How the mind becomes unclear and how to clear it

[Talk at University of Colorado, Boulder, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so thank all of you for coming i’m grateful to be here and i’ll speak on the topic of clearing the mind so all of us have experienced at some time or the other unclear mind just like if we have fog or mist outside we can’t see clearly we’re driving we have to drive very carefully we’re walking we might just bump into something so just as an outer fog obstructs our movement similarly sometimes we get a inner fog where we just can’t think clearly this thought that thought that thought so many thoughts are going on in the inside us that we just get more and more the more we try to think the more we get agitated it’s something like a fan if we consider a fan if it were a say the wheel of a car the sheer number of revolutions it keeps making the car would go a significant distance but the fan keeps moving round and round and round at least when the fan moves round and round and round it cools us down but when our mind moves round and round and round and round it heats us up it makes us more and more agitated so so this inner fog just like if we consider in the atmosphere water vapour is always there dust particles are always there but sometimes they become accumulated so that is when a fog occurs so similarly thoughts are always going to be there inside us but sometimes too many thoughts start coming in and they start demanding our attention too forcefully and before we can actually process a thought another thought attracts us and then another thought another thought and that’s how we start feeling as if we are we’re not able to see things one of my friends he had a he had a big quarrel with another person and after that he had to go for a meeting and he used google maps reach the destination the google maps when we reach the destination but he was he couldn’t find the place where he was where he was supposed to go he was moving up and down up and down and is trying to call the person but that person was not picking up the phone because he was a little late for the meeting they were already in the meeting and finally after seven eight minutes of just moving up and down the block he realised that the place where he wanted to go that was right in front of him but because his mind had been so agitated he couldn’t see what was physically in front of him so normally we think that we need our eyes to see things yes we do need our eyes of course but sometimes even if something is right in front of our eyes we may not notice it if our mind is elsewhere so if the mind is distracted if the mind is agitated the mind is crowded and clouded with thoughts then it doesn’t allow us to see things which are right in front of us also so how many of you have had this experience that say you’re searching for something you search here there everywhere and finally you find it right in front of you have you had this experience yeah many times because i keep travelling so i also have this experience that we don’t keep things in a proper place if it’s too hasty and sometimes things are there but you don’t notice them of course the classic example of that is the absent-minded professor who takes his specs and keeps it on top and then on his head and searching where are my specs so this is all an example of these are all examples of a unclear mind which prevents perception clear perception and then it prevents constructive action so what exactly is this mind and how does it become unclear and how do we make it clear we live in an age of technology computers phones so i’ll use a technological metaphor to explain we have a computer screen and on that computer screen we see various things say if we are watching the live telecast of some event say sports match or a product release or some political event whatever so then that tv screen or that computer screen becomes like a medium by which we can see something which is far away similarly we may also read something on a computer screen now you say if you’re watching a youtube video while watching the youtube video by the side there are many other suggested videos which come if you are reading a news article or any other article if a news article there are many other links to other articles related articles or they may be unrelated also current events and on most websites there are also a lot of commercials a lot of ads are there and while we are reading we need to focus we are reading or watching we need to focus on whatever it is that we want to read but if we read some if we get distracted something else then we will not be able to do what we want to do so similarly we can consider our mind to be like an inner screen and on that inner screen there are many links that are there and we need to focus on what we want to do but all these other links are also there and say sometimes if you are reading a particular article the main article’s text is big and there are other small small links everywhere but say if you go to the home page of a news page then there are many small small links and that time we have to choose which link I want to focus on and then that link opens up so we could say that our mind is like that home page where there are many links which are all there and we have to decide which link I want to focus on so the mind works in multiple ways normally a computer screen it works as a connector between us and the outer world so sometimes some people may have a computer screen which is say connected with the security camera at their home and if somebody comes and knocks at the door on that computer screen only the security camera’s input comes and then they can see who has come so in this way the here the computer can show them what is nearby around them but it can show them something which is very far away it can show things which are real it can show things which are fictional similarly our mind can act in various ways it can act as a simple window or a more sophisticated window by which it can we can see so right now say your mind and my mind is acting like a window which I am speaking to you and you are hearing me but on the window of the mind simultaneously there are many on the screen which is presently acting like a window showing us the outer world there are also many other links that are open that links that they are there so maybe you have oh I have to complete this assignment tomorrow I’m hungry when can I get some food you know sitting cross-legged is a little painful can I sit on a chair this room is becoming a little hot or maybe a little cold so all these thoughts are there they are like links and whenever we click on a link then that link zooms out it occupies the full screen so like that there are many thoughts which are there within us and when we are trying to concentrate then one thought is prominent and the other thoughts are there but they are in the background but when we are undecided okay now I finish this programme what should I do now maybe I can go to my room maybe I can go for a walk maybe I can go for a movie maybe I can go and meet a friend so now all these links are there in front of us at that time we have to choose which link to take so now in normal functioning we focus on one thing while being aware of many other things our mind is quite a sophisticated device so we can simultaneously be aware of many things also but we can’t focus on many things we can’t if we are driving we focus on driving at that time we may be aware okay the person next to me are they sleeping are they doing something the person behind me are they moving but we can’t give their full attention to them so our attention it can span something in it can it can be aware of something in the background but it focusses on that which is something in the foreground but sometimes the foreground and the background start competing with each other so say if we are driving and somebody starts speaking very insistently to us and we turn our head then should I look here or should look there that’s a physical dilemma also but even there’s not a physical dilemma internally also these different links come up so now to complicate this example further see the links normally in a computer are passive unless of course there’s some pop-up windows which just pop up and they become big so the links in our mind however are not passive there are different links and which link will be how prominent how prominently visible and how forcefully insistent inviting this that depends on how we have acted in the past so these links inside the mind are responsive to some extent this is also like a computer browser if you visit a particular site again and again that site becomes more easily visible again google gives its ads also which are also responsive we if we if we buy something we click on an ad then products of that genre will come again similarly for us the various links that are there in our mind they are their their size and their force how much they attract us that is determined by how we have responded to them in the past so say somebody is a alcoholic then whatever they are doing they will be studying they will be talking with someone they’ll be working that one link is always there let’s drink let’s drink let’s drink and if they have kept it drunk repeatedly then that link is very forceful so on this inner screen when different links appear if we are not clear what we want to do or there are so many things to do and we just get caught this or this or this or this sometimes having too much choice can become a burden normally we think of choice as freedom oh i have so many things to choose i’m so free but actually choice means we have the responsibility of making a choice and then we have to live with the consequences of a choice so one of my friends from india he came to america and that is many years ago so in india at that time there are only theatres now in america i think we have this multiplex theatres where many movies are going on at the same time so he went to a movie theatre and he was actually he told me that outside the movie theatre itself was waiting for one hour i think should i watch this movie or this movie or this movie or this movie so what happened if there are too many things to choose from and we are not able to decide then just looking at that itself takes a lot of time similarly if there are too many links open in the mind this this this this this then we may just get caught in that so the mind becomes unclear when there are too many things open in the mind and we are unable to decide what to do what to process we interact with the world in two ways one is we take in information from outside and second is we do action so we have the knowledge acquiring senses the eyes the ears the nose the tongue and the skin and then we have the action senses the hands the legs the speech like that now we interact with the world in both ways but sometimes one one mode of interaction becomes too dominant so if i just take keep taking in a lot of information but i don’t do anything this is happening here this is happening here this is happening here this is happening here this is happening here what am i to do i just can’t think or sometimes the other mode of interaction may become too much where i’m running doing this doing that doing that doing that but i’m not really thinking oh after this after this i could do that i could do this sometimes we are running to do something just run out get into our car and go half the distance and then we realise i forgot to get that and again we go back and get that so basically the if the if the links in the inner screen on the mind are not processed properly then that can cause us to dysfunction so this dysfunctionality is analysed in the bhagavad-gita which is the ancient yoga text in terms of a concept called the modes the three modes of material nature these we could say are three broad patterns in which we interact with the outer world like if we have a car the car may have different gears the past vehicles would have say first gear second gear third gear and in each of these three gears the car is running but the way it runs is different so similarly these three modes are like gears for the mind and in each mode we function in a particular way so these modes are in sanskrit called sattva rajah and tamah in english you would call them as goodness passion and ignorance so i talked earlier about action we we perceive the world and then we act so in the mode of passion there is first action then contemplation i first do things hey i should not have done that i should not have done that first there is action then there is contemplation in contrast in the mode of goodness there is first contemplation and then action in the mode of ignorance there is neither contemplation nor action there is simply illusion because there’s so many links are just opening up i can’t even think about them i can’t analyse them properly and i can’t do anything properly so a few examples to understand this say some people speak to express their thoughts and some people speak to discover their thoughts they speak i don’t want to say that so how many of you have experienced this slip of tongue isn’t it sometimes you speak something i didn’t want to speak that i’m sorry so we speak and we discuss this is what is happening so when we speak to express our thoughts that means first there is contemplation and then there is action but in the slip of tongue first there is action and then there is contemplation so another example could be say a theatre where people are watching a movie and suddenly a fire breaks out now most people well as soon as they even hear the word fire or just see some little flame they’ll immediately run towards the nearest exit and most of the times in crowded places where something like a fire or some accident happens more casualties happen not because of that particular accident but because of stampede that happens after the accident so in so this what happens is everybody is running towards a particular door they push each other down they knock and they hurt each other so this is action without contemplation some people on the other hand which has become petrified a fire they just can’t do anything just become panicky and become inactive completely the other hand some people may oh there’s a fire where is the fire extinguisher it’s there now everybody may be running in this direction but they will move in that direction get to the fire extinguisher and extinguish the fire so in terms of our analysis we can say who is in which mode those who run to the exit they are in which mode passion yeah those who just get petrified ignorance and those who look for fire extinguisher goodness yeah thank you so now it’s another way to explain these three modes some people make things happen they think plan i’ll do this you do this and we’ll make this whole thing happen some people watch things happen they want to do one thing but they don’t plan properly oh this leads to that problem that problem what is going on become a big mess some people make things happen some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened they’re just so lost in their own world they don’t even know what is up there they’re stupid so now uh considering these three modes goodness passion ignorance earlier we talked about an inner fog or our mind becomes unclear so when does our mind become unclear when we go into the mode of ignorance that means neither are we taking in the information from outside properly nor are we acting properly this is happening this is happening this is happening what am i meant to do i just don’t know so when we go into the mode of ignorance that is when uh functioning becomes very difficult our mind becomes very unclear in the mode of passion also we are agitated but we are active this is what i’m going to do i’m going to do it now sometimes that course of action that we may have chosen may not be well thought out we just get pulled by it so among these three modes goodness passion and ignorance which is the best for functioning effectively goodness yeah thank you now what happens in goodness is that we are able to take in information properly analyse it and then respond effectively so clearing the mind means getting it from ignorance or passion to goodness so from just being paralysed not without any action or contemplation or from being just impulsively active to becoming thoughtfully active first there is thought and then there is action so to the extent we stay in the lower modes the inner fog will become more and more too many links will open up in the mind and we will not be able to focus on anything constructively so how do we rise from the lower modes to the higher modes say from ignorance or passion to goodness i’ll talk about a three c formula this is concentration consistency and connection before we move forwards to get a better sense of this whole metaphor i talked about the inner screen or the computer screen to understand is better let’s do a simple thought experiment so wherever you’re sitting you can sit in a relaxed way and close your eyes after closing your eyes you can take three deep breaths with me one two three now as you feel your body relaxing try to see while keeping your eyes closed what you see in front of you although your eyes are closed and you can’t see directly what is physically ahead in front of you but still it’s as if there’s an inner screen inside you on which various images may come you may see this room you may see your home you may see your friend your some place where you want to go your books which you want to study your phone which you want to use many things many images many images may keep coming on this inner screen now while you are observing these images or whatever you see on that inner screen sometimes you may just see a just a dull haze of different colours whatever you see on that screen try to look back and see the seer of that screen you’re seeing something on the screen but who is the seer of that screen try to take a step back and look at that seer try once again instead of looking at the inner screen try to look at the inner seer no matter how many steps you take back the inner seer steps back with you what you are looking for is what you’re looking with you the inner seer are the soul and the inner screen is the mind you can take one deep breath and then you can open your eyes so this inner screen is our connection with the outer world we see things in the outer world only when they appear on the inner screen when we are absent-minded the inner screen shows us something else and when we do a thought exercise like this then we understand that the inner screen and the inner seer they are two different things otherwise we just identify with the inner screen whatever pops up over there we get carried away by that so now we want to clear this inner screen so that it shows us what is important for us how do we do that for that there are the important thing is to recognise that I can choose what to focus on in the inner screen sometimes the thought comes up and we get carried away by the thought but we can choose so that’s the first step is concentration concentration means we decide what is it that I want to focus on so if we are studying for exam at that time we are reading something on maybe some subject matter on the computer and then some link is there nearby if the exam is just in a few hours then even if this link looks interesting we will not go there we will concentrate so concentration is an act of intention that means that I consciously choose to focus I use the power of intention to focus so similarly for us when the mind is just when the should do this this this this all the things are going on like this so at that time concentration so concentration means that we focus on what what do I need to do right now what what did I come here to do what am I doing right now so generally just asking some questions that promote self-awareness what am I doing right now what was I what was I meant to do right now how am I doing whatever am I doing why am I doing what I am doing such questions they promote self-awareness so basically three questions what am I doing how am I doing it why am I doing it so action manner and purpose if we just ask this question then that it begins clearing the inner fog okay okay right now I am trying to decide should I do this or this or this okay how am I doing so I am just getting carried away by it why am I doing all this okay because I have one hour right now and I have to decide in one hour what am I going to do so just asking questions to ourselves that helps to define our focus sometimes say if a patient comes to doctor and says that oh doctor I’m in great pain I’m having this pain here I’m in that pain the doctor the patient says starts crying and moaning now even if the doctor wants to help the doctor needs to know what exactly is the problem so then doctor may ask questions okay where exactly is it pain oh it’s paining in my chest okay what kind of pain is it is it a shooting pain or is it a nagging pain or is it a throbbing pain what is it now when the doctor starts asking questions like this that helps the patient to start thinking more clearly so similarly for us we have when we have this inner fog we are like the patient but we also have to become like the doctor we ask ourselves questions okay we start asking what am I doing why am I doing this how am I doing this just trying to answer these questions helps us create a distance between us and that inner screen and that inner screen otherwise we just captivated by that inner screen go wherever it is going so by asking such questions we bring a focus even if we don’t know what to do at least we start thinking about okay what exactly should I be doing concentration enables us to direct our focus when the when there is an inner fog it doesn’t just lead to lack of clarity actually normally if there is outer fog we will slow down we’ll stop because we can’t see we can’t move forward but when there is an inner fog the mind doesn’t slow down usually the mind accelerates sometimes the mind just slows down just there is one thought just replay again and again and again and again but sometimes there is this there is this there is this it all goes round and round so broadly speaking people in today’s world have two major kind of mental health problems one is depression and the other is anxiety so now if you consider of this inner screen what exactly happens whenever the we get depression of course depression can sometimes be clinical which requires specific medication but that is the advanced most of us when we get depression it is primarily negative emotion it is not necessarily some brain chemical imbalance but when this kind of depression happens essentially on the inner screen some links which are there they open up which are these links these links are of all the things that have gone wrong in our life in the past oh this person did like this to me I tried this and that went wrong I did this and I made a big mess of this so basically it can be how others did bad things to us or how just some bad things happened or how we ourselves did a mess of things so basically bad things can happen in these three ways there can be some personal cause some person who does something wrong there’s some just by the just by by factors beyond our control things go wrong we are going for a important meeting another traffic jam there’s no one person there’s no one person responsible for it it’s just the way things work or sometimes we ourselves make a mess of things we go for something important somewhere important you’re going to catch a plane very important meeting is there and then get to the airport and we find that I forgot to take my passport so basically things can go wrong in these three ways but when our mind starts rippling oh this went wrong that went wrong that went wrong as these images keep replaying within us we start feeling nothing is going to go right in my life this went wrong that went wrong that went wrong and we start thinking this is how things are going to happen in the future also and that takes us into depression so when the inner screen instead of me concentrating on something constructive you just start displaying all the negativities from the past that leads to this depression and when the on the inner screen the links related with all future things that may go wrong come up oh I might get cancer I might lose my job oh my partner may ditch me oh I mean this may happen that may happen when all these negative links about the future come up that causes anxiety and when these keep increasingly and intensively coming upon us then we get not just anxiety but we may get anxiety disorder so when we concentrate what we do is okay all this happened in the past all this may happen in the future but let me focus on the present okay what am I doing right now how am I doing it why am I doing it these three questions get our focus back to the present to the extent we get the focus to the present to that extent we can do something constructive when the mind is telling us all these things went wrong all these things can go wrong yes that’s possible that has actually happened and this may also happen but the point is what can I do right now the past has already happened the past can’t hurt us unless we let it hurt us past somebody has injured me somebody has insulted me somebody has betrayed me it’s happened but it’s only when I keep replaying it and I keep getting fused with the replay carried away by the replay to that extent it hurts me so similarly the future it may hurt us but the future will hurt us when the future comes but the future can hurt us in the present if we let it we start worrying too much about this that is that we become overwhelmed one of my friends is a mental health care provider so I was at a hospital that I was in New Jersey a few months ago I was speaking to at a mental health care centre to the mental health care providers the counsellors over there so one of them was telling me that they had they often they are on the suicide help helpline calls somebody’s thinking of suicide before that is call someone maybe that will deter them from that suicidal train of thought she’s telling that there’s one girl who came and she had attempted suicide and what was the cause you know she had called her partner and he had not picked up the call and just because of that she thought oh maybe he doesn’t love me maybe some with someone else he has left me he has left me in future others will also leave me I’ll be alone throughout my life I’ll be miserable and just that one phone call not being lifted made her commit suicide fortunately she was brought to the hospital and she survived but this is just one now so many times it happens for us that we call someone they don’t pick up the phone but you know what can stimulate what reaction we don’t know so somebody’s say habituated to thinking negative then that one link oh they didn’t respond to my call from that that one link opens up you know when say if you are watching one one video on youtube and we click another link sometimes the the thumbnail that is there that may be indicative of what is there in it sometimes the thumbnail may be innocuous innocuous but actually what is there is dangerous maybe the horror movie it might be some very ghastly kind of scenes so so it can seem oh one person didn’t pick up phone call that’s a harmless kind of link but when it opens up what kind of movie starts from there we don’t know so basically when we learn to concentrate yes the problems of the future and the problems of the past they are problems but let we can only deal with the problems of today we can’t deal with the problems yesterday we can’t deal with the problems of tomorrow of course we can learn from the past and we can prepare for the future but for that we have to be in control of our thoughts the difference between say worrying about the future and planning about the future the difference is that in in planning about the future we are in control and we take the inner screen to the future okay this happens i can do this this happens i can do this this happens i can do it but if when i am worrying about the future then if the inner screen just goes off on its own and we see one worst case scenario and before we can think of how to deal with it another opens up another opens up and we just get overwhelmed so so so when there is too much when there is worry coming of this problem that problem there is lamentation happening about that went wrong that went wrong now those may be issues we have to deal with but we have to know that time i can’t deal with them i have to come back in control so when the mind is running here and there not letting us do anything that is in the mode of ignorance so just concentrate focus on focus on the present that helps us to bring ourselves back to the present and that begins the process of clearing the inner fog clearing the mind the second step is consistency consistency means that if we have certain healthy habits the more we do them regularly the more those links will become prominent and those links will open up faster so now in concentration there are many things which you could concentrate on as one thing i said just concentrate on the present focus on what we are doing but a far more powerful way of gathering our thoughts concentrating them is to focus concentrate them on spiritual reality so before this talk we had the kirtans the kirtans the music musical meditation that we had that is a way of focussing our consciousness on the supreme spiritual reality the mantra which you are chanting the hare krishna mantra this is a manifestation of the infinite in sound the infinite is known by different names in different traditions in the bhakti tradition coming from ancient india he is known by the name the infinite is known by the name krishna these are the names of krishna ram hare this is a mantra made of those names so when you concentrate on that that has a power of its own and that helps us focus so unhealthy habits say somebody has a habit of worrying somebody has a habit of just feeling sorry for themselves about all the bad things that have happened so this is a pattern which has happened so now we want to develop consistency focus on the present focus on spiritual reality so to the extent we keep doing this to that extent that link becomes more prominent it opens up faster so that’s why in mantra meditation we repeat the mantra again and again by repetition of the mantra we want to make that link more and more prominent more easily accessible and conversely if certain links we don’t open for a long time then the inner screen is responsive like say google if we don’t open a particular screen a particular you don’t go to a particular site then it will not come up so prominently in our preferences so if we can consistently do the positive then automatically the negative starts going in the background here the important thing is we cannot not do the negative we we can only do the positive what does it mean see in the inner world say if i touch this laptop and i find there’s a current over there i just move my hand away i can decide i will not touch this but that is in the physical world we can choose not to touch something but in the mental world we can’t choose not to think of something see a simple thought experiment again if i tell you for the next one minute please don’t think of a pink monkey you can think of whatever you want but just don’t think of a pink monkey now in your whole life you will never have thought of a pink monkey but when i tell you don’t think of a pink monkey immediately a pink monkey image comes up within us so if somebody is worrying tell them don’t worry so much well okay but i’m worried what do i do so we can’t not do something we need to have something positive to do so when we have negative habits sometimes when we have negative thought pattern negative habits we sometimes focus too much energy on trying to give that up that doesn’t work we have to focus on taking something up that’s why when i start first point of loss of concentration it is not that don’t think of this don’t open that link no just focus on what you want to do and then when we keep doing the positive the consistency of that creates a new habit and then that new habit makes it easier for us to do the positive and the negative goes in the background and the third point is connection connection means that especially that when we keep doing something regularly then it is not just that we develop a habit to do it especially if you are talking about spiritual things you know if you are talking about connect if you are talking concentrating on say krishna in the sound of his mantras if you’re concentrating on krishna through the message of wisdom that he has given in the bhagavad-gita then the the bhagavad-gita explains that we are souls i did the thought experiment where we talked about we are the inner seers so the soul is a part of the whole and the whole is not just some conceptual uh light or anything like that the whole is a living loving person and there is a reciprocation that happens so normally like i said earlier about the links being responsive so when we try to develop a connection with the infinite consciousness with the supreme with krishna then that connection is reciprocal we try to connect with him and he connects with us and the force with which he connects with us is far far more than the force with which we can connect with him so in other lang other terms it is said that when we take one step towards the divine the divine takes 10 step towards us so that’s how when we try to develop a connection connection here we are referring to a not a mechanical connection just like you put an electric bulb plug into a socket but this is a personal connection there’s a connection based on affection it’s a connection based on devotion when we do that that has miraculous power for transformation because when we can develop that connection with the divine it is not just our power that is working to clear the inner fog it is the divine’s power that comes in because that connection once we we connect with krishna through the process of what we were chanting the mantra that is called that is also a process of yoga it is called bhakti yoga so through the process of bhakti yoga when we connect with krishna it is he by his all attractiveness attracts us and then the positive focus becomes much much greater than what it would be by our efforts see two examples illustrate this say if i want to stick something on a wall then i may have to get the paper then i have to apply some glue on it and then stick it then the two will get stuck together but if i have a iron filing and say the wall has a magnet on it just take the iron filing near the magnet and a magnet will pull it so we can similarly we can develop replace any bad habit with a good habit we can concentrate on any neutral object immaterial object which is positive so developing any normal healthy habit normal means non-spiritual healthy habit is like ourselves finding something with which you stick it to the stick thing something to the wall so in that case it’s our effort that is primary i find it then i get a stick i get a gum and i stick it or i use a nail and hammer it but when we are connecting with krishna when we the positivity that we are trying to bring into our life is connected with krishna then that’s like we are like the iron filing and he is like the magnet when we just come close to him it is his power that pulls us and as we get pulled by that power our thoughts arise upwards so the inner screen is here and the inner screen many negative thoughts are coming the inner seer is here when the inner seer connects with the supreme seer then immediately okay what happens is that supreme seer is at a spiritual level but he can also appear on the inner screen when we chant the holy when we chant the mantra when we study the spiritual text when we associate with spiritual people then there is a spiritual power that directs us positively and that can lead to transformation in a extremely powerful and extremely speedy way and to the extent we make this habit of learning to concentrate on krishna in a consistent way while developing a devotional connection with him we’ll find that the inner fog will firstly we’ll be able to dissipate it faster it will keep coming but when it comes we’ll be able to clear the mind faster and over a period of time the inner fog will start coming lesser the weather will change the inner climate will change and the fog will not come that much and then a clear consciousness will become our constant companion the inner screen will be clear and then whatever it is we want to do in life we will be able to do it much more effectively we will do we’ll do it much more successfully so you all have certain abilities which we want to tap we may have some speaking ability singing ability mathematical ability physics ability managerial ability whatever it is but if the inner screen is foggy and whatever abilities we may have we won’t be able to use them properly but if the inner screen becomes clear then we can use those abilities more effectively so our ability to tap our ability our ability to tap our ability is enhanced by our spirituality whatever abilities we have when our inner screen becomes clear then our ability to tap our ability becomes enhanced by our spirituality and that’s how the habitual clearing of the inner fog helps us to do whatever we are doing more effectively and more successfully so i’ll summarise what i spoke today so i spoke on the topic of clearing the mind and to understand what the mind is i took the example of a computer screen with many links open so when all these links start competing for our attention then we become enveloped by an inner fog just don’t know what to do in a normal fog we become motionless but in a inner fog sometimes the mind just becomes restless it starts moving faster and faster like a fan moving round and round but getting nowhere and our mind moves round and round it heats us up it agitates us so to understand how to deal with this inner fog i discussed about what is this what causes the inner fog we discussed in terms of the bhagavad gita the three modes of material nature but these three modes are like three gears in which our mind which is like a machine with which we interact with the outer world it functions this mind is the interaction point between us and the world inputs from outside come in and intentions from inside go out through the knowledge acquiring and the action senses so in the mode of ignorance which is so overwhelmed there is neither action nor contemplation there is simply delusion in the mode of passion there is action without contemplation in the mode of goodness this first contemplation and then action like some people speak thoughtlessly slip of tongue some people just panic and run in a movie theatre that’s in the lower modes so to clear the mind means to raise our consciousness from passion or ignorance towards goodness then we can think and then we can act effectively so for clearing the mind for raising it from ignorance towards goodness i discussed three c’s then you remember what those three are that is the connection of the last concentration connection consistency and connection yeah thank you so in concentration there are many links open but we need to focus on one thing at a time so to get ourselves to focus i talked about three self-awareness questions what am i doing how am i doing why am i doing how am i doing so we look at our action we look at our intention we look at the mode in the manner in which we are doing it so just like if a patient is too distressed the doctor asks questions to get from the generic distress to the specific symptoms similarly when our mind is distressed we can become our own doctor and ask questions which get specifically what is the problem so when the inner screen starts replaying all that has gone wrong in the past whether it be because of what others have done whether it’s just because of nature of things or because of our own mistakes when it starts replaying all the wrongs in the past what happens we get if all the wrongs start in the past start tripling we get depression yeah and when the mind goes in the future all the things that may go wrong we get anxiety so we if we just we we can learn from the past we can prepare for the future but for that we need to be in control not the inner screen being in control and taking us here and there so at that time instead of worrying about the past or the future instead of lamenting about the past worrying about the future we get ourselves the present through the self-awareness questions and concentration can also not just be on the present concentration can also be on the supreme on we we did the thought experiment where thought there’s an inner seer the inner seer and the mind is inner screen we as souls are the inner seer and for normal perception the inner screen has to function like a window but it can function like a tv screen also and take us elsewhere so on that inner screen we try to focus on we invoke the presence of the whole the infinite consciousness that’s krishna and then then we talk about consistency just like the links in our inner screen are responsive so if we consistently keep doing a positive activity keep focussing and concentrating on the positive then the negative starts going in the background in the inner world we can’t not think of something it says we can’t we can’t decide i’ll not think of a pink monkey so we have to focus on thinking of something positive so concentration and consistency when we do that uh that the positive links start becoming more prominent inside us and then lastly connection that means we whatever we do regularly we’ll connect with it but connecting with krishna is special developing any good habit is good but that requires effort from our side like say hammering nails into a wall or fixing something with a glue but connecting with krishna is like bringing an iron filing close to magnet the magnets force pulses similarly for us when we try to focus on krishna that connection happens through affection through the spiritual attraction and that can very powerfully clear the inner fog because our focus becomes positively on krishna and in this way when we learn to clear the inner fog through our spirituality then whatever abilities we have we’ll be able to use them more effectively and successfully our ability to tap our ability is enhanced by our spirituality thank you very much great so are there any questions or comments maybe some of you can share some reflections if you yeah please so you know if we have a million options in front of us which option do we choose generally it is purpose that provides perspective yeah purpose means what is it that i am trying to do that brings perspective say if after this programme if some of you want to talk with me if i’m here to talk with you i’ll spend time if say i have another meeting immediately after that then i’ll talk briefly i’ll move on if we are going to a meeting to meet someone important other people want to meet us say okay we can meet later i’m going here so which thing is more important which thing is less important that if we don’t have an overall purpose it becomes very difficult to decide if i’m just going wandering for a walk and somebody has come then we start chit-chatting when i spent two hours chit-chatting over there if there but if i have a purpose okay i have to get to my class by in half an hour till then i can walk along and go slowly then i’ll talk but i’ll talk for some time so we need to do some introspection at the in the heat of the moment we might just make some decision based on impulse and that time it’s it will be difficult for us to make a sound decision if we have not done some deliberation before the deliberation means that we look at ourselves and try to determine what our values are what is it that i truly value in my life the values are not just some abstract conceptions values are simply things that we value in our life so what is it that is truly important for me now what is it that i want to do in my life if say 30 years down the line i’m old and i am just a few months away from my death what would i have like to have contributed in my life these are not the kind of thoughts we normally have but we need to do this kind of deliberation by which we’ll understand what is truly important for us all of us are having given certain gifts certain talents certain interests and we all these we are meant to use to make a positive contribution and if we don’t do this internal homework of determining what our actual values are then we will simply choose whatever is the most insistent externally whatever is most prominent most insistent we’ll choose that and we will not be able to do what we could have done in our life so so in a more than a specific decision in a specific situation what is going to determine us more is whether we have done the deliberation of the basis for making those decisions from the perspective we are souls who are on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution and the more we spiritualise our consciousness the more we evolve further so if we give due time for our spiritual nourishment through meditation through study of spiritual books through coming through spiritual programmes like this then that gives us greater clarity sometimes if you ask if you ask us okay what is truly important for us you might just say i don’t know because there is so much of inner fog inside us that we don’t even know what is important for us so our spirituality brings clarity and then what is our spirituality talks about an ultimate destination beyond this world we belong to eternal realm and that is where we are meant to go but how we are meant to go there and while we are living while we are on the journey there how we are meant to contribute that also the clarity for that comes through our spirituality so we need to give adequate time to do some internal homework and determine what are our values and if we give some health some adequate amount of time for our spiritual nourishment then we will be able to determine our values also better and then making decisions in specific situations will become easier and even if a particular decision goes wrong we will be able to do course correction but easier faster so that deliberation to determine the life’s values is foundational for having a framework with which to respond to specific situations in our life it’s like if i’m not going anywhere then i come to a crossroad intersection should i go left or right well if we had nowhere to go then no road will take us there we will just choose any road so first of all we have to do this homework then we can make decisions okay any other questions yes please um i feel like what you just said might be part of do i need to for often there is any place that the more introspective i am and ask myself what what i think is important will that help me be more consistent in going spiritually okay so how can we become more consistent the consistency is not necessarily being able to always do the thing which we want to do there can be consistency in intention and there can be consistency in action so consistency in action is going to take time if say somebody has been an alcoholic and they want to now recover they want to give up their alcoholism now the habit is there the habit has this momentum it’s not that it’s very rare that if we have we had a particular habit we decide today and tomorrow i’ll give it up some people might be able to do it and in some habits it may work some habits just go cold turkey and give up but in most habit there will be relapses so if we define consistency as consistency in action in terms of sticking to our resolution all the time it’s very difficult for any of us to be consistent but what happens sometimes for us is the inability to be consistent in action because this time that makes us give up our intention also yeah i can’t do this so if say i have made a resolution okay every day and i want to sleep early wake early so that i can have more regulated life then we may do it for seven days and the eight day we are not able to do it and our mind obsesses on the eight day see you couldn’t do it for your failure but success especially in terms of self-transformation it is not a destination it is a direction success is not a goal that we achieve and it’s over it’s a direction which you keep going so instead of thinking that the eighth day i failed in seven days i succeeded and that is a success so it’s like seven days i went in the right direction eight day i didn’t go but it doesn’t matter nine day i can again go so we with respect to consistency we need to redefine consistency it is not necessarily achieving at arriving at a particular destination consistency is moving in a particular direction sometimes we may move faster sometimes we must lower sometimes we may even take a u-turn but after we realise oh i have taken u-turn then again take another u-turn and then keep moving forwards so we need to if we just maintain consistency in intention this is what i want to do then slowly the consistency in action will come so even if we can’t consistent even we can’t be consistent we can be resilient resilient means i fall down but i get up again i try something i fail i get up again and to be able to do that we need to redefine success success is not just sticking to a particular level or getting out to a particular place it is moving in the right direction so that redefinition of success internally in terms of consistency of intention that helps and secondly having some supportive association a supportive environment is vital if we are trying to do something if say i want to wake up in the morning and everybody with whom i’m staying they sleep late and they wake up late so my alarm may ring i’ll wake up look at everyone is sleeping i’ll go to sleep so then i may need to create a supportive environment so maybe you know have some friend who also wants to wake up and then we help each other wake up it’s a to understand why this is essential let’s take us the opposite example if somebody is an alcoholic and their house is next to a bar then how probable is it that they’ll be able to give up alcohol they may give it up for a few days but we all in our resolutions have weak moments and if in the weak moment the opportunity for a lap relapse is very easily available we relapse so creating an external supportive situation is also important so even if there’s one friend who also wants to do something which we want to do or at least they’re supportive of what we want to do then they can be either our partner in doing the same thing or if they don’t have the problem it is we only have the problem then if they can’t be our partner then they can be our accountability partner accountability partner means we tell them you know i’m planning to do this and maybe once a week we meet with them it is a little embarrassing for us to tell like that so we need to find a trustworthy friend not a friend who’s going to tell our problems to the whole world but if you can find someone like that then having some external support even it’s just you know okay you know in this week i did this this this just having someone to tell that to that gives us a spur so we’re having this internal redefinition of success and creating an external support structure in terms of the situation or association that can help us to be consistent in intention and translate that consistency into action gradually okay thank you any other questions okay so thank you for your kind attention and participation