Does the mind discourage the soul?

Thank you. Does the mind create a situation where the soul gets discouraged, devotee gets discouraged? Yes definitely. The mind is very tricky.

First it makes us do wrong things. And then it beats us up. Why did you do such a wrong thing? And then afterwards it says you are a fool.

You will never do the right thing. Just give it up. So it's like say if a boxing match is going on.

Then the other boxer beats the boxer. At that time if the boxer asks the other boxer only, can I ever defeat you? Never defeat me. I'll crush you.

Just accept defeat right now. But if the boxer wants to keep fighting, the boxer has to turn to the coach. Can I beat you? Yes, do like this, do like this, do like this.

So like that sometimes what happens? The mind makes us do something wrong. And then afterwards we think internally. The mind only speaks to us, you will never be able to do this.

You are such a fool. You are so attached. You are so hopeless.

So that way we just stay entangled. So the mind definitely deludes us, then it discourages us. So first it deceives us and makes us do wrong.

And then it discourages us telling us you can never do right. So basically we have to stop hearing both the phases of the mind's voices. So one voice is do it, do it, do it.

And the next voice is you are never going to give this up. You are just like this only. Stop trying to improve.

So both are the mind's voices. Now if at all we can't resist hearing the first voice, at least we stop hearing the second voice. That means what happens is even if we fall, what do we do between the falls? It's like if we look at our desires, if you consider a graph.

Say there is a desire sometimes spike up. We just crave, I want to do this, I want to watch this, I want to touch this, whatever. And then we may do it at that time.

But afterwards the desire stays calm for some time. And after some time, maybe a few days or whatever, depending on a particular thing, few days, few weeks, again the desire shoots up. Now in between, if we let ourselves get discouraged, then we don't connect with Krishna.

So when the desire shoots up, we may not be able to resist. But what we do in between is very much in our control. So when the mind deludes us in terms of making us do wrong, that's when the desires are shot up.

But in between, if we are discouraged, then we don't connect with Krishna at all. And the next time when the mind deceives, we are again going to fall. But in between we connect with Krishna, we refuse to get, okay, whatever has happened has happened, but I am going to practice bhakti now.

The next time when the mind, the desire shoots up, we will be better equipped to resist it. Otherwise we will not, because we have been hearing the mind, so we have not been strengthening ourselves, then we will not be able to resist it at all. So the whole process of devotional service sort of grabs you back.

It's a gradual process and we just have to persevere. So even if there is, even if there are falls, we acknowledge it's a fall and we do whatever it takes to make amends, but we don't get discouraged in the practice of bhakti. So when we lose heart to connect with Krishna, then we lose the war itself.

As long as we are staying connected with Krishna, then we will eventually, eventually overcome the mind's wrong voices. Thank you.