Let go of all ties (conditions, conditionings and competition) and live life wise and nice

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
How we become can be seen in this book.
And how we can break free from the conditions, from these conditions. So what we have, what we will see is, first we have the booklet. So I will read some, we point from the booklet.
We won’t have time for all of you to read it and then discuss the rest of it. It’s a booklet written by a homozygmatician’s book. But I’ll discuss some of the saddening points here.
Whenever we are sick, we feel deceased. And that feeling of dis-ease impels us, as the word dis-ease, you know, it means an absence of dis-ease, absence of a comfortable feeling, that impels us to seek some remedy, to go towards a doctor. In material existence, a fundamental problem for most of us is in recognising our dis-ease conditions, that there’s something wrong and I need to correct it.
Now of course, almost everybody in this world feels dissatisfied. But people feel that just by doing some adjustments, you know, maybe getting more marks in exams, getting a higher paying job, getting a good looking spouse, getting a good house, going to America, these sort of arrangements will solve my problems, will set things right in my life. And then I will come back.
So this is the idea that most people have. And that’s what keeps them going on in material life, trying to find out how to make things better. And certainly, we have problems and we need to endeavour in material life.
But along with that, it’s also important, it’s also important to recognise that there are limitations, which no material situation or no material improvement can go beyond. When we recognise that, then we understand that we need to progress not just materially, but we also have to progress spiritually. So these three factors which we discussed today, conditions, conditionings and combinations.
These three things are impetuses for us to try to move towards a spiritually progressive lifestyle and spiritually progressive understanding of life itself. So these three things, let’s begin with conditions. Now what does conditions mean? Generally, if there are some advertisements and offers, so conditions arise.
So the word condition implies certain pre-existing factors which are or need to be true. So we often hear the word condition so. All of us are conditioned so.
What does condition so mean? We are limited by certain things. What is it that we are limited by? So for example, as so, we are all individuals. Presently, all of us, if we are asked, we can think of various limitations that we have.
Some of us may be good-looking, some of us may not be so good-looking. Some people have phenomenal memory. Some people have horrible memory.
Some people have very strong physical model. Some people have not so strong physical model. So there’s practically no one who has all good things.
And we all have our conditions. We all have our limitations. And these conditions which limit us, they check and choke us in our quest for happiness.
They check means they don’t allow us to move forward. They are going to choke us. So let’s see what this implies.
So this is a verse from the Bhagavad-Gita. I think you know this verse. And this verse is important to understand the thrust of the verse.
So in the 8th chapter, it’s the 8.15, Krishna said in that, this word is So there are many movies which say, etchingly, happily, ever after. So Krishna is directly doing the opposite. So happily, he’s saying, opposite of ever after is? So the entertainment industry, the novels, the movies, they all feed us the promise that we just, we find the right partner.
We just do this, we just get the right thing. This thing makes sense, right? And then we happily ever after. Now certainly all of us have a right to happiness.
If you all want to be happy, then it is right to have the desire for happiness. But you also need to find the right thing to happiness. And the material level happens to always be neutral.
So how does the body limit us? His first point is, as soon as we enter a particular body, we become conditioned by that body. Now, some of you may be aware that there was this flight of Malaysian Airlines, which has disappeared. Several hundred passengers, perhaps nobody knows.
It’s the lost contact and what happened, whether it exploded, whether it sank, no signal at all anywhere. So, on the level, it’s tragic. So many lives lost, so many families buried in the heartbroken.
So, we as a people go through so suffering. At the same time, we also have to see with the eyes of wisdom and look at what lessons nature is giving us. To, for us human beings, to fly in the air is an unnatural condition.
And in that unnatural condition, we are subject to nature. So, if the flight goes out of control, it will devastation in one moment. What is happening is, we human beings, because we have a body, unlike the birds, the birds can fly, we cannot.
So, when we try to fly, the result is, there is danger. So, birds do not face danger, but the very fact that we have a human body means, we are subject to danger. And like that, we do not think about this as a limitation, because we are thinking, oh, everybody is like that.
Nobody can fly in this sky. So, what is about that? No, it’s not like that. But the fact is, that just because, suppose, everybody in a prison is a prisoner, does that mean there is no life outside the prison? No, there is.
There is life outside the prison. And those who are in the prison, if they live properly, they can fly and they can go out of the prison. So, material existence limits all of us.
So, for example, that certain thing becomes, we can live in water, we can live in the sky. This is a very broad limitation. Beyond that, there is further limitation.
If we look at the next point, you will see that liberation means to be free from such limitations, from such limitations. How is that possible? At the spiritual level. So, Shri Aurobindo, for example, now, is a transcendental cosmonaut.
He can fly not just from one place to another, but from one planet to another, from one universe to another, from the material world to the spiritual world, such a God. So, why? Because he is devoted to the God, and by his devotion, he has become free from all the fatalities of man. Fatal is a very sharp word.
So, he is free now. And every one of those souls are meant to be similarly free. The soul is pure.
The soul is part of God. The soul is meant to be free, to actually live life in love and devotion to God. Now, to understand how the soul has become bound, we need to move forward and look at certain important factors.
First factor is, what is our energy? So, the Vishnu Purana describes that there are three kinds of energies. So, there are three energies. There is the internal, external, and marginal.
So, internal energy of the soul is internal energy and spiritual energy. Krishna is eternally pure in the spiritual world. At Krishna himself, it is all spiritual.
Then there is marginal, which is external energy, conscious. It is the unconscious. And then just like all of you have gone for a walk in the park, there is the ghost.
Now, when the water tide rises, then the ghost rises. When the water tide goes down, then the ghost becomes what? So, the ghost is the marginal, it is the Tata. And then the soul is the Tata-stha-shakti.
Stha means situated, Tata-stha, situated on the Tata, situated in the marginal. The soul is the marginal energy. And as the marginal energy, the soul can, the soul can be in the material consciousness or in spiritual consciousness.
When the soul comes in material consciousness, it subjects itself to all kinds of limitations. So, it’s a great mystery for even modern science. Modern science is today driven by evolutionary ideas.
And Arun had the idea of the survival of the fittest. So, now we will talk about evolution in various ways. One of the points he made is, we talk about survival of the fittest, but the fact of the nature is that even the fittest don’t survive.
No one survives. It isn’t true. No one survives.
Survival of the fittest is slightly more than one thing. So, now, there’s a question that comes up and which has no answer in materialistic paradigm, that when everything around us is destructible, where does our longing for lasting existence come from? None of us want to die. All of us want to live.
So, where does our longing for this come from? On this floor we found a gold particle. A gold nucleus or a gold particle. Actually, the question comes up, this is stone, where did gold come from? Because gold is dramatically different from stone.
So, whenever we see something which is dramatically different from its surroundings, the question comes up, where did this come from? So, like that, everything around us is destructible. And yet, all of us have a longing to be destructible, to live forever. So, where does this longing come from? Where does it come from? Matter is intrinsically destructible.
So, where does the longing to live forever come from? It comes from a part of our being that is indestructible, that is destructible. So, the soul is indestructible. It’s a journey of consciousness.
It’s an upward elevation of our level of thinking and living. By which we rise from material to spiritual. So, at the level of matter, the body is indestructible.
The destruction of the body can’t be avoided, no matter what one does. But the soul doesn’t have to die. The soul never dies.
To the extent the soul identifies with the body, to that extent the soul suffers. Suppose somebody is watching a movie, and then, in that movie, completely absorbed, as soon as the mind went into that, person gets caught up in the emotions which are depicted in the movie, or in the video game, or whatever form of virtual reality is once you’re caught in. And then that happens.
Suppose there’s a video, and the video are fighting, and suddenly, the video punches the person. What happens? The person who’s identifying, what happened? So, although nothing has happened to the person, because of misidentification, the person feels the impact. So, like that, the soul is different from the body.
In 30.32 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, the soul, prakriti, is how we become situated in the material nature. For the desire of enjoyment. Let’s say the person watches a movie, or because the person thinks, I’ll get some pleasure.
Similarly, the soul identifies with the body, and therefore, desiring to enjoy, what does the soul want, and various material things in this world. And, just as in the movie, the hero gets beaten, the spectator feels shocked. So, like that, the soul identifies with the body, and the body is damaged, the soul feels the shock.
And, suppose, the person is playing a video game, and in the video game, the person is riding a car, and the car is going across a bridge, and suddenly, the bridge breaks. The person’s car falls and explodes. And then, the car driver is going to die, in that explosion.
And the person watching the video game, that person also experiences a shock, experiences virtual death, and that death appears as real. So, like that, for the soul, death is an illusion. But, death is an illusion that we have imposed on ourselves, by our desire to enjoy the temporary matter.
So, to the extent we come to know the desire, to the extent, we will not die. That means, the body will be destroyed, but we will not undergo the trauma of death. How is that? Just like, the person is watching the TV, and there’s another thread, who is not watching the TV, or not watching the movie, he’s just watching this person.
Or, the hero may die in the movie, but this person is not watching the movie, what happens? There’s no effect. No effect. So, to the extent there’s no identification with the body, the extreme suffering becomes less and less.
And eventually, the soul is purified, it comes back to God for another life. So, our conditions are created by our misidentification with the body. And, these limit us in various ways.
This gave an example of how the soul is immortal, but the soul is subjected to the condition of mortality, or death. Why? Because of identification with the body, misidentification with the body. So, like that, we are subject to conditions.
And then, beyond conditions, there are conditionings. Conditions, in general, are physical things. So, we are also subjected to various conditions.
Sometimes we are too hot, too cold, sometimes we just can’t do anything. You know, sometimes we are in a room, and somebody just turns on the fan, too fast. Then, I’m like, hey, I’m still on the fan, it’s too cold here.
We can tell that, and we can try to continue. But, it’s like at a global level, when the seasons change in, if somebody is turning on the fan, so cold wind starts coming, and all the atmosphere goes cold, there’s no one to get their legs to explode on the fan. We are subjected to it.
We feel cold. So, actually, one of our neurological health is subject to the conditions, and something tells me about that. So, beyond the conditions are the conditionings.
The conditionings refer to the patterns of thinking, desiring, and willing that our mind has become habituated. So, what exactly is the mind? Is the mind a thing or a being? A thing means, is it a dead object? A being, is it a person? In the drama that we saw, the mind was a person. So, some other person.
So, is the mind actually a person? No. The mind is a subtle matter. So, there is, if you have a computer, in the computer, there is a user, the software, and there’s hardware.
So, like that, the hardware is the gross body. The software is the subtle body, which is primarily the mind. And then, there’s the source, the user.
So, now, if you see, many times, in a computer, certain programmes run by default. It’s turned on the computer, and those programmes start running in the background. Some of the programmes come there, foreground, asking for prompts.
And when your prompts are asked, so then, there are certain default settings. So, even if you don’t do certain things, even if you don’t, if you don’t consciously intervene, the default settings act upon it. So, those default settings of the software make the hardware function in particular ways.
So, similarly, our mind is like the software, and it has certain default settings and certain default programmes, which keep running. And of course, who has set these default settings? We have only set it by our past habits. By past habits, whatever choices we make, gradually, they become default settings.
And then, those default settings are prompting, prodding, pinching, punching, punching. So, the mind is actually not a person. But to better understand the working, the mind is often personified.
Personification is a literary device. In language, it is used. For example, the clouds roared as the storm raged.
The thunder sounded and the rain sprang. The cloud was not like animals in the world. But in the poetic description, clouds roared.
So, personification is used to drive home the point. So, the mind is such a matter, it is like a software. Ultimately, it is unconscious.
But it is a software with many default settings. And those default settings prompt us to behave in particular ways. And practically, everyone has that experience that often, I want to do something.
See, in the initial stages, it is easy to understand that I am not the body. A little philosophical analysis, understand conscious feelings, understand the experience, how the world experiences. You can understand I am not the body.
And then I can understand, if the body goes back, I am not going to go back. I shouldn’t go back. So, I will try for eternity.
But how do I understand that I am not the mind? Because we identify strongly with the mind. So, to understand that, we need to strive to do something which the mind doesn’t like to do. Now, for example, a person is riding a horse.
And the horse is so headstrong, the horse is so obstinate that the horse is going in one direction. And if the rider has no fixed goal to go anywhere, in whichever direction the horse goes, the rider goes in one direction. And the rider, as long as the rider does not have any goal, the rider says, can I go in this direction? I am trying to here, I am trying to there.
But when the horse rider decides, I am going to go here, or the horse rider is going there, then when there is a real dusser, I think, hey, this horse will go this way too. And this horse has its own way, I don’t want to go in that direction. So, like that, often we need some resolutions to do some things.
And then, it’s I want to do it. But still, there is something within which is not allowing me to do it. I want to regulate my eating.
I want to regulate my time spent in gossiping. I want to minimise. You don’t have to offer spiritualists also.
Even materialistic people. They may decide, I don’t want to spend so much time watching TV. You decide that.
I don’t want to decide that, but afterwards, there is something within which opposes me. So, when we make certain resolutions, and find opposition-based resolutions coming from within us, then we can understand this opposing force is the mind. And that is actually a different thing.
So, as long as we just go along with whatever the mind tells us, we misidentify the mind’s thoughts to be our thoughts. The mind’s desires to be our desires. And it has become a place in the hands of the mind.
But, when we make some plan, and then we face an opposition. Actually, it can be discouraging. I want to do it.
Why can’t I do it? But, in that discouragement also, there is the opportunity for wisdom. Recognise that, and refute from the mind. So, our conditionings are quite difficult to overcome.
Karthu, Vimsha, Surya, Moha, Karishma, Svayam, Vishwa, Amrita, in 18.59 and 16, Lord Vishnu ascribes, Svabhava, Jaina, Kunti, all of those above, Bhadda, Svayam, and Karna. And all Karnas, they are Bhadda. They are one.
So, we have certain conditionings. And, these conditionings, when they become excessively strong, they can become bad habits. They can become addictions.
So, now, conditionings are not necessarily always bad. Just like, towards the end of the drama, we saw that the mind became good. And the mind started changing things.
Now, when some temptation was offered, the mind said, no, I can’t, I don’t see that as an addiction. The mind itself can become so. We may also have certain conditionings which are positive.
For example, my parents may have given me a certain Kalshikala Pranayama. Okay, you go to temple, you bow down to God. So, this is a habit.
Many times, some people accidentally touch their feet to somebody else, immediately they have to bow down to them. Or shake hands with them. This is a habit.
This is positive. So, some conditionings may be positive. Generally, we use the word conditionings in a negative sense.
But, conditionings can be both positive as well as negative. So, the conditionings that mind does, how do we break free from them? The mind is basically a habit forming entity. So, it forms habits based on our choices.
And to the extent we change, we may change our choices to the extent we will be able to overcome. So, we will discuss about this inner curve of law with respect to overcoming conditionings more in tomorrow’s class. But here, I would just like to talk about a couple of points here.
So, here we are looking at our conditionings over here. So, what happens? We should weaken our weaknesses. We shouldn’t let our weaknesses weaken us.
What does that mean? You know, when two enemies are fighting. Say, there is a war. So, there is a Second World War.
So, the Allies are there and the Axis forms there. Germany and, say, England are fighting. Now, there is a face-to-face war that happens.
Both of them fighting each other. And then, whoever is stronger, whoever is skilled, who has better weapons, they will succeed. But just the head-on conflict doesn’t determine the result of the war.
That is not the only deciding factor. Along with that, there are background logistics and all sorts of other issues. Both the party soldiers are there.
They have to get food. They have to get their necessities supplied. Suppose, say, England and Germany are fighting.
And, say, at that time, Germany is in such a way that it cuts off the food supply of the English soldiers. And what will happen? No matter how determined they are, if they don’t have energy, how can they win? Isn’t it? I say, now, suppose, we are fighting against our mind. Similar situation.
Now, whatever activities we do, the activities we do can either nourish us, by us I refer to our higher self, the nobler self, the side that wants to be good, or it can nourish the mind. So, what we should do? We should weaken our weaknesses. Not let our weaknesses weaken us.
That means, if we keep exposing ourselves to things that strengthen the mind, that means, whatever the mind has craving, hey, come on, eat this, enjoy this, watch this, do that, we keep doing that. Then the mind will become stronger, stronger, and stronger. And then, fighting will become even more difficult.
But on the other hand, we strengthen it. No, I’m not doing this. On the other hand, we strengthen ourselves.
How do we strengthen ourselves? By connecting with Krishna. By connecting with Krishna’s sound of the holy name. By connecting with Krishna’s words of wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita.
By connecting with Krishna’s devotees. What happens? We become stronger. So then, if there’s a conflict, both of them are fighting, we are fighting against our mind.
If the mind is stronger, then the mind will overcome us. And if we keep feeding the mind, then the mind will always remain stronger than us. And then, it will be very difficult for us to overcome the mind.
But if we weaken the mind, we starve the mind, and we strengthen ourselves, then it’s definitely possible for us to gradually gain the upper hand. And to conquer through ourselves. Conquer the mind.
So, what does this mean in practical terms? In practical terms, all of us, we chant, we study the scriptures, we associate with devotees. Every single activity that we do is nourishing us. Sometimes, we want quick results.
The process of bhakti is evolutionary. But the product of bhakti is evolutionary. The process of bhakti is evolutionary.
Evolutionary means step by step by step. You know, it’s not that one day I chant Hare Krishna, and suddenly, you know, I get an aura on my head. It doesn’t happen like that.
It’s evolution. But every day we are chanting, we change our life. Every day I take food, it’s not that the child takes food.
And suddenly, the child is not able to take food. The mother doesn’t stand up. You know, you see that big body builder in the movie.
You want to become like him? He says, yes. Then you say, eat your food. Oh, I eat food.
He eats food, and then he says, my heart is not in this. Mother says, don’t be like that. It’s there.
So, the process is evolutionary. Every day we chant, what is happening? Our inner self is getting stronger. Every day we associate with devotees, getting stronger.
And the end result will be, not the end result, I think we didn’t go back at all. But even in this world, over a period of time, you will find that, say, the habits which you want to give up. And if you struggle to give up, you will be able to give up effortlessly.
Without much struggle. And over a period of time, you will find our life getting dramatically positively transformed. So, we need to strengthen our mind and strengthen ourselves.
And this way, we can break free from the conditionings. Now, you may say, actually, it’s the conditionings which don’t allow me to do this. Where, say, we should chant.
But because of the conditionings, I can’t concentrate only when I chant. Mind goes here, mind goes there, mind goes there. How do I do it? So, I’m not able to stop.
I’m not able to suspension, etc. So, then, we begin where we can. Generally speaking, our conditionings may be unhappy at this level.
And sometimes, they have swaths. Sometimes, we feel uncontrollably lusty. Sometimes, we feel uncontrollably, unmanageably greedy.
So, when they come, when this sort of lust, anger, or greed come, we say, what is this? Some of these terrible desires, terrible thoughts are coming in my mind. Can I really do them? But of course, if these sort of thoughts come in my mind. You know, these are spikes.
You know, spikes, when they come, say, in a short moment, they go away. So, when the spikes come, we may not be able to overcome them at that time. Sometimes, suddenly, the spikes come, and we may suffer to the fullest.
So, what is important is, not just let me go. Why the spikes came? Why did I fall? What happens after the spikes come? Now, we may fall down, but we don’t have to fall again. Our conditionings can cause us to fall down.
But only we can cause us to fall again. What is the difference between falling down and falling again? Falling down means, we try to live a particular kind of life. But lives are the principles.
And suddenly, because of some temptations, some forces, we are dragged down. We fall on it. We fall down.
We fall down from it. But fall again means, we become so discouraged. We are not in the practise of no use.
Let me give it up. So, imagine there is a boxing match going on. And two boxers are fighting.
And one boxer, pow, gives a terrible punch. And some other fellow is stomping on the ground. Now, when he is knocked down, when he is discouraged, what should this fallen boxer do? He wants encouragement.
He should look at his coach. He goes, come on, you can do it. Come on, let’s try.
The coach will encourage. Hey, if this fallen boxer asks the other boxer, do you think I am going to defeat you? Never! So, like that, what happens? The mind goes and knocks you down. And after a while, when you are knocked down, you ask the mind, is it possible for me to control myself? Never! So, what we need to do is, we need to have the right understanding.
Yes, we are fighting. One boxer is knocked down by the other boxer. We may fall down.
But fall away means we become discouraged. And we give up that discipline. In the path of bhakti, we never lose.
Till we lose hope. If we lose hope, we think that nothing is possible. Then we lose it.
So, no matter what is our condition, no matter how fallen we are, we can all become elevated by the power of Krishna. In fact, there is no power greater than the power of Krishna. And there is no love greater than the love of Krishna.
Actually, sometimes we may, because of our conditioning, do some very bad things also. But still, there is one thing that anyone can do that can stop Krishna from loving that person. No matter how terrible somebody is in front of you, still, Krishna is in the heart of that person.
Still, Krishna loves that person. So, you understand, Krishna is there with us always. And Krishna’s power is always with us.
Then, even the spikes can maybe fall away. So, we fall down. What do we do? After the spikes go, what do we do? Again, we chant on Krishna.
Again, we become enthusiastic in the practise of bhakti. And by this, we will punish ourselves. And over a period of time, the spikes will become less and less frequent.
The spikes will eventually die out. And then, we will become su-sukham kartam abhayam Our practise of bhakti will also become joyful. So, these conditionings, we can find, we can find.
Sometimes, I want to study. And I might be thinking of this cricket match, this video game, this movie, this, that, that. pahushaakhaay nantasya buddhayo evasayinam Krishna describes in 2.41, in the Gita, pahushaakha, this, that, this, that.
It’s only that. Amarindas, they are unlimited. But, at such time, when the mind is just wandering here and there, it’s all our conditioning.
But, we have some capacity. We can’t override the control. But whatever capacity we have, we do what we can.
Surrender, what does it mean? Surrender means, to do what we can, with what we have, now. Surrender means, what? To do what we can. There’s no chance it will improve.
It’ll change what? It’ll change it’s norms. What we can, with what we have. If I have a very good memory, I could study, do all my studies, I could memorise so many verses, I could answer all my things, it doesn’t matter.
Surrender means, what I have. We do what we can, with what we have. And when? Now.
Now is the time for us to do it. So, we surrender, Krishna calls us. Grow.
That’s how we’ll grow beyond the limitations. And then, there’s another thing that limits us. Third is the competition.
What does the competition refer to? So, we see that there is, at the inner level, at the level of the mind, there are conditions. At the level of the body, there are conditions. And outside in the world, there is competition.
Now, once there is a court case, the husband and the wife were having a severe argument, and the argument was so fierce that it went to the court. What was the argument? The husband was saying, I want to make my son an engineer. And the mother said, I want to make my son a doctor.
And then, he came to Jai and said, it’s a simple case. Why do you want an engineer? He’s our son. What does he want to do? He says, we can’t ask him.
Why? He’s not yet born. So, unfortunately, what happened in today’s world, that it’s such a hyper-competitive society, that expectations are set upon us even before we take birth. And because of this, now, there are always some target.
Okay, jump on this. Meet this target. Now, of course, we all know whatever talents we have, it is our duty to use those talents.
And if we can accept what we are doing, that’s fine. Why? See, there’s competition for the sake of excellence. We want to have talents, we have to use those talents.
That is constructive competition. But today’s competition, most of it is very destructive. The car advertisement.
Now, I saw it on the way. He was saying, purchase this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes. Enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes.
What a sick standard of pleasure, isn’t it? How sick? You can’t get any pleasure in owning the car. Pleasure is drive with the car and say, see the other end. It will burn.
And get pleasure in that. This is a sick standard of pleasure. So what happens is, today’s competitive society creates artificial rules for us and then it makes us chase after those rules.
So, you know, one of the best ways to make ourselves visible is to compare ourselves with others. And especially, even if we don’t consciously compare ourselves with others, the advertisements offer us standards for comparing ourselves. So what happens in these advertisements? The whole advertising industry is one.
It’s a It’s a want-creating industry. It’s a want-creating industry. Want this, take this, want this, want this.
So George H.H. Schuman said that you know, you can fool some people all the time or you can fool all the people some other time. But you can’t fool all the people all the time. But there’s a famous advertiser, he said, I can fool all the people all the time if you give me an advertising project.
I can fool all the people all the time. Some of the advertisements, they are so egregious So what happens? Why am I talking about advertisements? See, most of the competition that is there, it’s largely fuelled by forces outside of us. Forces outside of us means we have our talents and to achieve success with those talents is good.
But I don’t know, I have to get this cell phone, I have to get this car, I have to get that, I have to get that. Most of these are designed or fuelled by things outside of us. In the 1920s, I think, maybe 29 or something like that, in that period, there was this tobacco smoking industry, tobacco manufacturing industry.
They found what we have now come to a peak of our sales. All the young people, young men who are ready to smoke, they have become smokers. And now they found that how we increase, where do we get more sales from? So then they came with the idea.
So at this time, actually, the adverse effects of smoking had hardly been discovered. Or whatever had been discovered had been suppressed by the big budgets of the advertising companies, of the cigarette manufacturing companies. They thought, how do we increase our market? They said, 50% of humanity don’t have.
Women don’t smoke. So then, in an independence day parade in America, they got some of the, female icons, like some boys, some Hollywood stars, some other prominent women in the American culture. And they are all walking on their independence day parade through the main street in Broadway, New York.
And then, at a particular time, the most camera-friendly locations, they all were paid 3,000 cigarettes. They had been custom-made thin cigars. And they called them triple cigars, and smoked them.
And the cameras, hundreds of cameras clicked them. And they called these, cigarettes as, the torches of freedom. And, within 10 years, millions of American women and men started smoking.
And the frenzy that was created at that time, nobody asked the question, how is a cigarette smoking individual? The idea of freedom is so captivating, and it just attracts people at an emotional level, that people just don’t think. Just get it gone, get it gone. So, this, this 16.16 Bhagavad Gita says, Krishna says, Aneek chitta vipinata, Aneek chitta, Consciousness is just dragged, dragged, pulled here and there.
Mohanjal samavrita, Mohanjal, there’s a whole trap of illusion, in which the person gets caught. Now, there is some advertisement, I was just coming to, last I was in the Mayapur, so on the television, I saw that, in the airport, there’s a television. So, there was an advertisement of, there’s a young man walking along, and there’s some beautiful girls going along, and none of them were noticing him.
And suddenly, some Bollywood star came there. And they all screamed, that Bollywood star’s name, and ran towards him, and started hugging him, and kissing him. And this poor fellow was, burning with envy, watching.
And then after, damn, it is over, that Bollywood star comes along, and says, do you want to know the secret of my attractiveness? And then, he says, they say, what’s in the airport? Some fair and lovely, isn’t it? What is that? Fair and handsome. Okay. So, fair and lovely is feminine.
So, fair and handsome is masculine. Fair. Fair and handsome.
And then, what happens? This person who supplies it, and next time, goes along, and the women scream, and come towards him, and hug him. And now, when I watch this advertisement, actually, such an advertisement, is an insult, to both male, and female, intercourse. You see, when the idea, that, a woman will fall for a man, just because of some personal care product, that a person is using, somehow, he is not free, that’s an insult to human intelligence.
And, the idea that a man would be used as a fairy tale, that is an insult to male intelligence. So, actually, what happens, with the advertisements, are produced in such a way, that they just, catch us, catch our emotions. By catching our emotions, they drag us down.
Actually, all this started from the time of Sigmund Freud. Before the 1920s, all promotional advertisements that were done, they were done, of 1900 and 1990. The advertisements were based on the utility of the product.
Utility means, how useful is this? When a car is being advertised, you all can say, this much space it has, and this much, petrol capacity, this, this, the good, the quality, the actual qualities of the car, we are talking about. All the advertisements are about, an advertisement is done. But then, they found that, this does not, the facts don’t persuade people, as much as the feelings.
So, now, advertisements are about, you know, feelings. Make people feel good. Whatever is the truth, doesn’t matter.
What shows the great, is cool. Then, you are a fool. If you think that, fire is cool, that’s not a fool, but unfortunately, that’s not.
People are driven by feelings, and all competition, is management of the feelings. So, unfortunately, this is the society, state of society. Now, most people, when they live their lives, what do they do? Work, work, work, work.
Now, we should never talk about laziness. We have to work to do our duties. But most of the time people work because they are driven, not just for success or to bring justice to their talents, they are driven, goaded by the competition around us, around them.
Work, work, work. And then when they get exhausted, they come back home. And then turn on the television.
Watch, watch, watch. And then they come and watch TV. Now what happens in TV, there will be some programmes where the most highly paid things on the programme, on the television are the advertisements.
Even one minute, or one thirty second advertisement, I mean lakhs of lakhs, crores of rupees are spent on it. And you know the whole, one of my friends is a psychologist. So he told me that in various branches of psychology, the maximum returns come in advertising psychology.
You know, I analyse the minds of people by how you can incite them to purchase products. So what happens when people watch advertisements? What are the advertisements basically? Your watch is wrong. Your cell phone is wrong.
Your laptop is wrong. Your shoes are wrong. So how are they wrong? It’s old fashion.
It’s a new model. It’s a new thing. New thing.
And then what happens? People go and shop. So, if you see, what is people’s life? You go and shop, shop, shop. In fact, there is a form of addiction called a shopaholism.
Because alcoholism is a shopaholism. People just can’t stop shopping. Shop, shop, shop.
Shop till you drop. That’s their idea. So now in credit cards, even if you don’t have money, still you can shop.
Of course, after a while, you have to work like a slave for many years to clear the debt. That’s it. So what? Shop, shop, shop.
And after that, you have got a mountain of debts, so much bills to pay. Then again, work. Work, work, work.
And after you work more and more, you get more exhausted. Then come back and watch more TV. And watch TV, see more advertisements, get more desire.
Again, you go and shop, shop, shop. So, this would be an unfortunate cycle. Now work, watch, shop.
W, W, S. Worldwide stupidity. So as devotees, we don’t have to enter into this kind of competition. Certainly we have talents, we should use our talents.
Do justice to those talents. And live respectable lives. But there is no need to keep chasing goals.
Which are basically endlessly over here. Like mirages. Now all I get, ok.
I get this particular thing, then? Now I get a particular product, immediately some higher product is advertised. Immediately some higher product is advertised. And there is no end to this.
So, when we don’t want to live our spiritual life, we want to stay focused on our spiritual life. And, actually this competition, this is competition which is very destructive. Why is it destructive? It is destructive to one’s peace of mind.
It is destructive, of course, to one’s pocket, because it is earning so much. But it is also destructive to society at large. Why destructive to society? Because everybody stays perpetually dissatisfied.
And, when there is competition, it creates greed in us. See, the whole idea is, how can we become happy? Happiness is not just an emotion. It is also a decision.
Happiness is not just an emotion. It is also a decision. That means, sometimes we feel happy.
But it is also a decision. A decision means, if I look at all the things that I don’t have, then what will happen? I will not be happy. If I have a nice food in front of me, but instead of looking at the food in front of me, if I go to a hotel, and I have got nice food, but I look at somebody else’s plate, that person has ordered more expensive food, more of that, and instead of looking and noticing the food that I have, he is looking at that food.
What is going to happen? I will be dissatisfied. So, happiness is not just an emotion. It is also a decision.
Decision means, when we choose, these are the things I have, I am satisfied with them. I am not going to keep craving for more and more, nor become a gullible guinea pig who just receives submissively all the signals coming from the advertising industry and just chases after them. Purchase this, buy this, get that.
So, we have to make this decision. Krishna calls it Santushthi. He says, in the 17th chapter, he talks about the austerity of the body, Mahatma Gandhi’s speech, and Mahatma Gandhi’s 17th verse, which is 1718.
In 1718, he says, that Santushthi is actually a choice for us. We can choose. And we choose to be satisfied.
And we have so much mental energy around us for doing so many other things in life. One of the big challenges we face is that we feel we don’t have time. And at one level, it is true.
All of us have only 24 hours. Now, suppose somebody wants to travel. He says, now somebody is going from, say, now all of you came from Rao Kedarnath, you know, here, Rao Kedarnath, which is a place, you came to Rao Kedarnath.
You have a room in your hostel. You have cupboards in your hostel. And then you decide that you want to get all your cupboards contents in your suitcase when you come here.
Now, trying to fit in all the cupboards contents in the suitcase looks impossible. Because it is impossible. So, it just has become carrying a whole room or a whole cupboard in the cupboard in a person’s case.
Similarly, when the mind spits so many desires, nobody can fulfil those desires. Nobody can. No matter what a person has, nobody can fulfil those desires.
No matter. Every person becomes the wealthiest person in the world. So, even for that wealthiest person, the mind will come up with some desire which he cannot fulfil.
And the mind will make that person miserable. Bhagavatam describes that Hiranyakashipu had such power such absolute control that even the Devatas were obeying him. No, he just, if he felt that it’s too hot, he doesn’t have to turn on the fan.
Just look at the Sun God. Sun God will tremble. He will decrease the energy.
Such was the power he had. Everybody was bowing down to him, honouring him. And still he was dissatisfied.
Why was he dissatisfied? Because the mind was in such a bad condition. All he could see is why is this Prahlad not respecting me? And he could not see the respect that everybody else was giving him. He saw why is this person not respecting me? And he had no peace of mind.
So the idea that by gaining more and more external control or external power external authority I will become happy. The American president who wrote and the American president is considered to be one of the most the most popular person on the planet. So here that on most of the world after the presidency in New York he said throughout my tenure I basically felt like I was screaming on the phone with nobody else.
Screaming on the phone. Why that happens? Because the more popular a person becomes the bigger the distance one has to make the bigger the ambition that one has. The mind always comes up with this cannot go like this this has to be done.
And that may possibly say perpetually dissatisfied. There is one thing which is an intelligent realistic ambition. We are not talking about becoming completely unambitious and apathetic in our lives.
No, we have our intelligent ambition. As I said we have talents which are duty and responsibility which assist to our talents. As students try to excel in our studies.
Whatever job we take up we are doing a very good job. But beyond that the society engenders so many artificial and unnecessary desires. That we don’t normally try.
So when I was concluding with this one about the time that we are happy when we don’t have time. The reason we feel like that is often our schedule gets filled with so many unnecessary things. Now we often think of we often think of our time being engaged by activities.
Ok, I have to do this then I have to do this then I have to do this then I have to do this. What we often don’t realise is that it’s not only activities that take time. Even thoughts and desires take time.
Even thoughts and desires they may not take time on a physical level. But every time some unnecessary thought comes some distracting desire comes. It takes some attention.
Say if a student is studying and say but after one hour some distracting desire is coming and he has to surf on the internet and see websites. That desire is eating up the mind from behind. So how does that happen? So what is happening? Our thoughts and desires also take a lot of time.
You have to recognise this. And in practise bhakti these unwarranted unwanted desires unwanted thoughts we are able to clean them out. And that’s how we find that we have more time.
Although we have 24 hours our 24 hours will get optimally utilised. Optimally utilised because bhakti will free us will free our time away from the waste time. So much which we know is not important but some other thought comes anxiety comes suddenly.
So all that waste time that goes away it will be saved. And that’s how you become more productive at the same time you will also become more effective in your spiritual life. So conclude we discussed about becoming liberated from conditions from the three C’s.
What are the first C? Conditions. So body limits us. We can’t fly we can’t live in water and ultimately we are subjected to death.
But that is because the soul dis-identifies in the body. By the power of bhakti the power of the soul becomes purified and attached to the body and death may happen destruction may happen to the body but the soul will be transferred to eternal life. Then what are the second C? Conditionings.
Conditionings are of the mind. The mind has certain deferred settings by which it keeps thinking and desiring and acting in certain ways. So what do we do with that? We discuss two things.
We starve the mind. Starve the mind means that we are fighting. So don’t indulge in what the mind is doing and nourish ourselves.
And even if we feel that we can’t do much do what we can. Surrender means what? Do what we can with what we have. Just do what we can.
And then perhaps we will become stronger and stronger. We never notice when we lose hope. You know I don’t have this curriculum.
Whatever little you can do. And lastly we discussed about competition. So artificial goals and are the most important goals of our life.
And we have so much of our mental energy available. It’s not that we all have a lot of time but thoughts and desire take away our time. If you have a goal and you have a goal and you have achieve it.