Inner power means to act intelligently not impulsively

[Youth Program at Dayton University, Dayton, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, am I audible behind? So, thank you for coming today evening and thank you for the introductions also. So, the topic, I’ll also give my introduction in a more autobiographical sense during the course of the talk.
This topic today, Discover Your Inner Power, is something which is a conscious or subconscious quest for all of us. Since my childhood, I had a great faith in the power of knowledge. In fact, when my programme in Dayton was scheduled, I was thinking, I’ve heard this name Dayton somewhere.
And then it struck me, this was the place where the first aeroplane took off. So, that is a dramatic example of power. We go against the power of gravity and are able to fly.
if you see, most of today’s world has been dramatically transformed by technological power. And technological power can empower in an extraordinary way. At the same time, it is an external power.
And we also need internal power. When I was in my engineering, there was one student who was, I was in the Government Engineering College in Pune. And there was one student who was a consistent university topper.
In all the eight semesters, he had come first in the whole university. And actually in the first year when I went to, I had come to there, I went to meet him. He was in the fourth year when I was in the first year.
So, then I talked with him and I found one thing odd. He was a chain smoker. And he was brilliant in his studies.
So, when he was talking about electronics engineering, that was my field, electronics and telecommunications, I could see that he just had everything figured out. At the same time, I somehow found it a little odd. He was smoking so much, he just literally could not leave a cigarette.
And he told me that, as soon as I start smoking, I can start thinking. And then, he got one of the highest paying jobs in the history of our college back then. I was not one of the highest paying job at that time.
Unfortunately, within six months of his getting that job, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. And within a year, he died. So, I was shocked by that.
He surely has phenomenal intellectual power. But, something is missing. That, somehow he didn’t have the power to give up that compulsion.
So, in my third year, I got involved in some social service activities. There’s an organisation near our college, where I would go to, near our college, there were some slums, and I would go and teach, do free tuitions for the slum children over there. And, I would teach English, history, maths, some subjects like that.
And, as I got close to the children, I came to know that most of them were from dysfunctional families. The fathers were alcoholics. And, there was often when the fathers would be in the spell of alcohol, there would be domestic abuse.
So, our organisation felt that, which I was a part of, the social service organisation at that time, felt that, we should do something. How much is our education in maths and physics, maths and history, and all this is going to help, if the domestic situation is so chaotic. So, we started conducting some programmes for the fathers also.
We found, when we talked with them, the fathers were nice people. And, they were grateful that we were coming and offering the children some education free. But, the other family members, the mother, the children, they would tell that when they would drink alcohol, they would become like a different person.
Some evil spirit would enter into them. So, then we started doing anti-alcohol programmes. One of my friends was much more into this than me and he went to a village.
And, it was a small village. So, by our campaigning, we got that whole village to become free from alcohol. So, everybody gave up.
It was a big success for our movement or our organisation at that time. So, I would go nearby to the slums and he would go to the village for the programmes. One evening, he came back and he looked shattered.
I asked, what happened? So, he said, the previous weekend there had been the local panchayat elections. And, in those elections, one of the candidates, in order to win over the votes of the people, had brought three truckloads filled with bottles of liquor. Free for everyone.
And, not only the fathers, but even their kids had taken it. And, this incident. So, I saw that somebody who was very well educated and somebody who was uneducated.
Everybody was being destroyed by something from within. It was some force within themselves that was making them do things which destroyed them. So, I felt that is there some way education opens more doors for people? But, then the people need something within to actually walk through those doors.
So, just the facility to have many choices in itself is not freedom. The capacity to make wise choices is foundational to freedom. And, something within these people was making them take terrible choices.
And, I was saying, these people. It was not that I was high and mighty. I also had my own weaknesses.
I had a notorious short temper. And, somehow at that time when I was searching, I got introduced to the Bhagavad Gita. In fact, I was not got introduced.
One of my friends had read the Bhagavad Gita and he came and told me about it. He said, you should read the Bhagavad Gita. My first reaction was, I have read it already.
And, I had read it. But, then I saw that he was, I had known him earlier. He was remarkably transformed.
So, I felt that maybe I missed something in my reading the Bhagavad Gita. And, then I read it again. And, then after reading Bhagavad Gita, it was gone.
So, after reading the Gita, I started practising the process of Yoga, especially Bhakti Yoga, doing the mantra meditation. And, there I found that it brought about a significant transformation. My anger just disappeared.
Many other, one of my friends, he was just sliding into alcohol, alcoholism. And, he just started practising Bhagavad Gita and just gave it up. Then, I started feeling that there is something special over here.
So, after that, I completed my education. I was working in an international software company. And, then one day, I felt that, you know, maybe, if I, if I’m doing the software job, then there are thousands of others who will take up this job if I don’t do it.
But, how many people are actually sharing the knowledge for inner empowerment? Somehow, I have been blessed with that knowledge. And, I have seen it work in my life. So, I’ve seen it working in the life of others.
So, I thought I should focus on sharing this. All this was around two, two and a half decades ago. And, since then, I’ve been doing that.
This is from a personal perspective. I’ll come to this personal perspective again a little later. But, let’s move on to a little bit more universal or metaphysical aspect.
Just like Dayton is, you could say, a scientific pilgrimage site for people who are scientifically minded. So, like that, I was in Cambridge. And, I was asked to give a talk on science and spirituality there.
So, on the way back, I went to the place where Newton said to see the fruit falling. Some say the fruit fell on his head. Some say it fell in front of him.
Whichever way it is. So, when I was there, I was just thinking that fruits have fallen from trees millions of times. And, if instead of Newton, a monkey had been sitting there, the monkey would just have picked up the fruit, eaten it and gone on its way.
What to speak of a monkey? A human being had been sitting there. Most human beings would have done the same thing. And, we wouldn’t have blamed them for doing that.
It’s natural. So, but, Newton did something else. So, actually, because he did something else, he asked what makes this fruit fall.
In the history of science, the answer that he got that is foundational. Oscillation of theory of gravity is said to have started the age of science. And, the world changed after that.
At the same time, if you shift the focus to the question itself, and the capacity to ask that question, all of us have within us impulses. Impulses are usually short term. As soon as I see something, I want to eat it, I want to touch it, I want to watch this, I want to go there.
Along with impulses, we have intelligence. Intelligence can see long term. Intelligence can see beyond the impulse.
And, what distinguishes us from the rest of the species in the planet is that all the other species simply act according to the impulses. We humans also are pushed by our impulses, but we are not forced by them. We are pushed, we can counter-push.
And, to the extent we use our intelligence, to that extent we can resist our impulses. So, actually the capacity to act with our intelligence instead of with our impulses, that is our inner power. So, a person who has become alcoholic, a person who has become a smoker, a chain smoker, what has happened for them? They have given in to their impulses.
Once, twice, thrice, four times, five times. Now, the impulsive, if indulgent repeatedly, becomes compulsive. Compulsive means it just can’t be resisted.
The Bhagavad Gita says in 16.11, 16 chapter 11th verse, आशा पाशि शतायिर बद्धाः काम क्रोध परायनः आशा पाशि, it says desire can become like a shackle. शतायिर बद्धाः and we are bound by hundreds, thousands of desires. So, imagine if there are two students, say this is the hostel, this is the place of residence, this is the place of, this is a university.
Now, say, along the way there is some place which, say, peddles drugs, the drug joint. Now, one of the students has never taken drugs, has decided I am not going to get into this. Just walks by, that thought also doesn’t come in the mind, just thinks forward and moves ahead.
But other person has taken drugs maybe once, twice and then indulging in that desire once, twice, thrice, every time they take the drug, what happens? The desire goes stronger. So, as soon as they are passing by, they start thinking maybe I should take one. No, maybe I should not.
Maybe I should, maybe I should not. So, basically, if they keep taking, then even before they come there, as soon as they come out of their home, they start thinking, I want to take this. And then basically a rope has been formed between them and that particular object, whatever they are attached to.
And this drags them. So, our desires, if they are impulsive and we indulge in them, they become compulsive. And when they become compulsive, they strip us of our inner power.
Externally, both students may look similar. Both of them are equally free in the physical sense. But in the psychological sense, for one of them, their freedom is substantially constricted.
So, our power, we have many dreams in our life. We want to achieve things. We want to make contributions.
We have some talents. We want to do something worthwhile in our life. And all that we can do to the extent we are able to tap our inner power.
All of us, we have impulses. Come on, do this, do that. But we also have our intelligence.
And to the extent we choose with our intelligence and not act according to our impulses, to that extent, we can act in our long-term interests. So, spiritual practises are not just something otherworldly. Spiritual practises basically, if we are, if we conceive ourselves as materialistic creatures, that there are things spiritual to me, to my being, then actually there is no logical basis to the idea that we have any free will.
If I am simply a materialistic creature, then say, if I take an object, now say if I have a phone over here, now if I drop the phone, I won’t drop it, but if I drop it, it has no free will to choose whether to fall or not. Now, we, if we were simply creatures of matter, then material matter is governed by laws. Laws means, mechanical laws as I discovered by physics.
And there is no free will. In a cricket match, if a batsman hits a ball, the ball can’t say, I don’t want to go over the boundary. The ball can’t say, I want to go over the boundary.
The ball will simply follow the rules. Whatever the laws of nature. Now, we all intuitively know that we have free will.
Even if somebody says, no, I don’t believe, I believe that we don’t have any free will. That statement itself is an act of free will. You know, this computer cannot say it does not have any free will.
Because to say that also requires free will. So, the denial of free will is itself an acknowledgement of free will. Now, we all have free will, but if we are simply materialistic creatures, then there is no basis to the idea that we have free will.
Because matter simply obeys material laws. And then, how can we have any free will? Now, there is a material side to us. And the material side to us is like a programme machine.
Einstein himself was very conflicted by the implications of scientism. Now, science is a tool for acquiring knowledge. Science basically looks for natural explanations for natural phenomena.
By natural, it means material. So, science by its usual standard definition in today’s world does not look for anything non-material. But that doesn’t mean that nothing non-material exists.
That is just not the scope of science. It’s like, you know, if we do a CT scan, we may even scan the heart of a person. But by the CT scan of a heart of a person, we can’t know whether they love us.
Or we should love them. It’s a different branch of knowledge. So now, Einstein… Science is a tool for acquiring knowledge.
Scientism is an ideology. That ideology claims that science alone can give us all kinds of knowledge. Scientism itself is actually not scientific.
Because there is no scientific experiment to prove that there is no knowledge other than scientific. It’s a presumption. Scientism is an ideology which is different from science.
And Einstein was conflicted that if the scientific world view is complete, then it means we have no free will. And if it means we have no free will, that means the Nazis who killed millions of Jews and others during the Holocaust and because of whose persecution Einstein himself had to leave Germany and come to America here. Einstein realised that the Nazis could not be held responsible for anything.
Why? Because they had no free will. Their brains were programmed in a particular way. And that’s why they acted in a particular way.
Now, if we assume that we have no free will, then all concept of accountability, all concept of justice, all foundation for relationships will just collapse. Because if I come and slap you, why did you slap me? My neuronal programming told me to do that. If I say like that, you’ll slap me back.
Why did you slap me? My neuronal programming told me to do that. So, we know that we all have free will. Now, of course, it is true that, as I said, for addict, the free will gets considerably reduced.
But the free will is there for everyone. Now, where does this free will come from? It comes from our non-material side. That non-material side, the Bhagavad Gita explains, is the Atma, the soul.
The soul is the essence of who we are. And so, we are not programmed machines. Rather, we are the possessors of programmable machines.
The body is programmed right now, but it is also programmable. So, we all have certain programmes according to which we function. But these programmes can be changed.
And some of us may have programmes which may be by our upbringing, by our culture, may be more empowering. Some of us may have programmes which are less empowering. But we can all reprogram ourselves.
And that is what spirituality enables us to do. Spiritual knowledge and spiritual practise, these help us to understand that I am different from my impulses. I am different even from my emotions.
Emotions will come in me, but that doesn’t mean I have to act on every single one of my emotions. They are different from me. We, especially when we understand spiritual knowledge, when we practise meditation, we basically become, we can become observers of ourselves.
We can become observers of our impulses. We can become observers of our feelings. I am feeling angry right now.
What made me angry? Is this, should I express this anger now? Or should I deal with it in some other way? This distance, the impulse will come. But if the intelligence is active, rather than acting on the impulse, we’ll acknowledge it and then we will process it. Most of the times we think of our emotions only in two terms.
Either I express them or I repress them. And sometimes both are unhealthy. If I am angry, if I express it, it hurts the other person.
But if I repress it, it hurts me. I feel choked. And then eventually it will come out in ugly ways later.
So spiritual knowledge opens a third option for us. Beyond expressing and repressing to processing. I observe it, I acknowledge it, but I understand I am different from this.
In the Bhagavad Gita 14 chapter 22nd verse Krishna says, Krishna says that different kinds of emotions will come. Prakash, sometimes we’ll feel very illumined. We’ll feel very clear, very calm.
Pravrati, sometimes we’ll feel I have to do something. Just feel like running here, going there, going there, doing things. Moha, sometimes we feel apathy, lethargy.
Why I do so? Just give up. Just don’t bother about it. Just leave it alone.
They say some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened. So, these are different psychological modes that we go through.
So Krishna says that instead of identifying with them, we can become their observers. Okay, now I am feeling like this. But if I understand that I am spiritual, if I am different from my emotions, I am different from my circumstances, that awareness that I am spiritual can make me can enable me to maturely respond to my circumstances and the impulses that they generate with me.
Now we have this carpet here. The carpet is soft. The carpet is comforting.
But it is soft and comforting when we are above it. If the carpet were above us, we would feel smoother. So, our material circumstances are meant to be like carpets.
We should be above them. When we are below them, we feel overwhelmed. We feel crushed.
We feel helpless. Why did this happen? Why is he doing like that? Why is she speaking like this? Why are things going this way? Just feel overpowered like that. But spiritual knowledge helps us to recognise that actually I am above.
My circumstances are there around me and I have to deal with them. But I am greater than them. I am spiritual.
I am indestructible. Whatever happens in this world, it doesn’t affect me directly. That self-awareness of our spiritual core brings serenity, brings security.
And then whatever it is that we have to do to respond to that situation, we can do it intelligently. And I’ll conclude with this point. You can have some questions.
Now our ability to tap our ability is enhanced by our spirituality. We all have certain abilities, certain talents, certain interests, certain gifts. But then along with that we need inner ability.
By ability I mean the talents, the capacity, the resources that we have. But along with that we need the inner temperament, the inner calmness, the inner capacity to resist impulsive behaviour. Impulsive behaviour can be both ways.
It can be in terms of chasing after impulsive pleasures or it can be another way is just giving in to impulsive negativities. Things go wrong, I just become depressed. Both we can resist when we understand that we are spiritual.
So by understanding intellectually and experiencing practically through practises such as meditation, we can actually experience ourselves sometime, something. The process of meditation, there are different processes of meditation. All of them are meant to raise our consciousness upwards.
So if you consider a two-story building, say at the ground floor, there is no heating. So it’s very cold. But the first floor is comfortably heating.
So just as long as I’m on the ground floor, I’ll feel agitated. If I come to the first floor, I’ll feel comforted. So the material level is like the ground floor.
There there are some things are going wrong, this is happening, that is happening, it will agitate us. But if you rise to the first floor, then at the spiritual level, there things are unchanging. There there is security.
So then if you rise to the first floor, then we can experience that security process. So we all can by the practise of meditation. So meditation essentially is not about sitting in a posture.
It is not about just regulating our breath. This can help. But the essence of meditation is to raise our consciousness from the material to the spiritual level.
And we practise mantra meditation. There are various ways in which you can meditate to raise our consciousness upwards. Mantra acts like an elevator for our consciousness.
When we recite the mantra, we will have to enter into the mantra through our concentration, through our absorption. Then it’s like entering into an elevator. And the mantra elevates us up.
So we chant the mantra Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. And by such meditation, we can all experience the elevation of our consciousness. And with that elevated consciousness, we can feel calm, feel sheltered, feel secure.
And then we can return to the external situation and deal with it intelligently. Two years ago when I had come first time to America, I had given a talk in Columbus Ohio University. I spoke on regulating our mental diet just to a vegetarian society over there.
And after that one American student came and he told me that just before this programme, I was contemplating suicide. He said I had been in a relationship and my girlfriend had left me for someone else. So I was devastated.
Something within me told me that that that maybe I should just attend this programme. And now he says after attending this programme, I understood it is not that I wanted to commit suicide. It was this programming within me, some voice within me just telling me.
Now I understand that I am different from this voice. So last year when I had gone again over there, I met that student. So he understood the wisdom of the Bhagwat.
I started practising regularly. He is doing well in the academics. He is stable in the relationship.
Most importantly, he is stable in his own inner identity. Stable in his own inner identity. Because externals will come, externals will go.
But if we are confident about our self identity, about our self worth, then whatever happens we can face in life. So this is how discovering our inner power can help us even in crisis where we feel devastated by some adversity that we face in our life. On a positive note, discovering our inner power can enable us at whatever abilities we have, if we are internally mature, internally intelligent.
And we don’t fritter away those abilities because of our impulsive choices. Rather we use those abilities fully to make the maximum contribution that is possible. So our ability to use our ability is enhanced by spirituality.
I’ll summarise. I spoke about discovering our inner power. I spoke about how I had a lot of faith in the power of education to transform people.
I experienced that right from a person who was at the top of the educational stratum, or university topper, as well as people who were illiterate and who were alcoholics living in slums. They all sabotaged something within them which made them make wrong choices. And I found the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita helped me overcome my impulses and helped others, whoever I noted.
How does this that was like the experiential part. Then I offered the theoretical part. That was how does this happen? All of us have impulses within us.
Newton, he could have acted on the impulse and eaten the fruit, but instead uses intelligence to evaluate what is happening. So we, if we act on our impulses, then the impulsive becomes compulsive over a period of time. And the more something becomes compulsive, our inner freedom goes away.
Inner freedom goes away means a stimulus comes and we are forced to a response. It’s like a student who is a drug addict who has become hooked to drugs. As soon as the thought of a drug comes, the freedom to choose has gone away.
It’s almost compulsively attracted to it. So our inner power is the capacity to not let external stimuli determine our response but to determine our response based on our intelligence. And the materialistic worldview leaves no room for free will.
That means we will become totally controlled by our impulses because the impulses are material and we are material. So when material stimuli come, materialistic creatures will respond according to material laws. Just as an object falling cannot resist it.
So like that, when we fall for something, we will not be able to resist it. So the possibility of free will and the understanding of how to maximise our free will, that comes from the spiritual world. So Einstein himself recognised the difference that science is fine but scientism isn’t.
Science gives natural explanations for natural phenomena but science doesn’t give a complete picture of everything. That is, beyond the material there is a spiritual. And we are not programmed machines.
Our bodies are programmable machines and we are the possessors of programmable machines. And we can reprogram them. And our spiritual knowledge and spiritual practises, they can help us to do the reprogramming.
So we can resist our impulsive side and nourish our intelligent side by situating ourselves in our spiritual identity. External troubling situations may come. Distracting impulses may come.
But if I understand I am beyond this. I am higher. I am spiritual.
Then I can avoid just the two options of expressing and repressing. And I can process and then respond appropriately. So we cannot change the world around us.
But the world is like circumstances. The worldly circumstances are like carpet. If we go below them, we will be suffocated.
But if we can rise above them, we can choose wisely. And spiritual practises such as meditation, they raise our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level. And they enable us to experience the security and serenity that comes from realising our spiritual identity.
And with that inner self-security, we can make better contributions. Our ability to tap our ability is enhanced by our spirituality. So by tapping your inner power, every one of you can fulfil your destiny.
All that you are meant to do, you will be able to do it by learning the art of tapping your inner power. Thank you very much. Does anyone have any questions? So if as students, we have anxiety about our job, about our future careers, in such a situation how can we adopt the spiritual principles for tapping our inner power? Actually, the Bhagavad Gita is an eminently practical book.
It has spoken to Arjuna, who was a warrior. And the point of the Gita is that Arjuna was very much engaged in this world. At the same time, he let himself be guided by spiritual wisdom.
So we shouldn’t see the spiritual and the material as competitive. They are complementary. They both go together, they complete each other.
The spiritual does not replace the material, nor can the material replace the spiritual. Success in one area of life does not compensate for failure in another area. Say for example, somebody becomes very successful in their profession, rising to stupendous heights at astonishing pace in the corporate hierarchy.
But if their family life is in shambles, their kids have fallen prey to bad habits, their spouses have divorced them, then no matter how much they succeed in their professional life, their success in professional life cannot compensate for their failure in family life, personal life. So these are both important and both need time. They are two distinct aspects of life.
Similarly, material and spiritual are two distinct aspects of life. So it is not that because of spiritual life we’ll have to give up our material life, or not for the material life we’ll have to give up our spiritual life. Rather both need to go together because we have both aspects to our being.
And that’s from the long-term perspective. So we may achieve a lot at a material level by succeeding in our careers, by getting good jobs, good positions, lots of money. But satisfaction will elude us.
In the yoga text there are two words. There is nishreyas and there is abhyudaya. In English they can be roughly translated as achievement and fulfilment.
So often we are led to believe that achievement will bring fulfilment. If I do this, then I’ll become fulfilled. Actually, achievement is natural.
We are young, we are ambitious, we want to have achievement. But fulfilment has to come from within. Fulfilment does not come from without.
What we do without, what we achieve without, if it is a part of a purposeful life that we are living. It is that purposeful dedication to some cause bigger than ourselves. That will bring fulfilment.
Otherwise the achievement will bring some gratification. But afterwards again there will be lack of fulfilment. We want more and more and more and there will never be any satisfaction.
That is assuming that we are successful in our achievements. But that is now a guarantee. As I say, even if you win the rat race, you still remain a rat.
Nothing essentially changes. I achieve one thing and I want another and I want another. So for me as a student, my dream was always to be the topper.
And I was always among the toppers. I was second, third, joint, first. But I was never the first.
So that was my lifelong dream. And when I finally gave my GRE, I got 2350 at that time or 2400. Not only I was first in my college, I was first in the history of my college.
I was first in the whole university. I thought now I have achieved. I was elated for some time.
After that, I realised that just looking at the mark sheet doesn’t give any real pleasure. It’s only when other people come and congratulate you, then you feel happy. You feel validated.
But then, a couple of my friends forgot to congratulate me. No malice on their part, but they just forgot. Just assumed that everyone knew about it.
And when I was with them, I was thinking, why are you not congratulating me? At that time, somehow, say by some higher grace, second time, second or third time this happened, as if I saw myself from above, I felt come on, what are you doing? I thought that topping in GRE would make me happy. But here, I have not become happy. I have become more dependent for my happiness on others.
If they congratulate me, then I am happy. If they don’t, I am not happy. So, I could crack another exam in future.
I could do something more in future. But how will that solve this problem? I will always be dependent on others for my happiness. So, is there some way to fulfilment that does not depend on externals? That was what really made me explore spiritual wisdom.
So, the point is not that we shouldn’t pursue achievements. The point is that achievement does not bring fulfilment. So, even if we succeed in our careers to the best of our abilities, still, that alone will not bring fulfilment.
And further, and further, along with that, what if we don’t succeed? There is stress, there is depression, there is negativity that comes. And when that comes along, at that time, our spiritual side will shelter us. In our material life, there is so much anxiety, so much unpredictability that comes up and that can tremendously agitate us.
The more things change, the more we need to hold on to things that don’t change. It’s like if we are in an ocean and in the ocean, the waves are going up and down, up and down, up and down. We will be tossed up and down by the waves.
But if we are in a boat and the boat is anchored, then the extent of the shaking will be much lesser. Like that, in this world, it’s like an ocean. It’s going to be ups and downs, ups and downs, ups and downs.
Sometimes we’ll meet with success, sometimes failure, sometimes honour, sometimes dishonour, sometimes friendship, sometimes hatred. All these will come in our life. If we are like a small person in that ocean, we’ll just be tossed up and down, tossed up and down.
But our spiritual practises, cultivating spiritual knowledge is like entering into a boat. In the Bhagavad Gita, in the 4th chapter, 37th verse, Krishna says that, spiritual knowledge is like a boat which helps us to cross over this ocean. And our personal spiritual practises, they are the anchor.
So even for our, for coping with the anxieties that come because of our wanting to pursue a career, we’ll be able to deal with those anxieties better and we can focus more on constructive things if we are spiritual. I gave a seminar Harvard. The topic was that transform anxiety into intensity by spirituality.
The same situation which I am in, if tomorrow I have an important interview, I start thinking, what if I fail? What if I don’t clear? What will happen to my career? This will happen, that will happen. The more we think about things that are not in our control, we disempower ourselves. And the materialistic mind will always think, this can go wrong, that can go wrong, that can go wrong.
Whenever faced with any problem, the materialistic mind starts showing us a free horror movie. And in that horror movie, we are not the spectators, we are the victims. But, if we are spiritually grounded, understand, there are things which are not in my control, but there are things in my control.
Tomorrow is the interview, I have 12 hours now, out of which 6 hours is what I can actually invest in preparing. And now I have 1 hour right now, after that I have to do something else. So let me focus for this 1 hour on studying.
So the same situation which can cause anxiety, if our focus is on things which are not in our control, the same situation can bring intensity if we focus on that which is in our control. And this capacity to shift our focus from somewhere where it is going by default, to somewhere where we want it to go, that is our inner power. Intellectually to understand, you tell somebody, why are you worrying so much? That doesn’t help so much.
Because worry has become like a programme in their mind. And even if they don’t want to worry, they’ll keep worrying. So, yes, helping people is not just telling them don’t worry.
We have to actually help them by helping to increase their inner power, to change the direction of their thoughts. So our spiritual practises actually help us to regulate our inner world. And when we regulate our inner world, then we can direct our thoughts where they should be going.
So even specific anxieties, we can deal better if we are having a spiritual substratum to our consciousness. With that spiritual foundation, we’ll be able to direct our focus to that which is in our control and bring intensity. Instead of letting our consciousness go towards that which is not in our control and subjecting ourselves to anxiety.
Does that answer the question? Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, please. How do you maintain persistence in achieving goals? Like, just for example, whenever the semester starts, the first month it’s like we get pumped up.
We do all the things. We wake up early. Gradually, the things, you know, start falling down.
And we achieve many things, but anyhow this, you know, materialistic things or whatever you can say, they push us away from the things. I see spirituality as part of it, but I also struggle to maintain persistence. That’s true.
So how can we maintain persistence in our resolutions, whether it be for our career or even for our spirituality? Our desires are not just linear. They are triangular. What I mean by that is that I may decide I want to do this and I desire okay, I want to achieve this grade.
I want to get this. So you may think, okay, that is the object and I am here. And I have a desire for that.
So now, linear desire, some of our desires are linear, but many of our desires are triangular. Triangular means that we see others doing something. Say for example, a few months ago, around September, October when I had last time come to America, at that time there was this huge craze for the video game Pokemon Go.
Now, when this game had just come up, initially it did not create such a buzz. In the first few days, okay, there are so many video games, one more, a new has come. So what’s so great? But then when people saw somebody playing this game, completely lost in it, trying to find some Pokemons and catch them and get scores.
What is this? Let me see it. And then they started playing and they started playing and their friend said, enough, no, no, I want to play now. So what happened? Just seeing the game didn’t induce so much desire.
But seeing others playing the game, that induced the desire. So our desires are not just linear, they are also triangular. So therefore, what it means is, now there are some objects in this world, they are intrinsically attractive.
If I have some good looking food I see, I don’t have to look at how many other people I eat. If it looks good, I’ll go and eat it. But there are some things whose attractiveness is not so immediately visible.
So often, to sustain the desire for them, we need to tap not just the linearity of the desire, but also the triangularity. That means we need association that is like-minded. So if we make a particular resolution, if we want to be persistent, we have to have some other friends who also make similar resolutions.
If you want to grow spiritually, you want to be resolved about practising spiritual practises regularly, then we need a spiritual association. So here you have a programme going on. You can get like-minded people.
Even in the college, in the university, you’ll find that there are people of different kinds. So if we associate with people who are here just to have a good time and they’re not really so focused on their career, they just feel that last moment I’ll study and I’ll do well. So then, we will become like that.
So, saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ. In the Bhagavad Gita in 2.62, Krishna says that saṅga, by our association, kāma, desire. Our desire is developed by our association.
So the kind of association we cultivate, that has a strong role to play in the kind of desires that we will have and the kind of desires that we will sustain. So, to sustain our resolutions to be persistent, we need to have supportive association. That’s the first thing.
Second thing is also that our willpower is a finite resource. Sometimes we just feel that we make a resolution and we are unable to keep it. We start thinking that oh, I don’t have willpower.
But it’s not that we don’t have willpower. It is that our willpower is a finite resource and we let it get frittered away on small, small things. If I have a capacity to lift a certain amount of weights, then if I’m going to be part of weightlifting competition, and before that, only I lift many other weights.
By the time I come to the weightlifting competition, I just have no energy left. So, willpower is a finite resource. And that means that if I want to focus on something, if I want to study, then I need my willpower for that.
But if I’m surrounding myself with say hundreds of other distractions and then every time I have to choose should I do this, should I not do this? Should I do this, should I not do this? We may make the right choices over there but all that is exerting our willpower. So, if we want to focus on something, we can try as much as possible to also close certain options. Don’t let our willpower get expended on unnecessary things.
So, it can range from something very simple as say if I’m going to study, I’ll just shut off my internet for the next one hour. On my phone, maybe I’ll have an app by which it just gets blocked. Even if I want to unblock, I can’t unblock.
So, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, यदासम्हरतेचायं कुर्मुअंगानिवसर्वशा इंद्रियानिद्रियार्थेब्यस्तस्यप्रज्ञापतिष्टिता Just as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into its body, like that we need to withdraw the senses from the sense objects. So, that means that we may be able to resist those temptations, resist the distraction, but resistinging it, it dissipates our willpower. Just close the option and then we’ll be able to focus much better.
So, by changing our association and by adapting our association and adapting our circumstance, so that our desires are intensified by our association, not dissipated. Our healthy desires, our worthy desires, they are enhanced and not depleted by our association. And secondly, by making sure that our willpower is used for our most important things, not dissipated in small, small trivial things.
Then we’ll be able to persist and achieve. And foundational for all this is spiritual understanding. Because all this we’ll intellectually know, but spiritual practises, regular hearing spiritual knowledge, regular spiritual practises, that will actually equip us at a foundational level to apply these things.
Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, please. … … … … … … So, if you pray to God for something, should we pray for a particular desire or just be content that others won’t have so many other things which I have, so let me be content with what I have.
Hmm. To be conscious means to be desirous. Desire is a natural feature of consciousness.
So, it’s not, the problem is not desire themselves. The problem is short-sighted desires, unhealthy desires. And when we approach God, praying is a way primarily to connect with God.
Many people see praying as a cheaper way of shopping. I pray to God and God will fulfil this. Well, that’s underutilisation of praying.
We see praying primarily as a means to connect with God. And in that connection itself, we will experience relief, we will experience strength, we will experience clarity. So, we can desire, but not demand.
That means we express our desire, but we don’t make our relationship with God dependent on the fulfilment of that desire. So, God knows better than us what is best for us. So, that’s why we can leave the fulfilment of the desire to God.
But we can definitely express if some desire is important for us, we can express that. There is no like asking a prayer itself is not a problem. But making a relationship with God conditional to the fulfilment of the prayer, that is a problem.
So, I was in Atlanta a month ago. So, one person asked the same question. If God is like our father, then what’s wrong in asking Him for things? There is nothing wrong in asking God for things.
But suppose you have a child and that child is staying somewhere in a hostel. A child calls you only when they need money and never else. And at one level you are happy that they are calling you.
At another level it is a very self-centred relationship. We call only when we need money. So, like that, if we approach God only when we need things and if we think that God doesn’t fulfil those things, then why do I care about God? We are reducing our relationship with God to only the fulfilment of particular desires.
Then it becomes a problem. And sometimes God does fulfil our desires, but in ways different from what we had thought. Sometimes we may pray for a mango.
Go to a forest, see a mango tree and pray for a mango. And looking and looking and the mango is not falling. But in the meanwhile from a neighbouring tree an apple has fallen.
So, our hunger is fulfilled. But as long as we are looking only for the mango, we miss the apple. So, often there is a desire and there is a need underlying it.
The desire may not be fulfilled in the specific form. But the need underlying it will be fulfilled. So, if we let the desire become a demand, then our eyes become closed to other ways in which that underlying need is being fulfilled.
So, if we open ourselves, that means desire but we don’t make a demand, then we stay open. And then we will be able to find out from other places that the desire is fulfilled. And yes, contentment is a virtue.
If we don’t, if sometimes the desire is not fulfilled, then we can surely look at those who don’t have any of the things which you already have and cultivate contentment. But cultivating contentment does not mean being desireless. It simply means that it simply means that we don’t let desires become the dominating force of our consciousness.
See, when desires alone dominate our consciousness, then they sentence us to perpetual dissatisfaction. So, we can have desires but we make sure that we also look at things which we have, look at the many things that are right in our life and cultivate satisfaction by that. So, satisfaction or contentment and desires, both can be features of the consciousness if we are in charge of our inner world.
If we are not in charge of our inner world, then we think that the desires will take control. And then, no matter how much we have, we will not be contented. Does this answer your question? Any other questions? Yes, please.
Yeah. So, how do we know which desires are healthy and which are unhealthy? Yeah. Broadly speaking, we can classify our desires.
Firstly, as I said, healthy and unhealthy. So, those desires which harm us, which harm others, they are definitely unhealthy desires. The Bhagavad Gita talks about three gates to health.
Kama, Krodha, Lobha. Lust, Anger and Greed. Srividham Narakasyedam Dvaram Nashanam Atmanaham.
Kama, Krodha, Lobha. Sasmadhita Trayam Tejit. In 16.21, Krishna said these are three gates to health.
They destroy us spiritually and therefore, we should abstain from them. So, the desires which originate from these, so Lust, Anger, Greed, these are forces within us and they can express themselves as a variety of desires. So, when the desires that originate from these, they are often unhealthy.
And we need to be careful about it. So, extending this, there is also there is also Envy. Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Madhyamacharya.
These six are considered inner enemies. The desires which originate from them, they are definitely unhealthy. Now, apart from that, within the non-unhealthy desires, we can have many desires.
So, how do we choose? It is based on a proper understanding of what is most important in our life. So, sometimes the good in itself is not bad, but the good can become the enemy of the best. Sometimes, I think there is nothing wrong in this, let me do it.
But when we do it, it takes a lot of our time, it takes a lot of our energy and then do we really enjoy it? Okay, I didn’t find it all that great. I went to this trip, I went here, I went there. So, it is not that we have to by itself reject it, but it is just that if we have a understanding of the ultimate purpose of our life, then we can place the various desires that we have in that context.
A, say, if I am going from here back to the place where I am staying now, then I will go straight. But if I am just going for a sightseeing route, I will go here, I will go there. Okay, this looks interesting, that looks interesting, that looks interesting.
If I have no goal, then I might just go here, go there, go there, go there, many places. But if I have a goal, I will stay focused. So now, what is the ultimate goal of our life? So, the Bhagavata explains that ultimately we are spiritual beings and we are here for our spiritual evolution.
We are at our core eternal spiritual beings and we can find happiness only in eternal spiritual love. We can have many loving relationships in this world, but all these relationships are temporary. We have an eternal relationship with God.
God is known by different names in different traditions. He is known in Bhagavad Gita by the name Krishna. And when we have a loving relationship with God, we at our core as spiritual beings are eternal.
God is eternal. And bond of love between us, which is called as Bhakti, that is also eternal. So, the ultimate purpose of life is to grow in that eternal loving relationship with God.
And whatever we do in this world is also meant to be done in a mood of service to God and to all living beings. We are the children of God, in a mood of service to God. So, that way if we see growing spiritually doesn’t just mean renouncing the world.
It means engaging in the world in the mood of service to God. So, if we have this spiritual growth as life’s ultimate purpose and if we have a mood of devotional contribution through our talents, through our vocation, through our activities in this world, while we function in this world, that will give us a grid, a framework within which to place our various desires. And then we can decide, okay, this is a desire which is worth pursuing.
This is a desire which is going to take too much time. I don’t want to get involved in this. So, like that, by being clear about the ultimate goal of our life and evaluating our various desires in terms of their ultimate goal, then we can choose among our non- unhealthy desires and ensure that we invest our time and energy in our most important desires.
Does it answer your question? Yes. So, all loving relationships in this world are temporary. What does that mean? The movies, the novels, there are millions literally and most of them, a large number of them centre on romance.
And most romantic novels or romantic movies, they have this idea of H-E-A, happily ever after. Now, if we look at real life, there is no ever after. Life is temporary in this world.
And because life is temporary, we will be separated from our loved ones sooner or later. Then, this raises the question, what is the purpose of relationships? We form relationships and then we are separated. Is it meant that we are not meant to form any relationships? Are our relationships meant simply to be frustrated? No, not like that.
The Bhagavad Gita explains in 10.41 that it says that everything attractive in this world comes from a spark of Krishna’s all attractiveness. So, anyone whom we find attractive in the world, they manifest a spark of Krishna’s attractiveness to us. That means, the beauty of this world is real.
The love that we experience in this world is real. At the same time, it is like a spark. The spark gives some light, but the spark cannot take the place of the sun.
The spark can never give as much illumination as the sun can give. So, the attractive things of this world, they are meant to be pointers towards God. And that in the Bhagavatam, the Bhagavat Purana is one of the most important Bhakti texts.
In that, there is a story of a young boy, Dhruva. He was grievously insulted by his stepmother and his father also consented to that insult. He was shattered.
So, at that time, he went crying to his mother. His mother was also powerless to help. So, then she said that whatever love I can offer you, the Lord can offer you millions of times more love.
So, take shelter of Him. So, she acknowledged. She loves her child and her love is real.
But the love that the Lord can offer, that is millions of times more. So, what happened here? The love that he felt for his mother, his mother felt for him. That love became a pointer towards God’s love.
So, the relationships in this world, if we make those relationships as substitutes for our relationship with God. If I think, you know, I love you, you love me and we’ll be happy. We don’t need anything spiritual.
We don’t need God in our life. Then, even if the relationship turns out to be fulfilling, still it will be temporary. And then, it will be heartbreaking when the relationship ends.
But if you see that relationship as meaningful, no doubt. But at the same time, as a pointer towards our eternal relationship with God. We have horizontal relationship in this world with others and we have vertical relationship with God.
The ideal situation is that the horizontal relationships reinforce our vertical relationship. That means we love others and whoever we love, they are also spiritually minded and they inspire us in our spiritual relationship. And conversely, our vertical relationship will also strengthen our horizontal relationship.
When we are ourselves spiritually minded, then we get, we experience security within. We experience strength within. And then we are not so emotionally dependent on others.
If we understand that I am spiritual, I am part of God, God always loves me. Then, if we experience some reversal in a relationship, we won’t be so shattered by that. We won’t be so emotionally dependent on others.
And that emotional stability will actually help us to function better in our horizontal relationships also. So, the relationships in this world are temporary doesn’t mean that we have to reject those relationships. But it just means that we shouldn’t let those relationships replace our relationship with God.
We see those relationships as pointers towards our ultimate relationship with God and then we can make the vertical relationship with God and the horizontal relationship in this world as complementary. Does that answer your question? Thank you. In spiritual life, us feeling that God loves me is something like that.
What’s the difference between our feelings like psychological and spiritual? Okay, good question. So, if we say that God loves us, what is the difference between, say, a psychological feeling and a spiritual feeling? Yeah. This is a little technical question.
I’ll first explain these different levels. Ultimately, the source of consciousness is spiritual. Our existence is currently at three levels.
I talked about two initially, material and spiritual. But within the material, there is physical, mental and spiritual. Mental is the same as psychological.
So, if you consider a computer system, computer is hardware, software and user. So, like that, the hardware is the body, the software is the mind and the soul is the user. The soul is the source of consciousness.
That means, it is in consciousness that we experience feelings. So, ultimately whatever is being experienced, it is being experienced by the soul. So, right now, it is not my mouth that is speaking.
The mouth is a tool through which the speech is coming. What is speaking is not just the brain. It is not the throat.
It is actually the I, the person and that person is the soul. So, the soul is the activator of everything. The soul is the experiencer of everything.
So, ultimately, all experience of emotions is done by the soul. Now, when we talk about differentiating spiritual emotions or spiritual feeling that God loves me, just a psychological, sentimental idea, oh, God loves me. What is the difference between them? The difference is between where does that feeling take me? All consciousness originates from the soul.
But what is the result of that feeling? That means, if it is just a sentimental idea, oh, God loves me, everything is alright. Yes, that may calm me a little bit. But, that feeling will come today, it will go tomorrow.
If it is spiritual, that means, it is a part, my life is a part of a process where I am moving spiritually. I am growing spiritually. So, I have an overall spiritual understanding of life and I have a spiritual purpose to my life and within that spiritual understanding and spiritual purpose, when I experience some feelings, then I understand what those feelings are and then those feelings help me to move forward.
Many people may go to a temple and they may feel some peace over there. They may hear some kirtans. Oh, this is nice.
I feel calm over here. Now, many people will come and do that and they will go away and think, okay, nice experience I had. Some people may probe deeper.
What was this experience? Why did I get this experience? How can I get it more? What can I do to change my consciousness or to make my consciousness more receptive so that I can get this experience more? So, if our experiences are placed within a framework of philosophical understanding and they are placed within a trajectory of spiritual growth, then those feelings will be triggers for further spiritual growth. Otherwise, those feelings will just be occasional experiences which will be like just flicks on our consciousness. They will come and they will go.
And we may say, Oh, God loves me. But then, if we are not a part of us, we are not growing spiritually, then we feel, you know, this is wrong in my life. That is wrong in my life.
That is wrong in my life. Where is God’s love for me? That feeling will not be able to last. But when we are actually spiritually conscious, our whole way of looking at things will change.
We will be able to focus on, this is right in my life. This is also right in my life. This is also right.
And through the spiritual understanding, that experience of God’s love will be a real experience for us. Because it will trigger us towards spiritual growth. So, even sentiments related to God are good.
But if the sentiments become the replacements to the process, because God loves me, that’s fine. So, he is happy there, I am happy here, let’s go on with life. If I think like that, then those feelings will simply stay very amorphous, very vague.
They will not be at all transformational. But yes, if God loves me, let me connect with him deeper. I got this experience.
I got this feeling. I got this epiphany. Good.
Let me try to go closer to him. So, by placing our feelings within a framework of philosophical understanding and a framework of a trajectory of spiritual growth, then those feelings will propel us towards inner transformation. And even if they are psychological, they will move us, take us towards spiritual growth.
But without that, they will just be like blips in our consciousness, they will come and go. Okay. Stop.
So, thank you very much for your kind attention and for your thoughtful questions. My best wishes and prayers to all of you for a bright future for you. Thank you.
Actually, we know that…