Introspection in bhakti: Why? How? Bg 6.5 Crawley, UK

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And I will speak this using this particular verse from the Bhagavad Gita, 6.5. I will explain the verse, then just recite it once or twice. So uddhared, uddhared means to elevate. Atmana, atmanam.
So the word atma has many different meanings and accordingly this verse can be translated in different ways. But for our purposes, let’s consider this atma related to the self. So elevate the self with the self.
Uddhared atmanatmanam. So elevate the self with the self. Naatmana avasadayet.
That avasadayet is degrade. Don’t degrade the self with the self. Atmayva ya atmano bandhur.
That the self can be the friend of the self. Bandhur. And Atmayva ripur atmanah.
Ripu is the enemy. The self can also be the enemy of the self. So it is one of the more enigmatic verses of the Gita.
And let’s try to depict this to understand this better. Is this black colour visible or It’s visible to everyone. I’ll be writing in white.
So basically it’s almost as if Krishna is saying that there are two selves inside us. And the relationship between these two selves should be such that we become elevated. So this is what he recommends.
This is 6.58. You can say the verse has four lines. So this is A. This is Nigre. And Krishna says this don’t do it.
This is 6.5B. And then Krishna is saying this particular self the self can be our friend. That is a friend. It helps us in the elevation.
That is the C part. And it can be the enemy also. So it can act both ways.
So now what does he mean by this? It’s very helpful to understand this verse in terms of our relationship with our selves. We often talk of having a healthy relationship with others. But what about a healthy relationship with ourselves? Now if you consider what is the characteristic of a healthy relationship? If you have a healthy relationship with someone what do you think would be the characteristics of a healthy relationship? Yes.
Trust. Okay. Let’s go one by one.
Trust means both the people trust each other. Okay. Positivity.
That means you feel positive energy in the other person’s presence. Okay. Anything else? Compassion.
That when the other person has some struggles you want to help. Honesty. Yeah.
So I think trust and honesty are related. sorry? Communication. That’s important.
You think there is a American comedian Woody Allen or someone. He said that my wife and I we eat at different kitchens. We come and go out of the house from different rooms.
We watch different TVs. We drive different cars. We live in different rooms.
We are doing everything possible to keep our marriage together. Laughter. Laughter.
So if the way to preserve a relationship is to make the communication zero. Laughter. That’s already the relationship is in ruins to a large extent.
Yes. Anything else? Compromise. Compromise.
Okay. The word compromise slightly has a negative connotation sometimes. But let’s put it negotiation.
Negotiation will lead to some compromise, adjustment. But both of us need to. Yes.
Boundaries. Okay. We respect each other’s boundaries.
Yes. You should see value in each other. Yes.
You can say appreciation of each other. If we don’t appreciate, we don’t value each other then that’s a sign that the relationship is in a bad shape. Sorry? Love.
Okay. That’s you could say essential. But what happens is love can be a very vague word at times.
It’s a very important emotion but it can become very vague. So I think all the other attributes they contribute. Upliftment.
Upliftment. Okay. Sorry? Freedom.
Can you explain? Acceptance. Okay. Yeah.
Acceptance, autonomy. Acceptance, autonomy, freedom. Yeah.
I would say any kind of love, any kind of relationship does bring a certain restriction on freedom. Because there is no such thing as you can say free love. Because love involves forming a bond.
And when the bond connects the bond will also restrict. So definitely if we are in a relationship with someone and we just do whatever we like without even thinking about the other person. Consider the other person, then there won’t be much of a relationship.
So in that sense if you want a relationship we do have to give up some amount of freedom. But it shouldn’t be too suffocating. So we could say that broadly speaking.
Thank you. Are there any other major points anybody has to say? So now if we look at this and what if we apply this to ourselves? How do I look at myself? And the way I look at myself what is the effect of that on me? Overall, if we consider when Prabhupada started the Krishna Consciousness Movement, he said one of the purposes is to bring people closer to each other and closer to Krishna. The prime entity.
So the idea is if you could consider say here there is Krishna. I can’t draw Krishna so I am just making a circle over here. So the idea is we have a relationship with Krishna the other person has a relationship with Krishna and we have a relationship with the other.
So the ideal situation is that what will happen as the relationship grows is that from here we come closer to the other person and we all come closer to Krishna also. So this is a healthy result of a relationship. So in one sense what the relationship does is that both individuals are elevated while both also become bonded to each other.
So both need to get elevated. That’s a healthy relationship. So now if we apply this to our relationship with ourselves earlier I have put the two people two components of us on an equal pedestal but let’s put it slightly differently now.
Say we have a higher self which we could say that is the far-sighted self the part of us which thinks long term in the Vedic tradition this is associated with the part of us which wants curious which wants long term good and then there is the lower self which is short-sighted which looks for prayers. The word prayers means just being short-sighted impulsive. So we all have these two parts within us and the self is a combination of this.
So for example in the relationship when there is some tension with other person one part of us may want to just win the argument right then. We may yell at the other person. We may assert or abuse some power in some way and just get the person to comply.
We may get the power at that particular moment but we may undermine the relationship. So there is a lower self and there is a higher self within us. Now when Krishna says So elevate yourself with yourself what this means and healthy growth would be that both parts of us get elevated.
The higher self goes upward and the lower self also goes upward. This is healthy spiritual growth. Healthy growth in bhakti.
But what is an unhealthy growth is where the higher self goes up but the lower self goes down and when there is a lot of increased inner tension that means there is a part of me which is very kind, which is very gentle which is very polite and that is the higher self but I have anger issues I have resentment issues there is a wicked vicious streak within me and that has not gone away that has just been buried underground. So when this tension becomes unbearable that’s when breakdown occurs. So sometimes because we want to grow spiritually we try to be our best self and that is desirable.
It’s always better to be non-impulsive it is better to be polite but if that is at the cost of our lower self being denied and buried then it is not that burial is going to kill it. It’s there and when it starts surfacing then we become so alarmed either we don’t want others to know about it or we don’t want to even acknowledge that this part is there with me and then we push it down even more forcefully. So then it goes down again so this involves either suppression or repression.
So suppression is where we hide from others. Repression where we deny from even ourselves that means I don’t even acknowledge that I have this issue. So both of these create eventually a serious tension within us and this sort of growth can seem very impressive but the problem is that it can be like a comet it can be like a rocket, it just goes up and then it runs out of fuel, it just falls back again.
So this sort of growth is like a elastic rubber band it’s like you can pull it, pull it, pull it, pull it to a certain extent but eventually it’s going to break or it’s going to snap back. So this kind of growth Krishna is not recommending. That’s why I say elevate yourself with yourself.
It is not just elevate one part of the self. Elevate the full self. So when we are talking about introspection that is our topic today introspection is to understand both these aspects of ourselves and to make sure that both are elevated.
So before I was introduced to bhakti I had a very short temper and I used to just get so angry and I am I am a lover of words since my childhood so I am quite articulate but actually I realised soon being articulate and being short tempered is a deadly combination because some people when they get angry they just start yelling they become incoherent just screaming if somebody is articulate and short tempered they can really viciously cut the other person by their words. So sometimes a blessing can become a curse so as Krishna says in the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita that some people consider it a sign of their cleverness how sharply they can cut the other person down now sarcasm has its use in humour sometimes but sarcasm in close relationships is not helpful at all so as I started practising bhakti I was amazed how much my anger decreased but generally when we start practising bhakti the first 2-3 or first 5 years I like to call the honeymoon phase of bhakti where everything is so wonderful and we feel okay my lower side has disappeared but after maybe 3-4-5 years we find that the lower side is still there its resurfacing again we start thinking is the bhakti not working or what is happening its not that bhakti is not working but quite often in the first few years we are mostly doing this, expanding our inner not expanding inside us stretching ourselves so one part of us is going up very fast and some part of it some part of the lower part does disappear but some part just gets buried, gets denied so after 4-5 years I started finding that I would just get annoyed over trivial things and I would not raise my voice I would definitely not use not show much visible signs of anger but it was just the annoyance would come just for a few moments but in those few moments I would again speak such words that would really hurt the other person and sometimes I wouldn’t even realise I was doing this because it was just a blip that would come and go previously the anger was not just a blip the anger was like a tidal wave but whatever it was it is still there and after some time some of my close friends started telling me and my first response was denial but then when 1,2,3,4 friends started telling me then I started taking it a bit serious so that’s when actually I started becoming introspective I was always analytical but you could say at that time my analysis was more in the philosophy in presenting the philosophy and of course practising the philosophy but it was more practising in terms of how can I chant better how can I be more aware when I am doing my emotional activities but it was not so much analysing my inner world so that’s when I found that these traces were still there and they would keep surfacing so the vision of growth for us in spiritual life it’s good that our higher self is going up but along with that the lower self there will always be the lower self and there will be some tension between the higher self and the lower self the ideal situation is the lower self also rises up to give another example of what it means is we all may get angry and there are times when anger is also a valid response of course the action that we do when we get angry that may not be always the best thing to do but there are many things wrong in the world and say if a small child is being bullied and we see we are passing by and if we don’t feel anything when that small child is being bullied then there is something wrong with us we should feel some anger, some concern some outrage now that doesn’t mean we directly go and confront the bully or try to beat up the bully we have to figure out what we should do but the emotion of anger itself is not a bad thing however, when we get angry, whether it’s for a valid reason or an invalid reason that means just our we have control issues, our ego has been triggered by someone or there is some outrageous thing happening out there whatever be the cause of the anger how do we express it so when I say the lower self also rises up what that would mean is say if in the past when we would get angry maybe we would use foul words, maybe utter obscenities, maybe we would become physically abusive hit someone, hit something so if our lower self is also getting elevated, that means even when we get angry now we may still get angry, lower self is still there, but then there will be boundaries I may get angry, I may raise my voice but I am not going to use obscene language, I am not going to speak profanities, certainly I am not going to become physically abusive so that’s an indication that the whole self is getting elevated, so even our lower self when it manifests it is not as bad as the way the lower self was manifesting previously but if you don’t let that lower self get some expression then what happens is that that lower self seeks some expression somewhere else and I see this very prominently in the devotee community in terms of hierarchies what do I mean by hierarchies? there are many devotees and often sincere devotees you see they are so humble and polite and submissive with their seniors but they are just brutal with their juniors now it’s almost like Dr. Jekyll has turned into Mr. Hyde and this takes a few moments and we say that it’s my responsibility to correct the other person it’s my responsibility to be polite and submissive to my seniors that is true but seniors and juniors they are all parts of Krishna and so what is happening is the higher self is coming out with our seniors but the lower self is sometimes coming out with our juniors so that lower self also needs to be addressed properly so that’s what we will be talking about when we are talking about introspection today the purpose of introspection is to ensure that the lower self is also elevated it is not suffocated recently I have started writing some poetic poetry as prayers to Krishna so this is the theme which we will be trying to discuss today oh lord grant me the unflinching eye to see the unvarnished eye not just the self I want to see but also the self I need to see oh lord you appreciate the best of me yet you accept all of me guide me to accommodate the worst of me so I can let you elevate all of me so there are two parts to this first part is more of introspection the second part is more of bhakti so grant me the unflinching eye so eye is the vision and eye is also the self so generally when there is something that we don’t want to look at we just turn our eye away our eye flinches our eye wavers so grant me the unflinching eye so I can see the unvarnished eye there is a certain amount of varnishing decorating of ourselves that we do unvarnished eye so that means what is the varnishing trying to cover it is the eye that I want to see oh I am so sweet I am so nice I am so polite but there are these mean streaks within me that’s what I don’t want to see so lord grant me the unflinching eye so that I can see all of me now when we start seeing this dark part within us it can make us very insecure it can make us question the very foundation of our being for us security can come from knowing that Krishna accepts all of us just like in a relationship we every person has a better side higher self and lower self so we naturally like the higher self of the other person but we accept the lower self of the other person and Krishna is the ultimate example of this so oh lord you appreciate the best of me ye you accept all of me so Krishna doesn’t want that we deny and suppress our lower self of course he doesn’t want that we just let our lower self have a free reign and degrade us or hurt others but Krishna accepts all of us and similarly if we understand this that Krishna accepts me even the darkest part of me then what does it mean then you can guide me to accommodate the worst of me why do you use that accommodate that’s not something which we love but we need to accommodate that part so that the lord can elevate all of me so accommodate means give a place give an appropriate place if we don’t accommodate we can’t really expel because it’s a part of the self all that will happen is we won’t expel it we will just deny it it’s like say somebody whom we don’t want say if in our house somebody maybe in traditional societies they were much more face saving societies face saving means that we all want to look good before the world everybody wants to do that but say if in some family there was some child who had some who had some learning deficiencies some mental health challenges, the child behaviour may not be what is normal or standard, then in the family we want to hide that person you know if some guests have come to our house let that person not come out at all it’s ok but you can’t, it’s a part of the family you can’t drive the person out then maybe send that person to the basement, hide them somewhere that’s not a healthy thing to do sometimes it may be necessary but that person is also part of us part of our family so we can’t expel our lower self what do we do is we send the lower self underground but from underground that lower self will sabotage us so we don’t want that to happen now sometimes the higher self is referred to as the intelligence the lower self is referred to as the mind and that usage is fair enough but to some extent it is a little oversimplified because when we equate the lower self with the mind the problem is that Krishna says the lower self or whatever is the lower self he says it can also become our friend so the mind is the part of us which is more associated with emotions the intelligence is more associated with reason now is it that all reason is better than all emotion not necessary yes in general our emotions can make us act in short term ways sometimes our reason can enable us to act in long term ways but it’s not that our emotions are a bad part of us just as emotions can blind us in some ways even just old reason can blind us in some ways if a person is just too logical too analytical then a person may not perceive the human aspect so that’s why the point I am making is rather than simply using the word mind and intelligence for these just understand that there is a part of us which is lower so the higher self is not exactly the intelligence the lower self is not exactly the mind because why the intelligence is associated with reason and mind is associated with emotion so both have positive and negative associated with it now in the overall balance we can say the reason side is better than the emotion side in the sense that our emotions often work against us but Krishna says so he doesn’t want us to offer only our intelligence to him he wants the mind and intelligence both to be offered so in that sense it’s a little simplest to say the lower self is only associated with emotions as only the mind sometimes some people can use their intelligence to come up with deceptive reasoning there is this word rationalise what does it mean what does rationalise mean to give a reason as to why it’s acceptable to give a reason justification it’s like to give a more acceptable reason for a less acceptable action it’s basically say if a husband has told his wife to stop smoking and the wife suddenly comes into the study room or work room, office space of the husband smoke over there, he says why are you smoking oh I was not smoking actually the atmosphere was so cold I wanted to vomit for you so when we rationalise what happens is we tell rational lies so we use our rational faculty to come up with lies so now this is coming from the intelligence not the mind the intelligence has to think this up so there is a higher self and a lower self and we want to elevate both of them I know I said that’s oversimplification of it yeah it’s a good point see humility is a very important spiritual virtue at the same time it’s very easy for humility to be either misunderstood or it can also be misapplied I don’t know if there is a word like this but misexplained misinterpreted might be a better word misunderstood not exactly same I will tell you the difference between the two of these misunderstood means that I understand it wrong but I am using misinterpreted in the sense that somebody who is teaching me teaches it wrongly so that they can keep us under their thumb so that they keep us compliant or blind or whatever so both are possible now in my understanding humility it has one essential purpose ultimately what is humility meant to do humility is meant to take us from self consciousness to Krishna consciousness that means we are not constantly thinking of ourselves I am like this, I am like that I am like that whatever I am, I am part of Krishna I want to serve Krishna so this self consciousness can come in two ways one could be ego and quite often we think of ego and humility as opposites but it’s not two things over there or three over there the opposite of ego is insecurity and in between is humility so ego is self consciousness where I think I am so terrific I am so great insecurity is where I think I am so terrible I am so bad so humility is the mean between the two so self consciousness can be both ways very self congratulatory and very self condemnatory humility frees us from both so in philosophical terms ego is I am everything, I can do everything basically it is I am God you may not say that I can do everything that’s the basic idea of ego. Insecurity is I can do nothing let me go further, I am nothing humility is I can do some things because I am a part of Krishna so here it’s I am nothing here I am everything we are not the whole we are not Krishna but we are not nothing also so I am a part and as a part, I have a part to play so when we are humble, actually there is authentic self acceptance this is what I am, these are my limitations these are my strengths, this is what I can do so if in the in the name of humility our self consciousness is increasing more and more then that is actually not healthy that is not really humility so the self consciousness for some people it may be more I am so great I am so powerful I am so so much to be praised and celebrated that is one side which is ego and that needs to be brought down but sometimes the pendulum can go to the other extreme where if in the name of humility don’t express your opinion itself, don’t express your emotions, don’t speak basically become nothing now of course there may be some forums where speaking in some ways may not be acceptable every social circle has its own norms but everybody needs a place where they can be themselves so humility is basically meant to free us from self consciousness important question so now I will talk about three broad principles which we could use to navigate through the inner self our inner self can also be considered to be like an ocean it’s complex we have many many conditionings from the past, from this life from previous lives and they are there inside, some of them may be active some of them may not be so active so I will talk about three principles you can use an oar to navigate the inner ocean sometimes introspection can seem overwhelming what do I introspect about is it that sometimes we start journaling, we write down every single event that happens in our day we start writing every emotion that we experience sometimes we, most of us may go more in terms of action without introspection but sometimes there is too much introspection that can also lead to paralysis by analysis so when we are looking at introspection, we try to understand our inner world so the first step is observe observe means, it’s almost like say, we take some time everyday to look at ourselves from a perspective of ourselves let me say at the end of the day I look back and see, ok how did I respond to situations today how did I act in today’s situations were there some times when my lower self surfaced and we don’t just want to harp on our lower self we can also appreciate our higher self this time this person spoke like this I could have yelled at that person, but I did not so basically when we observe what are we trying to observe both, our higher self and the lower self basically, we can look back at a day, if we look back at the end of the day what was the best thing that I did today what was the thing that, say, if I had a mentor, if I had a guide I would feel happy to report to them what was the thing that I did and similarly what was the thing that I feel embarrassed about I feel ashamed about I wince or I regret that I acted in that particular, now when we are observing in one sense we are judging but at this stage, the first is simply observe now then they cause distraction on the next day during our meditation time now processing the emotions may not happen just by a few minutes of introspection but at least, okay, I recognise this issue needs to be dealt with so there is a certain level of pacification that comes so observe the lower self and the higher self then A is analyse analyse means, just go beyond the actions so analyse is basically why now why I prefer two parts, now this is when I am saying or, this is just simply one tool for doing introspection there are many different ways in which introspection can be done but this is just one way we can begin the journey so why, first the emotion itself now when I say the emotion, okay why do I feel that this is something why do I feel good about this action that I did why do I feel bad about this particular action so we are trying to understand our own values at the end of a day if this is what I feel in a healthy sense, I feel proud of in the sense that okay, I maintained my cool with this person so if that’s what we feel feel happy about then that, we want to understand our own values also why is this so important for you so we try to understand the emotion and then we try to understand the actions okay A, if I did something good how was I able to do it what gave me the strength and similarly if I did something bad, okay what provoked me to do it what triggered me what was going on before that what was going on after that so we analyse and sometimes this analysis may require time and we may not be able to analyse everything but if we observe a pattern this thing seems to be happening repeatedly if we just introspect for a few days in some days of introspection we might just be able to observe we might not have the time to analyse that’s okay start somewhere and the last part is regulate okay regulate means that if my lower self is surfacing in particular ways how can I regulate it what could I do to prevent this from happening what could I do to stop myself from if it happens that I don’t go so far in self transformation it’s not a one zero that one day I get angry, the next day I don’t get angry at all maybe I get angry but I am able to get a handle on myself, on my temper faster instead of going on a rant for 10 minutes, I speak for 2 minutes and then I pull myself back so that’s the regulation now regulation can be helped by external and internal change so I’ll conclude with this part in the Ramayan when Hanuman goes to Lanka he faces many obstacles and each of these obstacles have been explained by the Acharyas as representing certain things and we can also look at the context and try to understand in terms of our inner journey, our inner growth so the last 2 obstacles, I’ll focus on the last 2, when Hanuman went from the Indian coast to Lanka does anyone remember the 4 obstacles that he faced Mainaka was the mountain that he faced first second was there was a goddess in the form of a demoness, she was Surasa the third was an actual demoness her name was Simbika and the last was the guardian deity of Lanka her name was Lankini now when Hanuman, let’s look at Lankini and Simbika, we’ll focus on that when Hanuman faced Lankini she blocked his way and she said no one can enter Lanka as long as I am guarding it and Hanuman just very nonchalantly just slapped her and his purpose was not to injure her just hit her and she fell off she fell on the side and Hanuman went away now this represents basically our superficial attachments we all have certain attachments where we succumb when there are some external provocations so we just remove those external provocations and then that issue is over out of sight is out of mind and it is true to many extent say if some people say are social drinkers they drink because they go to a party and everyone else is drinking now if they make a plan I won’t go to such a party or they make a plan that I’ll have some alternative to drink and they can get away with that then the pressure is not there they make the external change and it’s over it’s no big deal so if somebody finds that they spent too much time on maybe watching TV or surfing on the net okay when I’m going to study I’m not going to keep I’m not going to have the TV in the same room I’m not going to have my phone next to me just make some external change and remove that particular source of provocation and the issue is addressed now this is possible and this step shouldn’t be devalued in many situations the best way to deal with temptation is to not have to deal with temptation this is the principle that Krishna talks about in 2.58 where he says the tortoise withdraws its limbs so the idea is that just get ourselves out of temptation zone just create a safe zone for ourselves so now this is desirable when the attachment is superficial out of sight is out of mind that is true but there is another saying also traditional wisdom often has opposite statements so one is out of sight is out of mind the other is separation makes the heart grow fonder so sometimes what is out of sight goes bore in the mind or it recurs it surges up in the mind actually why because if there is already the attachment there then at that time out of sight it doesn’t work so basically we could say when there are temptations there are distractions I will use temptations as an example provocations also same thing one is where the objects come towards us so if that is happening then we just create some boundaries the objects don’t come towards us but there are cases when the attachment is so much that we go towards the objects isn’t it so in that case even if something is out of sight what will happen is we will bring it it is already playing and replaying in our mind so now this particular thing is the obstacle that is represented by sinmika now what happens in sinmika Hanuman is just racing across the ocean through the sky some people say he flew across the ocean not a flight actually it was a leap he took a mighty leap And the momentum of that leap took him across the ocean.
So he was racing across and suddenly he found himself immobilised. He was exerting himself, he just couldn’t, what happened? He looked around, he couldn’t see anything. And that’s when he looked down, there’s nothing.
And he saw there was this demoness was looking up at him with a vicious, mocking grin on her face. And Hanuman immediately realised this demoness has some mystic power by which she has immobilised him. Now he had already exerted himself, he tried once again to break through that spell, but he just couldn’t and he realised this demoness wants to devour him.
So he preempted her, she was going to drag him inside. Now she could sense that Hanuman was a powerful being and she expected a struggle. She saw how forcefully Hanuman was trying to break through her mystical spell.
So Hanuman suddenly raced down and he caught her by surprise. He raced down right through her mouth. Before she could bite him or chew him or injure him with her teeth, Hanuman sped down through her mouth into her belly.
And then from within he attacked her and tore apart her stomach. And he just leapt up crying out Jai Shriram and demoness fell back. She was shocked and stunned and she was defeated.
So this represents, Simika represents deep rooted attachments. So for deep rooted attachments, we just can’t hit one blow and get them out. So when there is an unhealthy craving within us, when there is anger, when there is greed, when there is any kind of addictive craving, so we may need to go deeper inwards.
See, every unhealthy craving is basically a distorted expression of some healthy need. So what do I mean by that? Whatever it is that we do, we do again and again and again. I sometimes say, I just have no willpower.
I have no self-control. I keep doing this again. No, that’s not very helpful.
Simply think in those terms. See, a superficial question is, why do I do this? It’s an important question. But this can be a very judgemental question.
I was a fool to do this. I am a terrible person to do this. But a way to go inward is, what does this do for me? What does this do for me? Suppose, say, somebody spends a lot of time on social media.
Somebody spends a lot of time watching TV. Why do I do this? I resolve I’m not going to do this and I spend so much time, I waste so much time. Okay, what does this do for me? Maybe I just feel bored and this is a way to dissipate the boredom.
Maybe I just feel empty and this is a way to fill the vacuum in whatever it is. So we need to go deeper to find out what need is being addressed. Now, if we are feeling bored, that’s a valid concern.
Nobody wants to feel bored in life. Now, we need to find out what is a healthier way for me to address this boredom. And if we can find that, maybe, okay, maybe if at that time and I’m feeling bored, I say, okay, here a lecture.
That’s too much. I can’t do that. I’m already if I read some book, that’s too much.
Maybe, maybe I can hear some music at that time. Maybe I can do some exercise and light exercise. So we can try to find out a healthier way to address that.
So the unhealthy craving, it might lead to some indulgence. But we are indulging not because we find that particular activity so enjoyable, but rather we are just bored. We are feeling unstimulated.
We just need some stimulation in life. Now, if we can find healthy means to address that need, then we’ll find that that is a much more sustainable way to deal with that problem. Now, I’ll conclude my last point.
At the ultimate level, the healthy means to fulfilment, fulfilling that particular need, the ultimate healthy fulfilment is Krishna. When we are able to connect ourselves with Krishna, when we become absorbed in Krishna, at that time, all our unhealthy cravings will go. At the same time, for us to get to that level of absorption may take some time.
And during that intermediate time, we may need to find out some ways which may be remotely, which may be somewhat connected with Krishna, which may even be in Sattva Guna, but which address that need in a healthier way. And this is introspection. This is where introspection can play a key role.
What do I mean by this healthy? Healthy means for fulfilling that fulfilment. See, there are activities for us, which are uplifting and there are activities which are relaxing for us. Krishna says, Yukta Ahara Viharasya.
Krishna says, we also need some relaxation. We also need some recreation. That’s a valid need.
So now for some people, so uplifting means we could say what is good for us. Relaxing is what feels good for us. So now for some people, maybe this hearing classes is not just uplifting, it’s also relaxing.
Maybe classes which are nice katha, this kind of class is not relaxing for most people. It is demanding what we are discussing. For some people, this is what they find relaxing.
For some people, devotional activities may be both uplifting and relaxing. For some people, OK, I just pick a harmonium and start singing. For some people, OK, I sit and start making garlands for the Lord.
I just feel so peaceful. So now what may happen is somebody who finds the relaxing activity within a direct expression of bhakti. That person we could say in some ways is fortunate.
Some devotees, if they chant 64 rounds, after 64 rounds they feel so rejuvenated, so energised. Some other devotee 64 rounds, she just thought of that and starts giving them. It requires far more strength to chant 64 rounds than the strength we get from it.
It’s not necessarily an indication of our fallen state. OK, we are all fallen in this world. But the point is, just because somebody can chant 64 rounds, doesn’t necessarily mean that anybody who can’t chant 64 rounds is not a good devotee.
For them that is uplifting and rejuvenating. It’s relaxing and rejuvenating. For somebody else, it might be something else.
So if we find out a healthy way for ourselves, this intersection, we all have to do things which are uplifting even when they are not relaxing. That’s a part of our sadhana. But we also need to do something which is, I feel so relaxed and comfortable in it.
So now if we start doing relaxing activities which are not uplifting, then we’ll have to see how far that goes. They may also be degrading. So we don’t want to go in that direction as much as possible.
But if we can find something relaxing, so this is a way to, that healthy means to address that need. And we do that through introspection. Then we find that the craving will be addressed much more.
This is parantrishtva nivartate. This is how we become settled gradually in the higher taste. So this regulation which I’m talking about is not just a matter of willpower.
It is more a matter of redirection, addressing that need in a healthier way. And in my understanding, this is the toughest part of introspection. Regulation is not control.
It is redirection. So the first part of observation is not that difficult. Even analysing is a little more difficult.
But finding out regulation, how do I regulate? Do I just get this out of sight? Or is this I have to go and get some insight about why am I doing this? And then find out. So here it is out of sight. Here we need not out of sight, we need insight.
We need to go within. And this requires effort. But we find that this kind of introspection can be remarkably transformative and empowering.
So I’ll summarise what we discussed today. Our topic was broadly introspection in bhakti. And we started 6.5 in the Bhagavad Gita about how we want a healthy relationship with ourselves.
So a healthy relationship with another person would mean that the two people come closer to each other. And they come closer to Krishna also. This is healthy relationship.
So similarly for us, a healthy relationship with ourselves, we discussed was that there are these two parts of us. There is a higher self and there is a lower self within us. What we want is both of these get elevated.
The higher self and the lower self. This is what we want. What we don’t want is the higher self goes up and the lower self goes down.
When this happens, then this is going to lead to a breakdown eventually. So then in the second part, I discussed primarily about when we are trying to do introspection. So if we are doing this particular aspect, this will eventually be, we discussed about the higher self.
And higher self is not the same as intelligence. Lower self is not simply the same as the mind. Because ultimately Krishna wants to be offered both our intelligence, our reasoning faculty and our mind and emotion faculty.
Krishna wants to offer both to him. So rather than simply labelling one side negatively, simplistically, we understand both need to be accommodated. And then how do we elevate? We discussed the acronym OAR.
OAR is what? Observe. So if we consider OAR for navigating our inner ocean. So we observe.
What do we observe? Ourself, our higher self and our lower self. So the things we feel happy about, we feel proud doing and we feel ashamed doing. And we look at, when we observe, A was? Analyse.
So we analyse two things. The emotion. OK, why do I feel proud of this? Why do I feel ashamed of this? And then we analyse the action also.
OK, what exactly was the background when I did this? We try to balance. So by this emotion, we understand the values. What are the values driving us? When we analyse the action, we try to understand our behavioural pattern.
In which situations do I do this? And then R was? So regulate. Regulate could just at one level mean avoid. We discussed the example of Lankini.
Just get it out of the way. Create a safe zone. But the other is we have to redirect.
So redirect here is the example of Simmika. So we need to go inwards to find out when there is unhealthy craving. How can I get down to the healthy need that is there? What is the natural healthy need and how can there really healthy means to fulfil that need? So this is where it’s not going out of sight, but it is gaining, not putting out of sight, but gaining insight that will help us.
And through it all, this lower side, this dark side, we don’t want to deny it or reject it. We don’t want to hide it. Denying is repression.
Hiding is suppression. We don’t want to do either of these. Understand that Krishna accepts all of us.
So we don’t have to be insecure. We can be open, we can be curious and explore our inner self. So that we can offer our entire self to Krishna eventually.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Thank you so much.
Just a couple of points. First point is, can you just cancel all your plans and you can just stay here? Who’s up for that? May I ask something? You want to ask something? Yeah, just a quick question. We hear about this phenomenon in the West of dark night of the soul.
So obviously in Bhakti we hear Krishna saying about Bhakti, it encourages us in the sense that Prabhupada mentions that due to the power of material nature, sometimes it will be the case that we may make mistakes and so on. But is there such a phenomenon, similar to how we hear about dark night of the soul, where there is a significant moment in our life where we may go through some type of adversity, overcome by our lower nature. Is there something like the dark night of the soul? In the experience of seekers, it’s definitely there.
But in the mention in the scripture or the tradition specifically, I haven’t come across anything explicitly stated. Now we could say for the Gopis when they went to be with Krishna, after he called them by playing the flute song and then Krishna left them and went away. That was like a dark night for their souls.
It seems that they were abandoned by Krishna. So basically that is an example. It’s a very different context.
The Gopis we understand are pure devotees. And dark night of the soul is not just a person no longer experiences Krishna, but often a person may even start doubting the existence of Krishna. The Gopis are annoyed with Krishna, the Gopis are angry with Krishna also to some extent.
But the Gopis don’t go to that particular level of doubting the existence of Krishna. So basically Arjuna’s situation is what I find the closest. When Arjuna finds out that Krishna has departed and then he finds that he cannot even protect Krishna’s queens.
So basically the dark night of the soul, there are many different understandings of this, but there are dark times for the soul first when our material strength or we could say our material shelters, they go away or they are taken away. But what is worse is even our spiritual strengths, even our spiritual shelters seem to go away. Let me say we face some financial crisis, some health crisis and that time when we start trying to chant, we just don’t feel any connection with Krishna.
That is a devastating double attack. So for Arjuna, first he lost Krishna. And then he lost his archery ability also.
So materially and spiritually, both ways. Of course we can say Arjuna is pure devotee, so everything is spiritual. But once you start going to the level of pure devotee then there is nothing for us sadhakas to learn.
If you take from operational perspective, he lost, generally we want means for living and we want meaning for living. So for Arjuna, his archery was the means for living. For him, Krishna was the meaning of his life.
So Krishna had gone and his archery skills were also gone. You can’t even imagine how utterly crushing it would be. Somebody is a singer and they sing for the pleasure of their spiritual master or something like that.
And then spiritual master departs from the world. And suddenly they get throat cancer and they lose their singing abilities. What have I meant to do? To be utterly devastated.
Now to say that Arjuna’s archery skill was simply material is oversimplification. He was using it for a spiritual purpose. So at that time, what did he do? That was the time when he found shelter and he found shelter specifically in Krishna’s words in the Gita.
But the phase before that, before he found that, when Yudhishthira says, I have never seen Arjuna in such a discombobulated state. Such an utterly devastated state. What’s happened to him? So that is what I would say is something like the darkness of the soul.
Those terms may not be used but that state is very much there. Is it higher self and lower self? Is it Saptaguna and Tamoguna? Can the higher self and the lower self be compared to the modes? Well, possibly, I would hesitate to do that because the modes are influences on us. They are not parts of us.
The modes, so the Tamoguna may activate the lower self. Saptaguna may activate the higher self. But the modes exist, the standard metaphor is ropes.
They exist in the material world independent of the self. And they act on the self. So they are associated definitely.
Saptaguna is associated with the higher self. Tamoguna would be associated with the lower self. But I don’t think we can equate the two.
Thank you. Any other questions? What’s the difference between introspection and overthinking? What’s the difference between introspection and overthinking? This question, is this an example of introspection or overthinking? So generally speaking, my understanding is introspection or deep thinking. It is basically directed thinking.
It takes us in some direction. Overthinking just keeps going round and round and round and round. It doesn’t take us anywhere, basically.
The circle can become bigger, the circle can become slower, but it just keeps going round and round. So basically, if we are not getting any clear insight by our thinking, then in general, you can say it’s overthinking. And I would say that’s one characteristic.
Another is that in general, to be able to do deep thinking, we need to try to first be in sattva. That means if you want to do some serious introspection, then maybe pray, do some deep breathing, do something which elevates our consciousness and then try to go into deep thinking. But here it is, we are starting only first in tamas.
We are in lower mode. And while we are in the lower mode, we start thinking. And that time we just don’t get anywhere.
Just keep going round. Oh, why did I do this? Why did this happen? Why did this person speak like this? And just go round and round and round. So at that time, if there are serious issues to be thought about, but if we are in tamoguna, we have to decide this is not the time to think about these things.
So the same person is capable of both. But where they are at, that’s important to understand. So we can look at that in one sense, it is a circular.
We can look at the result and then we can look at our state. What is the result of the thinking? What is my state when I am doing thinking? And then thirdly, I would say that if sooner or later we need to talk with someone, need some guidance or at least some discussion. This is where guhyam akhyati pruchyati, that sharing our heart comes up.
So then somebody else may help us. Here, sometimes things happen in the world and there is just no figuring out. This happened like that and that happened like that, that happened like that.
And sometimes we just can’t figure out why things happen. We have to accept this happened and move on with life. In the Mahabharata, when Yudhishthira meets various sages in the forest, he is trying to make sense of what happened.
Both did two things. Something terrible happened to him and he also did something terrible. He gambled, not because he had any craving for money, not because he had any unhealthy habit.
He gambled because he just wanted to obey his elders. Yudhishthira and Vidura both, or rather Vidrashtra had come and sent the message through Vidura. So, but then somehow he just got swept away.
He couldn’t figure out why did this happen to me? Why did this happen through me? So, there is no, Yudhishthira talks to different sages and they give different understandings. But, you know, it’s just sometimes things you can’t figure out. We try to understand, but Yudhishthira focusses more on gaining spiritual wisdom rather than necessarily trying to figure out what happened.
See, sometimes when we are studying philosophy, we try to study philosophy to understand the problems that we are facing. And that’s good. But sometimes we need to look at philosophy, study Shastra, just rise above the problems.
Sometimes we reason through the problems, sometimes we rise above the problems. Sometimes we are too problem conscious while studying Shastra or hearing classes. And anything that doesn’t seem to be connected with our problems, we just start switching off from it.
So, we need to seek guidance from others also. Okay. Okay, maybe one of the… Anyone? Ladies have any questions? Do you think that when we move into this spiritual realm, that intersection will increase? Yes, I would say definitely intersection would increase.
But every individual is different. So, I would say, consider the increase in the intersection as the soul or even key characteristic of spiritual advancement. What do I mean by that? I would say some people may just love nature.
And they may find nature very calming. Now, if that person starts practising Bhakti, now is it that they may find the same calming effect by coming to the temple and beholding Krishna, chanting Krishna’s name? Maybe. Maybe not.
Maybe if that person is of a more introspective nature. That person is more of an introvert kind of person. Then coming to temple definitely is uplifting.
But there is so much crowd over there. They don’t really feel that level of relaxation in that. So, if somebody wants to be with themselves, wants to be close to nature, then, now, maybe in the past, before they started practising Bhakti, that relaxation that they got was just by beholding the beauty of nature.
Now, when they go in nature, they may remember Krishna more. They may remember the actual beauty of Krishna, the actual beauty of Krishna’s, within Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan and other things. But I would say it’s more a matter of a person’s attraction to Krishna increasing, a person’s remembrance of Krishna increasing.
It may not necessarily express itself in particular external ways. Yes. Last question.
Yes. OK, there are two questions. Sir, my question is, particular situation when we are not feeling good, that in fact, like, if I try to do japa, I don’t feel like doing japa in that case.
So, how can I, how can I work on that? In particular day when there is material work. Yeah, it’s tough. That’s my japa.
So, how can I work on that? Yeah. It’s, sometimes our chanting, it is, it’s like exercise. Sometimes exercise gives strength.
Sometimes exercise requires strength. So, at a basic level, we need to have that level of discipline that, OK, however I feel, I will do this. But at another level, we can’t just force ourselves too much.
So, maybe we find out something else that gives us some strength that helps us be more peaceful. Before we start our japa, we may do some, hear some kirtan, sing along some tunes which we like for a few minutes. Get our mind to become a little calmer.
Let us feel better. And then we chant. So, sometimes our chanting gives rise to positive emotion.
Sometimes we may have to bring positive emotion into our chanting. That means get positive emotion from somewhere else and then we bring it into our chanting. You have a question? I know there is already a tradition, you know, defensive japa.
My view is that each stage is like some kind of impediment in our bhakti or in our progressiveness to Krishna. But we don’t necessarily always find that kind of direct, you know, kind of inner learning of that pastime. So, we do have a tradition naturally from spiritual masters where we do, you know, they say, don’t have kirtan, do kirtan.
Have contemplation or mananam on the meaning of a mantra or the meaning of the pastime, for example. Even like, you know, with Jains, we were talking about this yesterday at the dinner with some devotees as well. Do we have anywhere where they kind of give that inner meaning of that pastime, for example anywhere? Like in a teetha or some explanations.
I know Bhaktivinoda Thakur, he mentions that, you know, each human that comes to Vrindavan has his different krodha or lobha or something like this, right? So, is there something that can help us to validate that these ideas are not just coming from the krodha? So, I’ll say two different things. It’s a very important question. Bhaktivinoda Thakur does talk about this principle.
And he says that there are the pastimes of the Shastra, they can be seen at the kanishta level, they can be seen at the madhyama level and they can be seen at the uttama level. Now, he is not using kanishta, madhyama, uttama in the same sense in which, say, an actor of instruction is using it. So, he says the kanishtas see everything at the literal level.
He is just interested in the stories. The madhyamas, they look at the non-literal level. They look for some deeper meanings.
I wouldn’t necessarily want to use the inner meaning. It’s a deeper meaning. So, they look for deeper meanings.
And he appreciates. He says that yes, they are more thoughtful, they are more introspective. So, the kanishtas can get caught in just the externals.
For them, these are just stories, entertaining stories. He appreciates the madhyama in that for their analysis. But then he says that there is a uttama level where they appreciate this at a transcendental level.
Where for them, these are not just stories, these are revelations of the ultimate reality. For them, this is Krishna manifesting. Now, at the kanishta level, people are only interested in entertainment.
And that’s why they want new stories, new stories all the time. It’s a nectar hunt, nectar shopping as we say. And if something is about not Krishna but something else also, it’s entertaining, they will start getting caught in that also.
But the uttama, they are interested in Krishna only. And they can also give non-literal meanings but that’s not what their primary interest is. So, based on this, I use an acronym.
You know, there is L E A D. We need to lead people to Krishna through this past tense. So, L is the literal level. E is the ethical level.
A is the allegorical level. And D is the devotional level. So, now, in Chaitanya Shiksha Amrita and Krishna Samhita, where Bhaktivinoda Thakur gives these non-literal meanings, he really doesn’t give much explanation of the correlation.
Say, Putana represents false guru. Now, why exactly Putana represents false guru? Why does Chakrasu represent this? Why does this particular demon represent that? It’s just a one sentence correlation that he gives. So, my understanding of why he does this is, basically, he is showing us that there is room for intellectual accommodation.
Just think, with the mind where there are desires, with the intelligence, there are doubts, there are questions. Now, within the path of bhakti, desires can be accommodated. That there is space.
If somebody cannot be a pure devotee, they can have material things but they can still practise bhakti. So, people can have some space for their desires. So, if there is space for the mind, why should not there be space for the intelligence? So, that level of accommodation is something which is important.
Now, at the ethical level reasoning, there is abundantly present in scripture. Say, when Arjuna says, I won’t fight, Prabhupada sometimes says that, in the first chapter he is saying, Arjuna is so thoughtful, he is not acting impulsively. This shows how we should all be thoughtful.
But in the next chapter he is saying that, Arjuna is attached, he is crying, his tears are a sign of his ignorance. That’s ethical reasoning. Prabhupada is evaluating Arjuna’s actions from an ethical perspective.
So, ethical is also non-literal. It is not just literal. This story happened.
Who did what? How is that to be understood from an ethical parameter? So, the principle of looking for non-literal themes is very much there in scripture. Without looking at non-literal themes, there would be nothing to learn for us. Now, even the devotional level actually uses nothing to learn.
See, at the devotional level you could say that, Prabhupada even uses this devotional level. Arjuna’s illusion was orchestrated by Krishna so that the Bhagavad Gita could be spoken. That is true.
But then if we go in that direction, then there is nothing to learn. In the sense that, okay, what made Arjuna think like that? Do we face similar situations? So, there is a literal level, there is a devotional level. But in between, the devotional level is wonderful for religion.
But, say for example, the gopis became proud, that’s why Krishna abandoned them. Now, this is not directly saying the Bhagavatam. But the lesson that is drawn is that we should not become proud.
If we become proud, then Krishna will take us. Now, Anandanao Champu, I am not sure if the lesson is where the Bhagavatam or not. But the point is that is not the emphasis of the Bhagavatam, very clearly.
The Bhagavatam does not stop the narrative to state that we should not become proud. But that’s an important lesson that is drawn from it. Now, Anandanao Champu draws completely different lesson from that.
Why did Krishna? Actually, the gopis wanted to highlight the speciality of Radharani. And that’s why they acted as if they were proud. And Radharani didn’t want the gopis to be bereaved from Krishna.
That’s why she slowed down and he had to slow down and stop Krishna and Krishna left her. So, it is not that Radharani became proud, rather Krishna became angry with Radharani. Because Radharani was concerned for her.
So, it’s a completely different expression. So, now, is the expression of pride true? Yes, it is true. In the sense that we can learn from it.
That we should not become proud. But is the expression also true? Yes, even by nature. That the gopis are concerned for others.
So, my understanding is, when you come to the ethical and the non-allegorical levels, as long as these don’t contradict the devotional mood or devotional theme, the siddhanta and the rasa, and especially they don’t reject the literal occurrence of the past. Prabhupada’s main concern with allegorical readings was that these were used to reject the literal. That the Kurukshetra war was considered a non-literal occurrence within the human body.
And there was no such war that happened. That’s what a famous Indian commendator said that. So, that was Prabhupada’s primary concern.
Prabhupada also used allegorical quite often, say, the six children in the womb of Devaki. What do they represent? That’s allegorical. So, now, the tradition is dynamic and evolving.
In my understanding, at least, the whole domain of mental health problems that we face in today’s world. I’m not sure whether people face this kind of problems in the past. Surely, there are problems.
But the levels of depression or the levels of life from a material perspective are much tougher in the past. How many people do we hear wanting to end their lives, actually ending their lives? We don’t hear that much, so much. So, upadrutaha, this agitation, this characters of Kali Yuga, we see that happening in the sense of mental health problems.
So, now, if we find within scripture some reading which helps us address mental health issues, as long as it’s fulfilling the purpose of scripture, I don’t see it as a problem. Now, I have talked with senior devotees about it. And there is mixed opinion.
But whatever I spoke about this particular past time, I have written the Back to World article. We have some senior Prabhupada disciples. Some of them are quite conservative.
They went through it and they said that this is fair enough. Some people may say you cannot take any such reading like this. We respect that.
But is that a standard to be applied to everyone? Sometimes in preserving the purity of the tradition, purity in our course, we may just make the tradition irrelevant. So, there is always this tension between ensuring the tradition is relevant and also ensuring that the tradition’s message is preserved. So, Prabhupada explains what is realisation, that when he says realisation, he says there is scripture.
Now, of course, we have to take the meaning of scripture, but we have to present it in a way that is interesting to the audience. That means we consider the interests of the audience. And when we consider the interests of the audience and find within scripture an intersection.
Like say, I have a friend from a Smarata Brahmin family. And he heard one point about, one from Prabhupada. He says, this is horrible apparatus.
Prabhupada was asked by a hippie, what is the bliss of Vaikuntha like? And Prabhupada says, it’s like an ocean of LSD. Prabhupada said, LSD is a tamasic drug. How can you compare the bliss of Vaikuntha to LSD? Now, it’s an offence to Vaikuntha, which Acharya has ever compared like that.
We say Prabhupada is our Acharya, how dare you question Prabhupada. But if that is the approach we take, then we will never be able to communicate with people who don’t, who haven’t taken the same faith leaps that we have taken. The point is, that yes, I don’t think there is any shastic reference to Vaikuntha being compared to ocean of LSD.
LSD did exist in the past. How would you compare? But the point, the theme of intoxication is there. Premonmad, Divyonmad, the principle is there.
Prabhupada is taking that and presenting it in a way that is interesting to the audience. The specific metaphor might not be there, but the principle is there. So, that is Prabhupada’s expertise.
So, now there are dangers. There are dangers in both ways. In trying to make things relatable to the audience, we might disconnect ourselves from scripture.
But in trying to keep things within the ambit of scripture, we might become disconnected from the audience. So, we have to find the balance. So, thank you very much.
Shrimad Bhagavad Gita ki Jai. Krishna Bhagwan ki Jai. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai