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How Can We Avoid Giving-up When Our Perfectionism Takes Over? · Inspiration and Transformation

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Inspiration and Transformation from the Banks of the
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  Speaker 1: Ganga with Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati, an American Sanyasi living at
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  Speaker 1: the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India. Sadhvi is president
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of the Divine Shakti Foundation, a charitable organization bringing education,
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  Speaker 1: vocational training, upliftment, and empowerment programs to women and children.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Sadhvi is also Secretary-General of the Global Interfaith Wash Alliance
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and Director of the world-famous International Yoga Festival. Join the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: musings of an American sannyasi as Sadhvi shares the wisdom
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and teachings of her guru, His Holiness, Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswataji.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Welcome everyone to Inspiration and Transformation, from the holy banks
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: of the sacred Ganga River in the land of Rishikesh, India.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: What happens when perfectionism leads to such disturbance inside that you.
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  Speaker 3: End up quitting?
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  Speaker 2: Perfectionism is actually a defense mechanism. We yearn for perfectionism.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: We learn for perfection, rather. We learn for perfection. Because
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  Speaker 2: inside of us, we feel lacking in some way. And
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  Speaker 2: so that constant, constant drive that everything has to be perfect.
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  Speaker 2: Everything I do has to be perfect. Everything everyone else
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  Speaker 2: does around me, for me.
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  Speaker 3: Has to be perfect.
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  Speaker 2: This is actually a defense mechanism. Keeping me from having
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  Speaker 2: to sit in my own humanity. Because the truth is,
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  Speaker 2: the only thing that's perfect is God. So on the
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  Speaker 2: core level, we're all perfect. Like every flower is perfect.
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  Speaker 2: Every tree is perfect. Everything in creation is perfect at
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  Speaker 2: the core.
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  Speaker 4: As our.
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  Speaker 2: Attachment to the body, to the story, to the role,
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  Speaker 2: to my identification, this false identification, as my body, as
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  Speaker 2: my career, as my role, as my bank account, as
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  Speaker 2: my name and fame, popularity, whatever, as that grows, well,
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  Speaker 2: I want it all to be perfect because striving for
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  Speaker 2: that perfection keeps me from having to sit in the
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  Speaker 2: awareness of my own humanity, of that sense inside me,
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  Speaker 2: which most of us have on some level or another,
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  Speaker 2: that I'm not quite good enough, not quite beautiful enough,
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  Speaker 2: not quite smart enough, not quite successful enough, not quite
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  Speaker 2: popular enough. And so if I can just make everything perfect,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: then I don't have to look at that inside of me.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: So I'm all for sincerity. We should do our best.
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  Speaker 2: But perfectionism actually is a virus. It does lead to disturbance.
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  Speaker 2: It does lead to suffering because Almost nothing in life
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  Speaker 2: can't not be improved upon, right? I mean, the only
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  Speaker 2: things really that could be quote unquote perfect would be
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  Speaker 2: things that are like solutions to math problems, where there
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  Speaker 2: actually is only one absolute solution.
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  Speaker 3: Otherwise, you have a beautiful garden. It's gorgeous. Could you improve?
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  Speaker 3: Of course. You're a beautiful singer.
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  Speaker 2: You're amazing.
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  Speaker 3: Is somebody out there better than you are? Of course.
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  Speaker 3: You're baking a cake. It's wonderful.
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  Speaker 2: Is it the best cake ever baked? Does it have
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  Speaker 2: absolutely exactly the perfect blend of sugar to this, to that?
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  Speaker 3: Probably not. But does it matter?
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  Speaker 2: We give up our joy and our peace in this
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  Speaker 2: unfulfillable craving for perfection. That'll really never come unless you're
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  Speaker 2: solving a math problem. Instead of that, as far as
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  Speaker 2: who you are, as far as your spiritual practice, realize
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  Speaker 2: you're already perfect. Because you're divine, you're consciousness. What is
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  Speaker 2: not perfect about a soul? What is not perfect about consciousness?
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  Speaker 2: There's nowhere to improve.
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  Speaker 3: That which.
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  Speaker 2: We're working on, our human existence, a skill we have,
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  Speaker 2: a task we're doing, a job we're doing, some aspect
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  Speaker 2: of our emotions.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's great. Do your best. Learn as much as
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  Speaker 3: you can.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Strive. This is what Bhagavan Krishna tells us in the
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Bhagavad Gita. Stand up. Do it to the very best
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  Speaker 2: of your ability. But you don't have any control over
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: that outcome. And as far as you're in your humanness,
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  Speaker 2: you're never gonna be perfect. And so in our humanness,
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  Speaker 2: we have to work on letting go, of enjoying the journey,
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  Speaker 2: the work, striving, doing our best, fulfilling our highest potential,
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  Speaker 2: then raising the bar, going even higher.
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  Speaker 5: Why not?
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  Speaker 3: Keep learning. Keep improving. Why not? It's beautiful.
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  Speaker 2: But never, ever, ever hold perfection as the goal. A,
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  Speaker 2: you'll never get there. B, it's going to constantly disturb you.
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  Speaker 2: And C, if you find that you are a serial perfectionist,
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  Speaker 2: It means there's probably some stuff inside you need to
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  Speaker 2: look at. Can you exhale.
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  Speaker 3: Into your humanity? Here I am.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, I get angry sometimes. Here I am. Can't
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  Speaker 2: carry a tune. Here I am. Good at some things,
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  Speaker 2: not good at other things. touched by some things, not
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  Speaker 2: touched by other things, here we all are in our humanity.
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  Speaker 3: And it's beautiful.
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  Speaker 2: Like any flower garden or fruit garden, different types of fruit,
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  Speaker 2: even within the same species of fruit, different sizes, some
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  Speaker 2: are juicier, some are less juicy.
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  Speaker 3: It's part of the package. But find within you.
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  Speaker 2: That perfect divine because.
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  Speaker 3: That's the core of who you are. It's already perfect.
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  Speaker 2: Regardless of your bank account, regardless of your career, regardless
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  Speaker 2: of your physical body, regardless of your followers on Facebook
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  Speaker 2: or your relationships or anything. Anchor into that and then
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  Speaker 2: enjoy your humanity. Do your best at the things you're
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  Speaker 2: good at. Learn to do things that you're not so
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  Speaker 2: good at. But give up the whole idea of perfection.
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  Speaker 2: The only thing you should try to be perfect about
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  Speaker 2: is your sincerity. If you can't do it sincerely, don't
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  Speaker 2: do it at all. Be perfect in your sincerity. That
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  Speaker 2: whatever you're doing, you're giving it your all. Bakito is just.
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  Speaker 3: In God's hand.
• 9:16
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• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to Inspiration and Transformation. I'm so glad to
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: have you all back here with me. So, there's two pieces,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and they are... equally important. Number one, we are not
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  Speaker 2: separate from the world. There's not world and then me.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: We are part of the world. We are in fact
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: creating the world. Each of us is an active co-creator
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: And what that means is that when that world is
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: in trouble, we need to access our tools, our resources,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: our energy, our abilities to actually help solve the problems
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: in the world. The highest spiritual goal is not how
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: can I coexist in peace detached from our world which
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: is falling apart. That is not the highest teaching. If
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: you look at our scriptures, take the Bhagavad Gita spoken
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: on the battlefield of the war of Kurukshetra. Take the Ramayana.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Take so many of the Puranas, the stories. They're stories,
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  Speaker 2: for the most part, of divine incarnations doing battle with
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  Speaker 2: demons and killing them. Whether it's a specific.
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  Speaker 3: Demon, whether it's.
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  Speaker 2: Simply those who have gotten swept up in the demonic forces,
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  Speaker 2: you could say, of ignorance, of greed, of lust. So
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  Speaker 2: whether it's an actual asura, or daksha, whether it's Duryodhana,
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  Speaker 2: in his ignorance, in his greed, in his ego, what
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  Speaker 2: you've got is divine incarnations actively engaged personally as well
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  Speaker 2: as through inspiring others.
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  Speaker 7: Right?
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  Speaker 2: Right? Bhagavan Krishna inspires Arjuna in the pandas. Bhagavan Ram
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  Speaker 2: gets an entire army of the animal kingdom to join
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  Speaker 2: him in this fight. None of them are saying, oh,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: don't worry, sit this one out, it's fine.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Yes, let the.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Demonic energies, let the dark energies just win over killing
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  Speaker 2: people and bringing violence and adharma to the land.
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 2: The teaching is always stand up.
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  Speaker 3: Fight this.
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  Speaker 2: Bring back light to the darkness. Bring back dharma to adharma.
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  Speaker 2: And so when the problems of the world are there
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  Speaker 2: and they impact us and we feel sad, we feel angry,
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  Speaker 2: those are catalysts to action. Those are very different from
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  Speaker 2: being angry because someone was rude to me in our
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  Speaker 2: board meeting and made me look really stupid in front
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  Speaker 2: of the boss. Or angry because someone posted a nasty
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  Speaker 2: comment and tweeted something obnoxious about me. Or angry because
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  Speaker 2: the person driving in front of me was so slow
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  Speaker 2: that I was late for the airport and missed my flight.
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  Speaker 3: The anger that we feel.
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  Speaker 2: About poverty in the world, about injustice in the world,
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  Speaker 2: about the destruction of our planet Earth That's a catalyst.
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  Speaker 2: That's a catalyst to action. That anger is energy. The
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  Speaker 2: tears that we cry when we see children begging on
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  Speaker 2: the road, when we see our planet's water drying up,
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  Speaker 2: this is an energy. It's an energy to catalyze action.
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  Speaker 2: And so the first part of what to do is
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  Speaker 2: figure out how you can act, because we can't all
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  Speaker 2: do everything. And so if we don't get really clear
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  Speaker 2: with what abilities I have, what opportunities I have, what
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  Speaker 2: resources I have, then we do feel despair, because then
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  Speaker 2: it feels helpless and hopeless.
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  Speaker 3: There's too much.
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  Speaker 2: Can't make a big enough impact in enough different sectors.
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  Speaker 3: And so we feel despair.
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  Speaker 2: So we need to be able to figure out with
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  Speaker 2: what I've been given, what can I do? How can
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  Speaker 2: I align my energies with forces that are working for good?
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  Speaker 2: And so whether it's making sandwiches and feeding them to
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  Speaker 2: the poor or whether it's buying a bunch of blankets
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: and going out and distributing them, whether it's starting an NGO,
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  Speaker 2: whether it's starting a tech startup and giving all the
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  Speaker 2: money you make to an NGO, whatever it may be,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: we've all got different skills, different opportunities, different abilities, different
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  Speaker 2: resources to serve in the world. What my hands can do,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: my liver cannot. But what my liver can do, my
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: hands cannot. And I actually need them both for the
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: body to function.
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  Speaker 3: And so in the.
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  Speaker 2: World, we need everybody doing everything that is their dharma.
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  Speaker 2: So figure out what can you do And then do
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  Speaker 2: that with as much sincerity as you possibly can, with
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  Speaker 2: as much efficiency, effectiveness as you possibly can. And the
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  Speaker 2: second part, though, is to realize simultaneously, not either or,
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  Speaker 2: not like a ping pong ball back and forth, but
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  Speaker 2: simultaneously to realize It's all God and it's all perfect.
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  Speaker 2: And the reason it has to be simultaneous is if
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  Speaker 2: I simply think it's all God and it's all perfect, well,
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  Speaker 2: hunger is absolutely not perfect. Violence against women is not perfect.
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  Speaker 2: And It's all God and it's perfect. Meaning, if I've
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: got them both simultaneously, what it means is that my anger,
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  Speaker 2: my pain at that which is happening in the world
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  Speaker 2: and my focus on what I can do to be
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  Speaker 2: of service.
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  Speaker 3: Is a crucial part.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: A fundamental part of the perfection of the universe. We
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: are not separate from God. If it's all God, we
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  Speaker 2: are God. If it's all perfect, we are perfect. So
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: is that anger. So is that pain. So is you
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: deciding and pledging to work to bring about change. If
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I don't fulfill my dharma, then it's no longer all perfect.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Because then I've dropped the literal ball on my part
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: of that perfection. I am part of that perfection. So yes,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: it's all God, it's all perfect. In the big scheme
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: of things, when we have the ability to see the
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: full tapestry and all of our threads interweaving together. And
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: in this intersection of time and space, right here, right now,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: on this physical plane of existence, there's a lot to
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: be done. And so we use all of that as
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: catalysts for the energy to do that which must be done,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: as our thread, our perfect thread in the perfect tapestry
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: of God's creation.
• 21:33
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• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Welcome back. This is Sadhvi Bhagavati Saraswati with inspiration and transformation.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: There is a really tragic irony about the fact that whenever,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: especially young people die, because older people, we all sort
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: of expect that eventually older people are going to die.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: But when especially someone who we don't expect that they're
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: going to die gets very sick or dies, almost inevitably,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: it seems that they were the sweetest, the purest, the
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: most good, the most giving, the most honest, the most caring.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: And it is this really... interesting tragic irony as you
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: say that so many people who are.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Really good people.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Suffer. And then those who as you say are really bad.
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  Speaker 3: People don't seem to suffer.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Now the dilemma with that is our definition of suffering.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: And our idea of what determines a karmic path. So,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: if we understand karma simply to be that wealth, health, success,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: longevity are rewards, an illness Failure, loss, early death are punishments.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Then it makes no sense. Those who should be rewarded
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: are being punished. Those who should be punished are being rewarded.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: And yet, that's not actually how it works. The law
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: of karma has nothing to do with rewards and punishments.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: There's no objective sense that wealth is good and poverty
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: is bad. That health is good and sickness is bad.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: That success is good and failure is bad. Our karmic
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: journey has one goal and only one goal in mind.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Our ultimate freedom ultimately our moksha, our enlightenment, our God realization, self-realization. Now,
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: that which we get in life, that which manifests as
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: the current destiny based on all of my past karmas
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: from this life and other lives, is exactly that which
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: is most conducive for me to take my next step
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: closer to awareness, to awakening. And for some, it happens
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: in poverty. For some, it happens in wealth. For some,
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: it happens in illness. For some, it happens in vibrant health.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: It depends where we are on our karmic journey. But
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: you could look at somebody who's succeeding and have no
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: idea where they are in their karmic journey and what
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: role this current very sort of superficial level success is
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: playing in their ultimate karmic journey versus someone who's failed
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: or lost.
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  Speaker 3: We have no idea.
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  Speaker 2: What role this very momentary, superficial level of failure or loss,
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: what is that playing? What role is that playing?
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  Speaker 3: We don't know.
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  Speaker 2: But what we do know is that whatever befalls us,
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: our question always needs to be the same, which is,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: how can I use this experience to get closer to God?
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  Speaker 2: How can I use this experience to peel back the
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  Speaker 2: layers of me, of ignorance, of false identification? The second
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  Speaker 2: piece about this that's important is when we see someone who,
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  Speaker 2: as you say, is a bad person, meaning they're dishonest,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: they're cruel, they're They take advantage. They harm others. And
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: we see them succeeding. We look at them and we
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: think they're being rewarded. They're doing such bad things, but
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: they're being rewarded. But what we don't know is what
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: actually their internal experience is about. I tell you this personally.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I've been in so many situations, so many, where.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: We arrive in some city, let's say. Many, many, many
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  Speaker 2: members of the community are there to receive. The home
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: to which we're going, let's say, is a home of
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: people who seem to be leaders in the community, very,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: very successful, very, very well to do, you know. Lots
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: of fancy cars in the driveway, big, big house. Everybody
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: comes over. And you know that everybody else is thinking, wow,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: wish we could be like them. Aren't they lovely? And yet,
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: the moment everybody else leaves and we're left just sitting
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: with that family, the tears start. And you have no
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: idea the suffering that is happening in those homes. They
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: don't share it, they don't tell it. We're very worried.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: So we put on this happy face, especially if we
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: look like we're big, big successes. But what I can
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: tell you is that inside story is actually how much
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: suffering there is.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: The other.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Last piece of this, because of course we know that
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: the law of karma is perfect. We just don't know
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: when things are going to blossom. You plant seeds, some
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: of them blossom right away. Some take months, some take years.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Somebody cheats you.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Today, there's no way of knowing when that seed is
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: going to blossom. Somebody helps you today. No way of
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: knowing when that seed is going to blossom. But the
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: last piece of this, when we think about people who
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: are very, very good, very wonderful, and especially in younger
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: ages when they suffer so much, disease, death, remember that
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: according to our philosophy, the whole teaching of karma and reincarnation.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: We're actually only here in a physical body in order
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: to work our way through all of our karmic debt.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: We're here because we have to be here. Because in
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: our last birth, we didn't quite get full moksha, full freedom,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: full enlightenment. We didn't finish our karmic debts.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: In the last life.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: So we came back. But we have a lot of
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: people who in their previous life.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: Were very, very, very close.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Maybe there were just one or two remaining karmas that
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: needed to be worked out or something left in a
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: karmic bank account that needed to be withdrawn. before they
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: ultimately attain moksha and stop the cycle of birth and rebirth.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: And these tend to be, in many cases, those who
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: suffer and die young. Their work was done. They came
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: as these almost enlightened beings, hence the fact that they
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: were so good. That they were the ones who were
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: like angels on earth. But they finished their work quickly.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: They didn't need a full 80, 90, 100 years to
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: get through as much of their karmic bank account as
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: they could. They were done much sooner.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: And so they left.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: But we have to stop thinking in our minds of
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: illness and death as somehow a punishment. It isn't. It's
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: the karmic unfolding of our own path to God. And
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: so in order to really understand that, you would have
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: to have to have a vision that enabled you to
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: see an entire tapestry. I mean, I'll give you an example.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: So we just finished Navaratri, and during the time of Navaratri,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: we had this beautiful Ram Leela taking place. Now, of course,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: the Ram Leela is just the essence, the sar of
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: the Ramayana. There's not actually the time in a couple
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: hours a day of singing and dancing and drama to
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: get into all of the details. But for me, one
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: of the most powerful teachings in the Ramayana, and it
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: explains to me this very, very well, is if you begin,
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: you begin with the story of when King Dashrath had
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: no offspring, right? He wanted offspring, he had no offspring. Now,
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: at that time, he's out hunting. At the same time
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: that he's out hunting, we.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: Have the.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Very, very, very beautiful being whose name is escaping me
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: at the moment.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Sankat Kumar.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Shravan Kumar. Thank you. I remembered the Kumar. It was
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: the Shravan that took a moment. Thank you. Shravan Kumar
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: is out. He's carrying his parents on the pilgrimage. His
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: parents are blind. He's taking them on yatra.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: They stop.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: At a hermitage, he leaves his parents in the hermitage.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: He goes to the river to fetch water. Fetches the water.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: As he's fetching water, King Dasharatha's hunting. He hears a noise,
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: thinks it's a deer, flings his arrow from his bow,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: and it hits Shravan Kumar. Now he rushes to see
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: what he thought was going to be this deer. And
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: he sees Shravan Kumar. And obviously, he feels horrible. He
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: was a good man. Shravan Kumar says, there's nothing you
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: can do for me. My life is flowing out of me.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: He said, but my parents are in this hermitage. Please
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: take this water to them. They're blind. Tell them what
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: has happened. So King Dashrath takes the water. He goes.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Shravan Kumar's parents hear him. And they say, Shravan Kumar,
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Shravan Kumar. What's he going to say, right? So he's silent.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: And again, they say, Shravan Kumar. Finally, he tells them
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: what happened. And they curse him. They curse him. That
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: as we are dying today of a broken heart, Due
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: to the loss of our son, so you will die
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: of a broken heart due to the loss of your son. Now,
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: we had no sons. But now you look at how
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: the entire karmic tapestry had to be woven. He had
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: just been cursed by people of very pure heart that
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: he was going to die of a broken heart from
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: the loss of his son. Fast forward, Bhagwan Ram, this embodiment,
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: the epitome, the divine embodiment of righteousness, goodness, integrity, honesty,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: everything we strive for. Bhagwan Ram was the embodiment of that.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: You couldn't be more.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: Good than Ram was. Yet, what happens?
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: This day of the coronation, he ends up getting sent
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: out into the jungle as King Dashrath watches helplessly as Ram, Lakshman,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Sita go As he cries for him, with his final words,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: he's actually calling out Shravan Kumar's name because he remembers.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: And I love that story when we think about the
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: tapestry of karma. Because otherwise, you look at the Ramayana,
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: you look at Bhagavan Ram, and you say, why? Why?
• 39:14
  Speaker 7: Why?
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Why would someone who's the embodiment of goodness forget that
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: he was the divine for a moment.
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: Suffer so much like that?
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: How could he possibly be sent away from the kingdom
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: sent into the jungle because his father needed to die
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: of a broken heart at the loss of his son
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: and in the same way when we look at the
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: suffering a very good people, if we simply can step
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: back far enough to see where all of the karmic
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: threads interweave, we would see a tapestry that would show
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: us threads like that.
• 40:12
  Speaker 6: This is OTRFM, part of the IOM Radio Network.
• 40:17
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  Speaker 8: I grew up loving circuses and other traveling animal shows,
• 41:24
  Speaker 8: but it never occurred to me what life might be
• 41:26
  Speaker 8: like for the animals. Training wild animals to do things
• 41:29
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• 41:34
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  Speaker 8: animal exactly who's the boss. Don't patronize animal acts. Please
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• 41:47
  Speaker 2: Welcome back. This is Sadhvi Bhagavati Saraswati with inspiration and transformation.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: Kalpriksh literally means the wish-fulfilling tree. Just last week, a very,
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: very sweet person young girl was asking me whether if
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: we whisper what we want in Nandi's ear, do we
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: get it? She was actually part of the Ram Leela troop,
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: and they had gone up to the Nilkanth Mahadev Mandir.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: She wanted to know whether if she whispered in Nandi's
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: ear what she wanted, would she get it? And we
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: have in our beautiful spiritual heritage all of these different
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: opportunities to get our wishes fulfilled. And yes, there's power,
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: of course. Whether we say the divine is working through
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: a particular type of tree, whether we say the divine
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: is working through Nandi, Whether we say the divine is
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: just working through the divine. Nameless, formless, infinite. However we
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: conceive of that divine, can our wishes be fulfilled?
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: Of course.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: The dilemma is we have no idea what to wish for.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: And so we end up really stuck because A, sometimes
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: we wish for something. that we think we want, we
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: actually get it, and we realize what an awful mess
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: it was. Sometimes by God's grace, we wish for something,
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: we don't get it. We realize later, thank God I
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: didn't get it. But the other dilemma is that when
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: we wish for something that we don't get, we assume
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: that the divine, whether in the form of a tree,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: whether in the form of a bull, whether in the
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: form of any form or no form, that God is
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: like a vending machine, that we're just going to go
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: and we're going to ask for what we want and
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: we're going to do our ceremonial perikramas around or we'll
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: tie the string or we'll say the prayer or we'll
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: give our dakshina or we'll do the puja, as though
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: we were simply putting money in a vending machine. And
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: then when it doesn't give us what we want, we
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: think the machine is broken. I need a different guru.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: I need a different mantra. I need a different mandir.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: I need a different religion. It's not working. This vending
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: machine is not working. And we become broken.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: The divine gives us.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: What we need. That which, as I was just saying,
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: is that which is the most conducive for us to
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: take our next step closer to God. And God doesn't
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: play favorites. So the dilemma becomes, if I go to
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: the culp friction, I say, I should be number one
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: in my class. Well, if I get that, that means
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: that somehow God decided that I was more important than
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: all of the other students in the class, also praying
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: I should be number one. It would imply that somehow
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: any of these divine embodiments were somehow playing favorites. And
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: if you just got there first, that you could be
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: made number one in class. Or you could be the
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: one who got this thing that everybody wants. But God
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: doesn't play favorites. God's not going to give you somebody
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: else's job just because you came and prayed at the
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: Kalp Riksh for it. Or give you someone else's anything.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: Because that would imply that God didn't love that other
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: person as much as they love you. So this is
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: where we have to know what to ask for. The
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: wishes that get fulfilled are those that are in alignment
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: with the divine flow of the universe. If I go
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: and I say to Kalpavriksha, I would like Ganga to
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: start flowing in the other direction, please. It should go
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: from Ganga Sagar to Gomukha. I'll fast, I'll do my puja.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Just go Ustharafez though, up the mountain.
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: It's not gonna work.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Because there is a flow of Ganga. Just like there's
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: a flow of the universe. There's a flow of the divine.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: And God's not going to reverse the flow that impacts
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: everybody else on earth just because you asked him to.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: So we learn to pray for actually that which is
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: in the divine flow and that which takes us closer
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: to God. So we pray for surrender. We pray to
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: be free of our ego. We pray to be free
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: of ignorance. We pray to be free of anger. We
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: pray to learn how to forgive. We pray to have
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: more and more bhakti, more and more jnana, to be
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: able to have every minute and every moment be karma yoga,
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: to use every action As yoga, we pray to make
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: our will God's will, to come into alignment.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: With the divine. We get a full moon.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: And the moon doesn't ever change shape. The moon's shape
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: is always the same. But we get a full moon
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: when the moon comes into better alignment between the sun
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: and the earth. When we have a new moon, Amavasya,
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: you could say the moon had gone out of alignment.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: She was not able to reflect any light of the
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: sun onto the earth. But could you imagine if the
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: moon in Amavasya said, I'm not going anywhere, and started
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: trying to make the sun move. I want to reflect
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: light onto the earth. But this is where I am,
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: and the sun has to come to me. Well, she
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: wouldn't get very far. She'd never be able to reflect light.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: Because the sun, unlike the moon, unlike the Earth, isn't
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: actually moving in orbit around us. So the only way
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: to get that alignment is for the moon to move
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: in the same way in our lives when we are
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: looking for that light.
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: For whatever we are.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: Hoping for instead of expecting the rest of the universe
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: to move or expecting God to somehow make the rest
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: of the universe move for us we pray for the.
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: The wisdom.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: The humility, the ability, the clarity to be able to
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: move into alignment. We pray to be able to use
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: every minute and every moment getting closer to God. So
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: if those are your wishes, they'll always be fulfilled. And otherwise, yeah,
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: there's definitely a power. I mean, There's the power of miracles.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: God is the miracle. So whether it's miracles through the tree,
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: miracles through Nandi, miracles through any other infinite way, they happen.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: But as Pujya Swamiji always says, the greatest miracle is you.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: So use your wishes to make yourself happen. And to
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: really experience that miracle of you in this life. This
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: brings to a close this hour of inspiration and transformation.
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me. I'm so glad
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: to be together with you all each week. And I
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: look forward to being together again next Thursday, same time,
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: on OM Times Radio.
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 53:33
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 54:27
  Speaker 7: Thank you.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: Music Music.
• 55:23
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.