Curses and Choices – How to change our consciousness

Hare, Krishna. Hare, Krishna. Happy to be here amongst all of you today, and I’ll speak today on the topic of curses and choices. So, basically, we’ll talk about how sometimes some situations can come like curses in our lives. And even in those situations, we have some choices.

And I’ll talk about 3 factors that can empower us or that shape our choices and how we can choose wisely. Now firstly, what exactly is a curse? Now if you see, we use the word curse. Like, some people say, don’t don’t don’t say speak curses. Like, say, if children associate with some some they get some bad association, they may use some foul words.

So they are curse words we say. So now, we sometimes use foul words as curse words. But along with that, in the past, if you see when somebody curses, then what happens? You turn into a stone. Or Naramriddhika says, you become a tree.

So what is happening over there? Here, somebody speaks some words, and suddenly, like in the Rama, it has said that Gautam Rishi cursed Halya, and she became a stone. Or, Nala Koramani grew when the Bhagavatham is described, and they turned into what? Trees. Trees.

So what’s happening over here? Actually, the idea is that based on one’s position, Once words become triggers for higher power, just like, hey, somebody is a commander of an army or somebody is a judge, and the judge says, let this person be hanged. Now the judge because of the position and the power of the judge, what happens? Those words activates a mechanism. And that mechanism is the penal system of the government by which that person will be sent to the electric chair or whatever is the way to be executed.

So, this is called as performative utterance. The utterance leads to the performance of an action. And that combination of utterance and performance, that is because of the power of a person. So if an ordinary person says to another person, let the you be hanged. Well, there is utterance, but there is no performance or on the utterance alone will be the performance.

Nothing worse will happen after that. So the idea is that now we can see in today’s world say, if a boss tells an employee, you’re fired. Now what’s happening? If the boss has that power, then those words you are fired lead to certain actions. Now in these cases, we can see things more analytically that there is a utterance, and then there is a mechanism.

And by that mechanism, that utterance transforms into a performance. But in the past, there are people who had higher powers, mystic powers. And when they had mystic powers, then what would happen because of that? The mechanism that would be activated would be much subtler and much faster. As Narada Muni just says, may you turn into a tree.

And that utterance and the performance happens almost instantaneously because Nadav Muni is a great sage, and he has great powers. But the point here is you have a question? Yeah. Yeah? So that means sometimes saying a good thing could reoccurs because you see a good thing, then some good thing will happen later.

So how will that You may you be blessed, and then great things happens to the person. Yeah. So if, definitely, it’s a good point. Yeah. Words words can be performed in both senses.

Suppose, say, somebody has been wrongly, wrongly charged of some acquisition, and then the judge says, now may this person be compensated with a $10,000. Then they get those $10,000. So performative utterances can be both ways, curses as well as blessings. Oh, so it doesn’t occur if it’s good? Yeah.

Of course. It’s not a it’s not a curse then. Yes. So, basically, we are talking about the power of words. Now Many people can utter curse words, but in Kaluga, very few people can actually curse.

And that is a great blessing. We have so such short tempers, if we started cursing each other and our curses started having effects, things will be terrible for everyone. As it is, in our tongue, nowadays, there’s a lot of concern that, people have some people have guns, and they may just use the guns to shoot indiscriminately. In schools, there is fear. So now, if somebody has a gun, they have to be extremely careful how they use their gun.

So now we may not be carrying guns physically with us, but all of us have a gun inside us, and that is our tongue. And this gun of the tongue is constantly loaded. At at any moment, it can just shoot. It can fire. And we if we are not careful, so that’s why, then we can hurt people tremendously.

As it is, words can hurt even if the words don’t lead to any performance. But if words are to lead to performance, the hurt could be so much more. So the principle of curses as it is then the tradition was that a person who judges somebody else has done something wrong, Then, they utter a curse, and their utterance leads invokes some higher powers by which whatever they have uttered becomes transformed into an action. And sometimes, sages, they may have such power to give curses, but many times curse they themselves cannot withdraw the curses. Just like we say words, once they are spoken, they cannot be unspoken.

We cannot withdraw the words once they go out. We can apologize. We can qualify. We can do various things, but the words just be short. So actually, to have power is not always a pleasure.

To have power can also be a lot of trouble at times, More trouble for ourselves as well as for others. So at one side, somebody is somebody can have the power to curse. Now along with the power to curse, there’s also the power to choose. Choose means when I’m angry, do I curse someone or do I not curse someone? So at that time, that choice is there for the cursor as well as for the cursed.

Because even somebody’s cursed, it’s not that everything is lost. So what are the prominent curses in the Ramayana that you can think of? There are at least 5 prominent curses which shape the soul line of the Ramayana. Can you even think of those curses? Shravan.

Yeah. Shravan cursed the shard. What are the curse? Okay. Shravan, we will also You will die.

You will, die. You will feel the separation from your child and Yeah. In that pain, you will die. Yes. Just as you have caused me to die in separation from my son, you will die in separation on that, your son.

Yes. That’s one. Anything else? Hanuman was cursed that you will forget his father. Yes.

Hanuman was cursed. Now, of course, there are different kinds of curses, and we could say at one level, all curses are ultimately meant to benefit the person only if they’ve done something wrong. In the case of Hanuman, they knew that Hanuman was not a bad person, but he he was bad not a bad child, but he was having powers. So sometimes, you know, children do a lot of mischief, and the parents may ground their child. No.

No toys for you. No phone for you. No TV for you. Hey, what do I do? Think of the mistake that you have done.

So now the external facilities can be taken away relatively easily. But for Hanuman, it that is the external facilities because internal powers only he had. And the powers were given by the gods. So they couldn’t do anything about that. They couldn’t take away the powers.

So what they took away was the remembrance of those powers. That’s a good example. 2nd. Any other examples of curses in the Ramayana? Aarya.

Aarya. Yeah. Aarya. I’ll come to that towards the end. A very new one.

Any other? Curse was to enter the mountain. Sorry? What? Yeah.

Valley was cursed for what? Not entering the mountain. Yes. Rishayamukh mountain where Sugriva found shelter. Vali could not enter over there because he, once in a great anger, had thrown the corpse of a demon, Dundubhi.

And while they had thrown the corpse of killing the demon, the blood had, spilled in the sacrificial arena of a sage over there, Madangushi, and at sages cursed. One of the main characters, he had a curse. Yeah. Yes. What was the curse for Aun?

He he won’t be able to search any woman without, her permission. Yeah. He couldn’t couldn’t violate a woman. And, that was a curse which which actually ensured that Sita remained pure throughout, although she was withdrawn. So you had something more?

Well, this one is likely, but god. The god who demystered the Well, this is slightly, but god the gods or demigods weren’t allowed to attack or heal Raman as Ravana because unlike Yama’s staff could, but Okay. Yes. Yeah. If you use the word curse in a general sense to see some limitation on how ability to do something, that’ll apply there.

Yes. That’s true. Thank you. So yes. You remember the Ramayan quite details.

Good. So now when in each of these courses, we see that there is something which somebody has done wrong, and then there is a result of that curse. And that curse basically, what does a curse do essentially? See, we all have a sum kshetra. Kshetra is area on which we have some influence, and a curse restricts that area.

For valley, it is a physical restriction. You cannot go in this area. For Dashrath, it was a restriction in time duration. You will get in you will get into the situation and that’s why for Ravan, also it is a restriction what activity you could do. For Hanuman, it was in what powers he could have.

Now among all the curses, the curse to Ahalya seems the most immobilizing. The the most, she just turned to what? Stone. Stone. You know, it’s, like, terrible.

So somebody recently sent me a link to a video. It was titled something like like a it was Ahalya’s revenge. And what is it? This video, basically, what they showed was that there is a beautiful woman who is some man comes to visit her house, and this woman is married to a little older man. And then whoever tries to unite with this woman, that man turns into stone.

Not just into stone. She turns into a like a doll. So and in her drawing room, she has a collection of dolls. Is this a well known thing? Okay.

Anyway so anyway so they said that this is Ahalya’s revenge. But now, this is in the normal soul line of Ahalya, there is something very significant which is missed out. So the broad story is that Ram went to the forest twice. Does anyone know how twice? Vishwamitra.

Vishwamitra. And second? Exact. Exact. After being exiled.

Yes. So in first he had gone, So he had he went to the forest and one with various passengers, Kaushika Makkasamraksha Karama. He protected the sacrifice of Kaushika. And then as he went towards Mithila Purajana Mohakarama. So you can repeat these names after me.

Mithila Purajana Mohakarama. Mithila Purajana Mohakarama. So Mithila Pura, the city of Mithila Janna, the people Mohaka. He attracted them, charmed them. So between these two pastimes, living Vishamitra’s ashram and going towards the ash going towards Janak Janakpuri in between, this past time happens.

So what happens is, So as Ram was going through the forest, he met Gautam Muni, and then he went further. And they came to a hermitage which looked deserted, but it had it was it was it it was looking suitable for hab habitation, but nobody was living over there. And and Ram asked, what is this? What is this place? And then he told the story.

And so this is a story, he said, of cheating and curses. So Ahalya was a very attractive young woman. And when she was young, even the gods wanted her hand in marriage. But she, was married to Gautam Rishi. And after the marriage, then the gods decided, okay, this desire can’t be fulfilled.

They let go. But there is one god who always gets into trouble. Who is that? Indira. Indira.

So Indira still had so much desire that he was looking for an opportunity. And when Gautam Muni went out to the river to take a bath, he took on the form of Indra. And he came there, and then he, went to the hermitage, to the cottage, and he united with the Haliya. And then when he came out at that time, Gautam Muni was coming back. And Gautam Muni was coming back, and he saw first saw this look alike.

It’s quite a shock suddenly if you see someone who looks exactly like you. But then, he had mystic powers, and he had understood. This is Sindhir. What is he doing over here? And as soon as he realized what has happened, he got swangry.

He says, you you sinful person, may you be cursed. And he was grievously deformed because of that curse. And then and Ahalya heard her husband’s angry voice. She came running out, and she realized that he’s angry, and he’s committed to receive sought forgiveness, but he’s angry. Since you have become stone hearted, may you become like a stone.

Now in this story line, Ahalya seems to be simply a victim. First of basically, a victim of 2 men. Indra’s lust and Gautamuni’s anger. But there is a significant point, which the Valmiki Ramayan clearly mentions. But most retellings of the story, most popular retellings don’t tell that.

See, Alia was also not an ordinary woman. Not only was she beautiful, but she was also a wise woman. She was a powerful woman. So when Indra came there, although he impersonated as Gautam Rishi, Alayar Gagana is Devasindra. Alayar Gagana, this is not my husband.

But at that time, she felt so heady, so intoxicated that I am so attractive that the king of the gods is going to so much efforts to be with me. So, you know, our lower desires allure us in different ways. So, of course, these are general statements, but broadly speaking, what happens is the male psychology such that men desire women. And the female psychology such that women desire the desire of men. Daddy.

So the psychology works differently. Lust allures men with pleasure. Lust allures women with power. That means that, oh, I am so attractive. Such a powerful man is going to so much lengths to come to me.

And that’s why, traditionally, if you see, whenever there is regulation, there are regulation in both ways. So whatever is the particular temptation for us, we need to resist that. So that heady sense of power which she got, now that doesn’t make her a evil person. It was just one moment of weakness. And each all of us can have moments of weakness in which we succumb and we do something wrong.

So that definitely doesn’t make her evil. But the point is, she is not just a victim. At the very least, she is a consenter over there. So what happened over there basically was, Gautam Muni, he didn’t just curse her because she united with Indra, because he also had mystic power. And he understood immediately that Ahliah also consented to that.

So, basically, what happens for each one of us? Our consciousness, it, by every choice, it either expands or it contracts. Every action that we do, say, if there’s there’s a small boy who is born in the butcher’s family, and initially, when they see when this child goes to his father’s place, and he sees the father cutting animals, It’s a brutal sight. And sometimes people say that, oh, you know, what is the difference between eating vegetarian food and non vegetarian food? I don’t believe I believe non vegetarian people kill animals.

You kill plants. What’s the difference? Is there a difference? What do you think? Yes?

Why is there a difference? Because God bless that stand forever or at least for a very long time. You’re right. You can assist you within philosophy. You can assist using philosophy.

See, the point you’re making is right. The reasoning, however, is a little suspect. What’s happening is yeah. I’ll come back to you. Yes?

Yeah. You are on the right side. Yeah. You are saying to me? Lower consciousness.

Yeah. So, yes, say, you could say see this is I gave a whole class on this. I’ll come to this point again. About this point about plants being pun plants being bad, souls have been punished. See, we are not meant to deal with people based on their past karma.

Like, I was with what program had some devoed before we had come there and given a class how those who slaughter cows will become cows in their next life. So then this and boy was asking me his question. He says, does that mean all cows were cow slaughterrs in the past? So now this is a this is a standard error in logic. It’s called the error of the antecedent.

What does error of the antecedent means? That if a leads to b, that does not necessarily mean that if b, then a. Yeah. So for example, if we say if it rains, the pavement out outside our house will be wet. So tomorrow morning, if I go and see the pavement wet, does that mean it was a rain?

No. Not necessarily. Isn’t it? It could be that there’s some leakage somewhere. It could be that somebody has watered the garden and some water has come out of the lawn.

Somebody somebody is carrying a bucket and got spelt. So unless you know that a is the only cause of b, you can’t say that if b then a. So, now, how a soul becomes a cow? We do not know that. Is it the only trajectory that slaughterers become cows?

No, there can be different trajectories, and basically we are not meant to judge people based on their past lives on this life. But, and the point is that our lower consciousness and even from a scientific perspective, the nervous system of the plants develop much lesser than of animals. So, they feel less pain. The principle in karma is that when we living in the world, we can’t avoid causing pain. But let us cause as less pain as possible.

You know, if you say, I will not cause any pain, but if you want to see, we can we always need to see things in the most constructive frame of reference. If you if you change the frame of reference, anything can be distorted. You could say that a doctor is a cold blooded murderer of germs. Isn’t it? Precisely knows.

Okay. This job, this medicine will kill. So complete planning, cold blooded. But do you want to look like that? No.

That’s not a constructive frame of reference. The world is a tough place where, we all have to Givo, Givo, Givo, as the Bhagavath Gumbh says. One life has to live on another life. But the idea is cause as less pain as possible. So certainly, animals suffer much, much more pain than plants.

But another simple even if under they’re going to science, a simple reasoning. Even if somebody is a non vegetarian, regular non vegetarian, if their school if their child comes from school and says, oh, mom or dad, our school is arranging a expedition. We want to go to a field to see harvesting. Most parents no no parent will have an objection. Yeah.

Go and see harvesting. But the same child comes and and says, my school has organized a ex field expedition to a slaughterhouse to see animals being slaughtered. How many parents would allow? In America, at least parents will sue the court, sue the school itself, you know, what kind of things we are showing to our children. Isn’t it?

So we all intuitively know there’s a difference in gradation. But the point I was making here is about why Aliyah was cursed to be a stone. What is the significance of that? I was saying that our consciousness is shaped by our actions. So, initially, even a butcher’s child, this is living, and we’re killing it.

We shouldn’t kill it. So we shouldn’t kill it. I was in Hawaii recently, and I met one devotee couple. So they were from, the was from, one of the Russian states, USSR states. So she said that, you know, their family profession was that they would catch crabs.

And then they had a hotel where they would serve crabs. And crabs are probably crabs and one more animal. They’re the only animals which are actually cooked alive. If you don’t cut them, you cook them alive. So he says, when I came to Krishna consciousness, I realized, what have I been doing, you know, causing so much pain?

Just completely gave it up for that. So basically, because it is just being habitually, she was desensitized to it. But as soon as she became aware of it, I can’t do this. So basically, our consciousness is affected by our choices. So when a person goes first time to slaughterhouse and a child the son of a slaughter goes, say, and their hand will tremble.

I can’t do this. But one time they do it, second time they do it, third time they do it, then they do it nonchalant. Eventually, slaughterers may cut chicken like they are cutting subjee, nonchalantly completely. So what happens? Our consciousness gets diminished.

Diminished. Diminished. So every choice can either elevate our consciousness or shrink our consciousness. By by elevate means, when our consciousness is elevated, we perceive the pain of others. When our consciousness is shrunk, we can perceive only our pleasure.

This thing will give me this pleasure. What we it is costing others, I don’t care. That’s the difference. So now, what happened was when Ahilya, she knew that this is Indra, but she chose not to think about her husband. Not to think about her husband’s feelings.

She chose not to think about her dharmic feelings. So, in that sense, she acted in a stone hearted way. And then she was cursed to become a stone. So curses can, as I said, restrict out scepter in different ways. Now the thrust of the story is in the Rama, at least, is not that Ahalya was cursed, but that Ahalya was delivered.

And how was she delivered? After Valmiki Roshi after, Vishwami Roshi told this whole story, he said that great Ahalya is still here. And he pointed to a stone over there. There’s a solitary stone, but on that stone, a tulsi was growing. So it is sometimes, we may might make a mistake, and there might be consequence of that mistake.

But that does not mean all the past good that we have done is lost. So now for Tulsi to grow on a stone is special. And that happened because Haliya was still a good person. In one moment of weakness, he did some bad thing. And then Ram went there, and he touched his feet.

And as soon as he touched her feet, she became transformed. The stone gave rise to, the Haliya manifested to her. And she offered her prayers and a gratitude to Ram. And then Ram blessed her, and she became elevated. She went to a higher destination.

So she had lived a life of virtue. But one wrong act, she got the consequence of that. But then whatever virtue she had done, by that, she got elevated. So here, the point is making this curses and choices. So, Ahliah had a choice when she saw that it was Indra who had come there.

But she made a wrong choice that had a consequence. She was cursed. But, eventually, she was delivered. So for all of us, we all have our consciousness as our foundation for living. So right now, all of you are conscious.

Hopefully of the class, but you are conscious many other things also. But, we have our con consciousness. But, we want our consciousness to be developed. So that we can become more empathic, so that we can care more, we can understand each other better, and ultimately, so that we can become conscious of Krishna. So, now, some of us may have our consciousness shrunk in a particular way.

Some people are very, very rational. They just don’t understand people’s emotions. Some people are extremely emotional. They just don’t understand reason. There are different kinds of people like that.

So broadly speaking, whatever their consciousness, we want to expand that. And Lord Ram’s feet touched Ahilya, and her consciousness expanded. The process of bhakti yoga is essentially meant to bring our consciousness in touch with the lotus feet of the Lord. It’s not just a physical touch. It’s more of a spiritual touch where we get transformed.

So I’ll talk broadly about 3 parts of how we can change our consciousness. But any questions till now? Yes. Prabhu is cursing me. So that means he’s using some of his good deeds in, like, you know, validating that curse.

Like, that curse is affected only if he had certain good deeds that could transform those words into performance. And same applies with bliss blessings as well. In fact, for place blessing somebody, you require, a a larger load of your good deeds are being utilized for that blessing to come into the future. Is that so, or am I misconstrued? Okay.

Good question. So is it that if we have some good karma, then that is used to bless others? And only if we have some good karma, then that is also used? If we curse someone, that also gets again, things are subtle over here. It is not just karma alone.

There has to be a particular kind of power that is associated with that good karma. Karma. So generally speaking, the when we seek blessings or as when we give when when somebody curses us or somebody blesses us. Now the important thing over there is not necessarily that what they say will come true. That the important thing over there is that we are we live in an interconnected world.

And in the interconnected world, the attitudes of people towards us affects us. So now how much it will affect us will depend on the nature of our relationship, the nature of how much power they have. See, if sometimes some people come into a room and say somebody is very quarrelsome, somebody is very disagreeable. And just like they enter into the room, and the whole atmosphere of the room changes. Now say there is some very dominant dominating, demanding kind of boss who comes in, and all the team, everybody becomes a tense at that time.

So what’s happening over there? That that person just, you know, you do this you do this. They dominate everyone, Then they create negative vibrations. So it said that some people bring happiness wherever they go, and some people bring happiness whenever they go. So what happens over here is that there, that person is attracting negative vibrations.

Now those negative vibrations will have their effects. To what extent the effect will be, it’ll vary from person to person. Person. So we do we don’t have to become too worried or too judgmental. Oh, this person has cursed me.

This person has done this. This person has done this. So we try to behave in such a way that we don’t that we attract good wishes from others and not bad wishes as much as possible. And if somebody has a specific kind of karma by which they can bless or they can curse, then those blessing and curses may have powers. And, traditionally, Brahmanas would have that power, and that’s why, many people would fear the curse of a brahmana.

Now in the Mahagotath, some places it said that more than the, say, the the the stick of yama or the vajra of Indra, I fear this the curse of a Brahman. So if somebody has, as you rightly said, some special karmic powers, then they can, they can curse. But, definitely, their power will be depleted if that curse is inappropriate. The whole idea is that the universe is reciprocal. Reciprocal means that if we are interested with some power, if we use it appropriately, we are showing responsibility, then that power will increase.

But if we use it inappropriately, then that power will be diminished. So Vishwamitra, when he was performing Tapasya, at that time, Brahma and Menaka came and tempted him. And then he first got allured, then he got angered. And in anger also, when he cursed, he lost his power. So the idea is that when we have power, it needs to be used responsibly.

Does that address your question? Yeah. So, like, you know, that further elevates me from this question to a corresponding, theory, which is so any courses given to a person, like, you know, reduced by a good karma if the person performs it? And how how much is it linked to the person’s consciousness of him knowing that he’s cursed about that? Okay.

We don’t want to go into Okay. Technicalities of curses, but I’ll just mention 2 quick points over here. Okay. So how much do the persons can curse the curses will effect of curses will reduce in some ways? And, also, how much the person is knowing about the curse?

How much does it affect? See, the whole idea is that there is power, and the power is meant for a particular purpose. Now from both sides, the person who has the power and then the person whom that power is used, their consciousness matters. Sometimes, the person who has power, they can abuse it. That happens everywhere.

Today and the police may have some power. They may abuse it. The politicians may have some power. They may abuse it. So similarly, the sages or whoever, they had power.

Now, the purpose of that power is to is to deter people from wrong actions. That that is the purpose of that power. Now, the sages can sometimes lose their temper and use that power inappropriately, then they are responsible for that. If they use it appropriately, then they are doing their duty, then they they they actually, get more empowered by that. Now on the other hand, just like in a normal situation also, if somebody has committed some mistake, some crime, and they’re punished.

Now, the whole reason for having a judge, You know, you could just have a mechanical system. Okay. This punishment. Okay. This this crime, this punishment.

There there is some computer program. I recently read about artificial intelligence and how it can work and how it cannot work. Like Watson. Watson? Even Watson.

Yeah. So they use in the courts, they use this program to try to decide based on a person’s case history. If you do all the case history, and based on that, you decide how much punishment the person should be given. So there was a person who had just done a shoplifting, and the program gave him, like, 3 years in jail for shoplifting. And why was that?

Because he had done multiple crimes before. But what that program missed out was that all those crimes were, like, 3, 4, 5, 6 years ago. And the last 3 years, he had lived completely a a crime free life and something like what he had taken was a very minor thing like so it was completely disproportionate. And there was a field and then the court judge said that actually if we had if I had not used this computer’s input, then I would never have used a strong sentence. So the point I am making over here is that, you do that the curse, when when a curse is given and powers to be used, a lot depends on the consciousness of the person.

So the person is repentant, then the magnitude of the curse can definitely be decreased. So the person knows and seeks forgiveness. Sometimes the curse will not be fully withdrawn, but definitely, the magnitude can be decreased. Okay. Thank you.

So any other questions? Well, you know, I think in the past, the Brahmas had the part of us. Yes. They never misused it, and that’s why they Yes. Never would be too strong a statement because to is human.

So even the Brahmanas can make but generally, they would not misuse it. They’ll be very cautious about using it. And that’s how they had that power. So it is said that Shringi, when he abused that power to curse Parikshit Maharaj, although Parikshit Maharaj’s fault was very minor. So abuse of power can be not just in terms of, just exercising the power, but exercise the quantity of the power also.

It’s like, say, if there is 1 mosquito that has bitten someone, and that person decides there’s a mosquito in this house. Let’s throw a bomb on this house. That’s ridiculous. There’s no proportion over there. So to use too much power is also abuse of power.

So because he abused that power, from that time, it is said that the Brahmanas started losing their power. Okay? Thank you. Yes? So Vishwamitra, for a king, he wanted to, live but, Vishwamitra made a promise.

So he had to create an artificial heaven and then send him there. Mhmm. What’s so bad about creating an artificial heaven? Okay. What’s so bad?

Because he lost all his powers. Okay. Okay. Yeah. In the artificial heaven.

So when Vishwamitra came, created artificial heaven, he lost his power. Why was that? Yeah. So what happens is there is a cosmic order. There are things which happen in a particular way.

Say, for example, if you have a place like Harvard I was just in Princeton. I gave a talk about this. Say if you have a elite college, and then in that college, you send a person who doesn’t even know basic alphabet and basic arithmetic. It disrupt the whole class over there. Isn’t it?

So to get into particular places, particular basic qualifications are required. So, generally, to go to heavens, punya is required. And there is a system of order by which you do punya here, and then you go over there. So when Vishwamitra or the Trishanku did not have the adequate punya and one part of it is that it’s not just you have to have piety. It’s also that there has to be a certain amount of transformation that happens.

People cannot go to heaven and stay in heaven for their whole heavenly lifespan in this body. They have to give up this body and get another body and go there. Now Trishanku wanted to go in this very body. But that was a disruption of the cosmic order. So when he used his power to send Trishanku up, Indra saw, hey, unidentified flying object coming here.

And, Indra send it down and then, Trishanku came down. Again, Vishwamitra send him up, again he went down. And then Vishwamitra see, it was his abuse of power here that instead of telling telling, Trishanku, you do the right punya, you’ll go to heaven. Like, what happened is Trishanku was a part of the dynasty of, which was for which Vasishta was the priest. Okay.

And he had asked Vasishta, how can I go to heaven? You do punya? I’ll do your guess for you. Next life, we’ll go to heaven. Said, no.

I want to go in this life. That’s not possible. Now Trishankuni over the rivalry between Vishishta and Vishwamitra. So when he first came to Vishwamitra, and he he did not he was in he was also cunning. He said that I know you’re extremely powerful.

I know you’re more powerful than Vashishta, but you can do that which Vashishta can’t do. So what happened is why did Vishwamitra became so invested in Trishanku? Because Vishwamitra always had that, that feeling that, oh, Vashishta is such a powerful sage. I want to be powerful to yours. So I want to prove my power.

So there is no noble motive for that. It is just, like, you could say one upsmanship. I want to prove that I am better than him, and because of that, his desire was not in harmony with the cosmic order. So then when he tried to force him there, that that that didn’t work. He said, I agree in my word.

I’ll create a separate heaven. So now the whole problem with that is that it’s like, say, as again, the other example of Harvard or or Princeton or whatever, Stanford, whatever. So then if somebody says, oh, you’re not allowed in Stanford? I’ll create a separate Stanford for you. Okay.

But do you have the technological facility? Do you have the faculty? Just give a name Stanford over there. You create it. But then that will disrupt the whole educational system, isn’t it?

Now in India, they are we have IITs. And now the government is creating more IITs, which is in one sense good. But then there are many I was the professor in IIT, Karakpur. He was saying that the standard of the IITs is diluting because there are so many IITs, and we don’t have enough staff to actually take the standard. Of course, there are intelligent people also going over there.

But the point is that if you indiscriminately replicate something, then you cannot maintain the standard. So because it was primarily disrupting the cosmic order and it was because it was desired by his because of his own desire for one of manship. That is why in doing that, he lost all his power. Okay. Thank you.

So let’s, move on to our discussion. So I was talking about consciousness and how consciousness can become diminished and how it can be elevated. So how can we bring our consciousness in contact with the lord’s lotus feet so that it can also expand? So I’ll talk about 3 I’s, inclination, intention, and intelligence. So basically, see, we live as products of our past.

We are all products of our past, but we are not prisoners of our past. Our past shapes us. At a very basic level, we have a particular skin color. We have a particular bodily genetics. This is a shape of our past.

The parallel that we had, the country where we were born in. So the past is always with us, not just as our physical body, but also as our mental impressions. Now, the so we say we can say from our past comes our inclinations. So we all all we are all inclined towards certain things. Whenever something happens, we all can interpret it in different ways.

Let’s suppose you are doing some service, and you are coordinating some other devotees, a volunteer, they are all supposed to do service, and says that no some devotee is supposed to come at a particular day, the devotee doesn’t come. Now when the devotee doesn’t come on time, we may say, this devotee is so irresponsible. Or we may say that, actually, nobody takes the service seriously. Or, you may say that, nobody takes me seriously. Now what has happened over here, it is same incident, but different people can interpret it differently.

So your person is very, you could say very judgmental or very domineering, then that person say, this person is irresponsible. Your person is themselves very insecure. Whenever anything doesn’t happen well, I’m useless. I’m good for nothing. I’m I am nobody takes me seriously.

So the same action, same situation rather, can be interpreted differently by different people. That depends on our inclinations. The inclination that we have shapes our default reaction. Is that what we call samskaras? Exactly.

Samskaras. Yes. Thank you. Now I cannot go into technicalities here, but broadly, our inclinations have 2 aspects to it. 1 is we can say now these are again rough English words, impulses and instincts.

Impulses are generally unhealthy. They are where somebody has a desire to eat something, buy something. Some people are shopaholics. Whatever they see, buy it. So shop shop shop shop till you drop.

It’s like that. Just keep shopping. Keep shopping. So that’s a that’s a impulse. But along with that, there are instincts.

Instincts means we could say in instincts are like programmed intelligence. Some people, they just are so good at something. You know, they they they are they are good at interior design, at home decoration or whatever. They come into a house, and as soon as they see a house, they say, you know, okay. You move the sofa here.

You put this plant here. You put this curtain like this. It look good. So somebody would have stayed in that house for 6 months. They didn’t think about it.

So what some people just have that ability. So what happens is this is instinct. So our impressions, the inclusion that we have, some of it can be good also. Some of it can be bad also. Like, some people just have a gift for music.

Some children, just when they’re so small, they pick up a kartal. Anybody we are telling them, they start start playing it. They do it quite well. So they are all in collision. They are what we have got from the past.

So samskaras can be good as well as bad. So broadly, you can say the good samskaras are instincts. The bad are impulses. So now, they give us our default reaction. Now, the default reaction doesn’t have to be necessarily what we do.

But that is what first comes within us. Along with that, we have our intention. Intention means, what do I want to do right now? So, for example, say, somebody spends a lot of time on social media. Maybe watching face looking at Facebook or YouTube or WhatsApp.

And now they’re doing some serious work. Maybe they’re doing some studying some scripture or reading something for some job or whatever. And then suddenly, a notification comes up. Your friend has updated their Facebook picture. Oh, let me see it.

Just get that desire, and then you see it one picture. And maybe what happens is Facebook doesn’t show just one picture. There are so many other pictures also which keep coming. And then what may become is 1 minute can become 1 hour or sometimes so many hours also can go like that. So basically, now what is happening over here?

The idea or let me just look at this picture. That is coming from the inclination. If somebody has repeatedly browsed like that, what happens? That inclination is there. Not the intention.

But no. I want to study this. So what happens is the intention is what we bring into a situation. The inclination is what automatically comes. And navigating these 2 is the intelligence.

Now the intelligence now as I said, the inclination did not always be bad. So just like mind if your intention is to cook some food, And you’re cooking the food. And then as you’re cooking it, then you suddenly feel that, actually, this will not be enough. I have to cook more. Now we have planned a particular thing, but based on your experience or gut feeling, you feel I have to cook more.

That might be a good inclination also. This this was what was planned, but might have more people, people might eat more, whatever. So what happens is the inclination can sometimes propose something good, sometimes can propose something bad. The intention, sometimes we need to stick to it. Sometimes we need to adapt it.

The balancing between these two, when to stick to our intention and resist our inclination, or when to accept our inclination and change our intention. That balance is done by intelligence. So intelligence is what now among these 3, what is in our control and what is not in our control? What about inclination? Yes.

Well, very little control. Isn’t it? It’s like a default thing which comes. What about intention? Intention is broadly in control.

Intelligence? Deciding with me. Very controllable. Very controllable. Yes.

You could say that. See, the challenge is that our intelligence is also fluctuating. Sometimes we are wise, Sometimes, we are otherwise. So what happens is that, say, if you invest some money in fixed deposit, Then if you invested a particular amount, that amount is as it is. But if you invested in stocks, the stocks are also very variable.

So you might have $50,000 one day, and the next day, you might have just $500. So our intelligence is like what? Investment? Fixed deposit or stock? Stock.

Stock, is it? One day we are very intelligent, and the other day, what happened? So our intelligence varies. It’s not exactly our intelligence varies, but our intelligence is affected by our modes. So the modes change, and sometimes the way we think, we don’t have that clarity that is all times.

So basically, when we now let’s go go back to Ahliah’s example with these three points. So now yeah? So intelligence by nature is volatile? Or is it because the situation changes around the Many things. It’s not I said our intelligence currently tends to be volatile.

But the more we become fixed, the more we become pure, the more we come to, the mode of goodness, then our intelligence also becomes steadier. It becomes steadier. And let’s say somebody is recovering alcoholic. Now when they are there’s when they’re strong, determined, I’m not allowed to drink. Then even if somebody offers a temptation, no.

No. They’ll intelligently move away from there. Even if, say, they are going from office to home and there’s a bar. Okay. Let me not go on Suraj.

Let me go along that road. Their intelligence is strong at that time. But sometimes when the desire hits them, then what happens? Then their intelligence just stops working. So so that’s why you could say that our intelligence varies in our present stage, especially if you’re vulnerable to something.

I’ll explain this a little bit later. Let’s we’ll let’s apply this to first earlier story, then we’ll apply in our own lives and our other situations. So see, now in the case of Ahliah, as I said, she was a at one level, she was a virtuous woman. So there is one inclination within her, which was, you know, she wanted to live a life virtue, but there is another inclination, which was like her feminine pride. Why I am so beautiful?

Now she had no plan. She it was not she who planned. It was Indra who planned the whole conspiracy. It was Indra who came to her at that particular time. So now, at that time, as I said, she had no intention of doing anything wrong on that day.

But Indra came over there, and the situation came over there, and one particular inclination from her past came up, it overwhelmed. And at at a particular time, she said yes. The intention, she may not have she said yes, and that’s how the whole thing happened. So for all of us, when we are going through life, we can’t now and when you say our inclination, there is good and bad inclination also. Both are there, but what we can nourish is our intelligence and our intention.

So broadly speaking, our intelligence is nourished by the study of Shastra, by hearing, studying, contemplating, assimilating. When we do that, our intelligence are becoming sharper. Sharper means that we can start discerning it. This is right. This is wrong.

So when the intelligence itself becomes confused, when the intelligence is sharp, at least we know this, I should not do. And now with respect to our intention, that is shaped a lot by our association. The kind of association that we keep, that determines which desires become our driving desires. So we have many desires within us. When you talk about intention, intention is like a specific desire that we are chosen, and we are focusing on that.

That has become our intention. So right now, you may have any desires. You may have a desire. Okay. I’m tired.

I want to go home and take rest. You may have desire. Oh, I’m hungry. When will the first massage start? You may have desire.

Oh, you know, last 1 hour, I had not checked my phone. How many messages will be there? So there can be many of these thought that are popping up within us but see if you have come here with this intention okay I want to hear this class then what happens you focus on that. So we have various desires but the desire that we focus on that becomes our intention. So for us which desire we choose to focus on that is what is determined by largely by SCC.

Say if you are sitting right now and then you see your neighbor while hearing the glass, they’re looking at their phone also. Maybe let me also look. And then maybe let let me also look. Then in general, speaker thinks that we also look. So basically, our association shapes a lot of our intentions.

So by studying scripture, we can strengthen our intelligence. By good association, we can strengthen our intentions. And with respect to our inclinations, we whatever inclinations good we have, we can nourish them. And whatever inclinations unhealthy we have, we need to weaken them. Now, I’ll conclude with one last point in this that when we are trying to we have certain conditionings from the past, which push us, Maybe we get angry or we get depressed or we worry, whatever it is we might have, particular conditionings we might have.

So now when they come, if we try to fight against them, that is very difficult. Says that Just like waves come in an ocean, like that, desires arise within us. Now, if a sudden, a wave has come, if we try to use our strength and our will power to fight the wave, the wave can be too strong. And to resist that wave is almost impossible. But we don’t want to get swept away by the wave, isn’t it?

So what can we do? So if when the wave is coming, if there is a anchor that we can hold on to. So on our own, if I try to fight the wave, the wave is so strong I will get swept away, and then I may feel, oh, waves are so strong. What can I do? I will get swept away.

We may give up. But in that same energy, we focus on trying to hold on to an anchor, then even then the wave will hit us and the wave will shake us. But we if we hold on to the anchor, we won’t be swept that much away because the anchor is firm. So for us, each one of us has to discover what is the anchor that can hold us steady. If we keep fighting against the waves of our desires, we will just not only keep losing, but we’ll keep losing hope also.

I just can’t do this. So if we think that the wave should not come only, well, that is, that is, you know, there is optimism, and there is, you could say, stupidism. The thing that whales won’t come, that is just expecting too much. That’s not going to happen. But if you can find an anchor that we hold on to, then still there is struggle because when the waves come, the waves will push us.

But the struggle will be far less strenuous and far more fruitful. We focus on holding on to the anchor. So Krishna is him the lord himself is an anchor like that. And he has many, many manifestations. No.

His holy names, japa, kirtan, study of shastra, worship of the deities, doing a particular service to the Lord, that can be our anchor. And the more we train ourselves to hold on to that anchor, what will happen is the inclinations, the waves may come, but we won’t get swept away. And, the process of Bhakti is not just about doing some ritual. It is about making our mind spiritual. There are there are activities which people may call as rituals.

The word ritual has a negative connotation in today’s world. Thatis why we use the word devotional practices or spiritual practices, not rituals. But the point is that itis not just, oh, I have to do my japa. I have to do some pooja. I have to do some offering.

I have to come to this satsang, whatever. Yes. These are important. But thereis a purpose for this. And the purpose is to make our mind spiritual.

Make our mind spiritual means to make our ourselves anchored in some connection with Krishna that we can hold on to. Now what that is? Broadly speaking, we’ll say it is the holy name. But Krishna is multi, multi dimensional. Krishna can manifest in different ways for different people.

So for some people, it may Shastriq study. Now I just hear some class. I hear this. I just feel calm. Some people just like to recite verses.

I feel so calm. So we have to find out what is our anchor and focus more on holding on to the anchor, not fighting the waves. And if we hold on to that anchor, then the waves may come, but we will not be swept away by the waves. And ultimately, Krishna is not just an anchor we hold on to in the ocean, but Krishna is also the boat. As I said earlier, the waves may not stop, but if we come to the land, the waves may keep going in the ocean, but we will have gone out of that ocean.

So Krish Krishna and the connection Krishna, the process of bhakti yoga, at one level, they are anchor, which protects us among the waves. But process of bhakti yoga, at one level they are anchor which protects us among the views. But another level, it’s also like a boat, and that boat takes us across the ocean of material existence. And then when we come to Krishna’s lotus feet, when we come to Ramis lotus feet, then our consciousness blossoms, and we become absorbed in him. We eventually attain him.

So, Iill summarize what I spoke today. I spoke on this topic of curses and choices. So, curses basically are performative utterances because a person has some power, so that utterance leads to some performance. If somebody doesn’t have that power, then the performance is just words. It is that the utterance is just words, there is no action that is performed because of that.

And in Kalyuga, we are fortunate that we don’t have power to curse. Otherwise, our tongue, which is like a constantly loaded gun, even without any power to curse, we can hurt so many people. With that power, we can do so much more damage. Basically, curse means that the when a person is cursed, they’re kshetru, Their area of influence gets restricted in some way. We discussed 5 major curse in the Ramayana in different contexts.

And, we talked deliberately about the mechanism behind curse also a little bit that there are we see the mechanism here when the between the linking the utterance and the performance. But in in the Vedic times, there were subtler mechanism which we didn’t know about. I’m talking about the Hallya story. She was not ex she’s she’s not just a victim of lust and anger of 2 men. Rather, she had a moment of weakness, which she got carried away by the heady sense of power.

Oh, I’m so beautiful. And in that in that getting carried away that way, she diminished her consciousness. Instead of thinking about her duty and her relationship and dharma, she thought of just that pleasure at that time. And thus, she was cursed. So simile and when lord Ram came and touched his lotus feet, she regained her consciousness back.

So for us, we all make choices, and sometimes our choices, our consciousness can get diminished. And I talk about butchers, son, children. They they may hesitate to kill initially, but then they will start killing because the consciousness gets diminished. So for us, how do we expand our consciousness again? How can we get the Lord Lotus speak to manifest in our hearts?

That is, I talk about 3 i’s. What were they? Intelligence, intention, intention. Yes. Thank you.

So inclination is what we have got from the past. Some good, some bad. That comes like our default response. Intention is what we consciously strive for. What we what is the desire among our many desires, which is the desire that we choose and dwell on.

And and intelligence is which how do we balance both of these? And how do we move forward? So intelligence is often like a stock market, investment rather than a fixed deposit. So we can nourish our intelligence by studying Shastra. We can nourish our we can nourish our intention by good association.

And as far as the inclinations are concerned, we talk about because they are good and bad inclinations, rather than focusing on because of the bad inclinations, some waves come up within us. Rather than trying to fight those waves, we try to find some good inclination within us, which can help us hold on to an anchor. So based on our interest, whether it is musical or whether it is, intellectual or whether it is whatever it is, we find out some way we can hold on to Krishna, hold on to the lord. And once we are anchored, then the waves may come, but we will not get swept away by them. And the process of bhakti, the link with Krishna, is not just an anchor, it’s also a boat.

We’ll not only be saved from being swept away by the waves, by holding on to Krishna, we’ll also be able to get out of this ocean entirely. And that is the perfection of life. Thank you very much. Hre Krishna. Hre Krishna.

We have a question. Yes, please. I mean, like you said, you know, we have insulation, which is the product of our last beads. So if our beads now are Yes. Definitely.

Yes. It’s like, do our present good deeds become our future inclinations? Yeah. Every every decision becomes an impression which comes as a future proposition. I I repeat.

Every decision becomes an impression, and that will come as a future proposition. Say if somebody has repeatedly on their phone visited a particular website, say, bollywood.com, And then they come to a spiritual program, and they hear about Bhagavad Gita. And they want to know what is Bhagavad Gita. And they go and put on their browser, Bhagavad Gita b. What happens?

B. Immediately, bollywood.com comes up. They just let go of the power of simulation, then value.com will open the walls. They consciously press Bhagavad Gita. Then they go to bhagavad Gita dotcom.

Now if they keep choosing Bhagavad Gita again and again and again, then what will happen is eventually, next time that I after a few time in the type B, both will come. And if they keep going to bahogita.com, eventually, bahogita will come as the auto default autocomplete. So, there is programming within us, but we are not, our minds are not just programmed machines. They are also programmable machines. And we canit change what past programming we have right now.

But by our present actions, we can also reprogram. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Yes.

If Indra is a role model, if he’s a devotee, then how can he be a hypocrite? By not following the 3 eyes. So could he not follow the 3 eyes? Yes. See.

Okay. Yes. You know, Indra see, different people teach us in different ways. Some people teach us by their example what to do, and some people teach us by their example what to not do. So it’s a Indra as especially, if you see in the Bhagavatam, he is depicted if you look at the Vedas and even the Vedas especially, Indra is considered very, very powerful person.

And he is definitely to become Indra is not easy and as to the lord of punya. But the Bhagavatam, tells those incidents from Indra’s life. They’re not in the Bhagavatam in the Bhakti literature. Even Raman. Those incidents when Indra goes wrong.

If you consider the cosmic time span Indra, there’s not just one Indra. There are many Indras. And there have been many, many universes. So most of the time, Indra functions well. But, generally, for us, if we are to learn some lessons, it is when somebody does something wrong, why did they do it wrong?

How can they do it right? We learn the lesson from there. So Indra, he has certain tendencies which come from the the privilege and the power that he has. So he he does a lot of punya to get to swarga. By by his doing his piety, he gets to heaven.

But in heaven, his purpose is now okay. I did so much Punya, I taught so many yagnyas. Now I want to enjoy. So what happens? He has certain piety which comes from his past life because he has lived piously, but there is that also that enjoymentality.

And sometimes that enjoymentality goes beyond limits. So those are times when he can even challenge Krishna or he can do some, some something wrong. So but because, overall, he’s not a demon. He’s a he’s a pious person. He’s devta.

So he is he comes back on track. So through so the so the bhagutam or the bhakti literature broadly use Indra as an example of how, material opulence is not an insurance from spiritual deviation. That just because I am materially wealthy, I am materially pious, I am materially powerful, that does not insure me from the temptation from wrong belief. Rather, because I have that, I might do more easily. So it’s a he uses example to teach certain things to us.

Is it not all this bad? No. No. No. Not at all.

Not at all. Not at all. All the stories I read, it’s only shows all the bad things you read. All the stories I read, it’s only shows all the bad things you read. Yeah.

Yeah. That’s true. That’s that’s true. Because we we as I said, in the Bhakti literature, see every script, every book has a particular purpose. The purpose of the bhakti literature is primarily to glorify bhakti.

And Indra, he’s not exactly a bhakta. Indra, there’s a difference between punya and bhakti. Punya is piety. Bhakti, you could say, is broadly spirituality. In punya, what is the idea?

God, I’ll be good provided you make my life good here. So the idea is that in punya, people are not interested in god per se or loving god. They’re interested in what god will provide me here. In bhakti, they are interested in loving god per se, attaining god’s kingdom. So in punya, how one can do punya and be elevated to a high destination?

That’s what Indra demonstrates. But in bhakti, even the success of punya is considered to be inadequate. And even if one lives a very pious life, what is the result of that? You still stay in the material world. You still stay in a place where temptation can befall anyone.

And how a person who has been limited to heaven can also be dragged down by temptation. That is demonstrated through example of Indra. So does that mean that Rajas Kuna is still free down? Okay. That’s a good does that mean Indra is still is predominant?

I wanna say predominant, but it does become dominant at times. That predominant means it’s constantly there. Indra is virtuous overall. I said regarding your point at all the stories you ever heard? That’s true because all the stories we hear are from the Bhakti literature.

But if you read the Rig Veda, there’s so much praise of Indra, that he fought so many demons, and he killed those demons, and he’s a great hero. And he has, say, suppose there is a book on, say you know cricket? Yeah. Okay. Okay.

You’re okay. So suppose there’s a somebody written a book on, say, leg spin bowling. And then they describe how this leg spinner made this batspin out. This leg spinner made this batspin out. Now now that batsman might be a champion batsman who has called a century, double century, triple century also.

But in that book on balling, all the time you see that batsman getting out only. Now you see these batsman are foolish all the time he gets out. But the point to know that batsman is bad, the point of this book is to show how likespin bowling can be so expert. And then that expert batsman can also get out. So like that, Indra is not a weak person.

But in a book where he went to glorify bhakti, how somebody who lacks bhakti can be overrun this way, that way, that way. That is affected over there. So it’s not that Indra was constantly in rajogona. But when provocations come, when temptations come, rajogona does take over. Okay.

Wonderful. Okay. So any last question or shall we stop? So thank you very much.