Managing the voice inside the head 2 – Identification Direction Transformation

[Program at ISKCON, Montreal, Canada]

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Yes.
So, I’ll be happy to give you. Hare Krishna. I’m grateful to be here.
At the lotus feet of the Lord Shri Radhamana. Radhamana, right? And I’ll continue today on the topic of managing the voice inside the head, which I started yesterday. I spoke there about how the mind constantly speaks with inside us, and it distorts our perception of reality.
So, the mind is an interpreter of reality and it is a filter of reality. Like a player who is playing nicely, but the commentator keeps discouraging, and the player gets discouraged. So, the mind may distort, may misdirect us into the past or into the future, and thus causing the depression or anxiety.
And this voice, which is there inside us, it offers both audio and visual distractions. And in that way, it can completely captivate us. And the way to deal with the mind is what we will focus on today.
Generally, whenever a war takes place, I’ll talk about three points in dealing with the mind. Identification, direction and transformation. I.D.T. So, whenever we are fighting a war, the first thing that is required is to identify whom we are fighting against.
Many times when the enemy is cunning, the enemy may ask for aid as a friend. And if we mistake the enemy to be a friend, we’ll go and hug them and they will stab us. So, generally, our own thoughts, our own desires, our own emotions, they are present inside us.
And we reflexively identify that which is inside us to be us. A thought that pops up inside me, I think it to be mine. So, because we identify the thought to be ours, we tend to get carried away by it.
So, how do we identify that the voice inside us is not our voice? Generally, when we try to chant, recently I was asked a question that, initially we are told that chanting will control our mind. But then when we start chanting, we are told you should control your mind and chant. So, is chanting, is a controlled mind the result of chanting? Or is it the requirement for chanting? Actually, it is both.
If you have to do anything in life, we require some amount of control of the mind. Even if somebody wants to watch a movie, enjoy some, watch a cricket match or watch a movie and enjoy something materialistic also, at that time, if while watching the movie, they start looking at here, looking there, they’ll get distracted. They’ll not enjoy the movie.
Nowadays, movies are available on the internet to download and watch in your home, in our homes. But still so many people go to the theatres and pay a large amount of money to watch the movies there. Why? Because there, there is, you could say, immersion.
The lights are off. There is nothing else to distract. You get absorbed in the movie.
So, basically, some amount of concentration is required to enjoy anything. Now, if I am enjoying, if I am eating delicious food, which is considered to be enjoyable, very basic and enjoyable activity, but if I am eating the food, if you are distracted by something else, sometimes when we eat the whole meal, if our mind is agitated by something else or distracted by something else, we will not taste the food at all. So, basically, some amount of control of the mind is required for doing any activity.
But the difference when we practise bhakti is that whatever little control of the mind we engage in bhakti, that returns manifold to us. Because when we control our mind and say, study or watch a movie or just understand some concept, not connected with Krishna, all that will give us some return as per whatever activity we are doing. But when we use that little mind control to focus on Krishna, at that time, because Krishna is supremely pure, the contact with Him purifies us.
And that purification means the force of agitation that is there in the mind, it goes down. Krishna is the purest among all pure. Mangalanam cha mangalam.
He is the most auspicious among all auspicious things. So, therefore, it’s like, say, if we want to lift a weight, a 20 kg weight will require some energy to lift. But if we have a lever and use a lever to lift the weight, then we may have to exert only the effort equivalent to 2 or 3 kgs, and the 20 kg weight will lift it up.
So, whether I am using a lever or I am using my own hands, effort is required. But the mechanism of the lever ensures that the effort required becomes much lesser. Or rather, whatever effort is exerted, the returns from that are much more.
Similarly, with respect to identifying the mind, some effort is required. To get carried away by the mind, we have to put in some discretion, some effort to identify the mind. But once we identify it, it becomes easier to control the mind.
So, recovery has to begin somewhere. When we are caught by the mind, I may say that, actually, I am caught by the mind, and you are telling me I should catch the mind before it catches me. Let me say I am getting caught with anger or depression or any kind of desire.
And before the mind catches, we should catch it. But then I am already caught by the mind, then how will I catch the mind? But the point is, as soon as we realise it. It is… One of my friends, he was a bodybuilder, but then he felt terribly sick.
And he became so sick, he was caught by a debilitating disease, and he completely lost all energy. And then, on top of that, he fractured a hand. So, the doctor told him that, now you have to… He was on the bed, you have to exercise.
He said, it’s okay. For him, exercise means going to gym and doing big workouts. He said, I am lying on this bed, what exercise can I do? He said, you need to exercise your hand.
His hand was fractured here. So, he said, can you lift your finger? He said, no. Can you lift one finger? He said, yes.
He said, okay, lift this finger like this ten times in the morning, ten times in the afternoon, ten times in the evening. That is your exercise. He said, this is exercise.
This is ridiculous. This is not exercise. He said, this is the exercise for you.
You do this. He did it for two, three days. Then, he was able to lift his whole… all the fingers.
Then, gradually, his hand. Then, his forearm. Then, his forearm.
So, at that stage, in the weakened stage, the exercise began with simply lifting one finger, which may seem to be nothing at all, but doesn’t matter. That even that small step is a beginning. So, instead of… So, if I just identify, okay, and sometimes we may just fuse with our labels.
Oh, I’m a short-tempered person. Oh, I’m a pessimistic person. Oh, I am like this.
I am like that. And instead of accepting those labels or identifying those labels, we say that, okay, my mind makes me short-tempered. And we can identify, okay, this is the anger thought train or this is the anger programme that has started now.
Whenever you start feeling angry, this is the anger programme that has started. Or this is the overheating programme that has started now. This is, we want to wake up in the morning and the alarm rings and something within us says, go to sleep.
At that time, oh, that is the oversleeping programme. So, there are these patterns or programmes or conditioning that are there within us. We just identify them.
So, instead of identifying with them, oh, go to sleep again. I’ll go to sleep. No.
If, maybe at that time, I may even go to sleep. But afterwards, I wake up, oh, I could have woken up at that time. But I went to sleep.
Why? Because that was the oversleeping programme that was prompting me and I accepted it. So, like that, one thing goes wrong and immediately, oh, this is going to go wrong. This is going to go wrong.
This is going to go wrong. Things are never going to work. You are always going to be a failure.
You are always useless. So, this is the you are useless programme which is going to start off. So, then, as soon as we identify it, okay, this is the programme.
Then, once we identify it, much of the strength of the mind goes away. So, the mind can influence us primarily as long as we don’t identify with it. Once we identify it, still, it may push us.
But its spell on us goes down substantially. Because as soon as we see, okay, this is not me. This is my mind saying, okay, how do I deal with it then? It’s like, say, we have a friend or somebody, an acquaintance, a relative who may not be a devotee also.
And that person tells us, say, come on, let’s go for this movie. Now, we are devotees and we don’t want to go and watch the movie. But, now, if they are insistent, then we may think, okay, how do I say no? What reason should I give? This, this, this.
We may think and come up with a good reason. But, if that same idea comes inside us, we think it is our idea. So, that’s why the Bhagavad Gita often personifies the mind.
When it says, the mind is like your friend or like your enemy, that means what? Actually, the mind is simply subtle energy. It is not conscious. But by personifying the mind, the Bhagavad Gita is telling us, treat the mind as a person different from you.
So, as soon as we start treating the mind as a person different from us, then, dealing with it becomes much easier. It’s never easy. It’s always difficult when the mind is tricking us.
When the mind is tricking us, at that time, identifying it makes it easier to deal with it. So, for example, Bhaktivinoda Thakur in some of his songs says that, you know, my mind is filled with only desires. My mind is contaminated.
So, what does this mean? Okay, this mind is here. I am here. This mind is always filled with contaminated desires.
So, when I can identify the mind as separate from me, then, dealing with it becomes, at least, the initial steps begin. So, first, it may just not be possible. The mind will just catch us and overpower us.
But at least afterwards, oh, that was the mind that tricked me over there. I had planned I won’t do this, but the mind proposed and I accepted it. So, even if we later on, instead of, sometimes what happens, we just beat ourselves up.
You fool, why did you do that? So, we may decide I am not going to do something. I am not going to get angry. I am not going to get worried.
The mind is so tricky that we may decide, I am not going to worry about this. And then we may start worrying. The mind will make us worry.
What if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? And then, after we get worried, then we start getting worried about getting worried. That means, the mind says, see, you are a devotee of Krishna. You should have faith in Krishna.
Why are you worried? That means, actually, you don’t have faith in Krishna. That means, your devotion is useless. So, first we had worry and then we are worrying about worrying.
First, we may get, it’s like, so the mind plays a dangerous double role. See, we are living a life peacefully and then, suddenly a friend comes. Come on, I have got an idea to get rich quickly.
He says, what is the idea? Let us rob a bank. What? No, let us rob a bank. I have got a foolproof plan.
We will rob the bank, nobody will catch us. He says, no, no, I am not going to do this. No, no, come, come, easily make money.
There is no way we will get caught. I have got a foolproof plan. And that person somehow persuades us.
And we go into the bank and we rob it. And the security alarm goes off and the police come running and this friend runs away. And we get caught.
We are caught and we are caught and we are brought into the court. And, sitting on the judge’s seat is the same friend. He says, you are punished, you are condemned, you are a criminal.
So, the mind is like that. First, it only proposes wrong. Come on, do this.
Come on, do this. Eat a little more, sleep a little more. You know, that person has hurt you so much, show them, give them a piece of your mind.
Mind says, explode. And, we just slam them by our words and then the same mind stands as a judge in judgement. You fool, when will you learn? How many times have I told you, don’t get angry and now you are again getting angry.
You are useless, you are condemned. So, the mind only makes us angry and then the mind beats us up for getting angry. So, of course, there is our conscience which sometimes makes us feel bad.
You know, that we have a conscience which tells us, if we do something wrong, we feel bad about it. But, the key about the conscience is that the conscience makes us come closer to Krishna. Yes.
You know, this is the wrong thing which I did. I should not do it again and I should take shelter of Krishna. If you consider, the soul is here, Krishna is here and say the wrongdoing, say the anger or whatever is here.
Now, conscience comes over here in between the wrongdoing and us so that the conscience stops us from doing that wrong or at least repeating that wrong. But, when the mind sits as a judge condemning us, the mind doesn’t come between us and the wrongdoing. The mind actually comes here and says, you are such a fool.
You are never going to learn. You are useless. You are doomed.
And, therefore, what is the use of your practising bhakti? After practising bhakti for so many years, if this is what you are doing, there is no hope for you. And in that way, the mind comes between us and Krishna, discourages us in the practise of bhakti. And once we are discouraged, then again we do the same thing wrong.
Because now we have no higher taste, we have no inspiration to practise the bhakti that will give us the higher taste. And again we relapse into our bad, old habits, whatever it may be. So, identifying how the mind tricks us is vital.
And even if you don’t identify it in the heat of the moment, if you identify it later also, this is what happened at that time, then next time we will be more prepared. So, as soon as we start feeling angry, that is the anger programme that is starting. So, just like if you are working on a computer and some unwanted programme suddenly starts off.
Sometimes, there are some software updates which are unnecessary. But, as soon as you connect the computer to power, a new software update is available. Do you want to update? Now, we may say no, but every time it will just pop up over there.
And if we don’t want to update our software over there, then we just say no over there. It will open up, we will say no. It will open up, we will say no.
So, once we identify, ok, this is not a programme I need, then we will, even if it pops up, we will say no to it. So, like that, we need to identify the mind. And once we identify it, this requires introspection.
So, even if you don’t do it in the heat of the moment, at least afterwards, instead of beating us and saying, why did I do that? Why did I do that? No. It was the mind which made me do it. How did the mind make me do it? The mind said, do this, and do this, and do this.
And this is how the mind persuaded me. So, if we identify that, the next time, we will be in a better position. If I just beat myself up, you are a fool, you will never learn.
You are just, you are short tempered, you will always stay short tempered. If I think like that, then there is no hope for me. I am beating myself down, when I am down.
I have already done something wrong, and I am discouraged by that, and if I beat myself down, all that happens, I become further discouraged, and I stay down. So, instead, if I did this wrong, it was the wrong thing, but how did I do it? The mind prompted me. And I didn’t catch the mind at that time.
So, then, next time in this situation, I can sense that the mind is going to say this. So, let me catch it. So, identification of the mind is vital.
And this happens when we get spiritual knowledge. When we study scripture regularly, then we start becoming conscious. Again, chanting also helps us in identifying the mind.
So, what happens in chanting? At least, even if you are not able to concentrate during chanting, still, there is intention, and there is attention. So, attention is not always possible, but intention is always possible. Sometimes, the mind may be so forceful that it may just not allow us to focus on the whole thing.
So, imagine if we are sitting, and we are chanting, and in front of us, a TV is on. And we are told, look at the TV and chant. But how much are we going to be able to chant? Better turn off the TV, or have some uninteresting programme going on in the TV, then we might be able to chant.
So, the mind is like a TV. And sometimes, there are a lot of activities going on in the mind. And, at that time, chanting may appear, it may almost appear impossible to chant attentively.
But, even if the attention is not there, if intention is there, then what happens? At the very least, we start understanding. We start getting reminded, okay, there is something inside me which is distracting me. And that thing which is inside me, which is distracting me, is not me.
It is something different from me. So, at the very least, we can get reminded that there is a mind inside me which distracts me. And even if chanting does not directly connect us with Krishna, even if that gives us the reminder that this mind is there inside me which distracts me, then that awareness, okay, I am trying to do this, the mind is saying this.
Even if I can’t, when I can’t focus on this, the mind says that, okay, come back here. Again, it goes, come back here. Krishna says, Wherever and whenever the mind wanders, bring it back under the control of the Self.
So, Krishna is not saying here that you should not let the mind wander. He knows that it is not possible for others. The mind is going to wander.
But he says, get it back. And in this effort of getting it back, we at least identify, hey, this mind is different from me. If a horse is very tame and obedient, we might just go wherever, we just go so comfortably on the horse that after some time, we may even forget that I am on a horse.
Just move on. But if the horse is wild, I want to go in this direction, the horse starts going in the other direction. If I just surrender to the horse and go wherever it wants to go, it takes me, then again there will be no struggle.
See, the horse is completely under my control, or if I am completely under the horse control, there will be no struggle. But if the horse wants to go one way and I want to go another way, that is when the struggle will be there. Similarly, for the pure devotees, there is no struggle because the mind is completely tame.
The mind has become their friend. And for some materialistic people who are very much in the mood of passion, they have surrendered to their mind. So, sometimes the mind often proposes many desires.
Eat this, do this, watch this, touch this. But sometimes the mind just gives one desire. You have to win this Olympic gold.
You have to become the tennis number one. You have to write this book in the next 30 days. Now, at that time, if that desire becomes the strongest, there is no spirituality in that desire, but if that desire becomes the strongest and that desire catches the person, then it may appear as if that person has a very controlled mind.
Because they are not distracted. Completely focused. I am going to write this book.
I am going to write this book morning to evening. I am just going to work, work, work. And sometimes materialistic people also work very hard.
And sometimes when they are working, it may appear as if they have no problem of controlling the mind. They don’t have any struggle, not because they have controlled the mind, but because the mind has controlled them. And they think, this is what I want to do.
They are so totally identified with the desire of the mind, that they have surrendered to it. So wherever the horse wants to go, they are simply going there. But when the horse wants to go in one direction, and you want to go in another direction, that is the time when we understand that this horse is different from me.
This mind is different from me. Manoratha, Krishna says, we are all situated in the chariot of the mind. So therefore, even if there is no attention during chanting, at least there is an intention that will give us the realisation that I am different from my mind.
And that realisation also leads to spiritual progress. That brings us to the second point. Identification is one thing, but after that there is direction.
Direction means, we often define spiritual success in terms of I should be able to do this. If I wake up in the morning, I follow this regularity principle, I do this discipline, then I am successful. And we may do that for one week, two weeks, three weeks, and after that we are unable to do it, and we think, now I am defeated.
But actually, what is spiritual success? Sometimes there may be some people who are non-devotees, they may have a habit of waking up in the morning. Sometimes there are even people who are non-devotees, they may be, relatively speaking, sense-controlled. One of the greatest ironies of the 20th century was that the man who caused the death of probably the maximum human beings was a person who never ate animals.
Hitler was a vegetarian. So, does that mean Hitler was better than many of the people who eat meat in the world? No. You know, he was murderous.
But, in that particular regard, he had control. For whatever reason, he said, I am not going to eat meat. He didn’t eat meat.
But that doesn’t necessarily make him a better human being when we consider the light of other things that he did. So, the point I am making here is if we equate our spiritual progress with a particular target, with a particular destination, you know, I should be able to do this every day. I should be able to do this every day.
And if somehow, I want to chant my rounds in the morning, if I am not able to chant, then I start thinking, oh, I am not a serious devotee. I am not this, I am not that. I want to give this up.
If I am not able to give it up, I think that I am useless. We have to see that in spiritual life, our success is not a destination. It is a direction.
Devotion is never a destination that we attain. Even in the spiritual world, it is, devotion is an ongoing process. Yashodamayi loves Krishna and Krishna loves Yashodamayi.
And it goes on eternally. So, devotion is more a direction than a destination. And in that direction, we can always keep going.
There is a metaphor which the monists, the impersonalists often use, drawing from the Upanishads, and they use it to say that we all are meant to merge in the Absolute. They suggest that the river, when it enters into the ocean, it merges into the ocean. Similarly, the soul merges into Brahman.
It is interesting, Kunti Maharani also uses the same metaphor and Kapil Dev also uses the same metaphor when describing devotees. But they use the metaphor in different senses. Kunti Maharani says, not that when the Ganga enters into the ocean, Ganga merges into the ocean.
She says, just as the Ganga always flows towards the ocean, let my consciousness always keep flowing towards you. That means, here she is envisioning Bhakti as a flow, not as a eternal flow, not the flow that attains some destination and it’s over. So, Bhakti is the eternal flow of our consciousness towards Krishna.
And why is it important to understand that devotion is more a direction than a destination? That is because whatever Bhakti we are able to do, say, if I decide that during Kartik month, I am going to chant some extra rounds, and then after Kartik gets over, again I relapse to back my, I am not able to do anything extra. Then I may think, what are the use of doing that extra in Kartik? Or I decide I am going to study Shastra every day. I do it for one week, after that I stop doing it.
I am never able to keep my resolutions. I have no willpower. I can never make advancement.
No. For the seven days that we read Shastra, we did grow spiritually. So, devotion is a direction.
Daily reading Shastra is a good thing. But the point is that we want our consciousness to flow towards Krishna. And, for the seven days that we read every day, our consciousness did flow towards Krishna.
Maybe on the eighth day, some blockage came up in the river, so it couldn’t flow. That doesn’t mean what we did for the previous seven days was a waste. So, we all may try to follow some standards.
No, I am not going to get angry. If I make a resolution, a New Year resolution, I am not going to get angry. I may do it for 30 days and 31st day I get angry.
And then I think, what is the use? I failed in my resolution. No. For the 30 days I did not get angry, that is a success.
So, if we equate devotion with any particular achievement externally, particular standard externally, the standards are important, but they are important because they help the flow of consciousness towards Krishna. Sometimes we identify so much with the standard, that if I am not able to follow the standard, I think, what is the use of my bhakti? And then, I could not keep my consciousness flowing at that pace, at that force, but that doesn’t mean the consciousness has to stop flowing. It can flow at whatever pace works.
So, devotion is more a direction than a destination. So, when we redefine devotional success in this way, that, okay, I may set some goals, I might make some resolutions, but even if I can’t stick to them lifelong, for the time I stick to them, my consciousness is flowing towards Krishna and I am growing spiritually. So, this gives us hope.
Otherwise, what the mind does is, we make a resolution, okay, you know, I am going to be gentle, I am going to be polite, I am not going to shout at anyone. And then, we do it for one day, for two days, for three days, and the mind starts saying, how long are you going to tolerate this? Anyway, you are going to explode at some point. So, if you are going to do it tomorrow, better do it today only.
And then, even when we have some capacity to tolerate, still the mind says, succumb. So, and we think, yeah, if I am going to give it tomorrow, why struggle? Let me do it today only. And then, whatever willpower we could have exerted, we are not able to exert that much also.
And in this, the mind tricks us by making us equate devotion with following a particular standard. The standards are important, but they are important because they help the flow of consciousness towards Krishna. And quite often, the mind gives us a sense of failure by making us take negative resolutions.
Negative resolution is, I will never become angry again. I will never shout at anyone again. I will not do this again.
I will not overeat again. I will not oversleep again. These are all resolutions that a dead person can keep better than us.
Why? A dead person is not going to overeat. Because a dead person is not going to eat also. A dead person is not going to shout at anyone.
A dead person can’t speak. So, when we take negative resolutions, I am not going to do this. That itself actually creates a sense of restriction, a sense of deprivation.
And that itself de-energises us. If we envision devotion as a flow of consciousness towards Krishna, then I may say, okay, I don’t want my consciousness to go in the direction of worry. I don’t want my consciousness to go in the direction of offence.
I don’t want my consciousness to go in the direction of anger. It’s like, okay, the water is flowing this way. I don’t want the water to flow here, here, here.
But the important thing is if we create a good channel for the water to flow here, it won’t flow there. And if I say, I don’t want the water to flow there, but if there is a slope over there, the water is going to flow in that direction. Yes, we do have to follow some negative resolutions in terms of, say, we take the vows, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication, no illicit sex.
But they are natural results of the practise of bhakti. There are many people who may follow the regulative principles, but they may not be growing in bhakti. They may not be devotees at all.
So, for us, there are certain things which we are not meant to do. But the way we cannot do those things is by having something positive to do. So, if you take a positive resolution, say, instead of, I will not get angry, instead I decide, whenever I start feeling angry, I will chant one round of Hare Krishna.
Now, what happens by this? We are not saying, I will not get angry. I am making sure that my consciousness flows in a positive direction towards Krishna. Or, whatever it is, I have some favourite verses, I will recite those verses.
Or, I will pray to Prabhupada, I will pray to Krishna. So, if, rather than saying, I will not do this, at that time, I create a, we could say, a ritual or a habit which makes my consciousness flow towards Krishna. Then, our consciousness doesn’t feel choked.
I want to explode at this person, but I am not allowed to explode. Now, why can’t I explode? I will show them what I can do. But that inner struggle, it will be there, but it gets substantially minimised when we create a positive resolution.
So, if I feel very angry with this person, I just feel like shouting at this person. Okay, at that time, I will pray for this person. Before I speak anything harshly, at least for five minutes, I will pray for this person.
I don’t feel like praying for this person, I feel like shouting at this person. If I just say, I won’t shout at this person, it will just make me feel suppressed. But as soon as I start praying for them, why should I pray for them? They are troubling me.
They don’t deserve my prayer. They deserve my anger. But no, whatever it is that they are doing, ultimately, they are also souls like me.
I have my conditionings, they have their conditionings. So, when we start praying for them, it is not that we are saying they are such good people. No, they are dealing with their conditionings.
Krishna, their conditioning is causing trouble to me, and is also causing trouble to them ultimately. So, please, help them to deal with their conditioning. So, when we pray in this way, we are giving a positive channel for our consciousness to them.
So, instead of saying, I will not, if this person is like this, still I will not talk back, I will not shout. The not resolution is very difficult to sustain. But I will do this.
So, when we find a positive channel for our consciousness, then it is much easier to sustain. I may still get angry and I may still shout at that person. But, the chances of my doing that are decreased if I have given myself a positive channel for my consciousness.
So, in this way, when we see devotion as a direction, and we focus, not on ensuring that my consciousness doesn’t go here, but on ensuring that my consciousness goes here, then, we can always be having some positive impetus in our bhakti. And even if some standards are followed, good. Some standards are not followed, that doesn’t matter.
At least, while I followed them, I am moving towards Krishna. And this way, no matter what happens, the path to Krishna always beckons for us. Okay, this happened, that happened, whatever happened, the path to Krishna is always there for me.
And, when we see devotion as a direction, another implication of that is that, actually, sometimes, it may happen that one channel to Krishna may get blocked. Say, if I am a preacher, and say, something happens to my throat and I can’t speak, then, what happens to me? If I am a book distributor, and I get some backache because I can’t lift books, then, the channel of my consciousness for moving towards Krishna is blocked. If I equated myself with a preacher, or if I equated myself with a book distributor, then, I will think my life is over.
But, if I understand that, okay, as preaching or book distribution, this is one channel, but there can be many channels by which the consciousness can move towards Krishna. So, I can just hear about Krishna. Okay, I can just, you know, even if I can’t distribute books, maybe I can just speak about Krishna to whoever comes.
So, we find some other channel towards moving towards Krishna. So, we won’t get disheartened. Prabhupada was actually so dynamic in this.
He tried so many channels to push forward the Krishna consciousness movement. So, he tried initially to help his godbrothers to build temples of the Gaudiya Math. Then, he tried to himself run back to Godhead.
When that didn’t work, he tried then to work with his godbrothers. And when that didn’t work, he tried to start his own institute in Jhansi. When that didn’t work, he started writing the Bhagavatam.
And when he got some limited positive response, but not much, he started to go abroad, came all the way to America. And there also, initially, he faced setbacks. So, Prabhupada was fixed in purpose, flexible in process.
Purpose is to serve Krishna. But how to do it? If this doesn’t work, I’ll do this. If this doesn’t work, I’ll do this.
So, if he had equated the success of his service to spiritual master with distributing back to Godhead in India. And nobody was interested. My spiritual master told me to write books.
I’m writing a magazine now. But nobody is taking. What can I do? This is not working.
Let me try something else. So, when we equate devotion with any one particular thing, and if that doesn’t work out, it will cause frustration. Whether it is in terms of discipline in a particular way, or whether it is in terms of our particular service.
Okay. My consciousness is to flow in this direction. If it doesn’t work like this, then like this.
We’ll find some way or the other to move towards Krishna. And the last point is transformation. Identification, direction, and transformation.
Transformation means that when we hear about Krishna, hear about Krishna’s all attractive glories, then at that time our conceptions get transformed. Say, suppose somebody has to eat food. One side is, say, some carrot juice and some celery.
And the other side is some candy and some chocolates. Rich food. And naturally, if I have a choice, I want to eat this rich food.
This is delicious. This is plain. I don’t want to eat this.
Sometimes with austerity, I may eat that simple food. Because I’m obese, or because I’m sick, or whatever. But even when we are eating that food, we will feel that, come on, if only I could eat this.
It would be so nice. So, offered for us when we are practising bhakti, the process of bhakti appears to be like that carrot juice or celery. And the world with all its enjoyments appears to be like chocolate or candy.
There’s so much pleasure over there, but I’m told not to enjoy. I’m told to do this. So, this is how we perceive.
But as we keep practising bhakti, we start, our perceptions start changing. When you talk about higher taste, what does that mean? Actually, we start perceiving the higher taste to be higher. Right now, also we may get some higher taste.
We come to the temple, take darshan, participate in kirtan. This is good. But then, the world comes with its temptations, and we feel, hey, this is so nice.
I want to enjoy this. So, what happens is, right now, we don’t regularly perceive the higher taste to be higher. Sometimes we feel it is higher, but sometimes we feel, hey, that is better also.
That is not bad. So, transformation means we start seeing the higher taste to be higher. When we regularly associate with devotees, especially advanced devotees, and not just advanced devotees, even serious sadhakas, who are trying to grow in bhakti, then slowly our values start changing.
So, when we talk about transformation, I talk about two important points here. First is, what is it that gets transformed? It is, the mind will have its routine oscillations. That means, while we are living in this world, whether we are devotees or non-devotees, the adhyatmik, the adhibhautik, the adhidaivik kleshas are going to be there.
Then, if it becomes cold, whether we are devotees or non-devotees, this cold is going to trouble us. If some people misunderstand us and hurt us, it is going to hurt us anyway, whether we are devotees or non-devotees. If I get a stomach upset, whether I am a devotee or non-devotee, it is going to hurt me.
So, the routine problems of life are going to be there for everyone, whether we are devotees or whether we are non-devotees. But, for a non-devotee, for somebody who doesn’t have a spiritual life, their whole life is fixated on material things. And when, say, when material things don’t work, what am I to do in life? There is nothing to do in life.
If somebody has totally invested themselves in one relationship, and that person rejects them, what am I to do in my life? So, for people who are not spiritual, for them, their whole life conception is centred on material things. And that’s why, when they get problems, they just are completely overwhelmed by it. But for us as devotees, also those material problems will come.
But we are not fixated on material things alone. Yes, material things are important even for us. Health is important, relationships are important, the financial situation is important, the social, environmental situation is important.
But that is not all, that is not the only thing in life for us. So, therefore, if something doesn’t work, then a devotee takes shelter of Krishna. Parishit Maharaj, who is the king of the whole world, such an influential position, and in one moment, from being the king of the world, he was sentenced to die in seven days.
It is, by any standards, a disaster. Nowadays, probably the most scary news that people dread is, hey, go to doctor, doctor tells you, you’ve got cancer. It’s a very scary thing.
And even when we have very acute cancer, still, there is some hope that it will be cured, and we have at least a few months to live. But if Parishit Maharaj has got the news, seven days, you’re going to die. Incurable, such fast-acting cancer, in seven days, it’s all over.
So now, what happened to him? At the material level, it was disastrous. But he did not live only at the material level. He raised his consciousness to the spiritual level.
So his transformation was that he saw this as an opportunity to take shelter of Krishna. Yes, his material life was happy. Of course, it was not material in the sense that he was already serving Krishna.
But still, that service was at the material level, as a king. But he was doing a very valuable service to Krishna, but Krishna arranged that he got that disease. And then what happened by that? He took shelter of Krishna.
And thus, the nectar of the Srimad Bhagavatam emerged for benefiting all people. So, going back to the earlier example of celery and candy, there, one is simply with respect to pleasure. You may feel spiritual life is not that enjoyable.
It’s austerity. Material life is more enjoyable. But the other is that we may think that material life is more important and spiritual life is not that important.
But as we keep practising bhakti, we start understanding spiritual life is really what matters. This is also important, but this is much more important. And even when upheavals come in our material life, at that time, rather than getting security consumed by those, what happens is, we acknowledge this problem is there, but Krishna is bigger than this.
Krishna is my lord, and I as a soul am bigger than this. I have gone through many problems in the past. And this is also something which I’ll go through.
So, transformation means, our conception, our vision of material and spiritual gets transformed. Even when we, even when we have to live with pain, we don’t have to live in pain. Even when we have to live with pain, it means there’s some problem in my life.
Say, I’ve got a back ache, and then I get up, I sit down, I lie down, I feel some back pain. Now that back pain is there, and I have to be aware of it. So that pain is my companion.
And then I have to be aware, okay, I cannot bend down suddenly, I cannot lift too many weights. That’s living with pain. But living in pain means that, that pain consumes my whole consciousness.
And I can’t think of anything apart from that pain. Even when the pain is not there, I say, okay, this pain is going to come back. Oh, when this pain comes back, my life will be so miserable.
I’m having some pain-free moments, but they’re not going to last. Then, what is happening? We are living not with pain, but in pain. So if I equate myself with my body, then when the body has pain, then I will live in pain.
But if I understand that I am the soul, I have this body in the machine, it’s important for me, because I want to use it in this world, and if there is a pain in it, I’ll try to fix it. But I also know that I am beyond this body. And I can fix my consciousness on Krishna, and get shelter over there.
The transformation means that our values of what is truly important, what counts most, that changes. And then, in material life, the mind may get agitated in two ways. One is by the threat of trouble.
And the second is by the promise of pleasure. The mind gets agitated primarily in two ways. This may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, and that may agitate the mind.
The threat of trouble. And the second is the promise of pleasure. Hey, come on, if I do this, I’ll get this.
How can I do this? I can do this this way. I can do it this way, I can do it this way. And I get carried away by it.
So, these two forces will normally agitate the mind. But when we become spiritually advanced, by regularly hearing about Krishna and internalising that, then the threat of trouble doesn’t appear all that threatening. Yes, this problem is going to come, but I have survived many problems in the past.
By Krishna’s grace, I have survived those problems, I’ll survive this problem also. Let me take shelter of Krishna. Our consciousness doesn’t get shrunk into that problem.
And similarly, what about the promise of pleasure? The mind says, come on, do this, you’ll enjoy this, you can do it this way, you can enjoy this, you can enjoy this. At that time, it is not that when we become advanced, the desires may not come. The nature of this world is we’ll see so many tempting objects in this world and desires may come up.
But the inclination to indulge in those desires will decrease. Krishna says, शक्नो तिहै वै हसोरुम् प्राक्षरी वै मोक्षणात काम ग्रोधोद भवं वेकं सयुप्ता से सुखी नरहा. He says that the desires may come in, but a devotee, a serious spiritualist tolerates those desires.
So, how can we tolerate? We conclude with this example. Krishna uses this metaphor in the Bhagavad Gita of rivers flowing into that ocean. 2.17 आपूर्यमानवचल प्रतीष्टम् समुद्रमापप्रविशन् तियद्वद् तद्वद् कामान्यम् प्रविशन् तिसर्वे सचान्तिमाप्नोति नकामकामी So just as rivers flow into an ocean, but they don’t disturb the ocean.
Similarly, desires flow into the consciousness of a materialistic person, of a spiritualist, but they don’t agitate the consciousness. So in the Sanskrit, there is a word over here कामकामी कामकामी, the desirer of desire. काम is desire, कामी is the desirer.
Krishna says don’t become a desirer of desire. That means the desire, in terms of the temptation, flows into the consciousness. But the devotee doesn’t reciprocate.
Why don’t you enjoy this? He says, no. I have better things to do in my life. If, instead of an ocean, there were a small puddle over there.
If a river flows into the puddle, everything will get overflown and devastated over there. But if there is an ocean, then the river flows into it, it will not disturb much. So, the process of bhakti, if we keep practising steadily, if we keep connecting our consciousness with Krishna, if we keep invoking the presence of Krishna in our consciousness, then our consciousness becomes like an ocean.
Now, while we are attached to material things, our consciousness will be like a puddle. And if anything flows in, it causes disruption. But if we keep practising bhakti, our consciousness expands.
And Krishna, who is an unlimited reality, who is oceanic, he comes in our consciousness, our consciousness becomes oceanic. When it becomes like an ocean, then, even if temptations come in, yes, I don’t enjoy this, no. We will see that actually Krishna bhakti is a much better way of life.
There is some pleasure over there, but there is much greater pleasure here. And in that way, the transformation is more of our values than of our desires. The desires may still come, but in the condition stage, when the desire comes, we value that desire so much that we get carried away by it.
But when we start practising bhakti, the value is, oh, actually bhakti is much more fulfilling, much more joyful, much more valuable. So, the desire may come in, but we don’t value that desire so much. We value our devotion more, and therefore, the desire comes in, it stays, it goes away.
It doesn’t cause any disruption. So, by the steady practise of bhakti, this transformation of our values will happen. And this happens especially powerfully with the association of devotees.
If those devotees who have got transformed values, they don’t get agitated by stimuli, why should I get agitated? That is how we get inspiration. So, when our consciousness becomes Oceaniac, then there becomes so much satisfaction inside us that the mind feels, why do I need to get worked up by this? As long as Krishna is there with me, as long as I am connected with Krishna, nothing else really matters so much. There’s no need to get too worked up about that.
And that way, when the mind becomes absorbed in Krishna, then it becomes joyful. It becomes peaceful, and it becomes joyful. So, that is the way this voice inside our head will become silenced.
Not only will it become silenced, it will become spiritualised. Now currently, the world tempts us, and the mind reinforces the temptation. The world says, come on, eat this.
Yeah, come on, let’s go and eat it. But, when we become absorbed in Krishna, and even if the world tempts us, the mind will say, no, Krishna bhakti is better. When the mind becomes transformed, when the mind becomes pure, then we become secure.
We become safe. We become secure. The world’s temptation and the world’s tribulations no longer trouble us.
And we steadily and joyfully march towards Krishna. So, I’ll summarise. I spoke today about how to manage the voice inside the head, and I talked about primarily three things.
What are the three things? Do you remember? Identification, direction, transformation. So, identification means that the mind is going to say, as its default programme, eat this, watch this, touch this, get angry. But, we identify it.
So, identification is a small, small identification, small exercise. Like, lift up this finger. So, after I become angry and shout at someone, instead of becoming angry with myself, why did I become angry? I say, oh, that was the mind that tricked me over there.
The mind anger programme started, and I got identified with it. If we don’t identify the mind, then first the mind will make us do wrong, and then the mind will make us beat ourselves for having done wrong. It’s like a friend who tempts us to do a bank robbery, and then friend becomes a judge who condemns us.
So, when we identify the mind, even if we can’t identify the mind when it is making us do wrong, at least identifying us when it is beating us up. I say, I’m not going to listen to you now. I’m going to take shelter of Krishna.
So, by regular scriptural study, we can start identifying our thought patterns. When the voice is inside us, we tend to take it very seriously. That’s why we personify the mind.
The mind is a person different from us, and we evaluate what it is that we seek. Then there is direction. The one way the mind beats us down is even if you do this, you are not going to do it for long.
So, better give it up now. But if you see devotion not so much as a destination, but as a direction, even if I take a few steps towards Krishna, those steps are to my eternal credit. My consciousness is flowing towards Krishna.
For whatever days it flows towards Krishna, that is good enough. That way we stay positively channelled. And this means we don’t focus so much on negative resolutions.
I won’t do this. Because those are resolutions that even dead people can keep better than us. So, even if there is something you don’t want to do, rather than saying I will not get angry, I will say that whenever I feel anger, I will chant the Hare Krishna mantra.
Maybe 11 times or 108 times or whatever. So, when we give up positive channel for our consciousness, we don’t feel repressed by not forcing ourselves to not do something, but we feel channelled. And there is devotion as a direction also means that sometimes when we are trying to do a service which is important for us, but somehow we can’t do it.
I am a preacher, but my throat gets spoilt. Then also the mind gets agitated. But then I understand, okay, this is one channel which is blocked.
Let me find out some other channel by which my consciousness can move towards Krishna. So, we don’t lock devotion either with a particular destination or a particular channel. You see, devotion is a direction which we can move in many different ways that significantly decreases the mind’s reasons for getting agitated.
And last is transformation. I talk of this in two terms. First is in terms of pleasure.
Initially, bhakti seems like to be celery and carrot juice and material life seems to be like chocolates and candies. But as you keep practising bhakti, you start understanding actually bhakti is like the chocolates and candies. There is so much more happiness here.
There is so little pleasure over there. And also we start understanding that material life matters, but spiritual life matters all the more. And therefore, even if in material life there are problems, we don’t get consumed by those problems.
Even when we have to live with pain, we don’t live in pain. By understanding that I am bigger than this material problem. Like Parikshit Maharaj did not get carried away.
Did not get disheartened because of the loss of his loss of everything because of a curse. But he took shelter of Krishna. And with respect to pleasure, it is not that the desire need to go away for the mind to become peaceful.
The desires may come, but the inclination to indulge in those desires goes away. Just like when a river, when the water body in the centre is a small puddle, the river causes devastation. But when the water body is a giant ocean, it doesn’t cause much disturbance.
So the process of steady connection with Krishna, through moving in the direction of Krishna, will make our consciousness like an ocean. And then, even if certain temptations come up, we will not get so disturbed because we are full and joyful in Krishna. And thus when the mind becomes pure, being satisfied in Krishna, then we become secure.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Yes, go on.
Sometimes problems come up in our life, but because we are quite spiritual practise, also we are able to minimise those problems or minimise those problems. Just forget about the problems and just do spiritual life. Forget about the whole thing.
I’m just going to chant more now and do more. So is this a good thing to do? Yeah. So when we practise spiritual life, we can just minimise our problem.
Say, I’ll not do anything about the problem. I’ll just practise bhakti. I wouldn’t say we have to minimise the problem.
We just have to stop the mind from maximising the problem. The problem is what it is. Say, I’ve got a back pain.
If I minimise the problem and say I don’t have back pain and I continue lifting weights, that is going to make things worse. So if a problem is there, we have to acknowledge it. We don’t minimise it in the sense of denying it.
We don’t minimise it in the sense of trivialising it. If somebody, say, has lost their job, it is an issue. It is an issue of serious concern.
If somebody has got some problem, it’s a problem. We’re not talking about minimising it. We’re talking about not letting the mind maximise it.
We acknowledge the problem. Yes, it is a problem and we will deal with it. But we won’t let the mind obsess over it.
And now how to deal with it? That we have to use our intelligence. The spiritual is not the substitute for the material. That means, if my hand is fractured, if I say, I don’t need to go to doctor, I’ll just chant Hare Krishna.
I’ll chant 64 rounds. Well, my fracture is not going to get cured. Now sometimes Krishna, you may say Krishna can do anything.
Yes, Krishna can miraculously intervene and cure my fracture also. But a devotee’s mood is not that Krishna, I am practising such serious bhakti that now you must come and intervene over here. A devotee’s mood is to be a servant of Krishna.
Servant of Krishna means we don’t demand that Krishna miraculously intervene. We responsibly go and treat the problem. So, you may go to a doctor.
So, what it means is that sometimes our spiritual life will help us to tolerate the problem in the material life. It is not such a big thing, so no need to maximise it. But sometimes the problem needs to be addressed properly.
And we will address it without obsessing over it. So, if I have a if somebody has some financial insecurity, then they may have to do something to deal with that problem. But if there is no Krishna bhakti, then that is what they are thinking of 24 hours a day.
And that makes them, that drives them mad. But if they see that they okay, this problem is there and I will do this A, B, C, D, E and I will give this much time for doing this. And whenever Krishna wants, it will work out.
So, we give the necessary time and attention for it, but we don’t get too agitated by it. So, it’s not minimising the problem. It is just that we don’t let the mind maximise the problem.
When I was teaching in college in India, there was one boy who became a devotee and he was a very good student. But somehow, after the college, when there were campus interviews, he just did not get any job. One company, second company, third company, he gave almost 15 interviews.
And he was qualified actually. Good marks, good extracurricular activities, but somehow he didn’t get the job. And there is one friend of his, whom this friend had been trying to preach to for a long time.
And this friend, he was not so intelligent, but he got a job in the second interview itself. But then that second, that friend saw that this boy, my friend, this devotee, you know, for so long he’s not got a job, but still he’s so peaceful. There must be something in this bhakti.
That’s how he’s able to be peaceful. And he’s not getting a job for so long, and still staying peaceful, inspired his friend to become a devotee. So, this devotee was trying still to get a job, but he did not get too agitated by it.
And so that’s what, as devotees, we don’t know how Krishna is going to work through what. So we don’t minimise or trivialise the problem, but we don’t let the mind maximise it also. We do what is required.
Srila Prabhupada would say, do the needful. So we do whatever is required for dealing with the problem, but we don’t let the mind keep vegetating over the problem. Did I answer your question? Actually rectify our part.
Yes, that is the meaning of not being attached to the results. We definitely do our part, but if it doesn’t work out, Krishna, I’m still your servant. I’m still going to serve you.
Is it that if you’re feeling anxiety because of, say, because of certain virtuous situation, does that mean our practise is not strong? Not necessarily. Because all of us have a particular nature. Just like, say, some devotees, they may wake up in the morning and come for Mangal Aarti, or come for the deity dressing, or darshan, with just a simple uttadi.
It’s cold, but they don’t feel cold. Somebody else will put on an ear cap and two, three layers of sweaters and they come to the temple. Now does that mean that the devotee is coming in simple, without a simple chandar, that devotee is more advanced? It could be, but it need not be.
Some bodies are more immune to cold. Some bodies are more vulnerable to cold. So the important thing is not how one is dressing while coming to temple.
The important thing is how much one is absorbing Krishna when coming to the temple. So it could be that somebody’s absorption makes them immune. But that’s not necessary.
Because the body has different levels of, different bodies are different. So similarly, different minds are also different. Some minds may be more vulnerable to anxiety.
Some minds may be less vulnerable to anxiety. So there are different kinds of services also. Some people like adventure and excitement.
So unpredictability is what brings spice to their life. And some people want order and structure. And that’s what enables them to function optimally.
Some people, same old thing you have to do every day. They find it boring. So those who like adventure, excitement, they may like the service of Buddhist tuition.
Let’s go and meet new people. Some people who like more of order and structure, they may do services like deity worship. It’s also a demanding service.
We have to be clean. We have to be punctual. But that sense of adventure and unpredictability is not there so much in that.
So people with both kinds of minds can be engaged in Krishna’s service. So is it that a devotee who can take a lot of risk and go out and do the tuition is more advanced than a devotee who is day after day serving the deities? Not necessarily. It’s who is connected towards Krishna.
So we all have a particular kind of body and similarly we have a particular kind of mind. And just as I find my body is too vulnerable to cold. So does that mean I can interchange my body and get another body? No.
My body is the only body that I have. So I have to use this body in Krishna’s service. Similarly, my mind is the only mind that I have.
So this is the mind I have to use in Krishna’s service. So if I find that I am more prone to worry, then I try as much as possible to create situations, to create greater order in my life. Some people may thrive in disorder and excitement and adventure.
If I don’t thrive in that, then I try to create as much order as possible in my life. We can never have complete security and that attempt is itself a doomed attempt. But relatively speaking, if we need a little more order and structure, that’s perfectly fine.
Sometimes it could be that our worrying is because of our half-hearted practise of bhakti. That’s why we become too obsessed with our material life. But it may not be.
And sometimes not worrying may not be because somebody is transcendental. Not worrying may be because somebody is irresponsible. We don’t really know.
If somebody is just not caring for anything, then is it really because they’re caring so much for Krishna that they’re not caring for this? Or is it that they’re just irresponsible in general? They don’t care for their material life, they don’t care for their spiritual life also so much. So we don’t have to necessarily equate any one-to-one correlation between the two. What we can say is, what is the position that is the best for me to serve Krishna? So if for me it is a position of relative financial security, or professional security, or relational security, then I put in the effort to do that.
I don’t make my bhakti conditional to that security. Even if that security is not there, still I’ll practise bhakti. But relatively speaking, if that is what helps me to practise bhakti better, then as much as I can get it, I’ll get it so that I can focus more on Krishna.
Does that answer your question? In the matter, you have questions? Yes. Last question. So I’ve seen sometimes people, they take up chanting, they start chanting, and they feel that by chanting, actually it’s causing the mind to be more aggravated.
So I’m wondering if you can comment on this, is this a trick of the mind, or that the practises of bhakti actually create a negative impact? So what if the practises of bhakti seem to create a negative effect, where the mind seems to get more agitated than before? Yes, that can happen because of two main reasons. One is that it is only when we try to oppose the mind, that the mind starts showing its might. If you’re just going along with the mind, then the mind doesn’t have to show its might.
So, earlier the mind was not agitated, because we were obeying the mind. Now we are refusing to obey the mind, and that’s when the mind starts showing its power. Like a slave driver, a slave master, that person may be cruel, but as long as the slave is obeying, the slave master will not exhibit his cruelty.
But once the slave starts saying, I won’t do this, then the slave master starts showing his true colours. The mind is like that. So when we oppose it, it starts showing its might.
That doesn’t mean at that time it has become more uncontrolled. Rather, because now we are resisting it, that’s why it’s now showing its true colours. It is opposing the resistance.
But still, by the practise of bhakti, the forces within the mind that agitate the mind are becoming weaker. That means by the practise of bhakti, the lust, the anger, the greed, the illusion, which are what make the mind agitated, they are becoming weaker. And that’s why although the mind may transitionally seem to be more agitated, eventually it will become calmer.
It’s like when we, when, say, a wild animal like a lion or a tiger is caught by a circus trainer and they want to train it. The way they train it is through food. Make it starve.
Now when the tiger is made to starve, the tiger will roar louder and louder and louder. And now the tiger is roaring ferociously. Now if the trainer is not very trained, this tiger is so angry, so dangerous, let me kill me, better let me give it some food.
But although the tiger may be roaring louder, actually speaking, if the trainer is not giving the tiger any food, the tiger will be roaring louder, but it is becoming weaker, weaker, weaker, till a point comes when the tiger’s roar will become a whimper. And it is important for the trainer to not be threatened by the roaring of the tiger. Keep starving it, till it becomes a whimper.
And then the trainer, the tiger will become domesticated, tiger will become trainable. Similarly, when the mind wants something, you say no to it, it starts screaming louder. Even though it is screaming louder, it is actually becoming weaker.
But because it is going through that phase, where from being the controller, it is going to become the controlled, so it is going to resist that. The first example of the slave driver, slave owner I gave, to show how, when it is the controller, we resist its control. Then there, the slave owner starts showing his two colours.
The second example of the tiger is, when somebody is, which is normally out of control, we are trying to get it under our control. So in bhakti, both are involved. First, we stop obeying the mind.
And second is, we want the mind to obey us. Because of both these changes of status, the mind resists it. That’s why it may appear, it may actually also happen that the mind gets more agitated.
But if you persevere through that, the mind will become peaceful. And even during this phase also, the mind gets agitated only when we are in the modes of passion and ignorance. Even during this time also, if we come to the mode of goodness, if we place ourselves in a situation in the mode of goodness, then the mind does become peaceful.
Okay? Thank you very much. Shri Prabhupada ki Gaur Bhakta Vrinda ki