How Rama tests Bharata – and how we can pass the test of desires

Bhagavatam class at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, UK

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, today morning I am continuing my discussion on Ramleela.
Yesterday we discussed about how there are two obstacles to the spiritual path. Broadly speaking, there is doubt and there is desire. Doubt is what checks us in moving towards Krishna and desire is what drags us away from Krishna.
So, today on the Ramayana, based on the Ramayana, we will discuss about how the Lord tests our desires and how we can pass those tests. So, after Lord Rama completed his exile for 14 years and he returned back. So, at that time he came in the Pushpaka Vahan, the aeroplane which Ravana had stolen from his brother Kubera and the Pushpaka Vahan desired to do one last service and Vibhishan also wanted to do one last service to the Lord.
Vibhishan had been enthroned as the king and Vibhishan had been enthroned as the king. When Bharat had parted from Ram, at that time Bharat had very strongly said, Oh Ram, if you don’t return in 14 years, if you return later than 14 years, then I will not be able to live without you. So, the battle had gone on till almost the end of the 14 years.
So, Lord Rama was concerned about how he will reach Ayodhya back in time. Initially when they had come, it had taken quite a substantial amount of time for them to walk from Kishkindha down to Lanka and then cross over the ocean. So, at that time Vibhishan suggested, Please take the Pushpaka Vahan.
And then he took the Pushpaka Vahan, but Ram did not go straight to Ayodhya. While he was going along, he took all the Vanaras with him, not just Sugriva, but all the Vanaras who had been fighting. And then while he was going along, he told them that, all of you deserve a reward.
So, there is going to be a big celebration in Ayodhya and the coronation will take place. So, they got down at Kishkindha and he told them, get all your family with you. It’s going to be a celebration, so all of you should get it.
So, get your wives, get your children, get all your family members. And then they all ascended to Pushpaka Vahan and then they went towards Ayodhya. And again when they were approaching Ayodhya, Lord Ram stopped.
He stopped at the ashram of Bharadwaj. The first sage whom he had met when he entered the forest was Bharadwaj. And Bharadwaj suggested that you go and stay in Chitrakoot.
Chitrakoot Adri Niketana Rama. And Amaramayana said that Lord Ram stayed at Chitrakoot. So, after he stayed in Chitrakoot, Chitrakoot is very close to Ayodhya.
From there he came to Nasik and Nasik was the place where Sita was abducted. Now, when he came there, Bharadwaj Muni had requested that please when you return back to the kingdom, come to my hermitage. So, Lord Ram obliged him.
But there was one, he wanted to take the blessings of Bharadwaj Muni, but there was one more purpose. And when they landed at the Bharadwaj Muni’s ashram, Ram told Hanuman, you please go ahead and inform Bharad that Ram has now finished his 14 years exile, he has got rescued Sita and now he is about to come back to the kingdom. And Ram told Hanuman, while you are telling this, observe Bharad very carefully.
If you see the slightest hint of displeasure on his face, on hearing the news that I am coming back, then he said, I will not go back. If he has, while living in the kingdom as the king, developed any attachment to the kingdom, if he wants the kingdom, then I do not want to take the kingdom that he wants away from him. Therefore, I will not go back.
That was Lord Ram’s decision. Now, Hanuman was very touched by this selflessness, because if assuming at this time Bharath had wanted to take the kingdom and Ram had brought all the Vanaras with him, all the families were there, there was supposed to be a coronation, no coronation would take place. But Ram was concerned more about caring for Bharath’s emotions and not so much for his own face and image.
And then Hanuman went straight to Bharath and he found to his surprise that Bharath was not living in the kingdom. Bharath was living on the outskirts of the kingdom of Ayodhya in a place called Nandigram and there he had built a very simple hermitage and he was living there in that hermitage. And as mentioned in this verse, he would eat very simple food, the kind of food that hermit living in a forest would eat.
Now, barley is considered to be the simplest of all foods, very simple and then it would be soaked in cow urine. So, that was the kind of food he was eating and Bharath was also wearing the garb of a mendicant. And when Bharath saw this, saw Hanuman over there, so he asked, who are you? Now, he had not met Hanuman before.
The later retellings of the Ramayana such as the Ramcharitmanas which state that Bharath and Hanuman had an encounter while Bharath, while Ram was going towards the Himalayan mountains to get some medicinal herbs. But the Valmiki Ramayana is silent about that encounter of that kind. So, Bharath expressed a surprise, who are you? And then he said, I am a servant of Ram, my name is Hanuman and I have been sent as a messenger to inform you that Ram is preparing to come back to the kingdom.
Bharath just jumps up practically in joy and says, this is the best news I have ever got. This is the news I have been anticipating for the last 14 years. Oh, mysterious being, whoever you are, monkey or celestial or God, you have brought the greatest happiness to my heart in my life.
What reward can I give you? I can give you the royal treasury, I can give you a whole village, I can give you whatever you want. Seeing this overwhelming expression of joy on the face of Bharath, at that time Hanuman tears in his eyes and he realises that Bharath’s devotion is actually no less than his own devotion for Ram. And he feels that Ram has no reason to doubt, Bharath has no desire for the kingdom at all.
Then Hanuman goes back and assures Ram, Bharath is eagerly waiting for you to return. And when Ram comes in the Pushpaka Vahan, at that time Bharath has arranged the whole royal assembly and the citizens of Ayodhya, all of them are there waiting at the outskirts of the city. And when he sees the Pushpaka Vahan coming from distance, seeing this Vahan itself, Bharath offers obeisances.
And after offering obeisances, he does the Aarti of Ram. Ram comes on the chariot and he embraces Bharath, Bharath falls at his feet. And that is the time when Ram sees Bharath is also wearing forest bark, a dress made of tree bark and he’s also living like a mendicant.
He asks, what happened? Why are you living like this? And then Bharath says, this is a service to you. So actually what had happened earlier was that when Bharath came to know what his mother Kaikeyi had done, he was horrified, he was a bad, he was pained beyond words. And he immediately decided to go to Ram.
In order to go to Ram, he decided to take his, because he knew, because he was a younger brother, he couldn’t persuade Ram. So he decided to take the whole family, take the sages, take the Brahmins, take the royal prince Vasishtha and take leading representatives of all the citizens with him, in order to go and beseech Ram to come back and accept the kingdom. And he knew that Ram would not so easily accept.
So he said that, he said that, oh Ram, when finally met Ram, he said, you know, our father’s word should be honoured. But he says, you don’t have, it is not your fault because of which father had to give such a promise. It is because of my mother’s fault.
Therefore, I will atone for that. And I will live in the forest for 14 years in your place. You go back and rule the kingdom that belongs to you.
So Ram told him, oh brother, now we all have to bear our own karma. Nobody can take anyone else’s karma for them. If we all started taking each other’s karma, then that would lead to chaos in the world.
He says, the instruction to go to the forest had been given to me. Therefore, I will go to the forest. I will stay in the forest.
So Bharat said that, oh, that if you do not go back to the kingdom, I cannot go back to the kingdom. The kingdom does not belong to me. I will stay in this forest and I will sit here and in the Kushadras, I will perform austerity till you accept the kingdom.
And he sits down in the Yomit Mudra and starts performing, starts performing austerity. This is actually at the climax of a long discussion. And then Bharat takes his apparently inflexible position.
Oh, no more. I will not go back. So now the whole assembly that is there, it all becomes spellbound, silent.
And then Ram gathers Bharat, picks him up and embraces him. He says, oh, Bharat, your love has won. Your love has won.
You came to give me the kingdom. I accept the kingdom. Bharat’s face blossoms in joy.
But then Ram remains green and Ram says, I accept the kingdom that you give me, but I request that you allow me to honour my father’s word. He wanted me to stay in the forest for 14 years. Therefore, during these 14 years, you look after the kingdom on my behalf.
Now Bharat is completely outwitted. He has no more arguments left. Then he says, oh, Lord Ram, if you are the ruler, then let the world know that you are the ruler and that I am simply a representative on your behalf.
Therefore, he says, please put your footsteps on these sandals and give me those sandals. They will rule the kingdom. They will be the rulers and I will be the representative.
Now what was in his heart, Bharat wanted to have it demonstrated to the world. He thought of himself as a servant of the Lord, but he also wanted that to be demonstrated to the world. And thus, he would not sit at the throne.
The sandals would sit at the throne and he would sit at their foot and do the royal responsibilities. So Ram actually touched the sandals, put his feet in it and then he gave those shoes to Bharat. Now today, two brothers have a succession conflict and one brother gives his footwear to the other.
The other brother will probably take those shoes and beat his brother with that. But that is the extent of selflessness of Bharat. Bharat accepted all the responsibilities of the throne without taking any of the privileges of the throne.
Today’s politicians are often exactly the opposite. They want all the privileges without the responsibilities. In India, often the politicians are known to be very acrimonious.
They quarrel and fight. It’s almost like a street fight going on sometimes in the assemblies. They have strong violent conflicts over almost all resolutions.
But every assembly that has passed on till now, almost every assembly, they have always passed one resolution unanimously. That resolution is to increase the post-retirement benefits of those MLAs or MPs. They are unanimous.
We got some privileges now. We want these privileges to continue afterwards also. So Ram’s attitude is, Bharat’s attitude is exactly the opposite.
He wants to do the service. So Ram basically tests the desire of Bharat. Does he want the kingdom and does he want the kingdom more than he wants Ram? When he came back to the kingdom, it was not that Bharat would have to live in a forest.
Bharat was also part of the royal family. Bharat would also live in royal opulence. He would not be the king.
That’s all. So Ram tested that. And when Bharat passed the test, then Ram returned.
So actually this world is a testing ground for us. Just a few months ago, I was in Melbourne. So when I was giving a Bhagavatam class one day, what he asked the question, you know, God wants us to make right choices.
Now, why has he given so many wrong choices for us? The right choice appears to be so few and the wrong choices are so many. So why has God given so many wrong choices? So I explained, now that is how it always is in any multiple choice exam. If you have a multiple choice exam, say five options are there, four options are wrong.
It’s only one option that is right. Now, if the correct choice depended simply on probability, then we could say the examiner is stacking the decks against us by giving so many wrong choices. But the right choice in the exam is not meant to be a function of probability alone.
The teacher who is conducting the exam, the teacher also gives knowledge and the student has studied and internalised the knowledge. Then the student can make the right choice. So the exam is not meant to mislead the student by giving wrong choices.
The exam is actually meant to help the student internalise the studies and express the internalisation by making the right choices. The Vishnu Sahasranama has thousand names of Vishnu, which is recited famously by Bhishma and before and after so many sages have recited it. So among them, the two names are Kamadaha and Kamyo.
Kamadaha means, in this commentary on the Vishnu Sahasranama says that you are the giver of desires. And also says Kamyaha, you are the ultimate desirable object. So the Lord is the giver of desires and he is himself the most desirable object.
Now when we have a multiple choice exam, suppose there are five options and we can’t choose the sixth option because there are only five options over there. Sometimes one of the options may be none of the above. But if there is no none of the above, then we just have to choose one of the five options.
So similarly, sometimes people ask this question, is our free will really free? Especially when some people get addicted. Addiction is said to be a state where the desires become so strong that it is almost as if a person has lost their free will. Actually, we never lose our free will.
But when addiction comes up, the desire becomes so so irresistible, so uncontrollable, so subconsciously forceful that a person seems to have as if no choice. So do we really have free will or is it that our free will can be lost? Actually, all living beings have free will. What to speak of humans, even animals have free will.
But the scope of their free will is very limited. Say, tomorrow is Ekadashi. Suppose a cat sees a rat on Ekadashi.
The cat can’t think, I should fast. The cat will immediately pounce on the rat. So the animals are simply driven by their biological drives and they don’t have much of a choice whether to act on those drives or not.
So the desire comes within, the object is seen outside, they indulge in it. They try to get it. Now, even within this, animals also have some free will.
Say, if a cow is grazing and the cow eats the grass over here, now should the cow take the grass on the left side or on the right side? That is free will. And based on the free will, some cows may choose the left, some cows may choose the right. So the desire is there, the capacity to choose is there, but that capacity to choose is very limited.
Not whether I should eat or should not eat grass. If the hunger is there, I have to eat. But okay, should I eat this grass or that grass? So the free will is not taken away, but the scope of the free will is limited.
Free will is there, but its scope is limited. So, yatha aakashi sthito nityam vayu sarvatra govmaham yatha sarvani bhutani machthani upadharaya In 9.6 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that just as the wind moves in the sky, similarly, all living beings exist within me. If we envision the sky as an upside down dome, then the wind can move freely within the sky, but the sky does not limit the movement of the air, the sky limits the area of movement.
Within that area, the wind can move. Similarly, our desires themselves are not limited. The scope of our desires is limited by the way we have acted in the past.
So, when we get a particular body, at that time, the scope of our desires gets limited. Now, often we say that human body is special. It has the privilege of brahma jijnasa.
We can do spiritual enquiry in the human body. Now, if we look at the body from the physical perspective or material perspective, now where is the difference? The human body is made of the same elements as the animal body, earth, water, fire, air, etc. In mind, intelligence, ego is also the same.
So, where is the difference? The soul is also the same. It’s not that there’s a dramatically different soul in the animal body and the human body. The difference is actually in the subtle body, in the conditioning of the subtle body.
So, when a dog sees some food, the dog may salivate. When we humans see some food, we may also salivate. But in the subtle body, the intelligence is more developed.
And therefore, we can choose whether to act on our desires or to not act on our desires. And depending on how we use or don’t use our free will properly, the scope of our free will can become restricted or expanded. So, for example, if somebody is an alcoholic, they have become addicted to alcohol, their free will, it may seem as if they have no free will.
The only choice they can do is, should I drink whisky or should I drink brandy? They can’t choose whether I should drink or not. They’re bound by that. That’s the nature of addiction.
So, what has happened? The free will is there, but the scope of the free will has become substantially reduced. So, the desire itself, they have the capacity to desire, but the scope of the desire is limited. Now, when the scope is limited, even within that choice, we have some freedom.
And that, using the freedom that we have, that is vital for our spiritual, for our group, in any way. So, suppose a person has had a fracture, and after the fracture, you know, so say their hand has been cast, and then now they’re told, you have to exercise your hand. Suppose that person had been a bodybuilder earlier, but now the hand is so weak that they can’t even lift their hand.
He says, what exercise? You know, earlier I used to use lift 30-40 kg weight. Now I can’t even lift my hand. What exercise can I do? So, doctor may say, can you lift your finger? He says, yes, I can do that.
So, that is your exercise. So, what is this exercise? This is not exercise. He says, no, this is the exercise for you.
This is the exercise. Lift your finger. They just keep lifting one finger, whichever finger they can.
Gradually, told, okay, you can lift your other fingers also. Then they can lift their hand. Then gradually they start lifting their forearm.
Then they can lift their full arm. And like that, by starting with where one is, one can actually increase the strength in one’s arm. And similarly, with respect to our desires, we have conditionings.
Conditionings, what does it mean? Like we have air conditioning. Air conditioning means the air is made at a particular temperature. The air is conditioned to be at a particular temperature.
It operates at that condition. So, conditioned soul means a soul who cannot operate without certain conditions. So, if an alcoholic is conditioned by the addiction to alcohol, then the alcoholic feels, I just cannot live without alcohol.
And that is the condition. So, the conditioned soul needs certain conditions for functioning. They are actually not needs.
In fact, the alcoholic would be much happier if they stopped drinking alcohol. But still at that stage, it appears to them as if I cannot live without it. They cannot function without that condition.
Now, it may be true also at that time that they cannot live without that particular object. When the desire comes, it appears irresistible. I know we are told that we should separate between our wants and our needs.
But the nature of conditioning is that conditioning makes wants appear to be needs. When we are very strongly conditioned, then our wants appear to be needs. Alcoholic feels, I cannot live without alcohol.
I just have to get it. So, at that time, where is their freedom? So, all of us, we may have based on our attachment, we just feel too disturbed, too, if we are attached to something, we don’t get that, we feel so agitated as if we can’t do anything. So, at that time, our freedom lies in between the occurrence of the desires.
So, when alcoholic, the alcoholic gets the urge to drink, and when that urge comes, it’s almost impossible to give it up. And suppose that alcoholic is trying to recover, and when they are trying to give up the alcohol, and then that urge comes, and they feel, oh, I can’t live without it, and they go and drink it. And then they beat themselves up.
Why did I do that? I’m a fool. I’ll never be able to give up alcohol. And they become disheartened.
So, the important thing is, if we consider our desires, if our desires come in our consciousness, the desires are not always intolerably strong. If we consider a graph of our desires, the desires shoot up sometimes. And when the desire shoots up, that is the time it appears intolerable.
But after that desire has shot up, then even if we fall, even if we indulge, after that desire goes down. And then that spike may come again. So, when we are very strongly conditioned by something, we may not be able to control the spikes.
We may not even be able to control our behaviour when the spikes come. But what about in between? In between we have, and if in between we are acting soberly, we are trying to be as serious, as sober, as spiritual as possible. That will purify us.
The mind is actually a very dangerous enemy. It is dangerous because it doesn’t appear to be an enemy. It appears to be inside us, it appears to be like our friend.
So, suppose somebody sent a WhatsApp message to us. We wouldn’t end that message containing a link. Now, we wouldn’t immediately click on the link and start seeing what is there.
We would first look at who sent this message. We will think what kind of messages has this person sent. Is that person known to send a lot of spam kind of messages? Then we would not click at it.
That means we look at the sender before we look at the message. So, similarly, when a click comes on the phone, when a link comes on our phone, we don’t immediately click it. So, I am just currently writing a book on what your phone can teach you about your mind.
So, taking people’s infatuation with the phone to explain. So, like that, just as sometimes we can say when a desire comes in our consciousness, it’s like a link which has come inside us. So, just as a friend, somebody may send a link on our message, WhatsApp message.
So, like that, a link comes inside us. Okay, come on, why don’t you do this? At that time, we don’t have to click that. So, look at the mind before you look with the mind.
The mind says, come on, eat this, come on, watch this, come on, enjoy this. Who is saying this? That’s not my desire. It’s actually the mind’s desire.
Is it really important? So, if you look at the mind, we introspect, we evaluate. I don’t have to act on this desire. So, actually, the mind, now, if somebody else came and told us, say, if we are planning to diet, and then somebody came and told us, come on, eat this.
No, no, I can’t eat this. We’ll find out some reason to politely say no. But if the same desire comes from inside us, why don’t you eat this? Yeah, I’ll eat it.
When the desire comes from inside, we actually lower our guard. Because we, when we talk about inside and outside, we often still operate on the body-based paradigm. From the body’s perspective, somebody else come and telling me, why don’t you eat this? That is from outside.
And the desire coming from inside me, that is inside. I think this is my desire. But if you understand I am the soul, from the soul’s perspective, even the mind is external.
So, the mind’s desire is not the soul’s desire. So, the mind’s desire is like, say, on a computer sometimes, if I’m surfing some page, suddenly a window pops up. Now, the window has popped up on the page that I was reading, but I didn’t cause that to pop up.
It just popped up over there. So, just because it has popped up on the page on which I’m browsing, that doesn’t mean I have to click it and I have to read that page. So, similarly, the mind is external to us.
And just because some desire pops up in the mind, we don’t have to act on that desire. We can say no to it. Even if the desire comes inside, still we can say no.
That’s what Krishna tells in 2.17 to Arjuna. So, the example that was given is just a reverse flow into an ocean. Similarly, desires flow into the consciousness of a self-realised person, but the self-realised person is not disturbed.
This is a very significant verse because it concludes with this word kamakami. It’s an interesting double word, compound word. Kamakami, literally, nakamakami, Krishna says.
Kamakami means the desirer of desire. This is an interesting concept. The desirer of desire means, normally, we think of desire as flowing outside.
I see a particular object and I desire that object. But Krishna talks here about river flowing into the That means he’s talking about desire flowing into us. What this means is, he’s saying sometimes some objects which induce desire, they pop in, they come into us.
But we don’t have to become a desirer of desire. The desire has come inside me, but I don’t have to accept that desire as my desire and act on it. So, Krishna says, don’t be a desirer of desire.
The desire has come inside from somewhere. It can come from external observation or stimuli. It can come from some past impression.
The recollection comes up and the desire comes in. Either way, just because the desire has come, I don’t have to accept that desire as my desire. We don’t have to be a desirer of desire.
Now, if we are not attached to something, then when the desire comes in, where did this desire come from? I don’t want to think like this. We are appalled sometimes by the kind of desire that comes inside us. I don’t want this desire.
And we push it away. We try to think about Krishna. We try to get engaged in something constructive and we drive the desire out.
Actually, we can’t literally drive the desire out. No desire can be driven out. Because desire is not a tangible thing that we can push out.
Some unwanted person has come into our house, we may evict that person. But desires can’t be evicted. Desires can only be crowded out.
Just like if there is darkness in a room, I can’t say, darkness go away. I can’t shout at the darkness. I can’t curse the darkness.
I have to actually turn on the light. When I turn on the light, darkness automatically goes away. So like that, when some unhealthy desire has come inside us, the way to deal with that desire is not to think why this desire is there? How can I get it out? No.
Turn the thoughts towards something constructive. Fill the consciousness with Krishna, with service to Krishna, with some constructive engagement. That’s like turning on the light.
When the light is turned on, then the desire is crowded out. So the desires cannot be evicted, but they can be crowded out when something else fills our consciousness. Now this is in general the way to deal with very strange kind of desire that come inside us.
But sometimes some desires which we are habituated to, which we are addicted to, we may not even realise, oh the desire has come and I am acting on it. So what happens? The mind is a dangerous enemy because it doesn’t seem like an enemy. It is right inside us.
But the mind is dangerous for another reason. See first, the mind makes us do wrong. Come on, do this, do this, eat this, watch this, touch this, do this.
It just goads us to do it. And after we do it, first the mind makes us a criminal and then it becomes a judge who punishes the criminal. You fool, why did you do that? So many times you made a resolution.
You are good for nothing. You are useless. You have fallen down, now stay fallen.
So what the mind does is, we may fall down, but we don’t have to stay fallen. When that desire spike comes up, at that time, it might just be impossible to resist it. But what after that? When the desire spike comes, the mind makes us do wrong.
But after that desire spike has gone away, after that the mind keeps beating us up. You fool, you are good for nothing. You are a sense gratifier.
You are this, you are that. And at that time also, we stay mind conscious. We don’t become Krishna conscious.
Although we may say this is guilt and this is good, oh I am feeling bad that I did that wrong thing. But the purpose of guilt is to come, if I am here, Krishna is here and some wrongdoing is here. Guilt is meant to come here, between me and the wrongdoing.
But when the mind beats us up, that is coming between us and Krishna. That is not guilt, that is pseudo guilt. That anything that keeps us away from Krishna is actually maya, it’s temptation.
So even if our guilt is discouraging us in our practise of bhakti, then we should see that guilt also is maya. Not that we should not feel bad if we have done something wrong, but that bad feeling should make us take shelter of Krishna, not make us go away from Krishna. If we become disheartened in our bhakti, then that feeling of disheartenment, that guilt which is coming, that is actually maya.
So the mind first makes us do wrong and then beats us down for doing wrong. And both ways we stay mind conscious, instead of being Krishna conscious. And then when we stay mind conscious, we are actually becoming weaker and weaker.
So the desire spike has come, afterwards we are simply beating ourselves up. Next time when the desire spike comes, we are still disheartened and again we succumb. But if the desire spike comes, at that time we may fall.
But then after that what do we do? After that we are seriously practising bhakti, becoming Krishna conscious, staying Krishna conscious. Then next time the desire spike comes, even at that time it may be difficult to resist. But if in between we are consistently practising Krishna bhakti, we are becoming stronger.
We are becoming stronger and eventually we will be able to better resist the desires. So the desire spike will become more and more manageable as we become stronger by our bhakti practise. So that is actually one understanding of this verse.
Even if my devotee commits terrible activities, still the devotee is to be considered saintly if they are fixed in their determination. Now we may wonder over there, you know if somebody is fixed in their determination to practise bhakti, how can they commit wrong? Isn’t the fixity in practising bhakti means that they will not commit wrong? What it means is that even if they commit wrong, they don’t give up their determination to practise bhakti. So if we stay fixed in the practise of bhakti, gradually, शिप्रं भवन्ति धर्मात्मा शश्व चान्तिन्मिगच्छति Next time, Krishna says, soon the person will become pure.
Dharmatma, will become virtuous. That’s why no matter whatever happens, we never give up the practise of Krishna bhakti. We keep practising Krishna bhakti, no matter how much we have difficulties in dealing with our conditionings.
And by this consistent practise of Krishna bhakti, gradually we become purer and stronger. So that means that if we consider again going back to the example of the multiple choice exam. Sometimes, sometimes the elections are there, the elections are rigged.
So a person goes and tries to press this button on the cursor, but the other button gets pressed. That sometimes happens. And then, I didn’t choose this.
I wanted to choose this. How did this is chosen? So it’s almost something like that may happen sometimes when the conditioning is very strong. We want to do one thing, but something else gets done.
But at that time, the choice may almost seem not to be with us. But afterwards, during the spikes, we have choice. That time, if we keep making the right choices, we are becoming stronger.
And by making the right choices when we can, gradually Krishna will help us make the right choices when we can’t. There are times when the conditioning is so strong that I feel I can’t make the right choice. But don’t worry too much about that.
Make the right choices when we can. And the more we do what we can do, the more Krishna helps us to do what we can’t do. But unfortunately, what happens is we just think, I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I can’t do this.
And by thinking that I can’t do this, we don’t do what we can do also. So that we have to avoid. So Bharat was so pure that he had no desire for the kingdom at all.
And he just killed Ram in the kingdom as soon as Ram returned. He was delighted. So he chose Ram over the kingdom.
Similarly, when the temptations come in our life, you know, kamadah kamyo, the desire, Krishna is the giver of desire. But Krishna is also the giver of the knowledge of which, what is the most desirable object. And Krishna himself is the most desirable object.
So when we choose Krishna, we can actually say no to our conditionings. So the focus in bhakti should not be on saying no to things. The focus should always be on saying yes to Krishna.
If I keep trying to say yes to Krishna, the no will come automatically. If I focus on saying no, saying no is never pleasurable. Whenever I say no to something, there’s a sense of deprivation, there’s a sense of loss.
And if we define our bhakti by saying no to something, then we will not be able to get the conviction to say no. So if we focus on saying yes to Krishna, yes, this is what I want to do for Krishna. Then gradually we’ll be able to overcome whatever strong desires may come also.
And for saying yes to Krishna, I’ll conclude with this point, that there are many services that we can do in Krishna bhakti. And there is our sadhana, there is our allocated service. All that is important.
We should do that. At the same time, we can be looking while practising bhakti to find out what it is that enables us to strongly connect with Krishna. Just as we all have sensual stimuli.
So different people, for an alcoholic, you know, just seeing any bottle, that may remind them of alcohol. So they have that stimuli, which reminds them of their indulgence. So just as we have sensual stimuli, so like that there are spiritual stimuli.
And spiritual stimulus in the language of the bhakta, is called as uddhipan. Uddhipan is that which stimulates thoughts and emotions about Krishna inside our heart. And so all of us, we are all individuals.
And just as in with respect to maya, there are different things which stimulate us materially, sensually. What stimulates me sensually may not be the same as what stimulates you sensually. So whatever it is, we have to be cautious about our particular sensual stimuli.
Similarly, for us, for different devotees, spiritual stimuli may be different. So what may be my spiritual stimuli may not be your spiritual stimuli. So we have to find out what is our uddhipan, what enables us to get quickly absorbed in Krishna.
And we try to maximise that. So I find that when I take darshan of the deities, if I don’t recite any verse at that time, I just can’t connect. So I try to memorise verses and recite verses in front of the deities.
And I feel, oh, this Lord whom I’m describing, who’s glorified in this world, that same Lord is present over there. Then I feel some devotional connection. So once I spoke in a class that, you know, we should recite verses when we take darshan of the deities.
After a couple of days, one devotee came and told me, he says, you told me you should recite verses. But when I go in front of the deities, earlier I used to feel so devotional. But now, when I go in front of the deities and try to recollect a verse, that recollecting that causes so much tension that whatever bhakti is there goes away.
So what this means is, I realise that his uddhipan is different from my uddhipan. So for me, memorising shlokas and reciting shlokas is uddhipan. For him, that is not uddhipan, that is a tension.
So we have to find out what is a uddhipan for us. And we try to maximise that. So some devotees can sing kirtans in such intricate, complex tunes that that kirtan is more of a performance than a participation.
It’s marvellous to see. They can get absorbed but others may not find it so easy to absorb in that kirtan. So we have to find out what is our uddhipan and maximise our exposure to that.
So if there’s a particular picture of the deities which we feel very attracted to and we keep it in our phone with us and whenever we feel agitated or we feel disconnected from Krishna, we can pray to that picture. Or if there are some devotees, a lecture which we like to hear and always keep them accessible. If there are some sentences from scripture which strike us very much.
So all of us, if we take responsibility for increasing our connection with Krishna, the process of bhakti will definitely increase our attraction to Krishna. But additionally, based on our understanding of our own nature, we take responsibility for filling our consciousness with Krishna. Then if we can find out what is our uddhipan, then based on that uddhipan, we can easily connect with Krishna.
And that uddhipan becomes a very easy source of spiritual desire for us. And when the spiritual desire comes in, as I said, the material desire can be crowded out. So if you focus on learning what our uddhipans are and maximising our exposure to the uddhipan, then the spiritual desires within us will increase and those spiritual desires will crowd out the worldly desires.
And that’s how we will be able to choose Krishna more and more. I’ll summarise. I talked about how to deal with desires on the spiritual path.
Discuss how Bharat, you know, he unhesitatingly, wholeheartedly chose Ram instead of the King Ram. He wanted, he wanted, he accepted the responsibility of the service of ruling the King Ram, but he did not take the privileges. So when we are dealing with our desires, you know, we often find that the negative desires are more than the positive desires.
That’s, it’s like a multiple choice exam. And the, whatever desires come in the multiple choice, the wrong options that come, they are based on our conditionings, the kind of choices we have made in the past, the kind of habits we have made. But our free will is never taken away.
Even animals have free will, their free will is simply to choose to eat this grass or that grass. We humans have the free will to choose, should I eat or should I not eat? When we are conditioned that we are addicted, that means the choice is very much restricted. So it may appear as if I don’t have any choice at all.
But just like a person who has no strength, they also have the strength to just lift up their finger, if not their hand. So like that, within whatever addiction we have, whatever attachment we have, we still have free will. And what we do within that scope, that is important.
So sometimes the desires may surge up, that time it may be impossible to resist. But in between the surges of desires, what do we do? The mind makes us do wrong and then beats us up for being wrong. So we have to avoid being mind conscious.
So just because a desire pops up within me, that is not my desire. Krishna says don’t be a desirer of desire. Just because a link comes on my whatsapp message, I don’t click it immediately.
So like that, we try to, we don’t act on the desires when they come up in the mind. But even if we have to act because of the force of the conditioning, after that desire passes, what do we do? Rather than becoming disheartened, we focus on connecting with Krishna. And by staying connected with Krishna during the phases between the desires, that’s like doing the exercise when we can, by that we will become stronger and stronger.
And eventually, what seemed impossible, lifting up the hand was impossible, but that also becomes possible. Like that, resisting the desire, even the surge up, that will become possible. And desires cannot be driven out, they have to be crowded out.
And for crowding out lower desires, we need to find out our own deepan, our own spiritual stimulus, that which kindles spiritual thoughts and spiritual emotions within us, and maximise our exposure to that. So when spiritual desires come by that exposure, then worldly desires can be resisted and driven out. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? How is the placebo effect related with desire? The placebo effect is an observation that sometimes when people are just given sugar pills instead of medicine, they are cured by the sugar pills themselves, because they think that I’m getting the medicine. See, the body has a natural immune system, which can act to cure many diseases, very strong immune system.
There’s a famous doctor who said that the main business of the doctor is to entertain the patient while the body heals itself. So make the patient feel, you’re taken care of, entertain, and the body will heal itself. So of course, this doesn’t apply always.
Even in Vedic tradition, there was Ayurveda, and there are structural damages, major physiological damages, when some medication is required. But in many cases, the body’s healing mechanism is there, it works. But when the mind is filled with negative emotions, oh, I’m so sick, what is going to happen to me? I’m sick, my sickness is going to worsen.
Then from the mind’s thoughts, certain health-impeding chemicals are secreted in the brain, and those impede recovery. That’s how psychosomatic diseases, diseases that originate in the mind and manifest in the body occur. So now when somebody is given a particular sugar pill, but they’re told that they’re getting medicines, then their mind feels, oh, I’m being treated.
So then the mental block, which is obstructing the body’s healing mechanism, that mental block is no longer there. And it is the body’s healing mechanism that works to heal the patient. Does that answer your question? Any other questions? Yes, ma’am.
Yes, ma’am. How can we deal with thoughts that come subconsciously without our wanting them? Well, we can treat the mind like a software. A software means that if I’m using, if I visit a particular website repeatedly, if I say I visit the Guardian website to read news, then as soon as I type G on my browser, immediately it completes Guardian.
Why is it doing that? Because that software has seen my past behaviour, and based on that, it is doing auto-formulate. Now if I type G, and then I type something else afterwards, and I repeatedly choose that new site, then what will happen is, as soon as I type G, that will come. So like that, based on the way we have acted in the past, in the recent past, or the remote past, certain desires just pop up.
Just like we may be visiting a clean website, but suddenly a nasty image comes up. How that comes up? We don’t have to go into the intricate mechanism of how Google queues some images on some places, whatever. Okay, I don’t want to see it, just close it.
So like that, when some desires come up, from where they are coming, that is not very important. We don’t know what all impressions are there from where in our past. The important thing is that we just try to take our thoughts away from that.
And when we keep repeatedly saying yes to something else, that there is an implicit load in that. Just like I keep choosing some other site, starting with G, and automatically the earlier site that I was choosing with G, that will not get opened. That will not get auto-completed.
So by making sure that consciously we choose Krishna more and more, the subconscious promptings will decrease. And gradually they will go away. Now if we can find out some source that might have stimulated the subconscious prompting, say they are cleaning our house and suddenly we see some dirt somewhere.
We look around, is there some window from which this dirt had come? If we can find it, then we close the window. But if we can’t find it, the important thing is we sweep out the dirt. So like that, if we can find out what might have caused this thought, we can find it.
But there is no need to worry too much about what thoughts come in our mind. You know, it’s more important is whether we act on it or not. Srila Prabhupada in a lecture says that, to get wrong thoughts is not the problem, to act on those wrong thoughts is the problem.
And then he gives a very beautiful definition of intelligence. He says intelligence means to kill the thoughts before they become actions. The thought will come, from thought it will go to desire, from desire it will go to intention, from intention it will become action.
So somehow the thought comes along. If it’s an unwanted thought, we don’t pay attention to it, it will go away gradually. And actually as we expose ourselves more and more to Krishna Bhakti, then as spiritual impressions which are there in our conscious mind, they will gradually percolate into our subconscious mind also.
So basically there are two ways to deal with whatever garbage is there in the mind. Like sometimes some people, they write graffiti on walls. Now one way to write, one way to deal with the graffiti is to erase the specific graffiti.
To use a rubber or eraser and try to wipe it off. The other is to overpaint it. So the process of Bhakti is primarily, if we find out a particular trace of a source of a particular desire, we try to cut off that source.
That’s where we like to try wiping it off. But if it’s difficult to wipe it off, we don’t know where it came from, we just overwrite it. So overpaint it rather.
So like that in Bhakti, we keep overpainting our consciousness with devotional impressions. And as we keep doing that, the impressions will go further and further into the background and they will gradually get eliminated. The mind is synonymous with the heart.
So very briefly, what is your concept of this similarity or the separate entity? Because when we use these terms very often, follow your heart, we’ve been stressing not follow your mind. So if the heart represents the mind, are you representing this? Yeah. So we say, sometimes it is told, follow your heart.
But if is the heart and the mind synonymous, then should we be following the heart if we’re not to follow the mind? Yeah, actually, moraman vrindavan, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says. My mind is vrindavan. So now, of course, Krishna is present in his heart.
So in that sense, when we come to subtle terms, yesterday I was talking about how when you talk about the heart, it is not the biological heart. So it’s the seat of emotions. Now, ultimately, what is the seat of emotions? It’s the soul.
So the soul is when we talk about the heart, we’re talking about the soul. Presently, for the soul, the mind is the door to the soul. That means, if this room is completely closed, no transparent windows are there.
There’s only one door. Then whatever I want to see outside this room, the only way I can see it is through the door. So like that, the soul has original spiritual consciousness.
But the soul’s consciousness is presently rooted through the mind, through the subtle body. And among them, the mind is prominent. So basically, the mind is a channel by which the soul’s consciousness comes to the material level.
The subtle body is the interface between spirit and gross matter. So now, when it is said that we should not follow our mind, that means that whatever pops up in our mind, we should not be doing that. So the mind and the heart are not ontologically same.
Ontologically means in terms of the nature of reality. The heart is the soul. The mind is a covering on the soul.
But functionally, presently, the soul has to function through the mind. We need the mind for interfacing with the world. All the five senses are like the fingers of a palm and they are centred around the palm.
The five senses are like the five fingers. The mind is like the palm. And we need the mind for interfacing with the senses and functioning in the material world.
So follow the mind or don’t follow the mind means whatever promptings come up in the mind, don’t act on them. Now follow the heart, it usually is used to refer to, if we feel deeply inspired to do something, and that inspiration states consistently, then we can act on that. So the major difference is usually we treat the mind as an enemy.
And it is wise to be suspicious about the mind. But at the same time, it is not that all the time, whatever comes from inside us is always wrong. Even materialistic people, they use the word hunches or gut feelings.
I felt that I should do like this and it turned out right. Sometimes the right can also come from within us. So when it says follow your heart, what it means is basically follow whatever is your innermost, innermost calling, innermost desire.
So within we could say inside us there are multiple levels of desires. So surface desires are very superficial. Now come on, eat this, go here, watch this, touch this.
There are surface desires that we need to reject. But if some desire keeps coming again and again and again and again. Now by talking about desire, I am not talking about sensual desire.
It can be any, which comes repeatedly. That means it is something which is very core to us. And we cannot just, it can come, either it can be a part of a very strong conditioning that we have, then we have to act on it.
We can’t just reject it. That’s why we have, Krishna talks about our svabhava cannot be given up. Krishna says Arjuna, you are a brahkshatriya, you cannot act like a brahmana.
Now where is the svabhava coming from? The svabhava is not coming from the soul. The soul is not a brahmana, kshatriya, vaisya, shudra. But that svabhava is coming from the mind.
So that means we could basically divide our desires into three categories. One is the sensual or adharmic desires, which we have to give up. The second is the desires that come from our nature.
So the desires that come from our svabhava, we can’t give them up. If a person is brahmanically orientated, they want to study. And if you tell them to do other services, they will do it, but their heart will long to study, because this is what they are made to do.
That’s how the body is. So these are our material, we can say it’s a part of our material conditioning, but that conditioning is usable in Krishna’s service and it is meant to be used in Krishna’s service. So this svabhava, when you talk about this desire, this desire is actually much more lasting than the fleeting desire that comes from sense gratification.
They consistently stay on and on. And then we can also have spiritual desires that can come from the association of devotees, of our spiritual master, senior Vaishnavas. When we see them doing some devotional activity, I also want to do it.
That may or may not be according to our nature, but still we feel inspired to do it. So now the spiritual desires within us are relatively few right now. Whenever they are there, we should cherish them.
But when it says follow your heart, it basically means that if something is a very sustained aspiration within us, sustained longing or calling within us, then to repress that will choke us. So the broad way to evaluate whether we are following our heart or following our mind is to basically check the longevity of the desire. Today I want to do this, and tomorrow I have forgotten it also.
Or after one week I have forgotten it. But something keeps staying for a long, long time. If major decisions in our life are to be taken, it may be helpful to journal and put down our thoughts and desires and our reasoning for that in a written form.
When we write it down, then that becomes like a snapshot of our mind. This is what I was thinking, this is what I was thinking. And then maybe after one month we look back.
I was thinking like that, that doesn’t make sense. I was thinking, this is really sensible. So if we find that we take a snapshot of our mind and the thoughts stay the same consistently over a period of time, then that means something that is a part of our very core nature.
And that we need to do. So follow our heart means follow our deepest desires. Ultimately the deepest desire of the soul is to love and serve Krishna.
Follow that. Circumstantially in this world, we have particular nature. So we will serve Krishna according to that nature.
So follow our heart means follow our deeper desires. And how the desires are deep, which desires are deeper, that we need to introspect to find that out. It doesn’t mean follow our mind in the sense of following the superficial desires that come in the mind.
No, that would be against the principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Does that answer the question? Thank you. Can we talk one-to-one afterwards? Okay, please.
Heart means consciousness, if you want to, in the soul. So after we use the sentiments in English language to say, my heart doesn’t feel right. It’s our consciousness.
So we can have low or high consciousness form as you’re pointing to the mind, saying that it’s the doorway. The word Rudra is very much there in Sanskrit. Rudra is heart.
I’m not really sure whether you can say that there’s no Sanskrit word for heart. I will take this opportunity to thank Shri Ganesha for the last few days in speaking to us so eloquently.