How our mind creates our reality – and how to change it

[Talk to Oregon State University students, Corvallis, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank all of you for coming today evening. Hare Krishna.
So I’ll speak on the topic of how the mind shapes our reality and why it matters. My first experience of how something inside us can shape our experience of life outside us came when I was around 10. At that time, I was very much into astronomy.
So I had my own telescope and I would spend hours and hours pouring books on the cosmos and scanning the skies and I was eagerly waiting for a eclipse, lunar eclipse at that time. And I wanted to see. It was anticipated how we could see the lunar eclipse coming in the various stages of it.
I was waiting for days for it. And then that night, when I was on the terrace, something happened and I had a quarrel with someone. And then when I was looking, waiting for it, look at the telescope, look through the telescope.
I don’t know what happened. And the whole eclipse almost got over. And then some of my friends said, wasn’t that beautiful? What? And then it struck me the eclipse had got over.
So that time it struck me that actually the sky is such an object of interest for me. I spent hours reading on it and yet there is something inside me that can catch my attention so much that I can get completely distracted from that which is outside. So that was the time when I started exploring what is there inside us.
How is it that something inside, some thoughts, some desires, some emotions, what exactly is there that can consume our attention so much that even when something likeable is there outside, still we can’t experience that. All of us may have had experiences like this. Suppose we have gone to a party or a festival, maybe a wedding or someone and there is a big feast over there.
But before that feast, if somebody speaks some harsh words to us, then even if that feast is delicious, we can’t taste it. Do any of you have any such experience? Yeah, thank you. So, maybe not this experience but all of us have this experience that even when the physical reality is enjoyable, if something is obstructing us at the level of the mind inside us, then we can’t enjoy that physical reality.
We can’t enjoy. So, there is our experience of reality which doesn’t depend on the reality alone. It depends on something inside us.
And that something inside, what it is? What is it and how does it affect us? So, when we say the mind creates our reality, the reality is what it is. But the mind creates our experience of that reality. And our experience of that reality is the reality for us.
Because we may be eating a delicious feast but if we are experiencing agony, if we are experiencing anger, if we are experiencing resentment, then that’s the reality for us. So, that’s how the mind filters our experience of reality and creates a different reality for us. And how does this happen? So, what exactly is the mind? There is a prominent western philosopher, he said that, I refuse to study the mind.
Because, he said, the mind has no locus tendae. The mind has no measurable physical existence. The sound system seems to have mind of its own now.
So, the mind is not something that we can physically measure or even physically locate. And yet, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, I think this is good enough. Let’s try it out.
So, the mind is something that has a tangible result on physical reality. If you look back at the history of science, when science started in the after the renaissance, there was the reformation and then the scientific revolution. If you look at European history, from the 17th, 16th, 17th centuries onwards, when it started off, at that time scientists decided that in order to pursue the cause of the advancement of science, they would focus on measurable parameters within reality.
So, length, breadth, height, velocity, the density, these are measurable parameters. And that’s what they decided to focus on and they called these as primary qualities. And everything that was non-measurable, that’s called as secondary quality.
Now, if we consider our experience of reality, in our experience, what science considers as secondary qualities, they are our primary experience. Say, suppose after this programme, there is a feast. Don’t suppose, there is food.
But, suppose there is some delicious item and you like that item and then you go back to your room and then you have your room partners, colleagues and you tell them, I enjoyed, I had a delicious feast. What was there over there? Say, okay, there was a desert. What was the desert? And suppose you start describing the mathematically the ingredients of the desert.
Now, okay, I had a desert. It had 30%, it had 10% sugar and 30% rice and 50% milk and 10% dry fruits. That’s okay.
What was it? And how would it taste? The measurable parameters do matter. No doubt. But they are not what we primarily experience when we experience reality.
When we meet someone, now we may look at their physical dimensions. But if you want to know them well, we look beyond that to their personality, their nature, their characteristics. So, basically the what science deems as secondary qualities, they primarily define our experience.
And in the scientific world view, because the mind is not physically measurable, nor are the what the mind deals with thoughts, emotions, nor are these physically measurable. So because of these, these are left out. They are relegated to the level of secondary qualities.
Now, if we consider in today’s world, one of the biggest fears is a fear that was not present about 10-15 years ago. Actually, if you look at the top 10 fears in the 18th century, 19th century, 20th century, 21st century, historians have found that there are two fears that have been added in the 21st century. One is the fear of terrorists.
And the other is the fear of rejection. If you form a relationship with someone and that person rejects us, it’s an enormous fear that people have. So when people want to form relationships, when we all want to know this other person, does this other person really care for me? And, how can we know whether this somebody cares for us? We have thermometer, we have barometer, with all our scientific technology, can we make a lavometer? We want to form a relationship with someone, we take the lavometer, put it on their heart.
Does this person really love me? We can’t do that. Although love is a real experience, it’s a real emotion, and it has real consequences on the way we behave, on our whole life at large, but it is not mathematically measurable in itself. Albert Einstein is attributed to have said that everything that counts is not countable.
And everything that is countable does not count. So, for us, the mind, it may not be physically measurable, but still it is real. It has real effects on us.
When somebody gets depressed, basically, it’s the mind which is disheartening them internally. The physical level, things are going on okay. I’ll explain depression a little later in terms of how the mind acts on it.
But when somebody commits suicide, suicide is when the mind is attacking them so much that the mind ends up killing the body. So the mind has real effects on our lives. Now, because science focusses only on physical reality, so science does not have a very clear understanding of what the mind is.
Psychology originally started as study of the mind, of psyche, but now most psychologists consider psychology to be the study of behaviour. Because they say mind is not measurable, mind is not tangible. So what exactly is the mind? The Bhagavad Gita is an ancient and time-honoured yoga text which offers us a three-level model of the self and which gives us a very sensible and workable understanding of what the mind is.
So it explains that reality is three-level. It’s physical, mental and spiritual. This can be compared to a computer system, whether the hardware, software and user.
The hardware is like the body, the physical reality, the software is the mind and the self, the consciousness, the soul, that is spiritual reality. In the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, in verses 8 and 9, Krishna explains how the mind functions. So there he says the five senses that we have, the five knowledge-acquiring senses.
Does anyone know which are those senses? Which ones? Eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Yes, thank you. So now these five knowledge-acquiring senses are like the five fingers.
They are centred around the palm. So Krishna says, just as the fingers are centred around the palm, similarly the five senses, Krishna says, are centred around the mind. So the mind integrates the inputs of the five senses and presents it to the soul.
And that’s why the physical reality is out there, the mind is here, inside, and inside at a deeper level is the soul. So the mind and the soul are not the same thing. We are different from our mind.
And this understanding that the emotions that I experience, the thoughts that come within me, the desires that arise within me, they are there within me but they are not me. This understanding is critical for effective self-management. That I am different from my mind.
And this understanding is not as abstract or esoteric as it may seem. Even in normal usage it’s implicit. Consider, what are the activities of the mind, at the software level, at the hardware level.
At the hardware level, we give an input, we type the keys, something is displayed, or some printing happens, if it’s a computer operating a device, then the device moves. At the hardware level, physical things happen. At the software level, information processing occurs.
So similarly, at the level of the mind, basically, this is physical reality, this is spiritual reality, in between is the mind. At the level of the mind, there are thoughts, feelings, emotions, and intentions. Now let’s look at the basic item in the mental world.
That is thought. We ourselves use the word thought in two distinct senses. One is, I just got a thought.
And the second is, I have given this a lot of thought. Can you sense the difference? I just got a thought. I have given this a lot of thought.
In the first case, thought refers to some stimulus that has popped up in our inner world, in our mind. Whereas, I have given this a lot of thought, that thought refers to systematic, sustained attention and analysis that we have given to a particular subject. So this means, thought is something which occurs to us.
Where does it occur? It occurs on the mind. And thought is something that we give, that means we give our attention. So, going continue with the software example, if we compare this mind to be like a software which integrates inputs.
Suppose there is a high security building. Suppose there is a high security building where, say, I was a few months ago in London. So I had a presentation there in one of the prominent banks.
So when we are going into the bank over there, at that time, we passed by the central security room over there. And I saw in the central security room they had a big screen. And on that screen, they had many small, small windows.
And on all those windows, do we need this? So, in all those windows, there were inputs coming in from the cameras that were kept at all the strategic points in that building. All the entry points, exit points. So the security in charge could monitor everything.
Similarly, if we imagine a big screen with five windows to it. So that is like our mind. And what are those five windows? Yes, thank you.
The five senses. So, right now, for example, with your ears, you are hearing something. That’s one input coming in.
With the eyes, you are seeing something. So now, this is forming a coherent picture. And then you are processing reality.
So if at this moment, these windows are all open and depending on what interests us, then we click, we mentally sort of pay attention to it. And that zooms out. And that absorbs our attention.
So right now also, at a physical level, you might be getting some sensation. You might be feeling this room is a little too cold, or it’s a little too hot. Sitting on the floor is not so comfortable.
You may have all those sensations coming in you, but if you find the subject interesting, then you will, okay, that is there. I won’t pay so much attention. I can manage it.
I can tolerate it. So you will intentionally get the sound and the sight window. You will focus on that.
That’s what will zoom out. But suppose the back door opens and somebody brings in some very fragrant food item. Maybe, what is a very fragrant food item? Sorry? Kesari? Now, any fragrant food item that you can think of? Sorry? Pakoras.
Okay. Pakoras. So as soon as pakoras come in, what will happen? The fragrance comes into our nose and the nose window will zoom out.
It will completely occupy the inner screen and then whatever is being spoken, a thing will register. Oh, pakoras are there. When will I get it? When will this class get over? How many pakoras will be there per person? Will I get enough? So all those thoughts will start coming in.
So although the physical reality is the same in the same room, but while at one moment you are experiencing the class, other moment you start experiencing something else. A food item. So in this way, we are the observers of what appears on the mind.
And what appears on the mind shapes our experience of reality. Now to nuance or to complicate this picture a little bit more now, actually on this inner screen, there are not just five windows. There is also a sixth window.
And the sixth window is imagination. All of us have a capacity to imagine things. And this imagination can actually, it’s like one window, which can open up unlimited windows also.
So therefore, now sometime, let’s go back to some of the things which I discussed earlier. Now let’s go back to the point of the two meanings of the word thought. So I got a thought.
What that means is that in one of these six windows, either from the senses or from my past memory, past experience, something appeared on the screen. So a stimulus appearing on the inner screen is like I got a thought. But when I have given this a lot of thought, that means what has appeared on the screen, we have analysed it carefully.
We have given due attention. That means it has been there on the screen for a good amount of time. We have focused on it.
We have analysed it. And we have come to some understanding of it. So by this analysis, by these two meanings of the word thought, the point I am conveying is that we are different from our mind.
Just as thoughts can appear to us and then we can cultivate some thoughts. We can focus on some thoughts. In both these cases, we are different from the stimulus that is appearing over there.
And we can choose how much attention we give to it. Our thoughts have no power till we give them our thought. What do I mean? Our thoughts have no power till we give them our thought.
Say suppose, going back to the screen metaphor, suppose we are reading some article on a website. And then suddenly some window pops up. Or maybe some notification comes up.
Your friend has updated their Facebook profile photo. Now, that is just a notification that has popped up over there. That notification cannot affect us unless we click on it.
Now, as soon as we click on it, then another window opens up. And then we will go over there. But if that notification is simply there, it will not affect us much.
Because the mind is subtle, things are a little more complicated. That means, normally if a link opens up on our computer, then at that time, that link, only when we click on it physically, take our button and click on it, take our finger, touch that screen or click a button somehow, that’s when it opens up. But suppose there were some kind of technology, where if we are watching one YouTube video and while we are watching it, the screen has sensors to know where our eyes are.
And while watching one YouTube video, there are 10 other suggested videos nearby. And if the screen senses that our eyes have gone to another video, and just by sensing that, that video opens up. And that video opens up as we are looking at it, look at the next video and the next video also opens up.
We can get endlessly distracted that way. So our mind is like that. When I said, our thoughts have no power on us till we give them our thought.
What that means is that link is just there as one link. But as soon as we give it our thought, as soon as we pay attention to it, it opens up. And as soon as it opens up, it consumes the screen.
It occupies the screen and it consumes our attention. So going back to my starting example of when I was eager to watch that eclipse. So on the screen in front of me, the sky was there which I could see through the telescope.
But there was this link, this person did something, this person spoke something that angered me. And then that link was there and I paid attention to it and it opened up. And so completely occupied the inner screen that I couldn’t perceive anything else.
So our mind shapes our reality by directing and consuming our attention to make this a little more complicated now. Because the mind is very complicated. But suppose now if we have visited a particular website repeatedly, say on our computer.
Say somebody has visited Bollywood.com. Visit Bollywood.com again and again and again. So now they come to a spiritual programme like this and they hear, oh Bhagavad Gita seems to be very interesting. So I want to explore what is Bhagavad Gita.
They go in their browser and type B. And what happens? Bollywood.com comes up. Now their intention was to go to Bhagavad Gita. But because of what they had chosen in the past, that Bollywood.com came as an autocomplete.
So similarly for us, the mind is not just a screen which presents certain things. Like if we search something on Google, say if you search something on Google and I search something on Google, we will not get the same search results. Based on our past search history, Google customises the results.
So similarly for us, based on the way we have thought, the way we have desired, the way we have acted, those choices are stored as impressions in our mind. And because they are stored as impressions, those impressions will come as propositions. So I will repeat this.
Our actions, if our actions are here at a physical level, our actions create impressions within us. Actions create impressions. And those impressions come as propositions.
And those propositions shape our future actions. And so action, proposition, so action, impression, proposition. And if that proposition leads to action, then action again forms impression.
Impression again leads to proposition. And when this goes on and on and on, eventually we form a habit. Not only habit, we may form even an addiction.
So our mind shapes our reality by determining what appears prominently on our inner screen. And it is for us to choose what we give our attention to. To the extent we, at a analytical, philosophical, intellectual level, we understand that actually I and my mind are different.
And just because a thought has come in my mind, does not mean that I have to give it my attention. I can choose. Just because a notification has come on our phone doesn’t mean that we have to click it.
We can evaluate. And this capacity to evaluate, this capacity to choose where we give our attention, that is shaped by the process of spirituality. So, the mind is a subtle reality inside us.
The spiritual reality is the soul who is observing. Now, when we practise spirituality, say for example, when we practise Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Yoga involves focussing our consciousness on the object of Bhakti, that is God, Krishna. So, for example, when we are doing Kirtans just now, we could see these Kirtans as just a cultural practise or as a religious ritual.
That’s one way of understanding it. I do it because it makes me feel good. That’s fine, even at that level.
But it is much more. What such devotional activities do, is that they create devotional impressions within us. And those devotional impressions will come as propositions.
Just like any other activity we do, it creates impressions within us. And those impressions come as propositions. So, I have seen sometimes, even if you are travelling in a crowded local, say, Mumbai, if we go, the local has a capacity of 50 and there are 250 people in that local.
Everybody is squeezed together. And even then, if somebody steps on somebody else’s foot, I have seen many people, they just touch their hand to their body and touch to the head. Say, I am sorry, I touched your foot.
Now, they may not even be conscious of that. But if that’s a habit which has been formed, we should not touch anyone with our foot. So, if you are touched, we should actually offer our respects.
So, that’s a habit that has been formed and it just comes out automatically. So, that’s the action which we are trained as a culture that comes as an impression and the impression comes as a proposition. So, similarly, for us, when we practise bhakti, it creates devotional impressions.
And those devotional impressions will come as healthy propositions. But bhakti does much more. If bhakti was simply forming good impressions, then it could be like any other activity.
If, say, somebody decides to read books, that’s a good activity if you read wisdom filled books. And that also creates impressions within us. So, some people, as soon as they get some time, they will pick up their phone and start surfing on the social media.
Some people, as soon as they get some time, they will start reading a book. Because that’s the habit they have formed. So, if bhakti were forming positive impressions, that itself is good.
But bhakti does something more. These impressions, they lead to purification. And what does purification mean? Purification means that we start understanding the distance between us and our mind.
As we grow spiritually, as our spiritual consciousness increases, then we start appreciating that I am different from my mind. So, right now, intellectually, some thoughts come in me. I analyse them.
But, when we practise bhakti, what happens is that we start realising that this is my mind. The mind is saying this. And I am the observer of this.
Let me decide. This understanding becomes clearer. This is three levels I talked about.
Physical, mental and spiritual. If we consider this vertically, like a three level building, then the process of bhakti yoga actually is like an elevator that takes our consciousness upwards. It takes our consciousness to the spiritual level of reality.
And at that spiritual level of reality, we can experience calmness, clarity. So, thoughts will come within us. The desires will arise within us.
But we will be able to observe them. We will have our emotions. But we will be able to observe them and then we will be able to decide how to respond best to them.
So, rather than being carried away by the thoughts, being carried away by our emotions, we will be able to analyse and then act appropriately. In the Ramayana, it’s described that when Lakshman went with Ram to the forest, Lakshman was very upset. Lakshman is what in modern movies you might say the angry young man.
He was very angry. And he felt that Ram had been subjected to great injustice. And one day when they were in the forest, at that time they saw from a distance that they suddenly heard a loud noise.
It seemed like something big was moving in the forest. Lakshman climbed up on top of a tree and looked. And saw there’s a huge army coming.
And as he gazed, he realised this is the army of Ayodhya. And he saw Bharat at the head. Immediately his anger blazed up.
And he said This wicked Bharat he’s not satisfied with having exiled you through his mother. Now he has come with the whole army to kill you. But he doesn’t know the power of my arms.
Today he and everyone with him will meet death at the hands of my arrows. Now Ram remained calm. Ram remained calm.
And he said Lakshman why are you so angry? Has Bharat offended you in any way? He said that Bharat’s love for me is as much as your love for me. Why are you so angry with Bharat? He said is it that in a rush of emotion you agreed to come with me to the forest? But now when you are encountering the harsh austerity of forest life and you are feeling this is too much. So if you are resenting the austerity of forest life don’t worry.
When Bharat comes here I will ask him to stay in your place and you can go and enjoy the kingdom. Bharat felt so Lakshman felt so embarrassed hearing this. And then when he actually saw how Bharat was so selflessly begging to Ram please take the kingdom.
Normally when a patriarch dies then at that time the successors the next generation they all fight to get the succession, get the wealth, get the inheritance. They are all fighting. In India one of the wealthiest family that was there after the main person died the two sons fought in a big way in court created a lot of acrimony.
So that’s what happened. In this case also these two sons were fighting. But they are fighting for what? You take the kingdom.
Not that I want the kingdom. Finally Bharat said if you want the kingdom. So Bharat finally said that I am going to I am not going to go back.
Unless you accept the kingdom I am going to sit here and fast till death. Everybody fell silent at that time. And then Ram became pensive and then Ram finally smiled and said Bharat you have won.
Your love has won. I accept the kingdom that you have offered. And Bharat’s face blossomed with joy.
But Ram remained grave and he said Bharat I accept the kingdom that you have given me but I want to honour the word that I gave to my father. So after accepting this kingdom I entrust it to you for the next 14 years. Now Bharat knew he couldn’t argue anything more with Ram.
So then he said Ram if you are the king if I am simply the entrusted person then let the world know this. You give me your sandals and they will rule. He wanted that the position in the court should reflect the disposition of his heart.
Ram’s sandals were on the throne and he was below. So today if one brother gave his sandals to another brother, the other brother would probably take the sandals and beat his brother with it. But Bharat took those sandals on his head and he went back.
So now after all this happened then Lakshman was sitting with Ram and Lakshman was in a very repentant mood and then he asked Ram Ram, oh Ram why do I get angry so quickly? He is remembering how much he had insulted and suspected Bharat at that time. So Ram just older brother patted him on the back and said you are sentimental. Now Lakshman becomes perplexed and he asks are sentiments bad? Ram says sentiments are not bad.
Sentiments are the ornaments of life. But we need to choose those sentiments that take us towards Dharma. Not those sentiments that take us away from Dharma.
We all will have different emotions. But we can choose our emotions. That means when we start feeling something, if we give it our attention, it will grow further and further.
If somebody has done something which has made us angry, the more we dwell on it, the more the anger will grow. But if we just direct our attention somewhere else, then the anger will not grow that much. So here Ram is also telling the same principle.
Distance yourself from your mind and then observe. Instead of identifying with the mind, identify the mind. This anger is appearing on my inner screen.
And let me evaluate. What is the best way to respond? Normally we think of emotions only in two ways. Either we express those emotions or we repress those emotions.
But there is a third way. Beyond expressing and repressing emotions is processing emotions. We can process the emotions.
This emotion has come. That means, yes, I am feeling angry right now. We can acknowledge.
Anger is coming right now with me. But is it worth getting angry? And even if it is worth getting angry, is this the best way to? What is the best way to rectify the situation? Exploding may not be the best way to rectify the situation. Address the underlying concern.
So to the extent we are situated in the understanding that I am a soul different from the mind, to that extent we will be able to process our emotions, process our thoughts, process our desires and act appropriately. And thus, by processing our thoughts, desires, emotions, we can shape our reality. We can create a better reality for ourselves.
When somebody hurts us, when somebody betrays us, at that time it is natural to feel bad. But we can choose whether that particular incident, we let it replay again and again and again and again on our mental screen and we just depress ourselves by that. So going back to the point of how does depression happen? When something bad has happened in our life and we keep replaying it again and again and again and again, then that’s when we feel this went wrong in my life, that went wrong, that went wrong, everything has gone wrong.
Nothing ever works. Some people say, my destiny is rotten. My destiny is rotten.
No, destiny is what it is. Sometimes destiny gives us a bad hand, sometimes it gives us a good hand, but it is for us to choose what we dwell on. Life determines our problems, but we determine their size.
Life determines our problems. This bad thing may happen, this bad thing may happen, that means on our inner screen some negative stimuli will come over there, but we determine their size means we determine whether we let that zoom and occupy our screen. But if we instead of zooming it, we minimise it.
It is there, but I’ll not dwell on it. I’ll dwell on something better. Our greatest need, I’ll conclude with this point, our greatest need in today’s world is not food or water or job or health.
All these are important, no doubt. But the greatest need in today’s world is a satisfying object of thought. That is what we are all looking for.
We want something to think of that will give us peace, that will give us joy. We need a satisfying object of thought. In fact, the whole entertainment industry is geared to satisfy this need.
If you look in today’s world, who are the highest paid professionals? It’s not doctors, it’s not lawyers, although they are paid a lot. It’s actually entertainers. A doctor who can fix up a broken leg doesn’t even earn one tenth of a football player who kicks a ball with that leg.
So now recently we have the Indian IPL in India, the cricket tournament. Actually, in this IPL, the cricketers earn maybe in 50 days what most even middle class or upper class Indians, upper middle class Indians, earn in 50 years. Now, where is that money coming from? It’s ultimately going from us.
People like us are paying the money to watch this entertainment. And why are we paying that money? Because we feel that entertainment is such an important need that whatever it takes, whatever is the price, we pay for it. So, ultimately what is entertainment? Entertainment is basically just giving us some satisfying object of thought.
Now, entertainment can help, but it just offers a temporary relief. It’s like a painkiller. Painkiller means all our inner screen something nice appears for some time, we enjoy it, but even that nice can create many impressions.
You watch some movies, there is action, there is romance, that creates lust within us, that creates anger within us, and that has its own consequences. So, entertainment can help in giving us some satisfying object of thought, but it’s only temporary. And after that, it creates more dissatisfaction.
Because when we watch entertainment, we see so many attractive looking people, smart people, and then we start thinking, oh, I’m not so attractive, I’m not so smart. That creates again feelings of inferiority. So, entertainment can provide a satisfying object of thought, but it’s only temporary.
That’s like a painkiller. What we need is not just entertainment, but enlightenment. Enlightenment is like the curative medicine.
Enlightenment means that we understand what is the ultimate reality. We are souls, and the soul is an eternal part of the whole, of God, of Krishna. And enlightenment means to centre our life on our relationship with Krishna.
We are souls, and everything that we do is meant to be done in a mood of loving service and contribution. So, Krishna is the ultimate controller, and He is our ultimate benefactor. And in the process of bhakti yoga, we learn to practise bhakti so that we make our mind attached to Krishna.
When the mind is attached to Krishna, then whatever ups and downs we face in life, all these negative stimuli will come on our inner screen. But that connection with Krishna, that attachment to Krishna will give us inner calm, will give us inner strength. And by that, we’ll be able to weather whatever storms that may come in our life.
When we face problems, the mind may make that problem bigger and bigger and bigger. But if we have practised bhakti regularly, then it is on that inner screen our Lord will appear. And by thinking of Him, by dwelling on Him, we will experience calmness, we’ll experience strength.
And that’s how we’ll be able to face whatever challenges life throws our way. We’ll be able to face those challenges effectively. When I came first to America about 4-5 years ago, I had gone to a university and there I was speaking, I spoke on the topic of regulating our mental diet.
And after that when an American boy came and he was talking with me, he said just before this class, I was contemplating suicide. And I said, what happened? He said he had been in a relationship with a girl and she had broken up with him. And he had become so depressed.
He was wandering around gloomily in the campus, thinking of just ending his life. And at that time he saw a poster of the programme which I was conducting. And then he came for the programme and he said, now I understand, it is not I who want to commit suicide.
It is my mind that is proposing, commit suicide, commit suicide, commit suicide. It’s like a stimulus appearing on my inner screen. I said, this is a life saving insight that you have got.
I encouraged him to study the Bhagavad Gita, to join the local Bhakti Yoga Club that was there. I also write every day on the Bhagavad Gita at a website called gitadaily.com. And I encouraged him to subscribe there. You would get a daily 300 word article on the Gita.
And whenever I came to America after that, if I went to that university, I would meet him. And last year when I had come, he told me that he went through a similar situation. Again he had been in a steady relationship with a girl and she had unilaterally, unexpectedly broken up with him.
So she had just sent a text to him, I’m waking up, I’m blocking you, don’t try to contact me. Shocked. So he just went straight to his room.
And he went to his room, locked the door, closed the windows, pulled down the drapes, turned off the lights. And he had developed, he liked music, so he had his own violin. And in the Bhakti Yoga Club they would do kirtans like we are doing now.
Hare Krishna mantra. So he loved the singing. So he picked up his violin and he started singing Hare Krishna.
And he told me for 6 hours continuously I was singing. Sporing out my heart, calling out to Krishna. And he said at that time I experienced something extraordinary.
I felt as if a divine presence was enveloping me. I felt as if a sublime light was shining all around me. I felt as if I was profoundly enriched.
That which could have been an extremely depressing experience of my life that became one of the most enriching experiences of my life. And this happened because of his Bhakti practise. He had practised Bhakti Yoga that had created a devotional impression within him.
So this bad thing, this unfortunate distressing thing happened that created this stimulus within him. He went to his room at that time. Who knows what his thinking was.
So one side, one window in the inner screen just give it up, end your life. But another screen in the, another window in the inner screen just take shelter of Krishna. And because he had been practising Bhakti, he took shelter of that.
And by taking shelter of that his life was saved and transformed. So we all will face many difficulties in our life. But if we learn to connect with Krishna, if we learn to grow spiritually then whatever life may get us to, our spirituality will get us through.
Thank you very much. I’ll summarise quickly and if you have any questions, we can discuss. I spoke on the theme of how our mind shapes our reality.
We started by the incident of how when I was eager to see an eclipse, but I was completely distracted by something that somebody had spoken. So what is that inner thing which can distract us even from an attractive outer thing? Now if we look at science for answers, science doesn’t really address what the mind is because science focusses on physical, measurable objects. And that’s what it calls as primary qualities.
But for us, our primary experience is in terms of not measurable qualities, but our emotions and our experiences. So we are not concerned so much what the ingredients in the food are as how it tastes. With all our technology we cannot make a love-o-metre because love is not mathematically measurable, but still it is real.
So to understand what this mind is and how it can distort our experience of reality, we turn to the Bhagavad Gita which offers a three-level model. The body, mind, and soul. They are like in a computer system, the hardware, software, and user.
And the mind is like a security system’s main screen where inputs from various cameras, the five senses come in. And there’s a sixth input coming from the imagination. So our thoughts have no power till we give them our thought.
Thought can refer to a stimulus that appears on either screen. Thought can also refer to the process of systematic attention that we give on something. And it’s only when we click the link that the link will zoom up.
Similarly, when a thought pops in, when we give attention, that’s when it grows. And critical for us is to understand that I am different from my mind. Thoughts, emotions, desires, intentions, all of them appear.
They are there in the mind but I am different from them. I can choose them. So now what appears on the inner screen, on the mind, is shaped not just by what appears in the outer physical reality but also on the impressions that are stored in the past.
So our actions create impressions. The impressions come up as propositions. And those propositions lead to actions.
So if we have visited Bollywood.com, even if you want to go to Bhagavad Gita.com, as soon as you type B, Bollywood will come. So similarly for us, our habits create, push us towards similar actions in future. And then how do we learn to distance ourselves from the mind? I talked about the story from the Ramayana where Ram, where Bharat is initially impulsive.
So as soon as he sees, as soon as he sees on his window, the army appears, immediately he concludes, Bharat has come to kill Ram. And the whole emotion of anger comes and is about to burst. But Ram checks.
And then he understands that actually Bharat had no malevolent intention at all. So Ram told him that sentiments are ornaments of life. But we need to choose those sentiments that lift us up, not drag us down.
And for that again we need to identify the mind, not identify with the mind. So Bhakti, when we do regularly, it’s not just a cultural or a religious activity. It’s actually a spiritual activity.
It creates good impressions within us, which will come as good propositions. But Bhakti also leads to purification. And purification means the distance between us and our mind increases, by which we can observe and we can process better.
So instead of thinking that I can only express or suppress my emotions, we can also process our emotions. And by the process of, by the practise of Bhakti, when positive impressions are created within us, we can learn to process emotions much more constructively. So, life determines our problems, but we determine their size.
And I conclude in the story of this boy, who was initially suicidal after a breakup. But eventually, because of his Bhakti, instead of being suicidal, he became even more spiritual. And a depressing experience transformed into an enriching experience.
So whatever life may get us to, our spirituality can get us through. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
I think we have 10 minutes for questions. Any questions? Please. Yes, please.
You said that by doing Bhakti, we can separate our mind from our soul. Yeah. What activities include Bhakti? What are the activities that come under Bhakti? Okay.
So what are the activities that come under Bhakti which can help us to distance ourselves from our mind? Primarily, we can talk about in terms of A, B, C, D. So, A is Association. Association of others who are devotionally minded. It is vital.
Because our desires are shaped by our association. Whenever… If we want to cultivate spiritual… We have certain desires which will be harmful for us also. We want to cultivate healthier desires.
Then, how do we do that? It is by association. Association… Our desires are not just linear. They are also triangular.
Triangular means what? That sometimes we see an object and we get a desire for it. But sometimes, just seeing it does not create a desire. Seeing someone else enjoying that object creates a desire within us.
That’s why when any new product is launched by a company, they have celebrities advertising it. So, if a cricket superstar says, I am using this phone. Oh, everybody wants to use that phone.
So basically, if we come in association, then that association taps the triangularity of our desires. Many of us know about bhakti from our upbringing. But when we come with others who are practising bhakti from a similar background like us, they have gone along this journey.
Then seeing them practise kindles our desires, strengthens our desires. B is books. So, our social aspect is taken care of by association.
But we have an intellectual side also. So, we have philosophical questions. We may have rational enquiries.
So, the study of books like the Bhagavad Gita helps us to understand the philosophy. And then gives us intellectual conviction to practise bhakti. And C is chanting.
Chanting refers to the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra. This is namaskara and remembering the names of God is the central limb of bhakti. And that connects us with Krishna in a very personal way.
And D is deity. Deity is the images of God which we worship. We may do some puja.
So, deity worship wherein we can whatever food we take, we offer to the Lord, we pray to the Lord and then we take that food as the remnants of the prasad. So, that deity worship helps us to develop a personal connection with God. So, these are four primary limbs.
If we can do all four, that’s excellent. But even if we can just come in association, everything else will follow gradually. Did I answer your question? Thank you.
Any other questions? Yes. One question I was thinking, the four processes you defined, is it also not like you are trying to do that and trying to develop an impression in your mind? Maybe it’s past years, but how do we know that’s a real thing that’s happening? Okay. So, if we are practising bhakti, that’s also we are trying to develop some impressions in our mind.
But how do we know that we are actually talking about some reality? That there is some spiritual reality, that there is God, that there is Krishna? Yes, it’s a good question. Broadly speaking, as far as the spiritual reality is concerned, it can be inferred and experienced. It cannot be seen.
How we may infer it? At a simple level, all of us have a desire to live forever and to love forever. Most of the movies and novels are about romance and most romantic novels and movies they end with H-E-A, happily ever after. Now all of us know that actually there is no ever after.
We are all going to die. But still all of us long for it. When everything around us is temporary, where does this longing for the eternal come from? If there was a child in a remote tribe in Africa with no connection to the rest of the world and one day that child goes to his mother and says, Mom, Mom, I want a pizza.
What would the mother ask? Where did you hear about a pizza? If there is nothing in the environment which will create a desire for the pizza, naturally the question will come, where did you get the desire from? Similarly, there is nothing in our environment that lasts forever. And yet, we all have a desire to live forever, to love forever. Where does this desire come from? This doesn’t come from our external, it comes from our internal.
At our core is us. It’s an eternal soul. That eternal soul is by nature meant to live forever.
And the eternal soul has an eternal relationship with the whole, with God, with Krishna. And that relationship, developing it, is the essence of bhakti. So that there is something eternal, we can reasonably infer from our longing for the eternal.
Similarly, if we look at the world around us, science is essentially a search for order. A couple of years ago, I was invited to Cambridge University to speak on science and spirituality. So while going to Cambridge, we passed by the same tree, where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling.
Some people say the apple fell in front of him, some people say it fell on him. Whichever way, now when Newton saw the fruit falling, he asked the question, what made this fruit fall? And it is his brilliance that he from that simple observation came to the conclusion about the theory of gravity, inferred about it. But there is question itself implies an assumption.
When he asked, what made this fruit fall? That means there is an assumption that things don’t happen by chance. Things happen in an orderly way. In fact, all of science is founded on this assumption that nature behaves in an orderly way.
Now, why should nature behave in an orderly way? If all of nature were simply the result of unguided natural processes, then why would those unguided natural processes ever behave according to not just an order, but an order of mathematical precision. If you say, it is maths for real trigonometry, sine, cosine, do they exist in nature? In many ways, advanced mathematical concepts are constructs of the mind. If the world out there is a product of unguided natural forces, if the mind in here, if our rational faculty are intelligent, that’s also a product of unguided natural forces, then why should there be a correlation between the two? Why should the way our mind thinks and the way the world works correlate? F is equal to G, M1, M2 upon R square or E is equal to MC square.
These are complex equations. These are specific, very specific, precise equations. Now, why should this equality exist in nature? Srinivas Ramanujan, India’s prominent mathematician, he said that, an equation for me has no meaning unless it represents a thought of God.
E is equal to MC square is a thought of God. Newton himself said that, O father, I think thy thoughts after thee. He saw his scientific discoveries as spiritual insights into the way God had fashioned nature.
So, the very orderliness of nature, it requires an explanation. Some people think science and spirituality or science and God are opposites. Not at all.
God is the explanatory foundation of science. Science can explain nature but the explainability of nature requires an explanation. The explainability of nature, why is nature mathematically explainable? The explainability of nature requires an explanation and the most reasonable explanation for that is that the world out there and the brain in here are not shaped by random unguided natural processes.
There is some higher intelligence that has shaped both of them and that’s why we are able to find that order. So, by reasonable scientific inference, reasonable inference from our knowledge of nature through science, we can infer that there is a higher intelligence governing the world. So, our own eternality and the existence of eternal realm and the existence of higher intelligence, we can infer reasonably and beyond that, if we practise spirituality, we practise Bhakti Yoga regularly, then Bhakti Yoga, as I said, it raises our consciousness to the spiritual level.
When we become adequately spiritually advanced, we can perceive the spiritual reality ourselves, but that requires time. So, when we go to a doctor, we have to put faith in the doctor to take the medicine, but we don’t put blind faith. What we put is reasonable faith.
Reasonable faith has two characteristics. First is that it is sensible. Before we go to the doctor or before we take the medicine, we evaluate the diagnosis.
Say, if my stomach is paining, I go to a doctor and the doctor says, we have to amputate your leg. What? This doesn’t make any sense to me. So, first of all, what the doctor says has to make sense, sensible.
And then, after that, it is verifiable. That means that after we take the medicine, it should cure us. The doctor says, after three days, you will feel better.
The stomach pain will go away. So, we check it. Similarly, with respect to spirituality, we can see whether this makes sense.
So, the inferences that I have talked about, they do make sense. And then, the verifiability is if we practise it. We practise the process of bhakti and it helps us to become calmer, to become purer.
Then, that acts like an inner confirmation for us. Thank you. Any other questions? If not, I have a final question.
Okay. You have a question? You understand that we hear from various speakers about how to distance your mind from the desires and thoughts that come into you. But, although knowing that, you still sometimes, not sometimes, many a times, you tell yourself, okay, I am not going to do this.
Because, if I do this, this will happen. But, you end up doing it. So, is that your free will that makes you do it or is it because there is some karma behind it? So, even after resolving not to do a particular thing, we still keep doing it again and again.
Is it because of our free will or our karma? It is both. I will give a simple example to illustrate why this happens and what we can do about it. Say, if this floor is tilted like this and on this side there is some expensive electronic equipment, which you don’t want to be exposed to water.
Now, if some water spills on this floor, naturally the water is going to flow towards that equipment. Because that floor is inclined like that. Now, just our willpower here, the water should not flow like this.
That is not going to affect it. So, similarly for us, we can say our mental floor gets inclined in particular ways by the way we have acted in the past. So, if in the past, when bad things have happened, we have got depressed or we get angry and explode at others, then now something bad happens, that is the default reaction towards which we will go.
It is not that that doesn’t make us bad people, that just makes us conditioned people. If the water is flowing in this way, what do we do? Three things. First is restriction.
Create some restriction by which the water will not reach the objects. Similarly, for us, in our life, if we can create some restriction, say, if somebody is alcoholic, extreme example, and they want to give up alcohol, and if their house is right next to a bar, then it is almost impossible for them to ever give up alcohol. So, one restriction which they could create is in my physical proximity, I will not keep alcohol.
So, some physical restriction always helps. What it will be that we can think of, I spoke at Google last year, and Google they had done an experiment, that a lot of people were suffering from obesity. And for Google, that also means they have to pay more health insurance to people.
So, they consulted some experts and they said that all the candies and all the sweets that are there in your cafeteria, just cover them with non-transparent paper. Not paper that is promoting the products, just non-transparent paper. And they found, just by doing this, almost 30% of the sales of those candies decreased.
And the consumption also decreased. So, what happened is something is out of sight, to some extent it goes out of the mind. That’s not the solution.
If somebody wants to eat, they will order it, they will ask it and they will get it. But that’s the beginning. It’s the beginning.
Restriction. So, restriction is required. Second is redirection.
If the water is going in this direction, we consciously push the water in the other direction. We may get some broom or some mop or some brush and push it in the other direction. Similarly for us, we have to get the right tool to push our thoughts in the other direction.
And this is where again bhakti comes in the picture. See, we may practise our bhakti as a part of our sadhana, but when that impulse comes, at that time we should be able to practise bhakti. So, we should find out within the activities of bhakti, what is it that we like.
If this is a circle of the things that we like and this is a circle of bhakti, we find some intersection between the two. Like this boy, for him that intersection lay in music. He liked music and in bhakti also there is music.
So, what happens, if we find something like that, then when our thoughts are rushing in one particular direction, just to intellectually think, I don’t want to think like this. It’s not going to work. We need to give some other direction for our thoughts.
So, it might be kirtan, it might be just darshan, we might keep some nice pictures of the deities in front of us or it might be some wisdom quotes. We might keep some spiritual quotes in our phone. So, something which can direct our thoughts in the opposite direction and then we consciously expose ourselves to that.
That becomes a tool with which you can push the water in the opposite direction. And the last is reconstruction. The floor is like this, we want to make it like this, so that the water will not flow in this direction.
So, ultimately the process of bhakti, if it is done sustainably, in a sustained way, that will change the inclination of our inner floor. For all of us, in different activities, it may take different amounts of time. But if you just keep doing bhakti, then the floor’s inclination will change.
When that happens, then the inner struggle goes away. Till that time, the inner struggle will be there. So, we have to be ready for that struggle with restriction and redirection.
And eventually, when the reconstruction is done, then we become internally joyful. Thank you. What you said about, when you talked about, you said that we should follow Krishna.
But we also see different religions, different faiths, Jesus, and different faiths altogether. Hindu also. Why do we suggest that it’s only Krishna? Any recommendations on that? And spiritual paths also, there are different paths.
Yeah, so why do we follow Krishna only? So many religions, so many gods, so many paths. Yes. The point here is not whom we worship, but we understand the concept.
If we look at, generally, what happens, those of us who are brought up in India, we start first with the depiction. See, Krishna is this person who plays a flute. And you think, how can this be God? And like that, there are so many other people who are worshipped.
So, why should I worship him only? So, instead of starting with the depiction, we need to start with the definition. What is the definition of God that is described in the Bhagavad Gita? And that is described broadly in the wisdom traditions across the world. The Vedanta Sutra describes the definition of the Absolute Truth as janmādy asyataḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇa the source of everything, the cause of all causes.
So, there is one point of beginning of all of reality. And that point of beginning, that is the source, that is the Absolute. And that Absolute can be known by different names and different traditions.
So, the Bhakti Yuga tradition in India knows him by the name Krishna. The word Krishna, we may think this just refers to some historical person, but Krishna, again, if you go to the etymology, the word roots, it means sarva-ākārṣati iti kṛṣṇa. That person who is all attractive is Krishna.
So, we can envision that there is a top of a mountain and there is a bottom of the mountain. Now, when we want to… So, the top of the mountain is spiritual consciousness. The bottom of the mountain is material consciousness.
There can be different paths to go from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain. The important thing is to rise up. So, to rise up following the path that works the best for us.
And it’s not that there is only one path up the mountain. There are many different paths. But it is not that every path is going to take you up the mountain.
Some path may take you away from the mountain also. So, there are broadly, with respect to religion, there are three broad schools of thought. One is exclusivism.
The other is pluralism. And third is inclusivism. Exclusivism means, my way is the only way.
So, there are some religions who say that our way is the only way to God. If you are not following our way, you are going to go to hell. And there are some extremist versions of religions, they say, not only are you going to go to hell, we will help you get there faster.
So, this is exclusivism. This is not very rational because if God is unlimited, why should the path to Him be limited? But the other extreme can be pluralism. Pluralism means all paths are right.
Whatever you want to follow, you follow, it will take you to spirituality. But, again, this is also not very rational. At a level of pure logic, if all paths are right, if this is like one big set, then within them, we will have one path among all paths is that only my path is right.
If all paths are there, among all paths, one path says only my path is right. So, if all paths are right, then even the path that says only my path is right, that is also right. So, if statement A is that all paths are right and statement B is only my path is right.
If statement A is right, all paths are right, Then one such path is that only my path is right. So if A is right, B should be right. But if B is right, then A can’t be right.
If only my path is right, then all paths can’t be right. So pluralism is also irrational. It’s like say if somebody wants to get education, somebody wants to get an engineering degree.
Now if some college says, say if MIT says, only one who gets an engineering degree in Massachusetts is an engineer. Everybody else is fake. Say, who gives you monopoly on that? But somebody goes to the other extreme and says, every building everywhere is an engineering college.
That’s also irrational. So between exclusivism, only my path is right, pluralism, all paths are right. That is inclusivism.
Inclusivism means that there is one path and there are various levels that are included in that path. And the way we understand it is by objective criteria. What is the objective criteria? If you want to know whether a particular college is an engineering college or not, say are there engineering teachers over there, are there engineering faculties over there, are the students who pass out get engineering jobs, there are objective criteria.
Similarly, broadly speaking, if we are following a spiritual path, it should lead to two things. It should lead us to attachment to the spiritual and it will lead us to attachment to positive spiritual things and it should lead us to detachment from negative and destructive things. Like Ram told Lakshman, choose those emotions that lift you up, not the emotion that drag you down.
So if we are following an authentic path, then the result should be that our positive side should grow. So we should become more virtuous, more kind, more gentle, more pure, more self-controlled and say lust, anger, greed, envy, these negative emotions should go down within us. So if we are following a path and that is happening, then we can follow that path and ultimately if we are at the bottom of a mountain and we want to climb up the mountain, do we go down the whole mountain at the bottom to compare which path to take? No.
If a path seems reasonable, if a path seems accessible, we start climbing up. So we don’t have to wait till we find the perfect path. So whatever path is available for us right now, we follow that and if that path is right, that will be revealed to us.
If that path is not right, that will also be revealed to us as we keep climbing up and not going anywhere. Then we can change the course. The point is that we focus on Krishna because Krishna is what is explained to be the absolute truth in the Bhagavad Gita and worshipping Krishna helps us to bring out our positive side.
Not just me, thousands of people across the world, millions I would say, have experienced purification and elevation of consciousness by the practise of Krishna Bhakti. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Thank you so much Prabhu. That was really enlightening and I hope we got some…