yasyāńghri-pańkaja-rajaḥ-snapanaḿ mahānto
vāñchanty umā-patir ivātma-tamo-‘pahatyai
yarhy ambujākṣa na labheya bhavat-prasādaḿ
jahyām asūn vrata-kṛśān śata-janmabhiḥ syāt
(SB 10.53.43)
Synonyms
yasya — whose; ańghri — of the feet; pańkaja — lotus; rajaḥ — with the dust; snapanam — bathing; mahāntaḥ — great souls; vāñchanti — hanker after; umā-patiḥ — Lord Śiva, husband of Goddess Umā; iva — just as; ātma — their own; tamaḥ — of the ignorance; apahatyai — to vanquish; yarhi — when; ambuja-akṣa — O lotus-eyed one; na labheya — I cannot obtain; bhavat — Your; prasādam — mercy; jahyām — I should give up; asūn — my life airs; vrata — by austere penances; kṛśān — weakened; śata — hundreds; janmabhiḥ — after lifetimes; syāt — it may be.
Translation
O lotus-eyed one, great souls like Lord Śiva hanker to bathe in the dust of Your lotus feet and thereby destroy their ignorance. If I cannot obtain Your mercy, I shall simply give up my vital force, which will have become weak from the severe penances I will perform. Then, after hundreds of lifetimes of endeavour, I may obtain Your mercy.
Purport
The divine Rukmiṇī’s extraordinary dedication to Śrī Kṛṣṇa is possible only on the spiritual platform, not in the fragile world of mundane affection.
brāhmaṇa uvāca
ity ete guhya-sandeśā
yadu-deva mayāhṛtāḥ
vimṛśya kartuḿ yac cātra
kriyatāḿ tad anantaram
(SB 10.52.44)
Translation
The brāhmaṇa said: This is the confidential message I have brought with me, O Lord of the Yadus. Please consider what must be done in these circumstances, and do it at once.
Purport
When the brāhmaṇa arrived, he broke the seal of a confidential letter written in the privacy of Rukmiṇī’s quarters and meant only for Lord Kṛṣṇa. By using the term guhya-sandeśāḥ, the trustworthy brāhmaṇa, personally selected by Rukmiṇī, here affirms that he has not violated the confidentiality of this message. Only Lord Kṛṣṇa has heard it. Since the marriage of Rukmiṇī was fast approaching, Śrī Kṛṣṇa would have to act immediately. The term yadu-deva indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa, as the Lord of the powerful Yadu dynasty, should make His decision and then mobilize His followers if necessary.
Exploitative mentallity of demons and materialists
Here we find, in this beautiful narration of Srimad Bhagvatam, the prayers of Rukmini to Lord Sri Krishna. Rukmini is about to be married to the great demon Shishupal. Rukmini is the Goddess of Fortune, the eternal consort of lord Vishnu or Lord Krishna. And it is the nature of envious souls to want to exploit and enjoy the property of God. Just as Ravana who is very much anxious to enjoy the beauty of Sita and he made great endeavor in this regard. Shishupal was actually the same personality who has come again.When Jaya and Vijaya were cursed by the four Kumaras, to take three births as demons, they first came as Hiranakshya and Hiranakashipu , they came again as Ravana and Kumbhakarana and here we find in this leela we find they come again as Shishupal and Dantavakra. And in all three births of these demons we find their principle characteristic was the envy of Krishna and wanting to exploit or enjoy the property of Krishna. Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakashipu – how envious Hiranyakashipu was that his own son who is a devotee was not worshipping him and surrendering to him. Ravana wanted to steal and enjoy with all sorts of illicit motives, the Goddess of fortune, Sita. Ravana was killed by Rama, but is come back as Shishupal to try again. He wants to steal away Rukmini, exploit Her and enjoy Her for his own selfish materialistic purposes. This is the principle feature of material consciousness, we want to take what belongs to Krishna and we want to claim it as our own.
Understanding that everything belongs to Krishna brings peace
bhoktāraḿ yajña-tapasāḿ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaḿ sarva-bhūtānāḿ
jñātvā māḿ śāntim ṛcchati
[BG 5.29]
Krishna says, I am the proprietor of everything that exists, and everything is meant for My enjoyment and I am the friend, I am the shelter of all living beings. And this understanding only will bring peace. But those who are not willing to surrender to the will of Lord Krishna, they are always anxious to claim proprietorship over God’s property. This body is not ours and all the things of this world, janasya moho aham mameti, the basic principle of all material bondage is this misconception of I and mine. I am this body and those things in relationship to this body are mine. This is called sense gratification. And even and annoying of goodness, mode of goodness, sometimes we find people are very pious, people are very charitable they do not cause harm to others but they want to do good to others. But still the concept of I and mine, that I am doing good for you and I am going to give you this charity, I am giving you what’s mine for your benefit. You see I have this money, I am a rich man and what I work so hard for, what is mine I am going to give to an underprivileged person for his benefit. This is also exploitation, no doubt it will bring about a good karmic reaction, but it will perpetuate material bondage because we are still under the illusion that I am giving and that what I am giving at one time was mine. Nothing is ours; everything is the property of God. When a devotee gives any charity, he doesn’t think that I am giving something which is mine. He thinks that this is the property of God and is meant for the benefit of others, and I am simply the servant delivering it for the benefit of others. I don’t get credit, the master who has created it, the Lord who has sent it to this person he gets the credit, I am only did the delivery, I am only the servant. This is knowledge.
Right understanding of peace formula (BG 5.29) is so rare in kaliyuga
But even such charitable understanding of life is so rare in this age of kaliyuga. In this age everything wants to take more and more and more and more. For me, for my family, for my society. This is the mentality of Shishupal who want to take the property of Krishna and enjoy and the jiva soul which is part and parcel of Krishna, is also meant simply for Krishna’s service. As Rukmini is simply meant for Krishna’s service. Any exploitative forces of this world being directed by material energy or Maya are trying to take our consciousness which is meant for Krishna, trying to take it and exploit it, rape it, use it for its own exploitative purposes. And a whole human society is simply victimized by the exploitation of materialistic forces. Whoever we go, turn on your television, you turn on your radio, you look at the newspaper, you look it on the magazine, you look at the street outside practically any way you look, anything you hear is envious material forces trying to steal your consciousness away from Krishna and exploit it. This is our condition, and Rukmini is showing us the only process by which we can be delivered from the exploitation of Maya, from Shishupal. And that is we have to desperately, helplessly cry out for Krishna’s mercy. There is no other way.
Only way to be delivered from exploitation of Maya- Desperately cry for Krishna’s mercy
The powers of illusion are so great that with our intelligence, with our physical strength or even with whatever spiritual advancement we may have made by tapasya, we can never over come illusion. Vishwamitra muni, what type of tapasya he performed going to Himalayas in winter where no man dares to go up to his neck in the Ganges with ice all around him sitting in meditation, without eating, without sleeping, practically without breathing. And in the summer, in the desert with burning flame, fires and eight directions around him without eating or sleeping or months at a time. Such tapasya! But simply by the sound of the ankle bells of Menaka, he was exploited, he was victimized, he was defeated by Maya. And we find even great-great scholars they can memorize all the Vedic literatures, they can speak profound philosophy but they cannot escape from the power of Maya. Not through yoga, not through gyana, not through any amount of charity or fruitive activities can anyone, nor has ever anyone been delivered from the power of Maya. It is only through bhakti, and here we understand what is the very essence of bhakti. It is not simply the physical activities of devotional service, but it is the cultivation of that awareness within ones heart by which we understand that I have no other shelter than Krishna. And without Krishna I have no life, I have no reason to live. A devotee has to long with such spiritual greed for Krishna’s mercy. Here Rukmini is saying if I cannot obtain your mercy, I shall simply give up my vital force, and then She is explaining how precious and valuable that mercy is. Then after hundreds of lifetimes of endeavor I may obtain your mercy. We cannot think that Krishna’s mercy is something cheap. We cannot think it something we obtain just by giving some donation in the haandi or by bowing down before the Deities or by chanting some mantras. The mercy that Rukmini is talking about is the mercy by which Krishna reveals Himself to us.
ye yathā māḿ prapadyante
tāḿs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
mama vartmānuvartante
manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ
Krishna says as you approach Me, I will reward you accordingly. As we call out His name that is how Krishna reveal Himself to us. We want to have Krishna so badly; we have to have no other goal in our life. There is the story of Gajendra, in his elephant body he was enjoying; he was the king of the jungle. He had his wife, he had his children, he had his famine prestige, he was obliviously a very religious elephant, very pious, but through that he never obtained the darshan of Krishna. But he was in that lake and the crocodile bit his leg, he was bleeding and crocodile teeth are very sharp and is very painful. And he was fighting; he was using all of his strength. If he would have won that fight, he would have lost the war. The ultimate war is the war against Maya, the war against repeated birth and death. They were fighting for years and the crocodile was gaining strength and Gajendra was losing strength. However we try to fight against material energy, we may appear that we may be winning for sometime but we should understand that the spirit soul is spiritual and in this material world no matter how hard we fight we are going to lose because we are in the enemies waters, where Maya is getting greater and greater strength in every minute. So in the same way Gajendra was going weaker and weaker and weaker until he realized he was on the verge of death. And he looked his children and he looked at his wife and he looked at his friends and family members, Will you help me? We cannot help you; you are on your own. In that point of complete desperation when he understood that it is the matter of life or death, that’s when he plucked that lotus flower and held it in the sky and started crying out beautiful prayers to Lord Vishnu. And because he cried out Krishna’s name with such urgency, with such other dependence seeking shelter within a moment the Supreme Lord appeared before him on His beautiful bird carrier Garuda. And with the Sudarshan chakra, He severed the head of the crocodile, which means He released him from the jaws of birth and death.
And then He brought him to Vaikuntha in his original spiritual body. That is what it takes, that consciousness to actually attract the mercy that we are all longing for. There is no doubt whatever little you do you are going in Krishna Consciousness; you are going to receive Krishna’s mercy proportionately. But the Gaudiya Vaishnava siddhanta does not settle for anything less than unalloyed pure unmotivated surrender. And none of our acharyas will accept anything less and that is the mercy, because if the guru or of the previous great acharyas were to advocate anything less than other surrender, we would never evolve beyond that, because the nature, the tendency of the conditioned soul is to try to get back, try to get by with the littlest possible. Therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of all the Vedic literature, He chooses the Srimad Bhagavatam, amalam puran. Because it kicks out anything but complete surrender to the Lord. And he taught only the principles of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Other Vedic literatures are mix with artha, kama, dharma, moksha. And here we find the essence of the Bhagavatam in this verse. That Krishna if I cannot obtain your mercy, I shall simply give up my vital force. Rukmini is teaching all of us by Her example how much we should be longing for Krishna, how much we should be determined, understanding the emergency of the situation to cultivate that awareness is the purpose of our sadhana. We sit and we hear Bhagavatam every morning, we chant mahamantra in kirtan, in japa, we perform so many acts of seva throughout the day but we must keep this aim in our mind that the real purpose of all of my devotional activities is to develop this consciousness by which I am crying out for Krishna’s mercy, by which we understand the desperate condition we are in this material world. We have to learn to cry out and sometimes when you have this desire then Krishna puts you in difficult situations. We should welcome them. If Shishupal wasn’t about to steal Rukmini away, perhaps She wouldn’t be crying out the way She is. If the crocodile didn’t have Gajendra on the point of death, perhaps he wouldn’t have cried out the way he did. If Dushasana wasn’t on the verge of stripping Draupadi naked, She may have said, hey Krishna, hey Govinda. But because she was about to lose her chastity, she cried out hey Krishna, hey Govinda, you are my only shelter, save me. Without You I only have death. Your mercy is so precious, it is so valuable if it takes me millions and millions and millions of lifetimes to achieve, I will consider myself to be most fortunate. But at this very moment I desperately need your mercy. In this way we must learn to chant,
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Two great enemies of a spiritual aspirant- ego and lethargy
Krishna says in Gita, that two great enemies for any spiritual aspirant are ego and lethargy. Lethargy means complacency, thinking we have some comfortable situation in this world, thinking everything is all right, thinking everything is very nice, thinking that I have some time to make some spiritual advancement. Now let me enjoy or now let me just feel sorry for myself for a while. And some time in the future I’ll take shelter of Krishna. The future never comes. This is Maya’s trick to steal away our consciousness a moment after moment after moment after moment until we find it’s too late. This complacency, this lethargy must be given up. We must understand, Padam padam yad vipadam na tesham, even if we are not presently suffering some terrible tribulation, we should understand that the nature of this world is that any minute I will. Queen Kunti prayed for tribulations, because it helped her to always been cried out for Krishna’s mercy. If we hear every day with the proper frame of mind from the sadhus, Srimad Bhagavatam, we don’t have to be put in terrible tribulations. So here we understand that we are already in tribulation. Whether we are in the crocodile mouth at the present time or whether the crocodile is about to devour us, they are both urgent emergency conditions of life. If one not be crushed by Maya, we are about to be crushed by Maya. We should see it, and we should know it, and we should help one another to never forget it. Don’t be complacent, don’t waste time. We may have tilak and kanthi mala and we may be wearing dhoti, but don’t be complacent. Don’t take Krishna Consciousness for granted, don’t think that everything is all right, don’t think Krishna is giving me what I want and I can enjoy life and at the same time make a little spiritual advancement. We have to strive; we have to inflict upon ourselves a condition where we are willing to struggle through our intelligence. We have to fight, we have to struggle, we have to know that Krishna, I am yours and everything is Yours and see my predicament in this world is desperate. Please save me.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Is there any question?
Question : There always one doubt in my mind that the only hope for going back to Godhead as for our Gaudiya sampradaya, is to have a complete desperation that there is no hope for us in this world and we have to cry out in that basis itself continuously and then when Krishna is pleased then only there is some hope for us going back to Godhead. However, in material life the material conditioning is so strong that we tend to loose on having the complete desperation for Krishna. Tell us that one thing by which we can maintain our desperation for Krishna while still in material life where material conditioning is very strong?
Answer : Sadhu satsanga. If we learn the proper process of associating with devotees and we always have that association that will protect us from complacency. But on our own our nature is to be always looking for the easiest way. Unless we have the support of the sadhus, of the Vaishnavas who are always reminding us and always pushing us upwards then it is inevitable that we will take the easiest path. Therefore we must know asatsanga tyaga, aei Vaishnava achar. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, that if you want to be Krishna Conscious seek out always the company of the association of advanced devotees and avoid the association of materialistic people. Because the materialistic consciousness will make you think everything is all right, enjoy. And the devotees will always remind you that no, Samsara davanala lidha loka. This material world is on fire. Don’t give up Krishna’s lotus feet even for a moment. You must never give up the association of devotees, that association will carry us through this burning forest fire of material existence, and keep us always aware we have to associate with those devotees who are always reminding us, who are always really endeavoring, struggling and surrendering. That is why, it is so important for grihasthas to associate with those who are in the renounced order, brahamacharis and sannyasis. But not as ordinary brahmacharis and, sannyasis, but those we see who have qualitatively really struggling and performing austerities for Krishna. Because otherwise the tendency of grihastha life is I have my home, I have my wife, nice food, it’s relaxing. And I am doing my sadhana, so I am all right. That’s all right, but it’s not enough. But when we associate with devotees who have given up everything, who are always reminding us to give up everything, then we are alert, yes I must continue this struggle, I must be desperate for Krishna. If we never let go of that association you will be protected.
Question : How do I know that I will always have the association of Sadhus and Vaishnavas?
Answer : If you are sincere, Krishna will give you that association. If you are insincere, He may take it away. And what is the quality of that sincerity, that you really want it and that you take advantage of it in proper consciousness that you hear submissively and you are willing to serve. If you are hearing submissively in that association of sadhus and you are willing to serve, that is the quality Krishna will see that you are sincere and He will never take it away. Hari Bol!
Don’t think that because you are wearing saffron it does not mean you are not going to be complacent. We find this is the reason why most grihasthas lose their faith in sannyasis and sadhus and babajis and brahmacharis, because they see them just lying around, eating rotis. They are not doing any seva, they are not struggling, they might sleep on the ground, but so what, animals are also sleeping on the ground. They have to be actually honestly striving, struggling, working hard, performing austerities for the benefit of humanity and for the service of Krishna. That type of person we want to associate with.
Question : Question not clear.
Answer : I always like to keep devotees in front of me. And my position is servant, the servant should always take the position of being behind, trying to follow in the footsteps of all the great souls.
Question : When we talk of spiritual complacency, for grihasthas, it goes hand in hand with material attachments and responsibilities outside. Now we are told that we should see that as our service to Krishna and it should be done as efficiently as possible and here is the example of Bhaktivinod Thakura. But actually speaking we see that if you really want to progress in spiritual life and you want to develop detachment, spend the amount of time that is necessary, association also means getting inspired, performing austerities and doing lots of service, then somehow it’s a contradiction to say that you have to be the best in your service. You have to let go some of the, for example, if you want to be the biggest businessman, I think it’s impossible. You can’t be the biggest and you have to be…alright you can be something. Unless you work very hard, you can’t be the best. So is it the question of choice in the end, that we do best what we can and see our other priorities?
Answer : No one can be the best except Krishna. Krishna is the best. What does it mean to be the best businessman? It means the businessman who is doing everything for the best person, that is Krishna. Doesn’t mean to compete on the material level with greedy materialistic people. It means to do what we are doing, what’s the best quality of consciousness and in such a way that we can offer the best possible service to Krishna. If your consciousness is not pure, you can’t offer anything properly to Krishna. So if we work 18 or 20 hours a day and we have not sadhana , and we have no satsanga and we make billions and billions of dollars, we will not be able to offer one paisa with any quality of devotion. Is that best? That’s worst. Krishna doesn’t see the quantity, He sees the quality. So we are not concerned with being the best businessman, we are not trying to concern with being the biggest of anything. We are concerning with pleasing Krishna and what pleases Krishna.
Patram, pushpam, phalam, toyam, Yo me bhaktaya prayachati (BG 9.26)
Even if you offer a fruit, leaf or little water with devotion, Krishna is pleased. But He sees our endeavor, whatever our endeavor is if it is offered with devotion that is best. So we must know how to properly balance our life in such a way that we are pleasing Krishna. And for this reason we need the guidance of Gurudev and advanced Vaishnavas. They are telling us that you must have good sadhana, you must chant at least 16 rounds every day. You must read Srimad Bhagavatam or hear Srimad Bhagavatam every day. You must regularly associate with devotees. Unless we put many hours every day into this, whatever quantity we offer to Krishna it will have no spiritual attraction. Krishna will not be pleased. Therefore within the parameter by which we have a pure consciousness through satsanga and sadhana, we should work as hard as we can, so that we can facilitate as much as we can in Krishna’s service. That should be our goal. Trying to be the best is false ego, if it is on the material platform.
Question : I agree we must concentrate on daily sadhana, chanting etc. but then whatever remaining time we have, whatever service we put in, even to do, I agree we do have to be the best in the sense being the biggest, but if we have to do proper justice to the service we require to at least externally, we have to compete, we have to see it in that way and actually seek not internally but at least we have to for the sake of company or whatever to make progress, therefore we have to be constantly thinking about it, thinking ways for improving etc. Now to balance that…..and then to say that you don’t get attached to it, it needs pure consciousness and we are neophytes, so how do we become….it’s a catch 22….do we say that we first concentrate only on your sadhana etc. develop a pure consciousness and then whatever little time you have start going for business because if you already are in a situation where your service requires you minimum to spend certain amount of time and you do feel at times that you really get completely absorbed in contaminated and attached. How you cut back and first develop yourselves, you put aside certain amount of time etc. because you have already have been given that position, it’s not that you gradually progress and then now if I have time I can do it. So you are in a position where you have to be constantly competing and then yet you do not have pure consciousness, you can’t cut back and say let me…how do you do in a limited amount of time? For example, in one and half hours of chanting we can put the effort but at least I don’t find that I’ll do that and go to the office the whole day you can be in a consciousness which doesn’t get you so absorbed and so worked out that you are constantly thinking about it. Because you have to put in lot of thoughts and you have to put in lot of effort. But at the same time you don’t get attached to the thinking which is something irreconcilable, specially when you are in a neophyte stage. How does one go about it when we are already in that position?
Answer : There are two principles that we must take it seriously. If we are humbly associating with devotees regularly and if we are performing our sadhana faithfully and sincerely and regularly, then Krishna will protect us. If it is our prescribed duty, just like we have read the story of Maharaja Priyavrat, Maharaja Priyavrata was a brahamachari, living in Gandhamadhana mountain, but his Gurudeva and Param Guru, Lord Brahma, Narada muni they both ultimately decided that you should get married and he should be the king. Now if we think that our business is taxing to the mind can you imagine being the king of the planet earth? So many considerations, not only you competing with other businesses but you are competing with demons and other armies and other opponents, taxation. Anyways, he surrendered to that service because that was the best way he could help. And in the process he actually got caught up, he actually began to realize that I am becoming too much attached to my wife and I am becoming too much attached all these things around me. But he realized that because he was being protected by Krishna. Because he was performing his work on the order of Krishna, he was protected by Krishna. So if we have good sadhana, if we have regular association of devotees, you see the more you are in that situation you are speaking of the more desperately you have to have regular association with devotees. In the situation you are speaking out of you, you are not associating with devotees very-very regularly, hearing from them, doing some seva, doing sadhana, you are finished, your consciousness will definitely be washed away by illusion. But if this is the service they were asked to perform, we have to do it as Priyavrata had to do it. But we have to be very careful. The first thing is we must regularly associate with devotees, understand how desperate we need to and have good sadhana. And the second thing is we are working so hard, we are competing so ferociously, what are we going to do with the results? We have to give it to Krishna; we have to make that sacrifice. Then Krishna sees that we are actually doing it for Him and then He will actually really protect us. Krishna tells Arjuna in Gita, Always think of Me, become my devotee, worship Me , offer your homeage to Me, in this way you will come to Me without fail. He also says, karmanye va adhikaraste ma faleshu kadacana, that whatever you have offer the fruits of your actions to Me. So both of these things side by side are essential. One is through our sadhana, we learn to remember Krishna and think of Krishna and two is we must learn to offer the fruits of our actions to Krishna. This is Gita’s philosophy. We may be working, we may be toiling in our businesses or in our professions so hard, the more you can give to Krishna, the more He will protect you. The more we are trying to keep for ourselves or keep for others, the more we are on our own. So we should be doing both, we should have good sadhana, we should sacrifice as much as possible of the fruits of our action for Krishna’s service. And if we do like this, and it’s our order to continue then we will be protected. Definitely, hundred percent. We make it corrupt but Krishna will still protect us, because we have good satsanga , we have good sadhana and our actions giving the fruits for Him. Bhagavata Gita teaches how a man of action, a man of the world can become perfect. This is the process.
Question : We have been told that ours is a preaching movement. Grihasthas have to show by example that they are keeping a good balance between professional life and spiritual sadhana. What my experience says is once you are there is spiritual life in the beginning we can keep an equilibrium point, both things going together. But then we advance more into spiritual life it happens somewhere or the other that we have compromise with something into our profession and sometimes it happens that there is an impact on our performance and when it impacts our performance and it is not good enough whatever we were having the past somewhere or the other, the people use to criticize in that way that you people being more in spiritual life you are compromising your profession. This is not Krsna consciousness. On the contrary they do not get the preaching attitude but they go away from us. So how to go for it? Do we have to give more attention (lead by example) to preaching or just don’t care about all those things?
Answer : Materialist are greedy, because they want ego, prestige and wealth. Devotees are greedy for service. If you are actually giving your fruits of action for Krishna Consciousness, and you see it is been utilized to help other living beings, you be greedy to get more. If we become detached and think well I am satisfied, I don’t need anything else, so I don’t have to work so hard. That’s not Krishna consciousness. Arjuna was greedy to win that war, so that Krishna will be pleased. If a businessman is working and he wants to dedicate the fruits of his activities for the benefit of others in the service of Krishna, he should be greedy not for himself but for the need of others. That should be our motivating force. You may be content now that you are Krishna Conscious, that really I don’t need much more of anything. And if it is your service, you just live a simple life and just go out and preach and that’s it you should do, you shouldn’t try for anything more. You just take what you need, work for just enough for what you need and then forget anything else, don’t compete. Survive and then just be with devotees and help. That’s your service, you should be like that. Let anyone criticize, what to be care. But if our service is to facilitate then we should be greedy, we should compete, we should fight, we should defeat all opposition so that we can take as much as we can and utilize it for the suffering humanity in the service of Krishna. We have to understand what our service is; we have to be willing to strive. Arjuna was content going to the forest, but Krishna said, no, you fight you win, for Me. We have to be willing to do that. And if it means that we become vicious, we are willing to become vicious for Krishna, not for ourselves.
Krishna asked Arjuna to be vicious. When he was fighting with Karna, Karna said, his chariot wheel got stuck in the mud. And Karna said, I know you are a good and fair kshatriya Arjuna, I know you’ll never break the kshatriya rules, so I am going to put down my bow and arrow and get down from my chariot and I am going to put both hands on my wheels and I am going to take the wheel out of the mud and I know Arjuna you won’t dare to fight with me while I am in this condition, you wait. Krishna told Arjuna – kill him now! And Arjuna said, what?!? This is not the way kshatriyas fight. No, you must kill him now! He acted viciously because Krishna wanted him to win the war. He didn’t do it for himself.
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