the way we look at present as a perverted reflection of our spiritual features a part of the perfect appears to be imperfect the revealed truth gives us infinite perspective so spiritual culture is about recalibrating your position on the basis of your reality potential as a soul in self-expression a dedicating unit a unit that's capable of dedicating every atom of its existence to something higher who am i jeeves krishna you're the eternal servant of the all loving all all-beautiful all-ecstatic personality of godhead jiva has a partto play in the eternal pastimes of the lord if my position is in the per not in the timber world in the permanent world as an eternal ecstatic serviture that's a life of love with krsna and his entourage what am i doing here janma mr jarab [Music] that what's the darshan of this world what's the philosophical perspective that we should understand that there are four inescapable types of suffering janma mirthyu jara biadibirth death old age disease reminds me there was a a tv show in the 1960s and it would begin i could only watch the beginning because it was like late at night but i like the beginning an old venerable doctor would take a piece of chalk and there was a blackboard and he would make symbols he'd write man woman birth death and then infinity and then the show would start that was my favorite part infinity non-woman birth death infinity the gentleman with you dharma art different things in different ways it'sbeen described one definition of shudra one who laments it means like he goes oh who's wailing in lamentation and what did guru maharaj say one who accepts this world as all in all will end up in lamentation you enter this world in lamentation and most likely leave in lamentation and suffer a fair amount of lamentation in between [Laughter] sometimes like it's a never-ending series of humiliations so sometimes we hear we've heard that freud when asked what was the purpose of psychoanalysis said to convertneurotic suffering into ordinary suffering everyone thought oh he's going to say the purpose of psychoanalysis and is to make people happy that's not what he said is it the purpose to convert neurotic suffering into ordinary suffering you have to suffer you have to suffer in life but not to the degree that you're dysfunctional uh and suffering from neuroses hopelessness helplessness this is a realistic assessment of our selves and our present situation so when you reach this state and have the courage to admit you're hopelessthat it's uh the humanists but they they don't um berate addicts and alcoholics but rather say oh what courage it takes for them to acknowledge that yes and then you see a transformation can take place in a similar way it takes courage to recognize what the human situation is not only can you not help others in any truly lasting sense you cannot even help yourself that's the fact that the facts of the matter anyone we don't mean temporary help we're talking about permanent lasting all right sodoing it when you can admit that then you can that disappointment with your mundane prospect leads you to seek your reality potential and not in the humanistic sense but in the spiritual sense prabhupad put it very nicely he said the materially exhausted those who have exhausted all material possibilities they've tried everything it's not they haven't tried or put energy into it they've put expended so much energy like in the mata vendrapuri so i've been the most obedient servant of my lust anger greed of my desires mysense i've served them so uh you know attentively and fully and non-stop for so long and they won't give me a break so and and i have not achieved happiness of course uh material science technology they're always telling you know happiness is right around the corner it's in the next update uh a couple years from now wait until you see what happens in the future you know the the futurists so those who are materially exhausted who it means they've stopped searching for inner fulfillment in the external world in theobjective world and they've concluded that it can only be achieved in the internal subjective world and then we have to introduce the concept of prejudice and prayers prayers what appears to be immediately beneficial and long-term benefit if we are eternal then we we need to uh redirect ourselves towards long-term benefit so this simple type of analysis you don't have to be a genius to follow this so if it's then it's not the body that defines the self atma it's not the mind that defines the selfor the intellect where then we start approaching where the soul is located so how that soul should proceed on the basis of their individual position how should they make progress and move forward where will they get that direction from from their acquire the acquired tendency they've have the way they've been calibrated by their false ego and acquired prejudice and tendency to read environmental circumstances will that be the best way for them to proceed i don't think so they're getting false readings false egomeans a false read of the environment who you are and what your relationship is that uh and for lack of you know a better word it's unscientific right it wouldn't be acceptable in science you'd have to recalibrate so what's required is a change of perspective to see things differently how will that be achieved in connection with sadhu shastra guru vaisnav who's the perspective acharya sambandagyan sanatan gosvami to identify where am i not who am i where am i what am i what is my pr my present gps i need toknow i need to know my spiritual gps because the gps of this world is always changing right but what is where am i in relation to the goal prior john right the goal that life of love with the swarup and the divine form in the upper world in the service of the lotus feet of krishna where am i at present in relation to that and what can i do from my present position to make progress toward that plane and that identity right need to reconceive our reality potential reality with reality the beautiful the ultimate realityis beauty beauty personified love personified that krishna it's not impossible so that sort of direction can only come this guru is we have one chapter and search for shri krishna called knowledge above mortality has to be knowledge that's beyond limited world usefulness means descending what's descending into this plane through divine agency in other words do you think it would be a good i if if you could talk to krishna right now and say krishna what should i do do you think that would be valuableand do you think he would give like a proper that he said no but you don't understand my situation he goes no i do i expand through paramatma i'm fully aware of no no let me explain some things to you like have happened recently no i'm also aware of those things no but i mean do you really know how i feel about all this i think i know how you feel about it too right so the absolute personality of godhead have an idea about what your situation is and what happened the guy this afternoon you don't understand like what happenedno i mean you should know what happened right and so and then you can say well i i produce see because i can like see a lot of stuff i made these books that have like this type of advice in it and then i've got like people who can interpret them and if you connect with them they can give you some good guidance are you sure i'm pretty sure about it you know i like thawed it out way in advance been doing this like creation after creation gets old after a while i mean what are we thinking we're thinking god some character on asitcom right he can just just laugh it off the absolute entity the supreme reality uh our uh you know we're and as the writers we cherish being the lords of our skull-sized kingdoms right and we're suspicious of allowing any sort of divine revelation or suggestion enter that domain so we're the cause of our own misfortune uderate ahmanat manam not mana yatmano bandur atmana so krishna tells arjuna your mind's your sense of self you can say because i mean it says well the mind taking the mindas the best advisor of yourself not a good idea according to krishna bhagavad-gita same but it can become friendly to you and your needs necessities your mission your purpose your direction if it can become infused with spiritual consideration that becomes known to us through the agency sadhu sastra guru and vaishnav just as in one place srila prabhupad says in the purport in the bhagavad-gita and i'm paraphrasing but he says when one realizes that material existence is a constant source of perplexity at every step he said it behoovessuch a person to approach the spiritual master brahman the those incredibly fortunate souls wandering suffering and joy and the reactions of their karmic karma the fortunate souls come in contact with krsna's agent [Music] [Music] means treasure saying in this sangsara world the most valuable treasure is to get the association of the devotees of krishna and we find them more appreciable when we're coming froman acknowledged hopeless helpless circumstance so saying the kind of faith you have in krishna divinity if you can have that kind of faith in vaishnava and guru then everything will be revealed to you deep sensual and experience can be in the mundane sense can be even deeper more intense greater intensity and magnitude in the spiritual experience but where would that be awakened and association with those who have that and that's what we're told that will happen in association with those who have somegenuine hunger and appetite for krishna consciousness if you can't follow what they're saying serve them and what's in them will be transferred to you attachment to krishna to devotion to devotees that will be awakened in your own heart so everything well when i assess myself this is the conclusion i come to yes so therefore place your faith in the lotus feet of guru and vaisnava guru and goranga say yes by my own likely to have some inauspicious outcome therefore i'm offering myself to you please instruct me tell me i don't knowwhat to do what's good for me what's bad i don't know these things so i'm placing my faith in the advice of guru and vaishnav saru shastra guru and vaishnava and i'm going to earnestly proceed along those lines and as guru maharaj said and if you're sincere you will emerge victorious you will be successful sincerity is invincible pursuing education there's no guarantee that you'll become einstein but that's not an argument against education still you'll become educated as far as possible and and you'llbenefit from that same thing with spiritual education you