worldwide converged in devotion, marking Sri Rama Navami with fervent enthusiasm.. Continue reading "From Temples to Towns: A Symphony of Devotion Across the Globe! April 8
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One’s greatness is seen not just in how forcefully they can make the world bend to their will. How forcefully they can get the world to say yes. One’s greatness is also seen in how gracefully they can accept when the world says no.
Because accepting setbacks and failures and reversals and even injustices is an inevitable part of the human experience. So Rama is the supreme but when he appears on the earth, the divine descends in the human level to teach us humans how to face life. And he is loved by everyone as he grows up.
He is powerful, he is handsome, he is compassionate, he is competent. He is every way suited to becoming a king. And at that time, for no fault of his, because of a palace conspiracy, he is exiled to the forest.
The conception of exiling to the forest may be difficult to understand today because there are no forests to exile people to. Hardly any. Probably the nearest you might come today is to deportation.
But even when a person is deported, they have the facility to go back to their own country. But exile means you just become homeless. In the jurisprudence of that time, exile is the worst punishment, just one below execution.
In some ways, exile is actually considered worse than execution. Because when you are exiled, everything that makes your life worth living is taken away from you. And for many people, better you take my life away than take everything away from me.
And he is completely blameless. At that time, Lord Ram could have rebelled. He could have incited a rebellion.
But he did not. He kept always the greater good in mind. And rather than fomenting rebellion in anyone, he can’t ever rebel.
There is a classic conversation between Ram and his younger brother Lakshman about how to face adversity in life. And this conversation actually echoes modern thoughts in many ways. So when Lakshman comes to hear that Ram has been exiled, he is a faithful younger brother.
He says, this is atrocious, this is outrageous. And he says, you should fight against this. Now Ram’s father Dashrath has given a promise to his youngest wife Kaikeyi that I will fulfill two of your wounds.
And she asked that Ram be exiled for 14 years and her younger son, her son, who is the youngest among the four brothers, Bharat, be made the king instead of Ram. Now Lakshman is angry. And he says, how could the king do like this? He is blinded by lust.
He is completely under the spell of infatuation. You have no need to obey. Ram calms him down.
There is a sweet rhyme between the word Ram and calm. Whenever Ram goes, he brings calm. And when he goes inside our heart, then also he brings calm.
Actually there is another rhyme between the English C-A-L-M, calm, and the Sanskrit K-A-M-A, calm. So calm is craving, is unrestrained desire. So as long as there is the Sanskrit calm inside us, the English calm will not be there.
As long as there is craving, we cannot have peace. So when Ram comes, he brings calm, and he removes calm in the form of selfishness, and selfish cravings. Ram calms him down.
He says, I was her father. It is not out of infatuation. It is out of obligation.
Why would Kaikeyi do something like this to you? You have always treated her like a mother. She is so mean to you. Generally when we are angry, anger does two things inside us.
It makes us look for an aggressor, and the other side, it makes us look for a villain. I want someone to hit back another person, and I want someone to hit it. So Ram says, don’t.
Don’t speak ill about Kaikeyi. You know how much she loved me. Her love for me was like an incessant flow of the river Ganga.
Lakshman is still angry, and he tries to weaponize Ram’s metaphor against him. He says, that’s what I can’t understand. How did the Ganga dry up in one night? When did all her love disappear? And then Ram makes the discussion philosophical.
He says, that’s why seeing her inexplicable change in disposition, I concluded that this is the well-known destiny. Lakshman is not yet done. He says, it is only cowards who accept injustice as destiny.
Heroes fight against injustice. So then Ram makes a key point. He says, for me, destiny is not as important as duty.
He says, as a duty to my father, I was ready to ascend the throne. And as a duty to my father, I will now go to the forest. So he accepts, he calms his brother, he calms the citizens.
When something bad has happened to us, it’s very easy not only for us to feel miserable, but to make everyone miserable. And to make everyone angry at whoever we think has caused the misery. And thus we end up making things worse.
So, why do bad things happen to good people is a universal question that everyone faces in life. Through Lord Ram’s example, the Ramayan inspires us to rephrase the question. Rather than asking, why do bad things happen to good people, we are encouraged to ask, when bad things happen to good people, what do good people do? Ram does not have any bad karma from the past.
So whatever philosophical explanations we may have for why bad things happen, none of those apply to Lord Ram. And yet bad things happen to him. So, rephrasing the question, accept that this has happened now.
Now, what can we do about it? Life is unfair. That’s just the unfortunate fact of life. Some of you may notice that I need crutches for walking.
So when I was one, I got polio. It was an accident of fate. And the vaccine I was given had some problems in it.
I’m not anti-vax over here. But anyway, when I was one, I got polio. I don’t remember it.
I was learning to walk. I fell down. And I was about two and a half or three.
That’s my first memory. A distant relative had come to our house and she was consoling my mother saying, 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. I don’t know why she said that. And somehow that stays with me.
Actually, the intellectually part stays with me. God came later. But I found that, yeah, I could play outdoor games like other kids.
And I could say this is unfair. But then I realized that I did have more intellectual ability than others. I could read things fast.
I could remember things well. I could articulate things clearly. And somewhere in the back of my mind it settled that, yes, life is unfair.
However, in the big picture, life is fairly unfair. Fairly unfair means sometimes we get worse than what we deserve and sometimes we get better than what we deserve. So, Lord Ram accepts the unfairness that has come upon him.
But that, I was talking about the acronym. Do you remember the acronym? Art. So, acceptance is one part of how to deal with life.
The second is our responsibility. Responsibility often requires us to reframe how we are seeing the situation. When Lord Ram is being exiled, his minister says, this is such an outrage, this is such a calamity.
And Ram replies, what is the calamity? For an elder brother, the younger brother is like a son. And which parent does not want to see their son prosper and flourish in their presence? He says, we are all ultimately meant to grow in wisdom. Most people who are householders get the opportunity to associate with sages and saints only in the later stages of their life.
I am so fortunate that in my youth I get to spend time with the sages. And, he says that, while I am in the forest, I have heard, the sages have been terrorized by demons. I can do some service to them also.
So, that brings the second part is responsibility. Taking responsibility versus casting blame. Lord Ram does not blame anyone.
He takes responsibility. This is the situation I am in. What is the good I can do in this situation? This is where, instead of asking, what if this person had not done this? What if this person had not done that? What if I had not done that? Changing the question from what if to what is.
Instead of asking, what if this had happened? What if that had happened? Okay, what is here right now? What is it that I can do right now? So, Lord Ram in the forest took responsibility. Responsibility to do service. He was a warrior.
He was a protector. He decided, while I am in the forest, let me protect the sages from demoniac forces, from dark devilish beings who were persecuting and terrorizing them. In everything that happens in our life, there is something bad and there is something good.
So, taking responsibility does not mean let the burden of the whole world come upon us. Taking responsibility means that this is the situation I am in. How can I make the best of this situation? And Lord Ram enriches himself with wisdom, serves the sages and sets an example of how to gracefully, not just passively accept adversity, but to responsibly do something constructive amid that adversity.
So, for me, my mother did that reframing for me. Instead of worrying about the physical, focus on the intellectual. We all, if my mother was the person who actually inspired devotion to Lord Ram in my heart in my childhood, we would grow up with a beautiful picture of Ram and she would tell me stories of Ramayana.
So, if we have someone in our life who can teach us acceptance, who can teach us responsibility, we are actually very blessed. now, while we are accepting what is unchangeable and taking responsibility for what is changeable for us. First of all, finding what is changeable and then working on what is changeable.
That brings us to the third part. The third part is transcendence. Transcendence is that Lord Ram he has this fascinating duality about his identity.
He is the divine, but he is playing the role of a human being. Especially the original rendition of the Ramayana, which is the Valmiki Ramayana, his divinity is not emphasized much. Because if the fact that he is God is emphasized, then he is God.
He can do anything. What problem does he have? Isn’t it? That can become an excuse for others to not learn from his example. That’s why his divinity to some extent, it is not hidden, but it is not emphasized.
So, transcendence refers to the fact that there is a higher reality beyond the reality that occupies our minds in daily life. And for us to be able to face life’s injustices, to not be crushed by our daily responsibilities, we need to regularly rejuvenate ourselves by linking with that higher reality. Normally, when we start our life, for us the world is very big.
If I am here, the world is very big. And God, even if he exists, he is very small. When I started my spiritual journey, I started sharing with all my relatives about what I had learned about the divine.
And one of my uncles told me, yeah, I believe in God. He is happy there, I am happy here. So initially, however we conceive God, he might seem irrelevant to us.
Not very important. So that’s the initial part. The initial stage is where the world is very big for us and God is very small for us.
But as we grow spiritually, in the bhakti tradition, chanting the names of God, chanting the names of Ram, the names of Krishna, this is one way to infuse our consciousness within the presence of the divine. So as we grow spiritually, the dynamic inwards. The world starts becoming smaller and God starts becoming bigger for us.
And when God becomes the bigger reality, the result of that is life’s ups and downs don’t affect us that much. When the world is very big, world’s ups and downs also become very big. It becomes a giant sine wave.
We get tossed up and down. But when the world itself becomes small, then the ups and downs within the world also become small. And that’s how we can stay more composed, we can stay more connected, we can stay more connected when the world becomes small for us.
So Lord Ram, through his example, he demonstrates how to live in the light of a higher reality. Of course, he himself is the higher reality. But he lives for the principles of dharma and the characters within.
There is Lakshman, there is… In many ways, in the Ramayana, Ram is the supreme hero. But God is not just someone who says, I’ll be the hero and you be my follower, you be my fan. God wants each one of us to discover the heroism within us in a mode of service and contribution.
In Ramayana, actually the most adventurous and beloved section, ironically, is the section where Ram is not present at all. That is called the Sundar Kavant. Where it is Hanuman whose adventures are shown.
Similarly, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is revealed to be God, but Krishna is calling upon Arjuna to become the hero, to take a heroic responsibility. God is great and connecting with him invites us all to embrace the great destiny that God has for each one of us. So Hanuman, Hanuman embodies this transcendence through a two-fold competition.
Hanuman has a mace in his hands and his hands are folded. That is the iconic imagery of Hanuman. Hanuman is considered the greatest devotee of Ram.
By Ram’s inspiration, one who infuses transcendence is said to become like Hanuman. So Hanuman’s folded hands, they represent Bhakti. And the mace in his hands represents Shakti.
So Bhakti is devotion and Shakti is strength. So similarly, one who becomes infused with transcendence, that person has this combination that their eyes are fixed on the Lord. In the service of the Lord, they are not seeking worldly gains, they are not seeking power and fame and all those things which most of us crave for our own pleasure.
Bhakti means the eyes are fixed on the Divine. God is the bigger reality for them. But just because God is the bigger reality does not mean that they dismiss the world as illusion.
The world is also reality. The world is a place where each one of us is meant to become an instrument of God’s will in a mood of service and compassion. And thus, the mace in Hanuman’s hands signifies Shakti, the strength to bring about a positive change in the world.
So, devotion is what brings change in our heart. And the contribution that we make through our God-given talents, that is what brings about a change in the world. So Lord Ram’s example of transcendence is that there is inner change and there is outer change.
The post Ramayana’s Universal Message of Inspiration, Interfaith talk at Houston on Ramnavmi 2025 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.