Focus on life not on the mind’s commentary on life
Hare Krishna.
I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today. And I will speak today on the topic of the mind. Specifically, I will speak on focus on life, not on the mind's commentary about life.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that the mind can be our best friend and it can also be our worst enemy. He says, He says, He says, elevate yourself with the mind. Don't degrade yourself.
The mind is your friend and the mind is also your enemy. So, what this means is that Krishna is telling that there is something within us which will act in a particular way. And we have to respond to it in a responsible way by which we will be elevated and will not be degraded.
So, I'll take this metaphor of a commentary and then I will use some other metaphors to illustrate this point further. For example, cricket is immensely popular among Indians. And a cricket match is going on and say we are hearing the commentary.
Say, we are travelling or we are doing something else. We are not watching the cricket match but we are hearing the commentary. Is there too much of an echo? Am I clear behind? Am I clear behind? Thank you.
So, suppose somebody is either hearing the commentary or nowadays there is text commentary also comes on some websites where somebody is watching the commentary. Say, Deppar is reading the commentary. So, in that case Okay.
In that case, say the cricket match is happening here. There is a commentary that is appearing here. And we, the person, are over here.
So, the cricket match is here happening somewhere, say, in India. The commentary is appearing on our device and we are hearing it. So, we in this situation don't have any connection with the cricket match directly.
We are not perceiving it directly. We perceive it only through the commentary that is coming. Now, sometimes, if the cricket match is not going in a very interesting way, the commentator starts chit-chatting among themselves.
And the commentator may just go off you know, this match was like this and this happened at that time and that happened at that time and that happened at that time. And the commentator gets so lost in talking about various other things that they forget to comment about the match. And the match is going on in one way and the commentary is going on in some other direction.
Now, we may be hearing and we may think what is happening actually in the match? I don't know what is happening. So, for us, when we perceive the world Do we need to do anything? What do we do next? Is this better? Hare Krishna. Is it better behind? Thank you.
So, when we hear the commentary we may just get disjointed. What is happening actually? I'm not able to understand what is happening in the match. I'm just thinking of something else.
Now, to take this further normally the players are on the field the commentators are near the field somewhere and the spectators are at various parts of the world. Now, imagine if the commentary is being heard by the player also. The player is batting the cricket match is going on and it's an interesting turn but the commentators are saying this is a very difficult situation from this place, nobody can win this match and they're going to be lost.
And this player who is hearing will be lost this match. This player will get discouraged and the player will be batting very well also. But the commentator says just one wrong shot, this player gets out and the whole team is going to collapse.
And the player hits a good shot also oh, it could just have been caught, he luckily survived. So everything that is happening, if the player keeps hearing this, the player is trying to play, the player has to face the reality of the ball coming, running in between the wickets, but the commentary is coming and the commentary is distorting distracting the attention. So for us our mind is like that.
We are like players in the game of life and we have to face the situations that come in our life. But while we are facing these situations the mind is like a commentator sitting inside us and the mind keeps commenting. If, say in our office, we get a little too much work and immediately the mind starts giving a commentary.
Everybody dumps their work on you. Life is so unfair. Everybody treats you like a pushover.
And you always get exploited. This is how it is all the time. The mind starts charting its own sorry story.
This is like this, this is like that, this is like that. And then rather than facing reality we get influenced by the mind's commentary. And then we can't do what we are meant to do.
What we could have done the mind is like a voice inside us which is telling us this is going to go wrong, that is going to go wrong, this is going to happen like this, that is going to happen like that. And this voice is not a physical voice that we hear literally like you may hear my voice. But still this voice is very very clear.
And sometimes it is so clear that it deafens us to everything else. So that means reality is happening out there. The mind is commenting on the reality.
And we, from our perspective, the mind is closer to us than the reality. And sometimes the mind's commentary may go on so much that we may just get disconnected from reality. One of my friends, he is a mental health care counsellor.
He is a suicide intervention counsellor. So, he was telling me that sometimes people commit suicide. They are normally so unbearably distressed, that's why they take the extreme step of suicide.
We told this one case, there was this girl who was in a relationship with a boy. And she called this boy and the boy didn't pick up the phone. And just because he didn't pick up the phone, she became so depressed that she attempted suicide.
Now, somebody not picking up a phone, there could be a hundred reasons for that. But what happened? Her mind started telling her, Oh, you know, he didn't pick up your phone, that means he doesn't love you, doesn't care for you. Maybe he is with someone else.
Maybe he has ditched you and left you. Maybe he doesn't love you, he won't love you, you are unloved. Maybe this is how it is going to be for you in future also.
Nobody is going to love you. All your life you are going to be alone. And you are going to be alone, lonely, you will be so distressed, so miserable.
What is the use of such a life? Better end such a life. So, now somebody not picking up a call is not a huge event. There could be a hundred reasons why they did not pick up the call.
But the mind takes a particular stimulus and from there it fabricates its whole story. And from that story, we react more to that story, the commentary which the mind is giving, than actually the reality itself. So, if you consider in the Ramayana the story of Kaikeyi and Mantara.
Now, Kaikeyi was very happy. She was like the pampered wife of Dasarath. And she was very happy in her situation.
Ram respected her like his own mother and she respected, loved Ram like also her own child. But Mantara came along. And when Mantara came along what did she do? She started telling him, there is Ram.
If he is made the king, there is a whole conspiracy going on over here to actually disposes you and your son of the king. Initially when she told him, she was told that Mantara told her that do you know that Ram is going to be coronated? She was so happy. Actually, he never brought me any better news for you.
Here, take this jewel necklace as a gift. And Mantara took that necklace and hurled it on the king. You are a king's wife.
Don't you understand how politics works? This is all meant to disposes you. There is a conspiracy over here. What conspiracy? She said, if there were no conspiracy why is it that this transfer of power, this succession is happening in so much haste? Why is it happening when Bharat and Shatrughna are not present? Now the reason for that was not intention, it was a circumstance.
Maharaj had got an urge to retire. He felt, right now I got the urge let me do it right away. And at that time Bharat and Shatrughna happened to be far away and there was not enough time to invite them back.
They had gone to another kingdom. So that just one incident took and Mantara started speaking based on that and Kalki started hearing. Hearing.
Hearing. So normally when the mind starts giving its commentary, it has its tilt, it has its agenda. So normally somebody is a very good storyteller.
Good storytellers basically need to have three characteristics. They need to tell the story in such a way that we forget everything else. So when we hear the story, we are so engrossed in the story that we forget everything else.
That's the first thing. And then when they start telling the story, normally if say we are watching a movie. Then in every, usually most movies have something which is larger than life.
One hero fighting has 50 villains or this or that. So now to enjoy that story there has to be suspension of disbelief. How can this happen? You start asking how can this happen? Then you will not be able to enjoy the story at all.
So we all have some amount of healthy scepticism. This doesn't make sense. This doesn't sound realistic.
But an expert storyteller, an expert story is told in such a way that we start suspending our doubts. Maybe this happened. Let me just go on here.
And thirdly, as the story goes on and on, we start feeling the emotions that are being told in the story. So if say some injustice has happened against the hero and the hero is furious, I am going to take revenge. Yes, I am going to take revenge.
Sometimes some young kids are there, they are watching a movie. They see the hero fighting, they start boxing somebody else. What did you do? So they get so caught in it that we may start physically also imitating the actions.
So basically three things. First is, we forget everything else. We start losing our capacity to doubt what is happening over there.
And finally, we start experiencing the emotions that are being depicted in the story. Now the mind is actually a very powerful agent of emotion. Till now I was talking about a commentary wherein we are just looking at, we are just hearing the sound.
But suppose we are hearing as well as seeing. In a movie, we hear as well as see. Maya has two energies, broadly speaking, by which she acts.
One is called the Aavarnamika Shakti. And the second is the Praakshepatmika Shakti. Aavaran means to cover.
And Praakshepa means to throw. To throw, it just propels our consciousness in a particular direction. So going on with the movie metaphor, nowadays with technology available, we can see movies even at our homes.
And often watching a movie at a home is much, much cheaper than going to a theatre. But still, people go to a theatre and pay a lot of money to watch movies there. Why? Because you can have a greater level of immersion in the movie.
So how is that achieved? First is, when you enter into the movie theatre, the lights go off. So everywhere around it goes dark. So we can't see anything else.
And then, one set of light turns on. The monitor, it turns on and images start being depicted over there. And then we get, we can't see much anywhere else because it's dark.
And we can see right over there. Our eyes get glued completely to that. And we get absorbed in that.
So similarly, there is the Aavarnatmika Shakti. Now both these energies, when you talk about Maya, where is Maya present? Maya is also the energy of Krishna. Vaishnavi Janmohini.
Bhagavatam says, Maya is also a devotee of Krishna. She is Vaishnavi. But she is Janmohini.
Her service is to delude people. Srila Prabhupada, one of his disciples, he named her as Mahamaya Devidas. All the devotees started laughing.
I said, no, Mahamaya is also a devotee of Krishna. Her service is to test us. So, she is also serving Krishna.
But her service is such that if we are not careful, we may get deluded by it. So basically, I was talking about where is Maya? She is the energy of Krishna. But for all practical purposes, Maya is equal to the mind.
Maya acts on us primarily through the mind. Even if there is some tempting object out there, say, if there is some delicious food item out there, but if we are busy doing some work, and if that thought doesn't enter or occupy the mind, then that tempting object is no longer a temptation. For any temptation, for any form of illusion to affect us, it has to come through the mind.
So, for all practical purposes, we could say Maya is equal to the mind. So, when I talk about these two forms of illusion, that is the avaranatmika and the prakshipatmika. So, avaranatmika means forgetting everything.
We get covered so that we can't perceive anything else. So, that is what the mind does. Like a good storyteller, when they start telling the story, they get so engrossed that they forget everything else.
So, similarly, when the mind starts spinning its narrative, say, somebody speaks something to us, maybe somebody behaves a little rudely to us, then immediately the mind goes off. Revenge fantasy. Revenge story.
I am going to show this person. This person did like this to me. I'll do this, I'll do this, I'll do this, I'll do that.
And, see, the mind has a power. Imagine, you know, sometimes when we tell a story, some storyteller is very good, they tell the story and they tell it in such a way that we can almost feel as if the picture is coming out of it. But if there is a movie theatre as in the movie theatre there is a sound as well as the visual.
Then the illusion becomes much bigger. But suppose, now we don't have so much technology like that, but suppose there is a technology that a person is narrating a story and in synchronicity, synchronously with the narration of the story, there is a depiction going on. So then, the story is getting narrated, it's being depicted, we get completely lost.
So the mind offers sound as well as visuals. Inside us we start seeing, like this, like this, like this. So, we just get disconnected from reality.
When the mind starts spinning its narrative, we just forget everything else. And after we have forgotten this, the second stage that happens is that, as I said, lights go off, that is the avarnatika shakti. And the praakshya padmaya shakti is we get caught, we get propelled into illusion, thrown into illusion.
So how does this happen? There is a very captivating series of images, a movie going on on the screen. So the mind says, this, this, this, this, this happened, that may happen, that may happen, this, this, this, this. The mind just goes off on a storytelling spree.
And because the mind is inside us, our level of criticality in evaluating the mind's ideas is extremely low. Suppose, say, we are fasting, on a particular holy day. And then we decide, today I'm going to fast whole day.
Today is ekadashi, I'm going to fast whole day. And then somebody comes along and says, come on, why do you need to fast? Let's take some food. No, I'm going to fast.
And the same idea comes from inside us. The mind says, come on, you should eat now. No, I don't want to eat.
But then, somebody else says, actually, you know, your health may get spoiled. Your body is also meant for serving Krishna. You take care of the body.
Don't spoil your health. Take some food. No, I can manage for one thing.
That's what I'm going to say out loud. But inside, the mind says, come on, take some food. Otherwise your health may get spoiled.
Yeah, my health may get spoiled. Let me take some food. So now, whether we fast or not, that is not the important thing.
The point I'm making here is that when somebody, when the same idea comes from outside, we will evaluate with greater criticality. We'll evaluate more critically. There is the scepticism that is there, not necessarily in an unhealthy sense, it's just that if somebody else suggests something, it is their idea, I have to decide whether I want to do it or not.
But when the same idea comes from inside, we just accept it uncritically. So, because the mind is inside us, already our scepticism towards it is extremely low. When the idea comes up, this must be a good idea.
So we have to develop some healthy scepticism towards the mind. When a thought comes in, it's almost as if we think the thought is true, the thought is important and the thought has to be attended to. Few things.
The thought is true, it is important and it has to be attended to. It may be false, it may be unimportant and it needn't be attended to at all. It's just like if I get a phone call and somebody tells me, you know this person has done this, that person is someone I respect, I love, I trust and somebody tells me some terrible thing about that person.
Now, if that person makes a phone call and tells me like that, who are you? How do you know about this? Why should I trust you? We won't just believe anybody who tells like that. But when the mind speaks like that, it tells something, it's true. This person is like this.
And it's true and it's important. I have to do it right now. So, we just take our thoughts inside very seriously.
Because the mind is an expert storyteller. It just starts taking it so seriously. Kaikeyi, when she heard Vantara's story, it's like I have to do something, I have to do something right now.
So, it was immediately within an hour or so, within a few hours, Vantara completely changed the disposition of Kaikeyi. So, first, she forgot everything else. The whole Ayodhya was celebrating.
Such festivity, everyone just forgot everything else. Just hearing only what Vantara is saying. And after that, she stopped doubting whatever Vantara is saying.
She just got carried away by it. She started believing it and then she started feeling anger towards the same Ram whom she loved. She started feeling resentment towards the same Dashrath whom she respected.
So, her emotions changed completely. So, for us too, something similar happens. The mind, as it starts telling its story, there's audio and there's visual.
Our mind starts imagining things. It's like this, like this, like this. And we get so carried away by it that we stop doubting, we start believing and not only start believing, we start feeling the way the mind wants us to feel.
So, we may be at one moment, we may just be peaceful, things going on nicely. Suddenly, one thought comes up. I see a small swelling on my hand.
And the mind says, Hey, what if this swelling is cancer? Oh no! If I got cancer, what would happen to me? What if it's advanced age cancer? What if it has no cure? What if I have only a few months to live? Oh no! I may die in a few months. And you become completely distressed and panicky. Actually, nothing has happened.
There's only a swelling over there. And sometimes so many swellings come on the body and go also. But the mind just took that one thing and started telling its story.
And it just goes on and on with the story. You just forget everything else. So, broadly speaking, mental health problems which people face in huge quantity way, they can be classified into two categories.
Two main mental health problems people have. One is depression and the other is anxiety. Now, if you see in terms of this metaphor of the mind as a storyteller, how does depression occur? Now, depression can be a clinical depression where some medical treatment is required.
But most often, in a generic sense, depression is the mind goes to something in the past. It starts reminding. Some small thing goes wrong in our life and the mind starts telling a story.
That thing also went wrong. No, that went wrong. That went wrong.
That went wrong. That went wrong. So, the mind goes off into the past and starts telling us all the things that went wrong in the past.
And then, the mind says, see, so many bad things happened to you. Now, this has happened to you. So, all those bad things, that's what is going to happen in future also.
And each bad thing that the mind keeps reminding us, telling us, see, this happened, this happened, this happened, this happened. We might be enthusiastic. We start losing energy.
We start becoming gloomy. So, actually, physically we might be perfectly okay. Socially also things might be okay.
Financially things might be okay. But, when the mind starts telling a story about going back over all the past bad things that have happened, we just end up depressed. Or, the mind goes into the future.
When bad things happens, that may go wrong. That may go wrong. That may go wrong.
That may go wrong. That may go wrong. And as things keep going wrong, going wrong, going wrong, what happens is, we end up with a horror movie.
In which, we are not the spectators, we are the victims. And, we start completely panicking. We get a anxiety attack, panic attack.
So, basically, the mind is, in these cases, attacking us. And, suicide, when somebody does, that represents, you could say, the worst form, where the mind not only attacks the body, but the mind destroys the body. So, the mind starts telling the story, this happened, this happened, this happened, this happened.
And, it just goes off in such a consuming narrative, that people just end up killing themselves. Now, an external projection of this could be, in India, a few months ago, there was a huge amount of alarm over a game called the Blue Whale Challenge. There are some young children, they, this Blue Whale Challenge was a game, online game, in which the kids were challenged to do all kinds of terrible things, you know, maybe make a tattoo on your body, scratch your body, cut your body, and put pictures on Facebook, that you have done this.
If you have done it, then you have passed this stage of the game. And, you get more points, more points. And, the last stage of the game was, you commit suicide.
Now, just to get some points in a game on Facebook, some kids actually committed suicide. Now, why did this happen? It was because, they got so caught, their vision, their, their attention got so caught in the world of social media, that, they got disconnected from life. And, they thought, winning this game, online, is more important than even being alive.
And, this is ridiculous. Who would do something like this? But, people have done that. And, of course, the number of people who did it was very few, but they did it.
But, the same thing happens at a much bigger level for us, inside us. The mind starts spinning a story, and the story goes bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. We get completely caught by it.
And, once we get caught by it, it's very difficult to come out. So, in this way, the mind can be extremely dangerous. It can hurt us, it can even kill us.
So, Krishna is saying, na atmanam avasadayet. Don't let the mind degrade you. Uddhare atmanatmanam.
Elevate yourself with the mind. So, how do we go about elevating ourselves? So, now, going back to metaphor once again, the mind is like a voice inside us. It is telling a story, and it's also depicting an image, which comes out.
Now, the world is out there, and we can see the world. But, the world becomes, we start seeing it through the filter of the mind. Sometimes, in our house, we may have a window through which we can see who's outside.
And we can open the door also and physically see who's outside. Now, if the window is distorted, then what will happen? I mean, a familiar face may look unfamiliar. If the window is unclean, we may not be able to see clearly.
So, then, if I want to know who it is, then we may have to see ourselves directly. Who is it actually? So, similarly for us, we keep looking through the filter. We hear the mind, and we see through the filter of the mind.
The mind is like this, it's like that, it's like that. So, how do we avoid this? Going back to the story of Mantra, basically, Mantra made, sorry, Kaifei, she made two mistakes. First is, she uncritically heard Mantra.
And second is, she didn't consult anyone else. She just acted based on whatever Mantra is. Now, if she could have gone and clarified with Dashrath, you know, why is this coronation happening? Instead of just making a demand, send Ram to the forest and make my son the king.
Or if she didn't have trust in Dashrath, she could have gone to someone else. She could have gone to Vasishtha. She was a sage.
She did not have any vested interests. He was going to be the, he was in that secure position as the priest of the Raghuvamsha. And whoever became the king, whether it was Bharata or Ram, it made no difference to him.
She could have gone and asked. But she did not ask anyone. Just acted on it.
So now for us, this is what we need to, these are the two steps we all need to do. First is, we don't uncritically believe what the mind is. Best is to not hear the mind so much.
I mean, you see, how can I not hear the mind? The mind is inside us. Yes, the mind is inside us, but the mind is also responsive. Responsive means, say sometimes a child is there, the child starts making faces.
Starts making all kind of funny faces. Now when the child starts making funny faces, we start looking at him, he starts smiling. The child will make more funny faces.
The more attention we give to it, the child will become more animated. So the mind is like that. When the mind starts distracting, if we pay attention to it, the more attention we pay to it, the more it starts getting animated.
So now, if we philosophically understand that there is this mind inside me and this mind often gets me into trouble. Therefore, we don't pay uncritical attention to the mind. If you see, when does our mind trouble us the most? It is not when we are actually physically busy.
Say if we are driving through traffic and we have to pay full attention, then there is very little chance to wander, because at the physical level attention is required. But it's a long drive. Then, in a long clear drive, what happens is then our mind starts wandering.
Maybe this, or this person said like this, that happened like that, that happened like that. A, if we are, say, going through a crowded street in India, you know, what happened there, we have no time to think because big things are happening here only. On the street itself.
You know, one of the big differences in driving in America and in India is that in America people don't blow horns. Unless a person does a grievous mistake, people don't blow horns. In India, every car rides behind it.
Horn, please! So the idea is, don't hit it to me, at least blow a horn, so I'll move ahead. So, the thing is, that at the physical level, when a lot, when attention is required, then we don't pay much attention to the mind. But when the physical level, not much attention is required, we don't have much to do at the physical level directly.
Then the mind starts telling its story and we start paying attention to it. And the more we pay attention to it, the more it starts going further, further, further. So, it's like when, during our leisure time, during our idle time, the mind works overtime.
So when we have nothing to do, the mind gives us a lot to do. Worry about this, think about this, this is wrong, that is wrong, that is wrong. Mind just goes off on its own.
So what happens in this case, if, take another metaphor, say, if our, in our consciousness, it's like a big monitor, on which there are many windows. So say, if I am working, like if you go from international flights, India to America or whatever, then each flight has its own TV with it. Now, we will be sitting and say, we will be reading something or some book or maybe we will be working on a computer or, now while we are doing that, if you just look up in one direction, oh, this movie is going on, this sports match is going on, this is going on.
There are like 25 TV screens you will see all around us. And then, any of them, we start looking, hey, what is happening? You may see a man and a woman coming close to each other and then suddenly the woman gets very angry. And then we start thinking, you know what, what must he have said, what must have happened? And then, any of those, the more we focus on it, that screen is going on over there, it's on.
But the more we focus on it, the more our attention gets caught in it. And then if you get very caught in it, what we will do is, we will, hey, I want to know what is happening. So we will turn on our TV also and get that on our TV.
So at that time it's far away, all that we can see is the visual. But when we get on our screen, we turn on our earphone, what happened? What happened in this movie? Why did this happen? So, when it was going on over there, in that other screen, it is going on. We look at it, not interested, we look away.
But when we pay attention to it, then we get it on our own TV screen here. And then we get more captivated by it. So we could imagine, in our mind, there are many TV screens that are there.
And each of these is, think about this, watch this, do this. If I pay attention to it, I get carried away by it. But, if I have something to do, if I have something urgent to do, then I am focused on doing that, I look at it, okay, I look back, don't pay attention.
Now, we can't, this is an important point, when some thought comes in the mind, we can't get rid of the thought. We don't have the power to drive any thought out of our mind. It's like, I am sitting over here, and somebody is watching some movie in some other seat.
And I can't tell them to switch off that movie. You know, you don't watch it, don't watch it. I want to watch it, we can't tell them to switch it off.
So, similarly, we can't get any thought out of the mind. Why can't we get out? Because, if I decide, say, if I touch this computer, and I get an electric current, I don't want to touch it. I may decide, I am not going to touch it, and I will not touch it.
But, with respect to the mental realm, if, say, somebody is tempted, I want to drink alcohol. I am not going to drink alcohol. I am not even going to think about alcohol.
But by saying this itself, if we consider thought to be like a subtle energy, our thought has already gone and touched the alcohol. So, to understand this simple thought experiment could be, if I tell all of you, for the next 30 seconds, please don't think of a pink monkey. Whatever you want to think, you can think about it, but please don't think of a pink monkey.
Except for a pink monkey, think of whatever you want. In your whole life, you may never have thought of a pink monkey. But when I tell you, don't think of a pink monkey, how would a pink monkey look like? You will just get caught by that.
So, if I decide, I am not going to think about it, I have already thought about it. So, in that sense, we can't drive any thought from our mind. But what we can do is, we can shift our focus elsewhere.
That movie is going on on the TV screen on somebody else's seat, but I can focus my attention elsewhere. Now, if I have something important to do, if I am keeping myself busy doing things, then I won't get distracted. Okay, that movie may not come back here.
So, for us, if we learn to understand what happens in our inner world, okay, this thought has come, I don't need to pay attention to it. Let me focus on what I am doing. Now, when we have something purposeful to do, then we don't get distracted that much.
That doesn't necessarily mean we have to keep running around all the time. But even when we are sitting and relaxing, it is, we are focused on relaxing. Let me take some deep breaths.
Let me relax my body. Let me take a rest. Whatever it is.
But if we let the mind come up with the ideas and we get carried away by it, we won't be relaxed. Actually, we will be taxed. We will just become more and more worried.
So, first thing is just knowledge. With knowledge, we understand that we are different from the mind and we need to evaluate what the mind is saying, not just believe it. So, as a good storyteller, first thing they do is forgetfulness.
The whole world will just hear what I am saying. So, if we avoid that forgetfulness, if we remember this is the mind inside me and the mind keeps telling various stories. So, I don't have to get carried away by the stories.
Then, we will be alert. And that's why regularly hearing the philosophy of how the mind works is extremely important for us to have that inner level of alertness. And then after that, the next thing is that as I said, I could have asked someone else.
So, if we feel, if we are somehow not able to stop that voice in the mind, this is like this, this is like this, this is like this, this is like this, mind is just going on and on and on. So, at that time, instead of acting on what the mind is saying, at that time, just consult someone else. Consult someone you trust.
And that is why relationships are extremely important. The world is filled with problems. And it has always been filled with problems.
So, but why is it that in today's world, mental health problems are much more than in the past? There could be many reasons, but one major reason is that relationships have weakened. We live in small nuclear families most of the time and even when we live in families, we don't have that close relationships with our family members, with our friends. So, when the mind starts telling something, we don't have anything to interrupt any relationship which we can fall back on to interrupt or to challenge or at least to evaluate the thought flow of the mind.
So, when we are alone, see, the mind gets us alone and then it gets us. The more we become isolated from others, then, even when we try to talk with someone, we evaluate them from the filter of the mind. So, what happens if somebody comes and starts speaking very nicely with us? You get the mind saying, this person must want something from you.
That's why he is speaking so nicely. Now, it may be like that, but it may not be like that also. That person may just be being polite and friendly.
But what happens when we believe the mind too much, we start evaluating everyone through the mind. So, we need at least one relationship in our life which is closer to us than our mind. We evaluate everyone through the mind.
This person is saying like this, why are they saying like this? Mind says because of this. But at least one relationship where we don't evaluate them through the mind, we evaluate the mind through them. That means my mind is saying like this.
But this person is saying like this. Then, I use my intelligence to evaluate. Then, when we have that relationship, even one relationship like that, the troubles of the mind will go down substantially.
And of course, for us as souls, we need horizontal relationships in this world but we also need the vertical relationship with Krishna. That relationship with Krishna can stabilise us. Just like say, if somebody if a child is watching a horror movie and he is so caught in the horror movie that the child is scared, panicking.
And if the mother sees, mother is right, in that same child, mother sees, child is so fearful. But if the mother goes and touches the child to comfort, the child may so fearful. The child may think the monster in that movie has come and touched him.
So, what happens is the child gets so caught in the horror movie that even the mother who is in shelter, she can't come there. So like that, sometimes we just get so caught in things that even we put Krishna at a distance. We just can't connect with Krishna also.
So, at that time the mother is seeing this. That, the mother is seeing that actually the child is getting caught in such a horror movie. So, what the mother does is say, the mother starts on that, if there is a TV, big TV or maybe there are two screens over there, the mother starts another movie.
Another say, tape of some picnic they had all gone to. The mother is there, the child is there. And then, the child is watching the horror movie.
Who is this? Looks so loving, so nice, so kind. And as the child starts looking over there, oh, this is my mother. And oh, she is here.
As the child starts watching that, the child gets connected with that. And then, the mother comes and touches the child. Oh, my mother is here.
The child hugs the mother's legs and feels sheltered. So, similarly for us, Krishna is right next to us in our hearts. But we are so caught in the material level of reality that we can't perceive Krishna.
So, therefore, at this physical level of reality, Krishna manifests. And he manifests as the deities. He manifests as the holy name, as the scriptures, as the devotees who tell us about him.
And in this, as we start focussing on this, in this world, things are happening and our mind is imagining based on those whatever things are happening, we are getting agitated. But if we focus on Krishna, if we just come to a temple, just chant the holy names, hear some kirtans, we start feeling calmer and calmer and calmer. Now, we may not even understand why we feel calm.
Even non-believers, if they come to a temple, they come to a sacred place, they feel some calmness. They can't explain why they feel calm. But they feel some calmness.
That is like a child who is very fearful. Child comes near the mother. Child starts feeling some calmness.
So, we feel that calmness. And as we start becoming more and more conscious of Krishna, say the child is watching a movie, suddenly a horror movie comes up. The child knows the mother is next to him.
Child just touches the mother. Child knows I am safe. So, like that, whenever the mind starts getting agitated, at that time, if we remember Krishna, if we chant his holy names, if we connect with him, then we will feel security, we will feel strength.
And that's how we will be protected from the mind. So, the more we connect strongly with Krishna, the more we connect regularly with Krishna, the more it will become a habit to connect with them. And then, even if the mind starts telling its story, we will not get carried away by the story.
If we hear the Bhagavad Gita regularly, that will give us the intelligence by which we will first not hear the story of the mind. But even if someone starts hearing the story, starts getting carried away by it, we will remember Krishna, chant the holy names, look at the deities, recite some verses, do something to connect with Krishna, and we'll come back to reality. So, I'll conclude with one story.
I started coming to America 3-4 years ago. So, first time when I came to America, at that time, I had gone to a college. And I spoke there on regulating our mental diet.
So, I spoke at the Vegetarian Society. And there, one boy, after the programme, he came and told me, just before this class, I was contemplating suicide. He had been in a relationship with a girl, and that girl had broken up with him.
And he was so depressed. But as he was gloomily going along in the college, he suddenly saw a poster of this book. Something within him said, just go for this book.
He says, now I have attended this programme, now I understand that it is not I who wanted to commit suicide, it is the mind. The mind is inside me, it is telling me, commit suicide, commit suicide. I told him, it is a very precious insight you have got.
You study the Bhagavad Gita regularly, you are understanding the Gita. And I connected him with the local devotees. Of course, I didn't tell him that he had been attending this.
But I connected him with the devotees. And then I told him about, I also write on the Gita, I have a video on gitalink.com, a small article. So, I told him he could read that also.
And every year when I come to America, and I went to that college, I would meet him and talk with him. So, he started practising bhakti. And last year when I had come, again he met me and he told me that he had been in a similar situation.
He had been again in a relationship with a girl and she had broken up with him. And she had sent him a message and she had said, I don't want to talk with you also, I want to block you, block your number, so don't try to contact me. So, as soon as he got this message, he just went straight to his room.
He closed the door, closed the windows, pulled down the curtains, switched off the lights, and then he picked up a violin. He liked to sing. So, he picked up a violin and started singing Hare Krishna.
He said he was singing Hare Krishna continuously for 6 hours. He was calling out to Krishna. And he said, at that time I felt as if I was comforted by some divine presence.
I was enveloped and bathed in some sublime light. Since that which could have been the most depressing moments of my life, they became the most enriching moments of my life. I felt the presence of Krishna.
So, this is the transforming and saving potency of bhakti. That life will create problems. But, instead of letting the mind aggravate the problems, if we take shelter of Krishna, we'll be able to not only be protected from the problems, but the problems will become the impetus by which we'll be elevated towards Krishna.
And we'll be enriched through those problems. That is what the shelter that bhakti offers to us, that Krishna offers to us through bhakti. And this way, fixing the mind on Krishna and making the habit of fixing the mind on Krishna, that is the best way for us to transcend the troubles of the mind.
I'll summarise quickly what I spoke. I started by speaking about how the mind is an expert storyteller. So, don't focus on life, focus on life, not on the mind's commentary of life.
Say, in a sports match, if the commentator starts telling something else only, the spectators will not understand what is happening. And the player starts hearing that commentary, which is going off in an unwanted direction, the player will also get discouraged. So, like that, for us, we are interacting with the reality, but the mind is a commentator inside us.
And the mind starts saying, do this, do that, do that, do that. And we get carried away by it. So, the mind is like a voice inside us, and it's not only a voice, but it's also a vision.
It starts depicting what is happening. And a good storyteller basically makes us forget everything else, makes us believe whatever they are telling, and makes us feel what they want us to feel. Similarly, the mind for all practical purposes is equal to maya.
And maya's two energies, avaranatmika and prakshakatmika, act in the story. The covering potency, like a movie theatre, lights go off. So, when the mind starts telling the story, we forget everything else.
And then, the light on the screen goes on, and we get captivated by the story. Like that, the mind makes us forget other things, and makes us get carried away by the story. Because the mind is inside us, we are very uncritical in evaluating what the mind says.
We just believe it. And we start feeling whatever it is saying. So, just as Kaikeyi's heart was completely distorted by Mantara's poisoning, similarly, our mind can completely distort our view.
Just by seeing one missed call, by not having one call responded to, a person may become suicidal. Just by seeing one swelling on the body, the mind of a person may become panicky. So, when the mind starts telling its stories, especially when a person becomes suicidal, that means the mind is attacking and destroying the body.
So, anxiety happens when the mind starts telling horror stories about the future. Depression happens when the mind starts reminding us of all the bad things that have happened in the past. In both ways, the commentary of the mind disconnects us from the reality of life.
So, how do we focus on the reality? Two things. Just as Kaikeyi should either not have heard Mantara or at least she should have evaluated by consulting someone else for Mantra. Similarly, if we just keep busy in purposeful activities, then the mind will not distract us.
Many screens are open in front of us. Whichever screen we pay attention to, that will zoom up. But if we are focussing on what we are doing, then the mind will not trouble us so much.
Mind like a child who is making mock faces. The more we pay attention to the antics, the more animated it becomes. So, just keeping ourselves busy in constructive activities is one way of minimising the trouble of the mind.
Second is, we need to have some trustworthy relationship by which we can consult them. So, instead of just believing the mind, instead of evaluating everyone through the mind, we evaluate the mind through that person. One reason why mental problems are increasing so much is because relationships today are weak.
So, if we make our relationships strong, at least one relationship strong, that will give us an alternative to what the mind is saying. And ultimately, the most important relationship for us is our relationship with Krishna. Krishna is like a child who is watching a horror movie and the mother is next to her.
So, Krishna manifests at the physical level through the deities, the holy names, the scriptures. And like the child seeing the mother in a recorded tape, starts getting captivated by that and gets comforted. Similarly, by exposing ourselves to devotional stimuli in the material world, we start feeling peaceful.
And when we make it a habit of regularly focussing our consciousness on Krishna, then, whenever we start getting agitated because of the mind, we will take shelter of Krishna and then evaluate calmly. Just as this boy who was suicidal earlier, but then when similar breakup happened, he took shelter of Krishna and a depressing experience became an uplifting experience. Similarly, we may feel the mind is a big trouble for me, but the same mind and its storytelling which drags us down, if we recognise the danger and intensify our bhakti, then the mind itself can become the impetus by which we go closer to Krishna and experience supreme spiritual enrichment thereof.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.