Improving Japa 1 – Understand how and when we get distracted

[Seminar at ISKCON, Towaco, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank all of you for coming here.
I’ll speak on the holy name. And I’ll use one metaphor here, which we will develop in this class and in the evening talk also. When a plane is moving, say a plane is moving from LA to New York, so the plane doesn’t move straight.
The plane often gets diverted because of the air pressure, because of its own momentum, because of atmospheric turbulences. And yet each time it is reoriented. Sometimes the pilot does it mechanically and sometimes based on the destination, the autopilot itself works to reorient.
And in some cases the plane may be more than 90% of the time off track. But it is the constant reorientation that gets the plane on track. Now if we were looking on a moment to moment basis, whether the plane is going towards the destination or not, you may feel that the plane is not moving much towards the destination.
But because of the constant reorientation, it eventually gets to the destination. So the process of spiritual growth, especially centred on bhakti yoga, is similar. We want to connect with Krishna.
So we are here, let us say LA, New York is the destination, let us say Krishna. And we want to take our consciousness from here, from where we are, to Krishna. That may be just by taking darshan of the deities, that may be by hearing the holy name, that may be by studying the scriptures or hearing classes based on the scriptures.
In this process, what we are trying to do is connect our, and essentially in spiritual life, connection with Krishna is a process of continuous reconnection. So we connect with Krishna, we get disconnected, and we reconnect. We get disconnected, we reconnect.
yato yato nishchalati, manas chanchalam astir. tatas tonyam yaital, atmanya eva vasham nahin. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in the sixth chapter, the twenty-sixth verse that yato yato nishchalati, wherever and whenever the mind wanders.
Manas chanchalam astir, that is the nature of the mind. It will be restless and it will be unsteady. tatas tonyam yaital, whenever it wanders, regulate it again, discipline it again.
And discipline is atmanya eva vasham nahin. Bring it under the control of the self, focus it. So this process of disconnection and reconnection actually happens continuously.
Say for example, right now, when you are hearing me speak, our consciousness is capable of being aware of many things at the same time. Not fully focused, but say for example, you are hearing me. At the same time, you may sense, okay, somebody is walking, there is a vehicle is, there is a background, vehicle is moving.
Or we may, we have five different senses. And through those senses, we may be getting different stimuli. And out of the five different senses, we may be hearing something, we may be smelling something, we may be sitting on the floor, maybe the floor, the seat is soft or it is hard, we are touching something.
So all these senses are giving us stimuli. And not only are the senses giving us stimuli, apart from that, our mind is capable of perceiving things which are not even perceived by the senses. So today’s whole seminar, today, I mean now in the evening, it will not be so much directly on the holy name.
It will be on our consciousness and then how the holy name helps us to connect our consciousness with Krishna. Because most of us have heard a lot about the glories of the holy name. And it’s important to hear.
But along with that, it’s like, I want to go to New York. New York is a wonderful place which I want to visit. First thing is I have to be convinced that I want to go to New York.
So like that, I want to connect with Krishna’s holy name. I want to absorb myself in Krishna. Krishna’s name is so glorious.
It can free us from all sinful reactions, it can grant us love, it is not different from Krishna himself. These glories we have heard many times. And we can hear them also.
But today the focus will be slightly different. That it’s not that I want to go to New York, for that I need to know how wonderful New York is and I want to go there. Like that I want to connect with Krishna.
For that I need to know about the glory of the holy name. Along with that is the process. That is, I have to buy a flight ticket and board a plane and the plane will go to New York.
So today we focus on the process. And this process involves our consciousness. So through the consciousness, also I understand I want to connect with Krishna.
But how does my consciousness actually work? And then how can I focus the consciousness on Krishna? So our consciousness perceives something in the foreground, but along with that it is perceiving many things in the background. So right now you are hearing me speak, but as I said some noise in the background is there, some sensation of where you are sitting is there, maybe some smell or fragrance is there. So there are all these sensations coming into our mind.
And along with that the mind has its own thoughts and desires, which are also going on. So if we compare this with a security computer, say if there is a building like Pentagon or some other very high security establishment is there, and they have say five gates to enter into it. And there is a main security control centre, where the security cameras that are placed near all the five gates, they come together.
As in this person, the person who is the security head, they have one big monitor on which there are five sections. And what is happening in the five windows, or what is happening at the five gates is being displayed over there. And then they are looking at all of it, and if they see some kind of suspicious character somewhere, they immediately click on the button, click on that particular monitor, that monitor, that particular monitor expands.
What is happening over here? So our consciousness works like that. Not just five, there are many windows, which are open in our consciousness. And at each moment, actually, we are zooming on something.
So for example, I’m speaking right now. So while I’m speaking, I’m doing many things. I’m thinking of what I’m going to speak.
I’m at a subconscious level, maybe moving my gestures in a particular way. I’m looking at all of you to see whether what I’m speaking is making sense to you or not. So now we’re doing all these things like that.
All of us, our consciousness, is doing many things at the same time. Now how does it happen? All those windows are there, which are open, and we are perceiving. And then at each moment, we choose which of the windows to focus on.
So, let’s say, the left gate, the left first gate, something suspicious is there. So immediately that zooms up and it focusses. Then at the right gate, something is there.
You go and focus over there. Watch over there. So based on what is considered important, that window gets zoomed up.
And when it zooms up, that’s what occupies the screen. And all other gates, they may be there, but they get minimised. When this gets zoomed.
Maximised. So like that, this feature of windows zooming, maximising and windows minimising, that is continuously happening in our consciousness. So when we are, say, practising the chanting of the holy names, at that time, we want the window of the holy name to be maximised.
Now we start off chanting, I want to be attentive. Today I’m going to chant attentively. So, as we are doing this, what is happening? The other windows are trying to zoom up.
No, no, no. So, what happens? Our mind is so restless that, say, there is a computer. Not only there are windows which are popping up, but just like sometimes the computer gives us some prompts.
Would you like some programme? We have one window which is open and there is a pop-up. Do you want to go here? Do you want to go here? Do you want to read this? Do you want to watch this? Like on YouTube, you watch a video. And what happens? There are many other suggested videos that come up.
And surveys have shown that on YouTube, when people are watching a video, quite often they spend less time watching the video and more on watching other videos. So, nowadays, because people are so distracted, sometimes they use distraction as a means to attention. How can distraction be a means to attention? I will give you a flight from Jacksonville to here.
So, there the airline, they had these security announcements. So, now what they had done in the security announcements was, most people don’t watch the security announcements. They have seen it 100 times.
So, while this person, this air hostess, was explaining, in the background something else was happening. So, for example, she is explaining the announcement. And in the background, there is a couple who are about to get married.
So, she is talking and there is a woman over here and a man over here. And as she is talking, the man walks away. And the woman is looking, what is happening? Why is he walking away? And each of the security instructions that they were showing, they were showing something which is completely irrelevant in the background.
So, for example, how to tie a seat belt, they showed that an air hostess, she was sitting on top of an elephant. And there was a seat belt over there. Now, there is no need.
So, the idea was, I was reading about this phenomena, that because there is so much distraction, that people, especially when they feel that something is repetitious, I have seen this many times. So, then when we want attention, to get people to pay attention, you have to create some distraction. So, you normally think concentration is the way to attention.
But in this case, distraction is the way to attention. Because we want people to see something, but have something else going on in the background. Now the question is, are they seeing what is happening in the background or are they seeing what is happening here? But at least they are looking at it.
I will come back to this principle later in the class about how we can use distraction in our process of bhakti also to increase attention. But right now, the point which I am making is that there are many windows that are open and some windows open up automatically. And when this happens, automatically they prompt themselves.
And when they prompt themselves, like on YouTube I was telling that, sometimes we complete one video and if we don’t make the setting right, then the next video starts automatically. Then we have to actually close the video. Only then it will not play.
Otherwise it will start playing, it will take our data while streaming. So, like that in our mind, while we are observing one thing, our consciousness, we are focussing on one thing, there are other windows, they not only open the background, but they are proposing this. Come on, see this.
Watch this. Touch this. Note this.
And if we are not alert, which window will pop up, sometimes we can’t predict at all. It just pops up. This pops up.
That pops up. And along with what we are perceiving with our senses, in the mind also, there are many images which are present. Now the mind, see basically our attention can go by perception of what is coming in the senses or attention can go by recollection of what is there in the mind.
I have remembered something from the past and I start thinking about that. So, sensory perception or through mental recollection, through both, our mind, our consciousness, I am using the word mind and consciousness interchangeably, but I will focus on the word consciousness here. Our consciousness can go in various different directions.
And when we are practising bhakti, especially when we are trying to concentrate on the Holi and chanting, then it is inevitable that our consciousness will get distracted. Because we are focussing on one thing, but another window is opening up. Another window is zooming up.
Another window is maximising. So when this happens, you have to consciously turn it off. Turn it off.
Close it. Close it. Close it.
No. Press the window you want to open and it zooms up again. So, I started by saying that connection is a process of repeated reconnection.
Just like a flight, when it is to go towards the destination, it goes off, comes back. Goes off, comes back. So Krishna says, whenever and wherever the mind wanders, bring it back on the self.
Bring it back under the control of the self. Focus it. So this kind of continuous distraction is going to happen.
And if we expect that this distraction will not happen, that is an unrealistic expectation. The mind by its very nature is letting all, is the centre where various stimuli come in. So now, before I move forward, I wanted to do this in the evening class, but I will not be able to explain the points without having this background.
So I will repeat it maybe in the next class. I will try to first clarify what I mean by the term the mind and consciousness. And then what does attention mean.
So if, I will give the example of a security setup where there are five entrance points which come as five windows on the computer. And there is a security head who is watching that big screen with multiple sections in it. So the five entrances to that building, they are like the five senses.
And from the senses, the inputs come to the mind. So the mind is like the screen on which what is happening in the different, what information is coming in at the different senses is brought together. It is integrated.
shotram chakshu sparshanam cha rasanam ghanam eva cha adhishthaya manashchaya vishayan upasankate Krishna says that shotra, what is shotra? Shotra, shravan, ears. So we are talking about five senses. Chakshu is? Eyes.
Shotram chakshu sparshanam. Sparsha is? Touch. Skin.
We all get input from that also. Rasanam. Tongue.
Ghanam. Nose. So, smell.
So ghanam eva cha. So what happens is adhishthaya manashchaya. All of these are integrated around the mind.
Like I had five fingers, they are integrated around the palm. So like that the inputs from the five senses come to the mind. So what we see with our eyes, it goes to the optic nerve, to the optic area of the brain.
From the optic area of the brain, the brain is a physical object. The mind is not physical, it is subtle. It is presented to the mind.
And then the soul is like the person, the security head, who is observing the mind. And when the person is observing, how do they observe? They look at it. Their consciousness goes towards it.
So consciousness is basically the stream of awareness that comes from the soul. We have a bulb over here. From the bulb, a stream of light is coming out.
So similarly, from the soul, a stream of awareness comes out. यथाप्रकाश्यत्येक कृच्णम् लोकं इमम्रम् क्षेत्रं क्षेत्रित्था कृच्णम् प्रकाश्यति भारत Krishna says that in 31-34, just as the sun is situated at one place, but it spreads its illumination far and wide. Like that, the soul is situated in one place in the body.
And from there it spreads the awareness all around. To the body, and through the body to the outer world. So when we are trying to… Now of course, the light only goes one way.
From there, the light comes here, it goes in different directions. Our consciousness flows two ways. Consciousness flows outwards to perceive.
And then it flows back inwards to make sense. So I observe something, and after the observing, I make sense. What is happening over here? Now of course, what I am talking about in an elaborate analysis, this can be elaborated even more, but the point is, all this happens very fast.
So for example, I am speaking something and then I see that all the faces of the audience are blank. Then I understand that no one is understanding. So now all this happens instinctively.
So, you know, when somebody makes a joke, and we laugh. Now how does that happen? Actually, we hear the joke, the sound comes in the ear. And then it goes to the brain.
And there is one moment, we understand the joke. And that’s when we laugh. Now sometimes, if a person makes a joke, but nobody understands the joke.
Then there is a speaker who becomes the joke. Because nobody is getting it. So there is a particular moment when the comprehension happens.
So, in India, we say that if somebody doesn’t understand, then late current. Late current means, what has happened is, the person has not understood it. So consciousness flew outward, they heard it, but after hearing, it didn’t make sense.
So, now in the case of our… In the case of our perceptions. So, then we are trying to chant the holy names. So there are these different sensory windows that are open.
And we are trying to focus on the sound of the holy name. And other windows will keep opening. And we try to focus back again.
So, the place where it is all integrated, that is the mind. The soul is the sphere. And the stream of awareness comes from the soul to the mind.
So the soul is here. The mind is here. The body is here.
And then beyond that, the objects are there. Say for example, right now, when you are hearing me, or I am seeing you. So you are the soul.
The mind is here. The body is here. And then, your eyes are here.
And then you are looking at me. So now, when the soul, the mind and the body, in that particular sense, all three of them are in line, at that time, perception of the external object happens. Sometimes we are talking with someone and that person gets lost in some thought.
Can you repeat what you said? When we ask them that. Or when we ask them, say, we are talking and we are not sure whether the person is hearing or not. We see that the person is lost.
We say, where are you? Come back. Come to earth. The binding pupil has gone somewhere else.
So, what has happened? The soul is there. The body is there. The ears are there.
But the mind is not there. So what Krishna is saying, when he is saying that wherever and whenever the mind wanders, bring it back under the control of the senses. That means, he is saying this mind will go off.
The mind may go off internally through recollection or it may go off externally to some other perception. Right now, I have focused on the mind going to some other perceptions. There are different windows that are there.
And the mind may just go off to some other window. So we are chanting the holy names. Sometimes when we are chanting, you know, some people, they have what they call as radar japa.
Radar means, you know, observing everything in the name. Everything in the holy, everything in the room. They don’t miss anything, except the holy name.
They are observing who is doing what, who is doing what, what is where. So, the consciousness is like a radar, but it is focused on the window other than the intelligent window. So, observing everything.
So, the sound is coming from the mouth, the sound is going to the ears, but the consciousness will go off. Oh, this person is sleeping. After many days he has come over here.
You know, we are observing, we are evaluating, we are commenting. All these things are happening in the mind. Now, this distractedness of the mind is very difficult to stop.
It is going to be distracted. So, what Krishna tells us? When the mind gets distracted, bring it back under the control of the self. The disconnection will happen, but the reconnection also happens.
The mind will stray away, but let it not stay away. It will stray away. We can’t avoid that.
Now, for this, going back to the plane example, if I want my plane to reach from LA to New York, what do I need to do? First of all, I need to know. New York is the place where I want to go. It is important for me to get there.
And then first thing is, I have to have some compass, or some kind of parameter by which I at least become aware that I have got distracted. Otherwise, if, say, somehow the sensors of the plane stop working, the plane is moving, but then where the plane is going, nobody is aware. The plane is just moving, moving, moving, very far, going off in a different direction.
There has to be, at least the first thing is, I have become distracted. Second is, I should not get distracted. And third is, how can I do course correction? How can I come back? So, in all living beings, there is awareness.
We are aware, dogs are aware, cats are aware, microbes are also aware. All living beings, there is awareness. But only in the human body is the soul sufficiently evolved to have self-awareness.
Self-awareness means awareness of awareness. All living beings get angry. If a dog is threatened, if a dog feels that somebody is trespassing in my territory, the dog may get angry and start barking.
Like a big seal will bark loudly. And sometimes people, when they feel violated, they feel somebody has encroached on their territory, they may also shout. So, anger as an emotion is experienced by all living beings.
But we human beings are capable of becoming aware of our awareness. That means, when I become angry, at one level, I will act with anger, I will shout with anger. At another level, I can also become aware.
Oh, I have become angry. I am getting angry now. That awareness that I am becoming angry is critical for me to check my anger.
If I don’t become aware only, I become angry now. Then, just get angry and I get calculated. And then afterwards, why do I speak like that? Why do I do like that? So, this awareness of our awareness, what do I mean by awareness of our awareness? At one level, the awareness of our emotions, of our thoughts, of our desires, that is what I mean by awareness of our awareness.
So, example, sometimes, some people are very pessimistic. Every suggestion we give, they immediately find problems with it. Why won’t we do this? No, this will not work.
What they don’t realise is, yes, suggestions may not work, but that pessimistic mentality is never going to work. You keep finding faults with everything. First of all, if you are finding faults with everything, why don’t you find faults with the fault-finding mentality? Finding faults with everything is not going to lead to anything.
Yes, that does not mean we uncritically accept everything. But that is not that we also accept everything. So, sometimes if you tell someone, you are very pessimistic, you are very critical.
Oh, I am not critical. So, if that person has a very strong sense of ego, they justify, no, I am not critical, I am not pessimistic. See, I am not pessimistic, I am just realistic.
No, I am not critical. Actually, people are wrong. I am simply pointing it out.
You say, whatever. But, if they have a certain capacity of self-reflection, oh, am I really that critical? Am I really so pessimistic? Start thinking. So, here I have talked about two different things now.
One is, that we ourselves become aware. Oh, I am becoming angry. Or somebody else says, you are very short-tempered.
Oh, really? Am I short-tempered? I didn’t think I am short-tempered. Let me think about it. So, in both these cases, what has happened? We are becoming aware of our emotions.
Aware of the movements of our consciousness. And this awareness is important for us to correct ourselves. This awareness, for the flow of thoughts sake, let’s assume that it is correct.
We are short-tempered. And somebody else is not short-tempered. So, when I think, oh, am I short-tempered? Okay.
I got angry at that time. Could I have avoided getting angry? Or, sometimes what happens? Some people’s anger is something which just goes on for a long time. They are resentful, they are bitter, they are they are a pain to be with.
But some other people, their anger just comes for a few moments. Few moments they get extremely angry and next moment, it’s over. So, like, in body pain, we say that sometimes there is there is shooting pain which comes and goes and sometimes that pain says sometimes there is constant pain.
Like a nagging pain. It’s always there. So, now, nagging pain is noticeable.
Shooting pain is also noticeable. But it comes and it goes. So, some people’s anger is like shooting anger.
It comes and when they are angry, they speak some things which can be very hurting for the other person. But after some time, they forgot all those spoken words. For the other person, it has become like unforgettable scar on the heart.
When did I speak it? What? It’s like you cut apart my heart and you don’t even remember that you cut apart my heart. How could you do this? So, what happens is, when the shooting anger is there, then there is just a few moments when something negative is spoken. For the other person, it’s very hurting.
But for this person, it just comes and goes. It doesn’t register in the awareness also. Just one or two harsh sentences are spoken and then it’s over.
So, what happens is, we hear from someone else. Oh, you are short tempered. You spoke like that.
Through both these cases, through our personal introspection and through others’ association, we are capable of self-awareness. We are capable of being aware of becoming aware of where our awareness is going. Say, I have a short temper or I have a pessimistic mentality.
Same way, with respect to when we are trying to chant the holiness, when we get diverted, when we get distracted, we need to become aware that we are distracted. And that awareness, if that comes in time, then we can correct ourselves. If that awareness doesn’t come on time only, then, we may just continue uttering the mantra and then one round, two round, three round, four round, whatever.
Just keep going on and on and on. After some time, realise, okay, here it is. Was I chanting? What was I doing? You don’t even realise.
So, chanting is the time for the… It should be the time for the greatest concentration. But it can become the time of the greatest distraction. Sometimes that is the time when we are most absent-mindedly.
The time when we should be most present for Krishna, we can be the most absent. And when this happens, that we… One thing is we are getting distracted, but we are not even aware that we are getting distracted. Then it is very difficult to correct ourselves.
But we are capable of self-awareness. So, we human beings… Animals will just experience their emotions and they will act on the emotions. They cannot… They don’t have the capacity to become aware of their awareness.
That is the human capacity. Animals also have their moods. Different people have different pets.
And different pets also have different moods. So, nowadays, people are… People love their dogs so much. So, there is… There is something called Doga.
Doga is what? Yoga with your dog. So, you do exercise and you have your dog also do exercise. And both of you do yoga together.
And there are thousands of people. There are proper Doga teachers and Doga courses. So, you go to the Yoga course and you take your dog also to Yoga course.
So, both of you learn Yoga together. That is Doga. Now… I was saying this is that if people have pets, they know that their pets also have moods.
Some pet is very cheerful. Some dog is cheerful. Some dog is a little bit not so cheerful.
Some dogs are very noisy. Whenever comes, they bark. Some other dogs, you know, whenever comes, they don’t bark only.
So, the dogs have different moods. So, but… We human beings also have moods. But we can become aware of our moods.
Okay, I have become… This will be my mood. That is my mood. And this is how… Should my mood be like this or should I be changing my mood? We can think of these things.
And to the extent we think of these things, to that extent, we can change ourselves. So, if you want to… So, thing that I am speaking on now is connection means continuous reconnection. And for continuous reconnection, first there should be the awareness that there is a disconnection.
And for disconnection, either there has to be… We have the capacity to become aware that I am… I have got disconnected now. So, then I have to reconnect myself. It’s like sometimes I am speaking.
Some speakers are very systematic and structured. And some speakers just speak spontaneously. And they speak spontaneously.
They are speaking wonderfully. But then they themselves get lost. What are they speaking about? And sometimes what happens is if we start a class and if we are not very organised, then we ourselves lose track of what I was speaking.
Look at the words and then look… How did I come here? It’s like we started off… Okay, this was the starting point. I started with this purport. But if you try to ask, how did you come from this point to where you are? I mean, I don’t know.
There was an author. He used to love writing very complex words. So, it’s browning again.
So, he used very complex sentences, complex poetry, complex prose. So, one of his works was considered for winning an award. So, then the committee which was supposed to decide whether he should get the award or not, they went through his work and they found one passage is very difficult.
So, they asked him, what does it mean? He read it. And he read it again. And he read it again.
And then he said, when I wrote this, God and I knew what it meant. Now, only God knows. So, sometimes it may well happen that we ourselves may say something, we ourselves may write something, but what was the thought process going behind that, we may lose track of that.
So, in speaking it can happen, in writing it can happen, and all the more so in thinking it can happen. So, when we are trying to focus the mind on the Holy Name, at that time the mind gets distracted. And when it gets distracted, to become aware of the distraction is very important.
Before we can concentrate, before we can actually get back on track. So, what are the ways in which we can become aware of our distractions? So, practically speaking, when we chant, we say, complete one round, and then we pull a beat down. So, that is a change in activity.
Now, first just one finger is moving and the mouth is moving. But then, because after some time the finger is moving and the mouth is moving and it becomes mechanical. So, the finger is moving, the mouth is moving and the mind is also moving, but the mind is moving somewhere else.
So, what happens is, the two are on two separate tracks. But when we pull the beat down, okay, now I have completed one round. Then that activity, if at that time we just take a deep breath, okay, I am chanting now, and I have completed one round, okay, but was I really concentrating? So, basically, within our japa itself, that completion of one round can be like a break, which becomes like a check for us.
Check, check. During the break, we check ourselves. Am I on track or have I got off track? If I got off track, there is no need to beat ourselves up.
I will talk about later the attitude when we find ourselves having gone off track. But the point is, come away. Okay, come back on track.
I am chanting. This is important for me. Let me come back.
So, that is one way. Another way, of course, if you are chanting with others, and somebody else points out, you are getting lost. No, at that time, no, no, I am in Samadhi.
If you do that, then others can’t help us. Yeah, okay. Was I lost? Okay, let me focus.
So, through the break during chanting, that can help us. Through somebody else reminding us, that can help us. And sometimes we ourselves decide to create some, not just breaks, but positive reorienters, which I will elaborate later.
But say, after every round, or after a few rounds, you may decide that, I will recite one verse. Maybe one verse from the Shishashtakam. It is about the glory of the holy.
And not just recite the verse mechanically, but try to contemplate on it. This is, नाम नाम कारि तत्रार्विता नियमिता स्मर्येन काला एताद्रिशी तवकृपा भगवन्मादि दुरुदैवं इद्रिशिन्याजिनाम्गा So, this kind of uttering one verse of the Shishashtakam. Then what happens by that? That forces us to become aware.
Oh, this is what I am doing. It is important. Let me do it.
So, like that, whenever there is distraction, we can become aware of the distraction and then try to bring ourselves back to concentration.