Bhagavatam-daily 277 – 11.13.10 – The mind’s oscillation keeps us in illusion

Bhagavatam 11.13.10 पजो युक्तस्य मनसः संकल्पसरिकल्पकः तथः कामो गुणध्यानात् धुसः स्याधित् दुर्मतेहे Krishna is explaining how the soul is caught in the realm of illusion seeking pleasure where the pursuit only gives misery overall far greater misery than whatever little pleasure is there तथः युक्तस्य मनसः युक्तस्य मनसः means the mind is engaged in this way what is it referring to? Engaged in the pursuit of illusory pleasures संकल्पसरिकल्पकः संकल्प and कल्प comprise a standard a way in which the mind’s bipolarities express in Vedic parlance I want this, I don’t want it the mind exhibits this sort of bipolarity in many ways, first is it can be in terms of things I like this food, I don’t like that food it can also be in terms of people that means I like this person, I don’t like that person so with respect to things and people, it’s one level but another thing is that with respect to the same thing we like something today and then because of some reason we don’t like it tomorrow people start a career say for example, in India cricket is a glamorized sport and many young people may dream of becoming an ex-achintan dulkar and so they think that I love cricket and yet where the performance when seen on the screen by a superstar batsman who is cheered as he hits sixes that is contrasted with the grinding and grueling work schedules and the practices and the trainings and the politics which involves in getting selected all that one may feel, I don’t want this so with respect to not just different things the mind may have sankalpa and kalpa with respect to the same thing at different times one may have sankalpa and kalpa so sometimes one may feel, oh this is wonderful and the same thing afterwards, this is dreadful and this can happen in relationships also so when two people claim to have love at first sight they may initially say that oh, I can’t live without you and then as they come together, they live together and then after sometime they realize that they are so incompatible that I can’t live with you so what is happening here is the mind is oscillating wildly over dualities now this is not to say that there are certain realities which are agreeable and certain realities which are disagreeable no doubt about that but a sense of dutifulness means that one perceives in a particular course of action irrespective of one’s feelings Prabhupada talks and Krishna talks about this and immediately after experiencing one’s spiritual identity in 2.14 he states that tamas titikshasubharata, tolerate sankalpa and kalpa arises from the foundational illusion that the mind harbors that we can have a happy walk through life that we can just enjoy life and that we can be happy in life and that life is meant to be a cozy, jolly, happy journey that conception of life is what is foundational and is foundational to our bondage and the nature of illusion is such that even when we experience misery the mind thinks that ok, last time something went wrong in the future when I just adjust things properly then things won’t go wrong and then I will enjoy so what the mind, Uddhava’s question was that even when people suffer why do they keep pursuing sense gratification when they have experienced that the pursuit of sense gratification ends in misery so his question can be answered at various levels and we will see how Krishna answers it here the subtext of Krishna’s answer is that the mind’s oscillating nature makes one feel that sankalpa is kalpa because of that the mind just isn’t linked with reality it stays caught in the hope that sooner or later we can get pleasure if we just adjust some things and because of this notion, because of this conception that soon I will get pleasure the mind doesn’t allow us to stay fixed on anything to contemplate anything deeply enough to perceive the actual nature of the situation it’s like an alcoholic is being so pulled by the desire, by the craving for alcohol that one is just not able to perceive the miserable situation that one is trapped in similarly, as long as we are under the pull of desires whatever happens, whatever we try to do we may at one level feel that yes, we are moving onwards that we are moving towards pleasure but even if we get some misery we feel ok, I have to adjust something else then I will get pleasure when the mind is engaged with goodness, with passion then it just doesn’t have the stability the steadiness to recognize that there is a sobering reality which will bring the mind’s rajasic fantasies to a grinding halt the mind wants to run on and on in its hope for worldly pleasures being fuelled by worldly desires and anything that does not assist in such pursuits anything that impedes such pursuits the mind just tries to brush under the carpet and this sort of selective deceptive perception of the mind is extremely dangerous if we allow it to go unchallenged so scripture and scripture study is vital for us so that we can challenge the mind when it starts misleading us with counterfactual propaganda when the mind starts saying come on do that and you will get a lot of pleasure we can turn and challenge the mind I have done this so many times and it has not given me pleasure so what is the guarantee that it will give me pleasure now? why should I waste my time and energy pursuing that which I have pursued so many times in the past and pursuing that which has not given me any fulfillment till now why should I continue with punah punah sharvita charvananam if we don’t gain strength and wisdom from scripture and don’t get muster up determination to challenge the mind like this then the result will be that durmate hai we will be like a foolish person dusaha and our mortal existence will remain or become even more unbearable thank you