How can we channelize our emotions in devotional service?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, the question is that when the churning of the heart happens, there are various emotions which come up and some of the emotions are negative and how do we deal with those emotions and overall, how do we dovetail our emotional energy so that it can help us in our devotional service. So, there are three different points over here. First is that in the Ramlila, it is described that initially when Bharat comes with a whole army to the forest to persuade Ram to come back, Lakshman sees the whole army coming and Lakshman thinks that Bharat has come to attack and he becomes very angry and he is ready to wage war to defend Lord Ram but later on when Bharat comes so humbly and he is so sad, heartbroken about what has happened and he begs and finally takes Lord Ram’s sandals and goes back so Lakshman is totally mortified and then Lord Ram says to Lakshman that Lakshman says that I get angry so quickly I should not have got angry with Bharat so then Lord Ram tells Lakshman that actually you are a sentimental person so then Lakshman is like a younger brother and he says are sentiments bad? so Lord Ram says no, not at all sentiments are not bad sentiments are the ornaments of life without sentiments life would not be worth living but he says we have to choose those sentiments that take us towards Dharma and reject those sentiments that take us away from Dharma so that means emotions we can’t give up but we can’t let our we can’t give up Dharma for the sake of emotions either so we have to when certain emotions come we don’t let ourselves get carried away by the emotions but then we choose so the emotions which are uncool for our bhakti we nourish them the emotions which are pratikool which are unfavorable for our devotion we starve them how do we starve them? by not thinking about them by not letting ourselves be exposed to the stimuli which will make those emotions stronger in this way we can counter those emotions so that’s the first point in general that emotions have to be chosen carefully and now we may wonder how do we when emotions come they just carry us away how do we choose emotions? so actually for that the mode of goodness is important in general if we consider the axis y-axis so the negative axis is like material emotions the positive axis like spiritual emotions and near the zero point is the brahman but near the zero point is the mode of goodness so at the level of brahman realizing there are no emotions it is just shanti shanti shanti but at the material level we have a lot of material emotions and that is where our consciousness generally is so the first step in our bhakti is to try we try to practice sadhana bhakti which situates us in the mode of goodness which brings about regulation overall and that’s why we follow the regulative principles we try to have an overall regulated life and we try to do diligently our devotional practices so even when we don’t feel like doing our devotional practices still we persist and when we persist in this way and gradually we come to the mode of goodness and 14.11 Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita sarva-dvareshu dehe prakashin-pujayate jnanam yada tada vidya dvivruddhe sattva-mittyuta Krishna says that that when all the doors of the senses are illumined then that indicates the mode of goodness is predominant now what does doors of the senses being illumined means the senses are the means by which we interact with the outer world so if a door is dark we may fall through the door we may fall on the sill we may bang into the wall but if the door is illumined then we can go clearly through the door and know where we are going after opening the door so after walking through the door so similarly when we are able to see actions and see their consequences okay if I act in this way then this is going to happen if I act in this way this is going to happen then that indicates that we are in the mode of goodness so to the extent we come to the mode of goodness to that extent the mind lose the mind’s control on us decreases and we are able to identify and recognize which emotions are favorable which are unfavorable so initially it’s important for us to practice the principles of bhakti based on scripture and then gradually our discrimination increases more and more our capacity to discern this is favorable this is unfavorable and then we can choose actually Prabhupada in the introduction of nectar of instruction says that by following these principles one can come to the mode of goodness and once one has come to the mode of goodness how to advance further will be revealed from within so of course that doesn’t mean that we thereafter after we come to the mode of goodness we reject scripture we reject guru no we still take guidance from them but also our inner radar also starts working in our favor it works for us and that’s how we can move forward in our spiritual life so that’s the second point that we have to cultivate the practice of sadhana bhakti vaidhi bhakti by which we will come to the mode of goodness and thirdly you know we have to find out which are the stimuli which strongly trigger our material emotions and strongly trigger our spiritual emotions and those stimuli which trigger our material emotions strongly we have to keep a safe distance from them if we may have indulged in certain activities in the past and those tend to carry us away so if we expose ourselves to them then we will find it difficult to resist and that’s why keeping a safe distance from them when we know something we are vulnerable then we don’t court trouble by exposing ourselves to it and on the other hand if we know there are certain activities which stimulate our spiritual emotions that means say taking darshan of particular deities or singing some vishnu songs or reciting some verses or hearing some some devotees classes we can all find out what is it that evokes the devotional emotions within us and that we try to do it extra a little bit more so that those devotional emotions get triggered and nourished and in this way we will be able to channelize our emotional energy so that it helps us move closer to Krishna