Face life’s injustices with bhakti- Chowpatty- Chaitanya Charan

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Hare Krishna. I’m grateful to be here with all of you today. We are discussing the Srimad Bhagavatam, where this is the longest description of Krishna’s pastimes before those pastimes are described in the 10th canto. So in this session, I’ll broadly talk in 2 2 characters in bhakti. We’ll talk about the 2 characters who are having this conversation, 2 aspects of bhakti, and then 2 approaches to bhakti.

And all this is related to bhakti. And the overall theme that I’ll discuss is how bhakti empowers us to face injustice. The lie the world is filled with many things going on wrong. And here, we have 2 characters who are meeting in the forest. Now if you consider the setting, at one level, the setting is scenic.

They are meeting in the forest. It’s peaceful. It’s lush greenery. There is a peaceful wind blowing. There’s a sanctified atmosphere.

But at the same time, the backdrop may be scenic, but the background is tragic. The backdrop is where they are meeting. That backdrop is beautiful. But the background of both these characters is actually tragic. Both of them are royalty.

Who are the 2 characters we are meeting discussing right now? Uddhava and Vidura. Both of them are royalty. Vidura might not be royalty enough to inherit, but still he was born and brought up in royalty. He has lived in the kingdom.

Neither of them have actually lived in a forest for any significant amount of time. And now both of them have become homeless. Both of them have faced terrible adversity. Vidura has faced insult. And throughout his life, he has been trying to give good advice with the but the just did not listen.

And finally, it came to the point where Duryodhana insulted Duryodhana terribly just before the war. And that was to be expected in one sense. Duryodhana was his temper was coming to a boiling point. But if we consider Dhrashtra here, Vidura was higher in the moral sense, not in the sense of political power. Duryodhana is here.

Now, when Duryodhana insults Vidura, those words hurt him. But what hurts him even more is the silence of the Dhrashtra. You know, when we are accused of something terrible, something which we would never do, and when our friends who know us well, they don’t stand up to support us. I know this person. He can never he or she can never do such a thing.

You know, somebody who accuses us, that hurts us. But the harshest words of our critics don’t hurt us as much as the silence of our friends. And that sense of abandonment, almost betrayal, that Vidura is carrying it now. He’s left. He’s come to the forest.

And in contrast, now if you consider what has happened to Udhava, has seen something unimaginable, something so horrifying. The whole the whole Yathu dynasty has been destroyed. Krishna himself, he has seen, depart from the world. Now Krishna has solaced him with wisdom, the profound wisdom of the Uddhav Gita. And yet, there is that sense of what has happened.

How could something like this happen? Just there’s there’s everything, and suddenly there’s nothing. I was talking with a close friend of mine who is a expert in Gaudiya history. So he is trying to write a book on Gaudiya Vaishnav history. So, especially, he’s telling me after the Gaudiya Math split.

It is there were devotees, ordinary brahmacharis, staying in the Gaudiya Math. And one day, the spiritual master departs, and then they think a civil war breaks out. One day, there’s a flourishing mission, and the next day, people are at each other’s throats. He says, what happened over here? So he found this devotee, and the devotee just left and went and stayed in his village and just continued his preaching over and built a small temple there.

Nobody knew about him, because he just left. The point is everything is working, and suddenly everything departs. So what happened is shocking, but how swiftly it happened makes it even more shocking. So now, of course, both of them have had some time to process this. Still, it is in the shadow of that event that both of them are waiting.

And what are they doing over here? They are taking shelter in the remembrance of Krishna. Both of them are talking. It’s interesting the dynamic over here. Although Vidura is senior, and normally if he comes to come in front of our seniors, the seniors should speak and the juniors should listen.

But here, Vidura is listening from Udhava. Two reasons. One is that Udhava is closer to the Lord. He’s always been closer to the Lord. And second, Vidura wants to ask Udhava the Lord’s whereabouts.

So Udhava is speaking. And both of them are here taking shelter in the remembrance of the Lord. And they’re describing various pastimes. So the vision here it is lilaatpatrena, that the Lord, when dangers were faced, and they’re remembering, what are the danger? Govardhan lila.

At one level, it is a great danger. All the vrajwasi faced annihilation. To use a word very much in political circulation today is, Indra was attempting genocide over there. He was trying to destroy the entire village. And not just a small village, it was flourishing.

So he’s just trying to wipe out everything over there. And his anger was so indiscriminate. You could say it was not even genocide. You can call it like omnicide. No.

Not just human beings kill everyone over there. The floods were indiscriminate. So Krishna just protected, them, almost. Here only the only the like a child, while playing, does things. So they are remembering how the lord has protected his devotees even amid far greater danger than what we have faced right now.

For neither of them, there’s a threat to life. Of course, there are pains far greater than the pain of losing one’s life. But the point is they’re taking solace in the remembrance of the Lord. So this is the overall theme of the Bhagavatam, that the world, many things will go wrong. And we, if we are looking at the world alone, if I am here and the world is in front of me, if I’m looking at the world alone, there will always the world will have ups and downs, ups and downs, and those ups and downs will keep making me go up and down, isn’t it?

So these dualities outside, we’ll call dualities inside. And that is why it is vital that our vision shift toward the Lord. So essentially, both of them are showing that their world has been devastated, but they are sheltered in the Lord. In one sense, we can say, what is the difference between, say, a neophyte devotee or somebody who is just a really pious person, religious person, not a very devoted person, and somebody who is deeply devoted? So we can say that for most people, the world is very big.

And God, if he exists, is very small, isn’t it? See, when I was introduced to Bhakti about 30 years ago, I had this zeal of a new convert. Spread with them. Tell everyone about it. So I told my uncle about about Krishna.

He said, yeah. I believe in God. He’s happy there. I’m happy here. So the idea is God often feels irrelevant for people.

The world is the big thing, and God, if he’s there, is the small thing. And even if God is there, it’s like God is the means to the world, that, oh, that we pray to God so that we will get something from God. I was in Varanasi a few months ago, and I saw our temple. I don’t know whether I still can’t process whether it was a joke or that it’s real. It like, outside a small there’s a street side Hanuman temples.

A small Hanuman temple. And that is written. So the idea is God is a means to an end for us. But as we grow spiritually, the world becomes small, and Krishna becomes big. And when the Lord becomes big, it’s not just the Lord becomes big, but also the world becomes a means to Krishna for us.

Krishna is the more important thing. And if the world is not there, we will just directly focus on Krishna. So this is essentially spiritual advancement. Krishna talks about this. This is 7.16.

So for for the distressed and the wealth seekers. The world is very big. The world is causing me some problems. Please relieve me from these problems. Or I want to get some pleasures in this world.

I need some resources. I need some money. Please give that to me. The world is what is important. But 7 19 is what?

That Krishna is everything. Whatever I desire in the world, actually, all of it and much more is provided if I can just immerse myself in Krishna. And this may take lifetimes of evolution. So we could say this is the stage of a seeker. This is the stage of a seer.

So now where are Vidura and Uddhava on this stage, this spectrum? They are seers. Their world has fallen apart, but both of them are sheltered in the Lord. The the Lord is big for them, and okay, in this world, dualities will come and go, but they are not shaken by it. So these are two characters whom we are discussing.

Now let’s look at 2 aspects of bhakti. So in bhakti, Krishna tells Arjuna, for example, ma manusmarayudhicha. So Prabhupada translated bhakti as devotional service. So we could say that the various aspects of bhakti could be put in terms of there is remembrance, and there is service. Now you could say remembrance is more internal.

Service is more external. Our remembrance is in our inner world. Service is what we do externally. Now bhakti can be practiced in multiple combinations. Normally, the standard way to practice bhakti is there is remembrance inside, and there is service outside.

So we see the gopis, they do that. That they are going about their daily work. They are even they even have their day job. They are going out to sell the. They are selling butter and curd and milk.

And when they see some customer coming, they’re filled with so much remembrance of Krishna that instead of, oh, curd, butter, they say, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, go in the So they are remembering. They’re filled with remembrance, but they are also doing service. So when Prabhupada translated bhakti as devotional service, he his emphasis was that it’s also practical activity. Prabhupada writes in the nectar of instruction that bhakti, he says, is not is he said it is not imaginative ecstasy. Imaginative ecstasy.

Oh, I’m imagining. I’m seeing Krishna, and I’m ecstatic. I’m visualizing Krishna. That’s wonderful. He doesn’t say it.

Not as it is, it’s sentimental speculation. You know, I wake up one I wake up and, you know, I think Krishna came in my dream last night. Okay. Did he actually was it a dream, or was it really Krishna who came in the dream? Was it just my imagination?

So Prabhupada Prabhupada’s mood was, this is not that important. Its substance is practical service. So now, this is not to downplay the importance of remembrance. We’ll talk a little bit about the history of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and how things have evolved in the history to understand this dynamic. But broadly speaking, there is outer remembrance and inner service.

So Krishna says, ma manusmara yudhyaca. Ma manusmara is remembrance, and yudhyaca is service. Now, there are extreme situations when one may be able to do only one thing. So, for example, when there was a war, if you consider the Kurukshetra war, at that time, there is no evidence, as far as the Mahabharata goes at least, that the Arjuna was fighting and shooting at us. Hare Krishna.

Krishna. Krishna. Krishna. Hare. Hare.

Ram. Ram. Ram. Ram. No.

War is a serious business, and war means you have to pay attention. It’s a it’s a matter of life and death. So we have to pay attention to what we are doing. Now once I have one devotee, he was driving to Vrindavan, and there’s a there’s a number of ecstatic dories. He was singing kirtans.

And, you know, he became too ecstatic without paying attention to driving. So I said, Prabhu, you know, I want to go to Rindavan, but not so fast. So in the world, there are real stakes, and we have to pay real attention. So now, was Arjuna remembering Krishna at that time? Yes.

We’ll talk about various aspects of remembrance. But there, the remembrance was in terms of the purpose. I’m doing this all for Krishna, that if you look over here, the face may be towards the world, but God is much bigger. When we are to we are to fix we have to function especially in responsible roles with very high stakes, then we have to pay attention to what we are doing. So at that time, the remembrance may go a little bit in the background.

That does not mean we are not remembering, but remembrance of Krishna is not the priority. The priority is getting the thing done properly. It is ultimately for Krishna’s sake. We have the same theme, if you go back over here, that in his childhood, one devotee recently asked me this question. He said, I’m very disturbed.

I said, what happened? Now what disturbs devotees is also very interesting. So he said that Arjuna is a pure devotee. Arjuna should be seeing Krishna everywhere. He said, but in Drona’s gurukul, when that pastime comes that Drona wants to have them all shoot a target.

So there’s a bird image, a replica of a bird, and you have to shoot the eye. So he asked various characters, and he asked Arjuna, what do you see? So what does Arjuna say? I see I don’t see the trees. I don’t see the forest.

I don’t see the sky. I don’t see even the branches. I see only the eye of the bird. So he said, oh, why doesn’t he say I see only Krishna? Are you going to shoot the eye of Krishna?

So at that point, his see, remembrance is not like a very superficial thing. Remembrance is he’s he that is his dharma. He has to take responsibility to shoot. So remembrance of Krishna doesn’t necessarily mean Krishna has to be the only component of the consciousness all the time. Krishna should definitely be in our consciousness.

If you consider this to be our consciousness now sometimes, Krishna may be the major component in our consciousness. Sometimes it may happen that in our consciousness, Krishna is there, but the the dharma that we have to do. It may be in the case of Arjuna, shooting archery. Somebody’s driving through a crowded, complicated road. Focus on driving.

Somebody’s doing a surgery, and they’re a heart surgeon. And they say, okay. I’ll chant Hare Krishna when you’re doing surgery. That’s good, but you should do the surgery also properly, isn’t it? So at that time, our dharma dharma is also here dharma is not religion.

Dharma is duty, the right responsible thing for us to do. So that may be prominent. It is for Krishna. At the same time, that has to be prominent. So there are situations when the there may be service, and there may be less remembrance.

Now Krishna, he starts from 12.8, and he goes in this direction. 12.8, 12.9, 12.10, 12.11. Basically, 12.8 is. So just he says, let your mind and intelligence be absorbed in me. If you do that, it is not that you will attain me in the future.

You are in me right now. You are immersed in me right now, Krishna says. So if he says that’s not possible, then So if you cannot immerse yourself in me, then practice remembering me. So he gives us a so you can call this you know, this is like the ladder of grace Krishna is giving. He’s giving multiple levels.

If you can’t do this, do this. 12.8 is absorption. Just be absorbed in me. If absorption is not possible, then there is concentration. But generally, the difference between absorption and concentration is absorption is effortless.

Concentration is effortful. But I’m concentrating on this. And if somebody says, what are you doing? I’m watching a movie. I’m concentrating on this movie.

Well, if you’re concentrating on the movie, that means the director did not do a good job. The movie should absorb a person. Of course, we don’t want to get absorbed in such things. But the point is absorption is meant to be effortless. Now Krishna says, if you can’t do that, This is concentration cannot be there, that’s a contribution.

Work for me. Do some seva. So this is both of these are more internal. This becomes more external. Even if you can’t can’t, focus the mind and heart on Krishna, at least engage in Krishna’s service.

In 5:11 is described as the yogis with the body, with the mind, with the speech. And even if this is not speech intelligence. These are all there, and this is even. So there are different ways in the acharya in which the acharya is ex commented on this verse. One is that they’re talking that if this verse we say refers to bhakti, it comes in the karma section.

So the conventional commentators say this refers to karma yoga, but it can refer to bhakti yoga also. If it refers to bhakti, what it means is that bhakti is so inclusive that even our senses can be engaged in Krishna’s service. But it is said that if one is not yet at the level of detachment, so if Manasa and Buddhi are not gone in, then at least engage the senses. So one could be seen this Indriya rabi, that could be seen as a concession for those who are not capable, or that can be seen as a glorification of bhakti. That bhakti is so great that even the senses which are normally considered to be pathways to bondage, they can be used for liberation.

The point is contribution. We act with our senses. And then Krishna goes forward. And then he says after that, if you cannot work for me, then at least work for some higher cause. So contribution to me, he says at one level, to Krishna directly.

And if not, then we can have contribution for something other than ourselves, for something bigger than ourselves, for some selfless cause. So in this way, Krishna is giving us a multilevel approach of how we can come closer to him. So there are situations when remembrance may not be possible. So now, of course, here what Krishna is talking about is 2 different things. Remembrance may be deprioritized for two reasons.

1 is the the situation. Situation means sometimes earlier I got an example. What is the responsible service that I mean? Situation is one thing, and so the circumstance, and the other is the capacity. Capacity means somebody is just not able to remember.

The other is the circumstance requires you to do something other than remembrance at that particular time. So both aspects are important. So this is go back to the upper one kind of pendulum is here. There can be sometimes service, but there may not be remembrance so much. Now on the other hand, sometimes there’ll be remembrance, but there’s not much service.

Now, in many ways, and I said I’ll go back a little bit with the Gauri Vaishnav tradition. The prominent image that became, idolized, that became considered idol of the Goswamis, for example. It is if you see, Mahaprabhu sent Goswamis for 4 very practical and tangible purposes. He didn’t send the Goswamis to Vrindavan to, oh, just dance in ecstasy and remember Krishna. That’s of course, that’s what we will do, and that’s what they did.

But he had very tangible purposes. What was that? Recover the holy places of Vrindavan. You know, build temples over there. Write books establishing the siddhanta of bhakti, and write books establishing the achar of a bhakta.

These are all serious tasks. And there is some indication of that. But if you see in the Shirdoswami Ashtakam, how some like, say, the spiritual master, Yaya Puja, is there, then what a disciple glorifies about the spiritual master also indicates what that disciple considers glories. The spiritual master may have many glories, but some glories attract particular disciples. Other glories may attract other disciples.

So in the it is the more world transcending aspect. That that part is there. But the emphasis is That whole mood of complete renunciation of the word. Now that’s definitely glorious, what they did. And it was not just at the time of the composition of this verse, but also before that when Mahaprabhu would ask those who are coming from Vrindavan back, how are the Goswami?

They say, they are so renounced. Every day they sleep under a different tree. They don’t want to get attached even to a tree. That is there. No doubt.

But somehow, when one thing gets glorified, other things get minimized. So the Goswamis, they were also doing a lot of service. Building one temple takes so much effort, and now we can say whatever be the problems politically, culturally today, they are far lesser than what they were at the time of the Goswamis. There was intolerant rule over there at that time. And to build a temple over there was far more difficult.

And they built not one, but many temples. And that too, to build a temple and to write a book, those are those 2 very different opposites. Building a temple requires very much external engagement with the world. Writing a book requires a lot of inner engagement with your own thoughts. And the Goswamis were doing both things.

So they were also doing a lot of tangible service. However, over a period of in the Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition, the image of the ideal Gaudiya Vaishnav became that one who is focused only on remembrance and not so much on service. And that is true. This is not to devalue it, but that is definitely important. But remembrance and service both need to go together.

Now when remembrance becomes there may be, again, situations when remembrance is again the same thing. Remembrance becomes more important than service. So for example, remembrance may be prioritized. So, for example, it could be because of circumstance. Circumstance means I was just in the eco village.

I met, Kurma Prabhu. He was telling me he’s writing almost a whole book. He was 1 week in jail. At that time, in Australia, if you go to stupid books, they’ll put you in jail. So he said, in that 1 week, I preached, and I want to he says, I have enough memories of that to write a whole book about it.

So it’s interesting. So the point is that sometimes with circumstance, you may not be able to do anything. Of course, in the jail also he was preaching. But suppose somebody is put in solitary confinement. Then at that time, circumstance may not allow us to do anything except remembrance, or sometimes capacity.

Some of the person may fall sick, and they just there’s nothing to do with it. Nothing they can do at a particular time. So, see, going back to this particular diagram, one devotee was telling me recently that this was in America. You know, a senior devotee was in a coma for a long time before he departed from the world. So he said that if somebody’s in coma, are they you know, can they remember Krishna?

That, you know, normally when a person departs, we want them to remember Krishna. So can they remember Krishna? So I said that normally, we require the body for our service. Normally, say, for us to remember Krishna, we need to come to the temple. Some people say, you know, God is everywhere.

Why do you need to come to the temple? Well, yes, that is true. God is everywhere. But that’s like saying, water is there everywhere in the form of water vapor. Just hang out your tongue, and quench your thirst.

Water is everywhere, but we can’t access it everywhere. Similarly, God is everywhere, but we don’t sense God’s presence everywhere. That’s why we need to come to a place where God’s presence is tangible for us. And that’s how our remembrance increases. So so normally, in one sense, we need the world.

Normally, we need the world to go toward Krishna. That means we need to go to holy places to immerse asankrishna conscious. We need to come to the temple. So we need the world to come towards Krishna. But if we have developed sufficient attachment to Krishna, then we don’t even need the body to remember Krishna, that the body may not be functioning, the brain may not be functioning.

Normally, consciousness comes through the brain, but the consciousness is not originating in the brain. So I was so when a person functions, normally, the consciousness comes through the brain and goes to wherever it is going, but the consciousness is not reduced to the brain. The consciousness can directly go towards Krishna if sufficient attachment to Krishna has been developed. So I was telling this, and one devotee told me that his mother, she was in coma, and they went and did kirtals at that time. And they could see that, although she could not respond because she was in coma, but they could see that it’s almost like she became brighter.

There’s no physical response. So it’s like at that time, the consciousness the body as an instrument. If we consider here, say, this is the soul, and this is the body. So normally, consciousness comes out as awareness. Sorry.

Consciousness, comes out as agency when we do things, and consciousness goes in as awareness. Awareness means we take in information. Agency, we do things. Sometimes the body may be so weak that there may be no agency. One cannot do anything.

But still awareness is there. So in that stage, if the kirtan is going on, if something or Krishna is going on, that consciousness will still receive. So sometimes, the point I’m making is, either due to circumstance or capacity, remembrance may be the only thing made possible. Service may not be possible. So bhakti is large enough to include only remembrance with practically no service and only service with no remembrance.

Now we could also make this a little more complicated and say that sometimes service itself is the remembrance. Like, seva dhyana is also a form of remembrance among the rupa dhyana, lila dhyana, nama dhyana, and seva dhyana. Service itself is a remembrance. And then you can say remembrance itself is a service, isn’t it? Prahlad is an example of attaining perfection simply through remembrance.

So there is this bheda and abheda in this. We focus on the abheda part. But now if there is no remembrance and no service, then that is a serious problem. So sometimes when we face difficulties, we may remember the Lord, and that’s all we can do. And sometimes when we face difficulties, we focus on service, doing something tangible.

So that will be the last part of the session. Now I said I’ll talk about 2 characters, 2 aspects, and then 2 approaches in bhakti. So this will be another 4 quadrant diagram here, that if there is bhakti and there is our theme is facing injustice. So we can face there’s bhakti, and there is no bhakti. And when injustice come, one accepts it.

Accepts it, and one the other opposite is 1, confronts it. Now, so we can accept injustice with devotion with Bhakti. We can accept injustice without Bhakti. We can confer injustice with Bhakti. We can confer injustice without Bhakti.

So we’ll look at 4 characters in the spectrum, and that will conclude the session. So broadly speaking, the example here is of Parikshit and Shringi. Now what Shringi did was terribly unfair, that he cursed Parikshit Maharaj for just a minor indiscretion. He certainly did did not require capital punishment. But he could have cursed him in any way.

He could have cursed him to die immediately, but he cursed him to die in 7 days. Why those 7 days? That was because he wanted Parisit Maharaj to suffer the pain of feeling powerless. See, if somebody is very powerful, then what happens is somebody has been very fit and healthy and stuff like that, then if they become sick, if they become paralyzed, then for them, death is better. Recently, one viewer told me that some movie come out of about the character who played Superman, Christopher Hughes.

So how he fell on a horse and he became completely paralyzed. And he was so frustrated that he was thinking that I cannot live like this. It’s going to end my life. But somehow he survived and then worked for helping creating foundation for helping others who were sick. But the point is for someone who’s been very powerful, very athletic, to be completely immobilized, to be powerless.

So he wanted him to suffer like that. That’s why 7 days you suffer and then you die. But then what did Prasad Maharaj do? He immersed himself in the remembrance of the Lord. And by immersing himself in the remembrance of the Lord, what happened?

He transcended. Now we glorify Parrishat Maharaj for doing this. At the same time, this is not the only approach in Bhakti. If we consider Arjuna with the Kauravas, in many ways, the Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad Gita, their moods are almost opposite. The mood of devotion is the same.

But, you know, we are sometimes in our moment, we use the word mood and mission. What is the mood and mission of Srila Prabhupada? So personally, I find that clubbing these two words together is sometimes problematic. The mission is 1. The moods can be many.

So the mission of Prabhupada is always Krishna consciousness, international story for Krishna consciousness. But Prabhupada had different moods at different types. So like that, the mission is always to serve Krishna. But how do I serve Krishna? The mood of the Bhagavatam is accepting.

The mood of the Bhagavata is confronting. Krishna tells Arjuna, you become an instrument for me in my fight. This these enemies are destroyed by my previous arrangement. Just arise and fight, oh Arjuna. So there are situations when confronting may be the right thing to do for a devotee.

Bhakti doesn’t just simply mean accepting whatever has happened. Now that is true. It is accepting, but accepting what? That tolerance. Tolerance is very important.

Now Krishna says, tamasatiksha subharata. But when it says tolerance, what what do you tolerate? Does Krishna imply that tolerate the Kaurava’s atrocities? If you tolerate Kaurava’s atrocities, that would mean Arjuna should not fight. But that is not the message.

So what we tolerate is important. This tolerance is that the pain of fighting against Bhisma and Drona. That these are So Arjuna says, I cannot fight against them. And Arjuna Krishna says, yes, it is difficult. But you are not just your body, and they are not their bodies.

So in the course of your duty, tolerate. So in a tolerance, before tolerance can be taught, Krishna teaches tolerance in 2/14. But before teaching tolerance, Krishna teaches intelligence. That is intelligence. Now, if there is tolerance without intelligence, tolerance without intelligence, that will lead to impotence.

Importance means that person has become powerless. So it is intelligence that tells us what is the big thing in our life. And it is intelligence that tells us which is the small thing. And then tolerance is what enables us to keep small things small, so that we can keep big things big. We can keep small things small, so that we can keep big things big.

So tolerance is not complete passivity. Tolerance is okay. There are many battles to fight in life, but which battle to fight when? I was in Australia, and one devotee in one temple, he comes regularly, And he’s a very intelligent devotee. He gives a lot of good feedback to my classes.

So for me, classes are not a matter of delivery. They’re a matter of discovery. I like to have discussions on the topic that I have spoken also. So many times if I asked Duvall what it’s like in the class, some people say, oh, the whole class was very nice. So this Duvall says this point was good.

This point was not clear. In this point, you need could have elaborated. So he said he came a little late. He was sitting behind. And then he said, dude, the class was wonderful.

He said, normally so that was the class one tolerance. So he said, normally in your classes, I get a lot of intellectual stimulation. But he says, today, I in the class itself, I got to practice the class. Now the class was a tolerance. I said, I thought, what do you mean?

You have to tolerate my class? Was the class so bad? Then he saw my face. He said, no. No.

What I meant was, he said, I was sitting behind, and there was a person sitting there right next to me. And this person’s phone was not on silent. And the phone was constantly beeping and ringing. And initially, I got very irritated. And I was going to speak strongly to the person, but then I remembered the class is about tolerance.

So so he said, I tolerated. But he said, you know, because I was tolerating, I couldn’t hear any of the class. So then I said, Prabhu, with all due respect now normally, if anybody starts a sentence with all due respect, that means what they are going to speak after that is not going to be very respectful. So I said, that is not tolerance. That is importance.

Now if you come for a class, then the big thing is hearing the class. The the small thing is, say, all of you are sitting on the floor now. Means now you’re not very comfortable sitting on the floor. But the class now might do over 6 hours, maybe half an hour more, 15 minutes more. So, okay, I can manage that much.

Sit on the floor, sit on the chair, whatever it is. So keep the small things small so that we can keep the big thing big. So the tolerance is not just accepting anything and everything passively. So the vision that Krishna gives for Arjuna, the big thing about the war was, oh, I have to fight against my relatives. I have to fight against Bhishma and Drona.

But Krishna’s words give him the vision. The big thing is you have to establish dharma. These people are adharmic. The key difference why did Parikshit Maharaj accept an Arjuna fight, or why did Krishna want Arjuna to fight? Because Shringi was not a serial criminal who was going to grab power.

Shringi was not a repeat offender who was going to become the king. The Kauravas had been had proven themselves to be repeat offenders, and not the slightest remorse. Now, Karana, when he suggested the drishrobing of Draupadi, a horrendous thing, that is a good example of a good person being spoiled by bad association. But to his credit, he regretted. To Bhishma and to Krishna, he said, no.

What I did was bad at that time. Do you think Duryodhana regretted what he did? He regretted. He regretted that his plans were not successful. He did not regret that his plan was wrong.

His regret was and it didn’t work out. That foolish Purujan. He should have executed. He should have burned the Pandavas, but he got burned alive. He got burned himself.

So basically, the point is, it’s not that bhakti means always accepting. And bhakti does not also mean always confronting. It depends on the situation. It depends on what is the big thing and what is the small thing. So let’s go back to this.

And now let’s take 2 examples of somebody who accepts without bhakti and somebody who conference without bhakti. So here are the examples of Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Now you could say life it is not that Pandu was unfair to Dhritarashtra, but life was unfair to Dhritarashtra. What was how was it unfair? That he was born as the eldest son, but he was born blind, and so he couldn’t become the king.

So he says life is so unfair. You know, generally, if there is a king, they have this whole concept of a heir. Heir is the person who’s going to be a successor. And normally, what happens is that, now, inheriting the kingdom is a big responsibility. So something can happen to the child, So a king often has more than one child.

So what happens is there’s the heir and then there’s the spear. So now the spear is in a very peculiar predicament. The spear has no chance of becoming the king unless the heir dies. But the heir is also your brother. You don’t want your brother to die, but you also want to be the king.

So there is in UK, we still have a monarchy. And there so they they still have a monarchy. So there is a person, one of the, princes who could not be the king, who has a spare. So he’s written the whole book called The Spare. So it basically he’s complaining, my life was so difficult.

His life was so comfortable. But, you know, he was like, oh, I could never be the king. So the point is, the Trishra was supposed to be the heir, but he could not be the heir. Now Bandu became the king. And as far as the Mahabharata’s record goes, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that the Dhritarashtra ever had any bad feelings towards Bandu.

It was now, because in Dhrastra, he had a respectful brother. His brother was respectful. His wife was very supportive. So although life treated him badly in some ways, it treated him well in other ways also. And he more or less accepted his situation.

So he never had any devotional inclination, but he accepted the situation. However, what he accepted, the next generation did not accept. So if you consider Duryodhana with the Pandavas, he didn’t have devotion, but he tried to confront. And his confrontation was to try to destroy the Pandavas. And in trying to destroy the Pandavas, he went from bad to worse to worst.

Nowadays, there is a very prominent leftist approach to studying our traditions. So some people some person has written the book, Duryodhana is a good person, but Shakuni spoiled him. Actually, if you see, Duryodhan tried to kill Bhima without any help from Shakuni. So not as a good person who became bad because of Shakuni, he was a bad person who became worse because of Shakuni. So the point is that with with without devotion now what happened?

Dhrashtra, he was, you could say, passive. And Duryodhana was aggressive. But both of them eventually what happened? Both of them went on the side of Adharma. So if there is no devotion, then what happens?

Whether we accept or we confront, both will only create problems. On the other hand, if there is devotion, then whatever we do, whether we decide to accept this situation, I’ll accept it. But this I can’t accept this, I’ll confront it. Both can be auspicious. So if you consider Srila Prabhupada’s example no.

If you consider Srila Prabhupada in Jhansi and in Juhu, in Jhansi, he had a project. He had a temple. And when the very people who were supporting him started sabotaging him, so Prabhupada accepted over there. Okay. He said, let me leave from here.

But in Juhu, who did Prabhupada accept? Prabhupada said, if he wants to steal Krishna’s temple, he will have to go over my dead body. Prabhupada wrote in a letter to a life member. So here Prabhupada confronted. Now we could say there are circumstantial reasons.

Jhansi was not a very big city. The people there were more religious than spiritual. They were more pious than dedicated. And Prabhupada also did not have followers at that time for whom he wanted to build a temple. He had come back to Mumbai.

Mumbai was a very important place. He had followers to whom he could do enormous preaching. So we could say there are different reasons circumstantially. But the point is, sometimes Prabhupada accepted the situation and just moved on. Sometimes Prabhupada confronted the situation.

So bhakti can have different approaches. It’s that. But the key point is we have to have bhakti. So that too I’ll conclude now with these two aspects of bhakti. When I say bhakti is remembrance and service.

So when we are facing injustice, so what would this mean for us? So when somebody has treated us badly, so what do we do at that time? So the remembrance is that Krishna is in charge, That Krishna has a plan. And Krishna’s plan is operational. So remembrance is not just, oh, Krishna exists in Randa when Krishna is playing his flute.

And Krishna doesn’t even know what is happening in my life. It’s not like that. Whatever is happening in my life, Krishna is in charge. Krishna has a plan. And then once we have that, when we chant Krishna, when we remember Krishna, it is not just an escape way for us.

Oh, the world is filled with problems. I just remember Krishna and I forget all my problems. That’s one way to look at it. But that’s under under utilizing the benefit of Krishna consciousness. Is Krishna consciousness meant to remind us that Krishna is in charge?

Whatever is happening, Krishna has a plan. And then the next question comes, that what is my part in Krishna’s plan? It is not that Krishna just has a plan. Krishna has a plan, and Krishna has a part for me in his plan. So that is where we have to be prayerful.

With devotion, with affection. We should not it it should not become You know, whatever. If you’re filled with resentment, if you’re filled with anger, you’re filled with frustration, it’s then that will not come. It’s not that just because people are doing bad things to us or bad things are happening to us, that doesn’t mean Krishna is no longer in charge. Krishna is in charge.

And when we say Krishna, please engage me in your service, that is the mood of our chanting now. Engage me in your service implies something, that there is a service for me. That there is a higher plan happening over here, and within that plan, there is a role for me. There is a service for me. This is not just a philosophical truth.

This is also a psychological truth. Philosophical truth means as the jiva is always a part of Krishna. Psychological means that we have a part in Krishna’s plan. That is the conviction we should have. That words should not just be used to beat Mayawadis.

You know, it is that I have a psychologically, it should uplift us. Okay. Then we try to pray and understand what is the best way I can serve with this situation. Now for that we may have to consult devotees. For this we may have to pray.

For that we may have to deliberate and analyze. The Pandavas had Krishna next to them, but still with how to deal with the upcoming war, they had to go through a lot of iterations. They tried to negotiate multiple times. Krishna himself went to negotiation. When that didn’t work, they were trying to accept and work out a reasonable solution.

That didn’t work. They had to confront. So exactly what will happen, what we will do, there is not going to be, like, one right answer. Do this, and you are a devotee. Don’t don’t do if you don’t do this, you’re not a devotee.

Sometimes a devotee may confront a situation. Sometimes a devotee may accept a situation. So for example, there are we all hear terrible things are happening in Bangladesh. Now what can we do about it? We say, I can’t do anything about it.

That does not mean we become apathetic. Now we pray to Krishna. We focus on our devotion. And our devotion, our devotional intensity may lead to some change over there. But somebody will say that, no, that’s not all that I want to do.

Then they may decide, okay, we want to create some Kshatriya forum. We want to have some political advocacy. We want to influence others. So accepting or confronting, both could be valid approaches for dealing with wait. For serving Krishna, you know, there is in bhakti, with what is my part, there is, in one sense, both certainty and uncertainty.

Now Visishila Prabhupada, when he was in America, he said, I see temples. I see them filled with devotees. Yes. Only time is separated. But then Prabhupada also said, when I landed in America, I didn’t know whether to turn left or right.

Isn’t it? So there is certainty. Prabhupada had the conviction. This is Krishna’s plan, and it will work. But specifically, at this point, should I do this or should I do that?

There is Prabhupada’s would try different things. Some things worked. Some things didn’t work. So So Prabhupada re strategized accordingly. So what is my part?

We had to prayerfully evaluate. And the more we get connected with Krishna, the more the remembrance is not just stronger, but sweeter. When we have that faith, Krishna, you are in charge. When the remembrance is stronger and sweeter, then the service will become clearer for us. How we can function in the world playing the part that Krishna wants us to play so that we can eventually come to him, come closer to him and come to him ultimately.

That is the guidance that we will get. So I’ll summarize what I discussed today. Our topic was facing injustice with bhakti. That how can bhakti be a resource for us to face injustice? So I started by discussing about 2 characters, How both of these characters, Uddhava and Vidura, both of them, they are in a scenic setting, a scenic backdrop, but there is a tragic background.

Both of them have faced enormous adversity, and both of them are taking shelter in remembrance of the Lord. They’re remembering how the Lord has protected others from dangers far bigger than what we have faced. And then we talked about 2 aspects of bhakti. So the 2 aspects are remembrance and service. And we discussed that among these, this is the best.

We do have remembrance and service with Ma’am and Usman and Yudh Thecha. But sometimes in emergencies or exceptional situations, emergencies are exceptions, whatever it might be. There may be only service without remembrance, and this could happen because of circumstance or capacity. The person doesn’t have the individual capacity or the social aspects. So same thing.

The social aspect may restrict a person from doing something, or the personal, the individual aspect may limit some capacities. Now this is definitely the worst which you want to avoid. So now remembrance and service, how they can both go together. That we discuss in the last part. It is 2 approaches in bhakti.

So 2 approaches in bhakti is, when we face injustice in our life, there is bhakti and there is no bhakti. And we can face it, accept it, or we can confront it. So we discussed Parikshit with Shringi as accepting, and Arjuna with the Kauravas as confronting. And why the difference? Because the Kauravas were serial offenders, and they were in power.

So they had to be checked. That’s what Krishna wanted. And then we had the Dhritarashtra with Pandu. He accepted that. He was blind and he couldn’t become the king.

Now Duryodhana, with the Pandavas, couldn’t accept. So he became aggressive. But either way, without devotion, what will happen will be inauspicious. With devotion, what will happen will be auspicious. So now should we accept or should we confront?

We’re talking about remembrance means Krishna has a plan, and service means that I will play my part in that plan. Now determining that part will take some time and effort, but as long as is there, we’ll be able to find out. It’s not that Krishna’s plan always means that we have to just accept and tolerate. We discussed that. 1st, there is intelligence in 213, and then there is tolerance in 214.

So it is intelligence that tells us what is the big thing and what is the small thing. And then we tolerate the small things so that we can focus on the big thing. So Prabhupada tolerated in Jhansi when he was told to leave. Yeah. But Prabhupada did not tolerate in Juhu.

So both are included in the ambit of bhakti. And we pray to Krishna, and according to our particular situation, we act in a mood of devotion. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions?

Yes, Mataji? Do we have a mic? Hare Krishna. Thank you, Prapuji, for enlightening class. My question is regarding Bhagavad Gita 12.12 words, where Krishna asked 12.12.

12, okay. Where Krishna states that hierarchy that better than knowledge is meditation and better than meditation is renunciation of all fruits of the activities. So here, is it applicable for a practicing devotee? Because in the previous verse, Krishna said that if you are not able to follow the principles, then you follow this hierarchy. And, it does the knowledge here meditation here refers to remembrance and renunciation of the fruits of action refer to service?

It’s probably the most complicated verse in the Bhagavad Gita. You asked as a question here. Okay. So, I think it’ll be difficult to answer here, because first I’ll have to explain the words. I’ll have to explain what is the problem with the words, our problem with the understanding of the words, and then I’ll explain what is the explanation for it.

But I’ll try to explain briefly. So if it is not clear, then maybe we can talk separately. Or on my website, spiritual scientist.com, there’s an elaborate answer to this question. But quickly, I’ll explain here. See, in the Bhagavad Gita, different terms have different meanings at different places.

Or rather, the same term has different meanings at different places. Like Krishna says, dharma samsthaapanartha here. So the word dharma in the Gita as 2.7 and, say, 4.8, there are different meanings. In 2.7, it’s prchamitom dharmasamudha cheta. That is individual duty.

What is the right thing for me to do? But Krishna says, I come to establish dharma. That is social order. But then, if you go to 14.2, that is nature. You’ll attain my nature.

So the words have different meanings. And in that particular verse, the confusion comes because the words seem to have many different meanings. So if you just go to that verse quickly. So the meanings in that particular verse does not refer to what we normally think it refers to. So this is the last verse in that particular sequence.

Remember, I talk about ladder of grace. There’s absorption, concentration, contribution. So contribution to some cause, contribution to Krishna. If you can’t contribute to Krishna, then contribute to some cause bigger than ourselves. And then below this, Krishna is saying, So now, gyan and dhyana, they could refer to gyan yoga and bhakti yoga.

Sorry. Gyan yoga and dhyana yoga. But in this particular context, there are many different ways in which different acharyas explain this. But in the continuation of this hierarchy, what Krishna is talking about is he’s basically what is the hierarchy Krishna is saying over here? Shreyo higanam abhyasad.

Shreyo higanam abhyasad abhyana gyanam vishashuddhi. So basically, what he’s saying is that there is abhyasa. Above abhyasa is jnana. Above jnana is dhyana, and above dhyana is sarva karma. Sarva fallat tyaga.

Is it? Yeah. Karma fallat tyaga. Sorry. Not Sarva fallat tyaga.

Karma fallat tyaga. So basically, let’s put it as tyaga over here. So now this particular hierarchy, it becomes confusing, because if we take to refer to 12.9, where Krishna has used the word. And he’s using 12.9 and 12.10 also. Then it becomes very confusing.

Then basically but if we consider abhyasa means simply action, that if a person is just doing ritualistic action, then a person is going through the motions. Okay. I have to do this pooja. I have to do this dharma. I have to do this.

Now, Krishna says, this better than ritualistic action is knowledgeable action. Krishna also tells the that when you are doing rituals, you know, why are you doing this ritual? You should know that Indra Puja, why are you doing it? Now, having knowledge is good, but if there is meditation, that is better. So for example, somebody’s celebrating Diwali.

Now what is Diwali? Like we said in the Christmas. For most people, most kids, Christmas is more about Santa Claus, and Jesus is like a background character. Isn’t it? So like that, for most people, Diwali is basically fun and food and firecrackers.

There’s not even awareness. So instead of just going through the motions, at least have some awareness. Knowledge should be there. What are we doing? But knowledge is there.

It’s okay. But after that, there has to be remembrance, absorption. When we are celebrating Diwali, we may know, but we know it only to tell others. But when we are celebrating, we’re just having fun. So better than knowledge is meditation.

But then so that means you could go through rituals, know the purpose of rituals, meditate on the purpose of rituals. But eventually, one has to come to the level of detachment. So the whole idea is, here, that one recognizes like, you remember I talked about the world being bigger and Krishna becoming bigger? So the world may be bigger, and I may remember, okay, this is also for that purpose. This is also for God.

But God is too small. But when do we become detached? When the world starts becoming smaller, and something beyond this world starts becoming bigger. So you in one sense, this is all at the level of karmakand. So this has not got nothing to do with gyan yoga or gyan yoga.

It is gyan within karmakanda. It is dhyana within karmakanda. But from karmakanda to come to the level of tyaga, that is auspicious. So in that sense, Krishna is saying, now after this, after one does karma fallatyaga, then Krishna says, don’t just be concerned about giving up the fruits of your work. Give the fruits to something else, some good cause, and ultimately, give the fruits to me.

It’s one thing to say I’m not attached to the fruits. That’s good, but the fruits can be used for something good. So be concerned about that. So that moves higher, and then we move towards from 12.9 onwards. So 12.11 onwards, the hierarchy goes upwards.

Okay? Okay. Okay. And one last question quickly. It’s behind.

Okay. Where did the mic go? Okay. There. Hi, Krishna Prabhuji.

My question is that you said, Prabhupada accepted in Jhansi and, he confronted in Jhansi. So how do we understand this in our case? Because Prabhupada was alone in Jhansi and he had devotees in Juh. So how do we understand? How do we understand means are you asking Like, in our case, in that case, what should we do?

Yes. In our case, what should we do? See, in Krishna consciousness, when I said this uncertainty, uncertainty can be seen as a reason for insecurity. I don’t know what to do. Or it can be seen as a gateway to adventure.

So it depends on our disposition. There’ll always be some uncertainty. We are finite beings. And you see, even when Krishna was with Arjuna, when Ashwatthama had done the horrendous wrong, Krishna did not tell Arjuna what to do. Krishna waited.

Let Arjuna, you decide. In one sense, Krishna was preparing Arjuna that I’m going to depart now, and you will have to act without my presence also. And Arjuna was able to act. After Krishna departed, he tried to take Krishna’s wife to safety, and then he himself took shelter in the Gita. But the point is that, bhakti is not about outsourcing our intelligence to God.

Because you may say, it’s like it it’s almost a catch 22 situation, you know. You should do God’s will. Otherwise, you are in trouble. But knowing God’s will is a big trouble. Then what should I do, isn’t it?

So it’s not that what we should do in our situations. If you say service attitude, service attitude, it basically means that we want to be a part of Krishna’s plan. Now Krishna is. And it is said, a devotee in 1213, So Krishna’s plan is the good for everyone. And the devotee’s plan, therefore, should also be the good for everyone.

Now what will be the good for everyone in what situation? That will depend. That is not something which you can very easily determine. So broadly, what I found is three factors considering it helps. Like, you have if you have a SIM in your phone, then you can call someone.

You have the phone, but you can’t call. Isn’t it? So we consider the situation. First of all, you have to consider what is the situation I am in. Srila Prabhupada, when he was preaching in India and the results didn’t come, Prabhupada decided, I’ll go to America at that time.

So we had to consider the situation to decide what is it that I should be doing. So in the 12th chapter in the 4th 18th chapter of the Gita, one of the factors that leads to success is Then we need to look at our inclination. What is our inclination? Now are we more of a confrontational person? Are we more of a non confrontational person?

Now it’s not that we have to give up our nature. Somebody who’s a confrontational person, tell them don’t confront. You know, they if they sit down to chat, why did I do something about it? Why did I do something about it? That will torment them.

Somebody’s non confrontational and you get them to confront, sit down to chant and they think, why did I get involved in this? Isn’t it? So each person has to decide what is anukul and pratikul based on one. The which means our our senses. So each of us has a particular set of senses, a particular kind of talents, particular kind of skills, particular kind of resource abilities we have.

And then lastly is our motivation. Motivation means how much are we invested in this particular thing? How important is it? That is. How much are we ready to fight for this?

So how important is it for me? And based on that, we can decide. So it is not one answer. That’s why I said, when it comes to serving Krishna, in bhakti, the principle of serving Krishna is fixed. But how to serve Krishna?

That will vary from individual to individual. And of course, we consult senior devotees. We consult our spiritual master if we have the opportunity or the spiritual master representatives. Ultimately, however, we have to take the decision. The spiritual master or the counselor cannot live our life for us.

You know, the spiritual master or the counselor are not living with our mind. We have to live with our mind. So we have to find what is the best way I can function in my particular situation. But they can give us invaluable inputs, sometimes indispensable inputs. But like Prabhupada said, ultimately, we have to fly our own plane.

So we have to find out how best can I move ahead in the particular situation I am in…

So thank you very much.