Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad Gītā asked us to manage our expectations, and he tells us that the material world is a place of suffering. I know this is a family show, and I don't mean to bring a downer to everybody, but it's just a fact. It's there in the Bhagavad Gītā, where Kṛṣṇa says, "duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam." "Duḥkha" means what? Duḥkha, misery, and "ālayam," it's a place. So duḥkhālayam is the place where you go to get misery. So if you manage your expectation and you know that this is a place of misery, when various inconveniences come to you in your life, you won't be so disappointed, because you'll know that's what happens here.

So there's a way that we deceive ourselves, and we say that when my circumstances change, I will become happy. When my circumstances change. What kind of circumstances need to change in order for me to be happy? (Audience: job) I've got to get a different job. What else, to be happy? I've got to have more money or less, because if it's less, see me afterwards, I can help you out. What else? (Audience: Weather) If the weather, if the weather changes, then I'll be happy. What else? (Audience: clothes) If I just had the right clothes, I don't have the right clothes yet. (Audience: car) I need a new car. Yeah, to be happy, I need a new car. I need to be immortal, yeah, then I'll be happy.

The problem is the circumstances are always changing, and from moment to moment, when I depend on the circumstances, then my fortune changes and my mood and attitude change. So here's the healthy outlook. Would you like to hear the healthy outlook? Okay, only half of you said yes. The rest of you, cover your ears. When I purify my heart, I'll become happy. You can say that, it sounds nice. When I purify my heart, I'll become happy.

Here's a limited outlook: The world is an opportunity for my enjoyment. It's a very limited opportunity. Here's the unlimited opportunity. Are you ready? The world is an opportunity for service. Yes, so devotees learned from reading Bhagavad Gītā that every circumstance is an opportunity to improve my devotion to to Kṛṣṇa. And this is possible because we're human, to make changes in our life, to adjust. So we have voluntary life changes versus forced life changes. Have you ever been forced to change something in your life? Were you happy about it? Not so much, maybe. But you can make your own list and say, "These are the items that I'd like to change in my life so that I can be on the right track." And these are called voluntary life changes, or VLCs, or there's reactionary life changes, which means