Acknowledging and regulating our passions – Wisdom on Wisdom 8

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Passion, though a bad regulator is a powerful spring Ralph Waldo Emerson. Suppose, water is flowing through a channel and if the water is flowing very forcefully, we may need to regulate its flow. Sometimes in water tanks there is a water regulator or sometimes there may be a dam which regulates the flow of water.

Now some things can be very bad regulators, you know if the regulator is not working we just try to regulate the we have a tap which is meant to regulate the flow of water, but the tap is not working, we move the tap but still the water keeps flowing, that is a bad regulator that does not work. So on the other hand, if we have a good regulator, but if there is no water coming in the tap only, no matter how much we move the regulator, the regulator is useless, water is not going to come. So for water flow to go on smoothly, we need a spring, we need a source of water from which water will come and then we need a regulator which will ensure that the water comes out in a proper quantity which is usable.

If you hold a mug under a tap, but the water comes with such force the mug falls out of our hands, then that is too much force. But if you hold a mug in front of a tap and there is no water in the tap only, holding the mug is useless. Now, we could compare our emotions to the flow of water, we all feel strongly about certain things and we all feel not much, we all feel apathetic about certain things.

So often when somebody feels strongly about something, the word passion is used for that. Somebody may be passionate about cricket, somebody is passionate about say anti-corruption drive, somebody is passionate about the environment, now passion itself is not a bad thing. The word passion conveys the presence of strong emotion and we are not robots and we cannot function as robots, we cannot be unfeeling when we do things, but at the same time we cannot do things based only on feelings.

So if we look at life around us, we will find that there are certain, look at our own nature also, we will find that there are certain things with which we connect, they click for us, we feel I want to do something about this, I want to make a difference here, this is what we feel passionate about. So to know our passion is important. In the Bhagavad Gita, as a way of looking at the world based on the framework of the three modes of material nature, the word passion is often associated with one of the three modes that is Rajoguna.

So Rajoguna means that which is the mode of, which in English is called the mode of passion. So the modes are basically frames or certain forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness. They are just like, they are the ways in which we look at the world and we respond to the world.

So in passion, there is strong desire and there is a very forceful urge for action based on that desire. This can work negatively, we may just see find some good looking object and we may get a forceful desire for that object, I want it and I want it right now and feeling like that we may just do something, waste our time, energy, money on something which is not at all important for us, something which is harmful for us. So if we act solely on our passions, then we will be misled into imprudent actions, even self-defeating actions.

When people become attached, when people become addicted, their feelings just dominate them. Feelings make them dance like a puppet, drag them around like slaves. So passion is a very bad regulator.

If there is energy within us, passion will actually increase the energy. So passion is a bad regulator. At the same time, we shouldn't think of passion always as bad.

No, passion is what impels us to action. And if we don't have passion, then we are practically dead, we are like robots. So we need to feel, above the mode of passion is the mode of goodness, sattva guna and above that is shuddha sattva, which is pure spiritual consciousness.

So at our core, we are not just dispassionate beings, we are not dispassionate consciousness. Consciousness has an aspect of thinking, consciousness also has an aspect of feeling. So now, consciousness has this aspect of thinking and feeling both.

And we need to process both properly. If we look at our own life, we all feel emotions, we want to feel emotions. At our core, we want to love and we want to be loved.

So we can't wish away, stamp out our emotional side. Our emotional side enables us to connect with the Supreme Lord. It enables us to connect with the absolute truth.

It enables us to ultimately achieve the deepest levels of peace and serenity, because we are parts of the whole, and we are meant to live in harmony with the whole. So passion needs to be made, passion is the spring from which we need to draw. So when we have a spiritual vision towards life, we don't become dispassionate, rather we become spiritually passionate, with our passion being regulated by wisdom.

So the Bhagavata urges us to see all of creation as potentially divine, to see Svakarmanatam abhyarcha siddham minna dhimanava The Bhagavata says that, we don't just see our work as something which I am passionate for. I've got this talent, I've got this calling and I'm going to do it. Yes, we may have a talent, we may have a calling, but we should see our calling as meant to connect us with God, meant to be offered in the mood of worship to God.

Svakarmanatam abhyarcha. So when we see our talents as having come from God, when we see the contributions that we make using our talents as ultimately meant to please God, then that divine vision will become a wellspring of emotion that will spring out for our well-being. Instead of it leading us away, it will lead us towards good.

Because that passion, which is regulated by a devotional vision, we understand that the God whom I'm trying to worship, by my service, by my contribution, that God is present in all of creation and in trying to do this, I cannot reject other things. I have to have a balance in all my things and in that balanced way I move forward. So wisdom, the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, which helps us to see the hand of God in everything, see the connection of everything with God, that becomes the regulator.

And then the emotion of devotion, the attraction that we have for the Lord, that becomes our spring. And with the spring and regulator combined together, the flow of our emotion can move out to make value worthwhile contribution in this world and to grant us lasting satisfaction. Thank you.