Can hypnosis be used to help us better focus our mind in bhakti?
Question. Can hypnosis help one focus better in bhakti? It is said that only 10% of our impressions are in the conscious mind and 90% are in subconscious mind.
And, from there many fears, insecurities, desires, all these emerge. So, by the practice of hypnosis, can we become better aware of these and thus we can free oneself from negative patterns within our mind and then better perform devotional service. Sometimes, even diseases can have psychosomatic orders.
There are phobias that come up. All these are coming from the subconscious mind. So, can hypnosis help us to manage the mind better? For that, we can practice bhakti better.
Answer. First of all, bhakti is transcendental. So, in principle, we don't need to do anything else except practice bhakti.
If we focus wholeheartedly in trying to serve Krishna sincerely, then Krishna will guide us. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in 18.58 that if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. So, thus we need to understand that bhakti is to practice bhakti is to entirely give ourselves to Krishna.
Now, other than seeing other practices as independent of Krishna, we can also see them as connected with Krishna. So, when a devotee practices bhakti diligently, if they fall sick, if they get a fracture, now, naturally, we don't expect that the chanting of Hare Krishna will heal the fracture. We know that.
I have to go to a doctor, maybe a bone specialist, orthopedician, and I may have to get the bone fixed surgically or whatever else. And thus, I can move onwards in my devotional service. So, now, how a devotee sees is that the same Krishna who is guiding me in my spiritual life, that same Krishna is acting through the doctor now.
So, we don't see bhakti only as chanting Hare Krishna, or we don't see bhakti only as going to the temple and chanting and doing particular devotional forms of bhajan, kirtan, participating in Katha or whatever else. We see bhakti inclusively as everything that helps us in serving Krishna. So, with that vision, as it is said, in a devotional hospital, sometimes it's written by the doctor that we treat, he heals.
So, the human doctor and the divine doctor work together to help in bringing about healing. So, with this vision, devotees do take physical treatments. Now, when we come to subtler fields, subtler areas, we consider the body to be a tool, and we need to fix it, then we go to a doctor.
We don't expect that the spiritual can directly fix the material, the physical specifically. Now, what about the mental? The mental, as we know, is not the spiritual. The mind is different from the soul, and the mind is the interface between the soul and the body.
Now, Manas Trayate Ti Mantra, it is said that mantra is that spiritual sound which frees the mind from various things, Trayate. It delivers the mind. So, delivers, there is no specific describer of what it delivers from.
Essentially, the point is it delivers from whatever it may be that agitates us, that troubles us. It can be desires, it can be worries. Now, we do experience that by the practice of Bhakti, certain anathas go away.
Some gross habits which you may be having, say, eating meat or doing some kinds of gross sensory activities, we may be able to give them up very easily or rather far more easily than what we would have otherwise. So, that Bhakti does purify certain desires. At the same time, there are certain desires which are deep-rooted and getting rid of them may take time.
Becoming aware of them is itself the first step to keeping a distance from them. That means that we know that there is some danger lurking in our consciousness. We become more aware of it and we can guard ourselves against it if it attacks through ambush.
So, now this, if we are currently, most of us, in the lower modes of passion and ignorance, and by the practice of Bhakti, we come to the mode of goodness. Sarva-dvareshu daihesmin prakasham upajayate jnanam yadat da vidyadurudham sarva-vidyuta So, when the doorways of the senses become illuminated by knowledge, then we know that the mode of goodness is predominant. Now, we see that we can also see better when we are in goodness.
So, at one level, the Bhakti practices themselves bring us to goodness and we also adopt practices that bring us to goodness so that we can practice Bhakti better. So, for example, regulation in eating, regulation in waking up in the morning, overall regulation, yukta har viharasya. At one level, we could see this as a separate activity that keeps us in devotion by which we can practice Bhakti or we can see it inclusively as a limb of Bhakti practice with which we practice so we wake up early in the morning.
Now, at one level, we can say that we can do our sadhana anytime but morning time, it is much more easier. It is much more, the atmosphere is much more conducive. We can focus much more and we can move onwards towards Krishna with greater effectiveness.
We can focus on Krishna with greater lesser distraction. So, just as there can be, there are within our tradition, practices which at one level could be said practices of goodness but they are integrated in the process of Bhakti. So, like that, some of us may find it helpful to adopt certain practices that bring us to goodness in order to focus on Bhakti better.
So, we can see them as aids in the practice of Bhakti. So, some devotees may start journaling. Now, journaling is basically, we could say it is shranam, kirtanam, smaranam.
What are we going to write ultimately? What are we going to discuss about ultimately? So, we are going to think about, write and discuss about how we are focusing on Krishna, how we can focus better on Krishna, what are the forces that are distracting us and how we can counter those distracting forces. So, this is a practice that might not be explicitly mentioned in our tradition. Of course, there are references to Prabhupada writing his journal and Bhaktivinoda Thakura also wrote his autobiography.
So, also in some form of a journal. So, there are references but the journals are not so much introspective. They are more like reports of events.
But still the point is that anukulyasya sankalpa pratyakulyasya varjanam. Whatever is favorable, we accept it. Whatever is unfavorable, we put it aside.
So, that means that if we recognize that the practice of Bhakti is enabling us to… that in the practice of Bhakti something can help us to come to the mode of goodness and rather than seeing it as a separate practice, if we see that the same Krishna who is guiding me is also manifesting through this particular activity then that inclusive vision can help us to go closer to Krishna. But if we start thinking, oh, this hypnosis has come from this source or this particular practice has come from this source and these people are so clever. Maybe they are cleverer than devotees.
And if we start subtly thinking them to be like our gurus and we start minimizing our spiritual masters, our spiritual mentors, then our gurujan, then it can become dangerous. But if we see that, we see that inclusively as connected with Krishna, that means the wisdom is maybe coming from some specific sources, but it's ultimately being given to them by Krishna and we can see that connectedness with Krishna of everything, then we may specifically adopt a particular practice that is suitable for us. At the same time, we don't have to advocate that practice to everyone because these are individual, these are optional and often these are, these have to be done very carefully.
So, if somebody is using journaling as a tool for spiritual growth, then they have to be careful that they do it in a way that doesn't distract others from the main practices of bhakti. It's not, it may be an individual need and consultation involves spiritual guides. If one has a particular orientation that makes one helpful, that makes one feel that such practices can be helpful, one can use them very carefully under the guidance of senior spiritual guides who know us.
But one needn't publicize it or recommend it to others because different people are of different natures and what may be food for one can be poison for another. So, we all have to do what it takes to fix our mind on Krishna and for most devotees, the direct practices of bhakti themselves are enough to focus on Krishna. Now, for some, some other things are needed, then it can be some devotees may feel inspired to constell astrology, some devotees may do journaling, some people may do some other things.
We should know that this can be, it is not entirely against the principles of bhakti if one is done, if it is done in a proper devotional consciousness under devotee guidance, it can be used with the principle of Anukulyasa Sankalpa Pratikulyasa Varjunam. But while accepting what is favorable for us, we shouldn't mandate, we shouldn't imagine that this will be favorable for everyone and we shouldn't become advocates of that within the devotee community. We can address our own individual need in a way that enhances our service to Krishna and we should know that this is not some, we should be able to see that as also coming from Krishna and taking us towards Krishna not as something separate from Krishna.
So with due caution, some practices like hypnosis may be used by specific devotees. At the same time, we should make sure that it increases our focus on Krishna, on serving Krishna and doesn't make us just wallow in self-absorption that sometimes through hypnosis we may discover I have this thought, I have this desire, I have this memory and that way we just get lost in the past, thinking about this and trying to uncover various kinds of desires and things like that. Various kinds of desires or thoughts or feelings or insecurities.
Prabhupada did not appreciate getting lost in the past too much when Prabhupada was told about Freudian psychoanalysis wherein when one tries to analyze what traumas one may have gone through in the past in order to be able to counter them or in order to get over them, Prabhupada said one may have gone through traumas in the past but what are we doing to prevent traumas in the future? This virtual existence is filled with shocks and shocks come again and again and unless we practice bhakti, we cannot really go beyond the shock-filled traumatic material existence so therefore, what we need to do primarily is practice bhakti and secondarily, in some specific cases, if something can help us to come to the mode of goodness wherein we can practice bhakti with greater focus, that can be.