How temptation attacks visibly and invisibly – Lessons from Indrajita’s attack on Rama-Lakshmana

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Thank you for coming today evening. Am I audible to you? Can you hear me?

Okay. Can you hear or difficult? Loud. Okay. Thank you.

So, I’ll speak today on the topic of, winning the inner war. All of us have a war going inside us between the part of us that wants to be good and the part of us that is short term, short sighted, that craves for various kinds of desires. So, since today is the pandan New Jalikadashi I’ll talk something from the Ramayana as well as something from the Mahabharata about the Pandavas. Now it’s interesting that both the epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have war as quite central to them. Now Srila Prabhupada was quite categorical that we should not interpret the war as simply, metaphorical.

It is not symbolic, but it is not it is not that it is not symbolic it is not just symbolic. In the Chaitanya Shikshamrut by Bhaktiv Nod Thakur, he states that he gives, for example, how various demons in Krishna Lila represent different things. So, Putana represents a misleading teacher that is like a teacher is meant to nourish the student with knowledge. So, a nurse is meant to nourish a child with milk but Puthana comes in through the medium nourishment trying to kill. A misleading teacher is meant to give knowledge but creates ignorance.

These are symbolic meanings. But, these metaphorical meanings, he does not say that Krishna did not happen. But along with that there are some further lessons to be taught also. Madhacharya says that the epics can be understood at 3 levels there is literal, ethical, and metaphorical. So, literal means that this is how things happen and if you just hear them, recite them, they will get purified.

About the Ramayana said that or even one letter if you recite, it can actually free us from great sins. So, that is the literal level just hear the story and relish it that will purify you. Now, the ethical level is where we see these characters as confronted with various decisions and sometimes they make a right decision sometimes they make a wrong decision and from that we can learn what kind of decisions we should make that is the ethical level and then beyond that is the metaphorical level. So, metaphorical level the important thing is that the metaphorical level should not replace the literal level it can expand the literal. So, for example, some people say the Kurukshetra war never happened.

Kurukshetra simply represents our human body and just as in us the lower desires are many and the higher desires are few. So, like that the Kauravas were 100 and the Pandavas were 5. Now, this is okay you can Prabhupada also talked about how when we surrender to Krishna when we take initiation when we surrender to our guru and Krishna, what is happening? We are in a war and we make Krishna the charioteer we hand the reins of our the chariot of our life to Krishna and then Krishna will lead us to safety and victory. So, Prabhupada has also spoken like that.

So, it is not that this meaning is wrong, but when this meaning is used to replace the normal meaning, then it is a problem. In Shri Vaishnav Sampradaya, there are many acharyas who have commented on the Ramayana. Govindraj is one of the prominent commentators. And he often gives some little bit symbolic meanings of various Ramayana characters. So, with this brief background, let us look at the Ramayana War and how it can also reflect the war in our own hearts.

Hearts. Now, this war probably we don’t experience it on a daily basis but especially when we try to do something. Now, some people say that if you tell them that we chant Hare Krishna, practice bhakti, you are going to control your mind. I do not need to control my mind my mind is already in control. So, actually, what it is the mind is in control, but how is it in control?

Because the mind has controlled them. They are not in control of the mind the mind is in control of them. Sometimes we decide to say I am going to do this I’m going to wake up early in the morning. I’m going to do this particular spiritual discipline. I’m going to do this, and we do it for a few days.

And then he said that, give it up. And he asked, what happened? Why did you change your mind? What happened? He said no I just changed my mind actually you did not change your mind your mind changed you.

So, what happens is things change and we generally do not realize the inner war going on and that we are fighting something unless we try to do something determined. Say for example, now on a day like Ekadashi when we try to fast at that time we try to fast and our mind attacks us fast. What it does? Come on, eat something, eat something, eat something, eat something, drink something, do this, do that. So, it’s only when we try to exert ourselves to do something that’s when we start understanding that there is something within me which is working against me and I have to fight against it.

It’s just like suppose an invader has attacked a country. Now, if all the citizens of the country obey that invader, then there is no war. Now, there is no war, but then there is no freedom also. All the citizens have to obey whatever the invader is saying. So, like that as long as we obey what our mind and senses are saying, then there is no war.

You just go along doing whatever the mind and senses do. Of course, even then there is struggle because what happens is the mind and senses make so many demands that we cannot fulfil all of them. So, manna hasha sthanidriyani prakrtisthaani karashati struggle and suffer because of the inner war that goes on between the goes on because of our mind and senses pulling us in various directions. So, similarly, there is a war in the epics. So, in the Ramayana, there is the war and between whom is the war primarily?

Ravan. Ravan and Ram. So, in South India I was giving a class and after that one person came to me, he says, I belong to the RPC. I says, what is RPC? RPC, the Rawan protection committee.

So Rawan protection committee, what is that? So basically somehow in India it is very strange that the whole Ramayana war actually it is primarily an ethical battle. Rawan is demonic and he has committed horrendous activities and the last activity last terrible activity that he does is abduct Sita and then Ram punishes him for all that. So, actually we can very clearly see that Ravan is a bad person and Ram is a virtuous person. Now, there could be some shades of gray in between, but broadly speaking, Ram is virtuous, Rama is vicious.

But somehow, some politicians and some political writers in India have recast this whole story and they have made it like a battle between North Indians and South Indians. And they said, Oh, you know, actually, Ram was Aryan and Ravan was a Dravidian and Aryan attacked the Dravidians. It is so crazy. And then there is a North Indian politician who tried to problematize this, and he said, Actually, Ravan is also from North India. So anyway, all this kind of interpretation keeps happening.

So that is why they feel that there are some people who feel that Ashish Rao was a Dravidian and he needs to be protected. So Ravan protection committee That’s why they had that idea. But the battle is not it’s not political, it’s not territorial, it’s not geographical. If it had been a territorial battle, then Ram after he won Lanka and Lanka was a golden city. It was very prosperous.

Rama could have annexed that and made that into a part of the Kusal Kingdom but he did not do that. What did he do? He gave it to Vibhishan and not only gave it to Vibishan after winning the war even before only he gave it that means when Vibishan came and surrendered to Ram at that time, Ram directly enthroned him as the king of Lanka. Now, by this, he reassured Vibhishan that I am confident that I will win the war and when I win, I have no desire to conquer this territory. So when when Rav would heard this, he was shocked.

He said, I am still alive and already somebody has been enthroned as the king. So there, he just dismissed it. He said that what is this? One beggar has enthroned another beggar as the king. He tried to minimize them but eventually, there was Rama’s confidence.

So, the point here is that the war, it is primarily an ethical war and in this ethical war which is also similar to the war that goes on in our own consciousness in our consciousness, we all experience this war sometimes say we wake up early in the morning and the alarm is ringing wake up and something inside us is go to sleep and the competition the war happens between the outer sound and the inner sound. The inner sound is softer, but it is louder nobody else can hear it, but we cannot hear anything except it. And then that sound becomes so loud just like sometimes when we are hearing a class very attentively or we are trying to hear a class attentively and somebody starts speaking, then what do you do? Shh, be silent, is not it? So, like that we hear the mind’s voice go to sleep so loudly that tuck we start to switch off the alarm shut up we switch off the alarm.

So, basically, there are times when we experience this inner conflict not always, but sometimes we do experience it. So, the war in the Ramayana mirrors in many ways the war within our consciousness and while this war is going on, at one level, we say Ram and Ravan are fighting with each other. But, in our case, actually, we could say that the divine side and the demonic side both are there and which side wins is based on which side we empower. So, both are there whichever side we focus on, we give our attention to, which we dwell on that will grow. I will come to that point of how the inner war is similar to and different from the outer war.

But let us look at one significant incident in the Ramayana war, which illustrates the dynamics of that warfare. Now, normally whenever a war takes place, say there is an attacking side and there is a defending side. So, usually which is better situated Which is on home territory? The defending side, is not it? It is like say if a cricket match is going on, then now the World Cup is going on.

So, so then what happens is if a match is going on in the home turf, then the team, which is playing over there, they are much more confident they know the territory they have their whole team over there if somebody gets injured, you can immediately replace someone else. So, generally, the home turf advantage is there. Now, in this case, see in both these cases in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, externally, the war begins with the good side launching the first attack, but actually it is the bad side which has launched the attack before but it was not overt war. Like in the Mahabharata, the Kauravas did such terrible things. They stole all the Pandavas’ property.

They tried to disrobe Draupadi. They had horrendous wrongdoing. So, similarly, Ravana abducted Sita. It’s a grievous wrong. And so now they had done so much wrong, but they did not provoke the war they did not start the war.

See, there is a cause of the war and there is a trigger for the war. The cause of the war means say for example, if somebody has a gun and they shoot the gun. Now, the trigger being pressed is the cause by which the bullet shoots out, but before that the gun has to be there before that, the bullet has to be there in the gun otherwise, you press the trigger and nothing happens. So, every action has multiple levels of causes. So, although Ram was the person who attacked Ravan, but it was Ravan who had provoked Rama beforehand.

And Ram gave every chance to Ravan to have a peaceful resolution, but Ravan was just not ready to listen. I have another class on Ramlila about how Ravan had 10 heads but he had 0 brains. In fact, corresponding to those 10 heads, actually, Ravana got 10 warnings. 10 very wise people or powerful people, they came and warned him. It started from Maricha only first warned him don t abduct Sita.

Then after that Jata yu warned him don t abduct Sita like this. Then after that Hanuman came there and Hanuman warned him. If you don’t return Sita, everything will be destroyed. Then Rupeshwar warned him. If you don’t return Sita, everything will be lost.

Then after that, as before the war, Kumbakaruna warned him that that you should not have abducted like this. Then just before the war, Angad came and warned him the last option. Now, if you return everything, otherwise, now also we will go back peacefully to Sultan Sita. Then after Angad came, then 2 elders, Malayavan and Maya. Malayavan was the uncle of Ravan and Maya was the father-in-law.

So, they came and warned him and like that everybody came and warned him, but he just did not listen. So, this war started and when this war started, Ravan had the home turf advantage but Ravan was so overconfident. These monkeys, what can they fight? They cannot defeat him. So, he foolishly never used his full force.

What he did was he was inside the fort and he sent 1 by 1 his generals out with a whole army to with an army to support them, but he did not bring out his full forces at all. He thought, these monkeys what can they fight against? And even when 1 by 1 by 1 big big generals just fell still he just didn’t accept it. And then finally, Ravar himself came out to fight. And Ravar came out to fight.

He just was furious. And he fought and he fought with the monkeys and he wounded many of the monkey leaders. And finally, Ram came to fight with him. And he started terrorizing the monkeys. Ram came forward.

And Ram and Ravana had a fierce fight. And after that fierce fight, Ram fought so expertly that Ravana’s bow, arrow was broken, his chariot was broken, his horses were broken, his helmet was knocked off, his crown was knocked off, his armor was broken and now Ram has had to shoot 1 arrow and finish him. And at that time, Ram lowered his bow and he said that there is no fun in killing a warrior who is weaponless. You already fought with many monkeys today, you must be exhausted, go back, rest, come back tomorrow and I will kill you tomorrow. This was humiliating for Ravan.

It is one thing to be defeated, but after being defeated, to be spared! And Ravana just couldn’t do what to do and he had to walk away. He couldn’t even go because his chariot was there. So he had to get off his chariot and run away from there. He felt so humiliated by that.

He didn’t know what to do. Now seeing this, in Sanhedrin, he says, I will go and I will destroy the entire army. I will revenge this. So Ravan nodded and Indrajeet came the next day. Now Indrajeet was an extremely skilled, fierce fighter and he and Lakshman fought fiercely.

Then, he wounded Lakshman, then he fought Radhram. But Ram and Lakshman were fighting fiercely and soon Indrajit realized that I can’t win against them. He had thought I will just crush them but he just could not crush them because he found that they were way too powerful. And then he decided to use demoniac trick. And what is demoniac trick?

He became invisible. Now generally speaking, what happens in today’s world, there is also violence in the name of religion and because of that when people hear how in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana there is war, how the Bhagavita was spoken and after which a war took place, people become very uncomfortable with that. But there is a big big difference between whatever war, whatever violence happens in the name of religion, say for example, terrorism and the wars that happened in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. What is the difference? The difference is these were wars were fought according to war codes.

What do you mean by war codes? If you look at the Kurukshetra war, both the Pandavas and Kauravas knew that they were going to fight and they both came to an area where there was no civilians. It was a big plane which was that plane? Kurukshetra. So, the first rule of the Kshatriya warfare was no civilians would be attacked No civilians would be attacked terrorists only civilians are attacked.

The terrorists do not have the guts to fight against an army. And even when warriors are fighting with each other, the Kshatriya code is such that the warriors one warrior will fight only against another warrior who is an equal that means a charioteer will not fight against a foot soldier soldier. A foot soldier will fight as a foot soldier, a charioteer will fight against a chariot. Of course, now while 1 charioter is fighting against another charioteer, the arrows might injure or kill somebody else, but you do not directly target those who are not equal to you. So, the idea is equal should fight with equals and not only equal should fight with equals, equal should fight with equals when they are equipped.

So, the warrior should be equal, they should be equipped and they should be alert. So, in a sense, the wars in those times were like sports. You could say it is quite a sports in bloodshed, but people at that time knew that life does not end with death. Even the Kauravas knew that if we die, we will go to next destination. So, the war was like sports and in sports, primarily, it is very intense competition.

For example, it is cricket. It is said to be like a war without bullets. So, sports can be very intense at times, but there are rules And, actually, it is the rules that make the sports enjoyable. If the rules are not followed say, if a bowler bowls and the batsman hits and the ball goes into the air and then the wicketkeeper is coming to take the catch, and the batsman raises the bat and hits the wicketkeeper. If the rules are flouted like that, then there is no it is not a test of skill anymore, and nobody wants to watch a match like that, is it?

I think a year or so ago 2 prominent cricketers from Australia were caught for cheating and there is a big worldwide outrage against them they are banned for some time. Why? Because in sport the idea is that skills are to be tested and if rules are broken, then it’s no longer a test of skills. And then, the joy goes out of it. Similarly, when Kshatriyas would fight, the war was a test of skills, a test of strength and the warriors would fight honorably.

But, not all warriors were honorable. And, Rawa and his associates could say had a PhD in being dishonorable. So, what happened? When Indrajeet saw that he couldn’t win, he adopted a dishonourable strategy and that was he became invisible. Now, some people say that all these scriptures are filled with so many things they are mythology.

They’re just they’re just, like, poetic writings by some peoples based on their imagination. They, they’re they’re not real because so many fantastic things are described over there. Mhmm. So how can anybody become invisible? Or say in in Krishna, I’d describe that Krishna lifted Govardhan Hill.

Now how can somebody lift up a mountain or Hanuwa lifted up a mountain? How can anybody lift up something like that? This is just a story. Yeah, it is a story but it is not just a story. Why?

Because there are higher factors involved in it. See, whether when Krishna lifted Govardhan Hill or Hanuman lifted the hill which contained the medicinal herbs. So, at that time, they say, Oh, people just believed anything over there people were superstitious and they believed any kind of story. But there is a logic and reasoning even in the stories. If people could believe anything and everything, then why did anyone and everyone lift up a hill?

It is not that any monkey could lift up a hill it is not that when Hanuman lifted up the hill and rot, Nobody does that everybody is astounded how did you do that? So, when Krishna lifts up a hill, somebody may ask, say, okay, this is a phone. Now even if I have to lift up a phone on one finger, in physics, you have to find out the center of gravity of the point. And you have to have your finger right at the center of gravity only if it is there, then the phone will be held and a phone is a tiny object. Suppose a skeptic asks when Krishna lifted over the hill, how did Krishna find the center of gravity of gold?

Now, Krishna doesn’t have to find the center of gravity because he is the source of gravity. He is the source of gravity. So, because he is the source of gravity, the laws of gravity act by his will And in extraordinary situations, those laws can be suspended by him. And similarly, those people who have special powers, they can do something which ordinary people cannot do. So, miracles aren’t against science.

Miracles are above science. When God does something, it is not something special it is not a rejection of science. It is an acknowledgment that science studies things in a particular framework, but there is more to reality beyond what science studies. So, when we talk about Indrajit becoming invisible, now, what does it mean? He had some special powers.

So, if we consider 50 years ago or 100 years ago, if somebody had said you can go to any part of the world and just pick up a box and through that box you can talk with anybody else in the world, people would have said that’s a fairy tale. Somebody has written some fiction, they would have said. So, there can be subtle mechanisms by which certain things can happen. Anyway, we are not going into the technicalities of this. The important thing is that he became invisible and invisibly he started attacking.

It is very difficult how do you fight against an invisible enemy. So, imagine if a cricket match is going on and the batsman can’t see the bowler and all the batsman sees that the baller is coming and hit me. Hey, what do you do? How do you play? So it was patently unfair and started attacking, and now Ram and Lakshman were very, very swift.

As soon as they would sense an arrow coming in their direction, they would immediately turn, they would bear the pain of the arrow and they would still shoot shoot back. But Indrajit was also very swift and he would constantly keep moving constantly keep moving. But because he was attacking invisibly, Rama and Lakshmi were fighting fiercely but one after one after another the arrows were cutting into their bodies and they were heroically fighting but their whole body became covered with arrows. And some arrows entered into their body and stuck there some arrows pierced through their body. And Ram and Lakshman now they were warriors, but at this point they were exiles.

So, they didn’t have any royal armor with them also they were defenseless in a sense no armor. And Rama and Lakshman were just pulling out the arrows that were coming in their body just pulling the arrows, throwing it away, and fighting on. And Indrajit became incensed, he said. I have become invisible and I am attacking and still they are not falling. What is happening?

Finally, he decided to use an extremely dangerous weapon which was the namala. Later, here he used the nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha nagaastha n and these arrows were such that the arrows would not only pierce the body but after piercing the body, there would be, like, the snakes would be associated with these arrows and the snakes would bite and poison would spread all over the body. And when these arrows started shooting, shooting had been shot, one after another after another, the arrows kept hitting and then eventually Lakshman toppled over the unconscious. And Ram was fighting. Ram looked at Lakshman but he couldn’t do anything to help Lakshman also.

And then Indrajit concentrated all the attack on Ram and Ram toppled over. And as soon as Ram fell, now already multitudes of arrows had pierced his body and now these several snake arrows pierced his body. Indrajeet roared in joy and started shooting arrows at all the remaining monkeys. And the monkeys wailed in panic. First, they saw their kings, their lords, Ram and Lakshman falling and then this indiscriminately brutal attack on them.

They started panicking and fleeing seeing this Indira started roaring in laughter and he went away from there. And when this happened, it was devastating for the Vanara army. So, generally, in a war, if the head falls if the king falls, it’s not just that the king is a most powerful warrior but the king’s fall also affects the morale of everyone else. Thus, when Rama and Lakshmi fell, the whole army just panicked and started fleeing away. The Vanara army had their own king.

Who was that? Sugriva. Now, Sugriva was the assistant, the ally of Ram. So, Sugriva realized, what should I do now? Ram and Lakshman are wounded.

He didn’t know whether they are dead or they are wounded or what has happened. They are almost motionless. And his soldiers were fleeing. So, he roared to his warriors. He said, stop!

He says, where will you go? What face will you show to your family members even if you survive now? To stop and fight, we will counter this cowardly attack. And he with great courage and great confidence he spoke and gradually he also what happened? Soon the invisible arrows stopped coming and I told them Indrajeet has gone now and when they heard this, they calmed down because he saw no more arrows were coming and then as the monkeys came around him and they stood by Ram and Lakshman.

They were looking at them and they saw that they were nearly dead. Some breath was there in their body but apart from that, the colour was waning away and lies seemed to be just streaming out of their body. Now, Sugariva had to do some fast thinking. He could have lost hope. He said, I came here to help Ram.

If Ram himself is no longer there, what can I do?’ He could have lost hope but he didn’t do that? Many times in our lives, when we are trying to do something and everything seems to be dark, So, we never lose till we lose hope. Life can defeat us in many battles but it is we who defeat ourselves in the war That means what? Many things may go wrong but it’s when we become discouraged and we give up the fight that’s when we actually lose. So, Sugri, although it is a big big battle that was lost, he did not lose hope.

He did some fast thinking and he said this is a war field, so we can’t do anything. So Ram and Lakshmi said to his monkeys some of the there were some monkeys who were good at medicine so he said, you along with the whole team of monkeys, you pick up Ram and Lakshman and carry them to Kishkindh and there let them be treated and take all care of them after they are healed Then if the war is still going on, they can come back. And meanwhile, he turned towards Hanuman and Jambhog and he said, we will attack Lanka and we will destroy Lanka. This cowardly attack will have to be revenged. And as he was speaking like this now, some of the monkeys were thinking that if Ram and Lakshman couldn’t defeat the Rakshasas, how will we be able to defeat them?

But here Sugriva was furious at this outrageously cowardly and deceptive attack. He said we are going to head back!’ So, the point is sometimes just seeing the confidence of someone gives confidence to others. So, Srila Prabhupada, when he started to the West to share Krishna Bhakti, he had that extraordinary confidence. When Prabhupada came to Mumbai, he wanted to go to America and there was this India steamship company owner and he wanted a place on her ship. So, he asked her and her secretary had told her, No, no, don’t give up.

He is an old man. So, she told Swamiji, Swamiji, you are so old and America is so cold. He says, You will die over there. So Prabhupada said, Nothing is going to happen to me. Since my spiritual master has given the instruction and this instruction says, Please help me to fulfil it.

He says, Swamiji, you are like my father. How can I let my father go into such a risk in a distant land like America? And Prabhupada was so confident and so little. Prabhupada said, If I am like your father and you are like my daughter, will you not fulfil one desire of your father? So, Prabhupada just pressed on and Prabhupada’s mission was also you could say impossible.

One old man going to America all alone with no money, no institutional support, no contacts. In fact, he did not even know the language very well. English was very accented and before that he had not even stepped out of India. It was an impossible task But still, he had that faith. He had that confidence.

And similarly, Sugri also had that confidence. And when we do all that we can, Krishna does all that we can’t. When we do all that we can, then Krishna does all that we can’t do. But when we do not do all that we can when we think this is not possible, this is not possible, this is not possible, Krishna says, okay, this is not possible. We see this principle time and time again even when Arjuna had to go into the Kaurava army on 14th day to avenge the death of Abhimanyu.

The whole army was blocking him from reaching Jayadrath. But Arjuna fought on and on and he fought so fiercely, he came very close to Jayedrat and he had done everything. But at that time, Duryodhana used a last ditch effort. He said yesterday we had 6 warriors to overcome sorry, to overcome Banyu Arjuna is the father of Amanyu. So, today, we have 8 warriors and 8 warriors simultaneously attack Arjuna from all sides Drona and Kripa came from the front, Ashwatama and Karana came from the left, then Shalia and Krutavarman came from the right, and Duryodhana and Dushyasan came from behind.

And suddenly, all of them attacked, and Arjuna Arjuna could see Jayadrach’s chariot standard, the flag, but now it is like a cloud of arrows coming in from all sides. He could barely just keep the arrows from piercing his body just round and round and he started despairing. The sun was sinking down going towards the horizon so close and yet so far. So, as he started despairing Krishna told him that Krishna had a plan. And Arjuna could just see.

Krishna was thinking. Krishna had a plan. He kept fighting. He kept fighting. And then what did Krishna?

Krishna saw that Arjuna on his own could not reach Jayadr. So Krishna called it a Sudarshan chakra. And he called it a chakra and he dispatched that. And that chakra went and covered the sun. So according to some astrological calculations, that was the exact time also when an eclipse happened.

And then as that sun covered the sun was covered the Kaurava warriors started celebrating Oh Arjuna is dead and then Jairath he had been hiding behind till now suddenly came forward and he said Oh you are going to kill me? Now should I light your funeral pyre? They were mocking Arjuna. Now Arjuna was disheartened and perplexed and he was about to put his bow down. Krishna told him, Arjuna, there is still time.

Put the Brahmastra on your bow and point it towards Yajurath. Now the sun was not there. Arjuna knew there was a time when no question should be asked. So, Arjuna just did that. As soon as he did that, what happened?

Krishna removed the Sudarshan. And the last few rays the sun was still coming and right in front of everyone as the sun came Krishna told Arjuna there is a sun and there is Jainrat shoot And right in front of all the Corals are watching, Arjuna came and shot off the head of Jainrat. But the point I am making is when Arjun did everything that he could, then Krishna did what Arjuna couldn’t. So, same principle applies we have to do everything that we can. So, similarly, here, Sugriva was determined to do all that he could And as he was determined like this, suddenly something happened.

Suddenly, it seemed like a storm was coming across the horizon and the waves started rising in the sky. The wind started blowing, and from the trees, the branches started falling down, and a huge creature started coming down straight. And as they started looking, what who or what is this creature? Is this Indrajitu has come back again? But this creature was so powerful that nobody could fight against them.

And as they were observing observing, the creatures came straight down, swooping down and came right next to Ram and Lakshmi. Who was this? Garuda. Garuda. Wonderful.

So as they’re watching, they realized, oh, this is some celestial looking being. This is Garuda. And then Garuda came right and as Garuda came over there what happened? Now Garuda is the natural enemy of the snakes. So, all the snake arrows which had entered and pierced not only pierced Ram and Lakshman’s body that is actually killing them continuously by injecting poison.

All those snakes just came out and they fled away and then Garuda just by the presence of Garuda away the snake arrows went away, and then Garuda offered his respects with his front talents. And then he came forward, and he just touched Ram on his face. And as soon as he touched Ram, immediately Ram got up. And then, he touched Lakshman. He touched Lakshman immediately.

Lakshman also got up. And here, Ram is playing Naralila. So, Ram looked around and he said, Oh celestial bird, thank you for saving us. Pray tell me who are you? Now Garuda said, My dear lord, you surely know me.

I am Garuda. I am your eternal carrier. He said, consider me like your own breath, but this breath flows outside your body. And Rama smiled. In the Ramayana, what happens is Ram is primarily as an ideal human being.

So, that is why his divinity is not always stressed because if he is God, then he can do everything. Then, what does the ideal human being means? The human being faces challenges and then how does that human being amidst challenges still stay firm in the path of duty, still acts according to principles. So, Ram’s divinity is not always emphasized it is his apparent humanity and how in spite of various adversities he keeps acting. So, then, here that is why Ram according to the Nilayhi says that okay He acts as if he is a human being and then when Garuda says, Please bless me so that I can go and chase these snakes and finish them off.

They are my natural enemies and I want to finish them. And then Ram gives his permission and as Narula starts flying into the sky, Narula tells him that, ‘Because I came here, Indrajeet will not be able to use those snake weapons again. And as they hear this, all the others observing Ram and Lakshman are not only alive and active but they are fully recovered. That is the mystical power of Garuda. And Indrajeet both Indrajeet in this case and the Kauravas in that earlier case both of them made the same mistake.

What was that? I made the mistake of being over confident. See the war is never won till it is actually won. So, Hindari thought they are already dead and the war is won. And the corals also thought yes, Arjuna is killed now.

So, as soon as they laid their guard down Rama and Lakshman sprang up and they said that let us attack Lanka now itself. And Rawa and had been told by Indrajeet that Oh, Rama and Lakshman are dead and they were all celebrating over there and the Vanaras roared and charged and what happened he said what happened Ravana said. Ravana was enjoying a party. He said what is this noise? Noise Ram and Lakshman are alive when they are coming back and now the kind of panic that was there earlier in the monkeys camp that was the Raksha’s camp how did they come back from the death?

But that is how the odds were reversed. So, although Indrajit used terrible weapons, but in this war which we face, whatever faces us stronger than whatever faces us is what graces us what blesses us. So, for all of us in this just as I talk about the inner war in the beginning so I will conclude with that point of the inner war that Indrajit became invisible and invisibly he attacked Ram and Lakshman. So, similarly, for all of us, we are fighting against various temptations, various distractions and some temptations are outside us and those temptations they allure us. Say, for an alcoholic, a bottle of alcohol may be a temptation for a drug addict, some drug dose might be a temptation for somebody who is hooked on to the internet, yes, the internet might be a temptation.

We all can have different kinds of temptations. So, when the tempting objects are there outside, then we at least are aware at least if we understand that I do not want to succumb. So, then we know that temptation is out there. I think it was the first Nirjale Ka Dashi It was the 1st Janmashti, actually, I mean, in 20, 25 years ago. 20 so at that time, we were fasting till midnight.

And because it was a lot of crowd, I was in Pune at that time. So one devotee came we were sitting in a stall. I was in the question answer booth. So one devotee came at around 10 o’clock and he brought one full bottle of ginger water to break the fast. And then he asked me, so he came and answered the question.

He said, Where should I keep this bottle? So I told him, out of sight. So What happens whenever there are temptations? If the temptations are in sight, then the allurement increases. 2 months ago, I was in Silicon Valley, so I spoke at Google, And interestingly, in Google, they had done an experiment.

Because most of the work is software coding, so it is very sedentary work. And, they found that the health insurance cost for the Google was increasing a lot. So, they called some experts and when they called those experts, they said what to do? In your cafeteria, whatever desserts are there chocolates, toffees, sweets, he said just put them in non transparent containers or cover them with non transparent people and just by doing that, they found almost 30 to 35 percent of the desert consumption decreased and by that what happened? Their health insurance cost also went down.

So, this is actually a principle called proppingquity. Proppingquity means what? The effect of space and time on behaviour. Now, that is just a complicated definition, but what it simply means is say, you are driving along the road and there is a hotel where there is some favorite food of yours which is available now, if you are driving along the road and then you see that hotel, you get the desire, But then if there is a long crowd over there and you think, oh, I will have to wait for 1 hour for the food to be served to me just forget it some other time. But if you are going along that road and you say the hotel is empty, I can just go in and within 2 minutes, I will have that full then, okay, let me have it.

So, what happens? We all have certain desires that are casual desires. Casual desires mean that desire just comes up because of the situation. And if that desire is very easy to fulfill, then we fulfill it. If there is trouble involved in it, just forget it it is not worth it.

So, propinquity means the effect of time and space on our behavior. So, if a particular desire, it requires time and effort to fulfill it, it is far away, then forget it. So, some people, what happens is when they are sleeping at night, they feel a lot of compassion suddenly. Compassion for what? Compassion for all the food that is feeling lonely inside their fridge.

So, now, if that food is very easily available, we just grab it and eat it but if it is not so easily available, if I have to go out and if I feel hungry in midnight and if I have to go out and buy something or cook something, then forget it. So, the point is that if something is very easily available, then we indulge in it. If it is not so easily available, then say if you are fasting many of you may be fasting today. So, if somebody tells you to fast, okay, it is difficult, but if somebody tells you say, If today is a class, keep a nice plate of prasad in front of you and fast, it will be much, much more difficult. So, if the temptation is right in front of us and we are told to fast, it becomes very difficult.

So, the point I am making is when there is external temptation, we are at least aware that this temptation is there and we need to keep a distance from it. So, they said the best way to deal with temptation is to not deal with temptation. If something is not to be done, then do not just keep it accessible to you. But more damaging or more dangerous than these visible temptations or we could say the visible objects that from outside they attack us is something invisible. Just like when Indrajit was attacking visibly, the danger was not that much, but we started attacking invisibly the danger became much more.

So, what is invisible in the war against temptation? See the objects outside are visible, but the desires inside are invisible. And, if we fall, we succumb not just because the objects outside are very tempting it is because the desires inside become very overwhelming. So, the invisible enemy is much more dangerous than the visible enemy. And because they are inside us, we can’t see them we can’t identify them very easily.

And we don’t know how to fight against them also. I was talking with a devotee whose brother he told me his brother was an alcoholic and they worked very hard to try to get him off of alcoholism and he also wanted to give it up. But somehow, the desire comes up very strongly. So, now because they were from a very wealthy family, what happened was that he could go to a nearby bar and even if he had no money, still people knew that he is from this wealthy family, people would give him a call. So, eventually, what they decided?

All the nearby wards, they told him, this person has alcohol, his wishes, please do not serve him alcohol. So, then he had his own car. One day he called and he said that, my car has broken down. Can you please send somebody to tow the car? They got somebody and they towed the car and they came home.

And then when he came home, that night he was sleeping. Suddenly, this devotee was sleeping next to his brother’s room only. And he heard the door opening and he went out. And he saw this person, his brother went to the car. And I said, what is he doing with the car?

Are you going to drive somewhere? No. But what they did was, they kept the keys also safe, so they didn’t drive away at night. Then, he went to the gas tank of the car and he had got a straw He put a series of straws and he put that in the gas tank and he was drinking from there. Shai, what are you doing?

So, what he had done was that he had gone to a bar far away and he had bought a lot of alcohol, and he had drained all the gas from the gas tank and filled it with alcohol. And now at night, he was drinking. So, he said, when I saw him doing this, at one moment I felt great anger, but then at the next moment I felt pity at that time. Why pity? Because he said that.

See, when we see somebody doing something wrong, something terribly wrong, we feel, you know, how can this person do something like this? How can somebody be so foolish? How can somebody be so unprincipled? How can somebody be so terrible? But we need to see the addicted not just as demented, not just as mad but also as tormented.

Tormented means what? That, actually, the desire from inside is goading them, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this!’ And they are defenceless! What can they do? If somebody is going through such extremes to try to drink something then their desire must be tormenting them so much. So, actually now what applies to others also applies to us that actually the inner enemy hurts us much much more than the outer enemy from inside when the desires start tormenting us do this, do this, do this, do this and it’s very difficult to resist it and what happens is that the more we have indulged in a particular desire that much the desire becomes stronger and stronger and stronger and the desire torments us more.

For example, our mind is like a software it is like a program software. If somebody has visited a particular website many times, they have visited bollywood.com many times, and then they come to a spiritual program like this, and then they hear about Bhagavad Gita, and they say, I want to find out what is Bhagavad Gita. And they go to their browser and type b, and what happens? Bollywood comes immediately, why? Because that is what they had selected earlier.

Now, in our browser, might be Bollywood might not come at all because we are not selected yet. So, the point I am making is that just as if somebody has selected something repeatedly, then it comes just as a default response sometimes it might come as a home page only. So, for somebody who is an addict, you see, why do you do this? But if somebody is an addict, that object of addiction has become their home page. They just can’t think of anything else.

So, this inner war is going on and our desires attack us from within. Now, if some temptation is coming at us from within, we can move away from the temptation we can push that temptation away but if a desire torments us from within, what do you do? He says, Rama and Lakshman were defenseless. Where do you fight? So their desires torment us from within.

And sometimes what happens is we think, I’m just weak willed or we blame somebody else. Why do you have why don’t you have any will power? See, it’s not just a matter of will power. If the desires are tormenting us so strongly, what can you do? That is why at that time we need to be understanding that what happened when these Inaravars were attacking, these snake weapons were attacking and Indrajit was attacking, an appropriate defence was required.

Even Ram and Lakshmi couldn’t defend. But then Garuda came. Garuda is the carrier of Vishnu. Garuda is like the guru. And as soon as Garuda came, what happened?

The snakes went away. And then Garuda touched and Ram was revived. So what happens is when the garuda represents the guru or the devotees of the Lord, when the devotees come, what do they give us? The gift of association is that the devotees their association gives us spiritual desires and spiritual desires drive away material desires. Desire is such a thing that you cannot fight against desire.

It is like suppose if I tell you for the next 30 seconds, please don’t think of a pink monkey. In your whole life, you may never have thought of a pink monkey but now you start thinking of a pink monkey. How does a monkey become pink? Is it wearing a pink dress or is it a genetic mutation or what? We start thinking.

So, as soon as we tell us do not think of something, do not desire something, do not do something, it becomes very difficult we start doing that itself. So, the point is that you cannot fight against desires it is very very difficult. We cannot drive desires away but we can crowd desires away That means if we fill our consciousness with positive desires, negative desires will go away if we fill our consciousness with spiritual desires, material desires will go away. Just as when Garuda came in, the snakes went away. So, for example, when we come in the association of devotees, the gift of the association of devotees is that they give us spiritual desires and the desire to love Krishna, the desire to chant Krishna’s name, the desire to hear about Krishna, the desire to do service to Krishna and as we take up those desires, as those desires start filling our consciousness, then the unwanted desires start going away.

So, for fighting with an invisible enemy, we also need an invisible resource. We may come in the association of devotees, but if we don’t get the desire that the devotees have, then we are not associating with devotees actually. The essence of association is the transfer of desires. At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, after Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna finished it and Arjuna did not say at that time, Oh, Krishna! Great lecture!

What did Arjuna say? Karise vachanamtava I will do your will. That means that Krishna’s desire becomes Arjuna’s desire. So, there is a transfer of desires. So, when we associate with the spiritual master, when we associate with senior devotees, we need to get their spiritual desires.

So, bhakti is not about giving up desires it is about taking up desires. When we take up a spiritual desire, our worldly desire will go away automatically. Just like say if you are fasting and we have nothing to do if all day we are thinking I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast, I am going to fast becomes more bearable at least. So, for all of us, when we get those spiritual desires, there is a beautiful prayer by Shankaracharya which I will conclude this which describes very similar to this past time. So, he says samsara sarpa.

This material exists like a deadly snake and it is a 1,000 fag snake. Very sharp and very lethal. This poison is biting us. So, desires are being injected in our consciousness from all directions. And then what happens because of that?

Vinastha Murte we forget our spirituality. We forget who we are. We forget what we are meant to do. Because of this, then what do we do? On Garuda, the Wahan of Garuda, Lord Vishnu comes and he resides in the ocean of nectar.

So, that Lord when he comes on Garuda, the snakes go away and then he gives the nectar which is the antidote for the poison. And oh that Lord, Lakshmi Narasim Mama dehikaravalambam. Please, oh Lord, give me the shelter of your lotus plants. Hands. Bless me with your lotus hands.

Similarly, for us, when we practice bhakti, if you just focus instead of thinking what desires I have to give up, think of what do I want to do for Krishna? What do I want to do for Krishna? What desire do I have for Krishna? And if you take up a desire and try to nourish that desire, then that desire will fill our consciousness. When that desire fills our consciousness, then other desires will fall by the wayside.

Now, Prabhupada’s greatest strength was not just his renunciation. You could say that many of his god brothers were sanyasi, lifelong Prabhupada was grhastha before but Prabhupada’s greatest strength was his strength of his spiritual desire. He had a desire in order to share Krishna’s message all over the world. God was also great souls but the spiritual desire within him was the strongest and it was that desire that took him all over the world. On 14 world tours at the age of 70, he wrote nearly 70 books, built 108 temples all that was in the power of spiritual desire.

So, we all on this occasion of Pandana Angelika, that she can pray to the Pandavas and pray to Krishna, pray to Lord Rama that whatever little spiritual desire we have within us, may he bless us with stronger and more spiritual desire and as that spiritual desire fills our consciousness and all the impure desires will flee from there. And that is how in this war, invisible war against invisible enemies, with the invisible resource of spiritual desires, we all can attain victory. So, I will summarise. I spoke today on this theme of the inner war. So, I started by talking about how the epics can be understood at 3 levels literal, ethical, and metaphorical.

So, the metaphorical should not replace the literal, it should expand the literal it can at least expand the literal. And in these wars, Ram is the apparent aggressor, but Ravan is the actual aggressor. So, Ram shot the arrow that began the war, but Ravan was the person who provoked. And then we discussed about how in this war, what did Indrajit do? Ravan was so over confident that he never brought his full army, 1 by 1 he brought and everyone who he sent out was defeated.

Indrajit came, Indrajit used invisible weapons. So, we talked about how Kshatriya warfare was very different from terrorist warfare. Now, Kshatriyas never attack civilians terrorists attack only civilians. Kshatriyas attack only when there is enemies equal, who is equipped, and who is alert. If you see terrorists, they fight in the name of religion, but what do they do?

They attack people who are not equal, who are not equipped, who are not alert. So, it is complete perversion. So, it is not a geographical war, it is not a political war, it is an ethical war. So, Ram was virtuous, Ravan was vicious and that similar ethical war happens within us. We start sensing the presence of that war when we try to do something with determination.

People who say I do not need to control my mind they feel like that because they are controlled by their mind. So, it is only when we try to fight against the control of the mind, it is only when we try to fight against an invader who has conquered us, then we realize that actually I am controlled. So, especially when we start practicing spiritual life, we have to fight against the inner enemy. So, I talked about how when we do all that we can, Krishna does all that we can’t. I talked about both examples.

Although Arjuna tried everything, but when too many Koro warriors came in between, then Krishna intervened and helped Arjuna reach Jayadrath. Similarly, when Ram and Lakshman fell because of Indrajit Saros, Sugriva still kept fighting. We never lose till we lose hope. The world can make us defeat in many wars, many battles, but it is we who give ourselves defeat in the ultimate war when we give up the weapons. And Sugriva kept fighting, kept making plans what he could do.

And when he did his best, then help came from a higher source. Prabhupada kept trying his best. Krishna arranged for everything to work out. So, we talked about how Garuda came over there and us. And in general, if you can keep those visible objects away from us then the war becomes lesser.

The best way to deal with temptation is to not deal with temptation. Talk about propinquity, the greater the distance and effort required to fulfill a desire, the less we will be inclined to fulfill it. But we can understand that the object is visible and temptation is visible, but there is an invisible also. That is the desires inside us attack us. It’s like I talked about that alcoholic who had put alcohol in the gas tank of a car to drink it.

So what does that mean? The desires goad us from inside, hurt us. Do this, do this, do this. And how do we fight against an enemy who is invisible and inside us? We feel tormented and defenseless.

So, rather than thinking that we lack will power, we need to understand that we lack resources to defend and fight against this inner enemy and that resource is spiritual desire. Desires cannot be driven away, but they can be crowded away. So, instead of focusing on saying, no, I will not do this, I will not do this, I will not do this, we focus on what do I want to do. The real gift of association is the transfer of spiritual desires. So, by associating with devotees who are inspired, who are energetic, if we can get some spiritual desire in our consciousness, then as that desire fills our consciousness, then the lower desires go away.

Prabhupada’s greatest strength was not his renunciation but the strength of his spiritual desire to share Krishna’s message and that’s how Krishna consciousness spread all over the world. So, for all of us, in the association of devotees, by the blessings of the Lord, we can look at not what I have to give up but what I want to take up. What do I want to do for Krishna? Take that and let that nourish that desire. Let that desire grow.

We can pray to Krishna for that desire to grow. We can have association that helps it to grow. We can use our imagination to help it to grow. And as the desire grows, then we’ll become free from our lower desires. Thank you very much.

Hre Krishna. Hre Krishna. So is there any one question? I think the main question is when is it going to be tomorrow 7:30, isn’t it? 31.

Okay. Every minute counts. Okay. So, thank you very much.