Gita 18.58 The destructive voice can’t be tuned out unless we tune in to the divine voice

Transcript

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18.58 that if you become conscious of me Krishna is saying you will pass over all obstacles by my grace if however out of ego you don’t hear me thinking that you know better you will be lost, you will be ruined this is one of the most direct verses in the Gita that enjoin us to become conscious of Krishna become conscious of me don’t be conscious of your ego the fundamental difference between the ego and the living being is that the living being ultimately needs Krishna whereas the ego feels that all it needs is independence and fulfillment through the successful execution of one’s own independent plans the word ego is used here in the sense of a separatist mentality in the inner world what is present is our thoughts, our feelings and our intentions so there is the difference between mind, intelligence and ego the difference between them is more functional usually it is not talked about in structural terms because of which the stress remains primarily on taking step by step progression towards Krishna to the extent we slowly and steadily practice bhakti we move onwards in our life so for us as souls there are many times obstacles that are big and obstacles that seem to be bigger than what we are our ego ego makes us believe that we are bigger than what we are it makes us believe that ultimately that we are almighty that we are god now spirituality works in two ways one way is that it helps us understand that we are very small we are insignificant because we are infinite in size the soul is one ten thousandth the tip of a hair as it is said so in the scripture it is said the soul is one ten thousandth the tip of a hair now from that dimension if you consider our physical dimension we may be small as children we may be huge as adults we may still be diminutive as adults but we have some position in society and we get an identity which can lead to an ego in this particular context ego is in terms of thinking I know what to do I know how to solve my problems I know how to grow in my even how to grow in my life but even if we are not spiritually minded then also we know that there are many many voices within us and these voices often work against our best interests many of these voices prompt us to do this and that and so many things and thus they keep us distracted from Krishna if you are not to be distracted then we have to learn to recognize that these voices are actually the voices that have emerged from the various conditioning that we have and those voices are untrustworthy beyond them all Krishna is the voice of Krishna Krishna as our greatest well-wisher wants our ultimate good to the extent we move on in that direction the service of Krishna to that extent we move towards the ultimate good so serving Krishna can be done in many ways first and foremost is hearing Krishna we hear Krishna’s message through scripture we hear Krishna’s message inside as the voice of the super soul to the extent we are tuned externally to Krishna’s message we make it a habit of hearing his message externally to that extent we start becoming more and more capable of receiving his message internally to the extent we get neglectful of his external message to that extent we will become inattentive to his internal message internally we will start hearing more and more the voice of the ego and the voice of the ego will mislead and ultimately ruin us so for us as spiritual seekers it is vital that we learn to focus on Krishna and ultimately attain Krishna unless we become attuned to Krishna’s voice we will stay by default tuned to our destructive inner voice whether we call it the voice of the mind the voice of the ego or whatever so it’s like there is this destructive voice that is always going on within us and if we don’t want that destructive voice to destroy us then we have to turn away from it we can’t stop it from speaking but we can transcend it by speaking about Krishna and by speaking to Krishna and by most importantly letting Krishna speak to us so by hearing Krishna when we chant Krishna’s message when we hear Krishna’s message when we repeat Krishna’s message through all of these we are actually giving ourselves an opportunity to tune our consciousness to Krishna’s presence internally if we go through the activities of bhakti without becoming attuned to Krishna’s internal presence then those activities will not be of much help to us they will more or less stay rituals without really taking us to the spiritual level what makes a ritual spiritual is the elevation of, investment of consciousness the transformation or elevation of consciousness it is when we when there is infusion of consciousness then there is transmutation of consciousness transmutation is transformation to something better alchemy is there to transmute iron into gold so for us the process of bhakti yoga is not just a set of external practices the set of internal it is a set of external practices meant to change our inner world meant to upset the status quo of our inner world it is this change status quo that will take us ultimately towards Krishna so Krishna is telling here that the destructive voice is already there and the destructive voice has more or less set us on the course to destruction because the destructive voice is inside us so it has set us on the course to self destruction and if we do not want to be destroyed then we need to conscientiously set ourselves on the course that is charted by Krishna for us and that course centers on connecting with him at a deep personal level through the attuning of our consciousness to him so every bhakti activity that we do if we see that as an opportunity to tune our consciousness to him then it will become a very powerful activity for us to raise ourselves towards Krishna and to ultimately become perennially situated in Krishna once we are fully tuned to Krishna then we no longer have the the situation where we will be vulnerable to the misleading by the mind but till we are not fully perennially lovingly situated in Krishna till that point we all face the danger of being captivated and misled by our inner destructive voice and that’s why we have to conscientiously bring ourselves into the consciousness of Krishna we have to conscientiously remember Krishna and remind ourselves of Krishna by having periodic devotional activities that force us to become conscious of him that is the purpose and essence of sadhana bhakti by which even if our consciousness has veered off track this activities of sadhana bhakti will bring our consciousness back on track receptive towards Krishna and by this repeated process of redirecting our misdirected consciousness towards Krishna eventually the consciousness will become naturally directed towards Krishna and then our life will become peaceful and joyful thank you