I would like to welcome our honoured guests. My very deep gratitude to everyone who has so kindly assembled this evening for this auspicious event. It is so crucial in today’s world that we make priority, the development of our character. Today I have been asked to speak on the subject of ‘ Conflict Resolution’. Is it possible for there to be an end to conflict in the world we live? Historically it Similarly, simply not possible. According to the Vedic scriptures guna yati karam… the three modes of material nature satva guna, rajo guna and tamo guna: goodness, passion and ignorance are constantly in conflict with one another. Goodness, passion and ignorance on the elementary state of primordial existence are always in conflict for supremacy.
The nature of the world is conflict. The cells on our body are dealing with conflict. According to the Bhagavad Gita the eight material elements within creation: bhumir apo nalo vayur kham mano bhudhir eva ca ahankara ityam me bhinna prakrtir astadha. The basic elements of Earth, Water, fire air and ether, the subtle elements are the mind, intelligence and the false ego.
The underlying subtle most of all element of creation is the False Ego. And all other elements are both evolving as well as resting upon the False ego. What is False Ego? The False sense of identity: apareyam itas tv anyam prakrtim viddhi me param. The Bhagavad Gita goes on in the next verse to explain: besides these eight gross and subtle elements there is another nature, a spiritual nature which is the source of consciousness, the source of life. And that is our real identity: that we are spirit souls, Atma. We are conscious beings. The gross and subtle elements of this world are like machines being driven by the soul. The subtle most entanglement of the soul is this false ego. janasya mohamham aham mameti… which brings us to the misconception of ‘I’, ‘ I am this body’ and that all the designations of this body are me. I am man or woman, I am black or red or yellow. I am American, or Indian, or Pakistani or Russian. I am Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Jain, Zoroastrians , Buddhist. I am rich, I am poor. These are all temporary designations. They are not really the self, because they all change. The body is constantly changing. When you were and infant baby, you looked completely different; cellularly you were a different person. Practically every cell of the body is changed in seven years. You can change religions; you can go from poor to rich, rich to poor. And today with our scientific technology; in the west it is very common to change your sex. Physiologically. In fact is has become so common that to get a driver’ license in Massachusetts, everybody get drivers license in America, one of the questions on the applications: If you had a sex change? And which sex you are now and what you were? It is actually that common. We could change our appearance with plastic surgery; we can change the colour of our body. Who are we? We can change our nationality, I know many Indians who become American citizens. Sometimes Americans become Indians. Usually for different reasons though. Are we the mind? The mind is always changing! What were you thinking about this time yesterday? Really difficult to say. Due to various influence our whole way of thinking about life can change. But still we are the same person. At the time of death, the physical body is the same except that there is no body home. The life force is gone. What is the difference between the living body and the dead body? Consciousness. What is the source of consciousness? It is the spiritual element called the atma or the spirit or the soul. That is who we are. That is our identity. It is this ahankar, this false ego that deceives us to identify with the temporary, external circumstances surrounding our soul. We think in terms of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. This is my wealth, this is my family, this is my intelligence, this is my property, this is my nation, this is my race, this is my religion. And therefore we find that in every aspect of life, in today’s world, it is being influenced, and often times manipulated by the false ego. My nation is better than yours. Why? Because it is mine. My religion is better than yours. Why? Because it is mine. My caste is better than your. Why? Because it involves me. There was a famous book recently written about how the world we are living in is becoming more and more a ‘me society’. Everyone’s reality is revolving around their conception of who they are. Our guru Maharaj gave a simple example. If you throw a stone in a pond – it creates circles that expand to the end of the pond. If every stone is thrown in the same central place, all the circles will flow out harmoniously. If you throw many stones in different parts of the pond, each will have their center. Therefore all the circles will collide. The water will become chaotic. Unless human beings understand our common relationship with one another there must be conflict – inevitable. What is it that we all have in common? In every great religious scripture God is the father and the mother. ‘aham bija pradapita..’
In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says that I a the seed giving father of all living beings. The sun that arise sin the eastern horizon has different names. According to the location that we are perceiving it is rising from. Actually the sun is rising in the same way always. It is not that it is rising differently in different days. It is our relative perspective according to the season, and according to how we are relatively situated on this earth planet that the sun appears to rise in different ways. In India some people will call the sun ‘Surya’. In South America ‘Son’. In America ‘Sun’. Practically every language has a different name for the same planet. Similarly, there is one God with different names; and people understand the different attributes of the unlimited on supreme Lord. And based on our relative differences in variety there is such special flavor there is such special excitement, there is such special qualities to love. The absolute truth has unlimited varigatedness that according to our perception, the ego, the False Ego, pollutes our consciousness and creates conflict. If you are taught two plus two is four, and I am taught three plus one is four, we could declare war on each other on that basis. We could terrorize each other on that basis. We could create systematic education for our children to hate and to despise the heretics that think that you can get to four through two plus two. But if you have higher knowledge, you can understand that they are both ways of approaching four. The False ego keeps our consciousness very small minded, in a isolated condition. So it is no wonder that historically there has always been conflict in this world. There is conflict between nations, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita: ‘sarva loka maheswaram..’ that the Supreme Lord is the proprietor of all that exists. If we simply accept that truth and become brothers and sisters, we can utilize God’s property according to God’s will, there is no conflict. But how many times in History has this world been divided up and redivided and redivided and redivided and it is still being divided. Practically the history of the world is the history of wars. In the country where I am from – there were peaceful native Americans living, but they were always at war wit each other. And then the European people came they conquered, there was a war, and sent the native Indians to what is called the reservation camps, which are like prisons. That was the British. But there were also some French, so there was a war between the French and the British. And the British won. And when the people living there, they did not want to be under the British – does that sound familiar? So there was a revolutionary war. There was a terrible war. Tens and hundred of people died. The declaration of independence—and America became independent fro war. But then there was the Spanish—American war. And after they conquered everything there was the North and the South which disagreed on some sociological and ethical Laws, economics as well –and there was the civil war. Hundreds and thousands were killed. Americans killing Americans, just based on which side of the Mason- Dickson line you happen to live. Brothers were fighting the battlefield against brothers. And it went on fro years. And then there was World War I , and thee was World Was II – the war that ended all wars. Then there was the Korean war, then there was the Vietnam war. Then the Iraqi war and the Afghanistan war and then another Iraqi war and then next war. And the countries have just been there for 200 years that many wars. And now it’s the most powerful and leading countries in the world. According to the Vedas it is said – jivo jivasya jivanam –this means that in this world whenever this is struggle for survival, one beings food is another being. Hari bol. Darwin called it the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ might is right in the animal kingdom the spider eats the fly, the cat eats the spider. The dog eats the cat, the tiger will eat the dog. Man will shoot the tiger – Yes — might is right. jivo jivasya jivanam…. Have we really evolved from the animal species? Evolution is not really talking about the body. The real evolution is the evolution of values, evolution of character, evolution of one’s human qualities. If we are not evolving that way then we are two legged sophisticated animals. Look at the history of the world — Might is right.
Alexander the great conquered so much of Europe, even conquered part of India. And there was Napoleon. He had such a powerful army. He just marched country, after country, after country, conquering, conquering, conquering; but he ended up in exile in Cyprus, a little Island with nothing. And then there was Hitler, he had a powerful army with powerful artillery and he just marched one nation after another. They just collapsed. France, the biggest army in Europe, collapsed in a matter of weeks. How powerful – Might is right.
The tiger against the lamb. And he ended up dying underground like a rat – punar mushtika bhava….. Nothing remains in this world. And here in India the Mughals conquered for many centuries and the British conquered the Mughals; and with the help of Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash chandra Bose, Britan was driven out of India. But we are without conflict? Since independence 3 wars with Pakistan and unofficial wars going on since. The world is a history of conflicts. Conflict between races. I grew up in America during the civil rights movement. People with the black colour of skin were not allowed in the same school. Not allowed to use the same bathrooms. Not allowed to use the same drinking fountains. Had to enter back of the bus and stay at the back of the bus simply because of the colour of their skin.
Persecution, prejudice on the basis of Might is right. Dr. Martin Luther King gave this famous speech that he had a dream that a day will come when his children will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the qualities of their character. And here in India we had the perverted concept of the caste system, which in many places is socially accepted as Indian tradition. It has nothing to do with Indian tradition. According to the Vedas the Varnashrama system is a very sacred system where everyone is encouraged to perform their duties according to their natural inclinations and everyone is the part of the social body working together for the welfare of everyone. But now we are born in a certain caste, we are labeled that for life. So much prejudice, so much desentation. It is not based on scriptures; it is based on the false ego – Might is right.
Intellectual might, physical might, financial might. When I was lecturing in Colleges in America, there was a professor of economics. He was teaching for 13 years. He told me that the whole subject of economics can be summed up in just one or two sentences; and if we just understand this the problems of Economics is solved. The Economic problem is that: Every living being has unlimited desires and there is limited resources within this world to facilitate people’s desires. But people are always fighting, always competing. Look at business today, without ethics, without character, without values how people with such high, big positions are exploiting the very people who have given their lives to make them big. That is what the Enron and Worldcom scandal was about. The big people cheating the people that made them big. It shaked America by its very roots. People are questioning what is the use of money? What is the use of power and prestige if you are just such an animal? So much of corruption in politics all over the world. So some are sophisticated in the way they are corrupt than the others, but there is so much pollution, exploitation wherever there is power.
Conflict amongst sexes:
Physically man is stronger sex. Women have been exploited. One of the greatest blemishes on India’s character in the rest of the world is caused by documentaries that are shown on TV on satellites; showing how women are abused and tortured by men in India. They are aborted simply because they are female. Some are sold to be prostitutes. Some are slaves. Some burnt for dowries. I am not saying that this is prevalent, but this is what the world is seeing on TV. And why to western people so much pick up? Because the women of the west have been exploited so long. Do you know, up until a couple of hundred years ago, according to certain doctrines of the religions of the west, the women did not have soul like animals don’t have souls. That is not a very scientific understanding of what is the soul. But at one time, according to certain Christian denominations women did not have souls. Then they decided that they did have souls. They weren’t allowed to vote because they were low class citizens. Some women had to risk their lives. Demonstrations and mass boycotts just to get the right to vote. This is America, my dear friends!!! Recently, within, the last couple of centuries, so now there is another women’s liberation movement. It is a backlash. But if women are protected, respected then there is no need for liberation. But if you are treated like a prisoner, then you want liberation.
Conflict on the basis of Ego:
And how much conflict is there within families today. I am giving some examples from America, simply because I know that many of you college students are very much looking to America simply because for your future and you are importing so much of America. I first came to India in 1970 sand I thought that I escaped that competitive, materialistic, ego centric culture. And now I come back and I see – I wont give too many examples—America is everywhere. The technology, the economy. There is nothing wrong in taking the wealth of America as long as you maintain your integrity and character. But the problem is – it is hard to separate one side of the coin from another. What do call the two sides? – In the west they call ‘Heads’ and ‘Tails’. Here also heads and tails?
Can you take the heads and leave besides the tails? If you pick up the coin you take both the sides. If you take America’s culture then you have to take everything. You don’t have to, but that is what normally happens. The divorce rate 67% and this is 10 years ago. 10 years ago I saw a federal statistics 67% marriages are divorcee within three years of putting on the wedding ring. First there is the wedding ring, then there is the suffering; and one of my friends in America told me a realization about a third ring , the ring on the phone from his wife’s lawyer that she is filing for divorcee.
Why is this? Almost 67% of marriages are divorcee. That is unthinkable in India. And what are the consequences of divorcee? Terrible. One of the greatest reasons for mental illness is the trauma of going through divorcee. People suffer depression and even suicidal tendencies going through this ordeal. And a few years before, it was romance. It was made in Hollywood my friends.
They would gaze him and see the stars and the moon in each other’s eyes and now they are seeing red hot coal in each others eyes and what happens to the children such a trauma, little children. The mother and the father that they love and depend upon, they are fighting, they are separating, they are divorcing, they are getting remarried. Don’t you think that is confusing to the psychological condition of the child?
I remember, I was a little boy. Once my mother said your father is a good person and everyone likes me, but we might have to get divorced and I started to cry and I was about 6 years old. I cried. I was so confused. How is this? My mother told my father – that he cried. So they said we will never divorcee. We can’t do this to our children; and last May they celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary.
That is integrity, that is compassion. That is what parents are supposed to do. Marriage is not simply meant to enjoy. Marriage is responsibility. Responsibility to each other as husband and wife. Responsibility for the mental, physical and spiritual well being of the children. Do you know that 92% and this is Federal statistics; 92% of juvenile deliquescence in the United States of America is children coming from divorced or broken house parents. 97% of juveniles in prison are coming from broken marriages. But people like to politely trying to protect their own desires and needs by saying – “ We will do it smoothly, it wont disturb the children.”
In the Bhagavad Gita, this is one of Arjuna’s primary arguments not to fight that war of the Kurukshetra. There will be varna-sankara. The children will not have the proper way of being brought up. If so many men are killed, the women would be widows. They will be unprotected. What will happen to the children? They are the future of the world. It is very difficult. Why so much conflict within marriage? Because instead of thinking in terms of ‘we’, we are thinking in terms of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ – selfishness, false ego.
And then there is conflict between individuals, within each person. The mind is filled with such conflict. And actually this Similarly, the basis of all conflict. The conflict in individual person’s mind. We find people like Hitler, was a troubled, abused child. And he took it out on the world. Having power is very dangerous if it is in the wrong hands.
Let us examine the conflict within the mind. According the World Health Organization the number three worst disease that causes suffering in death is mental illness. And according to the World Health Organization, within the next 30 years, mental illness will be the number 1 disease causing pain, suffering and death in the world; worst than the death of Herps or hepatitis C or cancer or heart disease. People’s minds are disturbed. They are in conflict. Conflict between good and evil. Conflict between what should be done and what shouldn’t be done.
People are frustrated and it is not that material solutions solve frustration. The highest rate of suicide is in the upper classes not the lower classes. People are troubled due to inner conflict. That is the basis of all other conflicts that this world is suffering.
Our guru Maharaj gave a nice for example, that today there is such technological, scientific improvements from just one generation back. When I was a little boy, there was only black and white TV with at the most 3 channels in a big city and you had to get up and turn it. Can you image? Now there is colour TV with 100 or 200 channels. You are just sitting in the bed and just…and there is ….. and everything. I was in a lady’s house in Malavy beach. She had a wall, a marble wall with 8 Television sets; and she had 1 remote control that can control all of them simultaneously, so she wasn’t missing anything.
What do we have today? Look at the automobiles, look at the planes.. and when I was small, I remember, as soon as everyone got into those planes they looked into their pockets to make sure that they had their vomit bags. Nobody even looks anymore. So much improvement. . Stereo systems, communications. Just a few decades ago you had to mail letters. When I was in India in 1970, I would aerogramme. They would get 2 weeks to get to America. Now you can send message to America in 2 seconds without postage. A lot of progress. But there is a pinprick in the society. Suicide, alcoholism, divorcee, juvenile deliquesce, mental illness is on the rise. Your getting a PhD and a good job in America is not going to solve that problem. It can solve other problems. But the real problem that everyone is facing is we are looking for happiness. We are looking for love. we are looking for relationships with love and we don’t have that, nothing could substitute it. You can decorate yourself with diamonds and rubies; PhDs’ and big, big powerful positions in society; but inside you are a hollow, empty shell unless you have satisfaction and love and that is a fact.
When I was a little boy, one of the third wealthiest man in the world – his son dies and I remember reading in paper, I was five to six years old. He said I will never find another day of happiness in my life because my son is dead. And I was thinking what is the use of millions and billions of dollars? His power to control governments, his power to control industries, his power to control ten and millions of people’s lives. He is not happy. I am .. ….. is that what I want in life? If we are happy, we are peaceful within ourselves, then naturally we will generate peace wherever we go. But if we are greedy, we are selfish, if we are egoistic; we are going to spread that vibration.
Let us from a very Physiological and scientific perspective try to understand what kind of vibrations are in the world today. The satellite television 10 stations – yes sometimes 200 stations and how amazing it is. Anywhere you are, practically anywhere you turn on the television and immediately there is the show. Is it not incredible? And you press the next button, the next show. First there is a cricket match, then there is a romantic scene, there is a monster killing a lady, there is the weather report, there is some adventure movie with special effects. There is the news about what is happening in Ethiopia. How is this …. And immediately it picks it up. It is not that we send a requisition to the station and a week later there is some …
SIDE B
That vibration is right here. Everything that happens in the world sends out vibrations into the cosmos. Every word a person speaks, every thought a person thinks, and every action a person performs is creating a vibration. And the world is simply filled with all the vibrations; they are all like different channels and each and everyone of us are antennas and we are also, both —- transmitting antennas and receiving antennas. This is factual. According to what you tune your consciousness into that is the vibration you are going to be influenced by, because every vibration is everywhere. Does everyone agree with this? It is very important. There is a saying: Show me who you associate with and I will tell you who you are. Associations moulds a person’s character. This is so essential. Some people, wherever they go in the world, they see hope, they see opportunities, according to the program stations their consciousness their consciousness is tuned into. If your are tuned into the business channel, then everywhere you go you will be thinking in terms of how could I make money here. Yes, I have talked to business people. Wherever they go, even if they are on vacation they are thinking terms of how I could exploit the situation and use the situation to make profit. , Yes, myself there is no way I think on these terms. That’s why I dress like this. I am just not tuned in. some people they are tuned into their various passions and they are just looking for an object to just feel some sensual gratification from it. A terrorist is tuned into that station. Wherever he is going he is thinking – in terms of very fanatical conception how to achieve our goal. A saintly person who is tune into the love of God, because he tuned in to that station, that person he or she is seeing God everywhere. Seeing every living being as a part of God, as a child of God. Such a person feels unconditional love for every living entity because he sees everyone in relationship to his of her beloved Lord. Simply because he is tuned into the original nature of his own soul. That is the best, the highest purpose of human life – to tune into the real needs of our conscious soul. The soul is part of God. The soul is beyond all sectarian designations. The souls only need is to find the satisfaction of love. Today’s world there is so much unethical behavior and even if good person due to the temptation goes bad. Why? Because they have a week foundation therefore throughout the ages, it has been thought the only real ethical and moral basis to life is spiritual. It is based on scientific spiritual truth. Not sentimental, ritualistic, superstitious fanaticism. If we understand the nature of consciousness and the nature of God, we understand all we need. We are part of that God the souls need is to love God. Who doesn’t want to love? Who doesn’t want to be loved? Such a species does not exist. Everyone is looking for pleasure – ananda mayo bhyasat….the ultimate pleasure is love. But we are looking for love that is ever lasting. We are everlasting, our relation with the Supreme is everlasting; but in forgetfulness of that we are pursuing the impasses of the false ego, trying to find alternatives to that love – to the pleasure of power, wealth, sensual enjoyment or mental enjoyments. But inside we are hollow shells. Because there is loneliness, there is need. When we have a spiritual foundation based on scientific proof, scientific faith, then any temptation that comes in our life, we will never give up our morality or our ethics. If we don’t have the spiritual foundation then our life is built on the foundation of sand. If we are going to take a loss, if we are going to loose prestige, we will give up our morality. If there is an opportunity for bigger profits, bigger position – forget ethics. If there Similarly, some competitor that we want to defeat forget our ethics. There is too many temptations in this world. Too many storms that will come in our lives that will blow our morality and ethics down, unless it is built on permanent foundation of faith.
This is the biggest problem in the world. This is the cause of conflicts in the world – individual and collective. If people do not have proper foundations in their lives to live with character, to live with integrity, to live with honesty, morality, compassion and love. This is not an intangible concept. It is within all of us. Thee is a story in the Srimad Bhagavatam. Do I have your permission to tell the story?
In this story, there is a avadhoot, he is living with nothing material, that is what is material, they just don’t even concern themselves with material conventions, they are in the other realm of consciousness. So this avadhoot met king Yadu. This great emperor saw that he is a religious man, he wanted to learn from him. The man said I have twenty-four gurus. And he explained his gurus. How the earth, the mountains, the sun, the moon, so many gurus, the trees, the rivers, the sky, the clouds, the pigeons, kokila birds. I am going to tell you about one of his gurus. There was an unmarried lady, and she was really trying to find a good husband. So one day in her father’s house, several men very distinguished gentlemen came to her house to see the prospects to see whether she would be a worthy wife. She was a very poor lady as far as material wealth, so she had to go and cook for them, so she was making rotis in the back room and in the back room when she was making the rotis, she had many bangles on her wrist and they were going …… and she was thinking that if they hear my bangles, they already saw my bangles, if they hear my bangles, then they will know that I am so poor that I don’t have a cook, that I have to cook myself for my guests. So they wont want to marry me. So this noise was unfavorable. So she took all but two bangles off each hand and then she continued baking the rotis and there was ting.. ting.. still there was noise, so she took one more bangle off.
So there was only one bangle on each wrist, then there was no noise. That is why she is his guru, because she found the solution to no noise. So he explained his purport, that because in this world everyone is thinking in terms of I and mine, everyone has their opinion, everyone has their ego, everyone has their ideals, everyone has their identifications, everyone has their religions of their philosophical convictions and therefore wherever there is a group of people there is conflict. And even if there is two people there is conflict. Have any of you ever tried to live with someone? Has there been conflict? There has to be. So he said that is why I am an avadhoot, I am all-alone, I am not with anybody, because I am peaceful. As soon as I mix with any other human being, there is conflict. I have the same realization. I was living in Himalayas in the caves 33 years ago. And there were leopards, and there was snakes and there was monkeys and there so many other nice insects, and actually there was no problem. When I came down to New Delhi, so many problems. So many problems. You know, You are just walking down a street …… you go to a office you have to stand in the line. So many problems. People. So wherever there is 2 false egos, that means two stones are going into two different ponds in this world and there is collision. Because our centers are different. Because I am thinking in terms of ‘me’ and you are thinking in terms of you. So there is potential problem there. Now I will tell you a higher purport than the avadooth’s. as long as there is this ego, you see this girl was thinking in terms of “ I need a husband”, yes, therefore, there was a problem with that noise, there was a conflict. But if she gets married to a prince, and she becomes a princess, and she is given dozens of golden bangles, and everywhere she goes it is going …is that a problem? Does that create conflict? No, the husband is charmed by the sound. Even she is charmed by the sound. Everybody is charmed by the sound. Why? Because all the sounds are actually in harmony, in unity, because she is connected, her center is connected, because there is love in her life. But without that connection, just like, after a few minutes, if I ever stop speaking, I am sorry, we are going to have kirtans, there might be six or seven hundred people in this room, everyone would be chanting together, will there be conflict? Because we all free of ego, at least for this purpose, we are showing our love for God with each other, we are showing our united love for God…and therefore the more the … because there is harmony. Because we have the same center. To glorify Krishna. Therefore we all sing, we all chant, and it is beautiful, but if we were all in a political arena, we would all be arguing like anything. If you go to the stock exchange, everybody is arguing like anything. Debating, hitting, trying to defeat each other. Same amount of people. So if we have a common center, then we develop love for the center in our own life. Then our love naturally flows spontaneously towards every living being who we have something in common with and we all have something in common with, we are all brothers and sisters. Unless we actually awaken deep compassion within our hearts, we will simply be a part of the problem in this world, we will not be a part of the solution. It is a fact. If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem. And the basic problem is something spiritual. You will … conflict in the world. Krishna appeared in the world, and even though He was personally directly here, there was still conflict in the battle of Kuruksherta, because God gives everyone their free will. Throughout the ages—
Jesus Christ appeared within this world as the son of God, to spread peace and love, and even in his time his disciples were persecuted. He was crucified. So much conflict. The prophet Mohammad came to this world to teach the laws of God, to teach harmony and still in his life there was so much war, persecution and conflict. I own beloved guru Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada gave his life to give love to the world, but yet there was so much persecution and bigotry against him. Because he was of a different colour than the Americans. Because he was teaching a religion that appeared to be something different although the essence is the same, to love God. He taught — that any religious system that teaches people to love God, to be compassionate to others, to be self satisfied within oneself, to be moral and live with integrity and character, that is religion. It is not a matter of this ‘ism’ or that ‘ism’. It is a matter of transforming, changing our hearts. You are all young men with very, very bright, prosperous futures, and that is wonderful, the more you have the more you have the more could do great benefit to the world. If you are motivated by love rather than envy, peace rather than greed, compassion rather than cruelty, selflessness rather than selfishness. Do you know practically every major university in the Western world was originally was founded by religious people. Harvard, Oxford, Oberlin. Practically all of them were started by Christian monks, by religious orders. The purpose of university is to develop people’s internal integrity. The purpose of university is to train people to have proper moral, spiritual character – that is the foundation of every great college and University historically in the world. May be maximum of the new ones, but they got their idea from these religious people. The technical training is to be built upon the foundation of their spiritual ethical training. So that they could make the world a better place. You saw this nice multi media demonstration. What is Isaac Newton? Isaac Newton, yes, that model of the Universe. I could hear it from the other room. He was a religious man. Science began with religious spiritual people. They wanted to glorify God from scientific research. They didn’t want to try to understand if there is a God but they were discovering God’s incredible miraculous creative powers to glorify God. All the sciences had their beginning with spiritual roots. But as man progressed or evolved in technology, scientists and academics they felt, they became proud. Secularism, in the true sense means you follow whatever religion but we are not going to impose any particular religion.
But when secularism competes with religion or undermines religion, well let us say spirituality, then it is destroying the basic foundational substance of humanity. So you are college students and you are getting good training from your colleges, but if you want to do something with that training, that is going to give you inner satisfaction, if you want to actually help resolve the conflict within the human society, you must develop more ethical, spiritual character, not based on blind faith or superstition, based on the scientific understanding of the nature of you, and the greatest need you have in your life. Conflict resolution – there are many mechanical processes to help in this regard – there is mediation and there is seminars and so many ways of managerial organization and political ways of dealing with conflict. There is the physiatrist and psychologists and marriage councilors; and if you want to learn on that level, there are many to teach and that may be useful, but tonight what we are speaking on is the spiritual point of view. The basis the source the reason, unless we spiritually clean our hearts of lust, envy, anger, greed, pride and illusion, there will be conflict within us and we will be tuned in to all the conflict around us. When people become intoxicated, they are tuning to all the vibrations that are floating around the atmosphere, they are in the tamo guna, the ignorance. And they become influenced in a both subtle and gross ways because they become they become tuned in to that intoxicated condition. It is very important that we associate with people and associate with activities and words that help us to tune in to those vibrations that will enlighten us rather than degrade us, will bring us peace, happiness and love rather than passion, greed and ego. This is essential. This chanting of the Holy names of the Lord, it is not a sectarian conception, at our temple we chant the Mahamantra : Hare Krishna Mantra. Krishna is not a sectarian idea; Krishna means all attractive, reservoir of all pleasure, source of all love. That is the meaning of Krishna. When we chant the name of the Lord, what we are actually doing is we are tuning in our consciousness to that station to that channel; we are tuning our consciousness to the spiritual channel that goes to directly to the very essence of our heart, our soul. That directly connects us with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And through that influence all the energies, all the grace of the Parampara all the grace and the mercy of the saintly people, the pious people, all the avatars. We are tuning ourselves to that vibration. And we become influenced, we become moulded, be become cleansed. But when we tune in to some television station that’s what we are tuned into, the consciousness of all the producers, and all the owners and everybody else who is watching, we are tuned into that, like an antenna, we are receiving, receiving, receiving in and our consciousness is subtly and subconsciously being affected. It is so important, what we tune our consciousness into, what we are going to connect our hearts with. That will decide who we are, and what we could do for humanity.
Is there any questions?
Q.) You were telling about the conflict in the materialistic people, we have conflicts in the religionists also, those who follow religion, they are also sometimes found.. they cannot control their senses. There is conflict in their minds also. How would you like to answer this question? Religionists having conflict?
Ans. Very much … religious conflict is one of the most horrible aspects of our human history. Hatred, sectarianism on the basis of differences in belief. The problem is as we explained, is the partial understanding or the false ego manipulated for its own purpose under the guise of religion. It is very dangerous and it is destroyed peoples faith throughout the ages. The greatest blow to true religion is hypocrisy and sectarianism. Our guru Maharaj explained that philosophy without religion or devotional faith is simply mental speculation, religion or devotional faith without philosophy is generally ether sentimentalism or fanaticism. The harmony of philosophy and religion. Our beloved guru Maharaj, would explain it is the science of self realization, Sanatana dharma, which is actually the name of the religion of the Vedas. Dharma means, ones nature, the dharma of sugar is that it is sweet, the dharma of the chilly pepper is that it is hot. The dharma of water is liquid. If you put the water in an artificial condition, it is becomes solid, but as soon as it is in a natural environment, it is liquid. That innate nature that is the essence of the thing is its dharma. It is the dharma of every living being to serve. We cannot live without serving. We are either serving our leaders or our leaders have to serve us. We are serving our family, we are serving our employers, we are serving our employees, we are serving our mind, we are serving our senses. We paying taxes serving the government. We cannot live without service. Sanatana means eternal. Our eternal nature is to serve God with love. That is our nature. that that is religion. When we have a philosophical understanding we use the for example, of 2 + 2 is four. In this senses it is like a hundred. There s not just a few ways to approach, there is many
