Bhagavad-gita 4.9. The Struggle Against Envy. Ramayana
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2019
Chapters
Recitation of sacred verses
Omna mo Bhagavate vasudevaya, Bhavate vasudevaya, Omna mo Bhagavate Vudevaya. Narayanamaskritya, maskya, naramcheva narotamam, namcheva darotamam, devim Sarasvati Yasam, Deviam Saraswati Yasam, Tatojayama Diraya, Dodayam Diraya, Hare Krista, Sikh Krishna.
I'm very happy to be with you this evening. And I thought I will speak a little bit about uh Lord Trump's past times the particular aspect of his
pastime but first we will read verse from Bhagavad Gita very important words which Prabhupada quoted very often Janma Karma Chamediam Evam Yaveti Tatvataha Tyakvadeham Punar Janma
One who knows the transcendental nature of my appearance and activities and does not, upon leaving the body, takes his birth again in this material world, but attains my eternal abode or Juna.
Purporred by His Divine Grace, Hesibh Vidanta Swami Prabhupada. The Lord's descent from his transcendental abode is already explained in the sixth verse.
One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage, and therefore he returns to the kingdom of God immediately after quitting his present material body.
Such liberation of the living entity from material bondage is not at all easy. The impersonalists and yogis attain liberation only after much trouble and many, many births.
Even then the liberation they achieve merging into the impersonal Brahma Jotia of the Lord is only partial and therefore and there is a risk there is the risk of returning to this material world.
But the devotees simply by understanding the transcendental nature of the body and activities of the Lord attain the abode of the Lord after ending this body and does not run risk of returning to this material world.
In the Brahma Samhita, it is stated that the Lord has many, many forms and incarnations.
Advaita Machyu Tamanadim Anantarupam. Although there are many transcendental forms of the Lord, there is still one and the same Supreme Personality of Godhead.
One has to understand this fact with conviction, although it is incomprehensible to mundane scholars and empiric philosophers.
As stated in the Vedas, Purushabodhiny Upanishad, Eko Deva, Nitya, Lila Nurakta, Bhaktavyapi, Khridyanta Ratma, the one Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternally engaged in many, many transcendental forms in relationship with his unalloyed devotees.
The Svedic version is confirmed in this verse of the Gita personally by the Lord.
One who accepts this truth of the strength on the strengths of the authority of the Vedas and of the Supreme Personality of God, and who does not waste
time in philosophical speculation attains the highest perfectional stage of liberation. Simply by accepting this truth on faith, one can without a doubt attain liberation.
The Vedic version, Tattvam asi, is actually applied in this case. Anyone who understands Lord Krishna to be the Supreme Lord and
who says to the Lord, You are the same Supreme Brahman, the Personality of God, is certainly liberated instantly, and consequently, his entrance into the transcendental association of the Lord is guaranteed.
In other words, such a faithful devotee of the Lord attains perfection and this is confirmed by the following Vedic assertion: Tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum ɛtyi nānyaḥ panthā vidyate ‘ayanāya’.
One can attain the perfect stage of liberation from birth and death simply by knowing the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and there is no other way to achieve this perfection. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad.
That there is no alternative means that anyone who does not understand Lord Krishna as the supreme Personality of Godhead is surely in the mode of ignorance and consequently he will not attain salvation simply so to speak by licking
the outer surface of the bottle of honey or by interpreting the Bhagavad Gita according to mundane scholarship.
Such empiric philosophers may assume very important roles in the material world, but they are not necessarily eligible for liberation.
Such puffed up mundane scholars have to wait for the causeless mercy of the devotee of the Lord. One should therefore cultivate Krishna consciousness with faith and knowledge and in this way attain perfection.
Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!
Janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ. One who knows the transcendental nature of my appearance and activities does not upon leaving the body take his birth again in this material world
but attains My eternal abode, arjuna. Rama Vishnu Padaya Krishna Krishna Bhutare Srimati Bhaktividanta Swaminitin, Namaste Saraswati Deve, Gurawani Pracharin, Nirvisha, Shunyavati Paschatin, Vanchakow Patianampavane
biovaisnava, dzai sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhunitananda, Sri Advaita Gadata Rasivasadigora Bhakta
Mahā-mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare Ajana Lamita Jokana Kavada Sankirt, Naika, Pitarokamalay, taksa, Vishwam Brad, Vijavaro, Yuga Dharma Pala, Vandeji Jagat Priya Karow Karunataru Ntah pra visi Mamma Vachamamampra Supam, Sandzivat yla Shakti Darah swadamna, anjam chahasta charana shravana, dbagadi, pranandamo bhagavati puro sata ugu.
Purpose of the Lord's descent
Hare Krishna. So tomorrow and the day after tomorrow we're celebrating Kramnavani. And this verse is directly connected with such events. Lord Himself comes to this world for a specific reason.
And the main reason is to liberate those people who are inclined to him at a certain, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, anugrahāya bhaktānām... uh thānam āśrita. Uh what is it? Tadrissa Sru Twain.
The Lord comes, anugrahāya bhaktānām, to manifest the mercy to the devotees and he performs his lilas in this world, and whoever hears about these lilas inevitably should become inclined towards him.
The main reason of him coming to this world is to turn our hearts towards him.
Now our hearts are more or less conquered over by the material nature, and because our heart are completely overwhelmed by material nature, it's difficult to turn it to him.
And the only way to change our heart to basically turn our heart 180 degrees, turn away from this attraction towards material nature, to understand or to feel the attraction towards the Lord is to hear about his pastimes.
Which he performs, tādṛśī krīḍā, he performs accordingly the pastimes which makes our heart inclined towards him that parā-gat. So Shankaracharya, while commenting
in this verse, I looked in his commentary on Bhagavad-gītā. It's very interesting how he explained this verse because this verse is so clear.
And activities in this world, he will be liberated from this world. If he really understands. So Śaṅkarācārya very cleverly interprets this verse.
He says, whoever understands that uh the person activities of the Lord is all Maya, he will be liberated. So uh but uh of course this is uh this is just juggling of the words.
Because even in the next verse Krishna says, Vita Ragavaya Kratha Mama Mayama Pashita Bhavogyana Tapasa Puta Mad Bhava Magataha. The one who understands me in reality, uh, he achieves my bhava. Love of me.
Putta madhava magadha. The real understanding when Krishna stresses this point, Evam Yoveti Tattvataha, whoever understands me in reality, the real understanding means to achieve love.
After hearing again and again about the pastimes of the Lord which are the pure manifestation of His love, His love will be reflected in our heart. There is a beautiful verse in Brahma-samhita which explains this.
Ananda chin Maya Rasama Tayama Naqsu Akhprani nam pratipalam smaratamu petya lilaya tena buvanani jayatajasam gurindamadipurosam tamahamb Which specifically deals with this uh saying he says,
Ananda chananda chinmaya rasa matayama naqsu. Uh if the ananda chinmaya Rasa of Krishna, through the media of his lila, lila buvanani jaeta jasu, will be reflected in the mind of uh human beings.
Pratipalam, pratipalam means reflected. When this reflection takes place, how this reflection takes place, smaratamu petya.
If we again and again remember about these past times, then the reflection will take place in our uh in the quantum of our mind.
And by this, by this the uh the victory of the Lord over the conditioned living entity will take place.
The conditioned living entity which is completely enslaved by the material nature, completely absorbed by the happenings of material nature, will gradually gradually turn his consciousness towards the Lord.
Because the Lord is Ananda Chinmaya Rasa.
And when Ananda Chinmaya Rasa the Rasov Va Saha he's rasa indeed rasa he is indeed this bliss when this rasa rasam he evayam Labdva Anandi Bhavati, one becomes blissful himself when this rasa is reflected in us.
When we think about the Lord, how his pastimes is taking place, then this Ananda Chinmayrasa is reflected in our consciousness and will overwhelm our consciousness with bliss. That's the whole idea.
So and of course, understanding Lord's pastime is not to understand that it's all Maya, it's all illusion. This is Maya.
Discipline versus spontaneous love
The reality is that to understand how this is the love which is the highest reality, love of God manifesting this world while He is coming here.
So I was thinking: what to speak about Lord Rama, and as Srila Prabhupada says about Srimad-Bhagavatam, Srimad-Bhagavatam is like a sweet bowl, you know. It's like a sugar bowl. Wherever you take it, it's all sweet.
But But uh what I ultimately thought of speaking about, uh Lord Rama comes here
and he, as we know, is Maryada Purushottama. And Maryada Purushottama means that he shows us the way how to purify our heart and instill love in our hearts through following the rules and regulations.
After him, Lord Krishna comes and Lord Krishna comes and there's no rules. In the past times of Lord Krishna, there is absolutely no rules. Because there is love. Only love. No rules.
But the problem and uh it's the highest, it's the pinnacle. There is nothing higher. There is nothing else needed to be known.
But nevertheless, we will not be able to understand and even to appreciate this love which is there reflected in the pastimes of Lord Krishna unless we purify our heart by following the rules.
The problem is that we can only understand the pastimes of Lord Krishna, if we are Nirmatsara. Nirmatsara means completely free from envy. If even a little spark of envy is there in our heart, what will happen?
We will hear the past times of Lord Krishna and we will envy him. We will become jealous. And the purification will not really take place like Prabhupada says so many people hear about Raslila.
And they think very nice pastime. Yes. I also want to perform Raslila. Very nice. Or they hear how Krishna stole the clothes of gopis. And they understand everything, yeah. I would do the same. Why?
Because there is this little spark, little contamination within our heart. And Lord Trump actually in his pastime shows how dangerous it is. And everyone has this.
And therefore, in the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ, you will get the Lord within your heart by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but only if one condition is in place.
You should be completely free from envy. How to become free from envy for this, uh following the rules and regulations are there, become more or less uh you know there are three stages.
Now we're the slaves of karma, the slave of our lust desires. Then you know to change this you have to become the slaves of rules and regulations. And then you will become the slave of love. That's the highest position.
In any case you're a slave. This cannot be changed. You can never become lord. But you know the highest position is you become the slave of love.
But there is an intermediate stage when you very strictly follow the rules and regulations so that actually love will be contained within your heart.
Otherwise, it will not, your heart will not be able to contain love. It's not possible.
So in the pastimes of Lord Rāma, and that's actually exactly what Krishna means when he says evam vetti tattvataḥ. Tattvata means that if you know completely, absolutely in truths, it means that you have not a speck of a doubt.
And Lord Krishna Himself says in the at the end of the fourth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that everyone has in the depths of our hearts some little doubt. And this doubt is the manifestation of envy.
Like Prabhupāda beautifully says what the phrase tattvam asi means. Tattvam asi means we come in front of the Lord and with full conviction we say, you are Him.
We come in front of Krishna, or we come in front of Rāma and we have no slightest doubt you are the Supreme Lord. If this is there, then By leaving this body you will go to God.
If there is even a little, little, little tiny, tiny speck of doubt, then it may not happen that soon.
And therefore, Krishna says at the end, this is the last verse of this fourth chapter, that please take this sword of knowledge and cut this doubt which is there in the depths of your heart.
So Krishna knows we have this doubt hidden, sometimes hidden even from ourselves. Sometimes we don't know this.
And therefore, that manifest, and therefore, this little spark which is there can be ignited and ultimately can burn out our devotional service.
So the whole story which I wanted to tell, the little, you know, the little story, actually, the whole story which I will tell was mostly about Bharata. How Bharata encountered in in his spiritual journey, if you can say this about the incarnation of the Lord.
Events surrounding Lord Rama's coronation
But still, you know, he's coming here to teach us how he encountered this. And, you know, anyway, let's tell the story. It's a beautiful story. How how it progresses. It's actually very interesting.
We all know Rāmāyaṇa. There is no need to repeat Rāmāyaṇa.
So I want to start this little narration about Lord's pastimes and the lessons from Lord's pastimes, from this evening, when Maharaja Dasharatha announced to Ram that tomorrow morning he will be coronated.
He called him and he said, it's an auspicious time and I'm a little restless. And I decide, I made up my mind, you will have this Abhishek tomorrow, royal Abhishek tomorrow. You will be coronated tomorrow.
And Ram, of course, obediently he folded his hands and he said, I'm your servant, whatever you want, I will do. And the whole Ayodhya very soon the whole Ayodhya become joyful in the news.
But there is a very interesting question here. Why Dasharat was in such a hurry?
This whole arrangement is totally unexpected because Bharat is away, Shatrugna is away, Janaka Maharaj is far away. You know, if you want to have such a significant event as the coronation of Lord Lord Rāma, you at least have to invite his father-in-law for this. No, no invitation of father-in-law, nobody.
And that's why Kaikeyī became a little suspicious. Actually Manthara started feeding her suspicions, you know. Why such a hurry? Why does he want to do it in the absence of Bharata? Why Bharata is not here?
There is definitely some evil plan behind this. That's what Mantharā will say. But the reason uh was actually very interesting.
The reason for this was that Dasharatha Maharaj always acutely remembered the curse which was pronounced against him by the father of Shravan Kumara.
And the problem of this case, that the whole problem actually started there, and the problem started when Dasharat Maharaj never mentioned to anyone about this curse. It's amazing. This curse happened.
He killed this little innocent boy, Shravan Kumar, and his father before leaving this world, he pronounced this curse. And he actually said, I'm cursing you because you committed such a grievous sin.
And I'm cursing you only to relieve you from the sin. You called an ascetic, you you killed an ascetic. And I'm uh I want to relieve you from this sin.
And therefore uh I'm uh pronouncing uh otherwise you will go to hell for this sin.
So I'm pronouncing this curse to you now, and because you know so much pain is there in me, so I'm pronouncing this curse as I'm now dying because of separation with my son.
You will also die from the separation with your son. So Maharaj Dasharat heard this curse and he never can find this curse to anyone. And this curse was inside him.
Actually, Vanacharya commenting on this particular story, he he gives a very important lesson to all of us. He says that if you are in your spiritual journey, you have to have
at least one person with whom you can be completely open. At least one person. Don't keep all these things within. Because that will create turmoil and that will create problem ultimately. We'll have to get it out.
You know, sometimes we are very closed, especially in a spiritual society, because we are a little envious, and so many people around us are little envious. Devotees are little envious. So we are kind of reserved.
We don't want to say something, you know, bad about us or some problems which we have. We keep them inside. So Maharaja Dasharatha, he kept this problem inside him.
He didn't say to Vasishta Muni, who was his guru, he didn't say to Koshalya,
who was his wife, he didn't say to anyone, to Kaikeyi, to Sumitra. Of course Kaikeyi was not his wife at that time yet, but still, you know, he didn't tell anyone. Nobody knew this curse.
He only told it uh uh uh practically in the last day of his life, when uh the separation took place, when he was about to die. Then only he opened his heart and he told Kausalya about this curse.
So, what was happening with him? The anxiety was building up. And when you are in constant anxiety, when you are in constant fear, you are prone to do stupid things, you will do mistakes.
So he started this coronation in haste. Why? Because of this fear. He always thought, what will happen? What will happen?
What will happen with me? How it because he didn't know how the separation with his son will take place. Maybe my son will die as the son of the ascetics, Ravan Kumar. Or maybe something else would happen.
So this anxiety was the background of his existence. And he couldn't, you know if he would confide this, if he would confess to somebody about this, uh it would probably not affect his uh consciousness so much.
But because he was keeping it inside as a secret. It was actually it was a mistake. So this mistake, you know, from this mistake another mistake happened. Because when this spontaneous arrangement started and
Manthara knew about this coronation, Manthara heard that you know the whole city of Ayodhya is so happy and everyone is joyful and everyone is singing songs. She asked what's what's going uh what what's happening?
And somebody told her, you know, oh don't you know such good news? Ram tomorrow will become our king.
How envy and doubt corrupt minds
And Manthara, she was envious. So Maharaj Dasharat was not envious, but Manthara was definitely envious. What she sought, you know, she was a humpbacked how you say it, woman. And she was the nurse of Kaikeyi.
And Kaikeyi loved her dearly, and Kaikeyi was the favorite queen of Maharaja Dasharatha. And because of her privileged position in the palace, she was protected
from the jokes of father, maidservants and everyone, because she was special. And she thought, now I will lose my privileged position. Because if Ram becomes the king, what will happen to me?
Kausalya will become the mother queen and Kaikeyi will become nobody and I will become less than nobody. The envy started raging in your heart, in her heart. And she decided, by all means I will stop it. I will stop it.
So she comes to Kaikei. Kaikkei was sleeping at that time and she wakes up Kaikei and she says, You stupid woman, why are you sleeping now? Such a bad thing is happening, your life is ruined. Stupid woman, get up, wake up.
And Kaikeyi said, yo, what's happening? She said, tomorrow Ram is going to be coronated. Kaikkei became elated.
She said, really, such a good news. She took her, you know, necklace from her neck and she gave it to Manthara and she said, for this good news, take this precious necklace. She was so happy. You know, it's the best news.
So nice, jai, haribol. So Manthara, she took this necklace and she threw it on the floor. And she said, you stupid lady, you don't understand anything.
What you know, Rama is, you know, when Rama will become the king, what will happen with Bharata? Bharata is his rival.
And Kaikeyi said, Manthara, don't joke with me. I know Rama. They're not, and I know Bharata, they are such good friends. Bharata will be the happiest man in the world, you know.
And you know, Kaikeyi, please don't, don't say these bad things. You know, and for for some time it was going on and going on. But gradually, gradually, she was poisoning her heart. Why she could poison her heart?
Because there was little spark. Little spark. If the spark was not there, she would not be able to do it. She would not be able to poison the heart of Kaikeyi if a little spark was not there.
So for, for some time Kaikeyi was uh arguing with her, but uh then uh Manthara found the weak spot. Manthara said, now you're the favorite queen. Now you are the main queen.
And when Ram will be coronated, who will be the main queen? Kausalya will be the main queen. And who will you be? You will be the slave of Kausalya.
You will be, you will be, you will be lucky if you will be allowed to wash pots. You will probably wash toilets. She was saying it again and again and again.
You know, and what happened with Kaikeyi? In the beginning she was, she was not taking it seriously then she was listening and listening and listening and then she started rehearsing it herself and she
started thinking about it more and more and more, and she said, yes, of course, definitely it will happen. For sure it will happen. By all means, we should stop this arrangement.
You, Manthara, you're so nice. You're so good. You have such a good heart. Thank you very much. So, what happened next? You know, she became completely convinced, and she started rehearsing this.
Manhara, of course, gave her this best advice. You know, you asked King Dasharatha to put Ram on the throne, uh Ram and the you know, Bharata on the throne.
But not only this, she said, oh, this is a good idea, but not only this, you have to banish Ram. She said, why why have why do we have to banish Ram?
Because when he's there, you know, he will he will not tolerate it and he will overthrow Bharat. And she became completely convinced. She believed it. You know, it's amazing.
Within just a short time her heart was completely turned upside down, even though she played, like his own mother. She loved him more than Kaikeyi. More than Kausalya.
Actually, when Manthara came to her, Kaikeyi and told this news, Kaikeyi told her: oh no, I wish, next lifetime Rāma will become my son, and Sītā will become my daughter-in-law. I hope this is my aspiration, that if I lead a good life, Ram will come next time, my son.
But still, everything was turned. Why? Because there was a little little, tiny speck of doubt. And doubt and envy is the same, it's synonymous. Because doubt is envy of God.
If we doubt in His supremacy, it's ultimately envy. It means that you know we are doubtful.
Bharata's grief and rejection of royalty
So and then of course, to make the long story short, what happens next? Because I wanted to speak mostly about Bharata.
When he came, Mahārāja Dasharatha died, and he in the last moment of his life he told Kausalya, this is what happened. I was cursed and therefore I am dying out of separation with Ram.
And he said his last words were you know all those people who will see Ram and Sītā and Lakṣmī when they come back from the forest. They're the most fortunate. I'm the most unfortunate.
I'm dying because of separation with him. And then they send the you know the they sent envoys to uh grandfather of Bharata um Bharata to to this Kandagar uh to Afghanistan. And they brought Barata.
And Barata had some suspicion. Bharata had a bad dream at that night, and he saw his father going in the south direction. Adorned in red clothes. So he understood something bad happened.
So he came very innocently, and nobody's there, nobody greets him. And he comes to his mother. And listen, it's very interesting. He comes to his mother and he, his mother, Kaikeyi, is very, she's very happy.
She says, oh, you know, I have a good news for you. What is the good news? You know, you're the king now. He said, no, no, no, wait, wait a second, wait a second. What happened? What happened?
And she says to him that your father died. And how, how was he? She—he starts lamenting like, like anything, his heart is broken. He's asking, you know, how did he die?
And was it Rāma who, uh, performed the last rite for my father, where is he? I will go now to Rāma and I will bow down to Rāma and I—I will ask his blessings now. He is the king.
And Kaikeyi says, No, no, you don't understand. I have a good news for you. You're the king. Your father, before he died, he said, let Bharata become the king, that's his order. And let Rāma go to the forest.
Of course, your father told this, but you know, somehow or other he died because of separation with Rāma and Sītā. And Rāma is there in the forest, he is clad in bark of the trees is there. And for Bharata it's blow.
What is the most uh he looks at his mother and he says, My dear mother, how could you think that I will do it? How where did you get this idea that I will become king instead of Rāma?
Why do you think that I'm envious of Rāma? He becomes—that, that's his pain. When we are envious, we project our envy towards others. And we start thinking that others are also envious.
And Rāma becomes—Bharata becomes so pained because his mother could think about him like this. You're my mother. You're supposed to know my heart. Don't you know my love towards Rama? How can you say this?
And Kaikeyi, it just doesn't go inside her. Somehow or other, she doesn't understand what's going on? And he just he crosses Kaikeyi. He says, I go to Kausalya.
And when he goes to Kausalya, Kausalya meets him, and Kausalya is in white sari, she's emaciated, she's grieving, she's she's she's crying, and she sees Bharata.
She says, oh prince, oh king, your plan is successful now. Now you will become king. Rama is successfully sent to forest. Why don't you send me to the forest too?
We will go together with Sumitra to the forest, we will be there with Rama. And she started accusing him. First, Kaikeyi thought that he was envious of Rama. Now Kausalya repeats this. And he hears this.
And he he just he starts crying. He said, Don't you know how I love Rama? How can you think like this about me? How can you think that I could be envious of Rama?
And he starts saying, if somebody, if somebody thinks that I have to become the king instead of Rama, let him be in hell. And my mother will go to hell. That's my curse to her.
If somebody says that I should become a competitor of Lord Rama, let him be in hell for eternity. I don't want to have anything to do with this. And Kausalya becomes pacified, you know.
And then, you know, we know what happened next. He uh he he says Vasiṣṭha muni comes and says, okay, my son, they they perform the uh cremation of Daśaratha. Bharata performs the cremation of Daśaratha.
And then you know 14 days pass. And Vasiṣṭha says, okay, now it's time, now you become the king. And everyone says, you become the king.
All the citizens say, all the ministers of King Daśaratha say, this is the order of your father, you have to become the king. And Bharat says, never.
I will never become the king. I will go and I will get Ram back. Because not even in my wildest dream I I want to become the competitor of Lord Ram.
And that's again the same point. Because in my in our heart we are because of this subtle envy which we have. We are kind of competing. We are competing with each other, but ultimately we're envious of God.
Once there is a little story about Prabhupāda, he was in Los Angeles and he was uh that was the peak of his glory and he was with a group of his intimate disciples and he started saying, people glorifying me, people say Prabhupāda, this, that, he did this, he did that. He said, this is all nonsense. He said I don't take credit for this. I have nothing to do with this.
But he says if somebody wants to give me some credit. There's one thing which which should be given to me as a credit, he says. Only one thing. Never in my life I was envious of what I was competing with God.
That's the only the only thing which I have. And that's I mean that's a very strong statement.
You know, because we have this, and Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda is saying this is this is the only quality which actually which we should have ultimately.
Bharata's humble journey into the forest
So what happens next? And this is amazing. You know, Bharata he says, we'll go. We all go. The whole Ayodhyā will go to Lord Rāma. And we all bow down to him. We all pay obeisances to him.
And we all with tears in our eyes will bring him back. We'll tell him, You come back. You're the ruler, you're the king. So the whole Ayodhyā, they made the whole arrangement. They made the road. Huge road to the forest.
For one month they're doing this road so that In the army there was nine thousand nine thousand elephants only. and all this cavalry and everyone and Kausalyā and Sumitra and everyone. You know the whole road.
Bharata goes barefoot. He doesn't even want to take his place in the chariot. He goes on foot. Because he says, I'm nobody. I don't want you know I don't want that anyone would even think that I'm a king.
He goes barefoot, uh the whole way. And then they come to Ganga. And then Guha, the good friend of Lord Rāma, sees this whole army.
He sees this huge army which is going and he says for sure Bharata is coming and he wants to kill Ram. Why otherwise he's coming with this whole army. He only wants to kill Ram for sure.
Let's he tells his warriors, let's fight with this with this Bharat. No, again, why does he say this? Because little envy is there. And therefore he projects this envy to others. That's that's terrible stuff.
When we have this little envy in ourselves, we immediately start projecting it in our environment. And we think others are envious. Others are jealous, others are this and we easily believe this. Easily believe this.
So Guha he comes to Bharat, and he was, you know, he tries to test him. And he says, You're a friend of my lord, Trump, and therefore you're my friend, you come here.
And Bharat starts crying and saying, You're such a good, such a good friend of my Lord Raman. I'm coming to bring him back. And Guha becomes a little pacified.
And Bharata, he spent night with Guha and he asked, What did my Lord do when he came to you? And Guha said, I prepared a huge feast for him. I wanted him to feast nicely. And Lord Rāma said, I'm banished to the forest.
I'm not entitled to eat this. I will only eat what I will get myself. And I'm a kshatriya. I'm not supposed to take charity from anyone. So I will only drink some water. So he didn't eat anything. And he slept on the floor.
He slept on the earth with Sita. And when Bharata hears this, because he doesn't have any envy. Because he doesn't have any envy, immediately he says, from now on, I will only eat roots which I will obtain myself
and while I will sleep on the floor, I will sleep on the earth. I don't want to have any privileges over Rāma. If Rāma leads this life, I will lead even more austere life than him.
And he takes off his royal clothes and he puts bark of the tree. And he takes his beautiful hairs and he takes the sap of the tree and he makes matted hairs.
And he said, from now on, I'll do this because again I I do not want to have I do not want to feed even little bit uh even you know I I I don't want to compete with the Lord. So and he asked Guha next morning, can
you explain to me what Lord Rāma did after he went from you. He said he crossed the river, he crossed Gaṅgā and he went to Bharadvāja Muni.
And uh Bharata says, let's go to Bharadvāja Muni and he takes all his army and he goes to Bharadvāja Muni. And he comes to Bharadvāja Muni.
And Bharadvāja Muni gives his blessings to Bharata and he says, Bharata, I hope you're not coming to kill Rāma. Are you? Bharata is it's as if you know he's just stabbed by a knife within his heart.
First his mother thinks that he is envious. Then Kausalya thinks that he is envious. Then Guha thinks that he is envious. Then Bharadvāja Muni, the great yogi, thinks he is envious. You know.
And he comes and he starts crying. He starts saying, why are you saying this to me? How can you do this? And again, please listen very carefully. That's the problem.
This whole story, this beautiful story in Rāmāyaṇa is about us. Because again, when we have this little envy within our heart, we will project it. Everywhere. We will see envy in everyone's heart.
And we will misinterpret somebody's words, we will ascribe motivation which was not there, and we will make offenses.
So he comes, you know, and he says to Bharadvāja Muni, I didn't have even remote remote idea, Vajamuni, I didn't have even remote remote idea, I never wanted to do it. I don't want to do it. How you can think about me like this? I'm not a competitor of Lord Trump and I will never become one.
So Bharadvajamuni says, okay, now if it's if it's true, I will show you the way. I will show where the Rāma is hiding. So and the Rāma is sitting there in Chitrakut. Chitrakut means the mountain which is very colorful.
And they sing and they enjoying this scene, this beautiful nature, the different colors of the stones when the sun is raising sun.
And then all of a sudden Rāma sees the you know animals flocking together and running with great panic. And he asks Lakṣmaṇa, Lakṣmaṇa what's going on? Some commotion is there.
Why all these elephants are running and all these deers are running and what's going on there? And Lakṣmaṇa he climbs a tree and he sees the big army is coming, huge army is coming, and he sees the flag of
uh uh with insignia of Bharata. And Lakṣmaṇa comes down and he says, it's Bharata is coming and he wants to kill you. Now Lakṣmaṇa is saying the same thing.
He comes to Rāma and he says: we better be prepared. You hide-seat in a cave, take your bow and arrow, we will fight. And today I will send this Bharata to hell. Where he belongs. He's coming to to.
You know establish his sovereignty and he doesn't want to have anything to do, you know, you're dangerous even in the forest. You know, and he's explaining this and he's telling this, you know, completely concocted story.
For sure this is going to happen, you know, let's be prepared. And Rāma looks at him and smiles. And he said, listen what he said to Bharata, to Lakṣmaṇa. He said, Lakṣmaṇa, I know Bharata. I know Bharata's heart.
If you want, I can tell Bharata to give the throne to you and you will become the king and Bharata will stay with me You will see it. He will give it throne to you, no problem.
So when Lakṣmaṇa hears this, he becomes a little ashamed. He becomes he becomes a little embarrassed. He understands that this is the way of Rāma to to point out his problem. He says the problem is not in Bharat.
The problem is in you. You're trying to ascribe to him something which is not there. He's pure. So and Lakshmi becomes very ashamed, you know, and he says, okay.
And it's what is the most interesting, there is a there is a continuation of the story. The ācāryas they explain that later, when uh they went to Dandakaranya, they actually left Chitrakut because they realized
that Chitrakut is too accessible to the citizens of Ayodhyā. Too easily they can come there and disturb them.
Consequences of harsh speech and offense
Therefore, they went deeper in the forest and went to the Daṇḍakāraṇya forest and ultimately this whole story with the golden deer takes place.
And Sita, by her feminine tricks, basically, forces Ram to go to catch this deer. Because Ram knows that this is some trick. But Sita you know she knows how to manipulate man's heart.
And Ram goes there and Lakshman is with Sita and then they hear this cry. Oh Lakṣmaṇa, oh Sītā, come, come, I am dying. And Sita tells Lakṣmaṇa, you go, you go, immediately go.
And Lakṣmaṇa says, why should I go? Lord Ram told me to stay with you, I will stay with you. Nothing will happen with Ram. And she becomes furious and she says, I know. I know what is there in your heart.
All these years, all these 13 years, you were with me and with Ram because you wanted to kill Ram to enjoy me. And actually I think you were sent here by Bharat.
And the ācāryas they say, why did Sita say such such cruel words?
Lakṣmaṇa was, you know, can you imagine? Lakṣmaṇa was not sleeping for fourteen years. He was not sleeping for one moment. Because at night he was serving Lord Ram by guarding him.
And during the day he was bringing food and he was building cottages and he was killing all these wild animals, animals which were there. He was not sleeping for 14 years for one split second.
He was only serving Lord Ram. His only joy was Lord Ram. He didn't even look at Sita, at the face of Sita. He was only looking at her feet. And after 14 years or 13 years of this service, what he hears, you were only here because you wanted to enjoy me.
How he must have been hurt. But Ācāryas say, why did it happen? Because he offended Bharata. Because he offended Bharata, now this is coming back to him because of this law of justice.
It's coming back to him because he thought bad about Bharata. He ascribes some envious plans to Bharata. And what is it? Of course, Lakṣmaṇa doesn't have envy in his heart. Sītā doesn't have envy in her heart.
What is it about? It's about us. How easily we believe that somebody has some envious nature. How easily we uh you know go into this trap and start blaming some other people or ascribing some bad motives to other people.
Did it happen with you sometimes? You know this, uh, this is offense. And this offense the reaction of this offense will come to us. The story is not ending here. How Ācāryas explained, ācāryas explained.
Phew, this is even more dramatic than whatever I said before. Even more dramatic. What happens next? Next, of course, this is the last words which Sītā pronounces. Before she is kidnapped by Rāvaṇa.
And you know, for one year she's being searched, and ultimately this whole great war is taking place,
and at the end of the war, you know, Lakṣmaṇa is sent to bring Sītā to Lord Rāma, and Lord Rāma is there and everyone is anticipating the happy meeting.
And in front of everyone, Lord Rāma says, Now you're free to go anywhere. Oh, dear Sītā. I didn't come here to save you. I come to save the honor of my family. And you go to fire. Sītā, I am ready to go to fire. Why?
Ācāryas explain. Why this whole Agni-parīkṣā is there.
The reason is that Sītā had to experience the same what Lakṣmaṇa experienced while she was saying these cruel words to him. Because when she said these cruel words to him, the fire was there in his heart.
When we hear cruel words of other people, especially if these people are close to us, especially if they're devotees, it's so painful. It's a fire within our heart.
So ācārya says that even Sītā had to go through this. Rām is doing this just to, you know, to establish the balance, to restore the balance. So again, for what is it there to show us how careful we have to be.
How careful we have to be while dealing with other people.
How sensitive other people can be, and how, you know, delicate other people's heart are, because it's so easy to offend somebody, and it's so difficult to get out this pain from our heart. You know, people remember this.
The maybe 20, 30, 40 years, the pain is there, the pain of some cruel words.
It says in, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that, you know, there is arrows can pierce your heart, but it's not so painful. But if the cruel words of other people are piercing your heart, this is the real pain.
Because when the arrows pierce your heart, how long the pain will last? You know, one, two days, three days, oh, maybe you will die, okay, no problem.
So but if the cruel words pierce your heart, how long you will experience the pain? Maybe the whole life. Especially when somebody who is close to you is doing this to you.
Especially if you if you have this uh you know if if you didn't have anything like this in your heart. And of course, I wanted to say a little little more, little one little short story more about this.
To show again, to show purity of Bharata,
This whole story is to show how cruel people are by ascribing you know wrong motivations sometimes or ascribing some fault where there is no fault, and how we have to take this also.
Not only this, the second part of the story is that uh we should, despite of this, we should never be discouraged. Yes, this will happen. We are living in a cruel world.
We are living in a world where everyone has at least a little bit, you know, little bit of envy in his heart. And therefore we will definitely encounter this in our life. It's practically inevitable.
And because we do it to others, it will come back to us. And when it will come back to us, don't say that others are bad. You know. It's coming back because it's your own letter which you sent to yourself.
It came after some time. Here you are. Nothing else. It's your own. So So uh we definitely have to be very you know aware and we should never lose uh our enthusiasm. And uh Bharata is is a glorious example of this.
You know, how many times he he encountered this? How many times he met with all this misunderstanding and these things?
Bharata's selfless austerities in Nandigram
And actually, at one point when uh Sītā, Rāma, and Lakṣmī were in this Nandakaranya forest, what happened? Uh it was a very cold season, the Himantha season.
The weather was very cold and Rāma and Sītā went to river to Mandakini or Kutugadavari River, which was flowing there. And it was really cold, really cold.
And they came out, and Lakṣmī, as usually, he was guarding them while they were taking baths. And when they came out and they started shivering, Lakṣmī said to them, I'm looking at you and I see you how you're cold.
But while looking at you and seeing how you are cold and shivering, I'm remembering about Bharat. Because Bharat, he is in Ayodhyā. And Ayodhyā is much more to the north. And it's much colder.
And Bharat every day he gets up two hours before Brahma Muhurta and he takes business river at that time,
and when somebody asks him why you're taking bus so early? Because it's it's so cold and you're taking bus so early, how is this?
Uh he says first of all I don't feel the cold because my body is so heated because of the separation with Lord Rāma. I don't feel the cold.
But the main reason why I'm taking bus so early because I'm such an inauspicious person. Because of me was Lord Rāma was banished to the forest.
And if somebody sees me first thing in the morning then his whole day will be ruined.
Therefore I make sure that nobody sees me first time in the morning and nobody is there. I don't want that somebody sees my face early in the morning. Therefore I'm taking this bus.
And uh Lakshmana starts saying, you know, he never enters Ayodhyā, he always stays in this little village. And you know, he every day he comes back to this hut and he reports to your shoes about the events of the day.
Your shoes are ruling Ayodhya and he reports humbly to your shoes. And in the meantime, he four times he enlarged the kingdom of He's ruling so perfectly, but he never considers himself a ruler.
And then because you're not eating cooked food, he's not eating cooked food either. He's only eating cow urine and raw barley. He's uh he's on raw diet. So he's only eating raw barley uh soaked in cow urine. You can try it.
Actually, Shastra say if you are for 10 days on this diet all the scenes will be removed from your body. So you may try it. Simple diet, cow urine. So Lakshmana says.
Lakshmana says, he glorifies Lord Bharata for his his austerity and he says that because he knows that you are sleeping in the earth.
He's also sleeping in the earth, but he doesn't want to sleep on the same level where you sleep.
Therefore, he dug a hole, you know the, two meters deep hole in the earth and he sleep in this hole because he doesn't want to sleep on the same level where you sleep. And he sleep in this cold hole every night.
Again, because he doesn't want he doesn't want to compete with you. He doesn't want to have anything better than you have. So So uh this is what it is.
I wanted to you know to to bring tonight these few little lessons from uh actually big lessons from these little stories of Mahābhārata. How we're in a hurry to ascribe uh to others and actually, that's interesting.
Refraining from criticizing senior relatives
One little more addition to the story, to the last story. And Bharata, you know, Lakshmana he glorifies Bharata and he says, I cannot understand. Usually, people say that the son imbibes the quality of his mother.
And I cannot understand how somebody so envious and vicious can have such a good son as Bharata. He didn't even, you know, call the name of Kaikeyī. He said, I cannot understand how somebody.
And Lord Trump looked at him and he said, You should never say this. He said, Why do you have to denigrate somebody or to put down somebody? You're free to glorify.
Why are you spoiling all your speech? You're glorifying Rāma so Bharat so nicely? Why are you spoiling everything by making this bad remark about Kaikeyi? She's my mother. She's respectful. She's respectable.
I I mean I I I uh why you saying this? He he chastised him severely. I love her. She's my mother. She will always be my mother. She's suffering so much. Don't say this, never say this. So, this is all lessons for us.
You know how sometimes we become envious of somebody, how quickly we offend somebody, how we can, you know, overwhelmed by some emotions, do something stupid. And uh and uh reactions will come.
If reactions came to Sītā, if reaction came to Lakshmaṇa, what to speak about us? The only hope is to eat this barley soaked in cowuri. But even this may not help. You know, we still have to experience this.
How how careful we should be. Because again, we have to guard against this. The envy is there within our heart. And it may manifest in many different ways. We have to be so careful about this.
And so respectful to the Dharam is showing us this example, you know. So respectful to anyone who is elderly or who is senior or who is, you know, or whoever. In fact, whoever.
Tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ Then only something will happen. Then only the transformation of our heart will happen.
Then only, you know, then only we will understand pastimes of Lord Krishna. We are lucky if we understand the lessons of Lord Ram.
And you know for that and the main lesson is to very you know very diligently follow discipline, Mariada. Don't say bad about others. Don't disrespect others. Don't judge others according to your projections. Don't do this.
If you want to glorify, glorify other people. No problem with this. But that's Mariada. And if this Mariada is followed, then the heart becomes transparent.
And in this transparent heart, by this transparent heart, we will be able to understand Bhagavatam. Otherwise we will not understand Bhagavatam.
Because we will only hear or when we hear about the pastimes of Lord Krishna. Why pastimes of Lord Krishna is so difficult to understand, so difficult to derive bliss from these pastimes? Because of our envious heart.
Because by hearing them through our past saṁskāras, which are there, not by pure heart. And therefore, this discipline is so important.
The discipline preliminarily purifies our heart and makes it possible for us to understand the pastimes of Lord Krishna and get rid of our problems and then Tyaktadeham Punar Jan Mana Mahdi Surjuna.
That's what it means to understand God Tatvataha in reality to understand God as He is.
For that we should be completely free from this tendency which is unfortunately there in us, uh this tendency to compete with the Lord, to to be envious of him or his devotees or he whatever it whatever it may manifest it may manifest in many different ways.
Healing emotional hurt through open communication
So anyway that's was my little little yes of the just I wanted to make Yes please. I think you've probably answered my question, but maybe you could expand them a little.
But the the comment is they probably often cited this uh aphorism, Atma man when you take it that we think that others think what we think. And we we experience it all the time.
And you mentioned in your lecture about how sometimes piercing words of other people sometimes stay with us even possibly a lifetime or at least many years. And it's hard to um sometimes overcome that.
So could you comment a little bit more on how to overcome those I guess those resentments or those harboring of those feelings? Thank you very much. Yeah.
I I started this little explanation from this past time that Dasharat Maharaj never spoke out, never revealed his heart. And this was eating him up from inside. So the same mistake we tend to do.
We somehow or other keep all the things inside instead of speaking them out and revealing the heart and freeing the heart.
And actually when this father of uh Sravan Kumar was cursing him, he said two reasons why he's cursing. One reason I uh I said I mentioned that I'm cursing you to free you from the sin. Grievous sin.
And another reason is that I want to get rid of this grief which is there. I want to vent this negative thing which is there, you know. Therefore I have to do it.
So, uh, there is a way to do it properly without a failure. We
have to speak out, we have to reveal our heart, but at the same time, it's an art because the tendency will be there when when something is painful in our heart, we will start blaming others and you know we will commit offense and we will only, you know make it worse.
Instead of making it better, we we will make it worse. It's like this, usually, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that's that's the dynamic of family life.
Man and woman come together and they are in love with each other and they want to do this, but because they are not sensitive, they are, you know, they are hurting others' feelings.
And for the time being they are, you know, keeping it inside, inside, inside, but then the negativity becomes too much and it comes out.
Out of the blue sometimes people think you, you know, know how it is, but it was it was there for some time and then it becomes even worse because they're hurting even more and more and more. That's how it goes.
So the the art of doing this properly is to speak out, not by ascribing some motivation to other person, not to say you are bad or whatever, not to call names but to say, uh, either ask a question.
Prabhupada actually once said, "If you want to point somebody's fault or to say something and at the same time not to offend, you ask a question. You not make a statement. You may ask, you know, why did you say this?
Can you explain to me?" And you should be at the same time open to get the feedback, you know, why why it was said. But that's a very kind of safe way to do this. Asking questions.
Or sometimes you may just just say that this is what I felt, you know, the not to say that you're bad or but to express your own feelings, which is important. And that's also not offensive. You know, this is how I feel.
This is not offense. This is how I was hurt. This is what it is. So we have to speak out, but we also have to speak out in a proper way so that it's not doesn't aggravate the situation. Just one follow-up. Yeah.
So sometimes even in that revealing process and even if it's done properly, somebody may be hooked. The feeling may still remain. Go to psychotherapist. Go to your temple president, which is almost the same.
On the same subject uh uh uh I've I've noticed I mean I've also probably done it um when when we have something going on in our life is it wise to keep it to ourselves or to our closer friends closest friends um than just going around and for the
and to trumpet, yes, yes. Which which which way is the better actually? Yeah, we have to express it, but we have to express it with discretion because when we start expressing it everywhere it's also not a solution.
You know, therefore, you know, it's said you have to have a close circle of people with whom you can express yourself and relieve yourself from all these problems which are there.
But isn't that a kind of an assumption that I won't tell anybody because I think they're obvious and they'll harm me as a result of knowing that information. Yeah. But uh yeah. And there is something in this assumption.
You know, when we live in this material world, we have to be a little careful. We don't have to be silly. Uh, therefore, there has to be trusted people with whom we can be completely open.
With other people we don't necessarily have to be foolishly open.
You know, because, yes, unfortunately, we're living in this world, and in this world we do meet with people who I don't remember, but maybe somebody remembers this famous famous poem of Kipling.
If there is this beautiful line there that be ready that the fools will completely misinterpret your words and will turn your words against you. That's there in this in this poem. People are like this.
He says, be ready for this. Your words will be taken by unscrupulous people and will be turned against you. That's that's the reality. So this is on the other side it we may have hurt someone. We want to beg forgiveness.
But that person may not even exist. In a sense they passed away. And we have with our guilt inside them it's very difficult to open up. How do we resolve that?
Yeah, that's unfortunate that you know, sometimes we don't uh don't have a possibility to beg forgiveness from a person.
Still we we can repent and we can, you know, tell somebody about this and confide and get relief by by explaining it to others and with remorseful heart.
The main thing is that sincerely we should be remorseful but we should not accumulate the guilt again. The guilt is also very the guilt feeling it's actually guilt feeling is a fear, fear of consequences.
So we have to repent and not repeat it again, but not harbor this guilt inside. This is also not conducive for our spiritual life because guilt is a taking our you know sinking our consciousness puts it down.
If we're always in this guilt feeling. All these emotions they make us self-centered. Guilt feeling Forces us to think about ourselves only.
Whereas the whole idea of spiritual life is to think about others and ultimately think about Krishna, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto. The whole idea of spiritual life is this.
But when you're absorbed in these negative emotions, you only think you're only capable of thinking about yourself. So get it out and forget about it. I I mean forget about it in a proper way.
Be remorseful but not not live not feed yourself always with this. So that's the proper way.
Yes, pray as one thing that seems to come from this and when you said it was sending a letter back to Lee that's what's really happening.
Um I see the verses in chapter six, twenty-six to thirty-two, uh where Krishna says, observe me in everything.
And and uh he says uh and then it which sa uh there is a verse that sort of summarizes it for one who sees me everywhere and sees everything in me. I'm never lost. He's never lost to me.
And it seems that somehow Krishna's showing us what's in him. Yeah. And that it it's all coming from Krishna. It's it's it's um it's pointing out that uh we're the source of our our uh our difficulties.
But if we keep saying that Krishna's telling me that everything's coming from Krishna. Not that person, but it's coming from Krishna. It's an actual personal letter. Sort of like that.
If you are capable of doing this, then you're safe. No, that's true. That's true. Ultimately this is what we have to learn that it's all coming from Krishna. Because this whole our life is a learning experience.
And actually we learn more when something wrong is happening with us than something good is happening with us. So the bad lessons, quote unquote, bad lessons are good lessons.
And the good lessons, quote unquote are not so good lessons. The only reason I said it because when my marriage stood up, it seemed like my wife was at fault.
When I found that actually the faults that she left me for were actually in me and that I shouldn't be surprised. Actually then I I found this thing that actually oh always the problem.
That I I didn't see uh what was causing uh the effect of such a a difficult separation uh in my own life. There was a story when somebody came to Prabhupada and said, Prabhupada, I have a problem.
Prabhupada looked at him and said, you don't have a problem. You are a problem.
There there's another story where where someone was lamenting like anything you'd probably get patting them on the head and say, You have no problems. Which that's a harder one to uh understand some.
Desiring genuine freedom from internal flaws
Yes.
Sometimes we have a skeptic mentality like yes I have this problem, this weakness of the heart and so many things. But I'll just chant everything will go away. Is is that a skepticism uh rather than resolving it in a positive.
Yeah, that's an interesting question. Thank you very much. Yes, sometimes where you know Prabhupada, he said quite often that everything will come automatically.
And sometimes we are relying too much on this automatic thing that it will come automatically. But we have to understand what it means to come automatically.
You know, when when we chant Hare Krishna, uh, you know, the problems are being revealed to us which which we don't know. If we wouldn't chant we wouldn't even know that this problem exists in us.
But because we are chanting, uh, Krishna is showing by different means, by events of our life or even by our own introspection, we see the problem.
And then, you know, we really have to, at that moment, when we see the problem, we have to have the desire to get rid of the problem. If we say, okay, okay, okay, no problem, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, I will go on.
You will go on, and the problem will also go, the p- the- the- will go on. You know, the desire to get rid of it should be there because the main problem is not the problem.
The main problem is that we don't want to get rid of the problem. There is this beautiful story from the Saint Christian Saint Augustine's life. He was he wrote this confession.
And he said, When I was a young man, I was praying to God, my dear Lord, please take away my lust, but not now. So in the same way, we are praying to Lord, please take away the [lust], but not now. Not now.
I still need it for the time being. So the main problem is not that we have a problem, but the, you know the problem will be taken by the Lord. The main problem is that we hold on to the problem.
We don't want to, you know, to uh get rid of it. So when we see the problem and and then we say, okay, okay, I will chant Hare Krishna, it will disappear. No, that's not the proper mentality.
The proper mentality, the desire to get rid of it should be there. You know, I, you know, I, I, I want to be free from this. I don't want to.
Otherwise we say okay, okay, now okay, no problem, you know, it's it's a little problem, you know. I will chant Hare Krishna a little more and I will exercise this problem a little more. Let's see.
Because all our problems are also give us some benefits. The main problem is that all our problems are some adoptive mechanism of adaptation to this world. Envy is very good. How we can live without envy? Anger is very good.
Lust is fantastic. How can we live without lust? Greed is beautiful.
So we don't, even when we see it in us, and then if we are just kind of saying, you know, everything will go on automatically, you know, yeah, it may go on automatically for eight hundred lifetimes or more.
So therefore the desire should be there. I want to achieve love of God, and, uh, love of God can only be achieved if the heart is pure. There's no, uh, it's not compatible.
You know this beautiful verse of Raghunath das Goswami in his Manah-shiksha: pratiṣṭhā-āśā yā dhr̥ṣṭa-śvapaca-ramaṇī me hr̥di na ca sthitā, kathaṁ sādhu-premā spr̥śati,
you know, he says, how the pure prema, prema is pure, love is pure, sadhu-prema, will enter my heart if this unchaste woman of pride? Prostitute.
The obnoxious prostitute, dhr̥ṣṭa-śvapaca-ramaṇī, pratiṣṭhā-āśā, dhr̥ṣṭa-śvapaca-ramaṇī. She's eating the flesh, the dog-eating woman, prostitute is dancing in my heart. And that's envy.
You know, the Pratishta, the desire to be special, it's envy, it's the same thing. And he says, katham sādhu-premā spr̥śati. You know, it's it's not possible.
They are not compatible, you know, if there is some, uh, not very clean prostitute is living there, why pure prema enter the same place? So therefore, maryada is necessary, therefore discipline is necessary, and we follow the rules.
Initially, it's very difficult, you know, to follow the rules spontaneously. When you are when your heart is clean, then you follow the rules spontaneously.
Initially, you have to follow the rules because you're, as I said, you should become the slave of the rules. Of course, with understanding that this is not the highest. But ultimately, yes. Thank you.
Thank you for the nice talk. I was just thinking about the negative emotions when we have the hurt and everything, you said we can go and reveal it to somebody.
So the person who is on the receiving end of the negative emotions, if you are in a position where you are constantly hearing the negative emotions, then it will get affected.
But if you have somebody to reveal these negative emotions which are revealed to you, then you're still safe. But then that will be kind of a breach of confidentiality or breach of truth?
Uh no, you don't have to say the details to somebody else. You can just say that I got this painful meal of negative emotions. You don't have to get into details.