Gita 14.16 – Goodness detoxifies our consciousness

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So Krishna is describing in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, the fruits of acting in various modes. So he says, in the mode of goodness, karmana, sukruta, syahu, sattvikam, nirmalam, phalam, in goodness one acts in good ways, sukruta, and sattvikam, nirmalam, phalam, the result of acting in goodness is nirmala, mala is impurity, contamination. So nirmala is decontamination or purification, or as sometimes in today’s language it is called detoxification, because of the environment that we live in, which is so polluted, and often the food that we eat, that is also so filled with chemicals, that our bodies become filled with toxins, now there is a, the body itself has a natural mechanism to remove toxins, and that’s why we have the process of excretion, so the body excretes unwanted items, and thus at some level it is protected from toxins, but sometimes the toxins are such that the normal excretory mechanism is incapable of removing the toxins, at such times we need a more healthy mechanism, we need other mechanisms for removing the toxins, so for example in ayurvedic therapy there is an elaborate and intense therapy called as panchakarma, in which the feet are massaged, and certain oils are put into the body through the massage as well as certain emetics are given, pills are given, by which the impurities which are called aam, which are collected in different parts of the body, and which cause disease and disorder, they are brought into the stomach, and then through the emetic phase they are just thrown out of the body forcefully, detoxing is quite important for the restoration of health, now Krishna is talking here of a similar detoxification of our consciousness, when we act in goodness, so nirmalam, we make right choices, by which we take in positive inputs from outside, and gradually the negative things within us get overruled, get either deleted or overwritten, just like if graffiti is there on a wall, there are two ways to remove the graffiti, one is by erasing it, or the other is simply by over painting it, so similarly within our consciousness, whatever negative impressions are there, that have come because of our past undiscerning living, those contaminations can be removed in various ways, one is that we try to delete those impressions, but actually whatever is impressed in the consciousness, it does stay for a long time, it doesn’t go away easily, so deleting is according to some impossible, every impression that we, every perception that we expose ourselves to, that creates an impression, and that impression stays in our consciousness, although we may not be aware of it, it may be in our, what psychologists call subconscious mind, often during hypnotic regression, people’s past memories can be stimulated, people themselves are surprised about all the things that they remember, sometimes hypnotic regression can be used to take us to previous lives also, now of course how reliable hypnotic regression is, that is debatable, because often what seem to be memories may be just imaginations that are triggered by the suggestions given by the hypnotic therapist, and they may not be recollections, but quite often, as far as this life is concerned, people remember things that they had actually experienced in the past, or they had seen or gone, but they had completely forgotten, so the point is deleting impressions is quite difficult, because whatever is impressed, it stays forever, but it can be overwritten, and that is by putting in new impression, so in the mode of goodwill, we choose intelligently, we act intelligently, by which we create healthy impressions in our consciousness, and those healthy impressions help us to drive out the unhealthy impressions, to eliminate, if not the unhealthy impressions themselves, we eliminate atleast the effect of those impressions, they get buried so deep under fresh impressions that they are no longer going to oppress us, they are no longer going to trouble us, otherwise our impressions actually, impressions they press and they oppress, certain for example, if people see some obscene images, the impression they press us, come on, they press, see more, gratify your senses, and they not only press, press means to push, but they oppress, those impressions create desires that are tortures, they torment and torture, and it is very difficult to resist them, so we can counter those impressions by cultivating positive healthy impressions, and that is what intelligence to understand what impressions are healthy or unhealthy that is available in goodness, and the intelligence by which, determination, intelligence is about perception, determination is about action, so both of these, they are well guided, they are properly situated in goodness, and thus we can create positive impressions, now of course, bhakti is beyond goodness, and bhakti does more than create positive impressions, which override the negative impressions, yes, bhakti does definitely, but along with that, bhakti also stimulates the original consciousness of the soul, we are souls, we are spiritual beings, and as spiritual beings, we have naturally the faculty for spiritual awareness, and that soul’s faculty for spiritual awareness is covered over by material contaminations and coverings, bhakti initially it may seem like it is overriding negative impressions and positive impressions, and that is true, but at a deeper level, bhakti brings out the original positivity of the soul, bhakti brings out the original purity and potency of the soul, that is covered over because of contaminations, and so in one sense, we override to bring out that which was originally there, how does that happen? by exposing ourselves to spiritual stimuli, stimuli connected with Krishna, the soul’s faculty for spiritual awareness gets awakened, and thus it cleanses away whatever is in between, it’s like sometimes in say radiotherapy for treating cancer, now yes, the body, because of exposure to certain things has got now this tumorous or cancerous cells going within it, so that was caused because of exposure to certain things, but now exposure to some more things, that is the radiotherapy, radiotherapy’s waves, that cleanses away, burns away, destroys the cancerous cells and then the body’s natural health and healthy growth starts happening, similarly for us, initially the exposure to bhakti may seem to be like exposure to something external, but that external exposure drives away whatever is unnatural external within us, the unhealthy expressions, the mental impressions, not expressions, impressions, and thus the natural spiritual faculty of the soul is awakened, and in this way we can become steadily and joyfully situated in knowledge and ultimately in spiritual consciousness.