How can we keep our emtions steady amid varying situations?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
our actions are influenced by our emotions but our emotions are affected by our situations by our surroundings so is there any way by which we can always maintain the same kind of emotion throughout all situations even if they are good or bad it’s a good question see there are two there are multiple things going on over here situations can we control them to some extent but not much so to some extent you could say the situations are like the weather sometimes it is warm sometimes it is cold sometimes it is rainy just have to accept it now some people they get very much affected by the situations now if it’s if it’s rainy season if it’s warm they feel very good if it’s cold they also tend to become depressed see you cannot depend on seasons you have your responsibilities your job your studies and the weather doesn’t matter sometimes the weather is gloomy you may have to maybe it’s cold you wear more warm clothes or whatever but move on so just as there is the you could say the environmental weather there is also our emotional weather our emotional weather means that our emotions will keep going up and down to some extent we need to see we can see our emotions in two different ways one is emotions are simply psychological reactions to life events just like we have physical reactions to events say if the weather becomes cold now different people are affected by cold differently some people when it’s very cold just wear one cloth and they can go out some people just the temperature drops and they start shivering so now imagine if somebody says I am feeling cold another person says don’t feel cold what do you mean don’t feel cold I am feeling cold isn’t it is feeling cold that’s not what I control I am feeling cold I am feeling cold but if somebody says because I am feeling cold I will not wake up today or I will not go out for my work today no no you wear warm clothes make some preparation go out so just as we have physical reactions to events physically the body starts shivering because of cold like that you also have emotional reactions to events and when those emotional reactions come up we see that this is just the way my mind is it reacts in this way but just because a particular emotion has come that doesn’t mean I have to act accordingly sometimes we feel very energetic sometimes we feel very lethargic that is just the way the mind is so rather than depending on some favorable emotion or demanding some favorable emotion what we need to see is the emotions are going to come they will come they will stay for sometime they will go then what do I do you see that the emotions and intentions are two separate things that I need to maintain my intention in spite of my emotion and how do I do that so that I often give the example of krishna saying in the bhagavad gita that sometimes you will feel very clear and very very insightful very sharp sometimes you feel hyperactive I have to do this I have to do that I have to do that sometimes you feel why do anything just I have to relax so have you heard of the three modes of material nature sattva rajas tamas goodness passion ignorance so you can put it as some people make things happen some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened that is goodness people think plan and do so they make things happen in passion we try to do one thing but one thing leads to this and that what’s going on I didn’t want all this to happen and ignorance people lost in their own world what’s going on they don’t even know so broadly these modes Krishna says they just arise in the mind as reactions to as reactions to the kind of situations we are in the kind of impressions that are there in the mind Krishna says just see udhasina udhasina udhasina means stay as if detached so this is an interesting describer as if detached in English there are two words there is uninterested and there is disinterested does anyone know the difference between uninterested and disinterested or you are not interested okay so uninterested means having no interest at all whereas disinterested means having no vested interests that means impartial unbiased so now imagine a cricket match in the cricket match there is umpire now should the umpire be uninterested or disinterested disinterested say the bowler bowls the ball and the ball goes and hits the leg of the batsman and all the players appeal how’s that and the umpire says I was not watching the match what what are you doing over here you have to be watching the match isn’t it so but the umpire cannot take the decision simply based on how loudly the players are appealing the umpire has to take the decision based on the merit of the appeal so similarly krishna says within your consciousness various emotions will appeal come on do this don’t do this watch this do this but he says don’t get carried away just by the volume of the emotion look at the validity of the emotion is it okay this is too much I can’t do it well is it simply that I’m just I’m just I’m just lethargic about doing the hard work and that’s why I’m saying this is too much or sometimes it may be that you know yeah actually this is not one man’s work maybe I need some help we need to look at the validity of it so when emotions come up when certain situations come up and some emotions come up we can’t just uncritically go along with the emotion nor can we just completely reject the emotion there is repressing the emotion there is expressing the emotion but in between the two of them is processing the emotion we can’t if we get angry for example if we express it what will happen the cause and that other person their heart will burn how dare you speak like this but if you repress the emotion then after sometime our heart starts burning we can’t do this how long can I tolerate this but then we process it so with respect to our emotions our intention if we study shastra practice sadhana I mean associate with devotees then our intention to do the right thing is strong and sometimes the emotion will be favorable sometimes the emotion is unfavorable now when the emotion is unfavorable we didn’t just reject the emotion but we can process the emotion and then we can act accordingly so yes our emotions will never be steadily the same all the time but our intention can be steady and for the intentions we study we need to nourish our intelligence so we understand this is important and the emotions are transient then our intention is strong the strong intention as we keep doing the right thing steadily then gradually the emotion will also become cooperative the essence of commitment is recommitment it’s not that okay I decided to do this from tomorrow onward the rest of my life no questions I’m going to do this it never works like that today I do it I feel very inspired tomorrow why am I doing this our emotions will stay with us but oh no we remember our intelligence why is this important and then we commit ourselves to it then we do it the essence of commitment is recommitment and we have that idea then we can move forward even when the emotions are not very