Do you need to break up with your phone?
So I will speak on the topic of do we need to break up with our phone, I will speak this in three parts, first is how the phone plays a significant role in our life and how its role has been increasing more and more and how this can have two different kinds of roles it may play, then the second part will be discerning whether it is playing a constructive role or a distracting role, on what basis can we decide that and ultimately aligning ourselves with the values and purposes that really matter to us. The word break up has a jarring connotation to it, we are emotionally involved with someone and then we decide to go separate ways. The phone has become an indispensable companion for most of us and in many ways people sometimes sleep with their phone right next to them and then after they wake up the first thing they pick up is the phone and look at some messages, look at some updates, so right from the morning till night, it's our constant companion and it has phenomenally increased our capacity to do things, we can communicate with people through talking, through messaging, we can read information, we can do, we can ask questions and get answers, so the reach outwards has increased enormously because of the phone and we all have various fears in our life.
So I gave a series of seminars in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State University, it was about dealing with fear, so I spoke about what are the different fears that different people have had, say in the 18th century, 19th century, 20th century, 21st century, as far as we know based on historical research, so some fears are common, people have fear of darkness, so two fears which have prominently become added in the 21st century are, one, the fear of terrorists and the second is the fear of rejection. We try to have a relationship with someone and that person rejects us, it can be extremely painful and that is a nightmare for many people, so that fear is there, the fear of rejection. So now with these two fears, if we consider the, with respect to the phone and with respect to all that the phone connects us with, there is a new kind of fear which has also come up in people's lives, that is called FOMO, have you heard of it? FOMO, it's called fear of missing out, fear of missing out, what that means is, oh, if I'm not on my phone looking at the latest updates, something important may be happening and I will miss it out.
Some good video may come up, some sensational news may come up, some fascinating tidbit of information may come up, and I may miss it out. And this fear may not be the kind of fear that makes us sweat at night and doesn't cause us to tremble, but this fear keeps us restless. Restless means, for many of us, it may happen that unless we pick up our phone and look at the latest messages, latest updates, it's almost something compulsive within us which is driving us to do that.
And if we don't do that, we feel something is missing, I have to do this. So this is not a gross fear, but it's a subtle fear which causes restlessness. And sometimes, say you're talking with someone, and then that person's phone rings.
Awesome, come look at it, and then they say, okay, I will pick it up. So now, at one level, they're giving attention in the live conversation that is going on. But at another level, what is happening? That the uninterrupted way of doing anything has become substantially lower.
So the distraction which we have has become more and more. But this, again, need not be a bad thing. Some of us may have the capacity to do multitasking.
And some of us, in the name of doing multitasking, may end up just having the tasks pile up, where nothing actually gets done. So, in life, there is the external situation, or external stimulation, and there is the internal disposition. So the phone can be a very valuable tool for connecting us with people far and wide.
But at the same time, the phone can become a means which may disconnect us from the people near us. So it may just consume our consciousness so much. And this is not just a matter of physical proximity.
People far away are eager to know what are they saying, what is the message that they are saying. But a person right next to me, is speaking to me, and they just, I'm not eager to hear what they are saying, and I'm eager to hear what somebody else is saying. So, at one time, I was working with a manager, I was in a company, and this manager, whenever you go to meet, if a phone came, he would pick up the phone.
The phone talk would go on for one hour and he would be sitting there waiting. And eventually, all of us were working with him, we found that even if we were it led to this, sometimes the phone call may be more important, and needs to be attended to. But, the nature of technology is, with respect to technology that gives us access to a lot of information, that it can very easily distort our sense of priorities.
When it distorts our sense of priorities, say somebody who has come to meet me and wants to talk with me, I put, okay, wait. And somebody who is somewhere, just casually pick up a phone and call me and give the message. This is a very obvious way in which, you say, this is crazy, somebody has come to meet me, talk with me, return the call later.
That's a very obvious way of distortion of priorities. But, these two principles, this point that, that which is far away, we may give it more weightage than that which is close by. Why is it like this? It is because, in general, we all need stimulation.
There is a survey done of people's psychological states in the western world, especially the middle class. They found that 5% of the time, people are happy. 5% of the time, people are distressed.
And 90% of the time, they are bored. 90% of the time, people are bored. And, when we are bored, we want some stimulation.
So, quite often, the physical world around us doesn't seem to offer much stimulation. In contrast with that, the digital devices that we have, that world promises a far greater quantity of stimulation. And, that's how we get distracted.
So, we all need stimulation, and the more we get habituated to digital stimulation, the more the physical world around us starts appearing less and less appealing. This becomes stimulating. So, there's a friend of mine, and he would talk on the phone, and he would talk with somebody else also.
So, he would talk one sentence here, and talk one sentence there. And then, he told him, why do you do like that? He said, I get twice the amount of work done. But then, he said, two people get half the amount of work done.
So, if I speak one sentence here and one sentence there, both of them have to wait. So, because he was in a managerial position, people would not speak against him. He was in a higher position in the hierarchy.
But, it was just irritating. Now, for us, the phone itself is simply a tool. So, as I said, there is outer stimulation and outer situation, and there is inner disposition.
So, it is the internal distortion of priorities that is a matter of real concern. When that happens, then it can become a serious problem. So, if the phone is a tool which we are using to do the things that are important for us, then that is positive.
But, if the phone is just consuming our attention and whatever pops up on it that we give our attention and then it takes us away from doing important things, then it becomes a problem. So, I will give a couple of examples and then I will request all of you to do a thought exercise. Not a thought exercise alone, probably you have to pick up your phone and the way I'm leading this, can you think of a time in your life when being obsessed with the phone made you miss out on something important.
So, I will give two examples of this. One of my friends is a traffic cop. So, he was telling that there is one terrible case of an accident.
There was this young boy who was driving his car and while driving the car, he also had a mobile phone in front of him and there was a baseball match going on. So, he was just watching it and giving the commentary to the YouTube and suddenly something happened in the baseball match that just consumed his car. So, he was driving his car and suddenly something happened in the baseball match in the baseball match happened in the and suddenly something happened in the baseball match that consumed he suddenly I heard people around me yelling in alarm and looked up and they were all pointing at me.
What happened? And when I looked back, there was no wheelchair assistant with the wheelchair. What happened? While I was looking at the phone, he had also been looking at his phone and then the floor was slightly inclined. So, he stopped because somebody was along the way but then, because of the interest he popped up on his phone, he kept looking at the phone and then he realised the wheelchair had started moving.
So, the wheelchair was just moving on and on. Fortunately, it was not a very sharp incline. Some people just came in between and stopped.
So, like that, basically, when we get caught in the phone, yes, the phone can give us useful information but the phone can distort our sense of priorities. What is more important? What needs attention now and what can be an attention later? That sort of distortion happens. So, now, we'll have two minutes and all of you can think of sometime in your life when this sort of distortion of priorities that happened because of the phone caused you some minor or major trouble.
And if you want, you can note this down. Again, on your phone, but don't look at other things on the phone. Just think about this.
So, your time begins now. You have two minutes. Think about this.
When your phone has distracted you from something important, you don't have to share this afterwards. If you want to, you're open to, but don't think you have to share it. Just think about it for yourself.
It's can't think of anything in your own life, you have observed somebody else getting distracted where you have been the victim of that distraction. That is also fine. Thank you.
I did this exercise once before and many of the students told me that they would want to share this experience with them. So, I won't ask you to share, but just keep this in mind. This distortion of priorities that happens, that is what causes us to be overwhelmed.
So, would any of you like to share? There's no question. Yes? Well, I honestly had trouble thinking of just like one moment where it happened because it honestly happens all the time. And I can't think of a time where it's happened and it's been a huge deal where I hit someone in my car or something like that, but so often when I say like having dinner with a friend or something, my phone buzzes and I just check it and see whatever is going on and I just completely forget what they said to me for like a two minute period and I just zone out and sometimes I'll even tell them, I'll just pretend I heard what they said, smile and nod, but it's kind of shameful in a way to think that I can't even think of just one time to do it because it happens almost every day.
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Anyone else? I think what you said is actually very significant because if there is a jarring noise, we all notice it, but sometimes there is a nagging noise, this noise that is there in the background, if we don't get used to it, it just drains our energy, it irritates us. So the distractions in our life, especially on the phone, may not be like a jarring distraction, but it's more of a nagging distraction, it's just constantly there and it depletes our energy, depletes our availability at a level of consciousness.
So, with respect to this distortion of priorities, like to move on and use two terms over this, there is utility and there is dependency. The phone has great utility, when we use it for some purpose, but when it becomes a dependency, it just can't be without the phone. Even if nothing is happening, still I have to pick up my phone and look, has something happened? Then, we become dependent on it and that dependency is what becomes a problem.
So the Bhagavad Gita is an ancient text of yoga and in it, the concept of intelligence is explained. So, intelligence basically means not just our capacity to say IQ, to get a high IQ score, but intelligence is primarily the capacity to see things in their proper perspective. To see what is how important and to give it its due attention.
So, now, what I talked about of the phone, I'll take a step inwards and I'll say that just as we have a screen of the phone on which many things keep popping up and they can distract us from other important things. Similarly, we have a screen inside us. That inner screen is the mind and on that inner screen, various things keep popping up.
So, right now, you are listening to me and I'm speaking to you. So, what appears on the inner screen is that the inner screen is meant to act like a window and this window helps us to see. If it's a window, through the window I can see outside.
So, like that you can see inside. One of my friends is a jeweller. I had gone to his shop.
He has very precious jewellery. So, he has high security system. So, he stays in his office upstairs and there are multiple doors to his jewellery shop.
So, he has one big monitor which is connected to the closed circuit TV cameras which are placed at each door and the input from all those cameras comes on this big screen, big monitor. There are multiple windows. Say, there are in which there are five doors to a building that the eyes, the ears, the nose, the skin and the tongue.
So, through all these we get information of the outer world and they all appear on her ear screen and normally say right now you are hearing and you are seeing. So, the vision window and the sound window, they are prominent and they are synchronised but suddenly say the temperature drops and start feeling cold. Then what will happen? The skin window will say, it's too cold, what should I do? Have I got some warm underwear? Or if the temperature rises, maybe I need to take off my jacket.
So, then that pops up. So, normally for us when we function in our day to day life, these multiple windows, they keep popping up and popping back, zooming up and zooming down very fast. It happens so fast that we don't even notice it.
For example, the door opened just now. So, the door opened and our eyes went there. So, what has happened? Looking at one thing but another window opens up and we start going over there.
So, now, okay, if it's somebody familiar, somebody expected, look at for one moment and then you get back. But if somebody unexpected, what is this person doing here? Then that window opens up and that window zooms out and it stays zoomed out. And it stays zoomed out and it can become a problem.
So, now, within us, this zooming in and zooming out of the windows, it happens instinctively. It happens normally in a way which can function properly. Say, we may be driving a car, the same way we are talking to someone.
So, we may be able to hear what they are saying. At the same time, our eyes are also focused. But sometimes, this, the wrong window zooms up.
And the more, the greater the tendency of the wrong window zooming up, the tendency is greater when we are habituated or attached to something. Say, suppose this is somebody's home, this is somebody's college. And say, they have drunk alcohol many times, they become alcoholics.
And there is a bar in the middle. Then, as soon as they start passing by the bar, what happens? The image of a bottle of alcohol zooms up in their consciousness, occupies the inner screen. Come on, go and drink, let's go and drink.
No, I don't want to. But that just zooms up until it just seems to stay there. It just doesn't get minimised.
So, the more we are, if somebody says, never indulge in alcohol, then, they just pass by and not even notice it. So, that zooming out, sometimes the zooming out happens rightly by our intention, according to our intelligence. But, sometimes, the zooming out happens just by the default momentum from our past habits.
And, when that happens, that can cause our perception to malfunction. So, if we are too attached to something, if we are too hooked to something, then, that object tends to zoom up very fast and it stays zoomed for very long. And thus, it causes distraction.
So, for us, just as the phone is a device by which we connect with the outer world, similarly, the mind is the primary tool by which we connect with the outer world. We don't respond to the world. We respond to the mind's representation of the world.
If we go in the desert and we see a mirage, actually, it's simply sand over there. But, in the mind, the representation comes, it's water. And we start chasing that.
So, for us, the external device, the phone and screen can be a distraction. But, the internal device, the mind, the hat, can also be a distraction. So, to understand what this mind is, let's do a simple thought experiment.
So, wherever you're sitting, you can sit in a relaxed, comfortable way and you can close your eyes and you can take three deep breaths with me. One, two, now with your eyes closed, try to look at what you see in front of you. Because your eyes are closed, you can't see what is physically in front of you, but still it's as if there is an inner screen on which you can see different images.
You may see this room, you may see your own room, your home, your friends, your phone. Now, you may see different images coming and going on that inner screen or you may just see a dull colourless, dull haze of different colours on it. But whatever be the specific image that you see, you can actually see an inner screen on which that is displayed.
Now, try to take a step back and try to catch sight of the person who is observing that inner screen. You are seeing an inner screen, but who is it that is seeing that inner screen? Try to take a step back and look at that person. Once more, let's take a step back and try to look at who is looking at the inner screen.
No matter how many steps you take back, the inner sphere steps back with you. What you are looking for is what you are looking with. You are the inner sphere and your mind is the inner screen.
You, the inner sphere, are the soul and your mind is the inner sphere. You and your inner sphere are different and you have a choice what gets displayed on the inner screen or what gets focused on the inner screen. Something will zoom out but you can choose whether you want it to stay zoomed out or you want to focus on something else.
But for us most of the time we just fuse with the inner screen. We identify with whatever is appearing on the inner screen and we get carried away by that. So at the external level just as we may get hooked to the phone and we may get captivated by it.
Similarly at a much greater level internally we get hooked or fused with our inner screen. So our present existence is three dimensions. There is the body, the mind and the soul.
So the body is the hardware in the computer system, the mind is the software, the soul is the user. But we identify with the mind and whatever appears in the mind we just get completely carried away by it. So when this happens then we fuse with whatever is happening on the mind or what is appearing on the inner screen then we get distracted because this inner screen is meant to act like a window which shows us what is out there.
But many times it starts acting like a TV screen and starts showing us various different things. So if this is a TV screen it starts showing us something in the past, you know this person did like this, they spoke like that, this happened. What if this happens? What if that happens? What if that happens? And to the extent we identify with that to the extent we get carried away by it.
So imagine somebody is watching TV and while watching TV they are so caught in watching TV that they don't notice the thief has entered into their house and the thief comes in and looks around. What can I steal? And the thief sees, oh this TV is very good, it's expensive TV. So the thief comes and picks up the TV and starts scaring it.
And the person is so caught in watching the TV that instead of stopping the thief, they keep following the thief and keep watching the TV. So you say who can be so foolish? But we can get so glued to it. So like that we get so caught in watching the inner screen and sometimes the inner screen it just shifts from one place to another and you just follow it.
So many times when we suffer mental health problems it's not so much that things are physically wrong out there. Yes there are wrong things out physically but it is the mental screen which exaggerates them. There are two major mental health problems that people have.
One is depression and the other is anxiety. And in terms of this inner screen model basically when do we get depressed? When the inner screen becomes like a TV and goes to the past and starts replaying all the bad things that have happened in the past. Oh this happened, that happened, this went wrong, that went wrong.
And as this keeps getting repeatedly replayed again and then we start feeling oh this is what happens to me all the time. Nobody cares for me, people use me. All these bad things happen to me, maybe my destiny is rotten.
And in that way we think the future is more of the same thing and we get depressed. Conversely if this inner screen goes to the future and it starts this may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, this, that, this, that, as we get caught in that when the inner screen becomes like a TV which shows the bad things that may happen in the future. So if it goes to the past it starts like a tragedy movie and goes to the future it starts like a horror movie and when we get overwhelmed by anxiety.
So to the extent we can distance ourselves from the inner screen it means we, instead of the fusion with the inner screen there is a diffusion from the inner screen. So to the extent we can do that this is what I want to focus on we need to think about this right now. So when we are doing things at the physical level to some extent say if we are driving in a crowded road then we are aware ok I have to drive properly but if it is a smooth straight road then we don't need so much attention.
Then we start zooming off thinking about this thinking about that. So basically the inner screen acts as a window when whatever is out there requires our immediate attention. When the outer world does not require our immediate attention or at least there is no serious consequence of not having that attention.
Say like right now you are hearing this talk. If you knew that after this talk there is going to be a test and you have to get a good grade in the test. Then what will happen there is an immediate consequence of the inner screen not acting as a window.
The impetus to focus becomes much greater. This is a talk we keep hearing so many talks. Then the inner screen starts acting like a TV.
It goes here, goes there and we let it go there. I am giving this example to illustrate this point that we have the power to choose whether the inner screen acts as a window or whether it acts as a TV. It will tend to act as a TV but when it starts acting as a TV we can choose.
When I am using these two options it can act as a window or it can act as a TV. Going back to the bigger idea of a monitor, I said the monitor had five windows to it. You could say there is a sixth window to it.
Sixth window is the memory and from that one window hundreds of images can merge. So there are different windows which pop out. We can choose whether to let them stay maximised or just drag them aside and focus on something else.
But we can do this to the extent we understand that I am not the screen. So this inner breakup from the inner screen that is vital for our well being. Again, the same principle of utility and dependency.
We need the inner screen so that it can act as a window by which we can perceive the outer world. But when we identify with it, when we become dependent on it, then whatever it shows, we start taking it seriously. Rather than ensuring that it shows what we want to see, we start getting carried away by seeing whatever it is showing.
And that's when it becomes a major problem. So how do we create this distance between the inner screen and the inner seer, us? So I'll conclude with two points for this. Then we can have some reflections or discussions.
The first principle here is knowledge. To the extent we have knowledge and not just abstract or intellectual knowledge, but working knowledge, that this is how my inner world works. The images that pop up on the screen, and I have to decide whether I want to focus or I want to pay attention to this or I want to pay attention to something else.
So this knowledge is widening. Now if we consider vocabulary, there is something which is like an informational vocabulary and there is something which is a working informational vocabulary. That means we use those words.
Some words we read somewhere and oh yeah, I think I know what this word is. And sometimes even if we don't know the exact meaning, look at the context, make sense and move on. Now that kind of informational vocabulary is not of much use for us when we want to express ourselves.
Because that word just doesn't come in our mind. So what we need to do is if we want to have precise words to express what we want to say, then the words from our informational vocabulary have to move to our working vocabulary. Then I use a particular word.
Oh, this means this. Similarly for us, this knowledge has to become working knowledge, not just informational. Whenever we start finding ourselves getting worried, getting irritated, getting pessimistic, getting depressed, at that time, what's happening? What is happening? this person did that, this happened, but from that, my mind is taken off.
So one stimulus and I have to make a move. I don't have to do this. I don't have to focus on this.
To the extent we do this exercise, whenever we start getting carried away, we become aware and we bring ourselves back to the position of the inner sphere, not to stay caught at the level of the inner screen. So this understanding of our dynamic, the dynamism of our inner world, this is what we get from spiritual wisdom texts. This book explains what is happening in our inner world.
To the extent we regularly expose ourselves to spiritual wisdom, to that extent it becomes a part of our operational knowledge, not just our informational knowledge. And you can see, if you try to apply this principle, as soon as I get carried away, as soon as I start feeling agitated by anything, instead of acting on that agitation, instead of identifying with the emotion, we identify the emotion. This is the depression movie script that I started off with.
This is the pessimism movie script that I started off with. So if we can just identify, we'll find ourselves substantially protected from unwanted mental agitation. The second principle is transcendence.
Transcendence versus intelligence, knowledge which equips us with intelligence. The second is transcendence. First of all, am not the inner screen.
I am different from it. But then, who am I? I am the inner seer. What is this inner seer? Actually, we are spiritual beings who are distinct from our bodies.
And as spiritual beings, we belong to a higher level of reality. To the extent we can experience ourselves as spiritual, to that extent, we become convinced of our whole spirituality. It doesn't remain just some sentiment, but it becomes a realisation, an actual experience.
And how does that happen? That is where meditation comes in. Now, before we had this talk, we had this musical meditation. This musical meditation is basically a tool for raising our consciousness from the physical level and the mental level to the spiritual level.
So, sometimes we just get caught in the outer world and get distracted. Sometimes we get caught in the inner screen and get distracted. But meditation, it shifts our awareness from the outer level to the inner level, from the outer seam to the inner screen and beyond the inner screen to the inner seal.
If we do this meditation regularly, we find it okay. We feel peaceful, we feel calm, we feel joyful, we get inner strength and that helps us to see out of things in perspective. By outer, it can be the outer physical or even the screen, whatever is displayed on that screen.
So, I'll conclude with one story. When I first came to America, a few years ago, I had gone to university and there I spoke on the topic of regulating our mental diet. So, after that one American boy came and spoke to me and he said just before this class, I was contemplating suicide.
I said, what happened, he said. He had been in a relationship with a girl and she had broken up with him and he was depressed and he was walking along, in the college campus, he saw a poster of this programme, of my programme. And something similar about the mind I spoke, how we have to do the right inputs to the mind.
He said, now I am understanding that it is not I who want to commit suicide, it is my mind which is prompting me. Now, just end your life, end your life. I told him, this is a vital insight which you have got.
Treasure this. I encourage him to read the Bhagavad Gita regularly. I blog daily on the Bhagavad Gita at gita daily dot com, small 300 word reflection.
I encourage him to read that. After that, he started practising spirituality every year, once or twice when I come to America, whenever I go to the university, I would meet him and talk with him. So, last time when I had come, again I met him.
And he told me that I went through a similar situation. I had been in a steady relationship and suddenly there was a break up. And then, that girl told him that I don't want to talk with you and I'm blocking your phone.
Don't try to contact me. So, he said, as soon as I got that message, I just went straight to my room. And as I said, closed my door, pulled down the windows, pulled the curtains, turned off all the lights.
And then, he likes music, so he had a violin, picked up the violin and he just started singing Hare Krishna. And for six hours, continuously I was singing, pouring out my heart. And he said, those six hours were the most enriching hours of my life.
I felt as if I was breathing in some divine light. I felt as if that sound of the mantra was placing me in a comforting embrace of some higher presence. And I felt uplifted by it.
The same situation, which would normally be extremely depressing for him, turned out to be extremely enriching. And how did this happen? This happened because, yes, there was normal depression, the normal negativity was there, but instead of fusing with that negativity on the inner screen, he situated himself in the spirituality. So the more we experience our spirituality, the more we will get this inner security, by which we can deal with outer uncertainty with greater maturity.
So spirituality uses inner security to deal with outer insecurity with greater maturity. And that's why this is a practical and valuable skill that we can develop to diffuse ourselves from the inner screen and to realise ourselves as the inner seer. So this breakup, not in terms of rejection, but in terms of distancing from our inner screen, is what we all need to do to increase the value of our life.
To increase how we don't get carried away by unwanted emotions, but focus on the important things in our life and ensure that we contribute in a constructive way. So I'll summarise what I spoke today. So I spoke about we need to break up with our phone.
I talked about how the phone has become an indispensable companion. It's from morning to night and even at night. It's always there with us.
And there are many fears which people always have. So one fear that has been added for people at a subconscious level is the fear of missing out. It's not a fear that makes us tremble or sweat, but it's a fear that keeps us restless.
It makes us compulsively look at our devices to look for some updates. And while we feel that we might miss out on something important that might be happening in the distance somewhere else, but we may end up missing out on something important that is happening right here. So we may pay more attention to somebody who is calling us from somewhere else and not pay attention to somebody who is right next to us.
So the phone is not the problem, but the distortion of priorities within us, that can be a problem. The phone is simply out of stimulation, but it's the internal disposition that becomes problematic. And in the world we live in, the physical reality doesn't seem to be as stimulating as the digital devices.
And the more we get hooked to digital stimuli, the more physical stimuli start appearing more and more boring. And thus we end up bored with the real world and we become dependent on the digital world to get some stimulus. And that's how from a utility, the phone can become a dependency.
And that's when it can become problematic. So we have to introspect ourselves that how much is my phone using, I'm using the phone, or the phone is distracting me from what I want to do. And then we move inwards.
Just as we have a phone screen outside, we have a screen inside us. That is our mind. And this mind is, so we are the inner seers, the mind is the inner screen, and the world outside is the outer world.
So normally the inner screen has to act like a window which shows the outer world. In fact, it's more sophisticated, like a big computer monitor in which inputs from all the various senses come in. So if the right stimulus, right window zooms up, then we give attention to that which is important.
But when we become habituated or addicted to something, then that window zooms up compulsively and is de-zoomed, thereby distracting us from other important things. So this distortion of priorities in terms of what to pay attention on the inner screens and what to minimise, that distortion of priorities can also be very damaging for us in terms of our capacity to do things effectively. So when the inner screen starts showing us all that has gone wrong in the past, we get depression.
When it starts showing all that may go wrong in the future, we get anxiety. And for preventing this unwanted, unnecessary mental agitation because of external problems, we need to distance ourselves. So I understand that I am not the inner screen, the diffusion and then I am the inner sphere, that realisation.
The diffusion can happen through acquiring knowledge, which comes from the category of informational knowledge to operational knowledge. So by regular study of spiritual books, we can have this intelligence which will help us to do diffusion. And by meditation, meditation acts like an elevator of our consciousness.
It takes from the outer scene through the inner screen to the inner sphere. Meditation situates us in our spirituality and thereby grants us the security to deal with uncertainty with maturity. And I talked about how this boy initially, after a breakup, he wanted to commit suicide.
But next time after a breakup, he decided to just absorb himself in musical meditation and that which could have been a depressing experience became an uplifting and enriching experience for him. Similarly for us, also the more we realise our spirituality and diffuse ourselves from our inner screen, we can become more effective and constructive in our lives. Thank you very much.
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Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. But when we don't have that connection with the infinite consciousness, then we look for stimulations elsewhere. And the stimulations elsewhere, they can titillate us initially, but sooner or later they disappoint us.
And then we crave for more and more stimulation, and just that way we get more and more distracted. But if we tune our consciousness, connect our consciousness with infinite consciousness, and that's what meditation ultimately does, then our need for stimulation can be spiritually fulfilled. Any other questions or comments? Maybe some of you could like to speak.
Something which you would like to carry home, some carry home point which you got from the talk. Yeah. I really appreciate it when you were talking about the way we think, and how we can get our mind preparing us for life.
I was actually listening to one of your lectures today about positive thinking, and you mentioned this quote, but I can't remember who it's from, but basically your thoughts become your words, and your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your character, and your character becomes your destiny. And it kind of tied into what you were mentioning about, if you let your mind take your way with it, then that will lead you somewhere that you might not want to be, or end up being served. Yeah.
I was just appreciating that, so thank you. Thank you. So actually our thoughts, they just don't exist as thoughts.
Something pops up as a thought, but the more attention we give it to it, the more momentum it gathers. And as it gathers momentum, it becomes bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger. So initially it's just a thought in our mind.
But then when we think about it, it becomes a memory, I like it. It becomes emotion. I want it.
It becomes an intention. Then, it becomes action. I do it.
And then when, next time, again the thought pops up. Then again, oh, I want it. It becomes emotion.
So thought, emotion, intention, action. So at the level of thought, no, I don't want to think about this. It's relatively easy.
But at the level of intention, it's quite difficult. So we could envision, say, there's a snowy mountain, top mountain. At the top of that mountain, a snowball is formed.
At the top of the mountain, the snowball is tiny. No, we could just kick it with our leg. It'll break apart.
But as the snowball keeps coming down, down, down, down, it starts becoming more and more powerful. By the time it has come down, if we are standing down, it may just knock us down and roll us over. Roll over us.
So that's how powerful it can become. So the thought is like a snowball at the top of the mountain. By the time it's rolled down, it has become like an intention.
And if we keep doing the same thing again and again and again, then it almost becomes like an addiction. By the time it comes down, it appears as if it's irresistible. So the earlier we can check it inside, the better it is for us.
Breaking the snowball at the top is much easier than breaking it at the bottom. Similarly, understanding our thought world and distancing ourselves from the negative thoughts can have profoundly positive results for us in our life. Thank you.
Any other carry-home points that you would like to share with me, if you like? Yes, please. Thank you for coming here. I was just wondering what the difference is between the material mind and the spiritual mind.
What is the difference between the material mind and the spiritual mind? Actually, the mind is a transition between matter and spirit. The material level of reality, we could say, and the spiritual level of reality. So, the mind is the medium which connects the two.
So, if I have the hardware of a computer, that is like the physical reality. And I, the user, am of a different level. What helps me to use the hardware is the software.
The software links the user with the hardware. Similarly, the mind links the soul with the body. So, sometimes the words material and physical are used interchangeably.
But in this analysis, the physical is the body. But the mind, it is mental, but it is also a part of the material level of reality. Just like the user in a computer exists in a different category.
The user is conscious. The hardware and software, neither of them are conscious. Similarly, the mind itself is not conscious.
But the user, the soul is who is conscious. But the mind is the link between the two. So, another way to put it is that the soul is the root of consciousness.
R-O-U-T, root. And the mind is the root of consciousness. R-O-U-T.
It is the pathway through which the consciousness moves. So, now, normally, the mind is the channel through which consciousness goes towards material things. So, for example, right now, I am looking at you, you are looking at me.
You are looking at this chair, I am looking at the chair on which you are sitting. So, the stimulus that is coming up on the mind is a material stimulus. And the more, so the mind is not just a window which reflects the outer world.
But whatever is, whatever appears on it, it also gets impressed on it. And that is what starts popping up again and again. Like I told about the inner screen with different windows zooming out.
So, whichever window gets zoomed out once, that tends to zoom out again and again and again. It becomes a habit. Just like say, if I visited some website, say I visit something like say hollywood.com. So, I visited that website regularly.
So, next time now I want to know something else. I want to know something about happiness. How do I become happy? When I type H, what happens? Immediately Hollywood comes up.
So, it is a screen, but that screen, whatever I have chosen in the past, it pops up over there. So, if we have repeatedly exposed our cells to material stimuli, then material stimuli are what pop up on our screen internally. And that is when we say the mind is materialistic.
The mind is functionally what it is. It is an intermediate level of reality between physical and spiritual. But the impressions that are stored on it, the default tendency that it has, the disposition that it has, that can be either materialistic or it can be spiritual.
So, the more we expose ourselves to material stimuli, which is what has happened to us till now, the more our mind tends to be material. And the more we expose ourselves to spiritual stimuli, for example, we study spiritual books, we do meditation, hear the sound of the mantra, then that creates spiritual impressions within us. And then that is how the mind becomes spiritualised.
So, the mind is not exactly material or spiritual in constitution or composition, but in its inclination. It can be materialist material or it can become spiritual. And that depends on what kind of impressions we expose it to.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Any other reflections? Anything you felt you would be carrying home with you from this talk today? Yeah. You said anything? I thought you were raising your hand.
Hello. Thanks for the talk. And relating to what Melissa asked earlier, the first question about why we need this intrinsic need to get stimuli from the external world.
So, let me see if I understood what you said. In psychology there is something called hedonistic adaptation. That means that, let's say, if you eat pizza every day, after a week you get bored of that.
Got it, yeah. So, if we are not connected to the transcendental, to something higher, does that mean that the external stimuli that we get from the environment will eventually get adapted to that and then get bored? But if we don't have this connection to the transcendental, but if we instead have this connection, then we see the external world with another lens, with another perspective. Is that right? Beautiful, yes.
So, normally we get adapted to whatever we are exposed to. And because of this adaptation, in the hedonistic adaptation, what happens is the same stimulus which appears to be very enjoyable, after some time, it's not so enjoyable. Say, if we go to a party and there are a lot of cookies over there.
Somebody gives one cookie. Got it. Second cookie.
Got it. Third cookie. Fourth cookie.
Fifth cookie. Somebody sells the sixth cookie. You also take something.
Now, you say you also take something, it's not because you are concerned about them, but because the pleasure in the cookie has started going down for us. So, basically, we could say there is a law of diminishing returns. With respect to material stimuli, the same stimulus which gives us pleasure initially, after some time, the pleasure from it starts decreasing.
Now, the Gita explains that actually the capacity for anything to give pleasure comes from the supreme source of all pleasure. The infinite consciousness is the source of infinite attractiveness also. And sparks of the attractiveness of the infinite are invested in various objects.
So, if I am musically inclined, then for me, in music, I get special taste. For somebody who is linguistically inclined, for them, reading fine literature, that gives them some taste. For somebody who is more aesthetically inclined, they just look at something beautiful, they feel very good.
So, for all of us, we have certain things which attract us. Now, if I don't have much of a musical inclination, and you don't have much of a linguistic inclination, I may think, what are you sitting and just hearing music? And you may say, what are you looking at one sentence for so long and thinking about other sentences? So, where is the attractiveness of that music or that language or linguistic composition? Where is it exactly? It is not just in that. It is there in that, but where does it come from? Some people just become mad for some football star or some movie star.
It is not that that movie star was born attractive. Or even if you say they were born attractive, even if they did something to enhance their makeup. But still, it is not that they consciously designed the shape of their face.
Isn't it? So, we, the attractive objects in this world, are invested with some attractiveness by a higher arrangement. And they are like, the attractiveness of those objects is like a spark. We get attracted to it and we get some pleasure from it.
But what we need is not just a spark, we need the whole flame. So, the infinite consciousness is like a whole flame. So, if you can connect the spark with the whole, this music is giving me so much pleasure.
But where is this pleasure coming from? It is a spark of the infinite. Then, when I can connect the attractiveness of the infinite, then we get pleasure not only from that object itself, but from the connection of the consciousness with its source. And that is what makes life continuously stimulated.
So, Vishamichamuhurno, the Bhagavad Gita says that if one can live in spiritual consciousness, then one is thrilled at every moment. Life becomes stimulating and fulfilling because we can connect with the infinite consciousness through the multifaceted stimuli of life around us. Thank you.
Thank you very much.