​How to stay mentally healthy without succumbing to temptation?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Yeah. So, how to stay mentally healthy or stable not getting agitated by either the desires that come up or the uncertainties that come up about whether we made the right choice or not.
See, this world is a place of misery. That’s true for everyone, whichever ashram one is in. Now, for us as sadhakas, if we live in the renounced world, quite often our mind uses a lot of problems.
And often the mind’s problems are more well for the world’s problems also. Because see, the world is going to give its problems. If we interact with the world more and more, then the world gives us problems through the interaction in the world.
So, if I have a family, then I have to deal with the family’s mind and senses also. And so, somehow my karma comes through them. But when I’m not interacting so closely with others, then most of my karma has to come through my own mind only.
Laughter So, sometimes it may appear as you know, I’m a brahmachari but my mind is more agitated than other people. It’s not exactly like that. It is just that the circumstances are such that we are not interacting so much with the world.
So therefore, the agitation that are due, they may come through certain sources, such as the mind. But regarding staying mentally healthy, we all have to recognize, firstly, our capacity. That means, say, if somebody can lift 20 kg weight, and a person sees somebody else, oh, they are lifting 40 kg weight, you can also lift 40 kg weight.
I’ll enjoy my weight. So, all of us have different levels of mental capacity also. How much anxiety can you take? How much burden you can take? How much, say, exposure to agitating stimuli you can take? So, if you find that, our capacity can also increase over time.
But, we shouldn’t think that that will happen overnight. So, since we take care of our worldly health, we find that something is agitating us too much. We may not be able to give it up.
But we can try to create some arrangement by which we can regulate the agitation. If some service troubles us too much, within that service also, we can say, okay, maybe if I don’t do this service, but I’ll take some breaks in between, or I’ll do something else in between, or whatever. We think in that way.
If we think that my mental health is my responsibility, okay, I’m in this situation, I have to do this service, how can I keep myself as calm as possible? Some agitations are now already there. But, within that, how can I keep myself calm? If I think like that, then I’ll be able to find ways. Actually, when we try to whatever service is there, if we try to improve that service, if we find not improve that service necessarily and improve things in that service, but try to improve our doing that service also.
Not just in terms of the quality of the product we are getting through the service, but also improve in terms of how we try to improve our consciousness while doing that service. And the attempt to improve actually gives us the realization of the padam buddhi-yogam-tami-yanvam-payam-tattva. You see, Krishnaji, why does he say that? I can do this.
So, we will see that we take the responsibility. I have to take care of my mental health. Then, you’ll find ways in which you can do that.
That’s the first thing. Second thing is that with respect to our decision, the mind will mind specializes in making us miserable. So, whatever we do, the mind is not going to allow us to do this.
You may think, oh, maybe I became a ramachandra. That’s not the right thing. But you know, you become a ramachandra.
Oh, I made a big mistake. So, what happens is, the mind is not going to allow us to do this. It will always find some reason to be dissatisfied.
There are some people who are, who are, you know, in English word, whiny. Whiny, you know, they always complain. The mind is a whiny kind of person.
Always going to complain. This is not meant to say that whatever is the present decision, that is always the right decision. You may need to change the decision in the future.
But the point is that when the mind starts second-guessing things, maybe it is right, maybe it is wrong. So, at that time, that is not a good time to contemplate the situation. There are major decisions which are to be contemplated.
Major changes that are to be made. All these need to be done in sattva guna. And when we are running around doing things, at that time we are usually in vajra guna.
Or often we may be going towards tamo guna also. So, the same thinking, if it is in sattva guna, it will enable us to arrive at tangible convictions. The same thinking which is in tamo guna, it will make us paralyzed.
So, even if you feel, okay, maybe I did not do the right decision. This is not the time to think about it. Let me continue doing myself right now.
Afterwards, when I am calm, maybe someday I sit and really I have chanted nicely, I have studied shastra nicely, then let me sit and think about this. Then I will be able to think clearly about it. See, even if I have to change the decision, it is not that the world is going to come collapsing down if I do it after one week, if I do it after two days, after two months or something like that.
It is not that even if I have to revisit the decision, it is not that I have to do it today. And usually our mind makes us think about such things primarily when we are in tajo guna tamo guna and things are not going according to the plan and we are frustrated and we are thinking we are not going to do things like this. So, at that time, just put up.
We can’t stop the mind, but we can pause it. Stopping means I will not think about it. That will not work.
The mind is repeatedly prompting something and I have to think about it sometime. But right now, let me pause it. And let me have a time later where I think about it calmly.
Just pausing the mind will pausing the mind also requires some techniques. So, we have to find out what is the best way. Pausing means the mind wants to think in a particular direction and to stop it going from going in that direction or to at least pause it from going in that direction, we need to take it in some other direction.
So, it may be we are chanting intensely or just hearing something or reciting some verses, memorizing some verses, praying to the deities, whatever it is. We have to find out how we can actually effectively pause the mind when it goes in wrong directions. And that way we can avoid that indecision which the mind causes.
And overall, we need to have some devotees whose association if I inspire it. So, at that time, we go in their association and we say, I also do something worthwhile. And that way we can calm the mind because the mind will keep us dissatisfied and when we see reasons around us for being satisfied, it is always satisfied, it is always careful, whatever it is that makes us be satisfied, then we can counter the mind’s dissatisfaction.
Yes, last question.