Interrupting the mind’s train of thoughts 1

[Congregation Program at Charlotte, USA]

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today and I will speak today and tomorrow on the topic of training ourselves to interrupt the train of our thoughts.
Training ourselves to interrupt the train of our thoughts. Now, what do I mean by this topic? First of all our thoughts go from one to another to another to another and as they keep going they also keep growing. So, often one incident happens.
I remember in my childhood I was the organiser of one competition in school and at that time we had organised the competition. It was like essay writing competition and I was known as one of the good writers in our school. So, I had organised that and then the competition went off very successfully and many students participated and the prizes were to be distributed.
So, I was sitting and the students were going and I was of course a student but I was one of the organisers and then the various students were going and winning the prizes and their teachers and their principals were distributing the prizes and at that time at that time suddenly as I was watching this, the whole event was reasonably successful, but suddenly the thought came in my mind oh, nobody appreciates me. I worked so hard to organise this programme but all the students are being appreciated and they are winning the prizes nobody appreciates me and then I just thought you know, this time nobody appreciated that time nobody appreciated that time nobody appreciated and just five minutes before I was very happy thinking that oh, they have organised this whole competition and it’s been so wonderful and just the next five minutes later I was so agitated and suddenly all of the students who had won he came to me he was very happy he had won the first prize and he came to me, I was in 9th, 10th standard and he was in the 5th, 6th standard so he just came along and he was just trying to speak to me and I was about to snap at him because I was so angry and it struck me what am I doing? at one moment I was so happy I was quite happy and suddenly after a few moments I was just so agitated one of my hobbies in childhood was that I like to look at the universe through a telescope so one of my favourite past times at that time it was a time pass in a sense but but it was that I would go to a terrace and look at the telescope look through the telescope at the sky and we were waiting for some lunar eclipse to occur and suddenly I just zoned off I was looking at it, looking at it and suddenly I got lost in my thoughts and then it struck me at that time I am so interested in what happens out there in the skies but what happens in here can sometimes be so you can call it interesting or distracting, either way that it can just consume my attention so what actually goes on inside so I was looking, I had come I had prepared, anticipating that night when we would see the eclipse, we had been looking out for it for many days but when that moment came I suddenly zoned off so that was supposed to be very interesting for me but somehow those thoughts captivated me so from that time I was thinking actually what exactly happens in our inner world and we all can see that our thoughts just flow from one to second to third and our moods can rapidly change because of this flow of thoughts so Krishna talks about this train of thoughts in the Bhagavad Gita in the second chapter in verses 62 and 63 he talks about so Krishna is telling here the journey from contemplation to self-destruction dhyayato is contemplation pranashyati is self-destruction now this specifically is with respect to sense objects when we contemplate our sense objects but this can apply to anything it can apply to the temptations for pleasure it can also apply to negative emotions so I may go to office and I see a strange look in my boss’s eyes and immediately my mind starts imagining is my boss going to fire me ohh if my boss fires me what will happen to me I will have no job if I have no job how will I earn money if I can’t earn money how will I pay the mortgage for my house if I can’t pay the mortgage for my house then I will be evicted from my house if I am evicted from my house nowadays houses are so difficult to get if I am on the streets and it will be so cold and right now I am trembling because of the AC but in my mind I am trembling because of the cold outside so the mind’s train of thoughts it can start from one stimulus and it can take us to any extreme so now how does this train of thoughts can sometimes take us to a good destination also thoughts are not our enemies thoughts are simply we could say pattern of ideas in our head I will come to a little later when I will talk elaborately about what exactly thoughts are but thoughts are not the problem it is our readiness to uncritically believe our thoughts that is the problem so when a thought comes in oh what if this happens what if you lose your job then that one thought can just grow grow grow grow and we keep believing it that is where it becomes a problem so how do thoughts overwhelm us like this sometimes we get lost in thought this can be bad when we get absent minded but it can also be good if we want to ponder deeply about a subject and understand the issue then thoughts themselves are you could say neutral they can be good they can be bad whether they will lead to something good or something bad it is for us to evaluate and it is for us to respond properly now the word thought itself can have two different meanings before we move forward to understand what are thoughts words themselves have multiple meanings one time I was travelling from one place to another and just before I went from the house the devotee picked my suitcase and the handle just came off so when the handle came off at that time I was checking whether we could fix it so the devotee told me in America buying new things is easier than fixing anything it is very complicated so they just gave me a new suitcase they just took the suitcase took the suitcase to the check in point so then by the time the flight I landed and I came to the carousel I had forgotten what the suitcase looks like because it was a brand new suitcase so then and somehow the luggage tag that was there that was left with the devotee at the other place so then I just remembered that it has a red handle so then all the suitcases with red handles were picking up and looking so we were looking at all the suitcases so now why am I giving this example that the terms are like the handles and the concepts are like the suitcase so the term is like a handle so we all have certain thoughts, certain ideas in our mind but words or terms specifically they are the tools which we use to communicate with the ideas so the terms themselves just like the same coloured handle can be there on many suitcases so similarly the same word can have many different meanings so the word thought is like one handle but what suitcase it is attached to, it can vary so these two simple meanings which are relevant for our context here I got a thought and I have given this a lot of thought you see the difference over here I got a thought that means it is just an event which occurred in our inner world some idea just came in many times in cartoons or comics you show lights in their brain you know so that’s like you got an idea I got a thought means that something got stimulated in our inner world and the second is I have given it a lot of thought that means so first thought means initial triggering event in our world the second thought means systematic contemplation or analysis so thought can have both these meanings and when the thought occurs first if we identify with it if we get carried away with it then it acquires momentum and the stronger the momentum the more difficult it is to stop it just like say if somebody is say a car is moving along the road and the car starts going off track then if you press a brake it will stop gradually but depending on how fast it is moving that much time it will require to stop because it has got more and more momentum similarly when Krishna talks about the sequence from contemplation to self destruction what he is talking about is that initially this thought has come in we are giving it some attention at that time it’s like the car has just started but by the time it moves forward more and more there is contemplation then there is infatuation then there is irritation we’ll talk about this later but as it moves forward the momentum becomes stronger and stronger and then to stop it becomes more and more difficult so thought refers initially to an event that occurs in our inner world so for simple purposes we could say thoughts are simply words in our head it’s not exactly true, I’ll analyse the difference but words inside our head if we consider that say there is a screen inside us so say we decide to do something important, say student appears for exam or we decide to give some competitive exam or we decide to do something challenging and somehow it doesn’t work out and then the thought occurs in our mind you are a failure you are a failure you are good for nothing now when this thought has come in it is like there is an inner screen and on inner screen these letters have appeared you are good for nothing now as we keep looking at it it’s like we keep looking at it it keeps growing bigger and bigger and bigger and then you are good for nothing and as we keep hearing it our mind, our consciousness starts getting invested in it and in other instances see that time also it didn’t work out that time also you made a foolish mistake here also you made a mistake therefore you are good for nothing so the mind when thoughts come in our head the train of thoughts starts moving basically they give us one perspective and one narrative perspective means how we look at things narrative means how things flow so one perspective you are good for nothing so that’s one perspective but one narrative means this is how things are going to turn out and things for us, yes we all are human and the only way that we will never commit any mistakes is if we will never do anything to err is human so we all commit mistakes but at that time at one perspective yes you committed a mistake and then the narrative goes forward that you always made a mess of things and then from that perspective the narrative starts moving forward we start feeling more and more miserable we start getting distressed we start getting completely agonised so basically a thought initially when it comes it is like a word appearing on our inner screen it’s not working but not as well as you would like it’s ok but isn’t it omnidirectional ok I will move it off Hare Krishna is it better now ok thank you so when the train of thought starts off it starts off like a train is stationary it starts off when the engine starts moving so like the first thought occurs in our mind that’s a pattern we could say that’s a words in our inner screen sometimes there can be thoughts which are words in our inner screen sometimes the starting may also be an image something appears oh that happened at that time say something happens now and the mind is to think that some small things can trigger big reactions in us why because that small thing is not seen in isolation the mind connects it with something say I lose something and if I now we all may sometimes lose some things but you always keep losing things you are always irresponsible you are always foolish you are good for nothing you lost that you lost that so that’s how the thoughts start moving in this way when the thoughts start moving they start off with one image oh I lost this it can be a thought in the sense of words or it can be an image that image also stimulates our thinking and then as we start moving forwards we start getting more and more carried away by it so when the thought occurs at that time if we could evaluate it it’s just like if a train is starting to move at that time only the driver checks is the train moving in the right direction or the wrong direction so then we can check it oh it shouldn’t move in this direction now all of us have certain attachments or we could say we all have certain mental tendencies mental tendencies means that our thoughts tend to go in particular directions so for some of us the thoughts may go in the direction of say like earlier I said self pity always things keep going wrong with me sometimes the thoughts may go in terms of some attachment it may be say for somebody is alcoholic then as soon as they want pleasure immediately the thoughts will go to alcohol as soon as they want some relief immediately the thoughts will go to alcohol so when we have certain tendencies that means if we consider this train if the train is on a ground that is inclined then even a little push will cause the train to start moving moving moving just a couple of days ago there was some news in India that a train moved several kilometres without any engine how? because the engine had been removed but the train got its own momentum the driver was not there the train kept moving moving so now the train is not meant to move without an engine but if there is an inclination then the train will just move on like that so similarly for us we all have certain thought patterns which we have become habituated to and going along that thought pattern becomes natural it does not require effort to go along that thought pattern rather it requires effort to not go along that thought pattern just like if a floor is inclined if I have some toy and the toy is kept on the floor normally it will be stationary but if that floor is inclined then the toy will automatically start moving in that direction so the way we have thought the way we have acted in the past it all creates impressions within us and those impressions especially when they become very strong they create inclinations within our consciousness inclination means that’s how our consciousness will move so if I am habituated to negative thinking always it is said that that for every problem there is a solution that is how optimists think and with every solution there is a problem that’s how pessimists think now it’s true that every problem we can find a solution to it and whatever solution we find in this world there will be problems with that also that’s just the way the world is there’s always dualities are there but what we focus on now you tell somebody that why do you think so negative yeah I’ll think positive I’ll think positive and then I’m going to think positive and as they’re thinking I’m going to think positive but you know one day I’ll think positive but tomorrow again I’ll start thinking negative now when they’re thinking like that it is not that tomorrow they will think negative today only they started thinking negative so what has happened where we are inclined in a particular way our thoughts will naturally go in that direction and then the thoughts start going in a particular direction it requires effort to stop them so now the Bhagavad Gita talks about a very interesting concept in the second chapter 62-63 is this chain from contemplation to self destruction now the opposite of it Krishna talks about it little later in 2.70 he uses a metaphor to talk about how this can be avoided na kaama kaami so he says that just as rivers flow into an ocean but the ocean doesn’t get disrupted by it similarly many inputs will flow into our consciousness desires will flow into our consciousness but they don’t have to agitate us Krishna has a very interesting compound na kaama kaami so kaama is desire kaami is desirer so Krishna says who can be satisfied who will have peace one who is not the desirer of desire so what does desirer of desire mean that means that by certain past impressions some desires will pop up within us so if somebody is say habituated to drinking alcohol then the desire for alcohol will naturally pop up within them and then when the desire pops up oh what do I do with it do I start contemplating it do I start craving for it if I do that then I get carried away by it but if I don’t do that if I don’t, ok this has popped up over here let it be there for some time I will not pay attention to it so to understand how we can do this to understand basically how the mind works let’s do a simple thought experiment so wherever you are sitting you can sit comfortably and you can close your eyes don’t go to sleep just close your eyes and along with me you can take three deep breaths one let all the air go out two three now with your eyes closed look at what you see in front of you because your eyes are closed you will not see physically whatever is in front but there is something like an inner screen inside you where you may see various things you may see some image of this room you may see your own house you may see your family members you may see your home you may see your car or you might just see some colourless dull kind of pattern and the images on this inner screen may also keep changing now as you are observing this inner screen try to take a step back and look at who is observing this inner screen, take a step back and try to see who is observing the inner screen try once again, you are seeing the inner screen but move back, try to see who is looking at the inner screen no matter how many steps you take back the inner seer takes steps back with you what you are looking for is what you are looking with so that inner seer is the soul and the inner screen is the mind the inner seer is the soul, the inner screen is the mind you can take one deep breath and then you can open your eyes so this kind of contemplation can help us understand that we are different from our mind there is an inner screen on which many things appear and usually we just get so caught by whatever appears on the inner screen that we identify with it and start acting accordingly but if we can distance ourselves I am not that inner screen I am the inner seer just as say, in your house there might be a cartoon show going on and say some children are just watching that cartoon show, completely glued to it now you are also in that same house the TV is also there for you to see but you can look at the TV screen and you can look at the person who is looking at the TV screen they are so caught over there they are so excited sometimes they are excited sometimes they are agitated, they go through different emotions but when you get caught in watching the TV then what happens, our consciousness gets invested there and that’s what we experience so for us as souls the mind is where the outer world appears and not just perception from the outer world appears also recollections from the inner world also appear, whatever we have thought in the past, that also appears on the inner world and if we get caught in watching the TV if you consider the mind to be like a TV screen then we get caught in watching the TV then our emotions start getting shaped by whatever we are seeing on the TV but if we don’t focus on watching the TV you can be in the same room where somebody is watching the TV and they are excited by it sometimes if you go to a movie theatre there are these ticket checkers in the movie theatre I don’t know if they know probably I have not gone to a theatre for 25-30 years now so I don’t know but there are these ticket checkers now they have seen the movie so many times so people who are watching the movie get excited, now what will happen now what will happen but they are looking at the movie theatre they are looking at all the spectators because for them it’s an old story they don’t get excited by that so similarly for us either we can be the spectator who watches the movie or we can be the observer who watches the spectacle the spectacle is this person is sitting safely it’s a horror movie going on people may be sitting comfortably on their seats in an AC theatre but they are sweating, they are trembling some of them may be screaming what is happening? that’s because the consciousness is invested over there similarly for us when our consciousness gets invested then our emotions get shaped accordingly but if we can take a step back ok this image is going on over here this image has popped up on my inner screen do I need to focus on it say somebody is watching the TV the kids are watching the TV and if you stop the TV they are going to protest they want to watch it right now we may not be able to stop the TV but we can choose whether we want to focus on the TV screen we can focus elsewhere and our emotions won’t get invested so similarly for us we frequently what appears on our inner screen is not in our control sometimes people act in unreasonable ways sometimes life just gives us a raw deal so what happens sometimes some bad things happen in the outer world and they get reflected on our inner screen or sometimes just some bad images come from the past and they get reflected on the inner screen they get depicted on the inner screen now as I said we can’t always control what appears on the inner screen but we can control whether we get carried away by it whether whether we focus on it or not so how do we do this for this we need to first of all philosophically understand that I am different from my mind at the mind thoughts are coming within it but that is just a screen on which thoughts are coming in the Bhagavad Gita in the 15th chapter Krishna talks about how the mind works and there he says actually 15.7 he says how the soul is suffering in the material world mamai vamsho jiva loke jiva bhuta sanatanah manah shashthani dhriyani prakriti sthani karishati he says the soul is a part of Krishna Krishna is right next to the soul sarvasya chaaham hrithi sannivishto but it’s like the child is sitting next to the mother but the child is watching the horror movie and child is trembling scared so like that the soul is a part of Krishna the soul is next to Krishna but the soul is caught in whatever is being depicted by the mind and the senses and manah shashthani dhriyani because of this what happens prakriti sthani in the material world karishati one is agitated very agitated in the in the 13th chapter 2 chapters earlier Krishna talks about how this world is like the kshetra and the soul is the kshetragya kshetra is the field and kshetragya is the knower of the field and when he is talking about the kshetragya there he says that bhumirap no not bhumirap mahabhutanya hankaro buddhir avyakta mevach indriyani dashaikamcha pancha chendriya gocharaha iccha dvesha sukham dukkham sanghatas chetanadruti etad kshetram samasena savikaram udaratam 13.6 and 7 in the Gita there he is saying that he described the material world is made up of 24 elements there are the 11 senses, there are the 10 senses knowledge acquiring and action senses working senses like that he used a list of 24 elements but a significant thing I won’t go into that technical list but for us important thing is Krishna says iccha dvesha sukham dukkham sanghatas chetanadruti this is our attachment and our aversions our happiness and our distress our convictions and even our consciousness itself all these are kshetravikar kshetravikar means they are transformations of material nature now in the first chapter Krishna has already said that consciousness comes from the soul consciousness does not come from matter and yet here in the 13th chapter Krishna is saying consciousness is a transformation of material nature what does it mean actually consciousness comes from the soul but right now for all practical purposes the soul’s consciousness is invested in the body in the physical structure of the body and the mind and the soul at present cannot experience consciousness separate from the body and the mind it’s like a person that’s like when we go to watch it now we can watch movies at our home and we can watch movies in a theatre and the same movie may be available at home also still people go to theatre and pay a lot of money why because they can immerse themselves in that experience they can avoid all distractions, they can experience the reality so when a movie starts what happens two things happen first is one light goes off all lights around go off and then one light goes on there is a light on the monitor and that way we don’t see anything else we just get riveted to what is happening on the screen similarly when the soul comes to the material world or the soul is in the material world at that time there are two energies there is the avaranatmika shakti and there is the prakshepatmika shakti the avaranatmika shakti is like the lights go off the soul forgets soul becomes blinded to everything at the spiritual level we are like the spectator so the soul is here and the body mind machine is here the soul is the spectator in the theatre and the theatre monitor screen is like the mind but presently because of the avaranatmika shakti the soul can’t perceive anything else just like if it’s pitch dark in a theatre then you can’t see anything you can only see what is ahead similarly for us by the avaranatmika shakti at present we can’t perceive consciousness we can’t use our consciousness to perceive anything apart from the body mind the consciousness we could say locked to the body and mind and this avaranatmika shakti is what causes darkness of spiritual reality and the prakshepatmika shakti it is a throwing potency avaranatmika is covering so all spiritual reality gets covered and prakshepatmika is the pushing or throwing energy what it does is it pushes our consciousness towards material nature towards the screen of the mind and thus we get glued to it we get fixated with it and then when this happens so 15 points karasati krishna says the soul suffers in material existence how does the soul suffer he says in the next verse shariram yadavapnoti yaccha pyutkramatisvarah gruhitvaitani sanyati vayurgandhani vashayat he says the soul acquires one body gives up one body and goes to another body this prakshepatmika shakti energy is so great pull the soul from one sense object to another, one image to another one pleasure to another lifetime after lifetime now when the soul comes to a new body there the soul gets a new apparatus it’s like we watch one horror movie in one movie in one movie theatre and as soon as the show gets over it’s like we are picked up and thrown into another theatre where another horror movie starts and there we get glued to it now even horror movies it’s not constantly horror there’s some horror, there’s some action, there’s some hope again there is horror, there’s some hope again there is horror so like that we just get caught and thrown from one horror movie to another horror movie and when we get a new body what happens? shrotram chakshuh sparshanam cha rasanam granamevacha adishthaya manaschayam vishayan upasevate like the soul gets these five knowledge acquiring senses shrotra is the ears chakshuh shrotram chakshuh sparshanam cha sparshanam means touch rasanam taste granam smell these five senses are there adishthaya manaschayam all these are centred around the mind and then through these vishayan upasevate the soul tries to enjoy the sense objects so basically if you want to understand this mechanism I’ll tell you the example of a screen on which a person is observing the mind is like an inner screen but let’s make this picture a little more let’s develop this metaphor a little bit more now if you consider that instead of just a movie theatre there is a monitor over there but let’s shift consider another monitor of another kind if there is a monitor which is in a security room in a very high security building it’s a big monitor and there are say five doors in that building and at each door there is a CCTV camera and the inputs from the CCTV camera are brought to this monitor and there is a security in charge who is sitting over there whatever is happening in all the doors he can see and then if any suspicious looking character seems to be coming from any door immediately press and that window zooms out that window zooms out what is going on over here so similarly for all of us we could say our mind is like a monitor but it’s not just one image over there so right now say you are hearing what I am speaking but at the same time you are also sensing you are sitting on a floor or a sofa, is it soft, is it comfortable, is it not comfortable so there are many sensations that are coming in so say right now when you are sitting and you are hearing the class so ideally speaking out of the five windows that are there the eyes window and the sound window they are prominent and suppose as you are hearing this suddenly there is a delicious fragrance of a halwa that comes out then as soon as the fragrance of halwa comes in then what happens immediately the nose window zooms out and our consciousness okay halwa when will I get it will there be enough for second helpings so our consciousness gets carried away so this window zooming up and zooming down it is constantly happening within us and when I talk about this window some window zooms up some window zooms down this most of the time happens so fast that we don’t even notice it now if you are driving a car at that time so we are focussing on the driving at the same time if the person sitting next to us is talking with us and then we are also hearing what they are saying so we hear it we give it some due attention we may talk also but we also have a part of our awareness which is focused on the car and suddenly something unexpected happens or the traffic has become a little crowded or we are not sure which is the road I am to take then what we will do at that time we will just minimise the sound we will talk later or if they are talking we will not hear we will focus on the eye window and this way we are able to process how to do things in the world what is happening and how to respond we process so the mind is the inner screen that is the integrator and the presenter of inputs coming from the outer world so from the five senses the inputs come in they are integrated on the screen of the mind and they are presented for the soul to respond of course the picture is even more complicated there are not just five windows over there you could say each window can have multiple sub windows also so for example right now you are hearing what I am speaking but say there are some children who are gossiping behind or chitchatting no problem continue, if you are chitchatting over there then you may want to then you may be thinking if we find something that they are chitchatting interesting then what happens instead of this sound window that sound window zooms out and then we start hearing we start hearing that oh what is going on over here so each of these windows can have multiple sub windows and beyond that apart from these five sensory windows there is also one you could say window which can have infinite windows and that is the recollection window browsing history I will come to browsing history a little later, good point so what happens with recollection window at any time any thought can pop up in the mind sometimes I am just sitting and chanting nicely and some other devotee comes in six years ago I had given this devotee one dollar but that devotee didn’t pay me back now where did that thought come from it just comes up, suddenly it just pops up so sometimes the recollection happens, recollection is stimulated by some observation from outside we see someone and something thought comes up and sometimes the recollection may come without any apparent external stimulus also Prabhupada gives the example that if there is a still lake sometimes the ripples in that lake may form because somebody throws a stone from outside or sometimes there will be fermentation from inside because of which the ripples may also come so this recollection window is a window, we could say like ocean of windows over there so now in all this we all perceive certain things at certain times and usually when we function normally then we focus on that window which requires attention but sometimes the wrong window zooms out say if I am driving and while driving suddenly the person sitting next to me speaks something shocking so when they speak something shocking at that time we may get so shocked that the sound window just zooms out and then we may just get so shocked that we don’t notice where we are going, we just go and almost nearly hit the next car and then BANG! we press the brake so sometimes the wrong window may zoom out now to further complicate this example on each of these windows it’s not just an image that comes it’s a movie that comes over there and that movie may not be based on what is actually happening out there one event happens out there but that triggers a movie so that brings to browsing history so what happens for us is that the mind basically is a device which acts based on its past impressions so suppose say somebody has visited some website say they have visited some website called say bollywood.com so they visited again and again and now they just came to a spiritual programme they heard about the Bhagavad Gita, now they want to google Bhagavad Gita they type B and what happens? immediately Bollywood pops up so why does that happen? because that has what been selected in the past again and again so what we have selected in the past will pop up again and again so in the when I said there is a recollection window there is a perception window now these windows for analysis sake I said they are separated but actually a perception window trigger when something appears on the one window that triggers some recollection and what will be triggered will be based on what we have thought earlier so if if I think that some person is very arrogant then as soon as I see that person they may be walking normally just see how proudly he is walking now somebody else may also walk that way, he is a nice person usually the stimulus may be the same but how we interpret the stimulus that is determined by what kind of impressions are stored in the past and this is how the train of thoughts starts off so there is something which comes up in the perception and then there is a recollection and this perception recollection they merge together and some movie is formed and that movie starts playing and the more that movie starts playing the more we get caught in it the more we get caught in that movie and it just goes on and on and on so here when we understand that if there is this monitor on which a particular window has zoomed up, now the security in charge has to be very careful to recognise where I should focus on so ok if this window has zoomed out but ok what is happening over here is not that important sometimes when some thieves want to come in they may use decoys they just create a disruption at one door and all the security goes to that door and then they sneak in from the other door so now the security in charge has to be ok we have to pay attention there but also keep an eye on other things so when things pop out and they zoom out on our inner screen if we can we don’t just identify it but we evaluate it ok this is zoom out do I need to pay attention to this and do I need to pay attention to this right now that if we learn to evaluate then we will be able to keep ourselves we will be able to break the train of the thoughts of the mind when it is necessary so when Krishna says na kama kami do not be a desirer of desire what he means by that is that first desire is like a like a image some words that pop up on our inner screen when they pop up over there we can’t stop that that’s like a river coming into an ocean but we don’t become the desirer of desire that means when it pops up we don’t get glued to it rather we evaluate it we don’t desire it ok let it come let it stay there so that window has zoomed out but then sometimes say we are working on our computer and suddenly some notice comes a new software update is available do you want to update now I might decide ok I can update this later so I say later remind me later remind me after a day or remind me after an hour so we we can’t stop that notification from coming on the screen but we can choose whether to act on it or not similarly on our inner screen we can’t always control what appears but we can control whether we pay attention to it and what kind of attention we pay to it how we respond to it and this capacity as we develop then we will be able to focus on the thoughts which work for our good and avoid the thoughts that work against us some train of thoughts take us to a good destination some train of thoughts take us to a bad destination by learning to become observant of our inner world we can train ourselves to distance our to evaluate the thoughts and interrupt the train when it is necessary so how to interrupt this I will talk in tomorrow’s class I will talk tomorrow about the bhagavad gita 14th chapter which talks about two broad attitudes one is sakshi bhav and the other is seva bhav become an observer and become a servitor so related with that different strategies of how to interrupt the train of thoughts we will discuss in tomorrow’s session I will summarise what I spoke today I spoke today the topic of training ourselves to interrupt the mind’s train of thoughts and in that I talked about I started by how we, my own experience I talked about how I organised a programme but I organised an essay writing competition but instead of being happy at the end I started feeling sorry for myself while watching an eclipse instead of observing the telescope I got caught by my thoughts so what happens in the inner world is often quite consequential sometimes more consequential than what happens in the outer world also so what exactly happens in the inner world I talked about the train of thoughts which can make us miserable, which can make us angry, which can make us crave for things in that thoughts can have two meanings just like a suitcase has a handle so the same handle can be there for different suitcases so the handle is like the term and the suitcase is like the concept so the word thought is like the term and it can be referred to two distinct concepts so I got a thought that means it just refers to an initial event that occurs on our inner screen I have given this a lot of thought that means I have put in I have consciously evaluated analysed what to do so we primarily talking about stopping the train of thoughts means we are referring to the first meaning of the word thought so when this occurs at that time if we don’t evaluate then from contemplation to self destruction is where this train can take us and the more the train travels, the more we get carried away by train of thoughts, the more difficult it is to stop it and to stop it what do we need to do? we need to understand that this thought is different from me so on our inner screen when words appear, you are good for nothing thoughts are basically words appearing on our inner screen and we could say memories or images they are basically something verbal appearing is thoughts, something visual appearing is images we did the thought experiment about how we can, even with closed eyes we can see something on the inner screen but we can’t see the seer of the inner screen so the inner screen is the mind the outer, the inner seer is the soul and normally if so if somebody is watching a TV and a horror movie they are watching somebody else sees this, somebody else can also watch the movie or they can watch the spectacle how this person is getting carried away so we need to shift our position on the mind some images will keep coming we need to shift our position from being the spectator to the observer of the spectacle and for this, I analysed how do we get caught at the spectator by the avarnatmika and the prakshapatmika in a movie theatre first the lights surrounding to us go off and the light on the monitor goes on so like that the avarnatmika shakti we are souls who are different from the body mind but presently the soul’s capacity for spiritual awareness is deadened so consciousness comes from the soul but currently consciousness is locked in the body that’s why Krishna refers to chetana as a kshetra vikar as a transformation of consciousness that is all the consciousness we can experience presently so because of the avarnatmika shakti we get blinded to spiritual reality and because of the prakshapatmika shakti we get caught in material reality so we can’t directly pursue spiritual reality but we can understand that I am the observer of material reality I don’t have to be caught in that material reality and for that purpose I developed the metaphor further that the mind is like a screen which is the integrator and presenter of the inputs from the five senses like a monitor in a high security building which has inputs from five CCTV cameras coming from the five doors and normal functioning requires that the window which requires attention is what zooms up and also along with these five windows there is also one window which can have unlimited window that is a recollection window so normally when we function the right window does zoom up but sometimes by our conditioning some other window may zoom up just like if the floor is inclined in a particular way thoughts will go in that direction similarly for us based on our past conditioning, past impressions some windows tend to zoom out some chain of thoughts just comes off starts off and just goes off completely just like if I have selected a particular website repeatedly then even if I want to go to some other website that previous website is what comes up so when we become when all these windows are opening if a wrong window opens up instead of just watching the movie what is there, we step back and this is what is going on, do I need to pay attention to this right now if we can observe that then we can interrupt the train of thoughts and thus we can ensure that our thoughts don’t take us to an unwanted destination but rather they take us towards a desirable destination thank you very much Hare Krishna are there any questions or comments so you said that our past impressions will reflect on our thoughts so everybody is not fortunate so maybe some people have got deaths in their family some may have lost their land some may have been cheated there are so many thoughts which are there in our mind 24×7 because there is something that has happened in their life which is very very drastic so how does one control that and how does one combat this window which is always there in the back of our mind in the subconscious mind also and even though when we are driving or driving it comes up so how do we combat that you know there are sometimes some tv serials which end with a cliffhanger the hero has been thrown from a cliff and the hero is holding on to the cliff and the villain is trying to stamp on that hero’s hands and to be continued next week so it comes like that so I think the class ended like that and all the questions are going to be answered in tomorrow’s class but I will answer briefly I will give a preview of this see basically we can’t avoid what will come up what will come up in our inner screen but at that moment we may get carried away but later on we can evaluate when I was driving this is what happened or when I was bathing this is what happened we can observe what are the times when our we get carried away by unwanted thoughts and at that time and then when we have observed that we can plan how to create some alternative direction for our thoughts so if I am going along a road and I know there is a pothole ahead then I will prepare either I will slow down or I will swerve and go by the other side so like that at the moment when the thoughts carry us away it is very difficult but later on we can evaluate and then we can plan to have something else for our mind to feed on, to contemplate so if we like to hear kirtans have some nice kirtans going on constantly if you like to hear some philosophy have some philosophy going on constantly if you like to memorise verses then just memorise a verse and keep reciting so basically we need to consciously provide the mind provide ourselves alternative channels for our consciousness and initially some pushing is required to push it along that direction but if we don’t do that by default those thoughts will come but if we provide ourselves alternative channels then it is relatively easier it is not easy, it is relatively easier it is going to require effort but at least it is possible it is like if the floor is inclined in this way, the water is going to flow in this direction but what I try to do is the water is going to flow in this direction but in that I try to create a channel let the water flow in this direction it won’t go flow here it will flow related but somewhere else so we try to create a wedge in the floor by which it can go in that direction so like that we have to find out some constructive activities which we feel attracted to and which can be done in the background as a default so when we do that that helps us to check the mind check from getting carried away by those thoughts so each of us will have to do some inventory to find out what thoughts what activities can become the constructive background activity that can be going on for us to prevent the mind’s unwanted replace any other questions or comments yes yes yeah beautiful yes correct yeah this is a that wherever and whenever the wine van does bring it back on the self like yesterday I was in Baltimore I spoke a Sunday piece on the same verse actually so the topic there was the mind may stray away don’t let it stay away so yeah so very good observation thank you any other comments yes Hare Krishna hmm yeah okay yeah so do the thoughts and the impressions they stay for one lifetime or they carry over from one lifetime to other lifetimes yeah yeah of course it is the impressions are stored in the mind and when the soul goes from one body to another it actually carries the mind with it so the hardware we could say that’s all the body like the hardware is left behind but the mind goes with the soul to the next body and that’s why there are impressions which we all carry and that’s why even if parents have two children the two children are not similar even if they are twins they may be similar in looks but they are not similar in personality their upbringing may be exactly the same because they are in the same house same parents but what is it that is different that is the impressions which they are carrying in their life from this life and the previous life they have come from there so those impressions will create some default momentum some default inclination in our consciousness but they don’t force us you know our past our past explains our inclinations but it doesn’t excuse our actions that means see there is a distance between what what thoughts come in our mind and what actions we do at one level this is not so difficult to understand we all have various relationship with each other and we can’t see what goes on in each other’s minds and that is a great blessing if we all could see what was going on in each other’s minds not a single relationship would be sustained you think like this about me you had that thought it would be just impossible to sustain any relationship but nature has given us the buffer between the mind and the body between the thought appearing in the mind and action happening at the physical level we all have certain level of will power certain level of self-restraint now we may or may not exercise it that varies but we all have it and we do exercise it to some extent even if we are angry with our boss we will not shout at our boss some devotees may say I don’t have any self-control I have very weak will power when you are working at the job we do control our emotions even if I don’t feel like doing my job I do my job even if I feel like shouting at my boss I am very polite and deferential so what am I doing I am just basically using my will power to ensure that my emotions don’t come out at the physical level so we do all have will power we do all have control so here is a good example of emotion popping up on the inner screen but we choosing not to act on it this is of course largely because of we feel that this is important for me and I can’t afford to express the emotions so the past determines, past can explain our inclinations but it doesn’t excuse our actions so basically our actions are shaped by 5 different factors first is our past which could be past karma which comes as the samskaras from birth second is our upbringing the way our parents help us to grow up what kind of thoughts, ideas, habits they gave us third is our association somebody may have grown up in a very pious family but if they go to college and they get exposed to whole world of sin they start getting they start hanging with people who, kids who drink and smoke and take drugs then what happens that association spoils them so there is past life impressions samskaras we could say then there is upbringing there is association, beyond that is our free will so all these push us but we can push back if we don’t push back we will be pushed in that direction but we have the capacity to counter push that’s our free will and the fifth is Krishna’s mercy so now Krishna’s mercy can act in two ways one is that it increases our capacity to push back and second is that it decreases the force of all these sometimes some temptations come and we hear a nice class, we chanted it nicely I am not going to do this, I feel very strong so that is conviction conviction means our own intelligence and our own determination to resist that pushing has become very strong but sometimes if you keep practising bhakti after sometime there is purification purification means we don’t feel the desire only some of us might have been eating meat before, if we start practising bhakti and then if we are travelling in a plane and say the neighbour next to us starts eating meat we don’t even feel the desire to eat meat so although earlier we might have been attached to it also, so what has happened the push is no longer there so that is Krishna’s mercy, so these four factors are always there and Krishna’s mercy is like the fifth factor, it is like you know in software you have the wild card wild card only, that is the word you use so it can drastically change things, so it can increase our free will’s potency, it can also decrease the pushing influence of the other factors ok, thank you Jai Krishna so, yes in 14 chapters if all the gates are illuminated, what does it mean by the gates of the body ok, yeah, thank you good question, so in 14.11 it is said that when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge that indicates the mood of goodness sarva-dvareshu dehesmin prakasha upajayate jnanam yadata da vidyad vivruddham sattva mithyuta so, now the doors to the body are the senses, the eyes, the ears, the nose, does it there are many times when the Bhagavad Gita cannot be taken literally if you take the Bhagavad Gita is at one level a historical record, it is based on itihas, so in that sense, it has its central narrative is literal but within that it is a work of poetry and work of poetry means that there will be there will be situations where non-literal usages are there so like what is night for all living beings is a day for the self-realised now what does it mean is it that the sun rises differently for different people, no so it is a non-literal meaning over there similarly here, the dwara prakash, illumination of the doors of the senses, it doesn’t mean that when somebody comes to goodness, they open their eyes, light comes out of their eyes light comes out of their ears or light comes out of their nose, it is not that normally, illumination means let’s say if there is a door over there and the door is dark then some thief may sneak in, we will not notice only some child may slip out, we will not notice only but if the door is lit, then we can observe who is coming and who is going out and we can decide whether to let that person in or let this person out similarly, when the doors of the senses are illumined, that means we have the discrimination, we have the discerning capacity, we have the intelligence by which we can evaluate what to take in and what to let out so sometimes, the nature of this world is that we will see so many tempting objects in the world so they will appear on the screen on the door of our senses so if I have got diabetes and it is not that because I have got diabetes the world will stop making sweet items isn’t it? sweet items are still going to come, but then I can decide that ok, I am not going to think about it, if I think about it, I will crave for it more and more so ok, this I don’t have to take it in let me look at some other food, let me eat something else so that discrimination when it is there, we can decide what to let inside and what to not let inside similarly, we can decide what to let out and what to not let out so some people speak to express their thoughts and some people speak to discover their thoughts they speak and they say, I didn’t mean to say that so we all have slips of tongue so basically that means something slipped out of the door of the mouth without our wanting to speak that so what comes in, what goes out we are able to evaluate it there is the discretion, the knowledge by which you can evaluate, so generally we can say the three modes if you want to understand I will talk about this more tomorrow that in goodness, there is first contemplation, then action in passion there is first action, then contemplation I do it and then think, maybe I should not have done this and in ignorance, there is neither contemplation nor action there is simply delusion one gets caught and lost in the mental world, not doing anything practical so Krishna is saying that illumination is there, the doors and the senses are illuminated that means we can appropriately process what to let in and what to let out okay so shall we stop here so we will continue tomorrow thank you very much before we get up, I wanted to announce one thing today we have two new devotees coming to the class let’s welcome them so Kaliya Krishna Mataji has come all the way from Prabhupada village, Sandevesh so please welcome us by saying three times Haribol Haribol Haribol