Internal Tug of War Desire Management Session 1 IYS HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhu

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for coming today. And before I begin.
So I will be using this as a whiteboard and I will write some things over here. And explain that way. So I’d like to start by asking you.
What does desire management mean to you? So when you hear this word desire management, that’s our topic. So what is the need for desire management? What is desire management? Why do we need to manage our desires? Any thoughts anyone has? Okay, we have, thank you. We are limited time and resources.
And we have how many desires? Unlimited desires, yes. So in one sense, desire management can be said to be. Desire selection.
We all have to select desires. Even if somebody is completely materialistic. Even they cannot fulfil all their desires.
So, okay. I want to see this place. I want to meet this person.
I want to pursue this career. I want to buy this kind of car. So there are all desires.
But nobody can fulfil all their desires. So in that sense, everybody has to learn to manage their desires. Okay, good point.
Anything else? Anyone else? What is what or why? Desire management. Sorry? Yeah, so. Desires can be undesirable.
Isn’t it? Some desires can be undesirable. In the sense that, they can be counterproductive. They can be harmful to us.
Thank you. Anything else? Okay. So often the desires point us towards temporary things.
And those things will go away at the time of death. Or will be taken away at the time of death. Maybe even before also at that time.
So that is a problem. Anything else? Sometimes the desires cost much more than what it’s worth. The efforts and time and energy that we put.
True. You can say the price is much greater than the price. Isn’t it? So what they cost is far more than what they give.
Good point. Yes, true. Some desires are impractical.
In the sense that, they are just not implemented. Somebody is four and a half feet and I want to become a basketball player. That’s not going to work.
Unless you create a basketball for dwarfs separately. Yeah. That we can do.
So, they are not always fulfilled. You may have few desires. And if you do not have the karma or the qualification for it.
Then the desire may not be fulfilled. Or will not be fulfilled. Okay, correct.
Anything else? Hare Krishna. Okay. So our desires determine our decisions.
And then our decisions determine our destiny. Well said. And then if, depending on if the desires are good.
Then everything following will be good. Otherwise it will be lonely. Uncontrolled desire may cause havoc inside.
Sorry? Uncontrolled desire may cause havoc inside. Havoc inside. So uncontrolled desire, yes.
It’s not only inside. It will cause havoc outside also. But yes, inside.
Definitely. Material desires create a bondage and trap us into this material world. Okay, they cause bondage.
And so, okay, material desires. The mind doesn’t need material. Okay.
Understanding the good desires and making them prioritising. So that they can be addressed. Otherwise in other things, like they will be neglected.
In good desires also. So, we need to have good desires. Part of desire management is.
And good desires need to be nourished. They need to be strengthened. Yes, true.
So material desires, we need a bondage. That is, from a philosophical perspective, we can say we all get bound. But even from a psychological or a practical perspective, we can say there is addiction.
Where we will be bound in the material world or bound to the material world. We are bound to specific things in the material world also. So in that sense, it’s not just a philosophical concept.
It’s also something which everybody experiences, if not personally, in their observation with others. Thank you. Very good point.
Any last point anyone has? So, yes. You all have given very important reasons. Why we all need to learn to manage our desires.
So, I will talk about this based on two distinct verses from the Bhagavad Gita. Which actually seem to say almost opposite things. But we will see how these two are to be reconciled.
This is 3.34, 3.33 and 3.34. So, I will explain the meaning of the verse. And then we will recite it. So, Sadrusham cheshtate swasyaha.
Sadrusham means according. This is how it does. Cheshtate.
Cheshta is endeavour. So, we all have desires. We endeavour.
Swasyaha. Swasyaha means according to one’s own. Sadrusham cheshtate swasyaha prakrute.
Swasyaha is one’s own nature. So, everyone endeavours according to their nature. Prakrute gyanavanapi.
So, even if somebody is knowledgeable and somebody understands, Okay, these desires are external, they are superficial or whatever. Still the desires come. So, in one sense knowledge itself does not excuse us of desires or free us of desires.
Prakrute gyanavanapi. And if this is the way of the wise, then that is the way of everyone else also. That if say doctor smoke, then everyone else is going to smoke.
Is it? Doctors know better than everyone else how harmful smoking is. Prakrute yanti bhutani. Bhutani is all living beings.
All living beings act according to their desires. Prakrute yanti bhutani. Nigraha.
Nigraha means control, regulation, repression. Kim, what, karishyati. What will it do? What will it accomplish? Nigraha kim karishyati.
So, let’s recite it once more. Sadrusham cheshtate swasyaha. Prakrute gyanavanapi.
Prakrute yanti bhutani. Nigraha kim karishyati. So, this verse seems to be saying something like this.
That if you have to depict it diagrammatically. So, this is a person. And that person may also be a wise person, gyanavan.
But, this is basically the path of natural desires. Krishna says, everybody will go on this path. Prakrute yanti bhutani.
So, everybody, not only, Krishna says, these desires, it’s desires and endeavours. This is cheshtate. So, we all have many desires.
But some desires, like you mentioned, they are impractical. So, we may not even endeavour to fulfil them. But even when we endeavour to fulfil, he is saying that everybody goes along the path of their natural desires.
And it’s more of their natural desires. And he is saying here, basically, this force is essentially so strong, so strong that even if we build something like a nigraha, this is repression. This force will be such that it will break down that force and move on.
Nigraha kim karishyati. So, now, this seems to say that, okay, you have desire, you have to go along with your desires. What can you do about it? There was one so-called spiritual leader of India.
He said this phrase, nigraha kim karishyati, this is the essence of the Bhagavad Gita. Whatever you have desire, do it. Repression, what will it accomplish? So, Gita says, just do whatever is your desire.
Now, is that the essence of the Gita? Why not? Well, yeah. So, his desire was to not fight, but he ultimately fought. That’s a good observation.
So, if you see, the Gita, when we talk about natural desires, generally there is content, what is spoken, and there is context, in which it is being spoken. So, if you look at the content of this verse, it does seem to say, what is the point of doing anything with your desires in any way trying to control them. But the very next verse, what does it say? We have to look at what comes before, what comes after, and then we have to understand the meaning in context.
So, let’s look at this next verse. Indriyasya, Indriyasya is what? Indriya is senses. Indriyasya, Indriyasya arthe.
Artha is object. So, senses and sense object. Indriyasya, Indriyasya arthe.
Raga, Dvesha. Raga is attachment. Dvesha is aversion.
I like this. Dvesha is, I detest this, I dislike this, I loathe it, I hate it. Raga, Dvesha, Vyavasthitau.
So, Vyavasthitau means that it is already there, but the Raga and Dvesha, Vyavasthit, Vyavasthit means properly. It needs to be properly regulated. Raga, Dvesha, Vyavasthitau.
So, why does it need to be regulated? Tayor. Tayor means these two. Navashamagachet.
Vasha is control. Don’t go under their control. Don’t get controlled or captivated by them.
Tayor, Navashamagachet. Tau. Tau is these two.
So, the word asya comes thrice. Indriyasya, Indriyasarthe. The Gita is poetic and one of the characters of poetry is that there are poetic ornaments.
So, the repetition of the use of the same word. So, Tau, Asya, Paripanthi. Now, these are obstacles on the path.
These are, Paripanthi actually means thieves on the path. So, these are these are dangers. Tau, Asya, Paripanthi.
Now, so, let’s recite it together. Let’s recite it once. Indriyasya, Indriyasyarthe.
Raga, Dvesha, Vyavasthitau. Tayor, Navashamagachet. Tau, Asya, Paripanthi.
Now, so, Krishna, what he seems to be saying over here is that even when we are going on this path actually there are thieves. One thief on one side, one thief on other side. This is Raga and Dvesha.
So, he says that Navashamagachet. So, Nigraha can mean Vasha. Nigraha means control, regulate.
And he says don’t come under their control. Previous verse he says what can control accomplish? And then this verse he is saying don’t come under their control. So, basically what is he telling over here? So, we could say these two verses we could say they are talking about two sides of a pendulum.
So, one is controlling desire. The other is being controlled by desire. Now, specifically here Krishna is talking about controlling desire in terms of to the point of repressing.
So, he is saying that both of these need to be avoided. So, 3.33 is if you just controlling, controlling, controlling, controlling, that’s not going to work. But on the other hand, if you just let yourself be controlled.
Ok, I like to eat this, I’ll eat that. I don’t like to eat that, I won’t eat that. I like to watch this, I’ll watch this.
I like to do this, I’ll do this. I won’t like to do that, I won’t do that. He says if we just go along with simply our likes and dislikes, we will not get anywhere in life.
So, in between these two is basically if we consider these two to be the extremes of a pendulum, the central point is what we are trying to discuss. It is desire management and that is selecting desires. It is, we don’t have a one approach that control all desires nor we say, when desire has come, I have to be controlled by it.
We have to be selecting our desires and in the context of the Gita, Krishna is telling Arjuna that you are a warrior, you are a Kshatriya, you are by nature a protector. Now, in your duty as a protector, right now, you have to face those whom you don’t want to fight with. Who are they? Bhishma and Drona, his Guru and his Grandfather.
That’s why you are thinking I will not fight. But by nature, you are a protector. In future, when you hear about the Kauravas doing atrocities against innocent people, at that time the protector in you will rise and it will want to fight at that time.
So, you cannot not act according to your natural desire to be a Kshatriya. So, that is not talking about any and every desire. Prakriti refers to the natural desire which is according to one’s varna and we will discuss that later.
And then, he is saying, in this particular verse, even when you are a Kshatriya, some battles you may like to fight, some battles you may not like to fight, but don’t come under their control. So, even when there is something that we like to do, it is not that we will like everything about it. Even when we like a job, it is not that everything about the job we like.
I like everything about this job except everything. So, for some people, that is their situation and they are totally miserable. They say, I like everything about this job except the boss.
Or except this Kali. Or except this, this, this. So, in this world, there will never be an ideal situation where everything will be like him.
So, basically, with respect to selecting desires, let’s try to understand how this works. So, Krishna will talk elaborately about desires in the next section. But he is talking about a particular category of desires.
So, if we consider, say, this is the soul, this is the mind. Now, I am using the mind as a shorthand for the entire subtle body. I don’t want to get the complexity of that.
And then, here there is the body. And all this together is the conditioned self. So, Prabhupada would use the word Atma to refer to the soul and he would refer the living entity to refer to the conditioned soul.
And then outside, we may have many objects. So, okay. So, these are objects.
And maybe for this, for one of these, we feel Raga. For another, there is Dvesha. For another, again, there is Raga.
Again, there is Dvesha. So, basically, we like some things, we don’t like some things. So, now, these likes and dislikes are stored in our mind, in our subtle body.
And in this subtle body, we could say there are two kinds of desires. Is this colour visible? So, the terms may vary for these that we could call this as Vritti. In English, the word is Instincts.
And there is Vasana. And this is Impulses. So, I’ll go into that soon, but let’s look at it specifically here.
Generally, how do things work? From the soul, consciousness is what comes out. So, from the Atma, comes Chetana. And Chetana goes through the Manas, then it goes to the Sharir, and it comes to the outer world.
So, for example, if I consider, say this is the, this flashlight is the soul, the Atma, and the beam of light coming from it is the Chetana, is the consciousness. So, consciousness comes from the soul and goes out through the mind. Then it goes out through the Karmendriyas.
Let’s go out through the Karmendriyas or the Gyanendriyas? You know what are the Gyanendriyas? Eyes, nose, nostrils, skin, and ears. And what are the Karmendriyas? Hands, legs, reproductive organs, and the power of speech. So, basically, normally, consciousness first goes through the Gyanendriyas out.
And say, right now, you are hearing me. You take that information, consciousness goes out and comes in. And it takes in the information, you notice, okay, I am asking a question.
Then you answer the question. When you answer the question, the consciousness again comes out, and this time it comes out through the Karmendriyas. Your tongue speaks something, and some words come out.
So, basically, consciousness is always flowing in and out. There is Pravaha. Can the AC be decreased slightly? Okay.
So, there is constant Pravaha of the consciousness. And quite often, we tend to think that the object triggers desire within us. That is true, but the object is not the cause of the desire.
The objects that are there, these are triggers. They are not causes of desire. What does that mean? That it is not the object that is filled with desire from the object.
Desire is injected into our consciousness. Now, for 10 years now, I have been travelling across the world. So, 2014, I started going to America.
And whenever I give classes, I often give contemporary examples. So, when I am in India, I often give examples from cricket. So, when I went to America, especially when I was speaking to American audiences, the organisers told me, don’t give any cricket examples here.
I said, why is that? They said, is it that Americans like baseball more and they don’t like cricket? I said, that is true but it’s not that they don’t like cricket. For them, cricket is an insect. It’s not a game.
So, what happens is that if there is no impression inside the mind of cricket, you may see cricket, there is no desire coming from it. Coming for it. Okay, somebody is playing, somebody is doing something in a field.
But for Indian, they see cricket, okay, what’s going on? So, it is not that the external object is the source of desire. There are impressions inside us. Suppose somebody passes by a bar.
Now, they are never drunk, they have no interest in drinking. They pass by the bar, they may see the bar but there is no desire that comes. If somebody is an alcoholic, they pass by a bar, then there is no bar for them to go to the bar.
Sarva Dharmaan Paritthaj So, they just straight rush into the bar. So, the difference is what is inside their consciousness. So, inside our consciousness, there are impressions.
And those impressions, so to put it another way, that say, if this is the mind, let’s focus on the mind now. Now, if there is a samskara over here, some kind of samskara, let’s keep one over here, then when the input from the consciousness comes in, it might be small over here but as it goes through it, it becomes bigger. And then by the time it reaches the soul, it has become the most important thing.
Like I said, for alcoholic, the input goes in through the eyes, goes through the mind and by the time it comes out, it has become huge. So, the mind is, mind actually does two things. Mind is the transmitter of consciousness.
That is, consciousness goes from the soul outward and comes back inward. But it is not just a transmitter, it is also a transformer of consciousness. Transformer means that some stimuli, when they come in, they become very big.
Some stimuli, they don’t become big. Some stimuli, they don’t even go in only. So, the mind is a transformer of consciousness.
And depending on what is present within the consciousness, that thing will either go up or come down. So, for us, what is inside the consciousness will determine what becomes big, what stays small or what just disappears. So, with this background, now, let’s look at these two things, Rtti and Vasana.
So, our desires, they have categories. So, when Krishna is using the word natural desires, so, that means, he is referring to is that we all have a Swabhava. We all have an innate nature.
And this natural, he is referring to in terms of the Varna. We all have some talents, some abilities, some interests and accordingly, certain desires come up within us. So, these are natural to our body-mind machine.
And then, these are what we call as Vritti. Everybody has a Vritti. Now, apart from this, there are other desires, which could be called as artificial.
I’ll explain by artificial, what it means actually. So, but let’s try to understand the natural desires first. After the Pandavas won Draupadi in the Swayamvar, then they left the royal palace and came back to the small cottage where they were living temporarily in one room in the house of a Brahmana.
Draupadi’s father and brother were naturally concerned whom has Draupadi married actually. They looked like Brahmanas in the sense that they were dressed in the garb of Brahmanas. They had sat in the category of the Brahmanas.
But they were very well built and their skill in archery and in the mace fighting was extraordinary. So, they decided to test the Pandavas and then they called the Pandavas to their home, to the palace basically, for a banquet, a feast. And Draupadi invited them and took them to a long room and seated them and he said, I’ll just be back.
And he left and the Pandavas sat over there and they looked around. And on the opposite side of the hall, a huge hall with majestic jewelled decorations and paintings of ancient wars and big pillars, impressive architecture. But they saw on the opposite side, there was a long table and on that table, on one side, were kept scriptures and paraphernalia used for performing yajnas by the Brahmanas.
Then next to it were various weapons, bows, arrows, maces, spears. Then next to it was various farming equipments, ropes and harnesses and yokes. And then, on the other extreme, were various artisan tools.
Now these four corresponded to what? The four Varanas. So the Pandavas looked around, saw the table and all five, as if one, walked straight to where? The weapons. And Deva took out a mace and started swinging it around.
Then Yudhisthira took out a spear. Arjuna picked up what? A bow and arrow and started testing it. And then Nakula and Sahadeva picked up swords and other equipment.
And soon, they were in deep talk, you know, this mace is strong, but it’s not as strong as that mace that was there. And then they started comparing and talking about various weapons. And from a secret window, Drupada and Dhristadyumna had been watching.
And as they were watching, their faces started smiling. These aren’t Kshatriya, these are not Brahmins. So basically, what happens is, we all have certain natural interests.
So our Varana is seen if we note what we notice. We note consciously what we notice automatically. So, in all situations, wherever we go, some people come to a home, the first thing they notice is, okay, what kind of paintings are there over here? Somebody else may notice, okay, what kind of architecture is there in this home? Some people notice, okay, what kind of library is there? What kind of books are there? Some people may say, okay, what gadgets are there over here? What model TV is there? What AC is there? So basically, we all notice certain things naturally.
That means we don’t have to put any effort. So, we all have some interests that are natural. And some interests, we may have, they have to be cultivated.
Like some people, some interests may be just that, okay, I like history, I like maths, I like language, I like art. It’s just natural. And sometimes, some subjects, we have to get ourselves interested in those things.
They are natural and they are cultivated. So, it is important what Krishna is telling Arjuna here, that when we are trying to manage our desires, the natural desires that we have, according to our subhava, those need to be developed. These should not be repressed.
If we repress them, then we will feel constantly suffocated. We cannot afford to repress these desires. This subhava jena kaunteya nimbadha svena karmana kartum necchasi anmohat karishasya avasopitad.
Same thing Krishna will talk later in 1859 and 1860. He says, all of us will act according to our nature. And, so, there are two fundamentally different approaches to desire management.
With respect to the desire that correspond to our vrittis, there needs to be development. These desires need to be developed. And, then there are desires associated with our vasanas.
So, vasana, I will talk about this development a little later. I will be continuing this session tomorrow morning also. But, vasana, these refer to what? Lust, anger, what else is there? Greed, then envy, pride and illusion.
Excellent! So, these are the vasanas. Now, the terms may vary according to what is used where in Sanskrit and how it is translated into English. But, if you see, I use the word for vritti, instincts.
Now, everybody has some instincts, naturally. Some kids, they may be just 2 or 3 years old, they take up a kartal and start playing it. And, they just play it so well.
Some other people, they may be 20, they pick up a kartal and start playing. Others say, when are you going to stop? So, the idea is that some people, some kids just have the musical instinct. So, others always say, they don’t have a single musical bone in their body.
So, some people have instincts. And then there are impulses. The word instinct is also used in a biological sense.
Like, animals have some natural instincts. So, birds can, if they are just taken far away and left, they have an instinct. Okay, where is my nest? They will whirl around a little bit and then straight go back.
That’s how birds do migration. So, the instincts, it’s almost like programmed intelligence. You just know what to do.
Some people have a language instinct. They just speak what they want to speak and they speak it so precisely. Others just struggle and stumble over words and they can never articulate what they want to say.
And then somebody else says, yeah, that’s what I wanted to say. So, why did you say it? Oh, I don’t know. I can’t even say why I couldn’t say.
So, the idea is, this is programmed intelligence. Now, as contrasted with this, the vasanas are, they are not just unintelligent. They can even be anti-intelligent.
Anti-intelligent means, they can make us do things which no intelligent person will do. So, even when somebody is a painter, somebody is a writer, somebody is an interior decorator, somebody is an engineer, they may be good in their particular fields. But, still they may be vulnerable to lust.
Some people may be working in an office and they may have a good job and they have good ability for the job, but they get caught in affairs and this and that. Some people are just power hungry. They use their talent to lord it over others.
They just have pride and they have so much consideration of whether others are respecting me or not. Some people, they are just driven by greed. So, somebody may be a good doctor in the sense, they may be competent as a doctor, but they may not be compassionate as a doctor.
They may see their patients as simply sources of money and such doctors can create a lot of trouble. What is that saying? A doctor cures your ills with your pills and then kills you with the bills. So, the idea is impulses are unhealthy and with respect to the vasanas, there has to be a pathway.
There has to be regulation and regulation ultimately, there is regulation means we have to create some boundaries. Now, anger may not go away in anyone completely, but anger is regulated. Say for example, if we go to workplace, then we may get angry, but we are not going to yell at our boss.
Now, if we yell at our boss today, we will have no one to yell at tomorrow. Is it? Only people will yell at us for why we yelled earlier. So, we have to be regulated in what we do.
So now, from regulation it can also go towards elimination. Those particular things may go away completely, but that is different from repression. Repression in the desire is there, just forcing it underneath.
That’s very different. So, basically what we are talking about here is these are two different categories of desires and they have to be dealt with differently. So, each kind of desire the first kind of desire is when it’s frutti it needs to be appreciated, it needs to be developed, it needs to be nourished so that it takes us upwards.
And then, the other kind of desire is the vasana. That needs to be regulated. So now, beyond this, see these are till now, I was talking about the soul and then there is the mind.
So, in the mind, there are the vrittis and the vasanas. So, we need to each difference of these we could say we need to develop these desires. So, we develop these desires, we regulate these desires.
So, to develop, before we can develop, we need to appreciate first. Appreciate what are our natural interests. What are our natural gifts.
So, appreciate. Then, the vasana, we need to regulate. And then, there is a third category of desires.
These are the desires that come naturally from the soul. The soul has spiritual desires. These are the desires to love Krishna, to serve Krishna, to make Krishna the lord of our life.
And now, these desires, they need to be also developed. But they are a different category of desires. They are not coming from the body-mind machine.
They are not coming from the impressions within us. They are coming innately from within the soul, from who we are at our core. And these need to be gently but surely awakened.
So, slowly, gradually, they need to be awakened. So, awaken. These are spiritual desires.
So, we could say that we want to if you want to make it an acronym, enhance, regulate, awaken. So, it’s a era. E-R-A.
Enhance the vritti, regulate the vasana, and awaken the atma. Awaken the soul and awaken the soul’s eternal desires. So, I will explain one more concept and then how to go about doing these three things, we will discuss in tomorrow’s session.
We will have some questions after this. But, generally, say we talk about the two kinds of taste. What are the two kinds of taste? Yes? Which are the two kinds of taste? You have heard the word taste? You will think, is that a test? So, which is the, there is a? Yes, okay, good.
There is a higher taste and there is a lower taste. I was wondering, what were you thinking about the taste? So, param drishtva nivartate, Krishna says. So, generally, we are told, go from the lower taste to the higher taste.
But, what happens for many of us, if we are here, this going from the lower taste the higher taste seems to be too high up. And, when we try to go to the higher taste, many times, we have to take a high jump here. But, instead of the high jump, we go up and we go further down.
So, it just seems to be too difficult. So, what shastras describe is, actually, in between. So, here, this is true, but it is, this is a higher spiritual taste.
This is a lower material taste. But, you could say, there is a higher material taste. Now, what do you mean by higher material taste? The lower material taste comes from the vasanas.
So, somebody has lust, just indulge in the lust and they get some pleasure. Somebody has a lot of pride and when they get power and recognition and prestige, then they feel a lot of joy. So, that is the vasana.
Now, there is some pleasure in that. But, that takes us down and often we take others down with it. The spiritual higher taste, it comes through bhakti.
Specifically, as bhakti rises towards rati and prema, at the higher stage of bhakti, when it comes to the level of ruchi, basically, we start getting a higher taste in bhakti. So, for many of us, the whole system of varanashram, it is not so much about dividing people into four groups. It is more about engaging people in such a way that they can get a taste where they are at.
So, if nowadays, sometimes people ask, why are so many people depressed? That is not the question you should be asking. The question you should be asking is, why is not everyone depressed? Isn’t it? Life is so difficult. There are so many things wrong in the world.
There are so many things wrong with us. There are so many more things that can go wrong. We are getting the negativity from everywhere in the world.
Isn’t it? The human mind is not designed to get so bombarded by so many bad news from so many places. So, the question is, why is everyone not depressed? Sometimes people ask, nowadays, pornography is so much common. So, why are so many people using porn? The question should be, why is everyone not using porn? Lust is there in everyone and it is so easily available.
So, how is it that everybody is not doing it 24 hours a day? Of course, I am not saying it is a good thing to do. The point I am making is, why is it that when it is so easily available, why is everyone not doing it 24 hours a day? You say, okay, I have got job, I have got family, I have got this. Well, there are so many people who are wealthy enough, they don’t have to do anything.
But still, they don’t just indulge 24 hours a day. Because, there is a part of us, which wants something more in our life. Okay, you know, how many of you like humour? How many of you like humour? Humour, humour, jokes.
Jokes, okay. If you don’t like it, I am a little concerned. So, now, say if you like humour, and there is a comedy show, where there is humour.
So, we may enjoy it. But somebody tells you, from tomorrow onwards, you have no financial obligation, no social obligations, no physical obligations, you can eat as much as you want, you won’t become fat. No obligations.
Just sit in front of a TV and for the rest of your life, watch comedy shows and laugh. Now, will we enjoy that? Now, maybe if you are a little fed up, one hour, two hour, maybe really fed up, for a weekend. But after that, we want something to do.
Isn’t it? We all need to do something, which matters, something of value. So, it is natural for us, we want pleasure, but we don’t just want pleasure. We want meaningful pleasure.
Just hearing jokes and laughing at jokes, as good as a break. Maybe some entertainment is there. But we don’t want that for the rest of our life.
So, the idea is that, we often say, we are pleasure seeking. And that is true. But what we really want is meaningful pleasure.
Not just meaningless pleasure. And that’s why nowadays we may say that, nowadays social media is so easy, people just mindlessly keep scrolling things. Well, that is true.
But the question is, that it is so easily available, why is everybody not constantly scrolling? Because eventually, I want to do something of value. So, now, of course, if the vasanas are very strong, that urge for doing something meaningful may go away. It may be very strongly covered.
But we all want to do something which is of value. Now, it may not be of world-changing value, but I want to do something of value. And it is our rutti, when we understand that, when we develop that, then we can do something of value.
So, when we feel that I am doing something of value, that gives us a higher taste. It may not be a spiritual higher taste, like somebody is a doctor, they may not be a spiritual doctor, but if they actually are interested in medicine, they like to care for people. Now, they of course want money, they spend so much money in getting the education, they want money.
But their interest in treating the patients is not simply to get money. They get some joy in doing that. So, then that joy will ensure that they don’t become greedy or possessive or exploitative like that.
So, for everyone of us, this material higher taste is also important. Now, of course, the material higher taste is not the ultimate thing. Because even with the material higher taste, we are going to die.
And then, this material higher taste is not going to take us to a higher destination. We are still in the material world. But this can be like a stepping stone from the lower taste of say, indulging in the senses to the higher taste of doing something of value.
To the ultimately higher taste of being absorbed in Krishna. So, till now, I’ll conclude this last point. Addiction is a huge problem in the world.
And especially drug addiction is becoming very big. So, in this, there is a few of you may have heard of this 12-step programme. There is a 12-step programme, Alcoholics Anonymous and all of them, they have this idea that there are 12 steps and the first step is, my life is out of my control.
I need some higher power to intervene in my life. Otherwise, I am going to destroy myself. So, they may say higher power according to my own understanding or according to one’s own understanding.
They might accept it as Krishna. But, so there is something spiritual they bring in. The idea of some higher intervention.
But, the second thing is, in the Scandinavian countries, they have been the most successful in the western world in combating drug addiction. And what they did was, they focused on the rehabilitation of people. Generally, if somebody is a junkie, somebody is a drug user, then they don’t get jobs very easily.
Nobody wants to employ such a person. Once you are blacklisted as a drug user, no respectable place will want to employ you. So, what these countries did was, they said, yes, this person is a drug user, but if, they told employers, if you employ this person, we will pay 50% of the salary.
The government will pay 50% of the salary. And, they found that, when these drug users, not all of them, but many of them, when they were able to, when they were able to do some meaningful job, holding a job itself is not easy. Especially, in countries like India, there is no option.
If you don’t have a job, you won’t be alive. But, many of the European countries are welfare states. Welfare states means what? If you don’t have a job, the government pays you.
It’s not even you don’t have a job. You don’t have a job that you don’t like. If you say, I have not found a job that I like till now, then the government will keep paying you.
And, people misuse that quite a bit. Many of the immigrants who are going from the Arabic countries to the west, they have no job, then they have huge welfare benefits that they get. That’s why there is a lot of concern in Europe about immigration right now.
But, the point is that when people started holding responsible jobs, then many of them, their addiction decreased and disappeared. Even in many American soldiers who had gone to Vietnam for war, there the conditions were so horrible, the fear was so much, ambush attacks. And, why were they in the war also? It was supposed to stop communism, but it was a very politicalised war.
So, many of the soldiers, they were given morphine to numb them of the pain. And, the fear was that they will become addicted to it. And, some did become addicted.
But, when many of them came back home, they came back to their families, got integrated in society, they gave up the morphine. So, the point is even, now not all of them gave up, some of them became addicted and they had lifelong addicts. But, the point is even a material higher taste can help.
So, both of these, so, if people get some meaningful engagement and they have some higher power in their life, they connect with Krishna and they, so, basically this is like connecting with Krishna, this is connecting with one’s swabhava. So, when we can do this, then we will find that our desires, especially, specifically, the vasanas, they will become easier to manage. We will be able to go beyond them.
So, I’ll summarise what we discussed today. I talked about four main points. The first point, we started with the paradox in this verse that controlling desire, that is not healthy, controlling desire, especially in terms of repressing it and being controlled is also not healthy.
This is based on 3.33 and 3.34 in the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita is telling us we need to do desire management. We need to select our desires.
So, how to select the desires? For that I discussed about how? Where do desires come from? Desires, basically, something comes into the mind and then it becomes bigger. So, there are impressions in the mind and so the mind does two things to our consciousness. What does it do? Transmit and transform.
So, it allows things to go in and out, but in between it transforms. This is based on the impressions. Sanskrit word for this is samskaras and then we discussed about the different kinds of desires that are there.
So, within the mind there are certain healthy desires and certain unhealthy desires. So, what are the healthy desires called? vritti or instincts and vasana and then beyond that there is the soul. The soul has its spiritual desires.
So, we discussed that there are three steps with respect to the, what is the acronym? ERA, E-R-A. With respect to vritti what do we do? Enhance the desires. Note consciously what we notice naturally.
We discussed the Pandavas example. And vasanas, what do we do? Regulate that. And lastly, the spiritual desires, we awaken those desires.
They may not be there but we awaken them. And in this way, last one we discussed is the journey from the lower taste to the higher taste. The lower material taste and there is the higher spiritual taste.
Sometimes this can seem a very big journey. So, there is an intermediate step that we can have in between. That is the higher material taste.
So, this higher material taste can keep us moving till we get eventually the higher spiritual taste. So, how to go on this journey? We will discuss more in tomorrow morning session. Any questions or comments? Yes, please.
Do we have a mic? Hare Krishna Prabhu. Thank you for the class. Actually, my question was that sometimes impulses are gift-wrapped as instincts.
So, while in relation that you enhance your vritti and regulate your vasana but if you are not able to distinguish between both of them, you won’t be able to properly know what to enhance and what to regulate. So, it is a challenge. That’s why, generally speaking, either we have to come to sattva or we need to be guided by somebody who is in sattva.
Sattva Sanjayate Jnanam Vishnu says. So, sattva is the mode of goodness. It brings clarity.
And we cannot always be in sattva. Life is busy. Life is demanding.
The world around is fast-paced. So, a significant part of our time in our life, we may be in rages. We may be in the mode of passion.
But, at least for some time during the day, we need to be in sattva. And that’s the time we make our major decisions in life. So, sometimes it may happen that, okay, I’m walking along the road and I just see some food item and I want to go and eat it.
You may go and eat it. That may not be good. That may not be the healthiest food, whatever.
But that is not going to be a… That was a huge problem in our life. But, major decisions are made on impulse. Today, I go to office.
I have a bad interaction with my boss. I resign. That is not very healthy.
As in, one day, I’m not as people have it. That’s why the dvandvaragad vishi is there. So, we cannot take irreversible decisions.
This is extremely dangerous. People take irreversible decisions based on reversible emotions. So, today, I feel this job is terrible.
Tomorrow, I feel this job is terrific. But today, I resign and tomorrow, I feel terrible also. So, nowadays, even relationships have become so fickle.
So, one day, I love you. I cannot live without you. Next day, I hate you.
I can’t live with you. So, this is where recognising that our emotions are fickle, they are reversible. Don’t take irreversible decisions.
So, decisions point, major decisions we have to take, leave it to sattva. In sattva, we have done some praying. We have done some sattvic activities.
Breathing, journaling, going for a walk, doing our chanting, hearing some classes, spiritual talks. In sattva, then we can reflect. Then we can analyse.
Thank you. Hare Krishna Prabhu. My question is, through the diagram, you represented that like you gave a flashlight example, you said that consciousness is coming out of the soul and then it goes through the mind-body machine and inside we have like the vrittis and the vasanas.
So, if the consciousness is passing through the vrittis and vasanas, why do they not get spiritualised? The soul is spiritual. Consciousness is the energy of the soul. And the consciousness will be affected by whatever medium it passes through.
So, Krishna, basically, in the Vedanta Sutra also this is talked about that atma is unchanging. But, the chetana is ever-changing. So, the chetana is affected by whatever medium it is putting.
That’s in the 13th chapter in Krishna’s sutra. He says this is material. He says that it is a transformation of material nature.
So, if somebody is born in South India, then chetana goes through South Indian body and mind and whenever they think of food, they think of Idli and Sambar. When somebody is born in North India, whenever the chetana comes out, food means parathas. So, that chetana is conditioned based on the kind of body, mind, machine we have.
Hare Krishna, how to identify and differentiate between the vasanas and vrittis? Sometimes, like, we may think that it is my, like, this happens with me many times. I feel that this is my kind of nature. This is naturally, this desire is coming to me and it might not be like that when I try to do it.
May not be having the requisite skills to proceed or something like that. Okay. So, I mentioned that when I talked about the sattva, between sattva and self-observation.
But generally speaking, the difference, the key difference between vritti and vasana, that vritti, if it is there, it gives us intrinsic satisfaction. That means, if there is vasana, the satisfaction is always extensive. If somebody has vritti for music, then they just want to listen to music, want to play some musical instrument, even if nobody recognises them, even if nobody praises them.
That’s what they want. But if somebody has a vasana, then, I am producing so much music, why is nobody appreciating me? Why is everyone so dumb? Don’t they understand how good I am? So, naturally, if anybody is doing something good, they want to be recognised. But there is no dependence on that.
There is a famous author, he said that, I get more satisfaction from having written than being read. So, having written. Now, of course, every author who writes wants to be read.
But it’s a matter of where there is greater satisfaction. So, intrinsic means, in doing the activity itself, there is pleasure. When the vasana is, it is only on getting the result.
That’s what Krishna says, Do your duty, don’t be attached to the result. That is not possible if somebody is driven by vasana. Say, somebody has no interest in medicine.
But somehow, they got some degree and they are treating some people. They may be good in it, but they have no intrinsic satisfaction. Then, if they don’t get money, if they don’t get fame, if they don’t get praise, they will be utterly miserable.
Why is this doctor making more money than me? Why are more patients going to that doctor than me? That could be one concern. But you are healing people. You are saving people’s life.
That is of value. So, they are not stealing value from that. So, that is one difference between vipti and vasana.
Okay. Next please. Hare Krishna.
Why is there a need to control material desires when we can focus on spiritual desires and they will get neglected naturally. We should just chant Hare Krishna. Okay.
That’s a general question. I haven’t discussed the whole point. I didn’t even bring material desires.
I talked about material also. They are two different categories. Vipti and Vasana.
So, why is there a need to control? Right. Krishna says that if we are only trying to control desires, it’s not going to work. Even if we are intelligent, even if we are endeavouring, if all that we are trying to do is control your desires, it’s not going to work.
At the same time, he says, we need to have a basic level of control so that we can focus on spirituality. So, if you look at 261, he says, first is Sanyamya. Sanyamya in one sense is like control.
If a line has four lines, A, B, C, D. Kani, Sarvani, Sanyamya. Then Yukta, Asita, Mathparaha. Mathparaha is then focus on Krishna.
So, if we do not have basic control, we can’t focus on Krishna. Say like right now, you are coming and hearing this class. The mind is super distracted, the senses are pulling in various directions.
Then we won’t be able to sit and hear this class also. Isn’t it? So, there has to be some basic level of control. Then we can focus on Krishna.
And then what happens? Then there will be Vashya. Vashya means it’s conquest. That’s three steps.
So, you could say control, if you want to use three Cs, control, concentration, conquest. There is a basic control at a particular level. Then there is a concentration on the spiritual.
And then there is conquest. So, we could say, another way of looking at it is that for us, control is like a launching pad. Then, the launch towards the spiritual.
So, if a rocket has to be launched, it has to have a firm foundation. The foundation itself is fickle, collapsable. Launch cannot happen.
Yes. So, yes. Hare Krishna.
Thank you, Prabhuji, for the lecture. Prabhuji, my question is, you brought an angle of spiritual desires also. So, now, we all have vritti, say, let’s consider an example of having good prasadam or having good food or listening to music.
Now, we have always heard when we come to spirituality, we just do all of those things spiritually. If you like music, then you do, then you start listening to kirtan and that’s how we dovetail our desires. So, when we are dovetailing those desires, is that what you are referring to as spiritual desires? Basically, my question is, what is the difference between our vritti and spiritual desires? Or in other words, it is so that when spiritual desires awaken, they ultimately transform into vritti and then that becomes our vritti and that’s how we act out of or it’s different from what you refer as vritti.
See, there is a difference between spiritual desires and spiritualised desires. Spiritual desire means, it’s directly the desire of the soul for Krishna. So, in the spiritual world, the soul does not need a material body.
The soul is naturally attracted towards Krishna. So, these are, you could say intrinsically spiritual desires. So, that, this does not depend on the vritti.
But, we are right now in the material world, so around the soul there is the mind body machine and we use whatever is natural for us, also Krishna serves. So, for example, chanting a hymn. These are naturally spiritual desires.
Because we are directly focussing on Krishna. Now, apart from that, somebody may do a seva of distribution, somebody may do a seva of cooking, somebody may do a seva of managing, somebody may do a seva of teaching, counselling. These are the sevas which you can do according to your vritti.
So, at our stage, we don’t have to really, very rigidly differentiate yena kena prakarena mana krishna niveshe. Somehow or the other, fix the mind on Krishna. But the point is that whatever is our vritti right now, somebody is a graphic designer and then they make very attractive posters for Krishna.
It’s not that in the spiritual world there will be a graphic design facility for us. So, there, it’s the vritti using Krishna’s service but gradually we will get a direct attraction for Krishna. Yes, please.
Hare Krishna, Purohi. Dandas Ram. Purohi ji, just you mentioned varnashram also.
So, like varnashram is made not for dividing people but engaging people. So, I want to understand like how varnashram is also related to vritti and vasanas. So, when like in bhakti also, bhakti on the devotional platform, devotional platform I suppose is above the varnashram system.
So, is it if somebody is on the platform of like higher taste or something, so he is affected by those vasanas or vrittis or not or how it is related to varnashram system and then higher platform is related to vasana and vrittis. So, two different things over here. See, the vasanas will definitely go down when we develop our spiritual, we come to the devotional platform.
At the same time, the vritti will remain. If you consider the Pandavas, now we consider Yudhishthira and you consider Bhima. Yudhishthira was almost like a brahmana kshatriya.
That means he was a kshatriya, he was a warrior but he was relatively a peaceful warrior and try as much as possible to resolve things peacefully, try to tolerate. He was a brahmana kshatriya. Now, Bhima was a kshatriya kshatriya.
You could say a kshatriya squared. So, you know, he was itching to fight and their natures did not change just because they were elevated devotees. So, it is that while we are in the material world, there are certain aspects of our materially embodied condition that will remain.
Say, if somebody has a dark complexion, is it that when they become pure devotees, suddenly their complexion will become white? Well, no. They may look more brighter because they are so cheerful and energetic but the complexion will remain the same. So, there are certain aspects of our material embodiment which may not change and they don’t need to change.
It’s not that everybody has to be devotion means we are all harmonised. It doesn’t mean that we are homogenised. Harmonised means we have one purpose.
Homogenised means we are just one substance. We become one. So, devotion doesn’t homogenise us.
It harmonises us. And that’s why there is a difference in terms of each person may still have their rutti and then use it in Krishna’s service. And, we don’t have to worry too much about whether this is conditioned or whatever.
As long as it is being used in Krishna’s service, that is what matters the most. Okay? Maybe one or two more questions and we’ll stop. Yes, please.
Arishna, like during Gurukul system, how did the Guru identify the varna of the child and like after knowing the child’s varna, how did he engage them in certain activities so that they will balance their spiritual and material life? We have to stop romanticising the past. Life has always been complicated. And it has never passed when the Guru had some magical power by which they could perfectly take over.
It is always a challenge. It always takes time. So, in general, the varna can be understood by two things.
There is guna and there is karma. So, now guna, it can be translated in many different ways. One way is competence.
That means if we have the guna to do something, sorry, if guna is if we have the guna for doing something, we are comfortable doing it. The karma for doing something, there is competence in it. Comfort means it feels good doing it.
Competence means we are good at doing it. Some people just like music. Now, some people may like music but no one else likes their music.
That may happen. So, they have the guna but they don’t have the karmas. Not everybody who likes music becomes a celebrated musician.
Not everybody who likes to write, some people just write a journal. They may not become a celebrated writer. So, ideally speaking, if there is a combination of guna and karma, then this is the best indicator of our bhakti.
What we feel good doing and what we are good at doing. And generally, if the guru is observing carefully the children, then they can learn. Now, to some extent, astrology could be used.
Now, nowadays astrology is used primarily for predictive purposes. And that is actually only a small use of astrology. Predictive means, this will happen to you at this time, so do this, don’t do this.
But traditionally, astrology was used for indicative purposes, not predictive. Indicative means, this is an indication, this is likely to be your nature. And another thing is, although Varana was not determined by caste alone, but caste was not insignificant factor.
Because the idea is that, if some atma has a brahminical nature, then that atma is likely to be born in a family, where the mother and father have a brahminical nature. So, in that sense, the janma was also a relevant factor. The problem became that from a relevant factor, it became the dominant to the sole factor.
That’s where it became a problem. So, it is a challenge. And now, also, you could say in the past, whether it was India or the West, you know, social mobility as we see it, was not there.
Whether it is upward mobility or just lateral mobility. Like somebody coming from a village to a city, somebody moving from one place to another place, somebody hoping to rise upward in the economic ladder. All that mobility was not there.
People had a village. They had a role in the village and they took that role. So, generally, they were born and they took up the role that was the best for them.
Thank you. So, actually, I have two questions which I think might coincide with one of your answers. You mentioned about artificial desires.
So, I would like to have some clarity about it. And the second question is that from the era part that you explained, is for enhancing our vritti, the things which we are good at. So, for example, like taking music, if we enjoy music or we are also good at it.
But if we have certain tasks that are more important at that time to fulfil, but since we are enhancing our vritti, so, how do we manage that enhancement? What was the first question? Artificial desires. What I meant by artificial is that there are many desires. I said generally desires are not, they are triggered by outside.
But many desires are often injected from outside. That means we see repeatedly advertisements. See, in one sense lust, the word lust has a very negative connotation in today’s world, in traditional circles.
But lust in the sense of male female attraction is vital for sustenance. That’s how reproduction happens. That’s how life goes on.
All living beings have lust. But in most living beings, it is they get that desire when there is a mating season. You know, when a cow is in the heat.
They have a biological desire coming up at that time. But it’s not that they are constantly triggered. And it’s not that there is something that is triggering them constantly.
In our society, in our culture, the desires are being constantly triggered. So, we are actually in a unnatural or artificial state of perpetual sexual stimulation. Because there is so much bombarding us constantly.
Same way with respect to greed. There is so much bombarding by this, by this, by this, by this. So, in that sense, when I said artificial, what I meant by is that they are unnaturally stimulated.
It’s not that in nature there is an endless parade of tempting sense objects constantly going in front of us. Yes, there are sense objects, but the way today’s culture is arranged, they are constantly bombarding us. So, in that sense, they are unnatural.
Now, briefly to the other question, which you had about vritti. See, the vritti can be somebody’s profession. In English, there are two words.
There is vocation and there is avocation. Avocation means it can be a passion, it can be a hobby also. So, sometimes somebody may be able to do it as their job.
Sometimes, okay, I just have some space that I need for doing this. I may have to take up some other job. I may have some other responsibility.
But, sometime I need for doing this. That gives me strength, that gives me satisfaction. And then I can do other things in my life.
Okay? Yes, please. Hare Krishna. Thank you, Prajit.
Prajit, I really like the example of the mind being the transformer, where it can really expand, you know, the desires that are, I mean, the trigger that is. So, my question was around, is there a way to reverse this? Like, when the impressions are coming in, can the mind be also trained? And how is that really happening? Of, you know, the mind demeaning or like diminishing the effect that is happening on our consciousness. That also happens by training.
Say, for example, if we meet someone and say that person has some scars because of leprosy or something like that. Now, we may be shocked. But, if we are cultured, we will not show that shock.
Isn’t it? So, that is what, there is a particular raga or dvesha that is there. Dvesha is there in that case, but we restrain it. So, it’s that there are various levels of filters that can be created.
So, one filter is we don’t take it in only. One, second filter is we take it in, but we don’t let it grow. That’s it.
Krishnadas said, dvesha toh is the problem. Dhaya toh is the problem. We cannot always move around with closed eyes in life.
So, when this animal movie had come up, there was this lot of a lot of discussion in the media. Oh, this is talking so much brutal violence and people will become violent by that. And some people said, you know, movies for entertainment, nobody does in real life what is done in movies.
So, it’s just for entertainment. Then, it depends. There are people who said, you know, people watch such violence and they become violent like that.
See, the idea is that it is not that everybody who watches violent movies becomes violent. That doesn’t happen. But the point is, that’s because everybody has some level of filters within.
So, basically the filters can be at three levels. Filters is, first is, don’t take in. So, don’t just watch such violent things.
And this is especially required for children. Because children don’t have internal filters. That’s why, even in very liberal countries, advertisement directed towards children is banned, especially small children.
Because they don’t have any discerning capacity. Now, whether adults have discerning capacity is a different question. But still, the idea is, don’t take in.
Then, the second is, don’t dwell. Even if somebody has taken it, don’t let it replay in your mind. That is also a capacity to filter we have.
Sometimes, somebody may have bad memory or bad thought coming in. Then, they just redirect their consciousness somewhere else. And then, they are not disturbed by it.
And then, the third is, don’t act out. So, we all have many desires or many urges. Say, you will be angry with someone.
You may feel like yelling at that person. But, if we are reasonably disciplined, reasonably cultured, like a husband and wife may be very upset with each other. Both of them want to lash at each other.
But, if the child is in the room, they will both say, No, I am not going to speak in front of the child. That’s culture. So, there are three levels of filters that we have.
Now, we have to find out which is the best way we can protect ourselves. Sometimes, just don’t even look at it. Like, if somebody is alcoholic, inside, they are very weak.
So, then, just never go to a bar. Isn’t it? If you go to a bar, then you will be ruined. Because, once it comes in, it will just grow very fast.
But, over a period of time, they keep repeatedly saying no to it. Then, the internal desires, internal samskaras can also be overwritten and rewritten. But, we have to find out at least the third filter has to work.
If the third filter doesn’t work, then it’s a big, big problem. So, it’s like porn use. Some people say porn use is completely banned because people who use porn will become violent against women and other things.
Well, not everybody who uses porn becomes violent. But, that does not mean that porn is harmless. It affects.
Now, because people have culture, people have morality, people have laws. So, that’s why the images that are going in may not be coming out in terms of actions. But, if the law breaks down tomorrow, then who knows what animals, what beasts are there inside us and what beasts may come out.
So, why feed the beasts that are there inside? So, the idea is that everybody needs filters. And, which filters work best? And, the best is we don’t take in anything. But, we can’t always do that.
Then, the second best is don’t dwell. And, even if something, some image just keeps rippling again and again and again. Okay, we can’t avoid that.
Don’t act out on it. So, Ajamil, he didn’t intend, which is going along his own natural work. Most of you know the story of Ajamil.
So, he didn’t intend to go out to just seeking some science object. He was going on his job, that is his service to his father. And, he saw something.
So, he took it in. Now, what happened was, he took it in that he could say is almost completely unintentional. But, then he dwelt on it.
And, maybe you can say, you know, maybe the image was so provocative that he just, there is no off button for our mind. So, he just couldn’t turn it off. He just kept dwelling on it.
Then, he can say, okay, dwelling on it. But, he acted out. Even in acting out, okay, he just had an irresistible desire, I want to be with that particular woman.
So, okay, he went and was with her. But, you know, once acting out is okay, after that, he decided that he will reject his chaste wife, reject, abandon his parents, give up his brahminical duty and because nobody will want to have a priest in their ceremony, the person who has abandoned their family and who is living with a woman like that. So, then, he had to rob and steal.
So, now, which is the boundary that he, maybe the first boundary, just the desire became so much that he had to go and be with her. We can say that. Normally, we should be able to control.
But, even if we give the benefit of the doubt over there. But, you know, when we start acting out, there is some acting out maybe circumstantial. You know, it’s just the desire came so much.
I had no intention to drink alcohol but everybody was there in the party and they told me to drink and I drank. So, some acting out, initially might be circumstantial. But, eventually, it becomes intentional.
Jaan booch ki. Jaan booch kya hai? Jaan ki, basically. You know what you are doing and you are doing it.
Not just pulled by circumstances. So, it’s best that we regulate at the earliest. Ok.
So, thank you. Ok, last question. Harikrishna.
Harikrishna bro. Thank you for your class. You mentioned that vasana desires.
We can’t do it for 24 hours. Vasanas. So, what makes us to find meaningful happiness.
Means, higher happiness. Means, in my sense, I believe that whatever we do, whatever we desire for the being happy or pleasure. So, if one gets some pleasures in while doing.
So, why he transfer it go to the higher test. Well, many reasons. First is that, why not always lower pleasure.
First of all, it is we have finite capacity. Nobody can keep eating constantly 24 hours a day. Sex is so much fantasised but it cannot be done for throughout the day.
Can keep stimulating and titillating oneself throughout the day. But it cannot be indulgent throughout the day. So, capacity is finite.
Then there is what is the law of diminishing returns. The same thing you do, like gulab jamun. First gulab jamun, wonderful.
Second, wonderful. Third, wonderful. Fourth, okay.
Fifth, enough. Tenth, no. Twentieth, I feel like vomiting now.
So, eventually, some people it’s not 20th, some people it’s 200th. But the point is that, law of diminishing returns is going to come again, ultimately. So, that’s also another reason.
So, now, of course, the problem is that, the desire subsides for some time, but then it comes back again after some time. Okay, I made 10 gulab jamuns right now, I have nothing more. But maybe after 6 hours, again I want 10 more.
It can happen like that. But at least at that time it goes down. So, just there are just physical limitations to how much we can enjoy.
Now, here we are, of course, assuming that there are no financial or social limitations. But even if they are there, even if they are not there, still there are other limitations, which is unavoidable. So, there are, of course, social, cultural, financial limitations in how much a person can enjoy.
Now, beyond that, the thing is that these are ultimately they are dissatisfying or they are incompatible or insufficient. Because we are spiritual beings, we are souls. And the soul wants something more.
So, now, if the spirituality is very much diminished, the person may not seek anything more. But we all do want something more in our lives. And that’s why people seek something.
Sometimes they may find it, sometimes they may not find it. But generally, nobody can just go on enjoying forever. It just becomes so meaningless.
It just becomes completely deadening. So, because we are souls, we have spiritual potentials. We may not necessarily know Krishna and want to love Krishna.
But we want to do something of value. There is Sat, Chit and Ananda. So, Ananda is a third feature.
Sat means we want to exist. Nobody wants to die. People will fight very hard to somehow continue to live.
Ananda is joy. We want to exist. We want joy.
But Chit, when we look, we have consciousness. With the consciousness, we want to make sense of things. When we are processing, if you are looking at what I am speaking and writing and if I am just writing in some strange language, it doesn’t make sense.
What’s going on? The whole point of Chit is to make sense. So, we want meaning. So, because of the conditioning, sometimes the soul’s innate longing may not manifest much.
But it is still very much there. And it will manifest at some level or the other, sometime or the other. So, thank you very much.
So, just a quick announcement. Much of what I spoke today is from my book. So, much of what I spoke today is from one of my latest books.
You are not your mind. You are better. So, there are 64 reflections on mind management based on the Bhagavad Gita.
So, that’s one book. There are diagrams and graphics also similar to what I have depicted over there. And there are a few other books.
So, there is Gita for Daily Mindfulness, 365 articles based on the Bhagavad Gita. So, this is one article per day. And each article is based on one-one verse from the Gita.
And there are some questions which you can use for reflection. And this is based sections on how to overcome temptations, how to be more sensitive in our speech, how to be less ritualistic and more spiritual in our activities, how to face adversities, how to see God in our daily life. This is Bhagavad Gita for Daily Mindfulness.
So, this is what I mentioned. This is the Gita from an application perspective. This is the Gita from a psychological perspective.
This is You are not your mind. Then, this is the Gita from a scientific perspective. Demystifying reincarnation.
There are 25 stories of children who remember their past lives. The mechanism of reincarnation is described. What are ghosts? That’s explained from a scientific perspective.
These two are Gita from a… So, these two are books for those who are interested in going deeper into the Gita. This is the… This is based on… This is based on Chakravarti Path’s commentary. This is the Gita from a analytical perspective.
So, if God controls everything, do we really have freedom? If Krishna is equal to everyone, then why is he on one side of the Pandavas? If the modes do everything, then why are we responsible for our actions? Questions like this are answered. In this book, there are 100 questions, answers, again with diagrams, two topic articles. This is also 100 articles, but this is the Gita from a relational perspective.
That is, how the Gita is not just a book of philosophy, but it’s actually a book that expresses Krishna’s love for Arjuna. And by extension, divinity’s love for humanity, for all of us. So, the Gita seen in the light of the Krishna-Arjuna relationship based on the Mahabharata.
That’s what is explained in this book. So, if any of you would like to have any of these books, they are available outside. I will be here for a few minutes in case you want signature or anything like that.
Thank you so much. Hare Krishna.