​How do we differentiate between the mind’s desires and the soul’s desires?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
how to differentiate between the mind and the soul’s desires or thoughts the mind offers us various options it is the soul which chooses that means, I go on my computer and I want to read a particular I want to know a particular news update I have gone there with a particular intention say, I want to find out have India and Pakistan started a war now I want to read that now one particular news I want to read I think ok, maybe there is some event that has happened but there is no war over there but then what happens is, whenever this kind of the media feasts on the frenzy of the people, so then there is one article ok, this incident happened at the border but then along with that there are 10 articles maybe this is going to happen, maybe this means this, maybe this means this then I go and click on that, click on that, click on that, click on that then I get caught in it so to read one article was my intention but while reading that article, there are dozen other propositions that came up on that screen I chose that and then I got lost so if we are aware of our intentions ok, this is what I want to do this is what I want to do then usually if something is carefully thought out and planned, we can say that is something which is coming from our core self but something just pops up in the mind, I do this pops up inside, I do this, I do that, I do that so usually we can generally assume that something which is instinctive short term, impulsive that pops up, that comes from the mind and something which is planned something which is carefully thought out that is something which is what is coming from the soul, this is not always true because sometimes the mind can also use good ideas sometimes some people say, I got a hunch, I got a gut feeling and it turned out to be right so over a period of time, as we observe ourselves we also learn in these situations, when I do something, usually this turns out to be wrong but in these situations, sometimes I get good ideas also so basically, whenever some idea suddenly pops up in the mind if we immediately act on it, we tend to be impulsive but if we wait for some time, we evaluate it and then we decide what to do so that way we can avoid succumbing to the mind so we don’t have to be too paranoid every time some thought comes in, this is the mind’s voice, this is Krishna’s voice or is this my desire or is this the mind’s desire broadly speaking, we need to have a plan for our life ok, this is what I am going to do, this is what I am going to do, this is what I am going to do and this is our service, this is our schedule and we do things accordingly. During that time, certain things come up we decide, ok, I am not going to I don’t know what all this is, let me suspend it right now then later on when we are calmer, we can evaluate it because otherwise, if we start living we shouldn’t live too much in our head also because this thought, has it come from the soul, has it come from the mind if you get too caught in the head, you may not be doing anything practical the most important thing is that we have practical, planned, constructive engagements in our life and during that course, certain thoughts come up then we put them aside, put them like in a parking lot, put them on the pause button and eventually evaluate them, ok, this is a good idea maybe I can do this, this is not a very sound idea evaluate it afterwards and as we keep doing this we ourselves learn what I should be doing, which ideas I should be listening to which thoughts I should be listening to, which thoughts I better postpone which thoughts I should just reject, this is all we learn by experience but first of all, there has to be there has to be a planned schedule planning may not always work, sorry, plans may not always work but planning gives us a direction this is what I should be doing so, it’s like if I am going to come from the airport here we have a plan, this is the road I am going to take sometime that road may be crowded, maybe there is an accident on the road then I have to re-route and come from some other road but if I don’t have a plan only where I am going to go ok, I come out of the airport, should I go here, should I go there, should I go there then I will just be wasting my time like that we need to have a plan in our life now, the plan doesn’t work but at least the fact that we made a plan gives us a direction, if I can’t go this way I can go this way, then I can go this way and if our life is not planned then the mind does all the planning for us and the mind makes a mess of our life so we can’t micro-control our life but broadly speaking, use our intelligence and plan how we are going to engage ourselves and within that, if certain thoughts come up, we pause them then later on we can evaluate and decide whether I should be doing this or should not be doing this does it answer your question? any other questions?