Does self-realization as understood in psychology – understanding our strengths and weaknesses – come automatically by bhakti practice?

Answer Podcast

So in spirituality we talk about self-realization as implying realizing the self as the soul different from the body but in psychology self-realization is used to refer to understanding our strengths, weaknesses, understanding our personality type understanding our particular inclination psychologically, socially and that kind of understanding is also very helpful so in bhakti practice does that kind of self-realization also come automatically or do we need to strive separately for it answer sarva-dvareshu dehe smin prakashyam upajayate jnanam yadatada vidyad yuruddham sattvam ityuta so in 14.11 in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna states that when we come to the mode of goodness at that time we all the doors of the senses get illumined by knowledge so that means basically we understand what I should take in my senses, what I should not take in my senses so for example if I am an introvert too much social stimuli is something which I can’t take in, so I need to keep a distance I can’t go for too long into too bigger gathering if I am extrovert then being alone makes me feel down so I need social stimulation these are like individual needs so we often talk about discrimination only in terms of controlling desires, that’s one aspect of it, very important, but there are various aspects of it so when we come to the mode of goodness we do understand these things better now whether it will happen automatically by the process of bhakti or whether we should need to conscientiously endeavour, that will depend on person to person some people basically come to bhakti and they find some service within bhakti some role within bhakti and they go on happily in that role so by practicing the process of bhakti and doing whatever service comes their way if they are satisfied then they are moving forward in the process of bhakti and that is good for them but if others are of a more introspective nature they are somehow not so comfortable in the specific services that they are doing and they would like to do more and they would like to find out how best they can contribute then it is our responsibility to do what it takes to understand ourselves so at one level self-realization means understanding the atma but at another level self-realization also means understanding the sharir and the mana understanding, not identifying with it as we do presently but understanding that this is the kind of body I have this is the kind of mind I have and therefore these are the kind of things which I can do these are the kind of things which I find difficult to do and these are the kind of things which I can’t do so now finding that out is important and some devotees don’t feel inspired to do it because they are chanting and they are satisfied in the process of bhakti that is perfectly wonderful but others can do this and they can do that in the mood of devotion also so for example if say if we know that say our parents had some wealth and they have kept it buried somewhere in our in our family’s home in the backyard or the garden somewhere now digging up that wealth it may not be a part of the process of bhakti but digging up that wealth can help us it can give us financial stability it can give us financial resources and we can use that for serving Krishna so if you want, if there is some important service which you feel inspired to do, if there is some project you wish to contribute and if we have the resources then we can definitely contribute over there so to offer what we can we need to discover what we have and to offer our best we need to discover our best so just as we wouldn’t obviously object to anyone trying to find out what all wealth their parents had left so that they can use that wealth properly by letting that wealth stay buried somewhere in the backyard find it and use it so like that now we are the only resource we have we are the most foundational resource that we have for serving Krishna we means our body and our mind so if within the body-mind complex there are certain talents, there are certain interests certain capacities to serve in particular ways to discover that is important and conversely there are some weaknesses also, some limitations to understand that is also good because then we won’t unnecessarily make life difficult for ourselves as well as others by trying to do things which we are not good at which simply fall in our zone of incompetence so this kind of self-understanding is very important for those who want to become more and more versatile instruments for Krishna and to do what it takes we can do it either in the mood of mood of self-promotion or we can do it in the mood of service to Krishna of maximizing our contribution so if we are doing it in the latter mood then it is very good because what we are seeing is that this is what Krishna has given me this is what I can do with these things and if I can understand more what Krishna has given me I can do more with it so that way we can see this very positively and move onwards in our life now what kind of exercises can we do generally just like if I have to dig a treasure in my backyard now I can hire someone I can learn someone who is good at digging you can use this instrument in this area the land is like this and you can dig like this so there are devotees who have also got into the area of self-help and they sometimes provide some practical guidelines they may offer some counseling which is a combination of psychological and spiritual understanding of self-realization and that way we can learn so basically the question is like what is it that I feel comfortable doing what is it that I am competent at doing and not only we learn this by introspection ourselves but we learn it by association also sometimes we were very good at something but we just take it for granted but somebody else tells you I just see that when you do this you blossom you are so happy I never thought about like this so basically if you have to learn about ourselves by more it is through introspection and through association by the combination of these two we look inwards that we see what all we have and we also look we also try to understand what others see when they look at us especially people who are close to us whom we trust and who understand us then both these can become more fruitful if you are practicing bhakti and have come to the mode of goodness because in the mode of goodness when we see inside we just don’t see our cravings otherwise whenever we are alone and if we are in the mode of passion then as soon as we have some idle time immediately we start going to our cravings and think of how I can fulfill those cravings but when we are with devotees when we are also practicing bhakti sincerely and we have come to the mode of goodness then when we look inwards we still notice those cravings but we won’t get carried away by them we see beyond them to the substance that is there and similarly while associating with others if we are not in the mode of goodness then we will be too snappy in the mode of passion and ignorance we will simply want to use others as mediums for gratifying ourselves we want others to praise us so that we feel good about ourselves yes appreciation is a part of every good relationship but appreciation is not the only part of the relationship so other aspects also if somebody gives us some constructive feedback we will be better positioned to take it if we are in the mode of goodness and thus we can move forward in our life so I would say that those who feel a need for this they should definitely understand what their body and mind is also so that they can, not so that we identify but so that we can understand that this is the vehicle with which I am functioning and so we can use that vehicle effectively