Okay. Hare Krishna. Will continue our discussion, on the characteristics of pure devotional service. But within this, we’ll be focusing more on the principle of karma. And in that sense, this will be, you could say almost like a stand alone class.
So those of you not attended the previous class can also understand this. Although we’ll draw some points from the previous classes. So, I’ll talk about 3 broad things today. First is, what is karma? Then second is, the relationship between karma and suffering and distress, the problems that we face in our life.
And the third will be the relationship of bhakti with karma and suffering. So this is, subject, this topic is, in one sense, both abstract. Abstract in the sense it’s a conceptual subject. Karma, it’s a concept. Krishna says it’s It’s not so easy to understand.
At the same time, it is a very immediate subject for us. In the sense that it is something which affects us. We all face different challenges in our life, and we all need resources for dealing with those challenges. And how much will our bhakti help us in that? How much should we even expect our bhakti to help us in this?
These are questions that naturally come up within us. So, let’s start with first, understanding the principle of karma. Now, at a basic level, karma means that whenever there is an action, there will be a result of that action. That’s the basic principle of karma, and this does not require any complex philosophy to understand. It is both natural occurrence in the sense that this is how we see things happen.
That if I put my hand close to fire, I feel heat. If I eat cold food, then I get some cold. So the idea that actions produce results, this is just a constant natural occurrence. If, say, a child comes back from school and the child has got a black eye and a broken nose. You say, what happened?
The child says nothing happened. No. Not nothing happened. You just if the effect is there, some cause must be there. So it’s a natural occurrence.
Not only is it a natural occurrence, it is also the basis of science. There will be no science possible if there would not be some connection. Now, science does not use the word and result, it uses the word cause and effect. So the idea is that when Newton saw an apple falling, what made this apple fall? So there would be no science possible if there would not be any correlation between cause and effect.
And it is also an aspect of human training. As parents, when we train our children or in a office when there’s a new employee, if you do something proper, you get more results. Say, if a player is selected for a sports team. If they perform well, then their place becomes more secure. They are maybe promoted to a higher round, maybe higher level team.
So we train people also that way. That if you do the right thing, you will get better results. If you do wrong things, then even the present resources that you have may be taken away from you. So in this sense, this this basic aspect of karma does not require any philosophy to understand. It is just universal.
However, the problem comes because of exceptions or seeming exceptions. Exceptions means there are times when there are actions, but there are no results. Or there are times when there are certain situations that come in our lives when we don’t seem to deserve them. And we don’t seem to have done anything to get those kind of situations. So this is where things become complicated.
So to so so if we are thinking of karma simply as action leads to reaction, then there is no need for Krishna to say The way karma works is very complicated. It is It’s not so easy to understand. The problem comes because it is not just a one to 1 correlation all the time. What do you mean by that? See, we all may remember times when we worked a lot, but we did not get a commensurate result.
Proportionate result. You know, maybe we we studied a lot for an exam, and the marks that we got were very poor. Or maybe we worked very hard for a project, and somebody else gets the recognition. Somebody else gets the reward. And our role is downplayed.
So it happens that, say, we may put in an input of 100 and we may get an output of 10. And this feels extremely unfair. There are some people, now we do so much for them. We do one thing, second thing, third thing, we try to please them. And at the end of it, they don’t they barely acknowledge what we have done for them.
Sometimes, it may not even be 10. It may be minus 10. Like, we do a 100 things for them and they only criticize us for the 101st thing that we did not do. So, such things can seem very unfair for us. And yes, at one level, it is unfair.
However, if we are honest with ourselves, we can also think of times when we did something worth 10, but we got result worth 100. Maybe sometimes we prepare very little for an exam, but what we studied comes in the exam and we do well. Or sometimes we just join a team and we do a little work in the team, but the team does some very impressive project and we also get the credit for that. Like, say, I think in the 2011 World Cup, which we had, there were India won the World Cup. There was one player, he didn’t play a single match.
All the time, he was in the reserve, but still his picture comes in the World Cup winning team. So what happens is, sometimes we may not do anything, but still we may get the credit. So you could say, life is unfair, but you could almost say it is fairly unfair. That means that sometimes it is unfair in a negative sense, but sometimes it is disproportionate where we get more than what we deserve. Like even our relationships, you know, some people, they are just so kind and helpful to us.
Although we don’t pay much attention to them, we all can think of people who, at least some people in our lives, who went out of their way to be kind and helpful to us. So, in that sense, life works both ways. So why does this happen? Because when we talk about action and result, it is not necessary that the result will come only from the present action. Sometimes it may happen that there may be a minus 90 coming from the past.
Something negative comes from the past because of which, we have put in a lot of effort but the result that we get is very less. In contrast, sometimes it may happen that we may have a plus 90 from the past. And that’s why the result we get may be much more than what we deserve based on what we have done immediately. Now this idea of past actions contributing to present results is not, very unfamiliar or unreasonable idea. So if 2 players or 2 people pick up a instrument, maybe a drum or a buddanga, and they start playing, One of them is playing for the first time.
Another has put a 100 hours of practice in it. Now both of them start playing, and when the so the present action is same. Both of them may be trying to put in the same effort, same concentration. They’re putting in effort attentively. But for the first person, for the second person, when they play mardanga, will say more.
Or the first person will say no more. The first person may say, you know, yeah, it is difficult. And, people may say, yeah, it is difficult to hear. So what has happened is why the present action is the same, but the result is different because there have been past actions. So the idea of past actions contributing to the present results that we get, it is not so unfamiliar.
Even in relationships. If I am polite and friendly with someone, I would expect that person to be polite and friendly with me. But if I am polite right now, but if I have been rude a 100 times in the past, then although I am polite right now, that person may still be cold with me. So it is that our past actions that also contribute to the present results. So if I have been, say, cold 10 times in the past with that person, then I may have to work that much more.
So there is a negative of 90 coming from the past, and I will have to clear the negative. Only then I will start getting something positive here. So the idea of past actions determining present results is not something entirely unfamiliar. So the the only key philosophical point that comes over here is how much past the actions can go. So this is where the concept of soul and reincarnation helps us understand that there are actions that may come from the past also.
And they may contribute to what we get in our present situations. So, if we consider the start if we consider this is our life lifetime, Then, add the starting point in our life, we get, so we can say that we carry some past karma reservoir, which is there for us over this life. And we get a big installment of that at our birth? Say, the kind of family we are born in, the country we are born in, maybe the kind of economic situation that is there in the family or the country where we are born in, The kind of genetics we have, which may determine our IQ and our at least a significant level of our abilities, even our complexion. So that is something which we get at the time of our birth.
Or somewhere around that. So, again, this initial installment of karma can also be both a combination of positive and negative. And often, we may focus on the negative. Oh, you know, I did not get this, or this happened to me, or things went around like this. I was born in a place which was poor or I was born in a place where there are not so many opportunities for this or that.
Somehow, our mind tends to remember the way life has treated us worse than what we deserve. But there are times when life has treated us better than what we deserve also. And we don’t tend to remember that unless we make a conscious effort to do that. So you may notice that I need crutches for walking. So when I was 1, I had polio.
Basically, my parents, my mother, my father is in a traveling job. My mother took me to the local doctor to give some polio vaccine. So we were living in a small town in Maharashtra, and she was told that we should get this vaccine. And polio has more or less been eliminated now. The polio vaccine is fairly, fairly effective.
But somehow, because it was a fairly small town, so there, the clinic was not very competent. And the fridge in which they had kept the vaccine, the power supply from that had got somehow cut off. So the germs reproduced much more. And in the vaccine sorry. So the vaccine, when it was given to me, instead of preventing polio, the dosage was so high that it ended up causing polio.
So I was just walking normally, and one day I fell down, and I could no longer walk after that. So now, of course, I don’t remember all this. Later my my parents told me about it. But my one of my first memories of this is when I was probably around 2a half, 3 or something like that. So some distant relative had come to our home and, she was consoling my mother saying that it’s so sad that your son got polio.
And I remember my mother speaking in a very clear, confident voice. He says, whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him intellectually. Now I don’t know at the age of 2a half, 3 what my mother saw in me and why she spoke that. And she passed away soon, so I didn’t get to ask her about it. But the thing was that somehow it stayed in me.
And then as I grew up, I couldn’t play outdoor sport like other kids could play. But when we started studying, I started noticing that, you know, I could understand things much faster. I could remember things better. I could speak things more clearly. And then somehow it struck me, okay, that, you know, I didn’t, I don’t know whether it’s now I’m speaking it consciously.
And I don’t know when that became, like, crystallized as a thought in my consciousness. But somehow it came in the background that, oh, yeah. I I didn’t do anything by which I deserve to need support for walking. But at the same time, I haven’t done anything to have a better memory and a better intelligence than others. So from the starting point, yes, life may treat us negatively in some way, but life also treats us positively in some ways.
So the point here is that karma can work in both ways. And the the key principle in understanding karma is it is a very positive emphasis. The emphasis in understanding karma, like when Krishna tells Arjuna that you should do your karma. Many places he talks about this. His emphasis is Arjuna has to face a terrible situation.
He trained so that he could fight against enemies. He trained in archery, but now he has to fight against Bhishma and Drona. Say, what did I do to deserve this? No. I don’t want to fight against them.
It’s like, say, somebody trains in the Indian army and then there is some conflict and you have to fight against your own commander or your own boss. It’s a terrible thing. So basically, the emphasis in karma is that our actions always matter. At what we do, it always matters. Even when they don’t seem to matter.
Sometimes, you know, we may be very being very kind and polite with someone and still that person continues to be rude and unreasonable with us. See, then what is the views of being kind and polite with this person? And let me also become rude. Now how exactly to deal with the unreasonable or rude people, that’s a different issue. But the point is our kindness is not going waste.
What we do matters. But sometimes if we are going through some phase of negative karma, then the results may not manifest immediately. So I am doing something positive but because of the negative phase of that karma, from the past negative karma, I may not get the results. But we should not become discouraged and think, what is the use of doing anything? Our actions always matter.
And the whole purpose of the Bhagavad Gita is, therefore, choose your actions wisely. That if my actions matter, then let me choose the actions that will matter the most. Somebody may say, I study and I still don’t get good marks in my exams. So better let me not study. I just spend all my time watching TV.
Well, maybe that is the way in which we are wasting our time now. So okay. I may decide, okay, if I can’t study in this particular area, maybe I should study in that area. That we can choose and decide. So our actions always matter.
Now to take this forward, many times when we get some let’s focus on that positive and we’ll talk about the negative also. Negative means see when we positive means when we get some success in our life. So that success is not just the result of our present income. So we may say, you know, I got this job. And so now all of you are here where, you know, you probably have more financial security than people who work in India.
And you come here in that if you say, okay. I worked hard. I was I’m competent in my job. I’m hardworking. That may all be true.
But There were many other people who are just as competent and hardworking. But you see, I got a lucky break. Or I got this thing, this thing clicked, or that thing clicked. So what is that? That what we call as a lucky break is actually some past karma working positively for us.
So basically, whenever there is success, most often, success is a result of present karma plus past karma. Now the exact role, that may vary. For some people, say somebody is extraordinarily talented in particular field. Now some students may just have, like, an extraordinary memory. Sometimes some, you know, on YouTube, we have this India’s Got Talent or Britain has Got Talent.
There are kids, 3, 4, 5 year old. They’re just so phenomenal at music. Or they’re so phenomenal at some field. For some people, the past karma may contribute 90%, and the present karma may only contribute 10%. For some people, it may be the present maybe 90% and the past maybe 10%.
But the point is, past and present both contribute to the results. So now, what applies to the positive also applies to the negative. When we face problems in life. So sometimes the problems may be because of our present actions. And sometimes the problems may be because of past actions.
Say suppose somebody doesn’t very carefully think before investing money somewhere, and there it’s a it’s a bad investment, they lose money. Then you could say that is another bad decision by me right now. So that’s largely because of present actions. But I know one devoted friend in America. You know, he was working in a software company, and he decided to become entrepreneur.
He started his own small business, and he started it just before COVID. And because of the COVID lockdown, he lost all the money. He had invested in buying property. He had to pay taxes. He had got commodities.
So now, you could say, was that a bad decision? Well, how much can you say it’s a bad decision? Who could have foreseen a pandemic which would cause a global lockdown? So here, in this case, that particular financial difficulty that he faced it was largely a result of past karma. So basically, the situations that we face at present, they are in general due to an unpredictable combination of present and past karma.
So how much the present karma might be contributing? How much the past karma might be contributing? It’s difficult for us to understand. So let’s consider four possibilities. You know, that there is present karma and there is past karma.
Now, the present karma can be positive in the sense of being good. And it can be negative in the sense of being bad. And similarly, the past karma can be positive or the past karma can be negative. Now what does this mean? Say, for example, suppose there is a particular bank in a city, and a huge amount of cash has come in that bank.
And say somehow that news doesn’t remain secret but goes out. And now 10 thieves decide to rob that bank. Now 10 of them may plan to rob the bank, but only one of them is successful. So why is one of them successful and others are not successful? So their success, that one person’s success is because of some past good karma.
So, you know, you need good karma to even do bad karma successfully. So now Hitler is considered to be one of the best orators of the last century. He’s a terrible person. By his past karma, he had, by his past good karma, he had great oratory capacity. He had some past positive karma by which he was meant to become a leader.
But then, by his present negative karma, he ended up becoming a terrible misleader. There have been many, many, terrible people in the world, and there have been many people who slaughtered people. Genghis Khan, when he conquered Europe, and he’s supposed to have annihilated almost 1 fourth of the population of Europe. So there but he was traveling across many countries, and he killed people. But Hitler and the Holocaust, which happened, at the first time in the history of the world, that industrial efficiency was brought to mass slaughter.
Killing people, you know, if you kill people, you have to bury people or you have to burn people. You have to do something. At here, just put them in gas chambers. It’s a very efficient way of killing people. It’s brutal.
But the point is that even for somebody to get success in doing bad karma, they may need some positive karma from the past. So if you consider among these 4 situations or 4 quadrants, now the best is where a person’s past karma is positive and the present karma is positive. That means they work they work for some good cause. And when they work for some good cause, they get not just some good result, but some great results by that. So somebody may be a researcher, and they develop some medicine which cures some terrible disease.
Or somebody makes some song which is, you know, maybe their musical ability, which inspires a lot of people with some patriotic sentiments or devotional sentiments or whatever. So there are great poets who have composed some great compositions. So the best is where we have positive karma from the past and negative karma. A positive past karma and positive present karma. Now the worst situation Is this the worst?
Not really. See if the person has negative karma from the present, then they’re going to do bad things. But if they have negative karma from the past, their bad things will not lead to much bad results. Because, say, like, somebody may want to become a terrorist and blow up, blow up a big building. But something goes wrong and the bomb blows up before they reach the building, and they only blow up.
Nothing else happens. So what happens is it is less harmful. They may try to do some bad actions, but the bad actions may not have much results. So many people many bad people try to do bad things. It’s not that every bad thing that they do succeeds.
So actually, where the past karma is positive and the present karma is negative, this is the most dangerous thing. That means the person is doing bad things now, but that person has a stockpile of past positive karma. So they may be able to do bad things. Now their actions will lead to results, but they may not lead to results right now. So somebody might be, like, a terrible ruler or dictator.
And they have 1,000 units of positive past karma. So then they will use all that to hold on to their power and to keep doing bad things. They will get the results, but they may not get much results in this lifetime at all. So, actually, this is the deadliest combination. Now if the present karma is positive and the past karma is negative.
Now this is difficult, but it is not necessarily bad. That I’m doing some good things right now, but I don’t get the results. I don’t get the recognition. I don’t get the rewards. So this is this is where actually we need to understand what is happening and to pass through this phase.
Okay. So if you consider the Pandavas, the Pandavas were virtues for a long time. And yet, one after another, their father passed away. And then they were they were persecuted by the Kauravas in so many different ways. Now, of course, we can say they are pure devotees and karma doesn’t apply to them.
But we can use this as an ethical framework for understanding. So we understand that they had to go through a lot of negative phases. And then finally, when the negative phase ended, then they got the positive phase. So here, when we are going through a phase of difficulties. So is the child crying because of present karma or past karma?
So it is the child’s present karma, the speaker’s past karma. But but suppose, you know, say suppose some child is crying, and then at that time, the speaker starts yelling or screaming at that person. Now what is going to happen now is the child crying is a disturbance. But if the speaker yells and screams, then at the end of the class, the audience is going to remember how the speaker behaved. Isn’t it?
The child cry will be forgotten. So what happens is our present karma can sometimes make the problem far worse. Isn’t it? So the idea is that even when certain situations come in our life, our present karma does make a difference even when it doesn’t seem to make a difference. So now this what I mentioned the past karma stockpile that we have, If we consider our lifetime, then we all said we said destiny is fixed.
So this is we all have a certain stockpile of karma from the past that is going to come to us. And because that stockpile is fixed. But while that stockpile may be fixed, how it is going to come in our life is not necessarily fixed. Say, what do I mean by that? Say, to some extent, at the start of our life, we get some major installment of that karma.
And then, say maybe during the course of a lifetime, somebody lose 60, 70, 80 years, maybe they are meant to face 4 big problems. Maybe they get at one they get some terrible disease. Maybe some loud one passes away. Maybe in their business, somebody betrays them. Somebody cheats them.
And maybe they meet with some accident. So, of course, each of these can be a very difficult situation to pass through. But imagine if all 4 of these happen simultaneously. You know? That would be almost unbearable, isn’t it?
So our past karma might be fixed, and that may come upon us. But that does not mean that our present karma does not matter. So I’ll explain in 2 different ways how our present karma matters. Say, suppose somebody is going to be cheated in the business, and because of that cheating, they’re going to lose a lot of money. It’s a terrible thing to happen.
But suppose that person during the course of their life, you could be cheated in the business, you could be cheated in the family relationship, cheated whatever way. But before that, during the course of that life, if that person has been polite, kind, helpful, now maybe the cheater will will use that to exploit them even more. But if they have been polite, kind, helpful with people in general, then when they are cheated, others will be ready to help them. No. You’re a good person.
This bad thing happened to you. But on the other hand, if, say by karma, by past karma, they are meant to be cheated. But if in this life, they are rude, they are cunning, you know, they are they just use and throw people, then when one person cheats them, the way they have acted in this life will mean that nobody else will come to help them. So we may not be able to change the fact that we might get cheated. But how we are able to deal with that cheating?
Now that will be determined by our present actions. So sometimes when you say that destiny is fixed. No. Yes. What happens sometimes when we take from shastra one statement and we absolutize that statement without considering other statements.
So for example, it is said that in our destiny, our happiness and distress are fixed. Yeah. So I just said in the scripture, So a statement like that in 7th canto, the first canto. Now what does this mean practically? Does it mean that, say, we if by destiny, when we say by destiny is fixed, and by that, by destiny, our happiness and our distress are fixed.
So if we say this is one statement, and there is truth to the statement. But along with that, scripture itself tells us So when we indulge in sensual pleasures indiscriminately, excessively, we suffer. So can if say by our destiny, our happiness and distress are fixed. Can we increase our distress in this life? What do you think?
Can we increase our distress? No. Of course, we can. Isn’t it? See, if somebody starts taking alcohol and they become alcoholic.
Then that is in in the morning, I talk about suffering that is avoidable and suffering that is unavoidable. So that if somebody is drinking, and then they get some disease. No. That is not due to the past karma, isn’t it? So, say, if on a cold night, somebody takes a dozen ice creams, and they enjoy the taste at that time.
But the next morning, their throat is terrible. In the previous night, they were saying, I scream. And now they say, I scream. Now they scream in pain. Now if they have a terrible throat, is it because of past karma?
Yes. But it is past night’s karma, not past life’s karma. So the thing is that our present actions do matter. So our present actions, they do matter in the sense that just as we can increase the distress that will come because of our present actions, similarly, from our present actions, we can also increase to some degree the happiness. So our present actions also matter.
Gita says for them, if you live in we’ll experience greater happiness. So let’s consider an example of let’s suppose because of the past karma, somebody is meant to get some terrible disease. Now they’re they’re meant to get some cancer. Cancer is probably an example of a disease for which we don’t know the cause practically. Like, iatrogenic diseases.
We don’t know what exactly is the cause. So suppose somebody is meant to get cancer. Now, if in this life, they have generally tried to live healthy, eat good food, do some regular exercise, have regulated habits, then one way of looking at it is, what is the use of living healthy? Still got cancer. Life is so unfair.
But another way of looking at it could be that because this person lived healthy, their chances of recovering are greater because of that. On the other hand, if somebody has always been eating a lot of unhealthy food, somebody has always been very unregulated in their whole life, and they get cancer, then their chances of recovering might be very less. So the point I’m making is our present actions do matter. So in general, when we are going through difficulties, can we know whether that difficulty has come because of present karma or past karma? What do you think?
Well, I mean, I’m I’m amazed by your confidence. So we can say we can know to some extent, isn’t it? See. Yeah. Exactly.
So we can analyze. We can observe that, okay, if this person is very upset with me, you know, have I done something to upset that person? Maybe I am not aware of it. I was in UK. I was staying at 1 devotee’s home.
And he told me that tomorrow is my wife’s wedding anniversary. I said, what do you mean your wife’s? They’re not your wedding anniversary. So he said, I don’t believe in all these things. I said, that was like a red signal for me.
And then after that, now so now he had been a devotee who started practicing bhakti. And his wife had been introduced to bhakti through him. So then he was telling me that, actually, you know, my wife doesn’t support me in my bhakti. She doesn’t understand what I’m doing. And he said, you know, I think, it is because of some past bad karma that I’ve got such a disagreeable wife.
I said wait a minute. Wait a minute. Then I was staying at their home so I was taking lunch and I started talking with Mataji also. She is very intelligent and very reasonable. And she started telling that many things which, you know, it is it is natural to for a husband to take certain responsibility to do certain things.
And this devotee, he was being a bit too transcendental. And his wife was upset because of that. So now I told him, Prabhu, it’s best when we face problems never to jump to past karma right in the beginning. So if we are having problems, first look at, is there something I might be doing because of which this is happening? Now, it’s very rare, it’s possible, but it’s very rare that a problem comes because of 100% past karma only.
That I have done absolutely nothing and still this person is against me. It is possible. You know, there is sometimes racial prejudice, religious prejudice, regional biases. So, you know, you just belong to this community. This community is a community of cheaters or selfish people or that people.
And just because we belong to that community, we are labeled in that way. So that can happen. But generally speaking, it is best when some we are having facing some problems to think how I may have contributed to this problem. And is there something I can do to deal with it? To fix it?
To improve the situations? So so basically, when we face difficulties, it is best to start with, like, minimal assumptions. Minimal assumption means that, say, whenever we face problems, start with the most logical explanation first. Say if I’m speaking right now, and suddenly you’re not able to hear what I speak. The first explanation could be that, okay, that maybe this mic is not working.
Yeah. Other explanation could be maybe the sound system itself has collapsed. Other explanation could be that that, you know, the whole audience, at one moment, everybody has become deaf. Oh, so some mysterious virus has come here and made everybody deaf. Another explanation could be that I have got some attack of some disease by which I’m moving my mouth, but my nose, the sound is coming.
Now if somebody starts now are these possible? Maybe, you know, hey, this the mic work not working. The sound system collapsing. They’re possible. But generally, what happens is a sign of intelligence.
Intelligence means in in sankhya, sorry in in Nyaya, Nyaya is Vedic logic. So in Nyaya it is said, whenever we are looking for an explanation, when we are looking for explanations, it is best to start with what is drushta, and then go towards what is drushta. Drushta means what? Visible. So start with more visible or immediate causes.
So an action can have a range when particular situation comes in our life, it can have a range of causes. But best to start with the immediate cause. And when the immediate cause doesn’t work, then move towards a more remote cause. So my most immediate cause could be, did I accidentally turn off the power switch of this? Our next immediate cause could be, has the battery got become discharged on this?
A third could be, maybe this mic has become spoiled. If right in the beginning I say, oh, it’s not able to speak to you? Some terrorists have attacked and the power supply has been destroyed because of that. They say, why are you panicking? Why are you going towards such such explanations?
So karma, the philosophy of karma is not meant to reject the immediate explanation. It is meant to explain situations when the immediate explanations don’t work. So immediate explanations are also valid, but they may not always be valid. So that’s why I start from the and move towards the. Sorry.
Start from the and move toward the. So till now I have spoken about karma. Now let’s move towards bhakti. So so the basic point here is that our actions do matter. There is past karma, but how much the past karma matters in a particular situation?
It’s difficult to know. It is possible that a particular problem has come because of past karma. But let’s not assume that right in the beginning. So now, when we practice bhakti, so there is our, when we talk about karma, how is karma affected by bhakti? So that is the question that we’ll discuss.
And this is a big question, but again, as I it’s not that we have, an answer that is because these concepts themselves are complex and subtle, the answers are also subtle. But we can try to understand broad principles. Now as I said, karma itself can be past and present. So quite often, we tend to focus on the past karma. And how much of my past karma will Krishna remove?
But, you know, first of all the problem with this is, the past karma is itself unknown to us. So we may have a 1000 units of past karma, and Krishna may remove 900 and only a 100 may remain. But 100 will still remain. Now for us, a hundred still may seem very bad. And we say, why this happening?
This shouldn’t have happened to me. It may be that just before we came to bhakti, we were going through a phase of good karma. And then when we start practicing bhakti, we start going through a phase of bad karma. And they said, okay. I started chanting.
Hare Krishna, my problem my life started increasing. So is Krishna causing these problems to me? No. Not at all. So it’s like, when we go to the whole dimension of past karma, first of all, we don’t know how much is the past karma.
And we don’t know or we can’t know how much that is going to be removed. Mhmm. So Krishna does say, I’ll remove. But it is said, He says, but the is This is the second sarva. There is the first sarva also.
So in one sense, Krishna is reciprocal. To the extent we become pure devotees, to that extent, the karma influence may go away. But this, because the past karma is unknown, it’s best to tolerate it. Whatever it comes, So it’s not that Krishna is not helping us, But it’s just that, how Krishna is helping us, we don’t know. Suppose, you know, we inherited some debt because suddenly, say, our parents or somebody in their family passed away.
Now that if we don’t know how much debt is there, and because that person is a relative or somebody, they even they say, okay, you know, you don’t have to pay all the debt. There’s a 25 lakhs, you just give 5 lakhs. If 5 lakhs is also such a big amount, but is it 25 lakhs or is it a far bigger amount? In this case, what happens is because we don’t know how much is the past negative karma, so for us, it’s difficult to know what Krishna has done. And if we start expecting that, okay, in my life, because I’m practicing bhakti, there’ll be no problems.
Then that is an unrealistic expectation. There’s some karma which is not very likely to change. Now if somebody is, say, 4 and a half feet, and that is because of past karma. It’s not that they chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant chant. Chant Is it?
That is not going to happen. So certain kind of karma is not going to change. But when it comes to our present karma, now our present karma is affected by 2 things. It is affected by our knowledge. The kind of knowledge or I can say more specifically, it’s not just knowledge.
It’s not it’s so much. It’s. It’s intelligence. And not just our intelligence. It is affected by our, and it is affected by our vrutti.
Our tendencies. So by our past karma, we all have certain tendencies. Say, for example, somebody may be short-tempered. Now, all babies, when they’re small, they cry. But some babies cry as if they will bring the whole house down.
They say that their crying is screaming at the top of their lungs. It’s like, you know, we can say it’s good karma. They have powerful lungs, but they cry so much is not so, so good karma. Isn’t it? So, now sometimes some babies may also have more anger than others.
And as they grow up, their anger comes up a little bit more. So we all have certain karmic tendencies. So some people may see, we all sometimes know that something is good for us. Our intelligence tells us this is good and this is bad. But still, something from inside prevents us from doing that thing.
We’re just not able to do it. So what Bhakti will do for us is Krishna will handle the past karma. But how exactly he’ll handle and how much is our surrender because of which he’s reciprocating, all these are very difficult to know. So rather than worrying so much about the past karma, we focus on the present karma. And the more we start practicing bhakti, our buddhi becomes strengthened.
Bhakti strengthens our intelligence. We start getting a clearer and clearer understanding. Now this action will be beneficial. This action will be harmful. And that clarity itself is helpful.
You know, remember that morning I talked about, if somebody is sick. 2 people may be sick, but one is undiagnosed and is not is being untreated. Is untreated. The other is diagnosed and being treated. So when our intelligence becomes strong, that basically makes us like a patient who is being diagnosed.
And as the patient is being diagnosed, that means we at least understand. Okay. This is the disease, and this is going to worsen my situation. This is going to improve my situation. Now we may not know a 100%, but we do know to a significant extent.
And that itself gives a significant amount of help. Now without, like we say, See, without that without that our situation is like, you know, somebody has put a cloth on our body and we can’t see at the end, we are being punched. No. One punch comes from the front, one comes from the back. We can’t even see, so we can’t even deal with can’t even protect ourselves.
We can’t fight back. We can’t do anything. So that state of suffering is far greater. So when we get the gyana, that itself leads to a lot of decrease in suffering. But bhakti doesn’t just provide us the jnana.
Bhakti, the the vrtti, it becomes purified. So we all have desires. If we’re not practicing bhakti, our desires tend to be very self centered, very selfish. But the more we start practicing bhakti, our desires start becoming more selfless, more service oriented. So what happens by this?
The lust, anger, greed, they start decreasing. First of all, we understand more clearly that anger is bad. Say, lust is bad. See, the propaganda in today’s world is such that many people think that discover your passion. And they’re not talking about some finding your job.
They think, you know, okay. Get People think that increasing their sensual desires, that’ll lead to more happiness. People watch so many things which titillate them, stimulate them, agitate them. But then that causes more suffering. That causes so much more craving.
Because they just don’t know. Like say, suppose somebody has never drunk and has no interest in drinking. They pass by a bar, they don’t feel any agitation. But somebody who has drunk repeatedly, each time they pass by a bar, they have to fight against me. I will go and drink.
No. I’ll not go and drink. I’ll go and drink. I’ll not go and drink. That causes so much trouble, so much distress.
So just knowing what is the right thing to do and being freed from the unhealthy desires, that itself decreases suffering substantially. So when Krishna says, so that is a very important thing. And this if if we focus just on this blessing I’ll conclude with one last incident to illustrate this point. That if we just focus on this point, that right now by Krishna’s mercy, I know what is the healthy choice and what is unhealthy choice. That does not necessarily mean that in every situation we know exactly what is the right thing to do.
But we have a broad compass. We may not have an exact path. Okay. In this situation, what should I do? But we have a broad compass.
And that itself is a big relief. So after Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita, after Krishna assured Arjuna, after Arjuna said, yes, I surrender to you. After that, when the Kurukshetra war happened, Arjuna faced a devastating loss on the 13th day. What happened? Abhimanyu was killed.
Now Abhimanyu dying itself is terrible for Arjuna. But what made that even more terrible was his own personal sense of failure. See, what the Kauravas did was on 13th day, they did not form the Chakravyu right in the beginning. They had some other military formation. And then they arranged that.
There was a king Susharaman. He challenged Arjuna. And in that challenge, he diverted Arjuna away. So they went to a different part of the battlefield and they started fighting over there. And then once Arjuna was diverted, and quickly the Karkar was reorganized and they revealed the chakravi formation.
And then there was no way for the pandavas to penetrate it. So then Yudhishthir asked Abhimanyu to go inside. Abhimanyu went inside and unfortunately, he was trapped. And he fought heroically. But then the Kauras unfairly ganged up on him.
And 6 of them together attacked him and eventually killed him. That evening, when Arjuna came back, normally, when the warriors would come back, there would be celebratory music welcoming them back. That day when Arjuna was coming back, he had fought heroically against the, army of Sucharman. He destroyed many, many soldiers. And it was a long day.
He was tired. He was very successful. Still, you know, he felt an uneasy sensation within him. And as he came close to their tents, their camp, he noticed there was absolutely no music. There’s a somber silence over there.
And normally when we meet people, people greet, nod nod their head, smile. On this day, no one was ready to even meet Arjuna’s eye. And then a pit started forming in Arjuna’s stomach. And then Arjuna started wondering what has happened? What has gone wrong?
And then he remembered that in the heat of the battle, he had heard someone scream far away. The Kauravas have formed a chakravyu. He had been so busy fighting against the army of Susharaman, he had it had not registered him in at that time. He had not paid much attention. If something had been an emergency, he would have been called.
He thought like that. He started thinking, was a Chakravyu formed? If Chakravyu has been formed, then what happened? And has Yudhishthir been abducted? If Yudhishthir had been abducted, surely I would have known.
I would have been informed. So, what happened? So, the only person who knew that the chakra view can be broken, that is a woman knew. But he doesn’t know how to come out. Has something happened to him?
So, he just charged with his horse racing towards the central bandhal. And as soon as he entered, in the bandhal, there was an arrangement and each warrior had their particular throne. As soon as he entered, first his eyes went to Yudhishthir. So Yudhishthir was there. Then his eyes went to Abhimanyu’s throne and that was empty.
His eyes just didn’t want to believe his what they were seeing. Just desperate, hoping against hope that what he was seeing was not the reality. He again looked back more carefully at Yudhisthira and he saw that there were tears streaming down Yudhishthir’s eyes. Arjuna just collapsed and he started crying. Abhimanyu.
Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu. And he started thinking, you know, fire on me. He said, I went in the pursuit of glory and because of that I was not there to protect my son. Surely, when Abhivani was in the last moments, he must have called out to me.
He must have called out to his father. Why was I not there at that time? Yudhish still got up from his throne. Heavy steps, slowly he walked up to Arjuna. And he slowly told Arjuna what had happened.
So as Arjuna heard his grief started changing to anger. And then he lashed out at Yudhishthira. And Dima said, are all your weapons just ornaments? Could not one of you protect my son? Shame on you.
So when he spoke this sorry. So this is some past karma. Coming in the middle of some present karma. No? So anyway.
So at that time, Krishna for Yudhishthir. He was already in distress, and Arjuna’s words were like whiplashes. Both Arjuna Ayudhishthir and Bhima. So Krishna came up to Arjuna and pulled him into a sidewalk. He said, oh, Arjuna Partha, in this world, adversities come upon everyone, the wise and the unwise.
The difference between them is that when the adversities come, the unwise act in ways that make things worse. Whereas the wise act in ways that make things better. Oh Arjuna, look at the faces of your brothers. Due to the death of Abhimanyu, they are in agony. They are in pain just as you are.
Please don’t speak words that increase their pain. This jolted Arjuna out of his stupor. He was just in so much pain, just lashing out. Trying to do something about it. And that’s when as Arjuna heard the story again he recollected it.
He started thinking that actually his brothers had made a reasonable plan. That Abhimanyu would go inside and they would follow him. But Jayedra had come in the way. Therefore, Arjuna decided that Jayadr needs to be punished. And then, the next day, while the Pandavas Kauravas celebrated on 13th day, the 14th day was their worst defeat.
It was not just a jayrat who was killed, but the fact that the entire army of the Kauravas could not protect 1 warrior from 1 opposing warrior. That was morale shattering. It’s like, there’s 1 football player. The whole team is designed to stop that football player from getting to the goal. And if that football player effortlessly gets to the goal.
See, if our whole team can’t stop, then what is the use of even playing? So it became like that. So the point is that even Arjuna faced distress. And Krishna did not go into any particular past life philosophy explaining why this happened, past life karma, what this happened, that happened. Okay.
This has happened now. Let us see what we can do about it. So basically, when we talk about if we are practicing bhakti. Now bhakti, yes, it means remembering Krishna. It means loving Krishna.
But bhakti essentially means service attitude. And bhakti means seva vow. Now what does the service attitude mean? That we understand that Krishna is our well wisher, that Krishna wants the best for us. Krishna wants things to be better for us.
So if we are servants of Krishna, then that means we also act in a mood of service to Krishna to make things better. So what this means is that Krishna is our well wisher. So Krishna wants the best for us. So then our service attitude mean would mean, okay, now the situation has come, what is the best I can do in this situation? Now we may say, I don’t know what is the best.
Okay. We may not know what is the best, but can we know what is the worst? Like, say if there is some relationship, and we had tried everything and still that relationship is not improving. I don’t know what I can do about this. But maybe we can know what I can should not do, isn’t it?
If we just, for 10 minutes, remove our word, word, restrict, and just speak whatever is there in our mind and heart, Relationship cultivated over 10 years can be destroyed in 10 minutes. Isn’t it? That doesn’t mean we suppress our emotions. But we all know that certain things will make the situation worse. So with whatever buddhi we have, you say, okay.
Now the situation is there. Krishna, what can I do that will make things better? If we have that service attitude, Krishna will guide us. And the conviction that comes from practicing bhakti is that see that there are many many aspects of bhakti and shraddha and all those things But the most important aspect of practicing bhakti is that basically Krishna is on my side. This is the faith that we need to get.
See, basically, when we are functioning in the world, there is, I am here and there is some force beyond me. We may believe in God, we may not believe in God. We may believe in nature, whatever we believe in. Now with respect to this, there are only three factors. That this is for me, this is against me, or this is apathetic to me.
Doesn’t care for me. So ultimately, this is all we whatever exists beyond us, either it doesn’t care for us so to a large extent, the scientific world view is largely materialistic. Everything happens just according to physical laws. There is no God, you see. So it is we call it atheistic but the idea is there is no God that cares for us.
It’s apathetic. Now, some people may think that God is my enemy. That’s a very dark way to live in. But basically, if we are practicing bhakti, we will see so many stories of so many devotees who face such difficulties. Prahlad did nothing wrong and yet he suffered so much at least at an external level.
But what happened is, through it all, by remembering Krishna, he did not suffer so much. And eventually, Krishna protected him. So basically, what happens is if we can get this faith that Krishna is on my side, Therefore, I will be on Krishna’s side. So Krishna is on my side. Therefore, I will choose to be on Krishna’s side.
I don’t know exactly what is Krishna’s plan. But Krishna, I want to serve you. When Prabhupada asked what is the best prayer we can offer? He said, pray to Krishna, please give me the strength to serve you. Whatever be the situation I face, please give me the strength to serve you.
So if we have that attitude, then we will get the buddhi. And with small steps we take, by which gradually we will be able to improve things. Now some amount of improvement may happen in this life for us. Some amount of improvement may not be seen in this life. We’ll be purified and we’ll go beyond this world to Krishna.
But when we function in this way, basically, the past karma reservoir may not change. But the present karma, we can change. And we can ensure that no matter how dark our present may be, by trying to serve Krishna, we can make our future brighter. And that that is a power that every one of us has. So that is the faith.
Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. Going back to that medicine metaphor, the world can hurt us in many ways. But when we practice bhakti, I mentioned what happens is for us, Krishna becomes bigger than the world. So what this means is that the world has much power to hurt us. World people can hurt us.
The environment, the weather can hurt us. Our own body can hurt us. But what happens is we understand that greater than the world’s power to hurt is Krishna’s power to heal. And it is this faith that the practice of bhakti increases more more and more for us. And that’s how the problems of our life, even if they come, they do not disturb us so much.
Greater than the world’s power to hurt is Krishna’s power to heal. That is how bhakti decreases our klesha agni and it helps us. It helps us create a brighter future for us. So the klesha agni happens because yeah, although these problems are there, Krishna is with me. I am not alone in this big bad world trying to struggle against it.
Krishna is with me, and I will choose to be with Krishna. So understanding this Krishna is on my side, this will lead to the klesha Agni. The suffering. Suffering doesn’t just come because, there is problems. When we feel I’m in these problems and I’m alone and nobody cares for me, nobody won’t nobody even bought this bothered whether I exist, whether I live or die.
That’s when the suffering becomes far more. And when you understand Krishna is on our side, that glacier decreases. And, once we choose to be on Krishna’s side, then yes, the present may be dark. But by Krishna’s mercy, the future will be brighter. So I’ll summarize what I discussed.
I discussed 4 main points. 1st, we talked about the principle of karma. How karma is not just a philosophical concept, it is like a universal observation. It is the basis of science. It is also the basis of human training.
The only difficulty that happens is, that it is not always just action and result. It is often, there is the present action and there is the present result, but there is also the past action that is playing a role. And sometimes the past action might be negative, and that’s why the present result might not be positive. Enough as much as we expect. So basically, karma works in a complex way.
But still, the important thing is our actions matter. That is the key take home from the principle of karma. That what I am doing right now, it matters. If I’m doing good, the good will result in the future. If somebody is doing bad, that will lead to bad, even if that is not manifested now.
Then we discuss the concept of destiny. Is karma fixed? Yes. Destiny is fixed. But how destiny unfolds, how it manifests in our life, that is not fixed.
I discussed how somebody may be betrayed and cheated in this life. But how they live in this life may decide how much support they get when they are cheated. So that’s why we discussed this pendulum, that present karma and past karma. So, it is best if the present and past are both good, then we have bright decision. The most dangerous is, when the past karma is positive and present karma is negative.
Because they will they will create suffering for themselves. This is bad when the person is not so harmful. Now this is something which we learn to we need to learn to tolerate. So I’m going through some difficult situations, but they will end. And for that purpose, then we discuss about how does bhakti affect our karma?
Bhakti and karma, we discuss that. So basically, there is past karma, and this is unknown. So it is best not to worry too much about this. So accept that Krishna is doing something for my benefit with that karma. But the present karma, that is the most important thing.
So our present action is shaped by our intelligence and by our tendencies. And Krishna strengthens our intelligence through bhakti, and then he purifies our tendencies. And by this, what happens is we can start creating a brighter future. And that means, I took the story of Arjuna and Abhimanyu to illustrate that essentially, when we talk about bhakti, bhakti means And means that if Krishna is my well wisher, then let me see how I can If Krishna wants the best for me, how can I do my best? How can I play my part in Krishna’s plan?
So, basically, Krishna is with me. And therefore, I will be with Krishna. So to the extent we understand Krishna is with me, our klesha will decrease. And to the extent we choose to be with Krishna, the shubha in our life will increase. The world can hurt us in many ways, but rather than worrying about how and why the world is hurting us, we turn toward Krishna.
And Krishna’s power to heal is always greater. Whatever karma may get us to, whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through. Thank you very much. Hooray. So do we have time for questions?
Should we take tomorrow? Yeah. So so what we can do is this was because there are multiple concepts to discuss over here. So the class went a little over time. But if you have questions, you can note down the questions.
And maybe tomorrow, instead of going to the future characters of the, first we will tackle we’ll address the questions, and then we’ll move forward. There can be many different questions, and I I’ll try to address them as much as I can. But, it’s, it’s a very important and practical topic. So I would like to devote some time. So if you have questions, please note them down, and, we’ll continue tomorrow.
Thank you very much.
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