How KC is the solution to all problems I – Polticial problems – Corruption

Transcription: Anurag Gupta

Introduction

Hare Krishna. So today we discuss the topic of “How Krishna consciousness is the solution to all problems.” We may have heard this earlier about how Srila Prabhupada met his spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura. At that time Srila Prabhupada was involved in the Indian national movement for getting freedom. And he felt that if India was culturally and spiritually rejuvenatedthat first required India’s political liberation. So Srila Prabhupada had joined Gandhi’s movement at that time with that purpose in mind. Then Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura talked with him and he said that Krishna consciousness is actually not just urgency, it’s an emergency. At a material level we may change things but there will be no lasting benefit of the result. Therefore we must act for liberating the soul from material existence, not just liberating India from British rule. And that talk transformed Srila Prabhupada and he became dedicated to assimilating and sharing Krishna consciousness. So Srila Prabhupada would often say that the only problem in the world is the lack of Krishna consciousness. We may have some vague idea of how this works. But if we look at the newspapers we’ll see reports of various kinds of problems. So this is a, actually an eight part seminar that I have. So one-one seminar I will take for each of the problems and how these can be solved. So we can see how many we can take over a period of time.

So today I will be focusing on the political aspect of corruption.So we will see in the world there are these eight broad kind of problems. So at the political level we see that the administrators are stinkingly corrupt at times and that creates shortage, poverty and imbalance. But then if we move from the political to the psychological level, people at the individual level. People one of the biggest problem at the psychological level is stress. So how this Krishna consciousness helps us to deal with stress, we’ll discuss that. At the ecological level, ecological means environmental level. So thereis the phenomenon of climate change. That means as the temperature of the earth is rising, the rivers are drying up, the soil is becoming desertified, the forest cover is being cut down, many important species are becoming extinct or endangered and the fossil fuels are becoming shortened, the air,water and land are polluted. So varieties of problems are there at ecological level. So all ofthese are contributing to climate change. Then at the family level there are relationship conflicts. There are inter-generational conflict between say parents and childrenor there are same generation conflict between brothers and sisters or husbands and wives. Then at the social level we see that there is poverty. So the difference betweencorruption and poverty is poverty is when society became broadly into haves and have-nots. So corruption is among the haves. People have and they want more and more and more. Poverty is where people don’t have. They may cause each other. But we’ll analyze them differently. At economical level we will see that there is recession. The whole economy seems to be in a down turn. And although recession keeps coming and going but over last seven-eight years it seems to be a persisting downward trend. At religious level there is a fear of communal violence. Sectarian riots break out at times. At cultural level if we see, we see in newspapers filled with reports of say rapes and child abuses and similar sexual violence. So this more or less covers the gamut of problems the world faces. Now nobody can simply move a magic wand and solve all the problems in the world. And when we talk about Krishna consciousness is a solution towards problems we will address what it practically means. So this we will discuss in four parts. First we will look at the gravity of the problem. Then we’ll look at the root cause of the problem. Then we’ll look at the root solution for that problem. And then we’ll look at the material solution for the problem. So like that we will move downwards  and then upwards. So we look at the problem how broad it is. Then we look downwards to see what is the cause of the problem. Then we look within it to find out what is the solution to that problem. And then we come upward, ok the solution is that but how that solution is to be applied. And what we as individual can do. Not all these problems may seem relevant to us immediately. Probably for us say relationships and stress and recession to some extent,these may be the immediate problems for us. At a individual level they may press on us most. But there are problems in the society in which we exist and over a period of time we can get affected by them negatively or we can affect them positively. So let us discuss these one by one.

What doesthe word corrupt mean?

So now corruption, what does the word corrupt mean? Everybody knows it, what does it mean basically. Dishonesty. Ok. Dishonesty is general term. Corruption is little more specific. Corruption is a type of dishonesty. Lying can also be dishonesty. So corruption basically means that it can have various meanings but in the context it is used in politics and economics today is that when people have certain powers and they use their powers to accumulate more and give out less. So when a person is corrupt that person may like to say in 2G scam, in the scams that have happened. So the government were sell resources that are worth much-much more for a very little official price and then instead they get a tip back. They get some huge amounts of profits under the table. So basically corruption is generally used in a financial or economical senses.

Some statistics on corruption

So I will not go into the statistics of corruption but there are several statistics that do indicate that the kind of corruption that we have presently.What is the level of corruption? Just a small indication. What we are experiencing is not corruption but national blunder. So the Swiss bank is like a safe haven where people can store their money without getting taxes. So if you look at the statistics, the amount that India has invested in the Swiss banks is more than what Russia, UK, Ukraine and China have all invested combined together. So from the Swiss bank perspective India is not a poor country. India is a world’s wealthiest country. So that means that actually the problem in India is not the shortage of resources. If we look at India from a natural resources perspective India is rich country. But it is not becausethe resources are not being used properly. So now this amount which is described 1.4 trillion dollars. So what all could be done with this amount.For example now, now there may be statistics may vary depending on estimates. Different people may have different estimates. But just one scam, actually one scam can cost India, this one scam alone is believe to exceed the colonial loot of two hundred years. What India lost to British rule in two hundred years. India has lost more to that in one scam. So now 73 lakh crores, that is what India has, is the amount which India has kept in Swiss bank. So what could be done with that at a material level? India’s poverty can be completely wiped-out. We can built 2.4 crore primarily health care centers. It is three per village. So we can built 24.1 lakh kendriya vidhyalayas. 24.1 lakh, we could construct 14.6 crore low cost houses. We could set up so many power plants. We can build 14.6 lakh kilometers of two lane highways. That’s a road around India’s perimeter ninety seven times. So actually that is the amount of money which India is losing in corruption. That is just one way looking at it. There arevarious other waysto look at it. It’s an elaborate thing. Elaborate analysis. But this indicates the fact that corruption is an extremely serious problem. In terms of what India is losing and what India could do to avoid corruption. So it is not that corruption is a problem that is unique to India. Problem of corruption is everywhere in the world. And we are focusing on India because we live in India and because it is visible on the social level.

What is the cause of corruption?

What is the cause of corruption? So in the Bhagvad Gita chapter 16 verse 8-15, sixteen chapter is called as “The Divine and Demoniac Natures”. So what it describes is that it all originates first in a materialistic world view. What is the materialistic world view? That means people think that matter is all that matters. Matter and material things are all that matters. So money is ultimately what is used to getmaterial thing. So money is all that matters. BG 16.9 says

etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya
naṣṭātmāno ’lpa-buddhayaḥ
prabhavanty ugra-karmāṇaḥ
kṣayāya jagato ’hitāḥ

If such a worldview is accepted (etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya) such a person becomes naṣṭātmāno,i.e. person’s spiritual vision is lost. Spiritual vision is lost. And such a person acts for his own harm and other’s harm. kṣayāis destruction, ahitāḥis harm, at worst they destroy the world at least they harm the world. They can’t do any good. People who had a materialistic world view because there idea is to grasp more and more and more. And the basic problem at the material level is that material resources are limited. We cannot increase material resources infinitely. So when people want more and more and more then naturally it leads to unequal distribution. And why do people want more and more? That is when people have materialistic world view then they think that happiness comes through material things. And when they think material things give happiness they want more, everybody wants more and more happiness. So they want more and more material things. Krishna describes in next verse then 16.11-12, He describes that

cintām aparimeyāṁ ca
pralayāntām upāśritāḥ
kāmopabhoga-paramā
etāvad iti niścitāḥ

āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ
kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ
īhante kāma-bhogārtham
anyāyenārtha-sañcayān

 

anyāyenārthaartha means money, sanchayan means accumulation, so how do they accumulate money anyāya,anyāyameans unjust means. In our context unjust means mean corrupt means. Why do they accumulate like that?Because āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ, they are bound by desires. I want this, I want this, I want this. It is not these people don’t know that they are immoral. It’s very few corrupt people don’t know what is corruption. Everybody knows about this corruption, practically speaking. Then why do they corrupt? Because they feel that by being honest I will lose more. I will not gain enough. The problem with the materialistic world view is that if I think I want happiness more and more and more and more so I need material things more and more. I need money more and more. And If am honest how much money can I have. Not really much. Therefore let me get more and more. So most people feel that by being moral they stand to lose a lot. Pleasure, that’s what life is all about. And what will you gain? They will gain nothing. Principles, you should live according to principles. What is the use of principles? When people are materialistic they don’t believe in next life. They don’t believe in God. They don’t believe in Law of Karma. It’s not just the fear of punishment. But they also can’t experience any higher spiritual happiness. So what are principles going to give me. So basicallya materialistic world view is the root cause of greed. And greed is the cause of corruption. So now just look at this. This corruption, cause of corruption is greed. And greed is caused by a materialistic world view. So this is the three level causation. When we go deeper into it, corruptionis there because of greed, greed is because of a materialistic world view.

Fourth level cause of corruption-Godless education

Now if we see at the material level how can we try to solve the problem of corruption?  There is corruption, greed and materialism. Why materialism is present? Just go further downwards. Why the people have materialistic world view ? Because today our education is Godless. The science isn’t have to be Godless. Science is not necessarily bad. But today it is Godless. It give us no knowledge about karma. And people think that fallibility of the human being orits system means that human laws are easy to subvert. If a person has enough money and enough influence, even if a person has done a lot of crime, the person may get away with it. He has to be clever enough, connected enough, cunning enough then I’ll get away of it. So what people feel is I want to enjoy and if I want to enjoy I have to be clever enough to get away from the sufferings _______.Therefore, there are no checks to stop people from being incorrupt and there are lot of impetus for people to be corrupt. Two things, if I am going on a wrong track there should be such things that check me. Just like if we are on a road and if the road is, on other side there is a fall down mountain valley then what happens,normally there is a fencing sort of thing. There is some sort of fence oratleast there is some sort of upraising by which there is some kind of hindrance. So that is like a check. Now imagine there is no check. And instead of no check there is a force also which pushes. Then the vehicle will get slipped away. So like that in today’s society there is no, very little check because people feel that oh the courts, I can get away with them. I will deal with them. And people feel that I want to be happy. This is the way to be happy. So that’s why the root problem is for the materialistic world view is lack of proper education. So there is going to be a fourth level cause. So because there is no proper education, so there is materialism. Because there is materialism there is greed. Because there is greed there is corruption.

Morality alone cannot solve the problem of corruption

So now what happens because of this lack of Godly eduction? Morality appears entirely dispensable. Dispensable means unnecessary. Whenever I want I will throw it away. So when I want I can use it. There is a saying, “morality means lack of opportunity”. So when people are moral, why are they moral? Because they don’t have a opportunity to be immoral. As soon as they have the opportunity they become immoral. So morality is simply considered as a lack of opportunity. This will off course not apply to all people but it applies to substantial number of people. So for those who feel they are powerful enough or shrewd enough then they just give up, they just give up the morality. And in such an environment where there are forces towards immorality and corruption then there are no checks. Then we just say let us be honest. Let us be not corrupt. This is called platitude. Platitude means empty words. Just good sounding words. They will not help much. They will not having lasting transformation.

What is the conception in the mind that causes corruption?

So then what is actually required. So there are in English two words genesis and nemesis. Genesis means source and nemesis means destruction. So according to Bhagvad Gita, actually there is psychological genesis. Psychology means in the mind. So corruption ultimately originates in the mind.

What is the conception in the mind that causes corruption? Material things can give me happiness. Material things can make me happy. That is the root of corruption. And then if it has to be destroyed then there has to be spiritualnemesis for that. What is the spiritual nemesis? Real happiness comes by enriching my spiritual credits. That means by making spiritual advancement. By developinga deeper spiritual relationship with Krishna. When I saw experience in inner happiness then I feel that there is no need for me for too many external things. I need some extra things for functioning in this world. But I don’t need an endless variety and quantity of these things. So they  are in the mind as long as the materialistic conception, people will tend to become greedy. And once people start experiencing inner spiritual enrichment then they will no longer need these things. So this is we are now moving from the root cause towards the root solution or the basic solution, foundational solution.

Lokpal vs. Gopal (Fear vs. Higher Taste)

So now you know all of this lokpal and there is Gopal. So lokpal basically, the idea is what this is a in Vedic culture, there are brahmans and kshatriyas. So kshtriyas would administer the law. They are not just warriors who go fight in the war. But they will keep administer the law. For that purpose they have to fight. So basically the idea of a lokpal is the idea of kshatriya nature. We should have a administrative body and that administrative body should have the powers to punish those who are corrupt. So there is a big agitation, last year that was there. This year there was attempt to repeat that but that fizzled out. So but still that cause have some sympathy. And it’s a valid cause. So what is the idea that if people know there is an administrative body with tooth. With tooth means that it can bite. It can punish you. So then people will be afraid of beingcorrupt. So lokpal uses power of fear of human law. Yes, there is a human legal administering body and that will punish you. Therefore I should not become corrupt. So this is how kshatriyas work. Kshatriyas what they do is they show visibility. This criminal did this wrong,he should be punished for this. And that is required in the society.

But Gopal, now what the word Gopal in one sense it means Krishna. Here they not necessarily using in the sense of Krishna. It can be use in the sense of Krishna but go also means senses, pal means protector. So actually why dopeople want so many material things because their senses are uncontrolled. Their senses are  being exploited by others and senses are filled with material desires. So Lord Gopal acts as a protector of our senses. He acts our Gopal.

Now there is a spiritual Brahmanical solution. What is that? That is to firstly there is fear and then there is higher taste. So fear of divine law means, actually when there is proper philosophical education which what a Brahmanas provide, which is what Lord Krishna, Lord Gopal provide in the Bhagvad Gita, then we understand there is a law of karma. And by that law of karma everybody has to suffer the consequences of what they have done. Nobody can escape. It is said that “on a dark night, on a dark floor, a dark hand, nobody sees but He sees”. So Krishna likes sees everything everywhere. And daiva netra, that is called a divine vision. Karmana daiva netrena, so everything happens under the law of karma under divine super vision. So actually when we understand there is divine vision that is seeing everything which will bring upon me and upon everyone else the consequences of their actions. Then our inner security guard awake. If I do this wrong I will get the consequences.

Law enforcing agencies will fall if they are not connected with God

Therefore this is the ultimate check because if we think of it objectively,if everybody in society becomes a criminal or if everybody feels impelled to become corrupt then always the number of policemen in the society will be less than number of citizens. You can never have more police person than the citizens. And if at all we can have lot of police people, ok, police people are suppose to protect ordinary people from corruption. But then who will protect the police people from corruption. They become corrupt. Or you can have a higher administrative body for that. But thenwhat if that body also become corrupt. Isn’t it like that? If we have a ladder, if there is just a materialistic world, you have ladder you can have rungs. Ok there is a ladder, ultimately the ladder has to rest somewhere. It will no matter how well constructed the ladder is,if it doesn’t have any place to rest it will fall down. So we can have a structure of fall for legally punishing people those who are doing wrong. But then how will we ensure that those who are empowered, those who are meant to punish others, they  themselves don’t become corrupt. Where does this ladder ultimately stop? So that ultimate stop, ultimate resting place is God. God, Krishna, He is self satisfied. He is atmaram. He is completely incorruptible. He is eternally perfect. And those who become connected with Him they become pure and perfect gradually. So therefore at a material level we can have legal law enforcing agencies. But if they are not connected with God then they will gradually collapse. They will eventually collapse.

So now we will see also among the most corrupt among most people are generally those who have power. In today society who has power. It is the kshatriyas and the vaishyas. Kshatriyas means the politicians,the vaishyas means the businessman. And generally there is a nexus. Nexus means an illegal connection. There is nexus between the businessmen_______ and the political leaders. And the businessmenfund the elections and do the help in the campaign so the political leaders win. And when the political leaders win, they make laws and they pass the resolutions and they pressurize the judiciary by which those who have supported them they don’t get convicted. In this way there is a nexus. So in general those who have power if they become corrupt who will protect. Who will because the law doesn’t get to them at all. How will they be checked. So for that there has to be education of law of karma. Without that you cannot have freedom of corruption. Imagine if there is a city and at the entrance of the city it is written-“In the city there are no police people”. Please follow the laws. How will anybody follow the law. Very few isn’t it? Why? Because at a certain level there is a fear required. But that fear of the law is greatly diminished in today’s society. That’s why along with this fear of human law there has to be the fear of divine law.

However fear is only beginning. It is not the end. God is not just a punisher who is out to catch who is doing wrong and waiting to punish us. Oh you did it wrong. I am going to punish you. Krishna is not a like critic. Krishna is like a coach. A sports person has a coach. The coach observes, you are suppose to, you are batting like this, when a spin ball come you should hit like this. Don’t hit like this. Hit in straight bat. Don’t hit with a tilted bat because you might give an edge and get caught. The coach catches what the player is doing wrong. But the purpose of the coach in catching is not to highlight the fault. It is to help the player to correct the fault. So similarly with Krishna, He does not delight in finding faults in anyone. Actually if at all he acts through the law of karma it is only to help us to become better human beings. To evolve ourselves so that we get the greater happiness in life. So Krishna is not a critic. He is a coach. Even if He looks at our fault that is not His focus. His focus is our potential, what we can become. And He wants to help us to develop our potential. That’s why in the process of bhakti yoga as taught in the Bhagvad Gita, doesn’t stress too much in the law of karma.Yes law of karma is a reality and we recognize the reality, but more important is to develop a higher taste.

When we connect with Krishna and experience higher happiness then we feel that actually I might be able to do some immoral things to get some more money and get some more gadgets. But that will not bring me happiness. Certainly not as much happiness which I can get back by connecting with Krishna. It will only by my devotional service. When we are convinced of that then we don’t need the fear of the law of karma. We certainly don’t need fear of the worldly law. We have a higher motivation.

Remember the root cause is everybody is looking for happiness. So it is not that those people who are very-very corrupt, it’s not that they are demons. It’s not that they are permanently evil people. But they are also soul like us. But because they have got his deep rooted conception that actually material things will make me happy. So therefore they have got caught. And they are caught, they are in one sense victims, but they are also victimizers. They are victim in the sense that they have become victims of materialistic misconceptions. But now they are victimizers. Victimizers means they are making others victims. They are victims suffering from others. But we can get out of this whole business of victims or victimizers by experiencing happiness at a spiritual level.

Now is this possible for the broad society can everyone experience spiritual happiness. Yes, by the process of bhakti yoga it is not that everybody may become a pure devotee. But everybody can to some extent experience spiritual matters. For example, now there are many ratha-yatras in the whole world. So thousands and thousands people come over there. Nobody is paying themto come. Why are they coming? Because they experience some sort of fulfillment. If it is just a religious obligation. They won’t come there year after year after year. So actually the facility are proving for people it is not very difficult to experience a higher taste. Yes, to live entirely pure lives to become pure devotee requires a lot of effort. But initially to experience a higher taste, just like exposure to devotional culture and a little bit of spiritual knowledge is required. So actually the real lacking in today society is that there is neither philosophical education nor a devotional culture.So philosophical education gives us, in one sense awareness of the law of karma. And spiritual devotional culture gives us the experience of the higher taste.

Concept of Lokpal is also important but it is only a partial solution

So now it is not that the lokpal is not important. The lokpal is also important in the sense that, actually this 3.21 is

yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas
tat tad evetaro janaḥ
sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute
lokas tad anuvartate

 What we are discussing now is we come to the fourth point. Third point was the root solution. We are discussing how this root solution can applied at the practical level. At the practical level Krishna describes that just as the leaders act communal people will act. So if the leaders are corrupt, common people will become corrupt. Leaders are honest common people become honest. So therefore the leaders are not just meant to implement the laws they are also meant to set the example. So what happens is values, social trends,seep rapidly from top to the bottom. So the way top people are the way bottom people are, yatha raja tatha praja. As the king so other people become. It not only perpetuates but even multiplies. It becomes much-much more by the time it reaches to the bottom. So therefore it is important that those who are the social and political leaders they need to have some level of integrity. Now how is that come about _______. So now what is the idea of lokpal is a disciplinary body. So you remember we talk about the psychological genesis. At the mind level. In simple language is that at the level of the mind people think I just earn some money quickly. And then nobody will detect it. So that is psychological genesis. But that temptation can be curbed. When people understand that sustain, punity means punishment. So retribution means punishment that comes from some higher agencies. So basically we understand I may try to get a little bit pleasure but that by the law of karma I will get punishment. So basically at the level of philosophical education it helps to use the power of fear. The power of fear is important. But that is not all important. Now lokpal it just uses as a government laws. The government laws have to be important, have to be, justice should not only be done, justice should be seem to be done. It’s very important principle in justice. When justice is done invisibly and people don’t come to know that justice hasbeen done then people faith in justice is not there. That’s why there has to be this worldly justice as the other worldly justice. Somebody may say that all the people who are corrupt they are going to suffer the karmic consequences anywhere so why bother. Isn’t it? Somebody can argue like that. No, that is wrong argument because all of us have responsibility from this life. If we extend this argument at karmic level, if a baby is crying and the baby wants mother then mother’s he is crying because it is his pastlife karma. So we cannot use past life karma to justify irresponsibility for our dislike of duties. So now the administrators, the political rulers can say that all those people who are suffering because of corruption they are suffering because of past like karma. So those who are doing corruption they will suffer in the next life. Well those who think like this they should become sanyasis. They should _______. Actually the idea, it is the misunderstanding of philosophy. At the level of there is, at the level of this worldly administration the king’s are called as nardevas. And the Brahmanas are called as bhudevas.Naradev means this God on the earth. The king is not considered to be God but he is considered to be the representative of the God. And he has to administer God’s laws in this world. And bhudeva, the Brahmans are called as bhudevas. Brahmans, they are suppose to represent God’s knowledge in this world. The king represent Gods power and the Brahmans represent Gods knowledge. And in this way they actually make God accessible to the world. If you imagine this like hierarchy, so say here is Krishna in the spiritual world. And this is the whole society. So Krishna is closest to the Brahmans and then the kshatriyas. So Krishna’s will is represented throughthese two. So actually they said that shaastra and the shastra. The shaastra is used by the Brahmans. So thatrepresent Krishna’s knowledge. And shastra is used by the kshatriyas. And that represent Krishna’s power. So through these two Krishna’s will is administered in this world. And those who are taking up responsibility in this world they are meant to act in a way that will reflect they represent Krishna. So that’s why the king is not, king is not interfering with the law of karma. King is actually implementing the law the karma whenthen the king is punishing the wrongdoers. And if the king doesn’t punish the wrongdoers, then the king becomes guilty of neglecting his responsibility. And that was the mistake of Arjuna. He was thinking I will not fight. But then those who are wrong doers theywill have to be corrected. So therefore the idea over here is that lokpal is administrative body which will punish the sinful, punish the wrong doers, punish the corrupt is important. But still if we just come to have an administrative body the end result of will be that eventually it will be “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Power corrupts and when we have absolute power then there is absolute corruption. So you just cannot ensure the protection from this corrupting influence of power if people are in a materialistic conception of life. Only when people develop spiritual conception of life not just the conception of life but they get spiritual happiness through practical experience. Then gradually this corrupting influence of power and money starts decreasing. So that’s why the lokpal solution is like the kshatriya solution, a partial solution. That is important. It cannot be removed. It is essential. But it is not complete. It is incomplete. Why? Because it cannot be sustained. First of all to establish it is difficult. Secondly to sustain it is difficult. That’s why at the material level we try to solve the problems, the problem often just get complicated more and more.

Concept of Gopal provides complete solution

So now what is solution through Gopal’s laws? Spiritual education broadens our vision with the understanding that we are accountable to the legislation of cosmic order. That means they are accountable to God, to Krishna, to karma’s laws. Which will give us karmic due sooner or later. Sooner or later we have to suffer our consequences. And then, choices are pregnant with consequences. Every action that we choose it is pregnant with consequences like an infant and these consequences will come out later. And when we understand this, choices bring consequences, I cannot avoid them,then people become grave. It’s like the law of karma is just the law of gravity. If somebody jumps from a ten story building nothing will happen to me. You will not be able to see what happens afterwards. Because you will be dead. So we can never break the law of gravity. We can only break ourselves against the law of gravity. Similarly we cannot break the law of karma. We can only break ourselves against the law of karma. Difference between the law of gravity and law of karma is that the law of gravity often we can see it, the law of karma we will not be able to see it. But the law of karma acts more gradually. Act after few years, or few weeks, maybe next life time also. How many if you have were there in the seminar on law of karma? So the law of karma,  it’s an elaborate subject. It is there on my website also. But right now we will not go in the details of the karma. But the point which we are making is that imagine there is a child who is just looking at the one storey of the building and then the child just fix up _______ and throws it down. _______. but _______ child favorite toy. The child does not look it over the toy. Throw open the window. Things go it on gone. But if the child can look out of the window and can see that my favorite toy broke into pieces completely. So there the child is looking only at one level. Child cannot see what happened. So right that if we look only at one level, at only material level we cannot see the consequences of what is happening. But the child grows, it’s ok. From the balcony I look down. I can see what happened.

So like that when we have philosophical vision it broadens our vision. The vision becomes broaden then we can see what are the consequences. And then when we understand the choices are pregnant with consequences. Every choice will bring consequences. We become more cautious, thoughtful. We don’t act for short term gains. We think about what will be the long term consequences then we act. And then from spiritual education can come spiritual experience. Education means to know what is right. But spiritual experience will tell us that it is not just right it’s joyful. If I connect myself with Krishna I will experience higher spiritual happiness. And then what will it lead to? A respiritualization of human consciousness. Respiritualization means all of us are spiritual beings but we have to become spiritual again. And when that happens then these emotions become transformed. We have instead of greed, we have gratitude. We instead of exploitation we have service. Instead of grabbing, we have sharing. And when this happens, this is the solution at the root level.

Materialistic worldview is rampant today

Now today what is going on? More and more, grab more and more. There are bumper stickers that many Americans put-”He who dies with the most toys is the winner”. Well if you are dying what is the victory? Toys means, the idea of toys because you have gadgets, that gadgets, this TV, this that. You have most toys. But actually that is just a bumper sticker slogan. That is not wisdom. That is just a catchy slogan. So we understand that by grabbing grabbing, how much I am going to carry. But if I use what I have and for sharing with others in Krishna’s service, I will get something internally. That is a deep connection to Krishna by bhakti. So we understand that, ok I have got so many assests at material level, whatever I have, it isbeing used in Krishna’s service. So actually greed means we see what we don’t have. Gratitude means we see what we have. Many times people talk about optimism and pessimism. And they say ok, at last we don’t see it half empty but half full. But actually optimism and pessimism they are not just simple choices. They are not simple choices. They are determined by our world views. If I have materialistic world view and if I see ok, I have got a cell phone which, ok it’s good but but if somebody is having a cell phone which have very good video camera and I don’t have video camera. I will see, you know. Look at that _______. I don’t look at that point of view. Who has got itself. So what happens is? If I have materialistic world view then optimism and pessimism are not just simple choices. Because there are underline view, world views which push me in certain directions. So if I think that catchy cell phone is a source of happiness. Ok _______ cell phone is a source of happiness then I will always look at what is better. But then when I understand that, actually material things do not matter so much, then what can I do? I look at what others don’t have. Ok I have this. So actually speaking when we experience spiritual happiness then it is possible to be grateful. Otherwise if I am at a materialistic level I will think I should be grateful but it is very difficult to me. Because our materialistic world view make us to have more, have more. And then at a spiritual level we have to understand that I experience happiness through service not exploitation.

What is difference between a material world view and spiritual world view?

What is difference between a material world view and spiritual world view?I have materialistic world view as soon as I see another person I think what can he do for me. If I have a spiritual world view I think what can I do for him. As soon as we see a person what can I do for him, what can I ask him, what can I get for him.There are a sales man, and if a person comes along and if he is a immature salesman. He will tell he has got a new car. He wants to sell a car new. Then he says, so sir, would you like to have a car? And now when we ask a question, no I don’t want. So seasoned salesman. What he will say is, so sir, which car would you like to have? Green one or the yellow one. So what happens is you give pseudo choices without actual choice. But assume we will take the car and give pseudo choice, which choice do you want? Do you want a green car or yellow car? So what happens is at a materialistic level people are not interested in serving. If I just cling this car deal, then what will happen, then I will make money. So theinterest is not so much in service, its more in exploitation. Its more in getting what we can out of others. So when this is the motive then there will naturally be corruption. As soon as you see other person, let me grab as much as I can from that person. So this is very tragically seen in the medical profession many times. When a patient goes to a doctor, often the doctor charges a person so much more. Often the doctors, according to survey in America, many people in America, people think America is very good in many things but actually in health America is super expensive. Very-very expensive. And actually there one small problem If I have a running nose. I haveto do test for three hours. Exam the nose from this angle, exam the nose from this angle. Do a X-ray. Do a CT scan, this and that. And then they say this is common cold. Just wait for three days and go. But before you wait for three days, you give us this one thousand dollar bill. So actually speaking they call health care as health “scare”. So what has happened is that a doctor, when the doctor sees the patient will not as a person to be served,but as a person to be exploited. So many in this big-big hospitals whenever there is a connection between the doctor and the door keeper. And every patient come to the doctor’s clinic the door keeper tells, this person came in this kind of car. Let me see he has this much money. Then you tell him do this test also. So actually speaking when there is the attitude of exploitation instead of attitude of service then everything becomes corrupted. That’s why, but why should I not have the exploitation. Its only when I understand the higher happiness available to service.

Our role as devotees in solving the problem of corruption

That’s why as devotees now what can we do at a practical level. So at a practical level when we understand that Krishna consciousness what it will do is, it will tackle these problems at a foundational level. It will give people spiritual education, it will give people spiritual experience. And in general this all big changes always start at grass root level. Small-small, one person to a second person, third person. Now a cancer is growing in the body. Basically in cancer what happens. Some cells in the body start reproducing abnormal at abnormal rate. So at that time one of the ways to cure cancer is to stimulate the growth of healthy cells. So one healthy cells are growing-growing-growing. Then it starts of sort of, it pushes out the sick cells. So like that right now most of the society is filled with sick cells-cancerous cells. They are growing rapidly. But everyone of us we can become healthy cells. And the more we share Krishna consciousness with others, we empower others to the healthy cells.

See in general most people are not bad. Few people are very evil because of their past life conditioning and this life upbringing. But most people are highly influence. So if they get exposed to those who are corrupt then they will become corrupt. If they become exposed to those who are honest, those who are living life of integrity they will start living life of integrity. So as devotees we try to share Krishna consciousness more and more with others.

Inspiring incident from the life of Chanakya Pandit

There is anincident in the life of Chanakya pandit, the Chanakya pandit as we know, he is called as the king maker of India. He never became a king but he became the king maker. Whom did he make as a king? Chandra Gupta. _______. Unknown, he was a unknown person practically speaking. But he trained him. He made him the king. And eventually when he made him into a king, he was a very good administrator under the guidance of Chanakya. So a traveler came from China to observe. And he said all over the kingdom the administration was so good. And then he studied, he was very impressed. He went to the palace of Chandragupta Maurya. He started glorifying. I have travelled far and wideand no where I have seen such good administration. Chandragupta Maurya said actually for the good administration of this  kingdom, the credit goes to my minister, Chankya pandit. _______. He said I am working under his guidance. So he said, where is the minister? I like to meet him. He said, yes, when he told his guards, please take him to Chanakya. And then he started taking him out. He was taking with the minister will have a big palace which were taking out of the city. So then _______ take him. Out of the city there is a small cottage. And that cottage was, minister stays over here. Yes, in the small cottage. Yes. And he went into the cottage. He sat over there. He saw that Chanakya was writing something with a lamp. Writing something with the lamp. A lantern. And he just wait for few minutes. I just complete. He completed it. And as he completed, he took a candle. And he lit the candle. And he switched off the lamp. And he said, yes how can I serve you. Actually the lantern has more light. This candle give less light. Why did you switched that off? He said actually I was doing some work for the government. So oil for the lantern comes from the government. So when I am doing government work I use a lantern. But now talking with you is a personal work. So I have got this candle in charity and using this. So this Chinese person, he says now I understand why there is such good administration in the government. Top people has so much consciousness then naturally it will percolate downwards.

Srila Prabhupada changed the worldview of people from materialistic to spiritualistic

Srila Prabhupada when he went all over the world to share Krishna consciousness, actually speaking the result were dramatic. Dramatic in what sense, it is not just like so many people all over the world became devotees. That is everybody do but what was dramatic was transformation of people that happened. The way people changed their hearts completely. They changed their hearts to became, we know one kind of change of heart it happened was that people addicted of all type of bad habits, they give up their habits. That is definitely true. But along with that actually it was not that they have bad habits. Underlying bad habits was a materialistic world view. And what Srila Prabhupada changed was that materialistic world view. He changed that world view and enabled people all over the world through the process of bhakti yoga, through the process of Krishna consciousness, to experience spiritual happiness. And once people started experiencing spiritual happiness then whether they have little or they have lot, it doesn’t matter. In the process of bhakti yoga we don’t have to live in poverty. Not that we have to be poor to be bhaktas. Whatever we have we give it to Krishna’s service. So the idea of experiencing spiritual happiness is not something abstract conception. It is something which all of us can practically experience. By this experience all of us can ourselves become free from greed and enable others to become free from greed. And actually one consequence of becoming free from greed is that you will become free from the mentality towards corruption.

Summarize

So summarized what we discuss, we started by, we discussed it in four parts. We focused on political problem of corruption. We discussed the visible statistics of how much India is being plundered. And we discussed that at one level, at the gross level the cause is that corrupt are not punished so they are becoming more and more corrupt. And then we discussed at the deeper level the causes is, the cause of corruption is greed. Because of greed is materialistic point of view. And materialistic point of view is because of lack of spiritual education. And then we discussed how, what will be the solution, it will be spiritual education, spiritual experience. And then we discussed about lokpal and Gopal. So lokpal is basically kshatriya body which punishes those who are wrongdoers. So because the human law or legal system will always be fallible. There will always be problems. People can escape from it if they any influence or enough cunning, cunningness. That’s why people also need to do, there is a system of law that I cannot escape from it. So spiritual education works, spirituality works in two ways- education about the law of karma, broadens our vision. So that it gives spiritual experience, it gives higher happiness and then I don’t need all this materialistic things for happiness. Then we can turn towards the Lord, then people can easily become free from corruption. And what can we do? We can individually become healthy cells and we can share Krishna consciousness with others so that they can also become healthy. And we give examples of this, Chanakya and Prabhupada’s preaching. Thank you very much. Are there any questions?

Question-Answer

Q. Prabhuji sometimes we are forced to involve in corruption, so what can we do?

Ans. There are two issues over here. The first and most important issue is that what is the consequence of the force. That means, that if a force is pushing in a particular direction what is going to happen by that. So if I go in that direction and I don’t go in that direction. That means, that if other people are going to be harmed by it then certainly we should not do it. If say it involves breaking the four regulative principles, it involves harming others. So even if there the complete network of corruption. Now we could say at a level all corruption causes harm. That is true. But there are certain things which cause explicit harm. For example if I am working in a medicine factory and there is a whole corrupt network by instead of the actual medicines, bogus medicine is being made. Then people who take the bogus medicine they will become sick and die. If that sort of thing is there then we cannot be a part of that. But if the consequences are not so directly and so serious and if it like a whole network then one is not a part of the network then one start becoming victimized. Then generally speaking whatever is required one should do. But one shouldn’t actively participate in it. Just being in a particular situation one has to do certain things. One doesn’t do it the whole system start targeting that person. So we are not campaigners against corruption. Freedom from corruption will automatically happen if people become devotees. It’s not that this is the license for corruption but we have to……, when a warrior is fighting he has to chose which battles to fight. That means we cannot fight against all enemies at the same time. So we have to fight at the root level. By fighting at the root level we don’t contribute to the growth at the stem level. But if we can’t avoid it, we do not have to become campaigners against corruption primarily. The idea is that we have to be from our initiative we should never be corrupt. But when there is a whole system in which things cannot be move forward without having some level of compensating then what can be done. So we arenot, we cannot live in utopia. We cannot live in utopia. Utopia is a imaginary ideal place. Therefore the practicality of things cannot be denied. But in the name of practicality we cannot just sacrifice _______. But the key thing is are we harming others? And second key thing is, is it something which we are instigating for our benefit. If we are not harming others and if we are not instigating for our benefit then it is just the way the world is.

Q. How can we maintain the qualities in the mode of goodness when modes that are influencing us keep changing?

Ans. Generally speaking we cannot immediately stop the influence of the modes. But the modes they act on the mind, they don’t act on the soul. The modes are material. And being material they can act only on material things. The mind is subtle material. The mind can only impel, it cannot compel. What is the meaning of impel? It pushes in this direction. But a push is not a force. We can counter push. That means to understand this with the example is if am driving a car and somebody else is sitting next to me in the car. And that person, yes look at that hoarding, look at that , look at that, start looking at that the car moving _______. That person may very actively push, look at that, look at that. But that person is not taking over steering wheels. Steering wheels is in my hand. And I may get distracted by that person but still I can choose to focus on it. So like that as far as the bodily vehicle is concerned we are the drivers. And the mind is the part. Mind is the distracting part. So the mind can impel, but it cannot compel. It doesn’t force us to do things. So we need to develop counter pushes. So now when we are saying we are in the mode of goodness that means mind is not disturbed at that time. And we observe certain time also when a mind is peaceful. Other time when we are influenced in the modes of passion, the mind starts getting agitated, it starts to get disturbed. So at that time we have to make sure that we don’t get unduly influenced. Ok what is Krishna answer to this in the Bhagavad Gita (14.22)- observe the modes. Don’t become involved with the modes.

prakāśaṁ ca pravṛttiṁ ca
moham eva ca pāṇḍava
na dveṣṭi sampravṛttāni
na nivṛttāni kāṅkṣati

Feeling our feelings. Becoming an observer towards our feelings. And not getting carried away by that. These feelings are coming, they will come and they will go. Let me not caught away by that. So this becomes easier if we don’t keep the objects of indulgence very easily available for us. But if the objects of indulgence are easily available for us then it’s difficult. So we should make life more difficult for us by making the things easily accessible for us. But in general over a period of time if we keep saying no, we keep neglect to them and become silent, mind become silent. But if we don’t say no the mind becomes more and more agitated. If we say yes, the mind becomes, oh this person is weak, I can control more and more. So we have to recognize this principle. I can neglect the mind. And the easier way is to neglect the mind is to have a force. That why Krishna first say in fourteen chapter (14.26) neglect the mind

māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

Just fix in one self. Just fix straight ahead on the road. So one way to avoid trouble on the mind is to keep ourselves well engaged. If I am well engaged then I will feel at our level _______. But then if I have so many services to do, what happens? Ok I finished my Prasad and I go to other services. So like that if we just keep ourselves practically engaged then even if the mind agitating don’t give the mind scope to act. That will protect us. Thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki jai. Hare Krishna.