Just Because We Have Got The Monkey Off The Back Doesn’t Mean The Circus Has Left Town

[Reflection at Gainesville, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
monkey has got off our head doesn’t mean that the circus has left town the monkey getting the monkey off the head refers to having something troublesome burning us emotionally it may be some bad habit it may save me some negative attitude and when the monkey is on the head the monkey may scream the monkey may scratch it can be both a distraction and a danger it can be a drain just sits on top of them we are carried all around so we may naturally want to dislodge the monkey but that is not so easy the monkey holds on literally there are monkeys from circuses say that run wild into cities and they catch people get on their bikes wanting a free ride and you need to get them off similarly we all have to get rid of our negative habits we all need to get rid of those things within us which it drags us down to sensuality and sin especially on the spiritual path the habits that drag us down sensuality and sin are considered to be like our monkeys that we are carrying and sometimes we focus on battling against one particular habit trying to get rid of it and after great effort we may succeed and even if I could just get rid of this then I would be liberated I would be free but we will soon discover that getting rid of one thing is not enough that we also have other shortcomings and there are so many other temptations in the world to which we may become vulnerable this means that actually we are at our core souls who are presently in this material world which is like a circus so as long as the circus is in town we may get the monkey off the back but some other monkey will come and get on our back we may give up one habit but we might take up some other habit if you have to give up bad habits per se then we need something more than just the determination to fight off one particular bad habit we need the determination to redirect our heart towards our source towards the whole towards Krishna and thereby we can attain him so we don’t need to purge ourselves of our specific weaknesses if they are draining us and they are making us degraded at the same time we need to keep the bigger picture in mind that the circus of material existence of metal attachments of basically our disconnection from God which places us in the jurisdiction of the circus of Maya Devi of the illusory energy that is what we need to get rid of of course the circus going off out of town means that we become infused with spiritual consciousness and by the strength of that spiritual consciousness we resist various material temptations and we move closer and closer to Krishna to our Lord by the steady practice of devotion by the steady practice of determination to raise ourselves up and to come closer to him so rather than becoming determined to resist this temptation or to battle that particular desire we can focus on battling to connect with Krishna and if you can just connect with Krishna from that point onwards other things will be taken care of step by step the circus goes out of town all the monkeys also go out with it the same way if we can just get rid of our vulnerability to illusion by intensifying our connection with Krishna then specific monkeys or bad habit that may be troubling us will be automatically overcome that’s why Krishna first in 2.58 recommends sense control distancing ourselves from the sense objects but soon after that he moves on to focusing on connecting with him as the key to success tani sarvani sanyamya yukta asita matparaha vashyehi asye dhriyani tasya prajna pratishtita so he says tani sarvani sanyamya control the senses but then matparaha focus your consciousness on yukta asita matparaha and when we do that that he says vashyehi asye dhriyani we’ll be able to conquer our senses and tasya prajna pratishtita that person is wisely situated thank you so like Bhishma despite being a devotee chose the wrong