Gita 18.35 To hold on to thought-patterns that hurt us is to abuse our determination

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you krishna is talking here about determination in the mode of ignorance and he states aya sopnam bhayam shokam that determination which doesn’t go beyond dreaming it can refer either to daydreaming where one just fantasizes but doesn’t do anything or it can refer to being lazy and dreaming at night and just oversleeping bhayam, bhayam is fear sopnam bhayam now when we are fearful at that time we simply go we simply become overwhelmed with fear we don’t think carefully about the holistic picture of things we don’t think properly about what all needs to be done and how it can be done instead we simply think about the worst case scenarios and let them replay in our mind in more and more alarming proportions and as that horror movie goes on on the screen of our mind we feel more and more distressed, disempowered and dejected, depressed fear can be healthy if it prompts us to take corrective action or preventive action to avoid some danger but if fear prevents us from taking any action at all then it is not healthy it is highly unhealthy the only way to deal with such fear is to change the object of our thought by which we can start thinking of something higher and the best such object of thought of course is Krishna, God that’s why it is said when fear accelerates our imagination let faith be the brake when we learn to focus on Krishna and move towards Him by the steady practice of bhakti then we can by knowing His omnipotence and His benevolence knowing that He is always in control and He will do things for our good we can actually move closer to Krishna shokam shoka shoka is lamentation things sometimes go wrong and we just have to accept it what’s done has been done what’s gone wrong has gone wrong what we have done wrong we have already done the Mahabharata says that lamentation achieves nothing except to lock the lamenter in the past there is a season for grieving we need to go through some time when we process the emotional hurt and then we have to spring back and we have to become healthy emotional wounds are like physical wounds if our hand is fractured we need to rest it for some time but after some time we need to exercise it that’s how we grow so same applies with our emotions also it’s understandable that when we face a loss, when we face a reversal we will be in pain but if we keep staying in pain that is lamentation nishadam nishadam means moroseness that means habitually just thinking negative not considering what should be done not looking at the positive of life at all some people are so optimistic that present them whatever problem they will find solution to every problem but some people are so pessimistic they will find problem with every solution of course it is good to look at potential problems so that they can be anticipated and they can be rectified or at least they can be prepared for but if we keep looking only for problems then we will never do anything if we keep staying afraid of how we will, of all the possible ways in which accidents can happen when we are driving a car we will never drive and that will be disastrous so it’s important that we have a sense of balance in our life by the sense of balance we will learn from the past and prepare for the future without being caught in negativity if we are caught in negativity then life becomes unbearable and then we try to run away from life one way we try to run away is madam madam means intoxication many people escape from life by going into alcoholism of course intoxication can come in various ways drugs can be intoxicating various things can be intoxicating but the principle is that of intoxication one who does not give up these thought patterns although they are distressing that is determination in the mode of ignorance suppose we are drowning in a river we are drowning and then somebody throws a rope to us if the rope is a little rough and holding on to it causes our skin to get scratched and rashed some blood comes out so we will hold on to it because it’s a matter of life and death but if we are walking along a road with a wall nearby or with a fence that has barbed wire on it and somebody holds on to that barbed wire and although they are bleeding, their hand is mutilated and still they keep holding on that is tragically stupid so we will practically never do that physically but mentally or emotionally we do that although some things hurt us we keep replaying those and thus we keep hurting ourselves to prevent such hurt what do we do? we need to strengthen ourselves this is the characteristic of the mode of ignorance to the extent we raise ourselves from the mode of ignorance to that extent we will be able to avoid this destructive determination determination to hold on to the things that hurt us sometimes we may commit a mistake and we realize it’s a mistake but we just need to let go we shouldn’t hold on to a mistake just because we put in a lot of time and effort in committing that mistake suppose we plan on a project and we put a lot of time and energy in it but that project is a sinking boat just because we have put a lot of money in making that boat that doesn’t mean that we will be able to save it if it is sinking and we don’t get out we will sink with it sometimes life may give us a raw deal sometimes we ourselves may do something terrible but we move on in life no matter how much time and energy and emotion we may have put in something if we can clearly see that it is not working there is no need to futilely hold on to it thinking that something good will come out of it something good will definitely come in our life but not if we keep holding on to the bad if we let go of the bad and then hold on to the one who is the source of all good hold on to Krishna then he will guide us to a good path he will show us how there are still things in our life to be positive about that there are still reasons to be hopeful and thus we will move towards Krishna and thus we will overcome our self hurting thought patterns thank you