If we don’t even realize when we do wrong, how can we correct it?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
sometimes we make wrong choices we act wrongly because of our proclivities and we don’t even realize it so if we don’t even realize what we are doing wrong then how can we do right our right action as devotees yes this is what happens especially when we are in the lower modes you know one humorous way of explaining the three modes is some people make things happen some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened so in goodness people are purposeful they observe they understand and they make things happen brahmanas don’t just run around doing things they make things happen some people watch things happen then we are too much in passion at that time if you have to do this i have to do that i have to do that but often we do things thoughtless not very thoughtfully and that’s why one thing leads to change reaction this happened this happened this happened everything becomes very complicated and we just get to watch things how this is happening this is happening this is happening you watch things happen and in the end you know some people wonder what happened this whole thing is just we just don’t figure out what is happening so the process of spiritual advancement it also means that we become more self-aware self-aware means we that we become more aware of what we are doing what we are thinking how we are desiring how we are acting and this self-awareness happens as we rise more and more towards upward see self-awareness is not self-consciousness self-consciousness means that you say hang on if i’m sitting right now i’m thinking you know how do i look is my tilak proper how are what are people thinking about me is my i mean just basically conscious of our externals that sort of thing is unfavorable self-aware means we are more reflexively internally okay what am i doing not in the sense of how the world is perceiving me but in terms of my own values how am i acting that happens when we come towards the mode of goodness more and more there’s a interesting psychological psychiatric study that was done people nowadays a lot of people have a problem of overeating and obesity because of that so people were asked in a day how many food related choices do you make should i eat this should i not eat this should i eat this much or should i eat this much so like that so they did a survey and on average for several hundred people in the survey they said that we actually did 12 choices 12 14 choices that’s what they said but when they went back over the day they found they had made 227 choices so more than 200 choices they did not notice it was just like so one of the things that happens is distraction is an invitation for temptation that means if i’m distracted if i’m doing one thing i’m thinking of something else then while thinking okay i’m talking on phone i’m also looking at my computer and without my realizing my hand goes into a sweet box and eat a sweet so what happens we are too distracted then we are not aware of what we are doing so sometimes we feel i’m chanting and i’m not able to concentrate on chanting what is the use of my chanting but to become conscious that we are not concentrating is also a form of concentration i will be distracted and i may not even realize that i’m distracted if i’m distracted and i realize that i’m distracted that also indicates that there is some level of awareness so even if we are chanting and we’re not able to concentrate still if he’s trying to concentrate that at least becoming aware that i’m distracted and becoming concentrated trying to concentrate again getting distracted again becoming coming back to concentration this at least makes us aware of where our consciousness is and this helps us in the rest of our life so when we are doing other actions when we start doing something wrong at the just by the attempt to concentrate during our chanting we have become more and more aware and that self-awareness carries over to other activities so in general by developing sattva guna and by practicing krishna consciousness by which we become more and more aware of where our consciousness is we can recognize when our proclivities are moving us towards the wrong things and we can correct ourselves and specifically if we have some particular conditionings which pushes towards wrong things then there are two things which we can do to deal with it first is create some obstacle between ourselves and that particular indulgence so don’t keep that indulgence readily available you know in google also they had google as a company they had this experiment which was done that there was they had their shop the cafeteria sort of thing where there were sweet chocolates and all such delicacies which were kept in transparent back transparent bottles and as a part of the experiment they just changed it and they put it in covers which were non-transparent and just by doing that the the consumption of sweets of desserts of chocolates among the employees decreased by 35 percent so out of sight to some extent means out of mind so that way if you don’t keep the temptation readily available even the proclivity comes come on do this but it’s not readily available then we have to go through some trouble to get to that and in that process our intelligence comes back to us i should not be doing this so sometimes people have a problem that they they may on nowadays with internet available everywhere the people can surf wrong sites undesirable sites and just one click and suddenly the whole world of the overload of garbage can open up to us so then if we can if that is a problem we have some internet filter or something which restricts the sites that we go to so basically whatever is our weakness we can try to create obstacles between us and that indulgence so that in the instinct comes we don’t act immediately on it and secondly when this sort of thing happens we can ourselves observe what are our triggers what are our triggers means our consciousness has broadly three zones there is a safe zone there’s a danger zone and there is a fall zone a relapse zone safe zone means at that time they’re not very agitated it’s overall peaceful danger zone means the temptation is not troubling us and then relapse zone means where we fall into the condition so it is our triggers that take us from the safe zone to the danger zone to the lap zone and all of us have different triggers so we can become more aware of what the triggers of our consciousness are and then once we become aware of the triggers of our consciousness then we can take safety measures just like in a house there’s a fire occurring if there’s a fire alarm the fire alarm occurs then at that time we come to know that the fire has come before the fire becomes very big so like that as we practice bhakti it is not that the fire of desire will not erupt in the heart but if the fire of desire erupts we become aware fast this is happening let me check myself so that requires practice even if the important thing is not that what we do when the proclivity comes and pushes us that sometimes if say you know sometimes electricity is there going like this if this is normal electric level sometimes the electricity spikes come up and the spikes come up at that time the desire becomes very strong and we may not be able to resist also at that time but the important thing is what we do between the spikes that means sometimes we say oh i’ve fallen down now so let me fall down completely no you’ve fallen down okay arise now there’s no need to fall down further just because i have fallen down the mind often plays a very dangerous double role what is that double role first the mind makes us do wrong thing come on do this you’ll enjoy do this you’ll enjoy do this you’ll enjoy and then after we do it and we say there’s so little pleasure why did i do that and what happens the same mind which made us made as a criminal now goes and sits on the seat of a judge and judges us why did you do that you’re such a fool and it beats us up and now this beating it actually doesn’t help us improve it only makes us more discouraged no so either way in both cases we are mind conscious we are not krishna conscious and mind consciousness means we’ll stay trapped in the clutches of the mind so okay if the spike of desire came up and i fell down i did something wrong okay that’s over now the spike has come now now it has gone now let me not think about that let me think about krishna let me by practicing bhakti intensely purify myself strengthen myself so if when the spike happens it may not be in our control but what happens between the spikes that is very much in our control and if at that time we are intensifying our bhakti that time we are purifying ourselves we are nourishing ourselves spiritually then gradually when the spikes come also we will be able to resist so rather than worrying about what will happen when the next time temptation comes whether i’ll resist it or not whether i’ll be able to protect myself or not focus on what we are doing right now right now we nourish ourselves gradually we’ll come to a level where we will be able to resist temptation later sometimes i don’t feel sure about the