Interrupting the mind’s train of thoughts 2

[Talk at Charlotte, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
So, today we continue our discussion on breaking the train of our thoughts. Yesterday, I talked about how our mind is like an inner screen on which various images come up. And those images carry our consciousness away, and they make us agitated, distressed, fearful.
And the mind shows not just an image, but also a movie. It carries us away with one perspective and one narrative. And this mind is like a big monitor with five windows which are coming from the five senses.
And also there is another window which can have unlimited windows. This is the recollection from the past. And the present perception, the past recollection, all can come together and start off a train of thoughts.
And we need to break this train in order to protect ourselves. Now, I’ll talk about breaking the train in today’s talk. And I’ll talk about doing it at three levels.
One is at the physical level, second is at the mental level, and third is at the spiritual level. So, at the physical level, it will be in two parts. I’ll talk the first part first, and then the second part towards the end once again.
Normally, if we consider our consciousness, the consciousness comes from the soul. It is rooted through the mind to the body and to the outer world. And when we are absent-minded, then the consciousness is caught in the mind, and it is not coming to the physical level.
So, we are trying to study, but our mind is wandering. So, sometimes devotees ask, I want to chant, but why can’t I concentrate when I’m chanting? So, actually, we are not chanting at all. It is the tongue that is uttering the mantra, the mind is wandering, and the soul is thinking which to do.
Should I wander with the mind, or should I hear the mantra? And most of the time, we just wander off with the mind. So, it’s only when, actually, the soul’s consciousness gets invested in the chanting, then we are able to focus on it. So, basically, the point I’m making is that there is the consciousness which comes from the soul, which is very difficult to go to the spiritual level directly.
And through the mind, it is meant to come to the body, but sometimes the mind sidetracks it. And when this train of thought starts off at the level of the mind, this drags us in various directions. So, usually, because we are focused more on physical level of consciousness, so to interrupt the train of the thoughts, which is going on at the level of the mind, it is easier to do it by bringing the consciousness down to a particular physical stimulus, rather than a spiritual stimulus.
So, what do I mean by that? When we are, say, agitated by something, if we can remember Krishna, we can get great relief. But just in our mind, thinking of Krishna is very difficult. Or at a consciousness level, taking the consciousness to the spiritual level is very difficult.
But if you can get the consciousness down at the external level, and focus on that. Say, for example, I am feeling very agitated, and then I just look at this picture of Krishna. At one level, the picture of Krishna, Prabhupada said, it is a spiritual stimulus.
It’s a window to the spiritual world. At another level, it is a physical object, which I can see with my senses. And I just start, my mind is worried about this, worried about that, worried about that.
So, I just bring my consciousness down to the physical level. Okay, I am looking at this picture. Let me describe five aspects of this picture.
Okay, I can see. Okay. There is a garden behind.
There is a tree behind. There is Radharani and Krishna. They seem to have just met each other.
And I can see some lotuses. There seems to be a lake in front of me. Now, if I just start thinking about this physically, any object we can take, any neutral object.
Our mind is agitated by this, this, this, this. Just take a preferable, it should take a devotional object. And just start describing that.
Not just thinking about that, describing that. So, what happens by this? Our mind is playing a horror movie. And suddenly, with our eyes we are looking, with our tongue we are describing.
What happens? The train of thoughts gets interrupted. If we are chanting and our mind is very agitated, if we just, we are trying to concentrate, the mind is simply wandering. Just stop and start taking deep breaths.
And, don’t just take deep breaths, focus on the deep breath. How the air is coming into the body, how the air is going out of the body. And as we focus on that, now the deep breathing will itself calm the mind down.
But along with that, getting our consciousness on the deep breathing will also calm the mind down further. So, Krishna says that, when we want to control ourselves, it begins from the physical level. Although the agitation also comes from the physical level, but the calming can also come from the physical level.
So, when the mind is wandering here and there, see sometimes we have to, when we are too troubled, we have to get out of our mind and get into the world. Oh, this is wrong, that is wrong, that is wrong. Okay, start doing something, get out of your thoughts.
Get out of your head. In the head we are suffering a lot. Sometimes we have to get out of the world and get into our head.
Think deeply, we need to withdraw from outside and we need to go inside and think. Now, when to do what? That depends on which mode we are in. If we are just too much agitated in the head, that means it’s the mode of ignorance.
In the mode of ignorance, I mentioned yesterday, there is neither action nor contemplation. There is simply imagination, simply delusion. This will happen, that will happen, that will happen, that will happen.
So, basically, if we consider that I, the soul, am here, the mind is here and the outer world is here. The mind can go to the past and start going over all the bad things that have happened in the past. Or the mind can go to the future and worry about all the things in the future.
Like I mentioned, so when the mind goes into the past and starts worrying about the past, that leads to depression. There are two main mental health problems people face in today’s world. Depression and anxiety.
Depression is caused by the mind going into the past and thinking all the bad things that have happened, which will be repeated in future, we think. That’s how we get depressed. And anxiety comes when the mind goes into the future and thinks, this will go wrong, that will go wrong, that will go wrong, that will go wrong.
So, when the mind is going off, just get it back to the present by getting it to the physical level of reality. So, taking a devotional object and just describing that. Say, this is the Bhagavad Gita.
If I take it out and just notice, okay, this seems to be around 6 inches, 3 inches or 4 inches, whatever. It has 1200 pages. And just start, it may be just, it may be nothing devotional, it may be devotional.
Just start getting that, we have to interrupt the train of thoughts. And if you use a devotional object, okay, Krishna is looking very beautiful here, but Krishna is looking thoughtful also. And what is the expression Radhanand is facing? How is he looking today? So, just start describing.
What happens by this? We interrupt the train of thoughts. So, when the mind is carrying us away, get the consciousness on the physical level. And that is one of the purposes for having as many spiritual stimuli as possible around us.
The purpose is, we decorate our houses with as many devotional pictures. The idea is we want to remember Krishna. But what does it mean, remember Krishna? We can look at it and remember it, but the idea is, we also want that when we are remembering other things, we can interrupt that unwanted remembrance with a devotional remembrance.
So, this way, we can bring the consciousness down to the physical level, and that’s one way to interrupt the train of thoughts. And each of us can find out which physical stimuli we can get most attracted to. Say, some devotees may just like to have some visual objects and describe them.
Some devotees may like, I like kirtan. Don’t just hear the kirtan, also describe the kirtan. What do you feel when you hear it? How does the kirtan sound to me? How do I feel? So, involving more, just like in chanting, we chant aloud, not just in the mind.
We involve more and more senses. Similarly, we don’t describe it aloud, we just describe it softly to ourselves. But verbalising, so observing and verbalising, or hearing and verbalising.
So, what we do, we get our consciousness down to the physical level and interrupt the train of thoughts at the mental level. So, deep breathing is also a powerful way. In the yoga traditions which focus on renunciation a lot, they have a very, like sometimes you have surgery, you have medical treatment which is non-invasive and some which is invasive.
Non-invasive means, you just give some treatment. Invasive means you put some object into the body and try to extract something or try to change something. Surgery.
So, when the mind is too agitated, there is an invasive way of stopping the agitation of the mind. I don’t recommend this, but I’m just telling this as a principle. That is that, when you’re feeling very agitated, just stop breathing.
Just, and don’t open your mouth. So, what happens, when we stop breathing and we don’t let any air come in, so that whatever the mind is thinking, worrying about this, worrying about that, worrying about that, it gets an immediate worry. Hey, I want air! And the consciousness goes out of what is going over there.
Whatever is going on, it comes to the physical level. Now, this as I said, it is like an invasive surgeon. Not recommended.
But I’m giving this as an example to illustrate the point of getting the thoughts out of the head, out of the mind, out of the mental level, and coming to the physical level. Now, another way to do it is using our intelligence. So, Krishna talks about this in the Bhagavad Gita, third chapter, 36th verse, he asks, what is it that makes me act against my best interest? So, first step Krishna says in dealing with that is, in 3.40 he says, come to the sensory level and regulate the senses.
पापमानं प्रचहियेनं ज्ञान विज्ञान नाशिन But then, three verses later, in 3.43, the conclusion he says, एवं वुद्धे परंबुद्वा सम्स्थप्यात्मानमात्मना जहिषत्रं महावाहो कामरूपं दुरासदं Therefore, with your intelligence, Arjuna, understand that you are transcendental. That you are beyond the body, you are beyond the senses, you are beyond the mind. And situate yourself in transcendence.
When you do that, then you will conquer over the negativities of the mind. Conquer over the self-centred desires or the agitations that are coming in the mind. So, this is Krishna talking about two things over here.
Intelligence directed towards transcendence. So, intelligence is required, but not just intelligence alone. Intelligence directed towards transcendence.
So, if we if we can sharpen our intelligence in general, we all have emotions. And emotions are just natural reactions to external situations. So, for example, there is a firefighter.
When the firefighter sees the fire breaking, ordinary people just panic completely. And even a firefighter may get agitated when they see a big fire. But then, their training comes into the picture.
And instead of just panicking, okay, this fire is coming from this side, let’s attack the fire from here. You get the hose, you put the water over here, you get the extinguisher, put it over here. And apply it.
So, there is a default response that comes up, that is agitation, panic, fear. But then there is a trained response that comes up. They start using their intelligence.
Let’s do this, let’s do this, let’s do this. So, similarly for us, if we study the Bhagavad Gita regularly, if we understand the philosophy properly, then many times our mind tricks us by saying when we are hearing classes, you have heard this many times. Yes, we have heard it many times, it’s true.
But the point is that, is the knowledge available for me when I need it? It’s like, say, I am going on a road and I have seen the map of the city many times. But when I am travelling, I get lost. So, I know the map, but while travelling, I just don’t remember it.
Then I get lost. So, what I need is not just the knowledge, at a theoretical level, I need it at the application level. When students try to improve their vocabulary, many competitive exams require us to improve our vocabulary.
So, at that time, they say that our vocabulary can have certain words which we know but we never use. So, we have seen them in reading, we have seen them in some books. So, they are considered like a dormant vocabulary.
But the words that we actually use, they are the active vocabulary. So, if we want to improve our English, then just, many people want to pass exams, they just take a word list, memorise it and then they pass the exams. Now, okay, that’s good enough for passing exams, but then those words, they may come into our dormant vocabulary.
I know the meaning, but they will never come into our active vocabulary. For them to come into our active vocabulary, we need to use them. And we need to know when to use them.
So, for that purpose, that means, one is, the meaning of the word is there in the background, and somehow I see it, okay, I know it. But for me to speak, it has to be in the foreground, it has to be in the active vocabulary. Similarly for us, much of the philosophy that we know is in our dormant knowledge.
Yes, I know it. Whenever I hear a class, yeah, I’ve heard this poem, I’ve heard this poem, I’ve heard this poem. But what to speak of when applying it, even when speaking it, I can’t recollect it.
So, we need, the philosophy has to come from the dormant level of knowledge to the active level of knowledge. And that, how do we get that? To get it to that level, we need to not just hear the philosophy regularly, but also try to see what is happening through gyanachakshu, through philosophical perspective. Now, what does it mean to see through a philosophical perspective? This is a little analytical, but I’ll try to make it simple.
Normally, I have a PowerPoint for this. So, basically, there is the external world, the prateksha pramana is coming through the outer world to us. And shabda pramana is what we have heard from scripture.
So, the knowledge we get from scripture is coming from above to us. The knowledge we are observing from the world is coming from outside to us. Now, in our mind, what are inside our consciousness, which if we give priority to what is coming from outside to in, then what will happen is, we will evaluate scriptural knowledge from the light of the world.
So, we will evaluate scriptural knowledge from the light of the world. That means, we may say, oh, so some American may say, the Bhagavad Gita, it’s a Hindu book. Some, in India, some lower caste people may say, oh, that’s a Brahminical book.
So, we may have, if we look from bottom up, we evaluate scripture through the eyes of the world. And most, even if we don’t reject bhavita like that, we say, okay, bhavita is good, but it’s not practical. How it’s practical for very advanced people, not practical for me.
So, that way, what happens? The knowledge doesn’t come for us, it doesn’t become available for us. But instead of looking at the Bhagavad Gita through the eyes of the world, we look at the world through the eyes of the Bhagavad Gita. That means, say, if somebody’s in distress, then one way, if I face trouble in my life, I can say that, oh, you know, God, I’m worshipping God, why am I facing trouble in my life? And that may weaken my faith.
But then if I study the Bhagavad Gita, then I understand what the Bhagavad Gita says, that this world is dukkhaalayam shashvatam. It is a place of misery. So, now the Bhagavad Gita also says, and it doesn’t just say that this world is a place of misery, it also says that we can get free from misery by becoming absorbed in Krishna.
So then, what this would mean, So then, if I’m looking at the world through the eyes of scripture, then what will happen when distress comes in my life? I will think, yes, the Bhagavad Gita told me that this world is a place of misery, and now I’m experiencing how this world is a place of misery. The Bhagavad Gita is true. Now the Bhagavad Gita also is saying that if I take shelter of Krishna, if I absorb myself in Krishna, I’ll get relief from misery.
So, I have seen, I’m experiencing that one part of what the Gita is saying is true. Now let me try to experience whether the other part is true. So, when I give priority to scripture and then look at the world through the scripture, then even distresses can increase my faith in scripture.
And then if I take shelter of Krishna at that time, if I try to absorb myself in Krishna, I do get relief. Today morning I gave a phone class on three ways to pursue Krishna’s love. There I explained elaborately about how by absorbing ourselves in Krishna, we can get relief from the world’s distresses.
So, basically, the point is that if I look at the world through the eyes of scripture, then I will increase my faith in scripture and I’ll be able to see things in a light that increases my faith. So, when I get agitated, when I get agitated, suddenly I start thinking about this, thinking about that, thinking about that and I get disheartened. Either I get carried away and I feel agitated, but then Krishna says, the mind is different from you.
The mind may go away, bring it back. The mind may wander, bring it back. So, what I’m experiencing is what Krishna is saying.
Now Krishna has also said that If you keep practising, the mind will calm down. So, let me see if I can experience that. So, when we learn to have our intelligence guided by transcendence, that means our intelligence, we ensure that it is guided by scripture, then we will be able to pursue things more spiritually.
And then, rather than getting agitated, okay, the train of thoughts is going, but I’ll identify, okay, this train of thoughts is going there. Do I need to go there? It’s like if I enter into a railway station, I may find there are many different trains going in different directions. Now, I need to get into the train which will take me to the destination.
Not that whichever train is nearest, I just get into that. So, like that we can say that in our consciousness, there are many trains of thoughts going on. So, I have to decide which train I want to get into.
And this capacity to perceive, okay, there are these different trains and I am different from these trains. This will become more and more, this capacity will increase more and more when we study the Bhagavad Gita. And we bring it into our foreground.
That means we look at the world through the eyes of the Gita. So, at an intellectual level, as I said earlier, the firefighter, the more trained they become, the faster their reflexes become. Similarly for us, the more trained we become, the faster our reflexes will be.
And initially, we will see the world through the eyes of, we will see, oh, this is such a bad thing that has happened. But the next moment, no. How can I see it differently? Let me see it through the eyes of Sanjay.
So, that’s what had happened. Upanubhutrasur, the pastime is described in the 6th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. Initially he was fighting with Indra.
And he was just wreaking havoc among the Devatas. Devatas are fleeing. And then, he was acting basically according to his Rakshasa nature.
He was an exalted devotee. But an exalted devotee, that extolled soul was in the Rakshasa body. So, initially he was simply acting according to the Rakshasa body.
So, initially we could say that he was acting, taking the world in and responding. But then when he saw Indra disheartened and then he knew that Indra had the weapon, which he could kill him. And then as death came closer to him, what happened is, there was an epiphany.
Epiphany means like a realisation. He remembered. If you see the continuous series of verses he is speaking, first he is saying, Oh Indra, you coward.
You killed your own brother. I am going to kill you today. And then he goes on and tries to goad Indra to fight.
And then he says, But, if however you kill me today, then I will give up this material body and go back to my Lord Narayan. And Indra is stunned. What is this? This demon is thinking of going back to Narayan.
What happened to him? And from that point, he just starts speaking devotionally. So, what has happened for him? Initially he was acting according to Kshatriya nature. That means, Rakshasa nature.
He was just fighting against Indra. But then, at that time, by Krishna’s mercy, the spiritual knowledge awakened. And he started looking at the world through the eyes of scripture.
He saw, actually my death is coming. But actually this is not just death. It is an opportunity for liberation.
So, he started praying to the Supreme Lord on the battlefield and said, My dear Lord, the mercy that you give to those who surrendered to you, that is not given to those who are attached to material objects. That means he is saying, Indra, you are not going to get this mercy. I am going to get this mercy.
So, what happened? Then, although the death was in front of him, he was not bewildered. Because he was seeing with the eyes of scripture. So, this is, at an intellectual level, we learn to reprocess the situations that are happening.
And then beyond that is the spiritual level. Sometimes in our practise, our analysis will take us to the spiritual level. Sometimes it just directly takes shelter of Krishna.
Like earlier I was saying that, yesterday I talked about how a child is watching a horror movie. And we can either be also the spectator of the movie or we can be the observer of the spectacle. What is that? Now, the child is watching the horror movie and is getting agitated.
If somehow, the child just turns around and catches the hand of the mother. And puts the hand around the mother’s legs. And, my mother is here, the child feels safe.
Child feels protected. Similarly, if at that time we can call out to Krishna, if we can remember Krishna, if we can recite some verses connected with Krishna, then we raise our consciousness to spiritual level. And that calms us down.
And from there also, once we calm down, once we connect with Krishna, then Krishna says, I will give you the intelligence to deal with the situation. So, this is, of course, the whole process of bhakti, taking shelter of Krishna. Now, we can do it by worshipping the deities, we can worship, chanting the holy names, hearing or singing kirtans, we are reading some favourite verses in scripture, whatever it is.
But I won’t go into that part of taking shelter of Krishna. There are many classes which you already hear on that topic. I will come back to our sequence now.
So, I started by saying that when the mind is agitated, get it down to the physical level and interrupt the train of thought. Then, we use our intelligence to observe, oh, this is what the mind is doing. And these are trains of thought going on, which train do I want to get into? Or do I need to not get into any train? And then, ultimately, we rise to the spiritual level.
And then, whatever is happening, the movie is happening on the inner screen, by remembering, by taking shelter of Krishna, by feeling Krishna’s presence, this is just, the mind is in agitation. I don’t have to get agitated. Now, having said this, now we will again come back to the physical level.
And how do we deal with the situation at the physical level? So, when I said certain thoughts will be triggered by, the train of thought is triggered by some external events. Till now, I was analysing based on the idea that the external event is not much problematic. But what if the external event itself is problematic? Somebody has behaved in an outrageous way.
Somebody has hurt me. Some serious thing has gone wrong in my life. Then, how do I deal with that? So, generally, even when there is a problem in life, it is our reaction to the problem that aggravates the problem.
So, if I am giving an exam and I commit a silly mistake and say it’s an important paper, but the first paper I made some silly mistakes and I lost some marks. If I get so depressed by that, that the next paper I can’t prepare. And then the next paper I could have done well, but I can’t do well at that time also.
So, one thing has gone wrong. At the physical level, it has gone wrong. But at the mental level also, I let the train of thoughts go off in the wrong direction.
Then, the physical situation will become worse. But if we can cut the train of thoughts over there. Okay, it’s over now.
Let me focus on the next paper. Let me do my best over here. So, we have to act on the physical level to rectify certain situations.
So, broadly speaking, when we find something unpleasant happening at the physical level. Somebody is behaving unreasonably. Somebody is just speaking negatively about us or whatever.
When bad things are happening actually at the physical level, then we have three broad ways of dealing with the bad things. I call this as tolerate, mitigate or immigrate. If I come to a place where it is extremely cold, what do I do? If my family is there, my job is there, then I have to learn to tolerate the cold.
But our body has the capacity to develop the tolerance. So, one option is I tolerate it. Second is it’s too difficult.
Then, I mitigate it. Mitigate it means, do something to address it. I ensure that I have a lot of warm clothes with me.
I mean, I ensure that all my cars and everything have good heat over there. I mitigate it. The third is, if both I find unbearable, then I immigrate.
If I can’t stay here, I go to some other place. So, if we look at the Pandavas, they also did all these three things at different times. Initially, when Draupadi was, initially when Bhima was poisoned, initially when they were attempted to be burned alive, Yudhishthira said it’s just a family matter.
Don’t, don’t bring it to the public. Don’t, don’t sensationalise the matter by telling anyone. But eventually, that’s why they were tolerating.
But eventually, when Draupadi was dishonoured, a line was crossed. And then after that also, when Krishna came and Krishna, when the Pandavas lived for 13 years in exile and then they came back also, still, the Pandavas, still the Kauravas were not even ready to return the kingdom, leave alone return the kingdom, they were not even remorseful that we did anything wrong. The Pandavas, even then, were ready to forget the past.
There is, there are two ways, sometimes we may, somebody, we request someone, at least come for this programme. I would like to come, but I can’t come because of this, this, this. So, that is like, you are saying no to the request, but you are not saying no to the person.
But if someone says, even my dead body will never come to your programme. Then, they are not just saying no to the request, they are saying no to the person itself. So, when Krishna himself went as a Shanti Doodh, at that time what did Duryodhana say? He said, I will not give you enough land even to put the tip of a needle through.
That means, he is not just saying no to the peace mission, he is just slamming the door in their face, nothing doing. So, that just showed that he had no interest in any kind of resolution at a peaceful time. So, the effort of tolerating was futile.
So, then they decided to mitigate. They fought a war to mitigate. The Pandavas did not fight to take revenge.
They fought to establish Dharma. To ensure that the rule of Dharma was established. So, their purpose was not vengefulness.
Their purpose was not to to it is not because they hated the Kauravas so much they wanted to kill the Kauravas. Yes, that was one aspect, but that was not a driving aspect. Their purpose was, we want to establish Dharma.
So, that’s how at that time they took aggressive action to mitigate the situation. And then eventually, they, when Krishna departed from the world, then they emigrated. Yes, this is enough now.
They renounced the kingdom. They took Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira anointed Pariksit as the king and they departed from the kingdom.
So, similarly for us, in different situations, we can choose different options. We may tolerate, we may mitigate, we may emigrate. Sri Prabhupada also did these different options at different times.
So, for example, when he first came to America, he was staying at the house of Sally and Gopal Agarwal and they used to eat meat and Prabhupada would keep, Prabhupada’s food was also kept in the same fridge where their food was kept. When he came to the place where the hippies were living in the Bowery, often these hippies, they would just eat the food and go away and Prabhupada would have to clean all their plates. He would make a big mess of everything and he would clean it all, clean the room, clean the house also.
Prabhupada tolerated all that. Initially, so when, they just didn’t have any culture, so they were staying with Prabhupada also. The house they were staying in, they had only one restroom.
So, in the morning, Prabhupada would stand in the queue to use the restroom. They didn’t even, at that time, have the culture to understand, elderly person is a saintly devotee, should let him go first. So, Prabhupada tolerated all that.
But then, we see other situations. I just met Giriraj Maharaj about 10 days ago in Carpentaria and he is writing a full book about the Juhu land, Juhu project and how Prabhupada, there was a Mr. N who gave the land and then he wanted to cheat and take the money and take the land also. And Prabhupada fought for it.
He said that, he wrote to one life member, he says, I would rather die than let this person steal Krishna’s money. And then, so Prabhupada, eventually when they won the land, they got the land, the deals were signed. Mrs. N and Prabhupada signed the deals.
Prabhupada says, it was a good fight. It was a good fight. So, Giriraj Maharaj is currently given the title in the book.
I will build you a temple. It is Prabhupada that said to Krishna. He had told Radharaj Surya, I will build you a temple.
So, good fight and a promise fulfilled. So, Prabhupada made a promise and he fulfilled it. So, there, Prabhupada was ready to fight, mitigate.
Tolerate whatever he is doing. And then, there are times when Prabhupada chose to immigrate. When Prabhupada was preaching in India and he was preaching for many years but he didn’t get much result, then he decided to go to America.
When he was preaching in America and his health became very bad, he decided to go to India not just for recovering his health but for introducing his disciples to Indian culture and to help them, to help start SCOAN India also. So, basically, we all have these three options. Either we stay in the situation and tolerate it, we stay in the situation and change it or we go away from the situation.
And now, all these three can be done in a positive way or they can be done in a negative way. In a negative way, instead of walking away from the situation, I run away from the situation. Then, what is happening? Physically, I have gone away but mind is there.
How could they have done like this, this, so unfair, this, this, this. We just, our mind is still caught in that situation. So, walking away from the situation is okay, this problem is there, I can deal with it but I have better things to do in my life.
So, I will not focus on this. I will not get involved in this. I will just direct my consciousness elsewhere.
I will focus my energies elsewhere. So, walking away is actually in the sattva guna, in the mode of goodness. Running away is in the mode of ignorance.
Because in walking away, our focus is on some higher purpose that we want to serve. In running away, we are just fearful of that bad situation and we want to escape from it somehow. So, there is no higher purpose over there.
The only purpose is get out of here. But then, when we run away from one situation, another problem comes up, what we will do? Again, we will run away from there. There is no end to that.
So, there is one brahmachari who wanted to once join a temple and he went to his spiritual master and he said, Maharaja, I want to join the temple. So, why do you want to join the temple? He said, because this world is filled with mystery. So, then the spiritual master told him, the brahmachari ashram is also part of the world only.
So, if you run away from the world and come here because there is misery and you find misery over here, where will you go? So, the purpose of joining the brahmachari ashram is not because the world is a place of misery, but because you want to serve Krishna. You want to serve Krishna. So, there is one boy, he was never very serious.
One day he came to the temple and he told me, I want to become a brahmachari. He said, by next Sunday, I will give my definite decision. I asked, what is going to happen on Sunday? He said, I have proposed to a girl.
If she says no, I will become a brahmachari. Now, that is not if we want to dedicate our life to Krishna, that is not because of frustration in some relationship. Frustration can be a beginning of spiritual life.
Frustration can impel us in our spiritual life also. Dukha, Artha is also one objective. But if you want to sustain in our spiritual life, distress alone is not enough.
So, if I am running away from problems, then sometimes I may run towards Krishna also because of the problems and that is good. But eventually, I want to run towards Krishna not just because there are problems, but because Krishna is so attractive. Krishna is so wonderful.
So, when we have a positive motive, then we can move forward in our life. So, as I said, running away and walking away, they are different. Similarly, mitigation can also be done in both ways.
Mitigation is reactive. It can be done in Rajoguna or it can be done in Satvaguna. When I do it in the mode of passion, then you did this to me, I will show you what I can do.
Many people say, if this person hits you 10 times, you hit them 20 times. You show them how powerful you can be. So, there, the purpose is just to get back at the person.
And usually, acting in the mode of passion simply worsens the situation. We hit back at that person and they hit back at us and we hit back at them and it just makes a mess of things. So, it’s like say, if I am walking along the road and suddenly look down, I see a snake slithering away.
The snake has bitten me. Now, I can feel the stinging pain of the snake bite in my leg. And if I start thinking, you snake, how dare you bite me? I will beat you.
And I start running after the snake to pound it with my feet and crush it to death. Now, even if I succeed in reaching the snake, even if I succeed in crushing the snake to death, what is happening? Even if it doesn’t bite you. Still, the first bite, the poison is circulating faster in my body.
If the poison has gone in my body, the first thing I have to do is get the poison out. Calm down. Get the poison out.
Go to some doctor or use some antidote or something. Get the poison out. Now, of course, the snake also has to be dealt with.
The snake may bite someone else and we have to do something about it. But that is later. First is, get the poison out.
Similarly, when somebody has hurt us, it’s not that all the time we have to tolerate or forgive. Sometimes we may have to do corrective action also. But immediately trying to do something is like be running after a snake which has bitten us.
It simply makes things worse. For us, for others, for everyone. So, if that taking action is done in the mode of passion, it will aggravate the situation.
But in the mode of goodness means, okay, the snake has bitten me. I have to get the poison out. After that, now, can I deal with the snake or do I call some police officer or do we have some snake traps? Think thoughtfully, make a plan and act.
So, mitigation is also required at times. doing it thoughtfully means, normally, we talk about forgiving people for their wrongs. Now, the principle of forgiveness is important, but there is also a principle of justice.
And when to choose forgiveness and when to choose justice, we don’t choose, as devotees, we never choose revenge. So, when somebody is punished, what is the purpose of punishment? Punishment basically has three purposes. If somebody, if A has stolen from B, then A is to be punished.
So, why should A be punished? There are only three reasons, you know. First is that A needs to learn that actions have consequences. If we do, then I should not do this again.
So, A has to get the consequence of the action so that they don’t repeat it. Second is, other people also learn the lesson. If we do this, we’ll get this reaction.
That’s why in law, they’re saying justice should not just be done, justice should be seen to be done so that other people know the right course of action. Third is, A has gone through some agony, some grief, some terrible distress because of the B has gone through that distress because of A’s actions. Then B, the gravity of B’s pain is also acknowledged.
If you just flip the hand and say, oh, everything is alright, I forgive. Then that may trivialise the misery that A has, the pain that A has gone through. The B has gone through, if A has done the wrong.
So now, among these three objectives, to acknowledge the pain of the victim, to correct the victimiser, and to teach a lesson for everyone else. Among these three purposes, as devotees, we may not want the revenge, you hurt me, so you should be hurt. We may forgive at that level.
But still, that person has to be taught the right course of action and others need to be taught the right course of action. So for that purpose, sometimes justice has to be sought. Forgiveness always doesn’t work.
Ram was ready to forgive Ravan if he was ready to return Sita. But when he refused to do that, then Ram took aggressive action. So mitigation is also required at times.
And tolerance. Now what does tolerance mean? I’ll come back to mitigation a little later. But once again, we have to understand tolerance, a simple meaning of tolerance is that to keep small things small so that we can focus on big things.
Tolerance means to keep small things small. Say, if I’m going in a train, in India, we have these local trains, in Mumbai, a train bogie has a capacity of 50 and there are 250 people in that. Everybody’s crashing.
Some people over there, they just want to show their power. So if I’m standing next to someone and that person starts pushing me. And I get annoyed with them and I push them back.
And they push me. And both of us start showing our strength to each other. You push me, I push you.
And that process, my station comes and goes also. And I keep pushing. What is the use of that? So, now, actually the big thing here is I want to get to my destination.
The small thing is whether I can stand there or not. Okay, you want more space? Just stand over there. I’ll move somewhere else.
It’s a small thing over there. So, tolerance means keep small things small so that I can focus on big things. But, say, if that person starts pushing me outside of the train only, then I can’t tolerate.
Then I have to push back. So then it is a big thing. It is interrupting with my bigger purpose.
Similarly, in the routine course of life, there is pushing which happens. We all have anarthas, we all have our conditionings. And because of these conditionings, we all hurt each other.
Sometimes in small ways, sometimes in big ways. So now, when this happens, actually we all need to tolerate it. It’s a small thing.
Let me focus on the big thing. So, I was talking with one devotee who is a marriage counsellor. And we were discussing contemporary marriages, traditional marriages.
So, one of the things that I mentioned that they were talking about how there is so much pressure in today’s life because of which marriages often break up. So, one point which I brought at that time was that marriages were always happening. But in today’s world, as compared to traditional world, in traditional world, marriage was seen as a duty.
Whereas today, marriage is seen as a choice. Duty means, okay, my parents have arranged this match, I’ll get married. And yes, we would like to have a compatible marriage.
We would like to be happy in the married life. But it was seen as a duty. Now, when it’s seen as a duty, one understands.
When I want to do duty, sometimes I get pleasure, sometimes I do not get pleasure. But when it is seen primarily as a choice, then it’s, okay, I’m doing this for my pleasure. And if I’m not getting pleasure, then why should I stay away? So, the whole paradigm itself is different.
So, Prabhupada, when he arranged for the marriages of his disciples initially, he expected that the spiritual masters arranging the marriages, they should stay together. But when they couldn’t stay together, Prabhupada said, then I’m not going to get involved in this. He said that you decide what you want to do and you can take this forward.
So, basically, the point which I’m making is not analysis of marriage here. The point which I’m making is that our purpose determines our capacity to tolerate. If my purpose in entering a relationship is pleasure, then I don’t get pleasure, then I think, why should I tolerate? What is the reason to tolerate this? But if my purpose is, this is a duty.
Yes, I want, naturally, if I’m doing it, I also want pleasure. But my purpose is, this is a duty. This is a… Vibhaha was considered a yajna.
Just like when children do thread ceremony. They’re not doing thread ceremony that they can enjoy. Yes, they may get some pleasure also, but it’s a yajna.
So, it’s a duty. And we do the duty in a way that we get pleasure also. But our purpose determines our capacity to tolerate.
So, when the purpose is pleasure and there’s no pleasure, we think, why to tolerate? So, similarly, it is, what should I tolerate, what should I not tolerate? That will be determined by my purpose. If my purpose is to go to my destination, somebody pushing me in the train, I can tolerate it. But somebody pushing me out of the train, I can’t tolerate it.
So, for most of us, if we don’t have a bigger purpose in our life, then small problems start becoming bigger and bigger. Psychologists have found that when is the time when people suffer the most anxiety? Oh, this problem, that problem, that problem. That is the time when they have leisure.
After they have done all their work, now they want to sit down and enjoy. But when we have free time, our mind works overtime. What about this? You know, he said like this.
You know, she did like that. How dare, you know, people are so terrible, the world is so terrible. This mind goes off in the wrong, terrible direction.
So, to the extent we have a bigger purpose, to that extent, smaller problems can be dealt with. Smaller problems can be kept small. The nature of the mind is that whatever it dwells on, it starts becoming bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
If, say, somebody has disrespected me. Say, I come for a programme and I greet someone. And they don’t look at me only.
They snub me. Now, when they snub me, I can naturally be annoyed. What happened? But then if I start thinking, this person, how dare they snub me like this.
Next time in public, in front of everyone, I’ll snub them. And then my mind starts going in a revenge fantasy. You know, when will I get the opportunity to snub this person? A snub just happened in a moment.
And it might not even have been a snub, actually. They might just be caught in their thoughts and they might not have noticed it also. So, we don’t know what is going on in whose mind and what is going on in whose life.
So, if our purpose is, say, we come to a place to socialise. And then a snub can seem a big problem. But if you have come to some place for some other more serious purpose, you know, I have to attend a meeting, I have to get this service done.
Okay, this person snubbed me. Okay, let me get this done. And then later on, you may try to clarify, try to find out what happened.
So, basically, for us, a strong sense of purpose is extremely important. When the purpose is there, then we will not only be able to tolerate small things, but we will also be able to understand which things are big enough that I need to mitigate or I need to negate. So, it is purpose that brings perspective.
Purpose means, what is it that I am here for? What is it that I am meant to do? Prabhupada writes in the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita that intelligence means to see things in their proper perspective. That means, this is a small thing, this is a big thing. Let me keep this small thing small, and let me focus on this big thing.
So, now, on what basis will I decide which is a small thing and which is a big thing? How will I get the perspective? It is intelligence. But intelligence needs to be guided by a purpose. If I am going, I am going on a car ride for just sightseeing, then I just see some movie theatre and I might spend three hours over there.
But if I am going for an urgent meeting, I might look at the movie theatre, I just notice it and move on. So, what I will give, how much time, depends on my purpose. So, now, in our devotional service, when we are practising bhakti, what is our purpose? At one level, our purpose is to develop pure love for Krishna and to go to attain Krishna.
But that purpose is actually a very long-term purpose. And it’s such a long-term purpose that it doesn’t give us any immediate sense of purpose. Okay, I may say I have to chant my japa, I have to do my sadhana, follow the religious principles.
It’s okay. But we need some immediate, we have an ultimate purpose in our life. But we need an immediate sense of, immediate purpose and we need an intermediate purpose also.
We often talk about people who are, souls who are lost in the material world. Brahmanda, brahmite, kona bhagyavan. People are wandering, lost in the material world.
But actually, there are many souls who are lost in Krishna’s movement also. Because, what happens is, they come to Krishna’s movement but you know, you hear this and nowadays with internet, you hear this and you hear that and you watch this and watch that and they don’t know, what am I meant to do? So, we all need a sense of service, a sense of purpose. And we may get that by the association of our senior devotees.
Sometimes we ask Krishna, my guides may give us some instruction. Or, we may ask him, I have to observe. Okay, what is it that I am good at? What is it that I can inspire to do? How can I contribute to Krishna’s mission? So, Prabhupada speaks in a lecture that how do you know that you are Krishna conscious? He says, if you go in a temple and you look at the deities and you feel the deities are saying to you, what are you doing for me? You feel the deities are asking you, asking us, what are you doing for me? Then that is Krishna consciousness.
Most people go to temple and ask the deities, what are you doing for me? So, this is a relationship of service. So, we have a personal relationship with Krishna and we want to offer something to Krishna. Now, all of us, we may have some, we may have particular services, we may do some bhakti bhakti programme, we may assist in cooking in the programme, we may do some follow up, we may do some distribution, we may, of course, our own family and our profession can also be done in the mood of service to Krishna.
But that is, we could say, in a sense, indirect service. We also have a direct service to Krishna. Now, what our service is, that becomes largely our defining connection with Krishna.
So, to the extent we connect with a solid service, to that extent it gives us a purpose. Ultimately, we say we want to become fixed in bhakti. Now, what does it mean to become fixed in bhakti? The world will always have its ups and downs.
And our mind will also have its ups and downs. We will go through different moods. But becoming fixed in bhakti means we become fixed in some service to Krishna.
So, when we have that service, that will be our connection. Now, if, say, preaching is a service, then that is a service which you can do anywhere in the world. Because everywhere there are people who are without Krishna consciousness.
Now, how we will share Krishna bhakti, that will vary from person to people. But that is a service which is always there for us. So, now, in the light of our service, our service is our big thing.
And in the light of our service, if a particular problem comes, then we decide, okay, should I tolerate, should I mitigate, or should I end it? So, that service is what will give us the perspective. Now, when we are trying to choose a particular course of action, I’ll conclude with two points now. That first is understanding what is our capacity.
And last is choosing the right course of action. Not just in terms of one of these three options, but choosing the right attitude with which to act. So, first is that, in general, there are, like I said, there are three modes of material nature, goodness, passion and ignorance.
Now, these modes shape our understanding of our capacity also. In general, in the mode of passion, we overestimate our capacity to do things. When, in the mode of passion, we say we form a relationship, then, you know, we say, okay, if you are very attracted to some person, and somebody tells you, okay, you’re getting into this relationship, but this person has this problem.
But, our mind impacts this, no problem. My association is so good, that by my association, that problem will go away. We overestimate our capacity to change other people.
Generally, in the mode of passion, we think we can fix people. Like we can fix objects, we say, we can fix people. Every relationship, especially relationships, that are beginning in the mode of passion, they begin with the promise that we are the controllers.
And as soon they give the realisation, we are not the controllers. We can’t control people. So, generally, in the mode of passion, we overestimate our capacity to control things, to change people.
In the mode of ignorance, we underestimate our capacity. So, when somebody has some problem, somebody is behaving in a problematic way, what a person in the mode of ignorance does is go into self-pity. You know, people always treat me so badly.
Everybody just neglects me, insults me, disrespects me. They treat me like a dishrag. So, we start feeling sorry for ourselves.
And such people go into what is called a pity party. You know, pity party. I just go into self-pity.
And sometimes, there is a sangha of these people. They all come together, they are depressed, and they make each other very depressed. And then they say, the world is such a bad place, what to do? We have to live in this world.
So, in the mode of ignorance, we just feel sorry for ourselves but don’t do anything about it. In the mode of goodness, we realistically evaluate what is in my control and what is beyond my control. What is my capacity in this situation? And based on understanding my capacity, I can decide what to do about it.
So, sometimes, we have the capacity to make a change in situations. And we need to take a stand at that time. Say like, Drona, Bhishma especially, when Draupadi was being dishonoured, Bhishma should have taken a stand.
He did not take a stand. So, that was wrong when he said. Now, whether his stand would have changed Dhritarashtra’s mind or Drona’s mind, that’s debatable.
But that was a mistake on his part. Of course, ultimately, it was the part of Krishna’s Leela that he could demonstrate how he alone is the ultimate protector. But the point is that we all have a capacity and there are times when we need to take a strong stand.
So, whether, first of all, understanding our capacity, that happens through the mode of goodness. And once we understand our capacity, understand what is in my control, what is beyond my control, then I can realistically evaluate what I can do. Unfortunately, we often either underestimate or overestimate our capacity.
Now, how do I know what is my capacity? You know, sometimes there are some externals also. Okay, how much influence do I have on people? What is the role that I have in the society? How do people see me? If I tell someone, how much are people likely to listen to what I’m going to say? So, there are some parameters by which you can evaluate. What is our capacity to change things? And if we find that, okay, I don’t have much capacity, then let me at least try to change myself.
Let me not have a negative attitude. So, generally in the mode of ignorance, when we feel sorry for ourselves, the converse of that is we blame others. For all the problems we want to find a scapegoat.
This person like this. It’s almost everywhere in the world that almost, it’s amazing, every country that you go to, that country thinks that the neighbouring country is causing it problems. Indians think, oh, Pakistan is causing such a big problem to us.
Pakistanis think India is causing such a big problem to us. Afghanistanis think Pakistan is causing such a big problem to us. Now, some extent it is true, USA thinks that, at least the current president thinks that Mexico is causing a lot of problems to us.
So, basically it is all over the world. Now, there are problems which may be caused by the neighbours, but the point is this scapegoating mentality. Everywhere in the world it is there.
The nature of the mind is that when there are difficult problems, the mind wants quick solutions to difficult problems. And quick solution is to blame someone. Because of this person, it’s like this.
Usually, the actual situation is much more subtle, much more complex. And it requires analysis, it requires application, and then one can find a solution to it. So, in the mode of ignorance, we just blame others.
Sometimes we are just caught in a situation where we don’t know what to do. So, if we try to come to the mode of goodness, that means we pray to Krishna, we try to do our sadhana bhakti well, we study scriptures, and we bring ourselves to the mode of goodness, then we can understand what is our capacity. And after understanding what is our capacity, then we can choose the right course of action.
Okay. So, now, the topic was breaking the train of our thoughts. One thing is we want to break the train of thoughts at the mental level.
But then that train of thoughts was caused by some physical situation also. And that physical situation may need to be physically addressed. Say, if I find a ulcer on my hand, if there is a small swelling on my hand, and my mind says, what if you have cancer? My God! And what if the cancer is in the advanced stage? What if you will only have few months to live? Oh no, you are going to die soon.
Now, well, this is a swelling. It might be because of anything. So, I want to break that train of thoughts.
Okay. I want to break that train of thoughts. There is no need to worry.
If something happens, something like that is there, I will deal with it. I break the train of thoughts, this is simply a horror movie issue in my mind. But then the practical action I have to do is, okay, there is a swelling, I may need to go to a doctor and show the swelling.
And settle the issue at that time. So, the point I am making is the physical situation also requires a physical resolution. But, if we don’t interrupt the mind’s train of thoughts, then whatever we do in response to the physical situation, only aggravates the situation.
When we interrupt the train of thoughts, get our consciousness to the spiritual level, or at least to the mode of goodness level, then we can deal with the situation in a more responsible way. In a way that is more likely to bring about resolutions. So, Prabhupada says that even devotees may be perplexed.
He says a devotee may be perplexed, but a devotee is never discouraged. Perplexed means, I don’t know what to do. Discouraged means, I don’t feel like doing anything.
A devotee is always encouraged. I want to serve Krishna. Now, specifically what I should do in this situation, I do not know.
So, when I do not know that, sometimes I may have to do some intense prayer, meditation, scriptural study, do something to at least come to the mode of goodness. Then at that time, I need to analyse better. If I do, if I tolerate, then what is going to happen by this? A, B, C, D. Even when we are tolerating, then how much do I tolerate? What are the limits for it? Also, I have to decide that.
I tolerate this, but if things go beyond this, this, this, then we may have to take some action. Or sometimes I may decide, I want to mitigate. Mitigate means, what do I have to do? A, B, C, this is what I can do for this.
If this doesn’t work, I can do this. If this doesn’t work, I can do this. If this doesn’t work, I can do this.
Or, okay, I am going to immigrate. Now, immigrate doesn’t necessarily mean I have to physically go to some other place. It could just be that I just channel my energy somewhere else.
The world is a big place and we can focus our energies in different places. I won’t just deal with this issue. So, the nature of the world is some people can get along with some people, some people can’t get along with some people.
That’s just the way it is. So, we don’t have to mentally obsess over things. So, the nature of when difficulties come in our life, especially difficulties that are brought by difficult people, then that sticks to our mind.
It becomes very difficult to find a solid solution over there. So, first we have to unglue it from the mind. And the way to do that is by some intense practise of bhakti.
So, once we do that, once we come to the mode of goodness, then how to move forward will be revealed. Prabhupada says in the nectar of instruction, conclusion, introduction, last paragraph, that once you come to the mode of goodness, then how to advance further will be revealed from within. sattvaat sanjayate jnanam The mode of goodness also brings some knowledge.
And if it’s the mode of goodness accompanied by the practise of bhakti, then the dhami buddhi yoga. Krishna gives the intelligence also. But while we are going through all this, we have to understand what success is.
Okay, this problem is there. Is the resolution of the problem the success? Yes, that is one level of success. But for a devotee, success is much bigger, much deeper.
In bhakti, success is actually more a direction than a destination. A destination means, okay, I want to climb that mountain. Once I climb that mountain, I’m successful.
If I fail to climb that mountain, I’m unsuccessful. But direction means, okay, I want to go in the westward direction. So, now, sometimes the mountain might be a path to climb up.
So, I climb it up. But if my goal is to go in the westward direction, okay, if this mountain is too difficult to climb up, I’ll find some other way and I’ll keep moving towards Krishna. So, moving towards the west.
So, for us, as devotees, success in bhakti is more a direction than a destination. We would like to do some particular projects. I would like this to work out this way.
But sometimes, some destinations may just not come. Vishuddha Prabhupada also, it happened. He tried to start back to God in India.
And he wanted, he wrote, I want to make this magazine bigger than the time and the illustrated vigil. That was the magazine going on at that time. But it just didn’t work out.
So, that destination he could not meet. But his direction was, I want to serve Krishna. I want to glorify Krishna.
Okay, this doesn’t work. Let me try this. Then he tried to work with his godbrothers.
And they had a very parochial vision. They did not have any vision to expand much. So, that didn’t work out.
Prabhupada tried to start League of Devotees. He wanted to, he started a very cosmopolitan note. He published advertisements in Times of India.
He invited the big dignitaries for the inauguration. But then eventually, it just didn’t work out. Too many roadblocks.
So, that destination he couldn’t meet. But the direction was, I want to serve Krishna. So, for us, if we get too caught in the idea of a particular destination, this is what I want to achieve.
And if we’re not able to achieve it, we will feel very frustrated. But if we see that, success in bhakti is more a direction. It’s not a destination.
That means, in every situation, I’m a servant of Krishna, and I want to keep serving Krishna. The value I want to live according to is that I want to serve Krishna in all situations. So, even in this situation, I will act in such a way that the issue gets resolved.
But if the issue doesn’t get resolved, the person doesn’t change. If I have acted in the mood of service to Krishna, I will be growing forwards. Sometimes, in devotional life also, external discouraging situations can come.
Because the nature of the world is that it will find some way or the other to dishearten us in our bhakti. Sometimes, that can happen by the world becoming very against us. It’s difficult to deal with.
But sometimes, there is something which becomes an obstacle from within our own group. It becomes even more difficult to deal with. But you have to understand that this is just the nature of the world.
So, if we stick to the value that my purpose is to serve Krishna, and going in the direction of serving Krishna is that is where I want to go. And even if some destination works out, a destination doesn’t work out, we will keep moving forwards. And we will grow spiritually.
Sometimes, the external growth, we may have worked very hard, and the external growth may not come at all. And sometimes, we may work a little and a lot of external growth comes. As a speaker, I have this realisation very often.
I was recently in Silicon Valley, and I spoke on the same topic in four classes. And I spoke in Google, I spoke in Intel, I spoke in Stanford, I spoke in Salesforce. The topic I spoke on was the missing self in the selfie.
The missing self in the selfie. So now, the same topic, the audience was different. The first class, I found that I connected reasonably well with the audience.
The second, third class, it was like the audience was dead. The audience was looking at me as if I was speaking some foreign language. I was trying to correct, nothing was happening.
And the fourth class, I go to Stanford, the audience was so receptive. And then I look back and look at my recordings, it was 90-95% of what I spoke was the same. Sometimes, a speaker makes a joke, and the same joke, sometimes the audience laughs, sometimes the audience doesn’t laugh.
Why is that happening? You don’t know that. So, actually, we put in the efforts, but sometimes there is some, sometimes we get that realisation very strongly, that our efforts, just they’re not there, everything. Krishna is the doer.
Sometimes we prepare for a class very systematically, and after that, nobody says anything about the class. Nobody appreciates, just people just hear and go away. Without much preparation, come for a class, people say, this was a life-changing class.
Life-changing? What was life-changing? So, actually, for us, we do have to put in our efforts. But sometimes, after our efforts, suddenly the results go away or the results don’t come. And we see that, rather than, this is like, oh, my service is not giving any result.
We should see that, actually, Krishna is giving me the realisation that I am not the doer. It is my duty to do, it is my duty to do service, but it is not that I alone am the producer of the results. So, sometimes, I may put in lot of effort, and no result may come.
And sometimes, I may put in little effort, and a lot of result may come. So, rather than thinking of some loss, even in our service, as a defeat, we can see that also as a progress. Because I am getting deeper realisations.
Even in spiritual sense, I am not the controller of people. I can get people to Krishna, but ultimately, it is Krishna who in their heart will take them. So, if we get this realisation, if we see success as a direction, where I am meant to gain, grow more and more in my relationship with Krishna, I am going to go deeper and deeper in my relationship with Krishna, then even if externally there is a failure, externally there is a reversal, internally there can be growth.
Internally, we can go deeper in our connection with Krishna, and that way, we can be going on in our relationship with Krishna, even through difficult situations. So, I will summarise what I spoke today. I spoke about interrupting the mind’s train of thoughts.
So, how do we do that? First, at the physical level. If the mind is just worrying this, this, this, then look at some devotional object and just observe it and describe it. Or just slow down the breath.
Or in an invasive sense, just stop the breath. Get out of the head into the body and into the physical level. And that way, we can interrupt the train of thoughts.
Secondly, at the intellectual level, what we can do is if the philosophy moves from our dormant knowledge to our active knowledge, like words coming from the dormant vocabulary to the active vocabulary, then some problematic situations come in our life. We will not see the philosophy through the eyes of the world. We will see the world through the eyes of the philosophy.
When problems come, we’ll say, this is what Krishna told. Problems are going to come. Krishna has also said, if you take shelter of me, you’ll get relief from these problems.
Let me see if that happens. So when the mind gets agitated, when the mind starts showing a horror movie, we catch it. Rather than watching the horror movie, this is what the mind is doing.
We catch it. So that’s seeing the intelligence if it’s trained by regular scriptural study, then we can distance ourselves from the mind. At the spiritual level, we take shelter of Krishna.
When the child is watching the horror movie, catches the hand of the mother. Put the hand around the legs of the mother and gets shelter. Like that, we chant the holy name.
If we pray to the deities, we get shelter of Krishna. And then the elaborate part of the class was about what do we do at the physical level? If there’s a physical situation which is a problem, how do we deal with that? There are three options. Tolerate, mitigate or immigrate.
And either I stay in the situation and accept it. Stay in the situation, try to change it or walk out of it. Go away from the situation.
Now these three options can be done in a higher mode or a lower mode. In the mode of ignorance, I go away but I run away from it. So, I’m not focused on where I’m going but from where I’m going.
So, that is no positive purpose over there. So, if we run away from misery, wherever we go away there we get misery, then again we’ll have to run away from there. But we walk away means I have better things to do in my life so I’ll not get involved in this.
I’ll get out of this. Mitigate can be done in the mode of passion where you want to take revenge against the other person. That is unhealthy.
So, the purpose of punishment is to acknowledge the suffering of the victim, to give the consequence to the victimiser so that they don’t do it again and to teach a lesson to people in general. So, as devotees we may want to forgive. Okay, I don’t want to get back at you because you have hurt me.
But we do have to make sure that the right course of action is established. The Pandavas fought not to take revenge but to establish Dharma. I talked about how the Pandavas and Prabhupada, they exhibited this Tolerate, Mitigate, Immigrate.
And then Tolerate, what does it mean? It means to keep small things small so that I can focus on the big things. Like, somebody pushes me around in that train I can accept it. Pushes me out of the train I can’t accept it.
So, it is our purpose that brings perspective. And we all need a purpose in our devotional life which is an intermediate purpose, medium level purpose. Immediate and intermediate purpose not just the ultimate purpose of going back to Krishna.
And that purpose comes from our service to Krishna. So, when we have a strong service to Krishna, then that will help us to not get agitated excessively. Because that will give us something to do practically.
When our mind is doing our free time, our mind works overtime. So, our service ensures that we don’t give our mind too much time. And once we have that purpose, based on that purpose, we can evaluate what is my capacity? In ignorance, we underestimate our capacity and feel sorry for ourselves.
In passion, we overestimate our capacity and try to fix people. But that backfires. Like a snake has bitten me, I try to beat the snake back.
And in the mode of goodness, we realistically evaluate. And if we pray and study and come to the mode of goodness, then what to do practically further, that will be revealed. And for us, in bhakti, success is not just a destination, it is a direction.
Sometimes we may work to achieve a particular thing, but that thing may just not work out. And rather than being disheartened, thinking that, oh, all my efforts have gone waste, we see that, okay, I served Krishna through all this, so that spiritual advancement is always there. And sometimes, with little effort, a lot of results may come.
Sometimes a lot of effort, little results may come. Through that, Krishna is showing us that we are not the doers. So, rather than getting disheartened by the external reversal, we focus on the internal and deepen our connection with Krishna.
Through every situation, if we focus on how best can I serve Krishna in this situation, then we will always be moving in the right direction towards Krishna. Even if some destinations elude us, still, we will progress towards Krishna always. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Okay. Yeah.
So, not exactly a PowerPoint of this class, but I have given a seminar in Alachua on spiritualising our relationships. So, in that, this whole, these three points of tolerate, mitigate, immigrate, I talked elaborately about that. So, if you just go on the Spiritual Scientist and search for spiritualising our relationships, in fact, I had given that similar type of talk on the phone also, that phone call which I had done last year with all of you, with some of you.
So, but that is there in the PowerPoint that you can use that. I think that spiritualising our relationships has also been transcribed. Just search on, the transcription might also be there.
Hare Krishna. Yes, please. When anxiety of service itself is diluting our consciousness and not able to focus, so what can we do in that scenario? So, when anxiety of service is diluting our, degrading our consciousness, what to do at that time? Then we have to understand that we have become too, the probable reason could be that we have become too attached to a particular definition of success in the service.
There is definitely going to be some anxiety for all of us. Service means there is responsibility. And responsibility means that we have to try to get certain things done.
And quite often getting those things done is not always in our control. So, that causes anxiety. So, anxiety is unavoidable.
But sometimes, the anxiety is, anxiety becomes excessive because we get too obsessed with something. So, for example now, if I want to write a book. Now, writing a book is in some ways like having a baby.
If you spend many sleepless nights, you just can’t sleep. This idea comes up, that idea. This idea is not working at all.
There is an author who said that writing is extremely easy. All you have to do is sit in front of a computer monitor and glare at it till drops of blood form on your forehead. So, sometimes writers get writer’s block.
You just don’t get ideas. So, then if I see my writing as a service to Krishna, then what happens? I will try to do the best that I can, but if something doesn’t work out, let me do it later. So, we have to put in our effort, but if we become too hooked to a result, then that causes excessive anxiety.
So, generally we can say that it’s like weight lifting. If I have a capacity to lift 10 kg weight, I can lift 11 kg, I can lift 12 kg also. That’s manageable.
But if I try to lift 25 kg, I’ll get crushed. So, sometimes when we are put in a situation where we all want to take up anxiety because that also helps us to become absorbed in Krishna. That also makes us do something worthwhile for Krishna.
But if the anxiety is becoming disproportionate, that’s burdening us, then we have to see what can I cut down. Okay, if this result doesn’t come, then it’s not that the sky is going to come crashing down. We can push things a little bit ahead.
We have to learn to… Sometimes, we may take up anxiety for Krishna, but it may be the mode of passion, which is driving us. We all have a mode of passion within us, and we want to do something worthwhile for Krishna. But if the mode of passion is not regulated or balanced by goodness, then we may just try to take up so many things for Krishna that we start becoming excessively agitated, irritable and frustrated just because of the service.
Then we have to cut certain things down. And we have to develop some sense of detachment. This is what I… Prabhupada himself was Mahabhagavata.
At the same time, he did not get involved in the nitty-gritties of management of temples. Although he knew that his disciples were young, many of them were immature, and if they made mistakes, if he came to know about it, he was very concerned. But still, he decided to focus my energy on writing books.
Of course, he corresponded a lot of devotees and provided a lot of guidance. But it was not that… Prabhupada, when he came to India, he focused his energy on India. He said, you Americans, you can take care of America.
So, Prabhupada also, he did not take up… he did not try to do everything. He focused his energy on certain places. And he let others do things, and sometimes they would make mistakes, he learned from them.
So, if we take up too much, then that is what causes anxiety. It’s like if I want to eat a watermelon. Now, if I want to eat a watermelon so that I can get some nourishment, I want to fill my stomach.
That’s fine. But if I take up… if I take the full watermelon and try to put it in my mouth, I want to do that. So, I have to cut it into pieces.
Sometimes what happens, you just take up such a big service, it’s like taking a watermelon into the mouth. I just get into trouble because of that. So, sometimes, even if situations come in such a way that the small service will become very big afterwards, then also we have to take it step by step.
Let me do this now, let me do this later. So, basically, if there is a big service to be done, just like the big watermelon is to be eaten, cut it into pieces. Okay, let me do this in the next one week and I’ll do this in the next one week, I’ll do this in the next one week.
That way, if we do, then the anxiety can be cut down. Okay. Thank you.
Any other questions? Yeah. Very wonderful. Thank you.
Yes. I just have a question. My question is, is it always required to use Krishna in the external world? What is it that is inside that we are living in ourselves that we are being stopped and we are serving Krishna? So, if you want to serve Krishna, when do we use a physical stimulus or intellectual stimulus or a spiritual stimulus? The point is, we want to be purposeful in our service to Krishna.
So, Whatever is favourable for Krishna’s bhakti, I do that. Whatever is unfavourable, I avoid that. So, now, for example, the Bhagavad Gita is in Sanskrit.
Now, I’ve already said I want to learn Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a spiritual language. It’s fine.
But if I today go to a programme and I speak in Sanskrit, okay, people will say, very good. They’ll go. Some people in the audience say, very good.
So, basically, the point is, I may say English is a mundane language, Sanskrit is an elevated language, but the point is, what is the best way I can communicate? So, some devotees, when they want to memorise verses, for them, they want to memorise the Sanskrit because that’s the verse. Some devotees may find Sanskrit very difficult. Let me memorise the English.
I want to understand the meaning. I want to assimilate the meaning. Even if I memorise the Sanskrit, I just memorise the Sanskrit, but I can’t remember the meaning.
So, the point which I’m making over here is that for our service to Krishna, whatever stimulus is favourable, we accept that. So, if, for my service to Krishna, if I have to run around and do a lot of things, and that time I get in the mood of passion, and to calm down in the mood of passion, I just take a few deep breaths, that’s what works for me, then that’s fine. If I find that in between, I just take a few breaks, and I chant a few mantras, or I read some wisdom quotes, read some shastra, selected quotes, that helps me, that’s fine.
So, we have to find out what works. Prabhupada was, in this way, pragmatic. If you see that, he recommended, whenever he was sick, he recommended Ayurveda.
He himself practised Ayurveda, but he was not fanatical that everybody is going to take Ayurveda. He told himself, whatever works, you take that, and keep your body fit for serving Krishna. So, that way, we don’t have to analyse too much, what is physical, what is intellectual, what is spiritual.
If something is taking me towards Krishna, in the ultimate sense, its purpose is spiritual. So, let me use that. Does it address your question? What do you mean by common groups? So, what do you mean by spiritual stimuli in that context? No, so, when they are doing something unfavourable to our bhakti, such as? Such as, when they are talking with us.
Oh, okay. I didn’t understand your question earlier. So, if we go to relatives, and if they are doing something, some socialisation is happening, where some… They are unfavourable to us, but it is going against our bhakti.
Yeah, so, we have a good relationship with them, but it’s unfavourable to our bhakti. So, we have to see what is important in what situation. We don’t want to break the regularity principles, but that doesn’t mean that we have to flaunt the regularity principles in their face.
This is what I am following, and this is… If you don’t follow this, I won’t have anything to do with you. It’s not like that. We may discreetly say that, you know, I am following a particular diet because of which I don’t eat this.
Which is true, I am following a particular diet. We are following the Krishna diet. So, we can find intelligent ways in which we don’t have to increase the confrontation with them, but at the same time, we don’t have to compromise our principles.
Generally, in social circles, especially in today’s world, largely, it is more and more becoming an individualistic culture. So, whether it is professional setting or even familial setting, if people push us to do what they are doing, but if we take a stand, after some time, they stop pushing. Especially in your offices, you say, okay, I am a vegan.
Okay, you are a vegan, fine. So, then people don’t push so much. So, basically, we have to take a stand that basically we can practise our spirituality in three ways.
And practise or you could say exhibit while interacting. You can call it prescriptive, normative or descriptive. Prescriptive means I don’t eat meat and you should also not eat meat.
So, I prescribe what you should do. Normative means this is the norm, this is right and if you are not doing this, you are wrong. Anybody who eats meat, say they are sinful people are going to go to hell.
No. Descriptive means this is what I do and this is why I do it. So, generally, if people don’t feel that we are going to impose what we are doing on them, then they don’t feel so threatened.
So, we can even share our practises, share our faith with others but we can do it in a descriptive rather than saying that okay, I don’t eat meat because this, this, this, this. That’s okay. But the tone and the intent.
It’s not that I am imposing this on you. This is why I do this. So, the descriptive way of presenting is very non-threatening and it decreases the temperature.
It’s only when we intrude on them. This is what you should also do. Then they become defensive and they become aggressive also.
Answer your question? Thank you. So, shall we stop here? So, thank you very much. Prabhupada Ki Gaur Bhakt Vrindaki Gaur Se Ma