Gita 18.35 – We don’t lack determination – we lack direction for our determination

Transcript

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Thank you Pratisapartham Tamasimini Vyasapnam Vyamsokam that intelligence, Krishna’s determination Krishna talking about determination in the three words 18.35 Vyasapnam Vyamsokam Krishna is giving a list of various symptoms Dreaminess Vyasapnam Fearfulness Vyamsokam Being filled with lamentation Vishadam Madamevacham Vishadam is moroseness Madam is in general illusion Navimanchati Durmedha That Durmedha Intelligence which is Dur is misdirected and what is the misdirection of Durmedha Navimanchati It does not give up Is Tamasirvachana It is in the mode of ignorance It’s interesting that many times people say that Oh! I don’t have the determination to give up this It may be over sleeping It may be over eating It may be at a more detrimental level It may be say alcoholism or smoking I have made so many times resolutions I am just not able to give it up I don’t have determination Krishna here conveys that Nobody lacks determination What we lack is direction for determination Because Krishna says Navimanchati Durmedha Not giving it up To not give up something means to hold on to that thing and holding on to that thing requires, holding on to anything at one level requires determination So suppose a person is an alcoholic and the person has suffered financial losses loss of face, embarrassing behaviour even health issues relationship problems Now each of these is like a blow against that attachment and sometimes some movies it may be shown as if the hero is falling from a cliff and is holding on barely by the hands and then the villain stamps on the hand and every time the villain stamps on the hands and the people the pain is immense and that will make one want to let go because that pain is unbearable still the hero will not let go because that person knows that if I let go, if I don’t tolerate this pain my fingers being stamped upon then I will fall deep into the valley below the mountain and what to speak of pain in the hands there will be pain all over the body and I may die also so the point I am making is that holding on to the cliff in spite of the villain stamping on it is indicative of a certain level of determination now taking this example to our situation of alcoholism each problem that comes because of the alcoholism say financial cost or embarrassment in behavior or health issues whatever each of these we can compare the person is holding on to alcohol and each of these problems is like a blow and here in spite of all these blows the person keeps holding on to that addiction to alcohol so certainly to hold on to something in spite of facing problems in that thing is determination but usually we use the word determination in a positive sense that means when a person is doing something good that willpower directed towards holding on to that thing in spite of facing many problems that willpower we call as determination but when that same willpower is directed towards something undesirable, unhealthy unwholesome then it is called as obstinacy stubbornness now the obstinacy that we may undergo that we may have that is basically determination in the wrong direction so na vimunchati durmedha the intelligence is there durmedha is the misguided intelligence na vimunchati means that which does not give up now krishna here talks about not so much bad habits as about bad thought patterns aya sopnam bhayam shokam krishna says over here that that bad determination which holds on to unpleasant mental habits what is this the habit of sopnam dreaminess now daydreaming is often a problem when people waste a lot of time in fantasizing about things without doing anything to actualize them it is said that vision without action is a dream action without vision is often a nightmare so if one is simply visualizing things but not doing anything about it daydreaming is simply a waste of time it creates cravings even not a craving but kindles those cravings so that they become strong and it does nothing to deal with those cravings so when we understand thus that actually our thought patterns are trapping us then we can fight them we can train ourselves to resist those thought patterns so aya sopnam bhayam shokam similarly fearfulness and others thus we can by recognizing that we always have determination we simply need to direct it properly this realization can give us confidence by which we can move onwards in our constructive activities in devotional service with the confidence that we have determination we just need to redirect it