Negative and positive thinking in spiritual life

[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Toronto, Canada]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Thank you for coming today evening and today I will speak on the topic of positive and negative attitudes in life and in spiritual life. So basically for every one of us there is something inside us which shapes our vision of the world.
Two people may see the same view but they don’t take the same view. They may see the same thing but they see it differently. Because whenever we see things it is not just the object is here and we are here.
Between the object and us there is our mind. And our mind shapes our every view. And broadly we might say positive and negative attitudes means either the glass of water that is half empty or half full.
To see it as half empty is to be negative, pessimistic. To see it as half full is to be optimistic. But that is a very simplified understanding of positive and negative attitudes.
The way our mind shapes our vision is not just by how we see things right now but how we also see the pattern of things. That means one way of thinking negative is, oh this glass is half empty. But another way of thinking negative is, oh this glass is full but it is not going to stay full for long.
Things always run out. So the way we see things in static and in action. So our attitude shapes everything that we look at.
So much so that broadly speaking we can say that based on their attitude there are two kinds of people in the world. Some people are wise and some are otherwise. So when we have these two categories of people and it is not just some people are wise and some are otherwise.
The same person we ourselves are sometimes wise and sometimes otherwise. So what shapes the way we think? Why do some people even if something good is happening they are always fearful. Oh this good thing is going to end and something terrible will happen.
And some people even bad things are happening they are looking, okay something good will emerge from it. So what shapes the way we think? And how can we reshape it? Now the basic, before I answer this question, now some of us may be practising spiritual life also. Maybe we come and come to a temple, maybe do some mantra meditation, maybe we do some kind of exploring of spirituality.
And in some ways this is transformational. But quite often we bring our attitudes into our spiritual life also. That means not only our perception of the world will be shaped by our attitude but our perception of God will also be shaped by our attitude.
So if something bad happens to someone, maybe they meet with an accident or they get some disease or something like that. A person with a positive attitude might say that, okay this bad thing has happened, okay something good will come out of it. Or if we have a more philosophical understanding, we understand that actions have reactions.
So we all carry some baggage of karma with us. Karma is basically the correlation between action and reaction. So each one of us, the kind of family we are born in, the kind of looks we are born with, the kind of IQ we are born with, all this is shaped by our actions before birth in our previous lives.
And we all have, just like we may have a bank balance, we all have a karma balance. Some good, some bad. And by our present actions we are either adding to the good or adding to the bad.
And by the situations that we face in life, we are sometimes exhausting our good karma and sometimes we are exhausting our bad karma. So when we face difficulties, when we are going through problems, which karma is getting exhausted at that time? If you are going through difficulties? Yes, the bad karma which you got is getting exhausted. So, and then when good things are happening in our life, that means some of the good karma is getting used.
So basically, if something bad is happening in someone’s life, a person with a positive attitude may say that, oh actually my bad karma is getting exhausted. Or somebody who has a basically negative attitude, they may come, they may be practising some kind of religion or worship and they may say, something bad has happened, oh maybe God is angry with me. And if God gets more angry with me, I’ll suffer even more.
So, now if we have this attitude of negative projection, we might say, recently, why I took this topic was that, I answer questions on my website, The Spiritual Scientist, as was mentioned. So I recently got a question only sometime ago that, somebody asked, there was a big festival, like we had Janmashtami couple of days ago. And I did not fast for that festival.
And two days later, I lost my job. So is God punishing me because I did not fast and that caused me to lose my job? Now, why should we have this kind of negative imagination? God is not vengeful. And fasting is just something which we do to express our love for God.
You want to focus entirely on Him, not distract ourselves with food. But once you start imagining like that, once a person has a negative vision of life, they have a negative vision of God also. God is a loving person.
He is not a punishing person. Yes, there is accountability for our actions. But accountability is very different from vengefulness.
So they are two very different things. Accountability means, what actions we do, we get consequences of that. Vengefulness means, there is somebody out there, out to get us for some perceived or actual wrong that we have done.
So the point I am making is that we carry our basic attitudes into our spiritual life also. And it shapes our conception of God, it shapes our conception of even the spiritual practises that we do. It is always there with us.
Now, first thing is that positive thinking is not always good and negative thinking is not always bad. Why? Because sometimes positive thinking can make us unrealistically optimistic. The word in English is polyanish.
Some people are just, they don’t see any problems or any dangers at all. So sometimes the capacity to think negatively is also helpful. If we are making a big plan for a big project, what all may go wrong? We have to debug that in advance.
So if we tend to think positive or if we tend to think negative, we needn’t blame ourselves for that or just pride ourselves for that. This is the way my mind functions. Be aware of that.
In any project, we need some people who are creative, they come up with ideas. In any project, we need some people who are critical. Hey, I don’t think this is going to work.
The problem is not being optimistic or being pessimistic. The problem is being compulsively optimistic or compulsively pessimistic. That means we may habitually think negative, that’s the way our mind works.
That’s okay. If we are aware of it, we can deal with it. But when we compulsively think negative, that means we just can’t look at the positive side of things.
That is where it becomes a problem. So now, when we come and practise, when we start practising bhakti or we start exploring spiritual life, at that time, we might have different conceptions. Some people practise religion or spirituality or whatever name they have for it out of negative emotions.
It might be guilt or fear. Guilt is the idea that, oh, if I don’t do this, I’ll be displeasing God. We all in our relationships probably know people who constantly try to send us on a guilt trip.
They will tell us, I am doing so much for you, can’t you do even this much for me? So now, nobody likes to be sent on a guilt trip. But we don’t like to feel guilty also. So we might just go along.
And we might do things, but when we do something because somebody has induced guilt within us, that doesn’t bring us closer to that person. We might do it, but that doesn’t enhance the relationship. So what applies to our relationship with others also applies to our relationship with God.
If somebody is practising spiritual life out of guilt, if I don’t do this, then, oh, I’m this ungrateful person. Oh, and God is displeased with me. Now, if you’re doing it like that, that is a very negative conception.
In fact, within some religions, guilt is considered to be like the central truth of human life. Say, the idea was the original human being sinned. And because of that, all of us have inherited sin as a genetic defect.
And everyone is from birth sinful. And unless we are saved by God’s grace, we remain sinful. So often that awareness of sin is emphasised repeatedly.
And guilt is induced to make people practise spiritual life. But the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t have that at all. So the negative emotions with which one might practise bhakti is guilt and fear.
But that has no room. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is confused. Should I fight? What should I do right now? So Krishna basically focusses on two things in the Bhagavad Gita as inspiring Arjuna to practise spiritual life.
Those two things are knowledge and desire. Knowledge means that we don’t have to think of God as someone who is out there to judge us and punish us. God, Krishna, he loves all of us.
And his purpose, he’s present in our hearts. And his purpose is not to catch us when we do wrong. Hey, you did this wrong, now take this punishment.
Some people, the joy of their life is to find faults with others. They’re constantly looking all over, their eyes are like heat-seeking radars. Who is doing what fault? Find it and proclaim it to the whole world.
So fault-finding is often accompanied by gossiping. Gossip, what is gossip? Gossip essentially means when we hear something we like about someone we don’t like. When we hear something we like about someone we don’t like, then immediately, I want to tell the whole world about it.
So now God, God’s purpose is not to catch us when we do wrong. His purpose is to catch us when we fall. Krishna in this sense is like a mother.
A mother, if a small child is just learning to walk, and the child slips and falls, the mother doesn’t want to start clapping, oh he fell down. You see, the mother runs over there and catches the child before the child falls. So that is the mood of Krishna.
Krishna is his Pitahamasya Jagato, Mata Dhata Pitamaha. He’s the father, he’s the mother, he’s the grandsire, he’s our be-all and end-all. So this guilt or fear-based relationship with God is not very healthy.
So what Krishna focusses on is knowledge. So one aspect of the knowledge I said is, God is here to help us rise and grow. His purpose is life-affirming, not life-denying.
When we link with God, actually we become empowered to live our life more fully. For all of us, God is present within us, and He is the inner light. He is the inner light who can light our heart, and He can light our world.
And through each one of us, if we become a channel for God’s light to come through, then we can not only light up, but we can actually change ourselves and change things around us for the better. So God’s presence within us, within our life, our heart is meant to be life-affirming. When there is light, we can walk and move more productively.
When there is darkness, we just stumble and tumble and sometimes collapse. So, knowledge. Now what is this knowledge? Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in 7.19, बहुनां जन्मनामन्ते घ्यानवान्मां प्रपद्यते वासुदेव सर्वमिति समात्मासु दुर्लभाः So He says, वासुदेव सर्वमिति.
वासुदेव सर्वमिति means that Krishna, God, is the be-all and end-all of everything. Some people think, like, there is a hierarchy of being and God is the boss at the top. That, okay, I am in my office, above me is my boss, above my boss is their boss, like there is a big hierarchy and God is at the top of that hierarchy.
That is one understanding, but that is not the complete understanding. Because God is not just the best of all beings. God is the basis of all being.
He is the basis of all being means everything that exists is sustained by Him. So that means God is not separate from us. We are part of Him.
That means whatever abilities we have, they have been given to us by God. Whatever strengths, whatever virtues we have, whatever positivities we have, they come from God. And so, once we understand that God is the basis of all being, that means my ability comes from God, my existence is based on God’s existence.
Then we see that when we try to connect with God, when we serve Him, we care for ourselves in the deepest possible way, in the fullest way. So this knowledge of our intrinsic connection with God, it’s like if the hand wants to eat some food, the hand can’t eat the food on its own. The hand can’t take a gulab jamun and scratch it or chew it or toss it or crush it and get its nourishment.
The hand just takes it and offers it to the stomach and the hand gets nourishment. So like that God is not separate from us. We are parts of Him.
And therefore, when we have this knowledge, then when we try to serve God, it is understanding that this is the most enlightened way I can take care of my deepest interests. And normally we may feel, okay, but if I come to a temple, I chant, I do some reading of sacred texts or whatever, but what do I gain by it? If it is serving my interests, what do I gain by it? Actually what we gain is that we start purifying our minds. The more we have this, with this knowledge of Krishna, when we start practising bhakti, the basic disposition of the mind I talked about, either negative or positive, that starts changing.
The impurities within our mind start decreasing. And thus, whatever situation we are in, we look at the things that are right and we feel satisfied. Otherwise, often we look at the things that are wrong and we feel dissatisfied.
So basically, if we consider any situation in our life, this is the list of things we have. And this is the list of things we want. Now we can look at the things we have and be satisfied.
Or we can look at the things we want and be dissatisfied. Now most of us think that success or happiness comes in my life when I can move more and more things from this box of what I want to what I have. But the problem with this is that no matter how many things we move from this box to this box, from the box of what I want to what I have, if our mind is disposed to keep looking at the box of what I want, what I don’t have, then no matter how much we have, we will stay dissatisfied.
So here, the thinking that causes dissatisfaction is based on the mind’s attitude of always looking at what we don’t have. So suppose after this programme, there is prasad. Well, no, suppose prasad is there.
So we have food to have. But suppose there is a special kind of menu wherein everyone gets a different dessert. So one of you has gulab jamun, one of you has pedha, one of you has barfi, one of you has sandesh, one of you has ras malai, one of you has shrikhand.
Now, say, I have got something delicious on my plate. Say, I have got so and so. Now, instead of looking at what is in my plate, I start looking at what is in his plate, and what is in her plate, and what is in his plate, and what is in her plate.
What will happen? No matter how delicious the food be with me, I will be dissatisfied. So basically, no matter how good the food be with me, and even if I get all the desserts from hundred other plates onto my plate, I cannot eat so many desserts also, but even if I get them, still there will be somebody with some other desserts. So, for satisfaction, we often think I don’t have these, these, these things, that’s why I am not satisfied.
But that is not entirely true. As long as our mind is habituated to looking at what we don’t have, we can never be satisfied. To be happy is possible, but we want to be happier than others, and that is impossible.
To be happier than others is impossible always. So now, why am I talking about this in relationship with devotion? That when we understand that God is the basis of all being, that he is the source of all attractive things, and he is present in our own hearts, then that knowledge helps us to shift our vision away from the things that we don’t have, toward inwards, toward the gift that God has given us, and the gift that God himself is, by being present in our hearts. And then, knowledge is one thing, after that is desire.
We can connect with God, not just through the rational side of us, but also the emotional side of us. We want to channel both our faculties. So, we all may have some little desire.
All of you have come to this programme, so you have some little desire to explore something spiritual. Some of you may be committed to practising some things, that also indicates some desire. Now, we all have many desires in the world, in life, and desire is intrinsic to consciousness.
Because we are conscious, we naturally desire this. And, we need to find out, because there are so many desires within us, we cannot possibly fulfil all the desires. The desire, that is, which desires should we try to fulfil, by which we can attain contentment in life.
Suppose there is a classroom, and whenever a teacher asks any question, there are some children who just start speaking very loudly. Now, just because somebody is speaking loudly, does not mean automatically that they are speaking correctly. We won’t just, if somebody speaks loudly, we won’t necessarily give them the mic to answer the question.
We’ll see who answers properly. So, same applies to what happens inside us. There are many desires within us, which scream loudly.
And, often we get caught in fulfilling whichever desire is the loudest. But, just fulfilling our loudest desire is no guarantor of happiness. Just as the loudest student doesn’t necessarily speak the truth, speak the correct answer.
So, the teacher will evaluate the answer. So, we have the desires that are loudest, and we have the desires that are the deepest. The deepest desire for the soul is to connect with the whole, to connect with God, with Krishna.
Because, in that connection, what happens is, we connect with the one who is the source of all happiness. We connect with the one who is the supreme being, who is the source of all happiness. And, when we connect with him, connecting with him is like connecting with a reservoir of 5 billion dollars.
And, 5 dollars, 10 dollars, everything is automatically taken care of. So, we all have some desire to connect with God. And, when we practise bhakti based on that positive disposition, knowledge and desire, spiritual knowledge and spiritual desire, then we will move forward positively in our lives.
And, the power of devotion is such that, in every situation that we may be in our lives, we can actually start experiencing contentment. So, I’ll talk about a couple of short stories, and then we can have some question answers. Once, there was a villager who lived in a very broken down village.
And, while living in that village, there was no proper roads over there, no proper houses, no proper food, no proper facilities at all. And then, he was petitioning the local authorities, please fix this, please fix that, please fix that. And, something was clearly fixed, but soon it would get unfixed.
And, things were not moving forward. And, one day, while he was in his farm, he saw a magnificent horse going by. And then, he saw on that horse, there was a king of that kingdom.
Now, the first thought that came in his mind is, hey, I have these issues, let me ask the king to fix it. If I put a word to the king, the king will fix it all. But, then he thought, no, it’s the king.
So, he said, oh, your highness, I’m so delighted, honoured to see you. Please, I have my cottage nearby. Can you please visit my cottage? And, the king was surprised.
The king was always habituated to having people ask favours for him. So, when he saw, he was not asking any favour. So, he said, okay.
He said, I’m busy now, but since you are so graciously invited, I will come after a week to your house. And then, as he passed by, he was charging ahead and some courtiers came behind him. And then, the king told what had happened.
Now, when the courtiers came to know, oh, this king is going to visit this person’s house. He said, we need to make sure that everything is suited for the king. And, when they came to the house, they saw, oh, that house was broken.
They said, we’ll fix this house. And, they saw the road was broken. They said, we’ll fix the road.
And, they said, oh, there are no facilities over here. There’s no water over here. There’s no sanitation.
They said, let’s fix it all. So, what happened, by the time the king came, everything was already fixed for him. So, he could have asked the king for doing small, small things.
And, he could have asked the king for himself. And, when the king came, with the king, everything came. So, similarly for us, there are many things wrong in our life.
And, our mind can keep looking. This should be fixed. That should be fixed.
That should be fixed. Yes, there are many things which need fixing. But, actually, it is we who need fixing the most.
Because, we have become disconnected from our source, from our home. So, if we invite God into our heart, then, the more God becomes present in our heart, and he starts guiding us from within, even if miraculously things don’t seem to get fixed, we will get guided from within about how to fix things. Because, once God’s presence is there within us, with that comes calmness.
With that comes clarity. With that comes confidence. And, these three are extremely powerful assets.
Calmness, clarity, and confidence. And, once we have these, then, whatever ability we have, we can use it to the fullest capacity. And, thus, by bringing God into our hearts, by putting God first, we will fix many other things in our lives.
So, this is based on desire. Now, we may have desire for many things. But, here, based on his intelligence, this king chose to desire the king, not the favours of the king.
And, the favours came automatically because he desired the king. Something similar happens in the Mahabharata. When, before the war is going to take place, the two warring cousins, Pandavas and Kauravas, they are forming allies.
And, both of them, Duryodhana and Arjuna go to Krishna. And, Krishna is a very powerful king with a very powerful army. And, both of them want his help.
And, they come there. At that time, Krishna is resting. And, Arjuna, being a devotee, gently goes and stands near Krishna’s feet.
And then, Duryodhana is… Is that a timer for me to end the class? So, Duryodhana goes and stands near Krishna’s head. And then, Krishna wakes up. And, the first person he sees is one who is at his feet, Arjuna.
Oh, Arjuna, welcome! And, he gets up and says, Oh, Duryodhana, you are also here. What can I do for both of you? And, Duryodhana says that, No, we want your assistance. I want your assistance in the war.
He says, I have also come for the same purpose. Arjuna says, Oh, Lord. And then, Duryodhana immediately says, I came first.
Krishna smiles and he says, But, I saw Arjuna first. And, Duryodhana is still upset. He says, Okay.
Moreover, he is younger to you. Let him have the first chance. And then, Krishna says, I, because both of you are related with me, I have decided I will not fight in this war.
And, I will have my army which will fight on one side. And, there will be I, who can be an advisor, a consultant for you. And, now, Duryodhana thinks, You know, such a big army and I could have chosen that.
And, Arjuna got the first chance. And then, Arjuna says, Oh, Krishna, I want you. And, Duryodhana thinks, Oh, Arjuna is such a big fool.
He has chosen. He has left the whole army just for one unarmed, non-combatant. What a fool.
But, externally, he puts on a show. And, he says, Okay. Oh, Krishna, if he has chosen you, Then, I will have to accept your army.
Internally, he is gleeful. And, when Duryodhana departs, Krishna and Arjuna hug each other. And then, Krishna asks Arjuna, Arjuna, why did you choose me instead of my whole army? He says, Oh, Krishna, He said that, With Narayan, You are Narayan, With Narayan, All his Sena automatically comes.
And, without Narayan, His Sena is like a zero. And, later on, Now, we don’t have, This is a whole separate class. But, throughout the Mahabharata, At the critical moments, When Arjuna was in trouble, Krishna, as a counsellor, guided him.
Krishna gave him those three things. Calmness. Just right before the war, When he was overwhelmed and confused, Krishna made him calm.
Krishna gave him clarity. When, His son Abhimanyu was killed, And Arjuna was overwhelmed with grief and anger, Krishna calmed him, pacified him, Clarified things for him. And, when, During repeated fights, Especially when he had to fight against His own grandsire in other places, When he was disheartened, Krishna gave him confidence.
And that made all the difference for him. So, Krishna helped Arjuna win the war, Without fighting, Without shooting a single arrow. And, Krishna’s role, In the Mahabharata, Is representative of God’s role in the world.
Krishna seemed inactive over there. Krishna seemed to be a non-combatant over there. And, similarly, in the world, God seems to be a non-combatant.
God seems to be inactive, invisible. But, God is present in our hearts. And, from there, He can do magic in our hearts, And He can bring magic into the world.
So, for each one of us, if we understand, This life-affirming nature of God’s place in our life, Our relationship with God is meant to Affirm and fulfil our life, Not deny our life or fill us with fear and guilt. Then, we can approach God, And approach life with positivity. And, each one of us, If that inner light of God, We allow that to manifest through us, By connecting with Him in knowledge and desire, Affection, Then, each one of us can make the world brighter.
And, to the extent we stay disconnected from God, To that extent, We lose and the world loses. Our inner world stays darker, And we make the world darker. So, every one of us, Our life can acquire enduring, profound meaning, If we link with God.
And, that is the life-affirming message of the Bhagavad Gita. And, that’s why Arjuna, at the end of the Gita, Is enlivened, ready to face whatever challenges life has sent his way. And, similarly, if we understand God and Bhakti properly, Through the Bhagavad Gita, We will also become energised and affirmed in our life, To face whatever challenges life sends, And to shine brighter within, And to make the world brighter without.
I’ll summarise. I spoke on the topic of, How positive and negative attitudes can be there in life and in devotion. So, positive vision is not just seeing the thing good that is there right now, But, it can also be, not just in static, but also in dynamic.
Things may be bad, but if I look at things will become good, that’s positive. Things may be good, but if I say that things are going to become bad in future, that’s negative. So, positive and negative visions can come in our spiritual life also, Based on how we perceive God.
If we think of God as a vengeful, punishing person, And we live in fear and guilt, Then that is a negative conception of God, that’s unhealthy. Now, a positive conception of God is, Based on knowledge and desire. That God is not just the best of all beings, He is the basis of all beings.
He is not separate from us, we are part of Him. So, when we serve Him, we care for our deepest interests. And, we can satisfy ourselves in the deepest possible way.
And then, when we have this positive vision, Then whatever little desire we have, Our desires are distributed over many things, And often we spend our lives fulfilling our loudest desires. But what will bring fulfilment is fulfilling our deepest desires. And what is the deepest desire? That is the desire at the level of our soul.
So, I talked about these two stories. The story of the poor person, Who asked the king to come, not to bestow some favours. Like that, instead of asking God for fixing this problem, fixing that problem, We ask God to fix us, to fix us in our relationship with Him, To become present in our hearts.
And then, He will give us calmness, clarity and confidence. And then I talked about how Arjuna chose Krishna against his army. And, although Krishna didn’t fight at all the key moments, Krishna guided Arjuna.
And Arjuna emerged victorious. So, Krishna’s role in the Mahabharata war mirrors God’s role in the world. He is invisible and seems inactive.
And thus, people think He is inconsequential. But from within, He can guide us, He can give us calmness, clarity, conviction, And can dramatically change the trajectory of our life for the positive. So, our relationship with God is meant to affirm our life, Not deny us our life.
And the light of God is within our hearts. And if with our negativity we don’t turn towards God, Then we make the world that much dimmer and darker. And if we connect with God with positivity, Then that inner light of the Lord can illuminate our hearts and illuminate our world through us.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. So, any questions or comments? Thank you, Brahmji.
Thank you, Brahmji, for your… My first question to you is, what is a bad karma? Or, just love Krishna and do whatever you want. Okay. So, what is good karma and what is bad karma? Are they relative? Or if we just love Krishna, then everything that we do will be good karma? Okay.
See, what is good and what is bad? How do we decide this? Broadly, there are three factors over there. There are some people who have the idea that morality or ethics is categorical. This is the category of right and this is the category of wrong.
So, say for example, speaking truth is good. Speaking lies is bad. This is a categorical understanding of ethics.
And it is important to get this categorical understanding right. But it is not just categorical. It is also contextual.
Why? Because, say, if there is a murderous mob out to chase a friend of ours. And that friend comes in our house, please save me. And we hide him in some attic in our house.
And then the mob knocks on the door. Is he here? What should we do at that time? If we have this categorical understanding of ethics, we will speak the truth. And we will cause the death of that friend.
So, based on context, sometimes speaking a lie can be the right thing. So, basically, context means what? There is category. And in context means what comes before the action, what comes after the action.
What comes before the action is the intent. And what comes after the action is the consequence. So, contextual ethics means we accept that right and wrong are categories.
But it is not watertight categories. There is also, to decide what is right and what is wrong, we have to consider three factors. The nature of the action, the intent for the action and the consequence of the action.
So, piercing somebody with a needle is bad. But if a doctor is piercing somebody with a needle, that is good. So, it is not just categorical.
So, intent, content and consequence, we will have to look at all these three things to broadly decide what action is good and what action is wrong. Now, with respect to the second part of your question, if you do something for Krishna, does that make everything right? It depends on our consciousness and it depends on our devotion. If we are truly devoted to Krishna and we are truly working for Krishna’s pleasure, then we will never do anything which is bad.
But if we start self-righteously or in a self-congratulatory way, start rationalising our wrongs in the name of God, then that is very unhealthy. So, there are times when in devotion, we might go from this one category to another category. But that has to be done very cautiously.
So, it is not just the purity of intent if it is there. I am just doing this to please God. Then, sometimes apparently bad things can be good.
But that is not a licence for doing anything wrong and saying that because I am doing this for God, it will be good. So, that if we try to use God to justify our wrongs, then we are horrendously wrong. That is not the way things work.
Does that answer your question? Yeah. Yes. We will come back to you.
Does anyone else have any questions? Yes. There are a lot of questions. Okay, you can ask.
You can send the mic to there. You can ask. I will repeat.
Okay. So, how do we distinguish between a deep desire and a loud desire? Yeah. So, generally, a loud desire is something which comes as a very strong urge.
Just do this, do this, do this. And generally, even I say children cry loudly. But they are not going to cry loudly for 24 hours a day.
When they cry loudly, it is unbearable. But it is for some time. So, generally, the loudest desires are like urges.
They come and when they rise, they seem unbearable. And then they go down. And after some time, it is like a sign that they may rise again also.
But a deep desire is something which is something which we… which is like a constant aspiration of the heart. It is something which we may not always be conscious of also. Because if we are too caught in the world, each of us can think of things we want to do in our life someday.
Yes. So, why? Because we are caught in so many other things. So, those deep desires are… We could say it is if I was not obliged to do anything.
Obliged by my responsibilities in the world. Or obliged by my own mind and senses which have their own pullings. What would it be that I want to do? So, we also need some knowledge to understand our deeper desires.
But in general, even in our moments of clarity, whenever we are in the mode of goodness, if we observe ourselves, we say this is what really matters in my life. And sometimes, if we… if we are confronted with some… some life-altering calamity, say if some loud one passes away, or if we are also confronted with a fatal disease, then we start asking, what really counts? So, we don’t have to go through that kind of situation. But if we do a thought exercise, if I was going to die, what would really matter for me? What would really count? So, right now I might have a very loud desire, I want to go and watch this movie.
But at the time of death, would I really value, oh, I watched 10,500 movies in my life. No, that would really count. So, considering from the ultimate perspective, that means, when we distance ourselves from the immediate, and we think from a long-term perspective, we can start sensing our deepest desires.
Ultimately, the soul’s deepest desire is to connect with Krishna. And the connection with Krishna is not just by directly practising Bhakti Yoga, but is also by using whatever gifts we have in the service of Krishna. So, that inner connection, and based on that inner connection, an outer contribution.
Because that is the broad direction of our deepest desires. Specifically, how we establish that final connection, how we make that contribution, that will vary from person to person. Okay? Yes.
Hi, Vishnu. Thank you again for a wonderful class. You have an amazing way of making your point so simply, it goes straight to the heart and makes so much sense.
I want to thank you for that. The question I have for you is, you talk about a number of things, like the greatest desire being wanting to connect with God, connecting with the beautiful calmness, clarity, and Godness, etc. You talked about inviting to the heart, and connecting ourselves.
And you have heard this many times in different ways, and we understand our challenges in translating that into application in our life. So, there are still desires that are not connecting to God, to Krishna, that take precedence, they are louder, somehow are going to get busy trying to satisfy them. So, how do we make a transition to say, all those things we have heard today and before, how do we apply it in our life? Okay.
So, how do we make the transition from what we have heard to applying it? One of the best ways to do something challenging is to, is counterintuitive, to set the standard of success so low that failing is impossible. What that means is, that begin with small, simple steps. S, S, S. Sometimes if I say, from now onwards, I am going to be serious about my spiritual practises.
Now, when we make a goal like that, well, there is no success, there is only failure in that. I might be very serious for the next 30 days, now 31st day when I have a lapse, it is all a waste. So, what happens is, instead of having that kind of goal, where we think of, I will do something for the rest of my life, we may want to do it for the rest of our life, but if you think of it that way, then what happens, there is no success in that.
So, whatever it is that we want to add to our life, just take small, simple steps. That means, it is okay. Today, I will try to do this.
Today, I will maybe read the Bhagavad Gita, read the Bhagavatam, for just maybe 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever, at least this much. And then if you do that, see, inside us, our mind can sometimes be like a bully, and sometimes the mind is like a tender child. So, when it wants to, when it is forcing us to do bad things, it is like a bully.
But, when it is doing something good, it is like a tender child. It also needs encouragement. So, if you do one good thing, just be kind to yourself, appreciate, good job, and thank God, thank you that I was able to do this.
I could have made a mess of this, but I did. And, often life can be discouraging, especially if you want to live a life of spiritual principles, we often struggle and it can be discouraging. So, if an ideal inspires more regret than reform, if an ideal inspires or causes more regret than reform, then we need a more attainable intermediate ideal.
We don’t reject that ideal, but we need an intermediate ideal. So, which is attainable for us? So, just like a small child needs encouragement, needs appreciation. So, like that, when we are able to do something good, we appreciate.
Not in a self-congratulatory sense, but in an encouraging sense. Good job. And, again, you should thank God.
Thank you that I was able to do this. And, yes, let me do something more. So, that’s the way we can start doing what we want to do in small, simple steps.
And, the other aspect is, whenever we say we want to commit ourselves in a particular action, there are some things which we want to do and there are some things we want to give up. Now, in general, it’s best not to focus on what we don’t want to do. Because, it is, as soon as I think I will not do this, it seems like life-denying.
Any resolution, I will not do this, is a resolution that a dead person can keep better than a living person. I will not oversleep. I will not over-browse the social media.
I will not do this. Well, a dead person is not going to do any of those things. So, any negative resolution immediately feels life-denying to us.
A dead person has no life. So, a dead person can do no better than us. So, yes, we have to give up certain things.
But, don’t focus on what you will not do. Focus on what you will do. And, rather than saying I will not do this, what can I fill my life with? And then, if I fill my life with this, automatically, that will go out of my life.
So, thank you. So, thank you very much.