Is anxiety a disorder?

[Congregation program at Columbus, Ohio, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Om Gyanatmi Randhasya, Gyananjana Shalaya, Om Gyanatmi Randhasya, Gyanana Shalaya, Om Gyanatmi Randhasya, Gyanana Shalaya, So I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you today. And I’ll speak on the topic of anxiety, as was mentioned. So I’ll start with the question.
I was just at one place, and this devotee, that son, he had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. So then I was talking with him about the situations in which he used to feel nervous, and then we had a long discussion on it. So today I’ll address specifically the topic, is anxiety a disorder? Anxiety can sometimes be a disorder, but I’ll look at it first from a historical perspective, then we’ll look from a philosophical perspective, and then we’ll come to some practical analysis.
So broadly speaking, the history of modernisation of the world is a history of gaining more and more control over things. So today we have comforts available, which were unavailable even for kings a few hundred years ago. Air conditioning can be an example.
And the whole attempt of the search for knowledge through science and its application through technology is to get more and more control over situations, over our circumstances. And in many ways, that has had desirable effects. When it’s too hot, we can cool the atmosphere, at least around us.
When it’s too cold, we can make it hot. So we have got some control. And this attempt to control things through human capacity has had an unwanted effect.
And that is that we start expecting that we should be able to control things in general. And when we are unable to control things, that disorients us. So with respect to living in the world, there are always going to be things which are not in our control.
And that is going to cause us some amount of anxiety. The word anxiety or worry has a negative connotation to it. You may, if you want to use a positive word, we could use the word concern.
There are many issues which concern us and we don’t have control over them. And no matter how much we expand our capacity to control, we will never be able to have control over everything. So in that sense, the uncertainty because of not having things in our control or not having control over everything or things being there which are not in our control, that is going to be a fact of life always.
To a large extent, the modernisation of the world has led to a dramatic cosmetic effect. Cosmetic effect means things look very good. Even if there is a terrible accident, within 10 minutes everything is cleaned up and it appears as if nothing went wrong.
Everything appears very smooth. And this applies even to not just external situations but also our internal emotions. Means we do or try to do a very good cover-up job for our emotions.
So much so that in today’s world, being anxious, being worried, while it is natural, it is considered if you have any negative feelings, if you feel lonely, if you feel depressed, if you feel unhappy, it’s almost as if being unhappy is a defect in someone. Why are you like this? Actually, the nature of the world is that it is going to sometimes give us troublesome situations and that is going to cause us negative emotions. So just as we can’t control the weather out there, it’s going to become cold, it’s going to become cold.
And some people have say bodies which become excessively cold, which respond excessively to cold. Now if you tell, don’t get worried. In some ways, it is like telling someone, don’t feel cold.
What do you mean don’t feel cold? I’m feeling cold. That cold is simply a biological reaction to the stimuli. In some people it may be more, in some people it may be less.
But it is simply there in everyone to different degrees. Similarly, anxiety, which results because of life’s uncertainty, it’s a fact of life. It’s going to be there in everyone.
And when we talk about a situation, there’s something in our control, something out of our control. So to the extent we focus on things out of our control, to the extent we are going to have anxiety. And when we are unable to control either external situations or internal emotions, because we have this conception that I am meant to be the controller, we just can’t deal with it.
There is a field of science and technology, which is called transhumanism. Transhumanism says that humanity is afflicted by many sufferings. And they say, what are the sufferings? Old age, disease, death.
They don’t consider birth a suffering. Of course, in some ways, they consider some births to be unwanted, and they want to have more efficient ways of doing abortion. But in many ways, the suffering that they identify are similar to what the Bhagavad Gita says, janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadi-dukha-dosha-anudarshanam.
But after identifying this, the aim of this field of science and technology is that through the advancement of technology, we will remove these sufferings. We’ll remove disease, we’ll remove old age, and we’ll remove death. Now, of course, we human beings have been given some capacity to control.
And if somebody is sick, we take medicines, we develop medicines. That’s natural. If somebody is old, if we can help them to become more energised, that’s fine.
The Bhagavatam also says, the body is the tool for practising dharma. So the body is like a tree, and dharma or the fruit of dharma, mukti or prema is the fruit. So if the tree is cut, the fruit will not come.
Similarly, if the body is destroyed, then we cannot attain liberation. We have to use the body as a tool to get the fruit of liberation. That’s why the Bhagavatam says, it’s our duty to protect our body.
And developing methods to protect the body is natural. In the tradition, there was Ayurveda, which also focused on the same purpose. So all this is not to deny that we human beings have some capacity to control, and we are meant to use that capacity.
But the idea that we can control everything, that is an illusion. So with respect to, as I said, anxiety, anxiety itself is not a disorder. But our reaction to anxiety can make it a disorder.
That means anxiety is just a response to uncertainty. When that comes, it is natural. But how we respond to it, that can make it into a disorder.
So I will talk about three examples to illustrate this point. Normally, in the animal world, whenever there is any danger, there are two responses, fight or flight. We are in the human body.
Most of us, our souls have come from some lower species to the human body. Of course, some of you may have come from higher planets also. But at least I can see from my conditioning, I have come from a very low species.
So because of the soul having come from the lower species, there is the, in the mind, the momentum of responding in the same way the animals respond. So when we face dangers, we try to respond with these two ways, fight or flight. And sometimes both these responses can end up aggravating the situation.
So if we consider the philosophical perspective, the Bhagavad Gita says there are three modes of material nature. And these modes, they impel us to responses in particular ways. So in general, we can say that if there are some things in our control, something is not in our control.
So in the mode of passion, we overestimate our capacity to control. I can fix it. Whatever is the problem, I can fix it.
So if there is a relationship issue, that person has a problem, and I know how to deal with that person. I’ll fix them up. And in the mode of ignorance, we underestimate our capacity to control.
If there is a relationship issue, this is what happens with me every time. You know, life is rotten. People are so selfish.
Destiny is against me. And we go into self-pity. We have what is called a pity party.
So in the mode of ignorance, we feel as if nothing is in our control. So we could say, broadly speaking, that the fight response is the response on the mode of passion, where we are overestimating our capacity to control. I can deal with this issue.
And the flight response is coming from the mode of ignorance. I can’t do anything. I just have to get out of here.
So let’s consider some examples. Suppose somebody is following a quicksand. Now, if we fall in the quicksand, and then we feel ourselves sinking inside.
It’s scary. I’ll be suffocated. I’ll die.
And the natural response there is a struggle. Struggle to try to come out. But actually, the best way, the safest thing that we can do if we are caught in the quicksand is just stay still.
The more we try to move and pull ourselves out, the more the suction from the great suction from that pulls us down. Just stay still. Now staying still may not get us out.
But at least it will not take us in further. So stay still and call out to someone. Seek help in some other way.
So there, when we have the quicksand, oh, the quicksand is sucking me in. I have to fight it out. But of course, there can be quicksand also of different kinds.
But generally, the more we endeavour, the more we get bound. So in some situations, the more we try to fight the situation, actually the situation becomes worse. So I’ll come to that kind of situations a little later.
But this is one example where sometimes some situations are difficult. There is some anxiety. There is some worry.
And I just have to live with it. So if I have given my exam and I don’t, the results are very important for me, but I don’t know what the results are going to be. Now if during that period, I keep worrying, what is the result going to be? What is the result going to be? What is the result going to be? Now at that stage, I’ve already given the exam.
It’s over. There’s nothing in my control. I’ll keep trying to fight it.
It’s not going to help. That is anxiety. But so avoiding the fight-response means in some situations, you have to learn to live with the uncertainty.
That uncertainty is not going to be infinite. But if at that time, in order to forget that, some people just because they’ve already given the exam, but the anxiety is so much that they get into activities. They may just dive into sports, dive into entertainment, dive into if they have some other habit, they might just start drinking.
So smoking or start taking drugs. So anxiety is in that situation just a fact of life. But to the extent we try to get rid of it, to that extent, it makes our life worse.
Most often, when people watch entertainment, entertainment, it’s, it has always been a feature of human society. But the compulsiveness with which people go for entertainment now, it is unprecedented. Millions and millions of dollars people spend on, we may not say I don’t spend millions of dollars, but people like us, they keep spending and that’s how those who are entertainers, they get obscene amounts of money.
So in India, there was a female boxer from Northeast, and she won some medals. And then Bollywood made a movie out of her life. Now the actress who depicted her just by depicting that movie, she made more money than what that boxer had made throughout her life.
So at one level, boxing itself is entertainment, people watching sports for entertainment. But even that real life boxing is not as entertaining. So when you’re depicting the movie, the entertainment level becomes more, and we get paid more for that.
So when we are ready to pay so much, what does it indicate? It indicates that we feel the need for it so much. And most often when people get into entertainment, it’s not because what they’re watching is so entertaining or so enjoyable. It’s just because life is so boring.
So because we are unable to live with negative feelings of any kind, whether it is worry or boredom or loneliness or annoyance, we just try to escape from that by going into entertainment. And that’s why it becomes obsessive for some people. Of course, we can say entertainment is relatively inoffensive, but then when they get hooked to the entertainment, when it is not there, it becomes unbearable.
So there’s a survey done in America itself, you know, what are people’s worst nightmares? So especially people who are in the youth group, teenagers, their worst nightmare was being without the internet. One of their worst nightmares out of the top is being without it. What will I do? So internet can be very useful for communicating and getting things done.
But there’s a dependence that happens, which is quite damaging. Similarly, when people smoke or drink, it is largely not that the drink is so attractive. It is rather that they’re not able to process the negative emotions that come because of life’s negativities, and that becomes an escape way from that.
So when that happens, then they may start drinking just to escape from this negative, but then the drinking itself becomes a negative afterwards. That makes them attached to it, addicted to it. So the point I’m making is, sometimes when negativities come in our life, sometimes anxieties come in our life, trying to fight that off actually worsens our situation.
Like a person in the quicksand, okay, I’m in the quicksand, let me wait, let me wait, let me call out someone, someone will come and pull me out. If I try to struggle and pull myself out, I’m only going to get sucked more. So like that, some situations, anxieties are there, and they will be there for some time, you just have to live with it.
So, tāṁs titikṣasvabhārataḥ. Tolerate it. So tolerance means, don’t have this fight response.
Don’t try to fight it off. It’s interesting, Krishna actually equates, mātārās paśyās tukauṣṇe, śīto uṣṇu sukha duḥkha dāḥ. So he’s saying, śīta and uṣṇa is similar to sukha and duḥkha.
That means, just as when externally it is hot or cold, we can’t do much about it. It is hot or cold. Similarly, sometimes positive feelings, sometimes negative feelings will come upon us.
Tolerate it. I’ll talk a little bit about how we can tolerate it. But the principle here is, that the fight response often makes us do things which degrade the quality of our life.
Because we can’t directly deal with the anxiety. So we try to do other things to deny the anxiety, to bury the anxiety. And then that leads to us getting into unwanted habits, which waste our time, which degrade the quality of our life.
The other response could be in the mode of hypnosis, flight response. Suppose we have gone on a mountain trek and then we go around a cliff and suddenly you see a big grizzly bear over there. And that bear is right looking at us.
Now everything within us will turn and run. This bear will eat me. But those who are trekkers, seasoned trekkers, they say that trying to run away from that bear is often the worst thing to do.
Because as soon as you start running away from that bear, that triggers the excitement of chasing in the bear. And the bear will start chasing after us. And if it is going to chase, it is going to outrun us.
So what forest trekkers recommend is that if you see a bear, just stay calm. Don’t turn your back to the bear. Just keep looking at it and keep gently taking steps backward.
So if the bear feels that we are going to attack it, it will attack us. The bear feels we are going to run away from it, then also it will get excited. I’ll chase.
Just calmly move back. Everything within us will say, you can’t be calm. Get out of here.
But at that time, just take gentle steps. Move back, move back, move back, move back. And the bear, now of course, with respect to animals, they are unpredictable.
So no strategy is sure to work. But in general, it is that if we don’t do any knee jerk reaction, the bear stays where it is and we can be safe. So similarly for us, when some problems come, we just want to get out of here.
The flight response comes in. I don’t want this. So one is, the first thing I said is fight means we try to get rid of the situation.
Second is flight means we try to get out of the situation. The two things. There is a situation which is causing anxiety.
I try to get rid of the situation or I try to get out of the situation. But sometimes in trying to get out of the situation, we make things worse. Because if we just get out, eventually people who had expected us to do something, they feel like we can’t count on you.
We just flee when going to get stuff. Or that itself becomes like a habit on us. This is what I’m going to do.
And then we can’t face situations. And many times when the problems are there, initially they appear to be very difficult. But if we stay and we try to deal with them, we find, okay, this is not unlivable.
I can manage with this. So the flight response is trying to get out of here. That is also anxiety driven.
So what I said earlier, anxiety itself is not a disorder. But our response to anxiety can make it a disorder. Now in some people, when they have anxiety, at that time, they just, they may start trembling, they may start feeling very fearful.
And then certain biological reactions may happen. And then at that time, if they go to a doctor, the doctor says, okay, take this antidepressant, take this medication, take this tranquillizer. Now, in some cases, when there is extreme biological reactions, medication may be required.
So the Bhagavad Gita explains that the mind is at the interface between the body and the soul. So because the mind is at the interface between the body and the soul, so the mind can be affected in both ways. Actually, what goes on in the mind, it can come from three sources.
It can come from the physical level, what are the perceptions that we are experiencing. It can come even at the mental level itself, from the recollections of the reflections that are going on at the subtle level. Or it can come from the spiritual level, based on what is the intention of the person.
So, in some yoga sutra commentaries, they talk about three levels of the mind. There is the outer mind, the middle mind and the inner mind. The outer mind is what? Is connection with the body.
The middle mind is the subtle level of reality. The inner mind is what connects with the soul. So, what this means is that, if we see the state of the mind affects the state of the body.
If you are worried, immediately your breathing may become fast, maybe your body will start trembling. And conversely, the state of the body can also affect the state of the mind. So, if I am feeling worried, just take deep breaths.
Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Just focus the attention on the breath and that calms down.
Why? Because I said the mind is connected with the body also. So, at the physical level, if certain adjustment is done, that can help the mind to calm down. So, some adjustment can be done through breathing.
Now, the mind is different from the brain, but the mind is connected with the brain also. Broadly speaking, if you say, it’s like a software. So, the body is like the hardware, the mind is like the software, the soul is the user.
The brain is like the CPU in the hardware. So, in some ways, the state of the brain and the state of the mind are very closely related. So, if some people, they have too much anxiety, then they may find that taking some medicines helps to calm down, because the physical and the mental are not unrelated.
They are related. However, the mental is its own level of existence also. So, when there are human problems, so anxiety is a human problem.
Loss, say we lose a loved one because of whatever, that’s a human problem. That’s a problem of being a human. Being a human being means, it makes us vulnerable to loss, to loneliness, to anxiety, to fear.
So, these are just human problems. Now, I talked earlier about transhumanism. What it tries to do is, it tries to find technological solutions to human problems.
Now, some human problems can be dealt with by technology, but we are not machines, and our entire being cannot be dealt with by technology. So, what is happening here is, we try to find chemical solutions to human problems. So, anxiety is a human problem.
Loss is a human problem. When I try to find a chemical solution, that means what I am trying to do is, that we are trying to adjust the chemicals in the brain, by which, okay, you don’t feel this negative. It can help to some extent, but it is a superficial solution.
Why? Because the mind is much more than the manifestation of the mind that happens at the level of the brain. That means, when I get anxious, certain chemicals come up. When I feel lonely, certain things happen in the brain.
So, if I try to find out, okay, what are those changes happening in the brain and how can I reverse them, then I’ll not feel anxious. That’s fine, but anxiety is not just that. The anxiety is not caused by those chemicals becoming more in the brain.
Rather, those chemicals becoming more is the result of the anxiety. So, and that anxiety is a result of the way I am responding to reality. So, there is the reality which is causing me worry, but that is something which is always going to come in my life, sooner or later.
So, we need to, if we depend on chemicals alone, that becomes a dependence and that can have a physical level, as well as a behavioural level. So, trying to use chemicals, now, if you see just 30-40, around 1960s, was the first time a medicine like a tranquillizer was discovered. There was nothing like that before.
Is that people didn’t have anxiety before that? Always there was anxiety. But now, tranquillizers, antidepressants, they are the most sold medicine across the counter. And some of the pharma companies which manufacture this, their budget is more than the budget of several European countries.
They just make so much money through this. So, this has unfortunately become a big business. This is not to say that in some cases medicine may be required.
If there is some severe chemical imbalance in the brain, if there is some structural damage to the brain, at that time, some medication may be required. So, an example to illustrate it is, suppose we are driving by a car and the car tyre suddenly ruptures. There is a puncture.
Now, I need to change the tyre so that the car can function. But to change the tyre, I need to lift the tyre up. I need to lift the whole car up a little bit so that I can remove the tyre and then I can put a better tyre.
So, similarly, in some cases, when we are going through life, something happens and we just get punctured, get totally depressed. So, when that happens, if the car tyre is punctured, it has to be replaced. So, similarly, when we are habituated to negative thinking, the negative thinking itself has to be changed.
But sometimes, like lifting the car up so that the tyre can be changed. So, similarly, in some cases, medication can act like a jack which lifts up the tyre. So, when a person is too depressed, they can’t even think about changing their thinking.
His mind is just going on and on and on and this problem, that problem, this wrong, that wrong, just helpless. To some extent, when we go into tamoguna, the mode of ignorance, just become helpless. So, at that time, it may be required.
But the purpose of the tyre of the car is not to keep it on the jack. The purpose of the car is to move. And for moving, what we need is not to have a jack below the car, but we have to change the tyre.
So, similarly, in extreme situations, some people may need medications. But the solution is not just the medication. The solution is changing the thinking.
Changing the thinking means changing the way we respond to life’s negativities, changing the way we respond to life’s uncertainties. So, there’s no need to campaign against such medicines, but there’s no need to also think that these medicines alone are the solution. So, what happens in today’s world, it is, as an anxiety as it, it can be a disorder.
When we get too depressed and we get too negative and we’re just not able to function at all. But it is very easy to classify anxiety as a disorder and everybody is afflicted. And then the pharma companies make big money and we feel good.
But then after that, when we feel bad, we need more medicines. So, there are some diseases which we take and we get cured and they don’t need the medicine. But anxiety, if you start taking medicines, then it’s lifelong we’ll have to keep taking medicines.
So, it becomes a dependence. So, we need to, as I talked about this, the mind which interacts with the body, the mind itself and the mind, part of the mind that interacts with the soul, the outer mind, the middle mind and the inner mind. So, the outer mind, it can be dealt with in various ways.
And there have been several studies which have found that the same effect that comes by tranquillizers, that can be got to some degrees by just breathing. Just pranayama, deep breathing, it calms the mind down. In fact, it’s not, I’ll talk about breathing.
Breathing is not just a physical exercise. Breathing can act at a mental level also in more ways than just the physical aspect of it. But the point here is that in some ways, the physical level of reality is most accessible to us.
Recently, I was asked, one devotee asked the question, when we are chanting, you know, why does our mind wander so much? Why are we so attentive in chanting? I said, actually, we are not chanting. You know, our tongue is chanting, the mind is wandering and we are thinking what to do. So, there can be chanting that is outside in.
I start from outside and I keep chanting, keep chanting and then it comes in, I hear it, I connect with Krishna, then I feel connected, then there is chanting which comes up inside out. That is, I feel like calling out to Krishna, Krishna, I need you, I want you, I long for you. So, outside in chanting should lead to inside out chanting.
We begin from outside, we start chanting and gradually as we connect with Krishna, then we start calling for Krishna. But sometimes instead of outside in leading to inside out, it just says outside, outside chanting. So, it is physical level, the lips are uttering something, but there is no mind involved, there is no heart involved, there is no consciousness invested in it.
So, the physical level, so now if I tell, concentrate on the chanting, what I can do is start chanting. The physical level is what is accessible to us most easily. So, if you see, there is the soul which is spiritual level, there is the mind which is the mental level and then there is the body which is at the physical level.
So, when the mind goes off, most of the time when we get anxiety, what exactly happens? It is basically the mind and the body, they go out of sync. So, the mind is going off somewhere else and when it goes off somewhere else, then it just starts imagining this, imagining that, imagining that. Our mind usually gives a running commentary on everything.
Running commentary means that if a cricket match is going on, then there are commentators who are meant to explain, okay, you know, this player has played like this, this is shot like this, this means this, this means that. Sometimes it happens if the commentators are not very professional, they go off on a tangent and then they just go off in another direction entirely and then they are talking, you know, this happened in this match and that happened in this match and that happened and what is happening in this match, they don’t report. So, like that, the mind is the commentator of whatever is happening.
So, now when commenting on what is happening, commenting can be so captivating, it may not be right, it may not be true, but it can be so captivating that we just get caught in the commentary and forget the reality. And taking this further, normally in a cricket match, there are spectators and there are players and the commentary is heard by the spectators. But suppose the commentary is heard by the players also.
The commentator goes off on a tangent, oh, this happened in this match and it went like this and like that and like that. And the player also forgets, I am supposed to play here. Or the commentator starts saying, you know, oh, in this situation, with so few balls remaining and so many runs to be scored, no team has won till now.
It’s almost impossible, it’s impossible to win. And the player, yeah, it’s impossible to win. So, like that, the mind is constantly giving a commentary on things.
And we tend to be more tuned to the commentary of the mind than the reality. And the reality can sometimes be negative, no doubt. But the mind’s commentary can make it much worse.
I go to office and then my boss gives me a strange look. And then the mind starts giving a commentary, oh, your boss is going to fire you. If he fires you, what is going to happen? You’ll have no job.
Then how will you pay your mortgage? You can’t pay your mortgage, you won’t be able to stay in your house. You can’t stay in your house, then you’ll be on the streets. Oh, it is so cold.
Right now we are trembling because of the AC. So the mind’s commentary can just go in any direction. And the mind is a creature of habit.
That means if I do one thing, once, twice, thrice, it just starts tending to do that again and again and again. So when this mind, it becomes habituated to worrying. As I said, uncertainty is just a fact of life.
And uncertainty causing anxiety or concern, if you want to use a more positive word, that’s also a fact of life. But where are thoughts go after that? Okay, that is not in my control. And if that goes wrong, it will be big trouble for me.
That’s true. But if I start worrying, this goes wrong, that goes wrong, that goes wrong, that goes wrong, then it’s like the mind is giving a very pessimistic comment. And that can make my life completely miserable.
So what we need to do is come back to reality. So when the mind’s commentary is just going off in various directions, now if we could, we’ll talk later about remembering Krishna, that is rising to spiritual level of reality. But generally, the spiritual is difficult to access for us.
So the physical is relatively more accessible. There’s one devotee, he had a lot of anxiety disorder problem, anxiety problems, and he started doing breathing exercises. And he was telling me that actually, you know, breathing works better than Hare Krishna.
He says, my anxiety is gone, I should start breathing. So I’ll talk about that. It’s not that breathing works better than Hare Krishna.
But rather, because we are at the physical level of consciousness, so at the physical level, the relief can appear much more quickly. Basically, what is, when we are getting worried, and we break the train of worry, if we have to stop worrying, what do we need to do? We need to break the train of thoughts, which is going in the, you could say, the station of worry. So we want to break that train.
We don’t want to get onto that train, we want to get out. So now, at the level of the mind, there’s running commentaries going on. Chanting Hare Krishna actually is meant to take us to the spiritual level.
And if we can get to the spiritual level, then that is the supreme relief from anxiety. But, because the spiritual level sometimes appears not easily accessible for us. So when we are chanting, actually, we go neither to the physical level, neither to the spiritual level, nor to the physical level.
So the chanting that is meant to control the mind, often the chanting becomes a time when we surrender to the mind. Because what I said earlier, what happens? That the tongue is chanting, the mind is wandering, and the soul is wondering what to do. So, now for the soul, the mind’s commentary can appear so attractive, that the soul goes along with the mind.
So if our consciousness is going along with the mind, wherever it is going, then actually we are not chanting. The tongue is chanting, but we are not involving our consciousness in chanting. So we could be relieved by chanting, but sometimes it’s difficult to get our consciousness involved in chanting.
So we could say chanting is like an elevator for our consciousness, to take us from the physical level, through the mental level, to the spiritual level. The elevator is going up and say it’s freezing cold at the ground level, and I go up, it’s warm. Now, the elevator is going up, but I don’t go up only.
I just stay outside the elevator, and I power the elevator. Elevator goes up, comes down. Goes up, comes down.
Goes up, comes down. Then, what happens in that case is that I don’t get any relief. So when we don’t get, we don’t invest our consciousness in chanting, then it appears that chanting is not working.
Then why does breathing seem to work? I’ll explain this. What happens when breathing, it’s not just breathing. When people try to do breathing exercises, they are also told that, okay, concentrate on your breathing.
Take the breath in. Breathe out. Breathe in.
See that stomach is going inside. Chest is contracting. Chest is expanding.
So what happens when we try to do this consciously, the consciousness comes from the mental level to the physical level. And just getting the consciousness from the mental level to the physical level breaks the worry train of the mind. So that’s why when we’re chanting, we’re not breaking the worry train, although we could break it in the most effective way.
But when somebody’s breathing, they’re able to break it better. So it’s not that chanting doesn’t work and breathing works, but at that particular point, we have to see what is going to break the train of thoughts of the mind. And in some ways, getting to the physical level is easier than getting to spiritual level for us.
So even during chanting, if we find that mind is wandering too much, pause, take a few deep breaths. If you’re sitting, stand up and walk a little bit. Do some, get the consciousness back to the physical level.
Oh, I meant to chant right now. Otherwise, you know, we are chanting, but we’re not even aware we are chanting. So at least I become aware I’m chanting.
Okay, I meant to chant. So then at the mind level, the consciousness will not wander. So the physical level is the way we can access, is the level which you can access the most.
So now, when we are trying to deal with anxiety, so the mind is what is causing us anxiety. So we can deal with it at the physical level, get the consciousness out of the mind, let’s say get out of your head, don’t be too much into your head, get out, do something practical. So like that, we get out of our head, we get out of our thoughts to the physical level, that itself can help you deal with anxiety.
But again, that is not a permanent solution. We have to, so all these are ways in which the tyre is deflated, we raise it up. But beyond that, we need to change the way we think.
Change the way we think means that we have to change the idea that we have to be in control of everything. Negative emotions are never pleasant, but they are a fact of life. And we need to accept it.
Sometimes I may feel bored, sometimes I may feel lonely, sometimes I may feel depressed, sometimes I may feel hopeless. Sometimes these are all emotions which just come. Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita in the 14th chapter says that become an observer of your emotions.
So in 14.22 and 23, he says that by the modes, different emotions will rise within the consciousness. Just observe them. Be like a detached observer.
This emotion is coming, it will stay for some time, it will go. It will come, it will go. Suppose we go for a programme or a meeting and there is someone whom we don’t like.
Now if that person is there, what do I do? I don’t want to even look at the face of this person. Then I can’t be there at the meeting, I have to be there at the meeting. But just because that person is there, doesn’t mean I leave the meeting.
Nor does it mean that if I don’t get along with that person, if I have some issues, and that is not the time to deal with the issue. It’s not that I have to go and confront that person. I just focus on doing what I am meant to do.
That presence is there and I’ll be aware of it. But I don’t have to avoid it, nor do I have to focus on it. So Krishna says, avoid attachment and avoid aversion.
This is not just to external sense objects. It can also be to internal emotions that arise within us. Don’t be too attached to something.
Don’t be too averse to something. That emotion is there. It’s present within us, but we don’t have a focus on it.
Now what does it mean that emotion is there? See, our consciousness is capable of being aware of many things. So right now, some of you may be feeling that this place is too cold. Some of you may be feeling this is too warm.
Now if you’re feeling this way, this is something which is there in the awareness. Now we can choose whether I’m going to focus on this. Oh, it’s so cold.
So what can I do? What can I do? I can’t do. Maybe I need to get a sweater. Or maybe I need to leave right now.
We can just get too caught in that thought. Okay, it’s cold. Maybe just away.
Maybe it’s not a long class. We’ll be here for some time. Next time when I come for some programmes, I’ll come to bed.
I just put the thought behind. So what happens is, we as human beings, we can’t always control what comes in our consciousness. But we can control what is the focus of our consciousness.
So many things will pop up in our consciousness. But we are capable of choosing what to focus on. Suppose we are, you know, I’m making an important phone call with someone.
And there’s somebody talking in the background. Now we may request them to stay silent. But if it’s just this noise that is there, it can’t be removed.
If we’re travelling in a car or train and there’s noise. Then what do we do? We try to put it in the background by focussing. We focus.
Why is the sound there? We can’t change that sound. So although that sound will be there, but we can choose what to focus on. So in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about, first in 14.23 he’s talking about the sakshi bhava.
Sakshi bhava means become an observer of your consciousness. And in general, mindfulness, which has become very popular and very effective in today’s world, that is all about becoming an observer of your consciousness. Observe.
So don’t get involved, just observe. Now Krishna talks about being an observer, but he talks about something more. He says in 14.26, the way to go beyond the influence of the modes is by bhakti.
By the practise of bhakti, one can go beyond the influence of the modes. So there is sakshi bhava and there is sevabhava. Sevabhava is a service attitude.
If I situate myself in the understanding that I am a servant of Krishna and whatever situation comes in my life, I am meant to serve Krishna. So sometimes for our service, we may have to go to a place which is very cold. That’s not very pleasant, but we deal with it.
We live with it and we continue our service. Similarly, sometimes some services may be such that they put us in situations which cause a lot of anxiety. So we don’t focus on the anxiety, we focus on the service.
I am here to serve Krishna and let me think how best I can serve Krishna. We don’t deny the fact that I am worried, but we don’t magnify it either. We accept it as this service causes me anxiety.
Later on, I may decide whether this is a service which is important for me to do, whether somebody else can do it better, whether I can do some service better. There are situations where we can think about these things, but when we have to do a particular thing and the negative emotion is unavoidable over there, just accept its presence. Accept its presence means that we don’t let it become the focus of our consciousness.
Our focus is on how can I serve Krishna. Now sometimes if we don’t understand bhakti philosophy properly, then the mind can actually aggravate our situation. So I feel worried and at first the mind makes me worried.
This can go wrong, that can go wrong, that can go wrong. You are spending so much time in your bhakti. What if you don’t do well in your studies? What if you don’t do well in your job? Things will go wrong.
Mind makes us worried. And then after that, see, you call yourself a devotee, but you don’t have any faith in Krishna. You are having so much worry.
What kind of devotee are you? So first I get worried and then I become worried about being worried. So in that way, the mind just takes us on a wild ride at the mental level. So is it that as devotees we have faith in Krishna, we should not have worry? No, worry is simply a reaction to uncertainty and that is going to be there for everyone.
But what do we do about it? How do we respond to it? So if I respond, yes, I am having this worry. That means I have a particular, we all have a particular kind of body, we have a particular kind of mind. So and we have to serve with the kind of body and the kind of mind that we have.
So rather than resenting or denying, this is, if I feel cold, I feel cold. Then try to wear some warm clothes and do my service. Similarly, if I feel worried, I feel worried.
And feeling worried is not necessarily a defect in our character or a defect in our devotion. It’s just a part of being human. Being human means there will be worry.
But what is in our power is, what do we, how do we respond to the worry? So if we focus on Krishna, in the mode of goodness, I earlier said that in passion, we overestimate, we fight. I can control, I can fix everything. In ignorance, we fight, we fly, I can’t fix anything.
But in goodness, we are able to perceive properly. Then this is in my control, this is not in my control. And then we can respond more maturely.
So if we focus on trying to serve Krishna, in this situation, this is what has happened. This is the emotion that I am having. How best can I serve Krishna? If I focus on that, then I can move forward steadily.
I’ll conclude with one example. That is, in 2.70, Krishna says that, आपूर्यमानमचलः प्रतीष्टं समुद्रमापः प्रविचन्तियद्वद् तद्वद् कामायं प्रविषन्ति सर्वे सशान्तिमाप्नोतेन कामकामी He says that, just as rivers flow into the ocean, similarly, various stimuli and the emotions associated with the stimuli, they’ll flow into our consciousness. But, just as the ocean is not disturbed, similarly, a self-realised person or spiritually advanced person is not disturbed.
Now, I’ll talk about three aspects of this metaphor. First is, one word Krishna uses, नकामकामी. It’s a very interesting word.
कामकामी, it means desirer of desire. What does it mean, desirer of desire? Normally, we think of desire as something which flow out of our consciousness. Oh, I desire to eat this, I desire to watch this, I desire to buy this.
But here, Krishna is comparing desires to rivers flowing into the ocean. That is, desire is something flowing into our consciousness. So, desires, emotions are not exactly the same, but for our purpose of analysis, it’s similar.
So, the point is, when Krishna says नकामकामी, what he means is that the stimuli will flow into our consciousness. And say, if I’m sitting here and I start feeling cold, that stimuli is coming into my consciousness. But, कामकामी means I respond to the stimuli and get carried away by it.
Oh, I’m feeling cold, what should I do? But, नकामकामी means the desire comes in, but we don’t respond by desiring that object. It comes in, but we neglect it. We focus on something else.
And, similarly, worry-inducing situations, we may be either outside and they may send in the stimuli which causes us worry. But how do I respond? We don’t focus on it. Now, when I try to… I shouldn’t feel worried.
That’s like saying the river should not flow into the ocean. That will require a huge effort. How do you get a river to stop flowing into the ocean? The stimuli in this world are so uncertain, they’re just going to come.
You can’t stop it. But, imagine if instead of an ocean, there’s a puddle over there and a river flows into the puddle. Everything will be disrupted over there.
The puddle will overflow, everything will be chaos around it. But, if there is an ocean, that much effect will not be there. So, our consciousness, if it is like a puddle, if I’m internally empty, I’m internally insecure, I’m internally living a bankrupt life, then when some negativity comes up, it just makes me collapse.
I just get completely lost. But, if I’m internally like an ocean, what does that mean? Internally, I am fixed in Krishna. Krishna is like an oceanic reality.
Krishna is like an ocean of happiness, an ocean of peace, so an ocean of security. So, to the extent we invoke Krishna’s presence in our consciousness, to that extent our consciousness becomes like an ocean. And, when the consciousness becomes like an ocean, then the stimuli coming from outside, they don’t disrupt us so much.
So, the seva bhava is what enables us to make our consciousness into an ocean. If we do not have the service attitude, if we have this demanding attitude, why is this happening? Why is that not happening? Why is that not happening? Then, our consciousness gets caught in that particular situation. Now, what determines the size of our consciousness, whether it’s like a puddle or it’s like an ocean? Basically, that is determined by what is the primary content of our consciousness.
Now, our consciousness can expand or contract based on what its content is. There are many things in our consciousness, but there’s something which is like a primary content. If the primary content of my consciousness is money, then if I have a lot of money, I feel a lot of security.
If I have very little money, then I feel everything is going wrong. Now, money is important. It has to be arranged for, but if that is the primary content of my consciousness, that will be a problem.
So, if we can make Krishna the primary content of our consciousness, our consciousness will also have to be perceiving other things. There will be other things also in our consciousness, no doubt. But if by the process of sadhana bhakti, we make Krishna the primary content, then our consciousness will have a foundation of security, a foundation of strength.
Because whatever else is there in our consciousness, those things keep changing. If my consciousness is primarily based on, say, some relationship, and something starts going wrong in that relationship, I feel my whole life is collapsing. So, now that all our relationships, different relationships have different levels of importance, some are very important, and we have to deal with them.
But our primary content of our consciousness has to be Krishna. And the process of sadhana bhakti is meant to do that. By sadhana bhakti, our consciousness rises to the spiritual level.
And when it rises to the spiritual level, it finds shelter in Krishna. And the more we are sheltered in Krishna, the less we’ll be affected by the rivers flowing in, less we’ll be affected by the anxiety causing stimuli. And we have to find out how we can make Krishna the primary content of our consciousness.
So, for some of us, it may be through kirtan. Whenever I feel agitated, let me hear some kirtan. Let me invoke Krishna’s presence through kirtan.
For some of us, it may be through riti worship. Let me worship him. Let me do this.
Let me do that. Some of us, it may be philosophy. I just hear classes, I can feel connection with Krishna.
And then that makes my consciousness into like a ocean. So, when, through the routine course of our life, because we have to do so many other things, the interaction with those things is going to drain our consciousness. And so, we could say our consciousness keeps, its size keeps changing.
So, when we associate with devotees, when we do nice sadhana bhakti chant, nice hearing, go to the temple, then our consciousness becomes like an ocean. But, during the whole week, we are away from devotees, the ocean is slowly becoming like a puddle, puddle, puddle, puddle. And then again, in the association of devotees, we again hear about Krishna, we again chant, then our consciousness expands.
But, if we keep doing this regularly, Krishna will become more and more of a constant presence in our consciousness, and our consciousness will expand. And when that happens, then our anxiety level will go down, because we will have security in Krishna. And we will have the steadiness of our connection with Krishna.
When both of these are there, then the uncertainties of the world will be there. But, we will be able to deal with those anxieties in a more mature way. We won’t get carried away by the mind’s horror movie, but we’ll focus on the reality, and with the purpose of serving Krishna, respond to that reality in an appropriate way.
So, I’ll summarise. I spoke today about how, when we face anxiety, how do we respond to it? Is anxiety a disorder? So, I talked first about the historical perspective. Through science and technology advancement, there is a premise that we will be able to control more and more things.
And anything that is not in control is seen as a dysfunctionality, a disorder. So, we have been able to control the technology, external situations to some extent. But, when we expect that internal emotions also we are going to control, then that is an unrealistic expectation.
Because, no matter how much we expand our control, there will always be things out of our control. And they are going to cause anxiety. So, anxiety is a human problem.
Just being human means being in a situation which causes anxiety. And the way to deal with it is by, transhumanism says that by technology, you can deal with everything. So, if we take medication for this, oh, I feel anxious, just take a medication, get better.
That makes us dependent on it more and more. I talked about how the mind could be analysed in three parts. The mind is like the interface between the soul and the body.
So, there is a part of the mind which connects with the soul, that is inner mind. The part of the soul, mind which connects with the body, that is the outer mind. And the central mind, which has a subtle level.
So, middle mind. So, now, the changing of the things at the physical level can help us to calm the mind also. Like breathing, breathing accelerates when we are worried, decelerate the breathing, or we will become calmer.
So, similarly, some people may try to physically change the chemicals in the brain by taking some medicine, by which they try to decelerate the anxiety of the brain. That works. But that is temporary.
That makes us addicted. So, when we, we as souls have come from the animal species to the human species, so, we have the animal fight or flight response. In the three modes of material nature, in mode of passion, we overestimate our capacity to control.
When we fight, I can do, I can settle everything. And in the mode of ignorance, we underestimate our capacity and we try to fly from it. And both are unhealthy.
For the fight response I talked about, if you are caught in the quicksand, fighting to get out will only cause us to sink in. So, sometimes, some situations, we just can’t do anything about it. I have given my exam.
What the result is going to be? I can’t do anything. Just learn to live with the anxiety. And for that, we need to have some higher focus.
And the flight response is, like, if I see a teddy bear, I want to run away. Run away, it will chase after me. So, sometimes, the, we don’t want to think about some situation.
And the more we try to not think about a situation, that comes more and more in our mind, just dominates us. So, instead of that, just calmly walk away from there. That means, we have some higher purpose and focus on that higher purpose.
So, some, in some case, extreme cases, when a person is very depressed, some medication may be required. It’s like if a car tyre is punctured, you need a jack to lift it up, so that you can change the tyre. But the jack is not going to help the car to move.
It’s the changing of the tyre that is going to help it to move. So, similarly, when people have extreme depression, say, a serious chemical imbalance or structural damage, then some medication may be temporarily helpful. But have you changed the pattern of thinking? Changing the pattern of thinking means learning to not focus too much on what is not in our control.
We focus on what is in our control. And I talked about why we practise the mind. So, sometimes, it may appear, say, like breathing works more than chanting.
It’s, why does that happen? Appear like that because the mind is giving a running commentary on everything that is happening. So, the soul is at the spiritual level and the mind in its commentary sometimes gets completely disconnected from reality. And when we are chanting, the tongue is chanting, the mind is wandering.
And the soul frequently goes off with the mind. And then we don’t get any relief. It’s like the elevator is taking us to a warmer play, warmer level, but we are not getting into the elevator.
So, to access the spiritual level can sometimes seem difficult. To access the physical level seems easier. So, breathing deeply and trying to become aware of the breathing also helps in cutting off or in breaking the train of thoughts in the mind which is causing us worry.
And that’s how it appears to give us relief. But to get relief from worry, just breaking the train of thoughts is not enough. We need to change the way we think.
And that means changing the core content of our consciousness. So, bhakti makes Krishna the core content of our consciousness. And because Krishna is the supreme unchanging reality, when he’s the core content, there is security, there is safety, there is strength over there.
The rivers will flow into the ocean, but they’re not disturbed. So, if our consciousness is like ocean, then anxiety-inducing stimuli will flow in, but they won’t disrupt us. They won’t disturb us that much.
And the process of sadhana bhakti and specifically within sadhana bhakti, the activities that invoke Krishna’s presence the most in our consciousness, if we do them regularly, then our consciousness will become like an ocean. And when the consciousness is like an ocean, then the life’s uncertainties will not cause us so much anxiety. We will respond to them with greater maturity.
And for us, the process of bhakti yoga is ultimately about first we use sakshi bhaav to distance ourselves from the emotion. They are there, but I don’t identify with them. But then you want seva bhaav.
I want to focus on serving Krishna. And that seva bhaav will invoke Krishna’s presence in our consciousness. And that’s how we’ll be able to go beyond anxiety.
Thank you very much. Any questions or comments? How to connect with Krishna? Basically, each of us is an individual. As a soul, we are individual.
And we have a particular kind of body and mind also. So based on the kind of body-mind we have, our consciousness tends to flow in a particular direction. If somebody is musically inclined, then their consciousness flows in the direction of music very easily.
Now for philosophy, they can make their consciousness go there, but they have to push it, push it. But music, it naturally flows. If somebody else is more intellectual, their consciousness actually flows towards philosophy or analysis.
This is very good. You tell them to come and do some, maybe do some deity worship. Okay, I’ll do it.
But they have to push themselves to do it. So all of us are individuals. So we have to look at which are the channels in our consciousness, where our consciousness flows naturally.
And then we can see where that channel or how that channel can take us towards Krishna. So that way, when that channel is used to connect us with Krishna, then the connection with Krishna becomes relatively easier. And once there is some connection with Krishna through that activity, then we can work at other activities also to connect with Krishna.
Because the connection with Krishna gives us some strength, some taste, some satisfaction. And then we can push ourselves and connect in other ways also. So basically, finding the usual or default channels of our consciousness and seeing in which of those channels we can bring Krishna and then letting our consciousness go along those channels.
That’s the way we can invoke Krishna’s presence. Answer your question? Thank you. Hi Krishna, thank you for the class.
So the title of the class, could you repeat? Is Anxiety a Disorder? And the answer was anxiety is not a disorder, but our response to anxiety can make it a disorder. Oh, okay. Yes, so the title that I had heard was turning anxiety into intensity.
And I was wondering about that part. Okay, so I basically addressed that in the sense that I said we become purposeful. The intensity is in two parts.
The intensity is in terms of whether we become the observers very carefully. We intensely observe our consciousness, Sakshi Bhav and Seva Bhav. Both are the ways in which you can develop intensity.
So idea is that if I become an observer of my consciousness, alert observer, then when some emotions come up, I can identify them and then I can distance myself from them. And if I have an intense service attitude, it’s like we’re intensely concentrating on something, then even if many other things are happening, we don’t focus on them. So like that, within our consciousness, there may be anxiety.
But if we focus on the service to Krishna, that intensity will enable us to distance ourselves from other stimuli that are within our consciousness. Okay, thank you. Thank you for a very wonderful class.
I just have one comment and one question. So there are two, you know, very classic landmark books that have been written by Robert Whittaker. He’s an award-winning American journalist.
He’s written a book called The Anatomy of an Epidemic. And the second book that he’s written is called Mad in America. These two books, you know, highlight the problem of mental health, the problem of anxiety and depression, the rise of antidepressants, you know, the problems of overuse of these things.
And he summarises, you know, in quite elaborate ways, these two things. So it’s quite an interesting way to read these things. His name is Robert Whittaker.
The second comment I have, Maharaj needs this. In the physical world, in biological sciences, in social sciences, in mathematical, statistical sciences, in medical sciences, there is also a very sincere attempt, let me put it this way, a very sincere and a humble attempt to understand the nature of reality. And sometimes they may not be using the same terminology or the same processes of bhakti, of seva, of, you know, because they are not coming from those traditions.
But yes, there is a very simple, you know, there is a very honest and a sincere effort in all of these endeavours of human mind to relate, to understand the nature of reality. How should we relate to this aspect of our physical externality? How should we as practitioners of tradition of bhakti relate to this domain of our life? Yeah. So in the realm of science and technology, also there is a sincere and humble attempt to understand the nature of reality.
How should we bhakti practitioners relate with this? Yes. Sri Prabhupada in one conversation on Venice Beach in LA says that we are not against scientists’ attempt to enquire about reality. We are against their atheism.
Now, it is not that all scientists are atheists, nor is it that necessarily science leads to atheism. But science currently works with a particular methodology. And that methodology usually doesn’t bring God into the picture.
You could call that methodology as naturalism. That means, last year when I was going to England, I had gone to Cambridge University to speak over there. So we passed by the tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling or felt the fruit falling depending on which version of the story we take up.
Anyway, so now Newton believed in the existence of God. But when he wanted to know what made this fruit fall, at that time he was not looking for God as an explanation. He was looking for some material mechanism to explain that.
So he, of course, attributed that mechanism to God, but that’s secondary. At that time, he was looking for a material mechanism. And then whatever material mechanism he found out, he called it gravity.
And that is within the human scale of observation does work at the microscopic level. It may not work, quantum physics is required. But the point which I’m making is, from that point onwards, science will start looking for explanations for natural phenomena.
It looks for natural causes. And if there’s anything beyond nature, science doesn’t look for that. There could be that cause.
Like Newton, his idea was, where did this law of gravity come from? Okay, it’s arranged by God. In fact, he considered his scientific discoveries to be equivalent to spiritual insights. He said that, oh, father, I think thy thoughts after thee.
That means he saw that, okay, this law of gravity is arranged by God. This is the mechanism and I’m seeing it, understanding it. So then here is the material phenomena that we observe and material mechanism that we try to discern, which is causing that phenomena.
So now science focusses on these two things. Now, what caused the material mechanism itself? That is a question which usually science doesn’t discuss. Every, Paul Davis is a prominent scientist.
He’s written in the book in which he says that the scientists begin with the faith, it’s almost a religious-like faith, that nature operates according to laws. Now, why does nature operate according to laws? Why should nature operate according to laws? There is no, if you just look at the materialistic worldview in science, they treat it like an axiom, that nature operates according to laws. Einstein said that, one of the quotes attributed to him is that, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.
What does that mean? It means if we consider that everything is a result of unguided natural processes, then our brain is a result of an unguided natural process. The universe out there is a result of an unguided natural process. Now, why should the universe out there have, act according to certain laws? Why should the human brain in here be capable of analysing certain laws? And why should there be a correlation between the two? It’s, I find, suppose I find, suppose I find myself lost, I wake up and I don’t know where I am, and then just a leaf flutters over there, and I find that on that paper, something is written over there.
I look at it and it’s written in a language, a script that I know. And it’s also a message that makes sense to me. It tells me, go there and you’ll get back home.
So, now there are three things over there. First of all, that paper fluttering in over there at that time, my being able to know the language in which that, what is written on that paper, and thirdly, that paper having a message that I understand. So, these three things.
Similarly, if you consider, nature following certain laws is like that paper fluttering in. Our knowing that language is like the human being, brain being capable of say, analysing mathematics. And third is, nature functioning according to the laws which we human beings can understand.
So, this is a remarkable correlation. And why is it like this? This is something which science doesn’t have answers for. So, science explains nature, but the explainability of nature requires an explanation.
Why is nature explainable by science? That requires an explanation that science doesn’t have. So, if you consider, there are natural phenomena and there are natural causes. Or by natural, I mean material or mechanical.
So, science looks at these two things. Now, why are these material phenomena causes, mechanisms there which causes phenomena? That science doesn’t look at. But there are scientists who claim that science can answer all questions.
That is actually not science, that is scientism. It is an imperialism of science extended to all domains of knowledge. Science plus imperialism becomes scientism.
So, scientism is what becomes a problem. When you said that there is a sincere attempt to understand the nature of reality, that is definitely true. There are many scientists who are very industriously trying to understand how nature works.
But the way scientific methodology works right now is that they look for material mechanisms to explain material phenomena. And that is perfectly fine. But there are many atheists who misappropriate the power and prestige of science to prop up their own ideology.
Because science doesn’t talk of anything beyond the material mechanisms. So, they say there is nothing beyond the material mechanisms. And so that leads to atheism.
That means there is nothing beyond matter. So, when science becomes misappropriated to foist atheism on people in the name of science, that is when it becomes a serious problem. So, there are of course, some scientists who acknowledge that there is something non-material also, and we need to explore that.
But that is a minority branch, especially because of quantum physics to some extent, consciousness is being recognised as a fundamental reality. But that is not still mainstream. There is a very vehement attempt to try to reduce consciousness down to material level also.
But consciousness has irreducible elements. I have talked about this elaborately in my book on demystifying reincarnation. But suffice it to say that as far as science is looking for material mechanisms for material causes, that attempt is appreciated.
But when it is assumed or it is portrayed from there, that there is nothing beyond the material mechanisms, then it becomes a problem. So, we respect scientists when they are searching for knowledge in terms of finding the material mechanisms for material causes. And through that, we learn certain truths, that is perfectly fine.
But it is when they make claims which go beyond the domain of knowledge, that is where it becomes a problem. Does that answer your question? Yes. Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Yes. The question and answer was so technical and scientific that most of it went over my head.
But I will ask a simple version of that question. So, in your talk, you mentioned one scenario where one person, I don’t know if that was an example or a real scenario, that one person said that he thought that chanting Hare Krishna was not helping that person. So, you broke that down in three parts, that mind is easier to be brought down to the physical level and spiritual level.
So, it sounds to me like that person has lost faith in chanting. Okay, yeah. Good question.
Actually, it’s a very important point. So, is it that if somebody says breathing works better than chanting Hare Krishna, does that mean they lost faith in chanting? And how do we understand this? No, the two can serve two different purposes. There is pacification of the mind and there is purification of the mind.
Pacification means when something, some agitating stimuli is coming in, make it peaceful, make it peaceful. So, as far as pacification of the mind is concerned, breathing can work well. Even if I say go to a natural place, a scenic place, look at the mountain, look at the sky, look at the river, I can feel peaceful.
That’s pacification. So, purification refers to purging the mind of the forces that make it agitated. So, as long as there is lust, there is anger, there is greed, there is envy, there is selfishness, ultimately there is self-centred materialism, there is going to be agitation.
So, we see that pacification is like a painkiller and purification is like the curative medicine. So, it is true, we don’t deny that the painkiller will work faster than the curative medicine. But what is the work that it is doing? The work is simply removing the pain, the work is not curing the disease.
So, if you understand the jurisdiction, that’s fine. And in bhakti also, we will see that, as I said, the idea of getting out of the head and getting into the physical level. Bhakti is actually very practical activities.
Now, we do cooking, we do literature, we do distribution, we do preaching and all those practical activities in which we get involved. And that engagement also purifies us. So, that means the answer has two parts, that getting the consciousness at the physical level can pacify it.
And pacification is valuable. It’s like if there is a patient who is sick and is in pain, then at that end, doctor will give curative medicine and will give pain medicine also. So, similarly, if somebody has a lot of anxiety, doing some breathing to calm oneself down is perfectly fine.
But if I start thinking the painkiller is all I need to be cured, then one is not understanding what exactly the problem is. The last part of the question was, how would you give, like what assurance you will give that chanting will, is actually, eventually… That’s what I’m saying, how will chanting work. So, that’s purification.
That means, yes, anxiety comes in and I breathe in, breathe out and feel calm. But again some anxiety is going to come in, again some anxiety is going to come in. As long as my thought pattern is not changing, ultimately, for a devotee, it is, anxiety is dealt with by spiritualization of consciousness.
When I understand that things out of control are ultimately in Krishna’s control. The things that are in my control are also, it is that Krishna has given me the ability to control. So, in this way, the whole gamut of the situation, a devotee connects with Krishna.
So, whatever is in my control, Krishna is giving me that ability and I will use that ability to the best of my capacity. I’m not doing this in a mode of independent controllership. I’m doing this in a mode of service to Krishna, using the abilities he has given me.
And the things that are not in my control, that is in Krishna’s control and Krishna will bring good out of it eventually. So, we have to have the understanding that actually bhakti is going to purge the mind of the attachment that make us agitated, of the contamination that make us agitated. So, the pain medicine and the curative medicine can go together.
If only, when the pain medicine is seen as a substitute of the curative medicine, as an alternative, then it becomes a problem. So, we all, if our mind gets agitated, we may all find particular ways in which we calm our mind down. Some of us may just chant Hare Krishna.
Some of us may recite some verses. Some of us may look at the deities. Some of us may call a friend and talk with them.
We all have our ways of dealing with it. So, we accept that the process of bhakti yoga is the ultimate process. Now, at an immediate level, if we find something within bhakti itself which calms us down, that is great.
If kirtans calm me down, that’s great. If reciting verses calms me down, that’s great. If that doesn’t work, that just means that my particular body might have a conditioning which I need to work, I need to address in a particular way.
So, sometimes for the same disease, different people may have different kinds of pains and they may need different kinds of pain medicines. So, the important thing is not which pain medicine a person is taking. The important thing is whether the person is taking the curative medicine.
Did that answer your question? Yes. So, how much time? We have time? A couple more. Okay, fine.
I’m not sure which verse this is, but the person in full Krishna consciousness is a sour person. You can see the crux of a particular situation. And many times when we are overwhelmed by anxiety, we cannot see the crux of that particular situation.
And we find sometimes that the solution to whatever problem we are dealing with comes randomly. That’s because our life is so fast-paced that most of our time is spent either in performing, doing whatever it takes to rectify the situation, or teaching to come up with a solution. But not enough time is spent in reflecting.
And that reflection comes only when we connect with Krishna. To stop that train of thoughts, to say, let that nightmarish situation happen. If that is Krishna’s will, let that situation happen.
I’ll figure out a way to serve him even in that. Let that happen, but let me put that aside. Okay, how am I going to solve this now? To be able to think in that way, that I think is critical to, like you said, get out of your head to come up with a solution.
So, we really need to spend that time in reflection and only in that creative source is when true, lasting solutions will come. That’s just one comment, to be able to see things as they are. Yeah.
When sometimes we are facing anxiety and suddenly a random idea comes in which helps us to deal with the problem. Yeah, actually, I talk about a spiritual level. At the spiritual level, there is a soul and there is a super soul.
So, many times the super soul gives us ideas. You can call it inspiration, intuition, whatever be the word you use for it. But that can come at any time.
So, in general, for devotees, when we connect with Krishna, it is not just so that we get security over there, but we also get intelligence from there. And when we are too much caught in the mode of either doing things or thinking what to do, then our focus is not on Krishna. We’re not receptive to Krishna.
So, there is the two aspects in our bhakti. One is taking initiative to do things. And second is being receptive to Krishna to get ideas of what to do, to see what he wants us to do.
And both are distinct modes of bhakti. Both can be bhakti. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, when he completes speaking, Arjuna says, karishye vacanam tava, I will do your will.
In the Bible, towards the end, Jesus says that, let thy will be done. So, here Krishna is saying, I will do your will. There he is saying, let thy will be done.
So, we could say that there are two distinct aspects. In that situation, the context was that Jesus knew, had some sense that next day he was going to be poisoned. So, he says that, oh God, let the cup pass.
But let thy will be done, not mine. So, that means, with respect to things that are in our control, we take initiative. But with respect to things that are not in our control, we leave it to Krishna.
And then what to do about that? Are we to do anything, not do anything? Or we might have something which we can do, we don’t know. So, having that receptivity is very important. So, in general, in bhakti, the way we focus on is, we do our sadhana bhakti diligently.
And that itself is meant to create that receptivity. But sadhana bhakti can just become another activity in our life. And that receptivity doesn’t come.
But if we have that understanding, yes, I have to do my best. But Krishna can just change everything in one moment. So, let me be receptive.
So, especially any person who works in the creative field, they depend a lot on inspiration. So, there’s a Nobel laureate author, Somerset Maugham. So, he was asked, do you write as per a schedule? Or do you write when you’re inspired? He said, I write only when I’m inspired.
And I make sure that I’m inspired every morning at 9am. So, what that means is that, you know, we need to have our discipline, that I have to do my part. But some days, if I’m writing, I might just, I write and this thought just flow.
And so many ideas come, so many things work. Some days, it just don’t work. The author who said writing is very easy.
All you have to do is sit in front of a computer and glare at the screen till drops of blood form on your forehead. So, sometimes no ideas may come. So, we have to, but if the author doesn’t sit down and follow the process of writing, then nothing will come.
If you just wait for inspiration, then we’ll be waiting for the rest of eternity. Sometime it will come, it will stay for some time, but then there has to be application to convert that inspiration also into action. So, in the process of Adana Bhakti, it is like, you know, I make sure inspiration comes every morning at 9am.
So, it’s like we are diligent, but we also have to recognise that our diligence is only one part of it. We diligently do the activities which invoke Krishna’s presence. But Krishna is Swaraad, He is independent.
I was talking about making our consciousness into an ocean. So, we do the activities which will invoke Krishna’s presence. And we do them taking initiative with consistency.
But Krishna is independent. And one day His presence may manifest, another day it may not manifest. So, we have to, while being diligent, also remember that the Krishna factor is not something which I can control.
But Krishna factor can manifest at any moment. And if I keep that receptivity, then I will find that we will have suddenly ideas coming up which will, oh, this is like this, I didn’t know this. So, we have to have both the diligence to give doing our part and the receptivity to understand what Krishna is conveying to us.
Thank you. So, enlighten me. I need to hear this lecture a few more times.
Because at one point, I want to capture everything in this one hour. But my question, you can answer this with her, but I just want to ask it here. So, we get the flight and compare that to more of goodness or some more of passion and ignorance.
So, when it comes to more of goodness, so, I mean, we don’t have goodness where we absorb and do the things, like, you know, take it back, that’s an absorb, let it cool down, calm down and do it. However, where do you draw the line for procrastination and the laziness? But on the name of laziness and procrastination, yeah, I know, I’ll do it. Things may happen, Krishna did not give a chance or did not give me the permission yet, maybe I’ll do it.
But we hear both of them. So, where do you draw the line for more of goodness and more of the laziness with the procrastination? Okay, yeah. So, yeah, so how do we draw the line between mode of goodness, which involves stepping back and analysing and mode of, you could say, ignorance, where we’re just lazy, doing nothing? Yes, actually, the mode of goodness and mode of ignorance appear very similar externally.
If a person in the mode of passion, you know, if a class is going on, the person in the mode of passion, when will the class end, I want to go, I want to do some things. Both in goodness and ignorance, they just want to sit. But in goodness, the person is sitting and hearing, the person in ignorance is either sitting and sleeping or sitting and just letting their mind wander.
So, basically, if you consider the two aspects, there is the external action and there is an internal contemplation. So, we say that in goodness, first there is contemplation and then there is action. In ignorance, there is first action and then contemplation.
So, some people speak to express their thoughts and some people speak to discover their thoughts. So, in passion, there is first action and then contemplation. So, Krishna says, prakasha, pravrtti and moha.
So, prakasha is illumination, that’s contemplation, then action. Pravrtti is first action, then contemplation and moha is simply delusion. That means, there is actually no proper contemplation and no proper action also.
Simply the mind is wandering here and there and we are wandering with the mind. So, now, with respect to bhakti, we understand that Krishna, we need Krishna’s mercy to do things. But at the same time, we also, the fact that we have an opportunity to do something, that is also Krishna’s mercy.
There is one devotee, he is saying that we have to chant 16 rounds but our chanting is so poor. So, instead of my chanting 16 rounds, can I hear Prabhupada chanting 16 rounds of japa for two hours? Now, Prabhupada has established the whole Krishna consciousness movement for us, at least we should chant. So, that means, there is, we could say, there is the facility to do a service and then there is the facility to get the success in the service.
So, the facility to get success in service is Krishna’s mercy, but the facility to do the service is also Krishna’s mercy. And if I don’t take that facility, that means I am not taking Krishna’s mercy. So, we could say that if we are trying to share Krishna bhakti with others, trying to give knowledge about Krishna to others, then just the opportunity to speak about Krishna, the opportunity to distribute books, the opportunity to give some classes, that itself is Krishna’s mercy.
Now, people coming, people taking up the process, people becoming transformed, that is also Krishna’s mercy. But if we see, when Prabhupada is marking Bhagavad Dharma, that song which he composed when he was in, saw the American coastline, the first line he says is, Boro kropa kaile Krishna adha mere prati, ki lagi aane lehta karo e begati. My dear Lord, you have been very merciful to me.
You may say, what is the mercy? He has come alone, he had heart attacks, he has no money, he has no contacts, he has no followers. What is the mercy over there? But what Prabhupada is saying is, my spiritual master told me to go to the western beach. So, that I have been able to come here, that itself is Krishna’s mercy.
So, that means, we have to see that the facility to do service also is Krishna’s mercy. And just because that service is not producing a result, if I give up that service, then in waiting for the second instalment of Krishna’s mercy, I am actually rejecting the first instalment. So, my bhakti is shown by accepting the first instalment itself.
Like Bhakti Sanshita Thakur would say that if nobody comes to classes, just speak to the walls. You will get purified by that. So, of course, we don’t deliberately go in front of a wall and speak.
We do try to make sure that people come for the programmes. But the principle here is that just speaking about Krishna is purifying for us itself. And of course, we would like others to get purified.
We try to do that also. So, in general, the idea if saying that I am dependent on Krishna is making us apathetic or lethargic about doing our service itself, then that means that is not the mode of goodness. That is actually the mode of ignorance, that is lethargy.
But when I am doing the service, what I can in my situation, and I understand that, okay, maybe in future situation changes, I will be able to do more service or in future situation changes, the same service may give more results. That is Krishna’s mercy. So, in general, there has to be a combination of thinking and acting.
Because bhakti works both ways. It works at the internal level. It also works at the external level.
Sometimes, we think our way to devotional actions. Sometimes, we act our way to devotional feelings or devotional thoughts. Sometimes, I just do not feel like chanting.
I read some quote, I read some shloka, I hear some class and I start getting myself into chanting. So, I think my way to devotional actions. Sometimes, I just start chanting and then I start chanting and I start connecting.
So, I act my way to devotional emotions, then I start feeling connected with Krishna. So, we have to work both ways. That is why for us as devotees, if we say that I am dependent on Krishna, and that is why I am not doing this right now, then that could very well be simply lethargy.
Because I have to connect with Krishna in the situation I am in right now. And if I am not doing that, then I am not actually being connected with Krishna at all. Like some people say that, you know, we tell them, please come to the temple.
They say, Bhagwan bulaayege tab aayege. Oh, when God calls me, I’ll come. Krishna has called 5000 years ago already.
I surrender to me, Krishna has said. Another way to understand is that Krishna is calling us through His devotees. So, if this devotee is telling us, that means Krishna only is guiding that devotee.
So, basically, the contemplation, if it is a preparation for action, I want to analyse, I want to prepare, but then I have to act also. But if contemplation becomes a substitute for action, then it is quite likely to be indicative of the mode of ignorance. You know, if you tell somebody, please give a class.
I am preparing for the class. When will you be next week? I was preparing for one week. One more week.
Somebody says, one year I have been preparing. I am not yet ready to give a class. You have to get it started off.
Sometimes you have to give a class, isn’t it? So, sometimes the mind can delude and think that I am preparing. But in some ways, preparation is something which we do before the action. But in some ways, the action itself is the preparation also.
Just like swimming, I have to get the right gear or whatever for I want to go into swim. But then ultimately, the best way to prepare for swimming is by swimming. Similarly, for us to do bhakti, the best way to do it is actually to do it.
So, we have to create some finite time scale that, okay, I want to contemplate, I want to analyse, but for this much time. And if I am going on analysing, then it is, I am using the idea of dependence on Krishna as an excuse for staying independent of Krishna. That means, I don’t want to serve Krishna.
I am saying I am dependent on Krishna, but by that I am actually using that as an excuse to not connect with Krishna, to not serve Krishna. So, in general, in the mode of goodness, there is contemplation before action. But there is contemplation and action both.
It is not that there is only contemplation and no action at all. So, when there is a combination, then we can say we are in the mode of goodness. Otherwise, if there is only one thing we are doing forever, then that is the mode of ignorance.
Okay, thank you. So, thank you very much. So, Prabhupada is going to speak at the Sunday Feast tomorrow at Iskcon Columbus Temple.
And the topic for tomorrow is from state of the art to state of the heart. So, that is the topic. And Sunday Feast starts at 11 o’clock.
Please remember, Sunday Feast starts at 11.