Do our intentions to control the mind also come from the mind – or do they come from the soul with its own mind?

Podcast:

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Lecture Summary

Are our intentions driven by the soul or generated solely by the material mind? In this insightful discussion, spiritual teacher Chaitanya Charan explores the fascinating connection between consciousness, the subtle body-mind machine, and spiritual awakening.

Main Points

• The Metaphor of Virtual Reality: The soul’s interaction with the material world is compared to playing a virtual reality game; while the player is conscious, their immediate range of actions is restricted by the rules and setup of the game (the body-mind machine).
• Dual Origins of Intentions: Intentions are a combination of both—the soul provides the core capacity for awareness and choice, while the material mind and its conditioning shape the specific content and options available to us.
• Conditioning Shapes Choices: Our background, culture, and life experiences dictate what thoughts naturally pop into our awareness, limiting or expanding the range of choices we perceive.
• The Awakening Stage: As a person advances spiritually, they begin to transition—becoming observers of their own emotions and thoughts, eventually catching glimpses of consciousness originating directly from the soul.
• Direction Over Origin: Ultimately, discerning the exact source of a thought is less important than evaluating its trajectory; the most critical factor is whether the thought leads us toward higher awareness, wisdom, and Krishna.

Full Transcription

Thank you question when we say we bring intentions into our consciousness and that’s how we can neglect or reject the mind’s propositions can the does the soul have its own mind and intelligence by which it brings intentions or where do those intentions come from answer okay let’s consider three distinct things over here first is the pure state of consciousness when the soul is in the spiritual world at that time the soul is a fully developed person and that means the soul has whatever is required for functioning and we know that the soul has a body now that’s not a it’s a it’s a form but it’s not a material form whatever is required for serving Krishna that is there so it will also have a mind and intelligence a subtle body for interacting with the form in one sense in that state how the soul functions is very different from the way the soul functions in the material world so we could say a person who is playing a game in the physical world a cricket match they are playing so then actually physically catching the ball and physically carrying the bat hitting the ball with the bat like that now let’s consider the other extreme situation where a person is playing virtual cricket that means they are not just watching with their eyes but they have a whole virtual reality setup where something is strapped on their hands and something is strapped on their ears and then something is strapped on their legs so those things make them feel as if they are they are throwing the ball they are moving their hands with the bat in it they are running and they have a complete immersive experience when they have this immersive experience at that time they are not at all in any way aware of the external world so at that time is the soul conscious a person conscious of course they are conscious but their consciousness is limited to a very particular narrow channel that is the TV screen or the interface mechanism broadly speaking of the virtual reality gaming board gaming device in that game can the person have intentions independent of what is happening in the game well it depends on what we mean by independent if within the game the ball is not yet bowled then the batsman cannot start running to take a run at that time there are certain rules to be followed suddenly in the middle of a cricket match the batsman can’t start playing football or wrestling so the range of options that are available for the player in a virtual game are limited there are definitely options but they are limited by the rules of the game so the game itself may not allow within the virtual game the fielder to suddenly start flying in the air like a bird to catch a ball that is going towards the sixer so similarly for us we consider the soul to be latched on to be fixed on the body-mind machine it is strapped on the body-mind machine so it is strapped on all this at that time the body-mind machine and the material world in which the body-mind machine is functioning they create certain limitations for the functioning of the soul and that means that the range of options that a person will get that the soul gets are also dependent on the body-mind machine so are the intentions coming from the soul or are the intentions coming from the body-mind machine well both at one level when say a tempting object is put in front of a person they have eaten enough food but some more food is brought in front of them now whether to eat that or not that is a decision that is being made by the individual before going to a meal itself the individual may decide I am going to not eat more than this much I am going to take only two cookies or two pieces of sweet and not more than that like that that intention is being made now there are certain options which will just not come up like say a person won’t think of eating the plate or eating the table or worse than eating the is consuming the host who is serving them now we could say that’s because of the culture that’s because of there are people who may think about those things so yeah that’s rare extremely rare we will say why? because the body-mind machine with its conditioning with its mechanisms whatever are its impressions limits certain options so some options may not even come in a person’s mind so the soul’s capacity for consciousness is what makes everything function if a player is not playing the virtual game then there’s no game that may happen that can happen but the player functions within a particular ambit and similarly we function within the ambit of the body-mind machine so when our thoughts are coming are they coming from the soul or are they coming from the mind well in general the soul has the capacity for awareness but the content of awareness is shaped by the body-mind machine and now that content can also be changed over a period of time and then capacity for awareness may also come up through that thus for example a person who would never consider cannibalism because they were brought up in a family that didn’t even eat meat what to speak of human flesh animal flesh what to speak of human flesh but that person gets exposed to somebody who does that kind of things or who entertain that kind of thought or they watch some macabre movies where something like that is done cannibalism is outlawed now almost universally but suppose they see that maybe that kind of thoughts enter their mind sometimes some murderers some brutal psychopaths might actually consider doing something like that so what comes in the content of consciousness the content of consciousness means what pops up within the content within that there are choices and the content can also be changed so somebody may have grown up never thinking about anything like eternal world beyond this world with their social, spiritual minded people and then the idea of eternal world not only come into their consciousness but started becoming more and more prominent in their consciousness and that’s how things grow so now this is the condition stage I talk about liberated state now in the awakening stage the transition stage that means the the player is playing the video game but simultaneously partially aware of reality beyond the virtual reality so like that in an awakening stage might some of our thoughts be coming from the level of the soul and not just the mind not just the mind it could be but it’s very difficult to discern that at present we are not even really conscious of our sense of the soul we may become a bit conscious that we are the observers of our body and we are also we can be the observer of our emotions so we need to be beyond the emotions but till the consciousness is very purified and turned in the words chetodarpana marjanam or yatra aatmai in 622-623 in krishna dharma samadhi verses yatra jivaatmanaatmanam pashyan aatmai tushita mind turned in world becomes like a mirror and sees the self that is the time when we can actually become aware that we can become aware of ourselves as the soul in its full beauty and glory and then we can become conscious of this particular thought is coming from the soul directly so overall my understanding is that more important than where a thought is coming from is where the thought is taking us and the thought is taking us towards higher awareness towards krishna towards wiser choices that is all that matters primarily