How can we measure our progress on the path of controlling our mind?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So how do we measure our progress on the path of controlling the mind? So, yeah, first is that we should look more for change of values than change of desires. Desire is something that can just pop up in anyone.
You may think, you know, I’ve been chanting Hare Krishna for 10 years now and still the same desires keep coming. Am I making any progress at all or not? But probably 10 years ago, you know, when that desire had come, I would have welcomed it. You know, people often go out and look for things by which they become more passionate, they become more lusty, they become more greedy.
People want to search for stimulations for that. And we might also have been like that in the past with respect to certain objects. But now when those desires are coming, why is this coming? So, our desires may feel they have not changed, but our value has changed.
Earlier I was welcoming that desire, now I’m objecting to that desire. So change of values is a far more reliable indicator of progress than change of desires. So desires will keep coming.
But if our values have changed, saying I’m not going to welcome this. I’m objecting, I’m trying to get this out. So the change of values is a far more reliable parameter of evidence.
If we worry too much about change of desires, we’ll discourage ourselves. In the routine course of life, we’ll also get anxieties, we’ll also get desires, we’ll also get various things. We’ll think this is making no difference.
But again, don’t identify with the mind, identify the mind. It’s not what is present in the mind that defines who we are. It is what we focus on that defines who we are.
The same desires may still keep coming within us. But if I’m not welcoming them, if I’m not dwelling on them, if I’m not letting them grow, then that itself is a change in me. Another point is that actually many desires do disappear.
Some of us might have been eating meat earlier. But once you start practicing bhakti, literally bhakti, at least with respect to food, we get a higher taste. Many devotees may fall back to some of their old habits, but very few devotees fall back to meat eating.
Because prasadam is really higher taste. Not just really, it is immediately actually getting a higher taste. So we might have been eating meat earlier, but now if you see somebody eating meat, you don’t feel attracted.
The desire itself has gone. That means in some cases, the desire is present, but we don’t welcome the desire. In some cases, the desire itself goes away.
And in some cases, the desire comes and then it shakes us. But if we keep practicing bhakti, the shaking that will happen, that will be far lesser. Were you there yesterday for yesterday’s class? No.
So I was talking about how our desires come as spikes. Now say whether it is lust or it is anger or it is greed. It is not that the desire is constantly tormenting us.
It sometimes comes as a big spike and that time we just are unable to resist it. But afterwards it’s not there. After sometime it will come back again.
So when we start practicing bhakti, these spikes which come, they become less frequent and they become more tolerable. In the same desire, spike comes, but earlier I used to feel like blasting someone everyday. Now also I feel that, but maybe I feel like that once a week or once a month.
Earlier I would feel like that, I would immediately act on it. But now I can resist it. I can stop it.
So the spikes will still come, but they will become less frequent and more tolerable. And that’s how we can see that we are progressing. So this is all in terms of checking our progress by seeing how our anarthas are present or not present.
Another more positive way of looking at our progress is how much are we attracted towards Krishna. So if we are eager to hear about Krishna, we are eager to chant Krishna’s name, if our eagerness to serve Krishna is increasing, then that is itself a reliable sign of spiritual advancement. If we are eager to do that, if we are eager to connect ourselves with Krishna, that means Krishna, we want to make Him our default thought.
As soon as I have some time, immediately I start chanting Krishna’s name, reading some book or hearing some talk. Immediately I start doing that. Then I am filling my mind with Krishna.
That means I am becoming attracted towards Krishna. So the first part I talk about anarthas is the vairagya happening. How the vairagya is happening with respect to undesirable.
And attachment to Krishna is the abhyasa happening. How much is my practice producing the result? Krishna also talks about the same abhyasa. He uses the word later in 12.9. And there He says, He says, by abhyasa what will happen? Your desire for me will increase more and more.
So initially I chant as a discipline. But if I keep chanting, my desire to focus on Krishna, my desire to connect with Krishna will increase. So if that attraction to Krishna is increasing, then that is also indicator of our spiritual advancement.
So the absence of the desires we had in the past, the unwelcoming attitude towards the desires when they come, and the lessened frequency and the increased tolerance towards the desires, all these are signs of progress in spiritual life. And also the increased attachment to Krishna, increased eagerness to connect with Krishna, that is also a sign of progress in our life. Thank you very much.