Understanding how the mind acts as a mirror that distorts our self-conception

[Saturday feast program at ISKCON, Richmond, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank all of you for coming here today. Afternoon. Yeah, it’s too humble.
Okay. That’s okay. Am I audible behind? It’s not coming, but I think you should be able to hear me.
Okay. So, I will speak today on the topic of cleaning the mirror of our mind. The mind, first I’ll explain, I’ll do this in four parts.
First, I’ll explain what is the mind. Second is how it presently malfunctions. Third is how it is meant to function in a healthy way.
And lastly, how we can bring it to the right way of functioning. So, I’ll speak based on the Shikshashtakam, which is a set of eight verses spoken by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu about how we can purify ourselves so that our mind will function better. Now, the word mind has many different meanings in English and there are many equivalent terms in Sanskrit also.
So, for example, now if you say, if somebody comes up with a very crazy idea, I tell them, have you lost your mind? Now, when we are using this, we are using the word mind to signify intelligence. Have you lost your intelligence? Why are you functioning like this? Or on the other hand, if we tell someone, be mindful, give this your full mind, that means be attentive. So, here we use the word mind to refer to attention.
Sometimes we may use the word mind, also refer to mind over matter. That means that there is material reality and there is the mind which is above the material. So, the word mind can have many different meanings.
Sometimes you may say Einstein was one of the greatest minds of the last century. Here we are using mind to refer to a very intelligent person. The Bhagavad Gita uses the word mind in a specific sense.
The word mana which is used in the Bhagavad Gita refers to an intermediate level of reality between the physical and the spiritual. So, our current existence is three dimensional. That is the body, the mind and the soul.
In the 7th chapter, 6th and 7th verses, Krishna talks about this, how the mind is a part of the subtle body. So, mana, mind is a part of the various material elements and then beyond this is the soul. ये दंधार्यते जगत् That the soul is present in this world and the soul is different from all this.
So, basically we could say that if we had to monitor, we were in charge of security of a big building. Now, we can’t physically go all around the building looking constantly. So, we would have some security system.
Say we have security cameras which are positioned at all the doors of the building and then all the cameras come to a control center, a control room. And we could sit over there and we could monitor everything, what is happening where. So, similarly the big monitor on which all the controls, all the inputs from the various entry points are coming that central point is the mind.
So, शोत्रम् चक्षिः स्पर्षणम् च रसनं घ्राणमेवच अधिष्टाय मनष्चायम् विषयानुपसेवते So, it said the soul takes in the inputs from the five senses. The knowledge acquiring senses are शोत्र चक्षिः, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the skin. All these are taken in and they are integrated and presented on the screen of the mind.
And we observe them. Now, while observing them, we respond to them. So, for example, we, if we see the screen is meant to normally act like a window.
Whatever is being displayed outside, we see it. And then we process it appropriately. But the mind is a mysterious kind of device.
It doesn’t just display whatever is out there. Basically, a monitor will be like a sophisticated window. Through the window, we can see what is outside.
But a monitor, which is having cameras at all the doors, it shows us what is happening at various places in a more sophisticated way. But basically what it should show is whatever is out there. But this mind, it functions in multiple ways.
It functions, it is a monitor, but the monitor can function as a window, which shows what is out there. But it can also function as a TV screen, which starts showing something else entirely. If there were a high-tech house, where you have a window, and you can see what is outside.
But then you press some button and the window turns into a TV. And you are looking outside and you are seeing some nice, just people walking by. And then suddenly, that changes into television and you see a monster over there.
What happened? This monster is outside my house. He will get scared. So we see ourselves in this mind, it comes up with many different images.
And when we function, we function and respond to how we perceive the world. And that perception is shaped by the mind. Now the mind also acts like a mirror, in which we see ourselves.
But it is a distorted mirror. Somebody may be a very good looking person, but if they look at themselves in a convex mirror, or in a concave mirror, they will look, what is this? Who is this person? They will just not be able to recognize themselves. Somebody is a beauty queen and they look at themselves in a mirror, they will get a heart attack.
What happened to my appearance? So a mirror is meant to reflect us as we are, to show us who we are. But if a mirror is distorted in any way, then it will give us a distorted reflection. So for us at present, I talked about this, the mind acts in three ways.
It gives us perception of whatever is happening out there. It acts like a window, a sophisticated window. It also acts like a TV.
That means when we are sitting here and talking, we may be hearing this class, I may be speaking in this class, but suddenly if some thought pops up in my mind, I have to do this. Okay, after this program I will do that. But will it be too late? If it’s too late, what will I explain? My thoughts may go on in that direction completely.
So then it’s like a TV that has popped up and we are seeing something else entirely. And the mind also acts as a mirror in which we see ourselves. And the mind is like a monitor and what it is made up of is past impressions.
So what it will focus on, say for example, if somebody is very artistically conscious, as soon as they come to a room, everything says, okay, how artistic everything is. There are many things in this room, but that’s what they see. Is everything aesthetically arranged or not? Somebody is very cleanliness conscious.
As soon as they come to the room, first thing they see is, is it clean, is it unclean? Somebody is very linguistic conscious. And as soon as they come in, they look at the notices. Any spelling mistake anywhere? That’s what they will see.
So now these are all abilities, which are we could say instinctive abilities, talents that are there. They’re all stored as impressions in the mind. And so though, while on the window of the mind, many images appear, there are something which it focuses on.
If we are hungry, then if we come to a room, the first thing, is there any food anywhere? That’s what we’ll notice. So basically, the mind may have many inputs coming into it, but something it zooms on. And what it zooms on, is dependent on what is present in it already.
If linguistic ability or linguistic interest is present, it will zoom in on language. If the desire for food is present, it will zero in on food. So in this way, we could say, if I go back to the monitor, on this monitor, there are many windows in which many inputs are coming in, but some window zooms up.
So the impressions, which are there within us, they shape not only what we see outside, but they also shape how we see ourselves. We see ourselves based on how the impressions in the mind have been shaped. Say for example, the child is growing up, and that child has an older sibling, who’s been brilliant, always getting A, A grades in the class.
And then the parents, the relatives, the friends, they always compare this younger sibling with the older sibling. He’s so clever. She’s so clever.
Why can’t you do well? Now what happens, because of this, the younger sibling always starts thinking that, okay, you know, their self-worth gets seen through the filter of that comparison. They may develop feelings of inadequacy or inferiority. Why? Because the world has always seen them not just as who they are, but with a particular perspective.
So for example, somebody may be of a particular race, and there’s racial discrimination, which was here in America for many years. If we are from India, where there’s caste discrimination. So what happens is, the world sees them in a particular way, and when the world sees them in a particular way, they also start seeing themselves in that way.
So basically, the world may see us in a particular way, we don’t have to see ourselves that way. But it affects us. So basically, whatever inputs come in, the mind responds by categorizing and assigning some feeling to it.
If somebody shouts at me, and then the mind categorizes, oh, this person is angry, and oh, this person is behaving so badly with me. So the mind, when the unit of thought, when some input comes in, the mind’s function is to assign feelings to it. So if somebody insults me, I feel bad.
So now, whenever inputs come in from the outer world, if the mind is the primary channel through which those inputs are taken in, then the result is that we get imprinted with the negativities that are there in the world. The mind simply assigns feelings, this is good, this is bad. But the intelligence is what can evaluate.
Say, now, in several countries, where there are advertisements, they have laws that kids below a particular age should not be the targets of advertisement. If you have toys, if you have kid entertainment, they should not be targeted with advertisement. Why? Because it is understood that the kids who are very small, they don’t have the capacity to discern.
Is this really good? Is this bad? Should I be buying this? Should I not be buying this? So it is said that the small children especially, because they don’t have the discerning ability, if something is depicted, it may be advertisement, but this is just real. This is just like this. And then they go and buy it.
So advertisements, they are usually not meant to offer analysis. They may offer some analysis, but they have a very clear purpose. They want to make us buy the product.
So now, it is for the customer, the consumer, the viewer, to evaluate. Now, okay, they are saying, this is the best, cheapest phone in the world. Okay.
Cheapest phone in the world. But then, star-star conditions apply. How is the cheapest phone? Okay, if you want this, this, this, this specification, but there are others with other set of specifications, they may be cheapest also.
So whenever anybody is advertising something, at that time, it may be good, it may be bad, but we can’t take the advertisement at face value. We have to evaluate it. And for that evaluation, we need our critical intelligence.
If our intelligence is not alert, then, oh, this is so good, that is so good, that is so good. We just keep buying one after another after another. So, when people feel bad, there are different ways which people use to deal with it.
So, if I am feeling depressed, if I am feeling lonely, if I am feeling sad, some people just turn on television and start watching it. Some people just start drinking. Some people, they use this form of therapy, which is called as retail therapy.
What is retail therapy? Just go and start buying. Shop, shop, you know. Oh, I buy this, I buy this, I feel good.
So, I feel good. Oh, I bought this also. I bought something new.
So, it’s just like people can become addicted to alcohol. They are called as alcoholics. Similarly, people can become addicted to shopping, called as shopaholics.
So, now what is happening over here? The idea comes up. Okay, I see this hoarding, I see this advertisement, I see this, I see that. Now, because I am feeling bad at that time, because my inner state is dominated by feelings.
So, I am not, my critical intelligence is not very active over there. So, what happens? I just go and buy this, buy this. And then somebody asks and I come back home.
Why did you buy this? Why did I buy this? I don’t know. I will try to come up with some reason why I bought it at that time. But basically, the point I am making here is that when we are driven simply by our feelings, we may not act in the best ways.
So, the mind is something which carries a lot of impressions. And those impressions, they shape our decisions. Unless we evaluate.
So, if somebody is an alcoholic, they have an idea that drinking is the way to, if you have stress, if you have distress, the way out is drink. So, then as soon as the idea comes up in their mind, it just pops up and they accept it. So, the intelligence is strong.
Last time I drank, I got a terrible hangover. I wasted so much money. And I am endangering my health by this.
Okay, the desire has come, but I don’t have to accept it. So, by the impression, the past impressions in the mind become the present propositions. Proposition means, come on, do this.
Drink this, watch this, eat this. Why do those propositions come? Because there are past impressions. Now, if say, this is the home, this is the office, and there are two employees who are going from their home to the office.
Now, there is a bar in between. If somebody has never drunk, then there is no impression of drinking. And if they pass by the bar, no proposition will come.
But somebody has drunk, the proposition comes up. And if they are drunk more and more, the proposition comes up more and more forcefully. So, the proposition can be in terms of desires, come on, eat this, watch this, touch this.
But the proposition can also be in terms of self-conceptions. That means, if somebody is told, if say, the parents have compared a child negatively with some other sibling, you know, you are good for nothing. Now, that thought has got imprinted in the child.
And then, whenever the child may grow up also, may become a teenager, may become a youth, but whenever they face some failure, they face some setback, at that time, immediately, you are good for nothing. They have done many good things in life also, till then. But immediately, oh, you are good for nothing.
So, the past impressions that come in, if we don’t process them properly, then they get lodged inside and they come up as future propositions in the present. So, we all make mistakes in life. But the problems are caused not just by the mistakes that we make, but by the meaning we assign to those mistakes.
If I see a mistake which causes me to fail, it’s just a mistake that happened. The meaning I assigned is that, oh, this mistake means that I am a failure. Others have told me you are good for nothing.
Now, it’s proven to be that I am good for nothing. When this happens, then we become misled. Then we are unable to process things properly.
So, for us, the impressions that have been formed within us, they will come up as propositions. And they can be often in terms of negative conceptions. That, you know, you are not good.
You have this problem. You have that problem. Now, even if we have that problem, we have to deal with it.
But when the mind brings a proposition, that proposition leads to discouragement. It leads to depression. It leads to people feeling that I just can’t do anything in my life.
So, we all have certain self-conceptions which are present as impressions within the mind. So, if I have an impression, I am very intelligent. People have told me.
Now, it is not just negative self-conceptions can be a problem. Excessively positive conceptions can also be a problem. If somebody has been told you, if somebody starts driving a car, hey, you are a very good driver.
And they are driving a car, and they think, they are drunk, alcohol. I am such a good driver that even if I am drunk, I can drive. Now, that is, that is a foolhardy idea.
They will meet the accident by which they will kill themselves also, kill others also. So, we all have certain conceptions. If our conceptions are too negative or too positive.
If they are too negative, it leads to diffidence, lack of confidence. But if they are too positive, it leads to overconfidence. So, I can just do whatever I want.
There will be no problem. No, there will be problems. So, our self-conception is shaped by not just the people around us, because people will have their opinions, and we cannot change that.
The nature of the world is, that it will give its opinions. And actually, for everyone. You know, we sometimes worry, what will this person think about me? What is this person thinking about me? Yeah, to some extent, we live in a society, so we have to care for others’ opinions.
But we can’t be obsessed by that. In everybody’s head, a movie is going on. Like I said, the mind is like a monitor, on which a movie is going on.
So, in everybody’s head, a movie is going on, and in that movie, they are the hero. And we are all extras in that movie. We are all extras.
We are just having some additional roles to play. That’s how it is. So, some people have said something negative about me.
Okay, that’s their opinion. They are entitled to their opinion. I have to use my intelligence to evaluate whether what they are saying is right or not.
If I become not analytical, but if I become sentimental, Oh, this person says like this about me. How can they say something like this about me? I take it to the heart, and I just become completely disheartened. Nature of the world is, people come from their own perspectives, people have their own ideas, their own biases, and they are going to assign labels to others.
So, this creates our self-conception. If we don’t process other people’s opinions properly, then that becomes our self-conception. And that self-conception shapes how we function throughout our life.
So, till now I was talking about, say, you are intelligent or you are foolish, this kind of self-conceptions. But we all have a fundamental self-conception, that is, we are physical creatures. We are our bodies.
That is a self-conception, which is almost universal. But that is an erroneous self-conception. We are actually not our bodies.
We are something beyond our body. I talked earlier about the example of a monitor, which is bringing in inputs. So, let’s do a simple thought experiment to understand this principle further.
So, all of you, wherever you are seated, you can sit in a relaxed way and then close your eyes. Don’t go to sleep. Just close your eyes.
And you can take three deep breaths with me. One, two, three. Now, with your eyes closed, look at what you see in front of you.
Because your eyes are closed, you will not see the physical world, physical objects that are there in front of you. But still, you will see something. It’s like there is a screen inside you.
And on that screen, you may see various objects. You heard a door closing just now. Which door has closed? That door may come in your inner screen.
Or, if I am speaking right now, I may come, or your neighbor may come, or your home may come. In fact, different images, you will see they are coming and going. Now, as you are observing these images, that are coming on the inner screen, sometimes it might just be a blank screen, just some colorless haze.
But still, there is something that you see inside. Now, try to take a step back and try to look at the inner seer. You are seeing the inner screen, but who is it that is seeing the inner screen? Take a step back and try to look at that person.
Try again. Try to take a step back and look, not at the inner screen, look at the seer, inner seer. No matter how much you step back, the inner seer steps back with you.
You are that inner seer. So, you are the soul who is the inner seer. And the inner screen is the mind.
What you are looking for is what you are looking with. Take one deep breath and then you can open your eyes. So, this is a simple thought experiment which can illustrate this point that there are three levels at which perception happens.
There is an outer scene. You are seeing me, I am seeing you. There is an inner screen.
Ideally, whatever is in the outer scene gets depicted on the inner screen. And then there is the inner seer who sees that inner screen. So, the outer scene is the physical reality.
The inner screen is the mental reality or the mind. The inner scene is the soul. So, now the Bhagavad Gita says in the sixth chapter in verses 20 to 23, that section describes the state of Samadhi.
And then it says, Krishna says, that when the mind becomes peaceful, it stops being agitated. Material stimuli are no longer agitated. How will this happen? By yoga sevaya, by the steady practice of yoga.
And then what will happen? The Atma, by the Atma, will see and will become satisfied within. So, what it means at that time is Atmanam. That means one Atmana refers to the mind, the other Atmanam refers to the soul.
So, the soul will with the mind see itself. And then will become satisfied, and at whatever opinions the world has about me, whatever labels have been assigned, I am separate from all this. I am a pure spiritual being.
I am a soul who is part of God. And as a part of God, God is supremely pure, supremely attractive. I am a spark of Him.
I am also pure. I am also attractive. And when you understand the question, Atmanitushyati, will become satisfied within.
At that time, the ultimate happiness will be experienced. That happiness is experienced through It is beyond the senses. Currently we are trying to experience sensual pleasures.
Get something nice to eat, something nice to watch, something nice to touch. Sensual pleasures, but these are temporary. But beyond the senses, there is the ultimate happiness.
And how it is with the intelligence. At a subtle level, it is perceived. When we experience this, then we never depart from it.
Because this happiness is so satisfying, I don’t need anything else. So that is the state of spiritual perfection. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, Cheto Darpana Marjanam.
So the chanting of the holy names, the process of Bhakti Yoga, cleanses the mirror of the mind. As long as the mirror of the mind has unhealthy impressions on it, that distorts our self-conception. Oh, I am not intelligent.
I am very intelligent. I am tall, I am short. I am Indian, I am American.
I am this, I am that. All these conceptions are there. They are peripheral to us.
They are not exactly who we are. They belong to our body. But Cheto Darpana Marjanam.
When by the consistent contact of the consciousness with Krishna, we become purified. Then the pure awareness of the soul emerges. And that’s where we can become joyful.
Till that time, we may do various things to get happiness. I may say, oh, I want to buy this. If I just buy this, I buy a better house, I get a better job, I get this, that.
I’ll become happy. The mind thinks that happiness is just one increment away. One purchase away.
One relationship away. But that is how it stays always. No matter how much I purchase.
No matter how many relationships I try out. No matter how many increments I get. Next.
The problem is not that doing any of these things is bad. Yes, we want relationships. We want money.
We want possessions. It’s not that things are bad. These things are in themselves bad.
The idea that these things will bring us happiness. That is the problem. Why won’t these things bring us happiness? Because the possession may provide some satisfaction.
But more important than the possession externally is the disposition internally. If the mind’s disposition is to look at the things which we don’t have. Then no matter how much we have, the mind will keep looking at something which we don’t have.
And it will stay dissatisfied. So I get this. I’m unhappy because I’ve not got this till now.
I get this. But you’ve not got that. But you’ve not got that.
It will always be there and it will always keep us dissatisfied. So in this case, the impression, the contamination that is there on the mind is greed. And this greed is there.
The 14th chapter, 12th verse, Krishna says that when greed contaminates us, then what happens? There is insatiable desire. Insatiable desire that is never satisfied. Now sometimes we may also understand that I’m thinking negatively.
Some things go wrong in our life and then we start to know things will always go wrong. And we may also realize I’m thinking negatively. I don’t want to think negative.
At one level, we definitely need the intention. Don’t think negative. Sometimes things go wrong, sometimes things go right.
We don’t have to be negative in our life. But if there is the impurity within us, then that impurity conditions us to think in a particular way. So just as if this floor were inclined like this, then water will naturally flow in this direction.
Even if I don’t want the water to flow in this direction, still it will flow. Why? Because the floor is inclined like that. So my intention alone will not be enough.
So when there are impressions in the mind, those impressions cause an inclination within us. So if I’m habituated to thinking negatively, somebody says, don’t think negative. Yeah, I’m not thinking negative.
But today I’ll think positive. What if I start thinking negative tomorrow? Well, you’re already thinking negative today. Isn’t it? If I’m thinking that tomorrow I’ll not be… Today I’ll think positive, but tomorrow I’ll think negative.
Then what is happening? That I’ll think negative tomorrow is already thinking negative today. Isn’t it? So that negative thing is already coming. If you tell someone don’t think negative, that idea is good, but if the mental floor is inclined like that, they’ll automatically think negative.
So we don’t just need to change our intentions. We need to change the impressions within us. To the extent the impressions are changed, to that extent, we will be able to function effectively in life.
Now what does changing impressions mean? The impressions are formed within us. The mind is a very impressionable thing. So the mind is like a… Say if I search something on Google, and then if I search something again and again, then that is what will pop up again and again.
Say somebody is using their browser, and they have gone to some website, say Bollywood.com. Again and again they have visited that. Now they came to a temple, heard of a lecture about Bhagavad Gita, they want to know about Bhagavad Gita. So they go to their browser and type B. They want to type Bhagavad Gita, but what comes in their browser? Bollywood.
Why? Because that is what they have searched for earlier, that is what they have selected earlier, and that is what is prompted now by the intelligent learning modules that are there in the browser. So similarly for us, if we have habituated ourselves to thinking in a particular way, then even if we decide I am going to think in a new way, it won’t work. The past thoughts will come up again.
So we need to change the impressions within us. One way to do is mechanically. If I want to type Bhagavad Gita, and as soon as I type Bhagavad Gita, I should put B over there.
As soon as I type B, Bhagavad Gita should come. Then I have to select, I have to type Bhagavad Gita again and again and again and again. If say I have typed Bollywood 10,000 times before, now I have to type this 10,000 times.
And then this will come as first. So of course, if this is a more recent search, then it will come up more earlier. But basically one way to change it is the mechanical way.
Now do it again and again and again and again. But the other way could be that I just go to bhagavadgita.com, and I select it in my preferences, and make it as a bookmark. Then it will come immediately.
Because here what I have done, I have not used the mechanical way to just have auto selection. I have gone and customized the settings. So we all have negative impressions within us.
And we can, by the mechanical way, also try to change the negative impressions to positive. So as I said, the negative impressions can be, I can feel too inferior, or I can be too proud, I can be arrogant. Both can be unwanted impressions.
So if I feel too inferior, I try to have some confidence. If I am arrogant, I try to have some humility. Whichever way it is.
There is one way to do it. Mechanically, again and again, whenever thought goes negative, make it positive. Thought goes negative, make it positive.
It’s like the water goes in this direction, push it back. It’s a very laborious process. To some extent it is essential.
But there is an easier and more effective way. That is, if we connect ourselves with the supremely pure reality, Krishna. Krishna is extremely powerful, and he is supremely pure.
So when Krishna impressions happen in our consciousness, they change the impressions over there very rapidly. So, if, say, if it’s raining outside and I come out of the rains. Now I am wet, I want to dry myself.
And I come and pick up a cloth, and I try to dry myself, but I am wet. Then I cannot dry myself with a wet cloth. I need either a dry cloth to use, or I need to go under a dryer, and I stand under the dryer, and it dries me up.
The more powerful the dryer, the faster I’ll be dry. Similarly for us, when our self-conception goes in an unwanted direction, we have unhealthy self-conception. To change that, we cannot simply just use another self-conception.
It’s like I have a wet cloth, my clothes are wet, and I use another wet cloth to change it. So, okay, I just make my intention, I think positive. I am not a pessimist, I am an optimist.
Just thinking like that, it is not going to help much. It can help, but it is a slow laborious process. If instead, if I go under a dryer, I get dried up.
Similarly, if I just expose myself to Krishna, Krishna just cleanses away all the impurities within me. And as the impurities get cleansed, I get a healthy self-conception. I understand that beyond what abilities and inabilities I have at the physical level, I have my spirituality.
I am a soul who is an eternal part of Krishna. And Krishna is always with me in my own heart. He is never going to leave me.
He is our eternal Lord. When we understand this, when we become situated in this deep self-understanding that Krishna is my Lord and Master, and I am eternally related with Him, then our defining self-conception becomes that I am a servant of Krishna. We all have different identities.
Say for example, if you go to job, then we may be a software professional. We come back home, we may be a father or a mother. For the broader country, we may be an immigrant from India.
We are an Indian who has come to America. We are NRI. We have different identities.
These are all functional identities. And for particular functions, these identities are important. Beyond all these functional identities, I have a fundamental identity.
We all have a fundamental identity. That fundamental identity is that we are all souls. We are all parts of Krishna.
Krishna says that we are all His eternal parts. And then He further says that that when we are agitated by the mind and the senses, then these give us various other conceptions. And living under the burden of those conceptions, we struggle and we suffer.
So the mind may give you a conception. Oh, you are too tall. You are too short.
You are too fat. You are too thin. You are too this.
You are too that. And those conceptions cause negativity within us. So Karshati.
So we have a fundamental identity that we are souls, we are parts of Krishna. Now along with that, we may have various functional identities. But those functional identities, we may use them for particular purposes.
But we don’t identify too strongly with them. The Bhagavad Gita says that This is water may fall on a rotor sleeve. It falls.
It stays there for some time. It goes off. It doesn’t stick over there.
So similarly for us, whatever has functional identities, if that becomes our fundamental identity, then that is an indication that our chitta, it’s margin, it needs cleansing. If I identify myself, say, as an American, as an Indian who has now become an American, and if I find that somehow, for some reason I’m not able to stay in America, I have to go back to India, then I may think my whole life is a failure. Now, there are so many people living in India also.
It’s not the end of the world. But if my defining identity is that I’m American, then inability to live in America means it’s devastating for me. If I identify myself as a software engineer, and if I lose my job, then who am I? It’s not a philosophical question.
It becomes an emotional question. Who am I? I just don’t have a sense of identity. If I identify myself primarily as a mother, and then I find my child is going off track, now I think, oh, my whole life is a failure.
Now, it’s not necessarily like that, because the child is a separate soul, and the child has his own free will. We can only guide and inspire. The child is going to choose.
So, mother is a very important identity. Job is important. These are all functional identities.
If I identify myself primarily as the husband of someone, or the wife of someone, and then I find that in that relationship, some problem comes up, I’ll get devastated. Why? Because my self-conception is based on something which is not eternal. My nationality, my relationships, my profession, these are not eternal.
Now, all of these will also define us, but that doesn’t have to be our defining identity. They will define us in the sense that there will be one part of our self-understanding. Yes, I am a software engineer, I am a father, I am a mother, but I am much more than these.
These are actually roles that I am playing in this world, but at a fundamental level, I am a soul who is a part of Krishna. To the extent we identify excessively with any of our roles, to that extent, there will be karshati, there will be distress. To the extent we can identify ourselves as souls, as a soul, I am doing this.
I am doing this role. This is my responsibility, this is my service. I’ll do it as well as I can, but I am not this.
I am something different. I am a soul, I am eternal. Then, we will have self-security.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur Nisang says, जीव कृष्णदास एई विश्वास कोरने तौर दुख ना है। That is, the soul can just get the conviction that I am a servant of Krishna. Then, कोई दुख ना है। He says, there is no more distress. What does it mean? Even if I understand I am a servant of Krishna, still I’ll feel cold, I’ll feel hot, depending on the weather, but our distress is caused not just by the situation.
Our distress is caused by our evaluation of the situation, by our interpretation of the situation. Two people may lose a job, two people may be fired, but one person may think, okay, I lost the job, let me find some other job. Other may say, I lost my job, my life is over now.
What has happened? The event is the same, but the meaning that they have assigned to it, interpreted it, is different. Problems will come to everyone in life, but how much we identify with those problems, that will depend on our self-identity. How do I identify myself? So, I’ll conclude with two examples, and then we can have some questions.
Say, suppose you have a brand new car, just purchased, proudly going in the car, and you are looking at, who is looking at you? And at that time, as you stop at a red signal, somebody has come and hits the car. It’s like a demon appears within you. How dare you hit my bumper? I will feel so angry.
Why? Because, because the car is so new, we are so attracted to it, so there is lot of attachment. There is ahankar. Ahankar means ahamkar.
I am the car. Ahamkar. So, at a level, sometimes I saw an advertisement, actually the Bhagavad Gita says, the body is also like a car for the soul.
Yantra rudhani mayaya. The soul, for the soul, the body is like a vehicle. And ahankar is to identify with the body.
So, when we identify with the body, that is false ego. There was an advertisement which said, you are your car. That means you are economic level, your social status, it’s all determined by your car.
So, you are your car. This is, this is, we are not even our body. But to identify ourselves as our car is like, in mathematics you have illusion and illusion squared.
So now, if somebody just hits our car, it will be a mild scratch also. But it will be like a heart attack for us. Now, on the other hand, say you had a car and you sold it.
And after you sold it, now you are going in another car and your old car, somebody is driving. And you see them, they come with a signal next to you and stop. And then somebody hits that car.
Now, what do you feel? Not much. Now, the event is the same. The event is the same.
The car has been hit. But in the first case, we are too emotionally invested in that car. In the second case, we are emotionally disinvested from that car.
So, what happens to that car doesn’t affect us much. So, basically, when we are, when our primary emotional investment is in Krishna, that means I understand that I am a part of Krishna and as a servant of Krishna, okay, I am a mother. As a servant of Krishna, I am a professional.
As a servant of Krishna, I am a spouse, whatever. Then our primary emotional investment is Krishna. Then any rupture happens anywhere, any upheaval happens anywhere else, we will be concerned, but we will not be shaken too much.
Yes, I have to deal with it. I have to deal with it. But I am secure at my core.
So, the process of bhakti is not just a matter of coming to a temple or chanting some mantras or even reading some books. All these are very important, but they all are meant for a purpose. That purpose is to change our self-understanding, change our conception of ourselves.
To the extent I understand that I am a soul who is a servant of Krishna, to that extent we will have inner security. And bhakti is what is meant to give us this ceto-darpana-marjanam. Whatever misconceptions are there, they get cleansed.
And to the extent they get cleansed, bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam. The great fire of material existence, there are so many different problems that come in our life, they agitate us a lot. But to the extent we understand ourselves as souls, as parts of Krishna, the agitation because of those fires goes down.
Say, if there is a forest fire, and we are caught in the middle of the forest fire, we will be scared, we will become panicky. But, if a helicopter has come and lifted us up, and we are above the forest fire, then we will still be concerned what is happening over there, but we won’t feel personally threatened. Similarly, when we understand ourselves as spiritual beings, it raises ourselves above our circumstances.
The process of bhakti-yoga is meant to raise our self-conception above our physical situation, above our mental emotion, to our spiritual constitution, to who we actually are. And when we observe this, my job is insecure, I have to do something about it. These negative thoughts are coming within me, I have to do something about it.
But we won’t get too overwhelmed by that. When we are risen above, we can decide, okay, this fire is here, the fire has to extinguish over here. We have to do what it takes.
When we feel personally threatened by problems, then we often overreact. And our overreaction to problems often becomes a bigger problem. Now, somebody does something wrong, and that’s going to create some problem for us.
But then I shout at that person, and that person shouts back, and I shout back. And instead of clarifying, it becomes a shouting match. And usually in shouting matches, normally in sports matches, there is some winner.
But in shouting matches, there is no winner. You know, both people go out feeling I am right, and that other person is so bad. But essentially, both have become simply alienated from each other.
And both have simply made the situation worse. So when we situate ourselves in spiritual understanding, then we get inner security. With that inner security, whatever external we may have to do, we do it with greater maturity.
Krishna says that when we connect with him in a mood of loving service, then he will give us the intelligence to deal with situations. He says that if you serve me with a loving disposition, then I will give you the intelligence by which you can make right decisions, by which you can come closer to me. So for us, there is the action we have to do in this world.
We have responsibilities here. We have activities to do over here. But the action in the world has to be preceded by connection with Krishna.
If there is connection with Krishna, then that action will be intelligent and it will be effective. Otherwise, we will do actions, but the action will be because of insecurity, because of inferiority, because of a contaminated self-conception, and the action will often create more trouble. So if we take time regularly to practice bhakti, to chant the holy names of Krishna, to study the Bhagavad Gita, to spiritualize our consciousness by our inner connection, then that inner connection will give us the stability, the maturity, the sagacity, the wisdom by which we can act effectively in the outer world.
Krishna assures, He says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. Krishna is not saying that obstacles will disappear. The physical reality will be what it is.
But we will get the intelligence, we will get the ability to pass over those obstacles. So machittaha, if we focus on becoming conscious of Him, then the capacity to cope with problems and to surmount problems will be given to us by higher intelligence, by higher arrangement, by higher grace. That is what I spoke today.
I spoke on the topic of cleansing the mirror of the mind, changing the mind from a window to a mirror to cultivate healthy self-conception. So I talked about what is the mind if we have a high security building in which the CCTV cameras from various doors are brought together at a security room on a monitor. So like that, the inputs from the various senses which is like the integrator and the presenter of those inputs to the soul.
So our existence is three-dimensional, body, mind and soul. So the body is the physical reality, the mind is the intermediate link between the body and the soul and the soul is the observer. Now, the mind is not simply a neutral window which shows whatever is there.
The mind highlights certain things depending on what impressions are there. If I am language conscious, then everything related with language gets highlighted. If I am hungry, everything related with food gets highlighted.
If I am pessimistic, then all problems get highlighted. So basically, the mind acts like a window but it is not a neutral window. It is a window which highlights certain things and downplays certain things based on the impressions that are there in it.
The mind also acts like a TV screen where you can just take our thoughts somewhere else entirely. That will cause us worry, anxiety. It will just take us off in entirely different directions.
And the mind also acts as a mirror. We focus today primarily on the how the mind acts as a mirror. So mirror means it is meant to show us how we look.
But if the mirror is distorted, say it is convex or concave, we will appear distorted. So the mirror of the mind is distorted by the impressions there. And the impressions are created largely by people’s opinions about us.
So the past impressions on the mind become its present propositions. So A, people have always compared us negatively with someone else. And then we got the impression there that I am good for nothing.
And whenever anything goes wrong in my life, we as the mind say, see, this proves you are good for nothing. So this can be an unhealthy self-conception we have. Now this unhealthy self-conception will paralyze us.
It will prevent us from doing anything effectively. We, events happen in the outer world, but actually it is the interpretation that we give to those events that affects us. Two people may lose a job, but one may get devastated because their self-conception is oh, I am a software professional.
And then if I lose my job, I lose my self-identity itself. So I talked about how in the pure state, this becomes a clean mirror. And then it shows us who we are.
That is, I am a soul who is part of Krishna. I am eternal just as Krishna is eternal. Just as Krishna is supremely attractive, I am also, as a part, I also have my attractiveness.
So, we become joyful within. The whole process of bhakti is meant to change the impressions in the mind so that we have a healthy self-conception and then we can do healthy actions. We cannot change our impression, change our attitudes simply by our intentions.
The flower is inclined in a particular way. I don’t want the water to flow that way, this way. That is not enough.
Even if I decide I don’t want to think negative, I am not a pessimist. But if the pessimistic impressions are there, that’s what is going to come again and again. So what we need is, not just our intention, but we need a change of impression by having an object that will form a powerful impression.
So that is Krishna himself. So when we expose our consciousness to Krishna, that is like I change, if I have wet cloth, if I am wet and I use another wet cloth to dry it, dry myself, I am not going to dry. So using one material object to change the impression caused by other material objects, it is going to be a very laborious process.
It is not going to work. But if I come under a dryer, I get dried immediately. Similarly, when we expose ourselves to Krishna, then all the unwanted self-conceptions that are there, we need to understand ourselves to be servants of Krishna.
If on my browser, some unwanted side gets auto-completed, one way to change it is to keep visiting the wanted side again and again and again. The other is to just select it as a favorite in the preference. It will pop up immediately.
So what we are doing by the practice of bhakti is we are changing the settings within the mind. Not mechanically rather choosing this, this, this. No, we just change the setting by purifying the mind.
When we understand, we become situated in our fundamental identity as souls. And then whatever functional identities we have in this world, as a spouse, as a parent, as a professional, we act according to them, but we don’t invest ourselves emotionally in them. So if problems come up in those, we don’t get too agitated.
Just like if a car that we have sold meets with some scratch, we don’t get affected that much. We have disinvested ourselves from it. So bhakti is not just about doing some external activities.
It is primarily about changing our internal conception. And to the extent we expose ourselves to Krishna, to that extent, our self-understanding rises above our situation and above our disposition. It’s like in a forest fire, we rise above with a helicopter.
So then we can respond maturely. So when we connect ourselves with Krishna, if you become conscious of me, I will give you the intelligence to make wise decisions. When the mind is… I talked about how external people are going to have their opinions.
We can’t change people. In the movie, in their head, we are simply extras. So rather than worrying about what people are thinking about me, I learn better how to process what people say about me.
And for processing that, rather than using the sentimental mind, we use our spiritual intelligence. And that intelligence to process external events properly is provided by Krishna when we practice bhakti. And thus, if we become conscious of Krishna, we will cross over all obstacles by his grace.
To the extent we become situated in the conviction that I am a servant of Krishna, to that extent, whatever difficulties may come in our life, Krishna will help us to pass over them. So, I put it this way that many problems come in our life by our past karma. But the impressions in our mind also because of past karma.
Whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through. Whatever karma may get us to, Krishna will get us through. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions or comments? I think a lot of preparation needs to be done when we are changing our perceptions and understanding that I am a servant of Krishna and trying to live that life on a daily basis so that we feel better when we actually are hit with the situations in which our thoughts and perceptions might make us think positive or negative. So, what’s more important is to prepare ourselves so that we are prepared. That’s going to be hard, I guess.
I have faced it many times in my own life. So, I think if I understand right in my daily life, things are not going well. So, we need to prepare a lot to have a spiritual self-understanding when problems come.
It works both ways that if we are prepared, we can face problems better. If problems come, we feel impelled to prepare more. So, if we see problems as tests.
So, a student who studies well can give the test well. But if the test comes, the student starts studying well also. So, we don’t have to necessarily divorce the two.
So, there is at one level our studying scriptures, our doing sadhana bhakti, that is a preparation. But that is not the only preparation. Life itself is a preparation.
So, when we face difficult situations in life, at that time also, when we find that this problem, how do I deal with it? I just can’t figure out. At that time, I surrender to Krishna. I pray to Krishna.
At one level, it says intelligence means to know what to do when you don’t know what to do. In Bhagavad Gita 2.6, he says that He says that should I fight and win this war? I’ll have to kill my relatives. Should I just fight half-heartedly and be defeated? But then my family members will be killed.
Should I just avoid the fight? Oh, but then we’ll all have to live in a forest and people will say we are cowards. What should I do? I just don’t know. At this stage.
So, then what does he do? He doesn’t know what to do, but then he does something. What does he do? He surrenders to Krishna. So, when we don’t know what to do, at that time, if we surrender to Krishna, we try at that time to connect with Krishna.
That will also help us. So, we don’t have to we don’t have to micro-analyze things or think that things are too difficult. We just do our preparation and get into the action.
So, the preparation helps us in the action, but the action also helps us to understand how to do the preparation. Just like swimming, we have to get some swimming gear, we have to have some facility whether some security guard or whatever, but then eventually we have to swim. And after swimming, I understand, oh, this is what I did wrong, this is what I should do right.
So, bhakti and living are not to be considered two distinct things. Our bhakti helps us in our living and our living helps us to understand how to practice bhakti better also. Does that answer your question? Yes.
Swamiji, you talked about this laborious process that, you know, because of our past impressions our present proposition is there. So, it’s very hard to change, like suppose if we have some negative impressions, you know, just artificially changing it to a positive, no, no, no, this is right, this is right, like you gave the example of water, you know, putting the water back. But then you said that the best way is to expose ourselves to Krishna, which will, you know, fasten the process or extract the process or, you know, help us.
So, this process of exposing to Krishna also seems to be laborious, because, you know, especially chanting the holy names, because our mind always, you know, goes off. So, how is these two things different? So, I said that the changing the impression in the mind mechanically is a laborious process. But even fixing the mind on Krishna is also a laborious process.
Yes, recently I was asked a similar question. We say that chanting will give us control of the mind. We have to control our mind to chant.
So, what comes first? Actually, some basic amount of control of the mind is required for anything in life. If somebody has to study and prepare for an exam, they have to concentrate. That requires some control of the mind.
What to speak of study? If somebody wants to watch a sports match and they want to enjoy the sports match, even then they have to control so that they don’t flip channels and keep watching something else. Even materially we can’t enjoy if we are distracted. So, some amount of control of the mind is required for doing anything in life.
And that way it is required even for practicing spiritual life. But because in practicing bhakti we are connecting with Krishna who is all pure, who is all powerful, connecting with him has a multiplier effect. Just like if I have to lift a 20 kg weight, it’s a significant weight to lift.
If I have a lever and I use the lever to lift up the 20 kg weight, I may have to put up the energy which is only up to 2 or 4 kg and the lever will move the 20 kg weight. So, still I have to put in the effort. But the result is much more than what the effort I have put in.
Similarly for us, in the practice of bhakti, there is a mechanical process. The mind wanders, get it back to Krishna. It’s mechanical.
But the result of this is that even if we are not very attentive in our chanting, still that even little fractional contact with Krishna also purifies us. And that purification will be seen in our ability to give up other kinds of negativities. We may have had some habits which we wanted to give up for a long time and then we just start practicing bhakti and give up.
So, how does it happen? That is the power of Krishna bhakti. So, a little attraction to Krishna, bhakti, pareesha anubhava, viraktir anyatra cha. A little practice of bhakti gives us pareesha anubhava, the experience of Krishna.
And that which is very difficult to give up, one just gives it up easily. And it’s right now in corresponding with a person who is a Christian preacher and he is actually not a travelling preacher of Christianity. He goes and conducts classes.
He has been doing that for 20 years. So, one time a devotee gave him Bhagavad Gita. And he took the Bhagavad Gita and he decided, okay, I’ll learn how to refute this also.
And he started studying the Bhagavad Gita to refute that. And he read it, he just couldn’t make much sense of it. Then he started searching for Bhagavad Gita online.
He came to my website Gita Daily. I write on the Bhagavad Gita publication, audio, video and article. So, he read that, he started reading that.
And then he wrote a mail to me saying, actually 90% of what you say, I agree with it. He says, it’s the same thing. Then he read about Bhagavad Gita and he read about chanting.
He started chanting and he said that for the last 20 years he was smoking. In Christianity, you go to the edge of a cliff, look down, but don’t fall down. Well, why look down? Why go to the edge of a cliff? So, they had that idea.
So, he said he was trying to give up smoking. For 20 years he’s been trying. He just started chanting Hare Krishna and two weeks he just gave it up.
So, now, he’s externally, he’s still continuing a Christian preacher because that is his job right now. But personally, his main sadhana is practicing bhakti. So, the point I am making here is that bhakti has tremendous potency.
Even if our chanting is not very attentive, still even that inattentive chanting brings about transformation in other aspects of our life. So, we may have a tendency to worry a lot. And just start chanting Hare Krishna, start practicing bhakti, our worrying tendency will go down.
It may not go away immediately, completely, but it will significantly go down. So, the success of chanting is not to be seen simply in how attentively we are able to chant. Success of chanting can also be seen in how it transforms our life.
Now, how it helps us develop greater inner strength. It’s like, if somebody lifts weights, their success is not just in their capacity to lift more and more weights. That is one kind of success, but another success is the stronger muscles that they have developed.
Similarly for us, when we chant Hare Krishna, how much we are able to focus on Krishna, that is one parameter of success. But the other is, we could say our inner muscles become stronger. When temptations come, we are able to resist them better.
When troubles come, we are able to cope with them also better. So, there is a lot of effort in chanting the holy names, in practicing bhakti, but the result is that we are becoming stronger. And in the overall transformation of our life, we can see the effect of that practice of bhakti.
Yes. I have a question. Basically, I have a very basic question.
I am trying to understand if I am approaching bhakti, what should be the best way to approach it? It has a critical analysis. You are trying to decide. Correct.
The other way of looking at it is you believe it and approach it. Okay. So, how should we approach bhakti? Should we critically evaluate it or believe and practice it? It does not have to be those two extremes only.
We can both critically evaluate as well as practice as a test case. I will give an example for this. When we go to a doctor if we are sick, and say we are in a new place.
Now, when we go to a doctor, even if the doctor is the best doctor in the world, if you go tell the doctor, doctor, I don’t have faith in you, so you have prescribed this medicine, I don’t have the faith to take this medicine. First you cure me, then I will have the faith, then I will take the medicine. The best doctor in the world we may be look from, nowadays we look for some reviews on Google or we have some references from some friends.
And we go to the doctor and we hear their diagnosis. We have pain in the stomach and the doctor says that we have to do surgery to cut off your leg. What? This doesn’t make sense.
So, when we go to a doctor, we evaluate the diagnosis with our intelligence. Does it make sense? But at the same time we go to medical college to get a medical degree. Isn’t it? With the intelligence that we have, we evaluate it.
Does it make sense? And then if it makes basic sense, then we take the medicine. Then we decide, I will take this medicine if I have got stomach upset. Next three days, the doctor says three days, you will feel better.
Actually I am feeling better. If I feel better, I have to be skeptical and reject everything or I have to put blind faith. These are two extremes.
If you have a pendulum, one extreme is skepticism, the other extreme is blind faith. The balanced is reasonable faith. Reasonable faith means when we go to a doctor, we use our intelligence to evaluate whether what they say makes sense.
And then we use our experience to evaluate whether what they say works. So reasonable faith is sensible and verifiable. And the Bhagavad Gita calls for this kind of reasonable faith.
At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, Krishna doesn’t say, I am God, you have to obey me. He says, I have given you this message, now deliberate on it with your intelligence. And then do as you desire.
Do as you desire. So we definitely need to use our intelligence because there are so many spiritual paths which may be not actually spiritual or semi-spiritual. So many people are telling so many things.
If we don’t use our intelligence, we’ll be naive and we can be exploited. At the same time, if we become too critical, then it is like I don’t take the treatment of any doctor just because I don’t have faith. I have to take a leap of faith at some time or the other.
So we use our intelligence to analyze, get basic questions answered. And then we try it out. And if it works, we continue it.
If it doesn’t work, then we move on to something else. So reasonable faith is sensible and verifiable. Thank you.
Any other questions? Yes. In the earlier talk I heard identity. I just remember one thing that Sanatana Goswami I want to mention one thing.
Sanatana Goswami’s question to Mahaprabhu ki ami keno more jaleet rakot roy iha nahi jani kemoni hita hai Who am I? Why am I suffering? How do I get out of it? The answer to that question by Mahaprabhu himself because he knew almost everything. But just to confirm his belief he asked that question. And another angle that to let other world, whole world to know what a person like Mahaprabhu answers so that the whole world gets benefit out of it.
With those two intentions he asked that question and Mahaprabhu’s answer is very unique. jideshu bhaya krishne nitya das He knows almost the same thing ketu darpanam arjunam bhava maha davadhi nivapanam seva koirava chandrika bitranam viddha bodhu jivanam anandamudi vardhanam prati pavadam poornam udasam sarvatma snapanam brahm jyoti sri krishna sankirtanam Thank you for the comment. So any other questions? Just to you know that yours and Mahaprabhu’s related Yeah, it’s a good comment.
Very apt conversation to contextualize this, what I spoke, this theme today. Thank you. So we’ll stop here.
Thank you very much. Ishila Prabhupada ki Gaura Bhakta Vinda Ki Nityai Gauru Premanande Shri Sri Shri Shri Shri Shri Shri Shri Shri Shri Shri Shri Shri Shri