Be concerned not disturbed

Hare Krishna. Welcome to our discussion on leadership sutras based on the Bhagavad Gita.
We are discussing be concerned, not disturbed. The world we live in is a place of disturbance. The disturbances are caused by change.
And often changes in this world are unstoppable, uncontrollable and unpredictable. Unstoppable means when they start coming, we can’t even, we can’t actually stop them. And even when they’re coming, many times we can’t even control the magnitude.
And then at least we can be prepared for them. But many times the changes are also unpredictable. And because of such unstoppable, uncontrollable and unpredictable changes, we often feel insecure.
And we have to cope with all these changes and the change and the demand is that all these changes place on us. All those demands cause stress, cause anxiety. In fact, the faster life is becoming, life is not becoming easier.
Life is becoming more stress, stressful. Why? Because more and more changes and more and more demands are coming upon us. And that’s why we see that stress is one of the biggest health hazards for people working in today’s competitive world.
We may talk about how, say, people who work in farms may had dangers from snakes, people who work in industries had danger from machines, which might have been dangerous. But now we have people who work in comfortable offices. They may be physically comfortable, but they’re mentally very uncomfortable, very stressed.
So not only is this a problem in offices, actually, it’s a broad problem challenging almost all of humanity. The World Health Organisation has said that mental health problems are going to be among the biggest health challenges of the current and future centuries. So now, stress can have many specific causes, which will require specific solutions.
But one common cause, often less talked about cause is an excessive absorption and external things which are changeable. We all need some sense of stability, security, and that comes from something that is unchangeable. When things around us are constantly changing and when our thoughts, our consciousness is too caught up in those changing things, then naturally all that change and coping with that change wears us down.
It saps our energy. And such problems related with stress are even greater for leaders because they have heavy responsibilities and hectic schedules, all of which demand and take a huge toll on their mental energies. So now how do we deal with this particular foundational cause of stress that there is too much external focus? Then we have to find some inner focus, something that can give us a sense of stability, of security.
And from that platform, we can cope with whatever problems are there. So just like if a flood has come, then a person, it’s just being swept away by the flood, can’t do much. If a person can hold on to something firm, then one is less affected by the flowing waves of the flood and then one can find out how to deal with the situation.
So we need something to hold on to. Now, when we have something internal to hold on to, then we can be concerned but not disturbed by change. To be disturbed means we feel personally threatened by whatever events are happening.
To be concerned means that we know there is a lot at stake and that’s why we want to positively influence the events, but we don’t feel personally threatened by those events. So the Bhagavad Gita guides us in the art of being concerned but not being disturbed. Now, let’s understand this with an example.
How we may be interested but not threatened by certain situations. Suppose we are standing next to a skyscraper building. Now, we will feel so puny in front of that gigantic building.
Naturally, we will feel dwarfed by its giant expanse. But if we were in an aeroplane above that skyscraper, then that same building will be there but we won’t feel dwarfed. In fact, that building will not seem as imposing as earlier.
So the problems that we face, the changes that cause stress, they are like the skyscraper. When we do not have an inner shelter, then we are like the tiny beings, midgets in front of the skyscraper. We feel overwhelmed by problems.
But when we have a spiritual self-understanding, then we become elevated above the skyscraper, above the problem and we can see it from a distant, detached, balanced perspective. So now, what has changed between the person seeing from the bottom of the skyscraper and seeing from a plane overhead? We could say the perception has changed. Yes, the perception has changed.
But why has the perception changed? Because the perspective has changed. Perception refers to what we see. Perspective refers to from where we see.
And the perspective has changed because the position has changed. The person is not seeing from the bottom of the building but seeing from the top of the building. So many times, many self-help books say that tap the power of positive thinking, think positively, look at the good, change your perception.
Now, as long as I am at the bottom of the skyscraper, I just can’t, changing my skyscraper, changing my perception will be basically just exercise in imagination. It will have no foundation in reality. So, the Bhagavad Gita does change our perception, but it changes our perception by changing our perspective.
How does it change our perspective? By changing our position, by lifting us intellectually in our self-understanding above the things and events of the world. It helps us understand that we are not material creatures, we are spiritual beings. And as spiritual beings, we are distinct from everything that happens around us.
Things that are the body, our body is in the surroundings where we are, but the body is external covering like a dress. The Bhagavad Gita 2.22 states that, that the body is like a dress. So now, when we understand this point, that actually we are different from and above our circumstances.
And the important point is that the Bhagavad Gita also states that none of the circumstances, none of the things that can destroy the material can even touch or scratch the soul, leave alone destroy the soul. So, 2.23 and 24 emphasise this. So, the soul is beyond fragmentation.
It cannot be cut. It is beyond incineration. It cannot be burned.
And then it is beyond desiccation. Hot wind cannot desiccate it. And it is beyond dissolution.
It cannot be dissolved also. So, like that, that means essentially the soul is indestructible. No matter how threatening be the situation around us, it cannot affect our essence.
So, even when somebody is in an aircraft above a skyscraper, some anti-aircraft missiles can shoot at the aircraft. But there is no such anti-aircraft missile that can shoot at the soul because nothing material can hurt the soul. The more we meditate on our spiritual identity, the more we understand that we are indestructible at our core, that brings a profound sense of calmness and composure and clarity.
And thereafter, we can evaluate the situation intelligently and then act competently to deal with the problem. So, often the problem is aggravated by our agitation and our anxiety and our knee-jerk responses, which worsen the problem. But when we stay calm, then we can deal with the problem competently.
And that’s what the Bhagavad Gita helps us to do. So, by helping us understand that we are above all the problems of the world, we are souls who cannot be hurt by anything material, Bhagavad Gita enables us to be concerned but not disturbed. Now, at this point, the question may come up, okay, all this sounds very good.
But is this idea of a soul really true? Is it just some belief that the Gita teaches? Is there any, why should I believe in the soul? We’ll look at first some intuitive reasons and then we will look at some scientific evidence. So, let’s look at some intuitive reasons. First of all, who perceives? Right now, say you are looking at me, I am looking at you.
Now, who is it that is looking? We may say the eyes are looking. But then we know that there are eyes present even in a dead person. Then we say no, actually the eyes are connected with the optic nerve to the brain and the brain is perceiving.
But then there is a brain also in a dead person. So, we may say, oh, but the eyes in the brain, they’re not functioning. Yes, that is true.
But the chemicals that comprise the eyes in the brain, they’re still there. Why is it not functioning? Anyway, the eyes and the chemicals, they are all unconscious. Yes.
So, who is it able to perceive? That’s a great mystery. Who perceives? Now, beyond that, we can say also look who is the owner of the body. Now, when we say look at, I mean, this is my laptop.
This is similarly, you may say this is my hand. So, things which are different from us, things which are distinct from us, we identify them as mine. This is my laptop.
This is my pen. This is my card. This is my house.
So, like that, we say this is my hand. This is my arm. This is my belly.
This is my face. So, now, yes, who is the I who claims owner’s rights on the body? Now, we don’t say I hand, I eyes, I like, why? You may say, oh, this is just word jugglery. No, we’re not quibbling over words.
It’s not just a matter of semantics. It’s a matter of practical experience. We feel ourselves different from our hands.
I could not only try this, but I could cut my hand off and my hand could be kept in front of me. And I would say this is my hand, but I’m not the hand. And actually, we understand that we are different from all this.
Even our heart can be, we may not be conscious at that time, but our heart can be actually taken out and we would still remain. So, the point here is that there are people in outer body experiences who have had this kind of perceptions. They’ve seen their heart outside their body.
We’ll talk about our body experience later. But let’s suffice the point that who is the I who claims owner’s rights over the body? And third intuitive reason will be, let’s look at who’s gone. When a loved one passes away, our language can be quite telling, even if we don’t realise it.
We say that he has passed away, she’s gone. Now, who has passed away? What is gone? The body is still there and yet we feel a great sense of bereavement. Now, certainly our feeling of bereavement is not an illusion.
The person has gone away, but then the body is there and yet the person has gone away. That means that the person whom we’re saying has gone away is different from the body. Now, we can also think about how does our sense of identity remain the same despite changes in the body? Actually, scientists have revealed that actually our whole body is changing constantly.
In fact, the cells in the body are constantly dying and new size are being born. So we have Dr. Pim Van Lommel in his book, The Science of Near-Earth Experience says that some 50 billion cells in our body have broken down and regenerated. This is the equivalent of 500,000 cells per second.
And according to his calculations, every two weeks, all of the molecules and atoms in our body cells are replaced and yet we experience our continuity as the same. So now the question he’s raising is profound. If I were just the body, then if my body were changing, I would change, but I know that I remain the same.
So how do I remain the same when my body is changing? Who is the unchanging I in the changing body? All these actually point to the soul. And then are we, we can also look further, are we just a bag of chemicals? If we think about our body, what is it made of? You know, there is sulphur, there is phosphorus, there’s calcium, there’s potassium. Now do we, does it sound like us? Does it sound like our personality? Now in our body, there’s a large amount of water.
Most of it is actually watery. So do we feel ourselves watery? Now during our lifetime, millions of gallons of water will come in and millions of gallons of water will go out. Yet we remain the same.
Who is the reason it remains the same? Now consider, say time t is equal to t0 as the moment of death and t0 minus delta t is the time when the person is alive and t0 plus delta t is the time when the person has died. Now if we consider between t0 minus delta t and t0 plus delta t, it’s a fractional moment. And if we were to measure the mass of the body, the chemical composition, it would be unchanged.
And yet everything has changed. Something huge, huge, huge has changed. The person is no longer living.
So chemically, there’s no change just momentarily before, momentarily after. So why is there a change called death? Why is the change called death occurring? Could it be that the source of life has left the body and that’s why something called death is occurring? So even from our intuitive sense, we can understand that actually there’s something different from our body, which is the source of the life in the body. And actually this intuition is being confirmed by scientific research more and more.
So we look at four fields of scientific research that point to this. Let’s look at, we look at hypnotically induced past life memories, then spontaneous past life memories, near-death experiences, and the phenomena of consciousness. So now if we look at it, we see that many people during hypnosis, when they are told to go back, think when you’re one year old, think when you’re 10 years old, think when you’re one year old, think when you’re a very small infant, think what you were before that.
And then they go back and they recollect their previous lives. Now, of course, some of them could be just imagination, some of this could be suggestions from the hypnotist themselves, which are being accepted and reflected back by the subjects. But in some cases, there have been instances of xenoglossy.
Xenoglossy is the ability to speak or write in foreign languages. So Dr. Joel Whitten is a researcher from the University of Toronto Medical School, and he’s written the book Life Between Life. And therein, he talks about several subjects who, during the hypnotic regression, now he’s a conversation, the scientifically trained hypnotist.
And what he found is that there are people who could speak or write in languages that were incomprehensible, not just to Dr. Joel Whitten, to the common people. And when the subject was out of hypnosis, it was an incomprehensible subject also. And these languages, he had to take them to super linguist specialists, super specialist linguists, because these languages actually turned out to be an old Norse and an archaic Mesopotamian tongue.
Now, neither of these languages are spoken today. And the Mesopotamian tongue was spoken between the 10th century and the 6th, 7th century. So nobody in the world is speaking, can speak this today, except for a few specialist experts.
And they also are very, very few. And it’s not that they speak, they know the language. They can decipher the written script and things like that.
So now, what happened is, how could these people who did not know the language and could not have learned from anyone, how could they write in that language? The only logical explanation is that they had existed at that time in those lives. And then the hypnosis had triggered their memory. And that’s how they were able to write in those languages.
Now, apart from that, there are spontaneously, spontaneous memories. So Dr. Ian Stevenson is the head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. He is the pioneer in this research.
And he has written several books, cases of history of past life memories, and several other books like that. And there are many other researchers after him also who have done similar research. So now he focused on children and his purpose, he did not, because hypnosis may sometimes create suggestions that may distort the memories.
He focused on memories that came unsolved, that’s the meaning of spontaneous memories. And he found that generally between the age of two to four, children started speaking these things. And he rigorously investigated these memories.
And he actually, there is a whole systematic scientific pattern which he developed for discerning the right memories from the wrong memories. And thousands and thousands of cases he investigated. And he found not just accurate recollections that they could remember, the children could remember, oh, I was so and so person at so and so place at this time, this time.
And actually a person by that name existed, not only with their accurate recollections, then there were precise recognitions. The children were taken to those places. He says, oh, you are my brother, you are my sister, you are my wife, you are this, you are that.
So precise recognition, they could also not just recognise relatives, when they were taken to those cities or those villages, they could actually show the way also, although they had never been in that village before, they could identify the locality, they could identify their home, their possessions. And these recognitions were done when there were neutral people and objective investigators present. So then along with that, he also found there were birthmarks.
Many of these children recollected having died due to some fatal wounds. Say somebody was shot dead, a boy named Tutu was shot dead in his previous life. And there had been an entry point for the bullet and exit point for the bullet.
And Tutu had birthmarks at exactly the same locations. So these birthmark correlations take this out of the somewhat less empirical area of recollection and memory to the very empirically verifiable area of biology. And Dr. Stevenson wrote a book called Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect, where he gives impressive photographic evidence of the correlations between the fatal wounds of the previous life and the birthmarks and birth because of this life.
And also, he did, he found behaviours, which carried on from previous life to this life in many ways. So for example, if somebody had died because of drowning, that person would have had hydrophobia over here. And so basically, there were accurate recollections, there were precise recognitions, there were correlative phobias, and there were correlating birthmarks.
So, Ian Stevenson, after decades of research, has now inspired dozens and dozens and dozens of researchers all over the world to carry on his legacy. And he said that the evidence is such that his research has been published in many respected journals, the American School of Psychiatry, the American Journal of Comparative Sociology, and many other journals like this. And his work has been recommended for its meticulousness.
And he has said that if a person wants, based on the evidence, one can believe in reincarnation, not on belief, based on the evidence, one can believe in reincarnation. Now, beyond that, there is also near-death experiences. Now, near-death experiences refer to the phenomena when a subject is near death or is almost dead.
And during that time, the subject has some experiences and the subject returns back to tell those experiences. So, now, the most scientifically relevant among such experiences, the subjects may say, oh, I went here, I saw this person, I saw that, then all these are verifiable. But what is most scientifically relevant is some of these subjects give examinable and verifiable accounts.
So, for example, some of the subjects describe how they actually heard the conversations between, say, the, if an operation was performed on their body, the conversation between the doctor, the surgeon and the nurse, they heard the conversation and they also saw themselves from a perspective above the body. That s why they call it as also, so near-death experiences have a subset called as out-of-body experiences. They see themselves from a perspective outside the body.
And Dr. Michael Sabom, he was a pioneer in this field of NDE research. And he started off as a sceptic out to disprove the NDEs. But then as the weight of the evidence mounted, you know, his scepticism eroded.
And he said that, you know, the evidence is so overwhelming that could that perceiver be this, could the near-death experience cause a separation between the soul and the body, between the centre of consciousness and the body and could the centre of consciousness be the soul. So, in this way, basically, near-death experiences provide very persuasive evidence. And again, hundreds of researchers are now in this field and they are pursuing it with great scientific rigour.
And they are now, some people may say these are just hallucinations, they are imagining. But there are several problems with this. First of all, they give actually accurate accounts of what happened.
If they were just imaginations, hallucinations, how would they give actual accounts? And moreover, even if they were hallucinations, the important point is that even for hallucinations, certain level of brain activity is required. But many of these experiences, because they also tell the time when this happened, this happened. For example, if they say that this is a surgeon talked with this to the nurse at this time, at this, this is at this, now the surgeon has a record of what happened.
They know, we talked at this time and they know at the time of the EEG showed that the person was completely unconscious. So, that way, actually, there is strong empirical evidence for this. For that, for a consciousness that exists separate from the body during these near-death experiences.
Then we come to the phenomena of consciousness itself. So, now, many people think that the consciousness is produced by the brain. However, there are several problems with the idea.
First of all, the first question comes up, how does the brain produce consciousness? Because the brain, it is made up of say 10 million neurones, and each of these neurones have 10,000 connections with the neurones around them. And when we perceive something, then what primarily happens is the electrochemical signals in the neuronal cells change. But actually, the neurones themselves are unconscious.
And the changes in the cell, changes in the electronical states also does not signify any consciousness. It’s just like, say, a spike in a very simple point. It’s like, say, sometimes in a wire, the electric spike sometimes increases or decreases.
So, that is not consciousness. So, the electricity that flows through our electric cables does not produce consciousness. So, the electricity that flows through our brain cells also will not produce consciousness in and of itself.
So, now, that’s why there are many, Albert Einstein himself said that the whole idea of trying to reduce human activities, human features to, so, I believe that the present fashion of applying the axioms of science to human life is not only entirely a mistake, but also has something reprehensible in it. And Nobel Laureate Sir John Eccles also said that, I believe it is a fundamental mystery in my existence, transcending any biological account of the development of my body, including my brain. So, now, that’s the, how does the brain is a different category from consciousness.
Now, beyond that, even if we say that brain produces consciousness, and the question comes up, how? Because another problem is that the brain cells are constantly changing. Every single cell in the brain is changing. And yet, our memories and our consciousness remains the same.
How is that? Now, suppose we would have a robot that could speak, but say its speech memory is being continuously deleted, and there’s no mechanism for data transfer. And there’s no such mechanism in the brain. So, then, if the robot continued to speak, wouldn’t that be a mystery? That is the kind of mystery we experience.
So, our memories are not stored in the brain alone. Otherwise, if they’re stored in the brain, then we would not be able to actually understand. We would not be able to recollect those memories once the brain cells which held them were removed.
Or to understand some other example, suppose we write a message on a piece of paper, and then slowly we start removing every single molecule that comprises that paper. And then all the molecules that comprise the paper are changed, and we find the message is still there. How would that be possible? That means the message is, although we wrote it on the paper, the message is also stored somewhere else, and after that, being pressed back on the paper again.
So, like that, our memories are not stored in the brain alone. The brain may be used for the function of recollection as well as original acquisition of knowledge also. So, there is a non-material source of consciousness, and there’s a non-material repository of memories.
Now, going further, now, some people may argue that actually, but when a part of the brain gets damaged, then that particular function of consciousness is affected. So, for example, the speech centre of the brain is damaged and the person can’t speak. Yes, that is true.
But does this necessarily prove that the brain is the source of consciousness? That the same would could be explained if the brain were transmitting rather than producing consciousness. And this was what Dr. William James was a pioneer of psychology. He said that with a prism, you know, when a prism is broken, the light that is refracted will get distorted.
But that doesn’t mean the prism is producing light, the prism is simply transmitting light. Another example could be if I have a computer and if some part of the computer gets damaged, then I may not be able to access the corresponding functions. But that does not mean that I am damaged.
So, the soul, the source of consciousness is something that uses the brain for functioning and injects consciousness into the brain and thereby radiates consciousness throughout the body. So, that’s why we have, after a lifetime of research, Nobel laureate Dr. Piller Pinfeld is a Nobel laureate brilliant surgeon. He did a lifetime of research in consciousness and concluded the brain is a computer, but it is programmed by something that is outside itself, that is outside itself.
So, through hypnotically induced past life memories, spontaneous past life memories, experiences and through consciousness studies, we can get scientific pointers for the existence of the soul. Now, what this, now the soul is invisible because it is spiritual. But just as we can perceive the presence of the sun, even when we are inside a room and we can’t see the sun, we can perceive its presence by sunlight.
Similarly, we can perceive the presence of soul by consciousness. So, the Bhagavad Gita also states that the soul is like the driver of the bodily car. So, soul is the animator, the soul is the activator, the soul is the agency, soul is the agent and the body is the agency.
Now, what is the, what has all this got to do with leadership in Vandana? Actually, first of all, we are talking about Gita insights and Gita Suttas on leadership and our non-material identity is a fundamental teaching of the Gita and it actually underlies the whole worldview that Gita offers and we cannot really understand that worldview and apply that worldview unless we understand how its teaching of our non-material identity is not just some sentiment or some sectarian belief, it is actually sound logic and sound science also. Now, beyond that, actually understanding the non-material identity can also help leaders to tap the Gita’s wisdom better. Now, many leaders do turn towards yoga, meditation for gaining some relief from stress and when they do it, they do so primarily for psychophysical benefits but they don’t think about metaphysical implications.
So, yes, they may get some stress relief but without understanding the okay, when I meditate, I get relief. Why do I get that relief? If we explore that deeper, then we can get far greater empowerment from the wisdom of the Gita. Now, that’s why we need to understand our spiritual identity properly and understanding our spiritual identity properly will help us to achieve a proper sense of balance.
When the Bhagavad Gita says that we are not the body, that does not mean it rejects the bodily, our present bodily positions entirely. In 2.13 of the Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that you are not the body. In 2.14, he refers to him as Kaunteya.
So, son of Kunti, descendant of the Bharata dynasty. So, that means he doesn’t reject the bodily positions entirely. He uses these bodily positions and designations to inspire Arjuna to act honourably.
Oh, you are such an illustrious dynasty, illustrious family, please act honourably now. And act according to your spiritual identity. Act in knowledge, don’t act in ignorance.
So, similarly, now we may say if I am not the body, then am I a leader? Yes, we can say that if I am the soul, as a soul, we are not leaders. But we are in a particular position and we need to act responsibly in those positions. And how do we act in those positions? With a proper sense of balance between our material and spiritual side.
By actually understanding that we are not the body will not affect adversely our leadership responsibility. Rather, it will affect positively. Because when we have sufficient detachment distance from our situations, we can think more calmly.
And by thinking more calmly, we will be able to take better decisions and execute our responsibilities better. When we are too much caught in the heat of the moment, and often there is a rush of blood, and we do things impulsively which we regret later, we make mistakes. But if we have this understanding that we are different in the body, then we will be able to stay calmer.
And then we will be able to deal with the situations better. So, if say a ship is in ocean and it’s being buffeted by stormy waves, the captain needs to stay calm and can guide the crew to safety. Similarly, when organisations are buffeted by social, political, economic changes, economic storms, at that time, the leader needs to stay calm and can guide the team and the organisation through the storm.
So, that sort of calmness can come when the in this situation, but I have a dimension to my existence, which is above all this, which is different from all this, and which will not be threatened or affected by whatever happens over here. And that security can bring calmness and enables the leader to function effectively. And that’s how the leader can develop and master the art of being concerned