How can we avoid distractions amidst today’s internet age?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So question from Anupam Mohapatra Prabhu.
In the age of media and easy internet at fingertips, how can we prevent being distracted and fall in the trap of Maya? How to focus on Krishna consciousness? And there are so many things like Facebook, WhatsApp. Actually, this is a perennial problem for everyone. And we need to know that our willpower is a finite resource.
This means that we can use our willpower to fight against temptations only up to a certain degree. So even if a person is a very big weight lifter who can lift huge weights, even that person cannot lift weights unlimitedly. If they try to lift weight unlimitedly, they’ll get exhausted.
Similarly for us, our willpower, the capacity for lifting weights is similar to the capacity for resisting temptation. That’s our willpower. So our willpower is a finite resource and we need to invest it wisely.
That means that if we know that we are vulnerable to certain temptations, if we go into the temptation zone, then we may come unscathed to the temptation. We may be able to resist it and come unscathed. But what will happen is we will be weakened with that battle.
And next time, again, the temptation battle is going to come. So we will eventually be weakened and we may succumb. So it’s best to avoid such battles whenever we can.
This means that it’s not that we can avoid the internet. We are in a culture where we do need to interact on social media. We need to have internet access.
And distraction in this is a struggle which everyone has to go through. I go through this. I know everyone goes through this.
The level of distractedness, the magnitude, the nature of distractedness, that will vary from person to person. But distraction is a problem which everyone has. And that’s why we need supports.
So in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says when he’s talking about how to overcome selfish desire, he says, begin by controlling senses. First regulate the senses. Then he talks about purification that will come later.
So if we find that we are repeatedly distracted by certain things, then we need to regulate our usage of those things. So, for example, we may make a plan. Okay, from this time to this time, I’ll be available online.
From this time to this time, I will do these things. From this time to this time, I will just be disconnected. And especially if you’re going to do some important work at that time, we may just, we can just cut ourselves off from the thing.
So, you know, we have to fight, we have to have the right weapons to fight the right war. For example, if we are if the enemy is attacking with arrows, we cannot fight with swords. So like that, if it is technology that is creating trouble for us, and we are in a situation where we just cannot give up technology, then we may have to use technology to create obstacles to that trouble.
So we may use some apps which act as net filters, we can use some apps which regulate access, there are many free apps available, some paid apps available, whatever they are, we can use it, which can cut off our access and can enable us to focus. So this is of course, the initial solution. But this initial is important and then in 3.43, he says thereafter, says with your intelligence, situate yourself at the spiritual level.
And by situating yourself at the spiritual level, he says that we will be able to overcome the lower desires, the distractions. So that means we have to find something purposeful to do in our service to Krishna and fill our life with such purposeful activities. So at one level, we have to say no to distraction.
But distraction comes because there is not adequate attraction. Now, initially, we’re not an attraction to Krishna. But initially, we can have a strong purposefulness in our services to Krishna.
Services can be direct devotional activities, even our worldly responsibilities can also be done in the mode of service to Krishna. So if we contemplate on the importance of whatever we are doing, remind ourselves repeatedly of the importance of those things, and then purposefully absorb ourselves in those things, then we will be able to resist distraction. So one is we have to say no to distraction and to help ourselves in trying to make distractions as less accessible as possible.
That way, we don’t exhaust our willpower, our finite resource of willpower in unimportant battles. The important battle is we use our willpower to focus ourselves in absorbing ourselves and that is important for us. So the best way to say no to lower things is to have a yes for higher things burning within us.
And this yes for higher things burning within us comes when we associate with purposeful people, when we associate with devotees who are serious, who are focused on doing purposeful things, who don’t waste their time. And by seeing that, by their association, by their inspiration, we also get that yes burning within us. And we have to use association and intelligence.
By intelligence, we remind ourselves repeatedly about why certain things are important for us. And by that repeated reminders, we will be able to be busy in saying yes. And by being busy in saying yes, we’ll automatically say no to unimportant things.
Thank you.