«IN GAMBLING HE ALWAYS WINS AND WE ALWAYS LOSE»
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLVk6EzA1S0
IN GAMBLING HE ALWAYS WINS AND WE ALWAYS LOSE
Class of Bhakti Chaytanya Bharati Swami, Bhakti Yoga Institute of West London, 31 July 2018
BHARATI MAHARAJ: The more you disturb your mind the less you are able to see your own self. You can see yourself as a human, a male/female, big or small, old, young, and this is the result of wrong perception of yourself. When you wrongly perceive yourself you can see that you’re a human, or an animal, or else. So, we should avoid everything which disturbs the mind, not only gambling but fighting, or quarreling, or philosophical debates, political involvement to improve the society – any thing, if we have the goal to leave the vicious circle of birth and death. If you don’t have this goal you can be involved in all the deals of the material world. The argument is that, in the present age, this is the shelter of Kali which is very serious and very tangible.
LISTENER: Sridhar Thakur Maharaj has a commentary saying that the danger doesn’t belong only to gambling but to any kind of game, I think, even playing with movable objects, and maya is always creating newer and more forms of that.
BHARATI MAHARAJ: Yes. Every time when you care for the result it’s killing your spiritual life. When gambling, you lose your sense of control; it’s the utmost degree of absorbing in the process and you don’t pay attention to the impulses of your senses. You can immediately start smoking because you don’t control yourself. Loss of self-control means that even if you know about the negativity of a certain activity you still cannot resist doing that. Suppose, your liver is bad and you know that certain food might kill it, and when you’re absorbed in gambling or such you lose your sense of reason; even if the reason tells you the food might kill you — you don’t care because, first of all, you are in need of taste and follow the tongue. You become completely unaware of your senses. Actually, gambling is the storage of all sins because you lose your mind; and losing your mind you perform other sins.
LISTENER: Even Yudhishdhira Maharaj lost his mind.
BHARATI MAHARAJ: Yes, he was warned by his reason, by Krishna, all his friends, and wise men but he was so much involved in that minute enjoyment that he lost (not speaking of spiritual benefits) his kingdom, his brothers, his wife, friends, and position. He made his mother and brothers suffer, gave his wife into slavery just because he could not resist gambling.
We should understand that, as a material platform, gambling always means losing, unless you’re the owner of the gambling site (business). If you want to win start your own gambling and involve other people. Even Krishna is part of His own gambling because sometimes He is unaware of the result. His Loving Consort Srimati Radharani (sometimes we call Her yogamaya emphasizing Her aspect of influencing others, not only the servants but even Him) makes Him unaware of His position which means He is under influence of maya. Playing games with friends, both boys and girls, He forgets about His highest position. So, yogamaya is powerful not only for us but also for Him. And her sacrifice is that in these particular moments, when He is unaware of His supreme position, playing with the beloved ones, She can get power over Him; at these moments She can throw Him from the throne and take His position but She is so much devoted that Her sacrifice is not doing that. In the material world, say, an owner of a company leaves for some time and gives the power of attorney (signature, access to his bank account) to vice-president, etc., and they can take the power; we know many stories like that. Krishna’s beloved Friend never does it and, in a way, He is beyond gambling.
LISTENER: What exists here exists there, right?
BHARATI MAHARAJ: Maybe. The possibility exists. He is so attractive. Say, mother is more powerful than the baby but she never exploits her power. In a way, yogamaya is more powerful than Krishna but never uses that power in Her own interest.
LISTENER: Where does she take the script from? What’s the inspiration?
BHARATI MAHARAJ: Oh, the script. When you are in love you suddenly start composing poetry or music. Where does the inspiration come from? From above. In the Greek philosophy, there’re gods that control the earth and influence the humans whose well-being is derived from satisfaction of gods, while the geniuses (spirits/ghosts) are in-between the humans and gods, and in a way they’re more powerful than gods. They are more powerful because the gods inspire them to transfer to the humans the will of gods, or the glimpse of their realm. And the humans are obviously dependent on gods. Srimati Radharani is like that; She is a genius. Krishna is dependent on Her because He wants to consume love and service from others, and cannot do this without Her. She is the genius between Him and the devotees. When you ask about Her inspiration the answer is She is the personified inspiration. Srila Sridhar Maharaj said: Guru is the inspiration of Srimati Radharani. So, this is not quite a correct question because She is the impersonated inspiration; She doesn’t take it from any other source.
Does anyone want to say: yes, but…
LISTENER: Is it possible to become a genius, or …?
BHARATI MAHARAJ: It is possible to make yourself more prepared to receive inspiration. It is possible to make yourself ‘be able to’ but whether you get or not it’s not up to us.
LISTENER: Is there any difference between inspiration and revelation?
BHARATI MAHARAJ: No, these are synonyms.
LISTENER: We use the word revelation regarding those who compose music or create art and also those who are spiritual geniuses, right?
BHARATI MAHARAJ: Yes, similar to experts or workers in different fields, like a good tailor or good baker. They might be also inspired by divine creatures of the spiritual world and start composing music and poetry. And there might also be a spiritually inspired person who doesn’t write poetry or music but reveals what God is telling him, like Binma M. Thakur or Jaya Dev Goswami. They might, in ecstasy, be reading poetry that cannot be created by a human mind. Everything what we do in life is basically taken from our previous experience, is predominated by our experience. We cannot depict anything we’ve never seen before. As Saraswati Thakur said: Maybe, once you saw a mountain and a hip of gold but have never seen a golden mountain so you can imagine it. It comes with experience. But in case of inspiration/revelation, it doesn’t come from a person’s experience. Take the story of Brahma’s first revelation. He found himself in complete darkness and had no experience but still he could see and hear something; first of all, he heard tapa and that sound didn’t come from his experience. That was the starting point of his existence and then he saw the Divine Lord’s Kingdom, and that wasn’t his experience, it came from somewhere else.
LISTENER: How much one must be involved to get that inspiration?
BHARATI MAHARAJ: He must follow the rules and regulations. Firstly, you must learn the ABC, learn to play the notes if you want to learn harmony. Inspiration is when you see/receive something. If you want to see the ancient Greek monuments or the Angkor temple in Cambodia you have to follow certain rules to reach there and then you can see. You have to take a map, explore the road, and get the instructions how to go there. If you don’t want to follow the road or travelling rules you will end up somewhere else or will sit at your place dreaming. Those who take part in Krishna’s pastime may be called virtuosos because they’re genius and if you want to be excepted/enrolled into this ‘jazz band’ you must learn to play, first of all. Otherwise, even if they accept you what instrument will you play? You will cause disharmony. The English say, one bad apple will spoil the whole bucket. Is that correct? Okay, then I suppose, we’ve reached the final point of bhakti, nothing to discuss so far, everything’s clear… [LOL]
[Ends with chanting]
Transcript by Elizabeth D.
