We are never alone – we are always with our thoughts

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
we are never alone we are always with our thoughts actually our thoughts are also things in the sense that thoughts have effects on us just as things have effect on us so for example say if we are in a room where there is blazing hot fire in the fireplace then that blazing hot fireplace will create warmth around it that fire is a thing and that thing has effects on its surroundings it creates warmth it makes the surrounding warm even hot it makes the surrounding bright even blazingly bright blindingly bright so now similarly if we consider our thoughts to be like things and let’s say the fire is present externally so the thoughts are present entirely so when it is present entirely is internally then what does it do it also has effects on us if we understand that we are souls and our mind is different from us and that the mind is present next to us and the thoughts are present in the mind then that would mean that those thoughts being things different from us will have an effect on us so now what kind of effect they will have on us will depend on what kind of thoughts are there so if I am already feeling warm and there is fire the effect is undesirable if I am feeling cold and there is fire the effect is desirable so like that if we are trying to be spiritually conscious and then our thoughts are about sensual desires then those thoughts will have an unhealthy effect on our consciousness those thoughts will pull and push and drag us around till we are left with till we are left in the clutches of illusion till we are left with practically nothing that we are capable of doing till we find ourselves overwhelmed by our situations incapable of dealing with them and we find ourselves driven dragged to actions that we would normally never do just as if we understand that a particular thing is undesirable we would change it so like that we need to change our thoughts quite often it is said that being alone is not good it’s not that being alone is not good it’s being alone and being vulnerable to the unhealthy thoughts of the mind that is not good sometimes we are with people and when we are with people at that time some of the people may be offensive some of the people may be hypercritical some of the people may be very pessimistic and if they are that way then they will also have a negative effect on us so if we are to be not negatively affected by those people then we need to recognize that we are ourselves meant to become purified, meant to become elevated meant to become spiritually spiritually discerning by which just as we would avoid the association of people who would degrade us who would bring our consciousness down so like that we need to avoid even the thought that will bring us down now the problem is that when people are outside us we can understand that these are not the people whom we want to be around us and then we can say no to them but with thoughts because they are inside us we tend to instinctively identify with them and once we identify with them it becomes very difficult to not act on them because we think they are our thoughts and if we are to not act on them then it is important that we be aware of the reality of what is happening and that’s why philosophy is so important to the extent we are aware of the philosophy philosophical reality to the extent we are aware of how things work in real life in terms of the realities of our inner life of our psychological world and to that extent we will be able to do what it takes to fight off unhealthy desires we will be able to do the focused endeavors necessary for purification, necessary for elevation of our consciousness, necessary for liberation at least from the particular desire that are tempting us particular kind of thoughts that are degrading us sometimes when we are with people who are troublesome we just tell them just leave me alone now yes it’s good to be away from troublesome people to be less troubled but then we need to think that we need to say that leave me alone even to troublesome thoughts not just to troublesome people and of course just as troublesome people some troublesome people just pester us and refuse to go away even when we tell them to go away like that some troublesome thoughts refuse to go away even when we tell them to go away sometimes when a person is there but we just don’t pay them any attention they speak but we don’t respond they wait for our response but we just neglect them then people see that whatever they want to be done we are not going to do it they are not going to get our attention then over a period of time they just recognize that they are wasting their time and they will go away so sometimes similarly when troublesome thoughts come if we don’t give them our attention if we don’t let ourselves be distracted by those thoughts then we will find that those thoughts go down we will find that those thoughts they lose steam they lose energy of course sometimes troublesome people when they are neglected they may shout a little bit more but if they are still not paying attention eventually they get the message and then they go away so similarly we need to focus on purifying ourselves and at least for that purpose we need to be aware of the dynamics of what is happening we need to be aware that it is our mind which is dragging us down we need to know that it is our consciousness which is at stake we need to know that it is for us to choose how we are going to respond to the temptations of our consciousness by the steady diligence in the practice of bhakti we will be able to by invoking the presence of Krishna in our consciousness we will be able to drag the unwholesome thoughts away just like when a person who is just who keeps pestering us again and again when that person we just call someone else or we go into someone else’s presence and then that person recognizes we become busy with that person and that person is a very powerful person then nothing can be done.
That person has to go just like say if a woman has some unwanted male attention and that male is just pressing on, pressing on, pressing on but when she just some other person who comes in some other man who is heftier built who is stronger and then that person takes charge then that person the unwanted person just has to sneak away so like that similarly when we invoke, when we recognize thoughts are things and we bring the thoughts about Krishna into our consciousness then other thoughts can be pushed out