Managing the mind 2 – Catch the ventriloquist with intellectual and emotional energy

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Before I start, one quick question.
How many of you were there yesterday? Because today what I am…continuation. I just want to see. Okay, thank you.
Can I put it another way? How many of you were not there yesterday? Okay. As almost 30-40% of you were not there. I won’t do a full summary of yesterday’s class.
But yesterday, and today, the second part of managing the mind. Yesterday, we took various metaphors to understand how the mind acts. And the essential point was that the mind is the doorway to perception.
It’s like through a window we can see, or a door we can see. The mind is the doorway for perception. And as we pursue through the mind, so, the mind is not only the doorway to perception, but the mind is also the shaper of our perception.
So, I will just take one metaphor, which I will repeat here. Like an example of, say, somebody is watching the TV, and gets so caught in watching the TV, that if a thief comes to steal the TV, rather than stopping the thief, the person continues watching the TV and goes away with the thief. So, the mind is like the TV, which shows us a particular picture, which is so engrossing, that we get caught in it.
But along with that, the mind is also like the thief, which takes our perception away, and not only just takes our perception away, because when we are watching TV, it’s just passive, it’s watching. But when we start moving, where the thief is taking the TV, then we are actually acting also. The mind doesn’t only make us feel or think in a particular way, it also impels us to act in particular ways.
And the mind is essentially like a programme. The way we act, that’s the programme that becomes a default programme. And then, repeatedly, it becomes chosen, even with our conscious intention.
Just like in a computer, a default programme may be chosen by itself. So, like that. So, controlling the mind requires two things.
When the default programme is chosen, we correct the choice. Like, you know, the example of Satchitananda. Satchitananda, when I write, my text-to-speech converts it into Saturday Chitananda.
So, Sat is mistakenly converted as Saturday. That’s a mistake. So, when something wrong is happening by default, we correct it.
But then the deeper thing is, we change the default settings. And so, correcting the wrong choice is more physical act of control. Whereas, changing the default settings itself is like purification.
So, today, I will talk about three main concepts. First is, I’ll talk about treating the mind. First, I’ll talk about how the mind deludes us with one example of a ventriloquist.
Then I’ll talk of an analytical method for controlling the mind. And thirdly, I’ll talk about the devotional method for controlling the mind. Wherein, I’ll just introduce the concept of Rasa.
Rasa itself is an elaborate subject and especially, in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, it is very important. So, that itself deserves a not just a class, it can have a whole series of seminars on it. But I’ll focus on especially how the concept of Rasa relates with mind control.
So, now if you look at the song, Bhajahuraymana, Shri Nanda Nandana. This song we often sing, but one thing which you’ll observe is that the poet Krishna is here referring to the mind as a person distinct from oneself. And he is saying to the mind, O mind, worship, just think of Krishna, stay fixed on Krishna.
That will make you fearless. So, one of the easiest ways or not necessarily the easiest, one of the most effective ways of dealing with the mind is to treat it as a person different from ourselves. The mind is unconscious.
It does not itself have personality or consciousness, but its seeming personality, its seeming likes and dislikes, its seeming emotions are essentially the programmed choices which we ourselves have made in the past. So, to separate ourselves from our programming, it is good to treat this programming itself as a separate person. And our Acharyas repeatedly do this.
Bhakta Shastra would say that we all have to be careful about non-devotee association. But the greatest non-devotee actually is our own mind. So, and we are constantly associating with the mind.
We can’t avoid because we have to live with the mind. So, then if you have to live with somebody who is a non-devotee, then we have to take care that we don’t get ourselves influenced by their non-devotional side. We live with them, just like we work with colleagues in office.
We may even have relatives, acquaintances, family members who are non-devotees. So, we live with them and we deal with their non-devotional tendencies in an appropriate way without being influenced. So, the mind, as of now at least, is a non-devotee.
And that’s why he says that he gives examples of beating the mind with a stick or beating the mind with a shoe morning, evening. So, these are basically all these examples. The common denominator is treat the mind as a person separate from oneself and as an entity distant from oneself and then we observe it.
And by observing, we can recognise what is happening. So, to deconstruct the way the mind acts, I’ll use the metaphor of a ventriloquist. Have any of you seen a ventriloquist in action? Ventriloquist? Okay, some of you have.
So, ventriloquism is basically the art of voice projection. So, for example, voice projection. Voice projection means sometimes there is a dummy or some doll on the stage and there is a performer.
That performer speaks and appears as if the dummy is speaking. So, although the dummy is insentient, there are certain ways in which we can modulate our voice in such a way that rather than my voice seeming to come from here, it can seem to come from there. And rather than I speaking, it appears as if that dummy is speaking.
So, now, in the ventriloquism, for the ventriloquism to work, for people to think that it is this dummy speaking. Now, they should not be able to see the ventriloquist. Otherwise, if they see the ventriloquist, if we want to catch, intellectually we know this dummy can’t speak, but then how is the dummy speaking? Then as soon as we start seeing the dummy speaking, we look around.
And then we see the ventriloquist moving his lips. Ah, that’s you speaking. That’s not the dummy speaking.
So, it’s you speaking. So, like that, the mind is a ventriloquist. And the mind projects its voice onto us.
So, the difference between an ordinary ventriloquist and the mind as a ventriloquist is that for an ordinary ventriloquist, we are the spectators. We watch the show. But for the mind, we become the actor.
We become the show. That means, the mind projects its voice on us. I’ll explain this in the progression.
We have the famous verse 2.62 and 62 in the Bhagavad Gita. dhyāyato viśayān puṁsah saṅgas teṣhu pajāyate saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho vijāyate krodhād bhavati sammoha sammohāt smṛti vibhrama smṛti bhramaśā buddhi nāśā buddhi nāśā praśyati So, this verse these two verses they describe a series of steps by which we become deluded. So, for the sake of ease of understanding and repetition, I have just named all of these words, all of these stages, as a rhyme ending with shan.
So, dhyāyato, that is, contemplation. So, say, I’ll start with a simple example. Suppose there is an alcoholic, and that alcoholic sees a bottle of alcohol.
dhyāyato, that is, first step is, Krishna is not saying here dhrishyato. He is saying dhyāyato. Dhrishyato would be perception.
Perception we can’t assume. But, we can’t avoid. We can’t go around in the world with closed eyes.
But, it’s not that everything that we perceive, we contemplate. Sometimes we just see, and then we just move on. We don’t think about it.
Krishna is saying, contemplation. So, all this is, imagine, this is the mind, and this is me. So, now, the mind is saying, see that.
Contemplation. So, at this stage, the mind is separate, we are separate. But, the mind is saying, see that.
Contemplation. And then, dhyāyato vishayan puṁsā, saṅgas teṣu pajāyate. Second stage is saṅga.
Saṅga is attraction. Attraction. That’s nice, isn’t it? So, we see it, that’s nice, isn’t it? So, first was just observation, and there is observation, but there is some, the observation rests on that.
That means contemplation. But, remember yesterday I talked about thinking, feeling, and willing? So, now, it’s moving from thinking to feeling. That’s nice, isn’t it? So, what is the mind? It’s not only drawing our attention, but it’s inducing some emotions within us.
Then, after that, saṅgāt saṅjāyate kāmaḥ. At this stage, when kāma, kāma generally is translated as lust, kāma generically means desire, strong desire. So, at this stage, that attraction becomes a infatuation.
Infatuation, I want it. That’s nice. From that’s nice to I want it.
You see some difference here? The difference is it is no longer the mind suggesting the idea, it is we have accepted the idea. It’s not that somebody says, that’s nice, go and get it. I want it.
So, at this stage, at the stage of kāma, the ventriloquism starts working. It means the mind is speaking, but the voice gets projected on us. And when the voice gets projected on us, we start thinking of the mind’s idea as our idea.
And quite often, only after the whole thing happens, we indulge in something and waste a lot of time, we don’t get the satisfaction, we feel frustrated. We think, why did I do that? Why did I do that? I never intended to do such a thing. In fact, I had intended not to do such a thing.
So, how did I end up doing it? But actually, because the mind projected its voice and we accepted it. So, at this stage, kāma means infatuation. I want it.
It’s not just, look at that, that’s nice. At this stage, the mind is speaking to us. So, the mind is different, I am different.
But at this stage, at the stage of kāma, I accept the mind’s voice as my voice. And, so, then when I accept the mind’s voice as my voice, then my identification with the mind becomes much greater. And then after that, Krishna says, kāma krodho bhi jāyate.
This krodha is anger, essentially. Now, this anger refers to when we are attracted to something. I want it.
And then, this kāma is actually irritation. That irritation is because we want something and there is some obstacle to it. It may be our own principles.
Our own ethical, spiritual principles because of which we should not be interested in it. We start feeling irritated. We start feeling resentful.
So, this irritation, this krodha, it means, who says I can’t get it? Who will stop me from getting it? So, kāma krodho bhi jāyate. So, at this stage, at this stage of krodha, there is a further subtle shift has happened. The first subtle shift was that the mind speaking the second person, that means, I speak to you, but the mind starts speaking the first person.
That means, I want that thing. Now, at this stage when krodha comes, the rules that we have, the principles that we try to follow, they are actually our protectors. They are meant for protecting us from doing things which will be harmful for us.
But, the mind changes our perception of those rules from protectors to deprivers. Just like if a child is running towards the fire, child sees the fire, looks shining, runs towards the fire, and a mother comes and puts her embrace around the child. Now, the embrace, her arms are around the child, that embrace is meant to protect the child.
But, if the child is infatuated by the fire, child thinks, Oh, my mother is depriving me from the fire. So, when there is irritation, by this stage, the rules which are meant to protect us, we start thinking of them as deprivations. So, we become irritated.
Who is stopping me? Why should I not get my enjoyment? And then from this, Krishna says, From irritation comes delusion. Delusion, there are two words in English, there is illusion and there is delusion. Although the two are used interchangeably, delusion refers to a much deeper and comprehensive illusion.
That means, it’s a perversion of one’s worldview. So, when delusion happens, then, Krishna later on in the 18th chapter, when he talks about intelligence and knowledge in the mode of ignorance, he said, he says that actually at the stage of delusion, अधर्मं धर्ममितिया मन्यते तमसावृतः सर्वार्थान्मिपरितामिष्यम् बुद्धिसापार्थतामसि अधर्मं धर्ममितिया That which is wrong, we think as right. That which is right, we think as wrong.
So, delusion means it’s a deep-rooted illusion. It’s not just something simple. I mistake a mirage to be water.
But, our whole worldview gets distorted. And that which is actually troublesome, we start thinking as enjoyable. That which is actually protection, we start thinking as deprivation.
And our whole worldview gets distorted. Now, when this happens, there is still a chance for our protection. If we remember scripture.
If we remember the words of Guru Sadhu Shastra. But then, सम्मोहात् स्मृति विब्रहमा So, स्मृति विब्रहमा That is oblivion. We forget.
We forget what we have heard from devotees in classes. We forget what we have read in scripture. We forget our own past experiences.
Yesterday, I mentioned how the mind causes selective amnesia. In the past, whenever we have indulged unrestrictedly, there might be some pleasure. But along with that, there are consequences.
But the mind, when the next temptation comes, we don’t remember the consequences. We remember only the pleasure. This oblivion refers to forgetfulness.
Forgetfulness of our own past learning experiences and the lessons that we have learned from scripture. So, at this stage, we actually, on the spiritual path, our memory is our primary weaponry. For every war, weapons are required.
Prabhupada would often say that spiritual life is like fighting a war. Now, what is the weapon for fighting this war? It’s our memory. We are ultimately going to remember Krishna.
But there are so many things related to Krishna. There are philosophical points, there are verses, there are prayers, there are Krishna’s holy names. So, all these are possible.
But at this stage, it’s like, if you go back to the metaphor of the war, the soldier has a weapon with which to fight. Soldier can lift up the weapon and attack the enemy. But sometimes, say, the enemy may use devious means, use tear gas, or may use some means by which the soldier may just get bewildered.
Just forget that I have a weapon and I am supposed to use the weapon for fighting. Just place the weapon, stay by the side. So, like that, what happens is, Smriti, Smriti Brahma, oblivion.
And, then after that, Smriti, Brahmashat, Buddhinasho. Buddhinasho is stupefaction. We become like stupid.
So, we have intelligence, but at our stage, our intelligence is largely based on our memory. So, when our memory is lost, then our intelligence is also lost. And that same person, going back to the example of the alcoholic, that same person might just, 20 hours ago or 24 hours ago, said, I am not going to touch alcohol.
I can’t live without alcohol. I must get it, and I must get it right now. And then, that same, Buddhinasho, Pranashyati.
So, this is class A, self-destruction. So, I’ll go back over this once again. There’s contemplation, then there is attraction, then there’s infatuation.
So, what is happening? Going back to the ventral locus metaphor. First, the mind starts saying, oh, look at that. That’s nice, isn’t it? And then it becomes, I want it.
So, from the point of Kamaha, the mind has projected its voice on us. And we start accepting the mind’s emotions as our emotions. And, now, it is said that, there’s a difference between a mediocre salesman and a good salesman.
So, a mediocre salesman, if the person is selling a car, so, we tell about the car, and we say, sir, would you like to have the car? Now, an expert salesman will say, this car is so good, so, which car would you like to have? Red one or blue one? So, what is happening? There is, actually, a pseudo-choice given. Actually, there is no choice, he is basically saying, I want to take the car, but a pseudo-choice is given. So, like that, the mind is an expert salesman, which makes us do what it wants us to do, but makes us think, we are actually being free.
Just like the pseudo-salesman makes us think, oh, I am freely choosing which car I am going to take. But actually, that person is practically pushing us to take the car. So, like that, the mind makes us think we are acting freely, but the mind makes us act according to its own ideas.
So, now, when the mind starts projecting its voice onto us, that means, the mind’s desire, the mind’s infatuations, they start coming onto us, and we start accepting them, we start feeling those emotions, and we start desiring those things. At that stage, if you can check it, as I said, if we start seeing a dummy watching, we start seeing a dummy speaking, then look around, where is the ventriloquist? Hey, that’s you speaking. So, like that, as soon as the mind starts proposing something, why don’t we do that? Why don’t we enjoy that? Why don’t we go there? Hey, that’s the mind speaking.
That’s the mind speaking. Now, just by saying this, the mind is not going to stop speaking. But, at the very least, we understand that this is not me.
The effort for self-control becomes much easier if we understand that we are not resisting ourselves. We are resisting something bad in ourselves. The effort to control ourselves, if I feel that I want to enjoy and someone is not letting me enjoy, then, that feels like deprivation.
Why should I not do it? But, once we understand that, this prompting that is coming, come on, do this, go there, eat this, watch this, buy this, whatever it is there. This prompting, if we understand it’s not coming from me, it’s coming from something else, which is not me. It is there inside me.
See, generally speaking, even when we come to spirituality, we tend to have a material conception of what is internal and what is external. That means, from the physical point of view, things that are outside me are external. So, this mic is external, this table is external, this room is external to me.
And then the thoughts, the desires, whatever is going on in my mind is inside me. So, we think that what is outside is not me and what is inside is me. But, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that everything that is inside me is not me.
Everything that is inside me is not me. Because still, when I say that what is outside me is outside and what is inside me is me, we are having the body as a reference point. And from the body’s point of view, what is inside, I am thinking is me.
But the Bhagavad Gita explains that I am not the body. I am the soul. And from the soul’s point of view, yes, the world is outside, but even the mind is outside.
Even the mind is outside. So, everything that is inside me is not me. So, when we understand that actually I am not restraining myself, I am not depriving myself, I am actually rejecting something that is separate from me, that is projecting itself on me, then that battle becomes much more desirable to fight.
Because when we understand someone from inside me is taking over my thoughts, taking over my desires and making me act in a particular way, then I will want to fight. But if I start thinking this is my desire, then we will not want to resist it. So, this is critical to understand that everything that is inside me is not me.
And the mind’s voice, now this does not mean that we completely reject everything that is inside us. Yes, I am also there inside. And my desires, my values, my aspirations are also important.
This is not what we are talking about here. It is not about complete self-obliteration. Everything we say about ourselves is wrong.
So, our feelings can fall in three broad categories. One is those which are peripheral, which are just induced by the mind. So, somebody goes to a shopping mall and person has a list, maybe 10 items to purchase.
But when the person goes to a shopping mall, then he says, this is also good, that is also good. And then, instead of 10 items, that person ends up purchasing 50 items. Now, many of them he purchases at the urge of the moment and just like there is alcoholism, there is another increasing form of addiction that is called shopaholism.
Shopaholism means people just get addicted to shopping. There is a shop till you drop. So, shopaholism means it may not be as damaging to the health as alcoholism is, but essentially in shopaholism, people just come under a spell and purchase things and afterwards, why did you purchase this? And afterwards, the problem that happens, rather than we asking it to ourselves, before we ask, before we ask it to ourselves, when somebody else asks it to us, why did you purchase this? At that time, it becomes a matter of our ego to defend it.
And then, we find something, I may need it like this, I may need it like that. So here, what is happening? Unfortunately, there is this greed within us, which prompts us to purchase things even when we don’t need them. But then, rather than we distancing ourselves from the greed, what happens when others question our judgement? Why did you purchase this? Then that greed becomes more tightly identified with us.
And we are forced to defend our choices. Rather than evaluating our choices to check whether they are correct or not, we end up defending them based on what we had done in person. So, what I was, the point I was making is that when a person goes to shop and if the person acts like a shopaholic, so there are certain things which are actually needed.
But the other things were all purchased on the spur of the moment. This looks nice, this is good, maybe I’ll need this. So, now like that, our mind, just as some shopaholics, we just purchase items like that, our mind collects desires.
Maybe I can do this also, maybe I can eat this also, maybe I can do that also, maybe I can do that also. So, these are actually stray desires. They are peripheral desires.
They are not very important for us. So, these sort of desires, if we indulge in them, they will distract us from the important things in our life. The important things, even materially important things, want to speak of spiritually important things.
And often, the desires that are induced by lust, by greed, by anger, they are all in this category. We just see something and we feel, let me get this, let me enjoy this, let me touch that, let me taste that or whatever. So, these are the kind of desires, when we restrain them, when we reject them, these do not lead to self-obliteration.
Obliterate means to destroy. Some people say, if you are always saying no, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do that, then where is your self-expression? Where are you expressing yourself? If you are always saying no to yourself, then where are you expressing yourself? Actually, even from an ordinary perspective, just in an unrestrained way, bringing out whatever out of ourselves, that is not self-expression. If somebody decides to come and do a musical performance, and that person just comes and sits in front of a harmonium and just starts just playing it without any training, without any discipline, yes, that will be self-expression, but that will be the expression of the worst self, not the best self.
So, even in art, if there has to be self-expression, prior to authentic self-expression, there is quite discipline. So, yes, there is a person who has musical talent, there is a person who has a desire to compose good music, but there is discipline. We may do some wrong moves, then we discipline ourselves, this is the way I should be playing, this is the way I should be playing.
And then when there is, now if you say, when an artist practises art, essentially what is the artist doing? The artist is, we use the word training, but training essentially means rejecting the wrong move and maximising the right, isn’t it? We reject the wrong moves and maximise the right moves, optimise them so that then the best self comes out. Similarly, yes, our desires can be forms of self-expression, but it is not that every desire that is within us will be a form of self-expression. If we just start expressing every desire that we have, then it may end up being a very, being the expression of a very trivial peripheral self.
Some desire came in from somewhere, we purchased that, we did that, we did that. So, whatever is truly important from us, for us, it will practically never come out. So, that’s why when we are talking about restraining ourselves, it is not self- repression, but it is selection so that there is proper self-expression.
So, the point I was talking about is our emotions. So, the first I said is, there are emotions which are just peripheral to us, which we just acquire from our circumstances. Now, we see something, we watch something, we say, maybe I should do this, maybe I should catch this, maybe I should get this.
So, these are something which we need to restrain. Then second is, so this is, yesterday I talked about vasana and priti. Vasana are these kind of desires, which are stray desires which just pop up.
Now, when I say they pop up, they can pop up from two sources. They can pop up from outside and they can pop up from inside also. Just like if I have a small pond, now, somebody may throw a stone in the pond and then suddenly the calm water gets disturbed.
Or sometimes, in the pond itself, fermentation may happen and because of that, some bubbles suddenly come up on the surface. So, like that, stray desires can come to us from two sources. One is external stimulus.
You may see advertisements, you may see commercials or whatever and desires may come from them. Or sometimes, from within our own subconscious, suddenly some memories trigger. So, either way, if they are not, if the normal me, the principled me, whoever I am, if these are not important for me, then I recognise that these are peripherals.
So, if we have a well-defined purpose for our life, now, by purpose, I am not only talking about the ultimate spiritual purpose of going back to Krishna, going to Krishna, but also about our material purposes. Our career is there, our family is there, these are important for us. So, if these things are not important, then we put them aside.
So, within our feelings, there are the mind’s peripheral feelings which are vasana, which we need to restrict. And secondly, it is not that Bhagavad Gita tells us that everything material is to be rejected. In fact, in the 18th chapter, Krishna says that, He talks about svabhava.
Svabhava normally means nature, but, that is true, but if you look at the Sanskrit, svabhava, the word bhava means, it has two meanings, there is nature and it is also emotion. Bhava is related with bhavana. So, svabhava means it’s one’s own nature, it also means one’s natural emotions.
So, svabhava means there are certain things which we are naturally attracted to. And in a broad way, the Bhagavad Gita classifies this according to Varanasi. There is Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
Now, these are not castes. I mentioned in the class which I gave on Karna, that these are four, does anyone remember the word? Ah, social classes, there are four human types. These are not just castes, which are caste labels that are affixed on people.
There are people who are intellectuals, there are people who are administrators, there are people who are merchants, and there are people who are general assistants. And these are four human types. And when we say human type, it’s not based on a particular complexion or a particular physical dimension.
It’s based largely on the mental disposition. So, the mind has a particular svabhava. So, the Vanashram gives us a fourfold broad typology, four classifications.
Within this also there are further classifications. In Varna, there are what is called Jatis. So, the Varna system is like dividing the world into nations.
And the Jati within Varna is like dividing the nation into states. So, it’s like an organic division. So, if we consider all the kinds of minds that different people have, if we compare that with a globe, then all the complete human mind, whatever different kinds of mindsets they have, that like the earth, we divide it into say four major countries.
So, that is like the four Varnas. And within the four Varnas, there are further Jatis, which are like systems within the countries. So, now, within the Varna, people have particular likes and particular dislikes.
So, we have seen in the Bhagavad Gita that in the 18th chapter, when Krishna talks about the qualities, for example, for the Brahmana, in 18.42, 43, 44, 45, he talks about the different Varnas. So, he says, शमो दमस्त पहशवचं शान्ति रार्जवं हेवच ज्ञानं विज्ञानं आस्तिक्यं ब्रह्म कर्म सभावजं So, here he says, the qualities of a Brahmana, one of the qualities is शान्ति. शान्ति can mean peacefulness, it can mean tolerance.
Now, for peacefulness, tolerance is required. शान्ति. Now, just the next verse, Krishna talks about the qualities of a Kshatriya.
And there he says, युद्धेचाक्य अपलायनम् One of the qualities is to never flee from a battlefield. Now, if you see, in one sense, tolerating or शान्ति is avoiding a fight. But Kshatriya’s quality is not fleeing from a fight.
Now, these are two different dispositions. So, Krishna is talking about both as laudable qualities. See, a Kshatriya is supposed to be chivalrous and where there is a cause for defending, for protecting, for fighting, if a Kshatriya runs away, that’s cowardly.
But on the other hand, a Brahmana is not meant to fight. Brahmana is meant to tolerate, forgive. That does not mean injustice is allowed to go on.
But the Brahmana doesn’t consider it his duty to fight. Let the Kshatriya do that. So, now, both Krishna recommends as laudable qualities, although the two are contradictory.
But they are for different people. So, with respect to discussion of the mind, the point I’m making here is that there are certain things to the mind’s innate nature. And that cannot be suppressed.
That is a part of our material side. We have a particular kind of body and that body will, by body I mean body and the mind, that is going to work in a particular way. So, for example, some people are introverts.
Some people are extroverts. Some people just they gain strength when they are with others. Other people, they gain strength when they are alone.
This is not something which can be changed. Of course, both may have to extend a little bit. That some introverts also that we live in societies, they may have to extend themselves.
And other extroverts also need to recognise that they may want to be with others but others may not want to be with them. So, they may need to give room to others when required. But the point is that there is a core nature which cannot be changed.
And we’ll see that children also from their childhood, some children are attracted to say, some particular kind of things. Some children are, right from the beginning they are computer biscuits. They are brilliant at particular things.
Some other children may be good at some things. For some children, what they are good at may take some time to manifest. But the point is, it is not that we have to reject or repress everything material.
There are material talents, material skills, which are our natural material they are a part of our natural material side. And the Bhagavad Gita says, develop that. So, the shoe that fits one person, bites another person.
The shoe that fits one person, bites another person. So, like that, the Bhagavad Gita acknowledges that there is material diversity. And so, if a person was of a Vaishya temperament, that person we tell them, in a devotee community, if we see, a person of Vaishya temperament, we tell him, let’s study Shastra.
Can you find this verse from the Bhagavad Gita? He says, Bhagavad Gita? Thousands of verses. Why do you need to find the verse? Just be happy without it. On the other hand, that person, if you tell him, okay, you want to make a new kitchen, you have to raise funds for it.
Yes, very good. We’ll go meet people, we’ll raise funds, the person will like it. If a Brahmin, you tell him, you have to raise funds.
Ultimately, you have to just chant Hare Krishna. Why do you need to raise funds? So, now, the same activity, which one person likes, the other person finds as, I don’t need it. So, the expertise in the material world is a place of problems for everyone.
But, the expertise of Varanashram is that it allocates to people the problems that they will like to face. So, a Brahmana will like intellectual problems. A Vaishya will like to deal with challenges which involve raising money.
So, what Varanashram does is, it’s a problem for everyone, but the problems become worse when they are the problems of the kind which you don’t like to face. So, what Varanashram does is, it gives us problems which we like to deal and which we are good at dealing with. So, the mind has its own innate nature.
And that is something which usually reflects our talents, our inclinations and that, the Bhagavata says, we should develop. And that’s why a system of education which is like one-size-fits-all, that doesn’t work. Now, there has to be some amount of standardised education is okay, but there also has to be need for individual expression.
And, the Varanashram, what it focused on is identifying the talents right in the beginning and training that person accordingly. Now, with respect to our situation, when you practise Bhakti, sometimes some devotees go into too self-critical or other critical mode. That means, think that the enjoying mentality has to be given up.
So, therefore, anything that I enjoy in Bhakti, I will not do. Now, we need enjoyment. Suppose, somebody makes a joke in the class.
You start thinking, before laughing. Am I laughing for my pleasure or Krishna’s pleasure? We don’t have to get into such a hyper-critical mode. So, as long as it is within the broad purview of devotional service, then that is perfectly accepted.
So, one application of the Varana system of our mind’s Swabhava is with respect to our worldly professions. And, that itself is a whole subject which I will not get into. We are right now talking about managing the mind.
So, within the realm of Bhakti, we will all find that there are certain things which we like to do. And, we shouldn’t think, or we shouldn’t be misled by other into believing, that if there is something which we like to do in Bhakti, that is sense gratification. No, that is actually Krishna’s mercy.
Because, if we consider, say, devotional service as one circle, and sense gratification as another circle, or rather, the word sense gratification has a very negative connotation. So, I just want to put simply, there is devotional happiness, and then there is material happiness. So, often, we may think that these two are non-intersecting.
But, it’s not like that. Devotional happiness and material happiness, by material happiness I mean, the happiness that we experience because there are some material things we like to do. So, that means, if somebody likes to sing, now, that person is singing for Krishna.
Now, if a person who is singing for Krishna starts thinking, you know, am I singing for Krishna’s pleasure or my pleasure? It’s good to introspect like that. But, if because, if I think that actually I am singing for my own pleasure, and therefore I can stop singing, then what will happen is, I may not sing for Krishna, but because singing is my nature, I will end up singing for Maya. So, Krishna says, sabhāva jena kānteya nibaddhasvena karmaṇā kartum necchasi anmohā karishasya vishopitā Since we are all bound by our sabhāva, and we will act.
So, Arjuna, you are saying you will not fight now, Vishwajagadhāpura says in his commentary, that Arjuna says, you will not fight now, but you are a warrior. So, if you are saying you will live, vaikṣyāpihala, okay, I will live by begging. But eventually, when you are living as a mendicant, if you ask for charity, and somebody says, I will not give charity, immediately your hand will go to your sword, to want to attack that person.
So, actually, the difference between a brāhmaṇa and a kṣatriya is, a kṣatriya is in a position of royal authority. So, a brāhmaṇa takes charity, that means you give charity, whereas a kṣatriya takes taxes. So, Kṛṣṇa is telling Arjuna that you cannot give up your nature.
You may say that you will not fight now, but eventually you will fight. So, therefore, rather than fighting for a cause of adharma, later on if you fight on your own volition, at the urge of your impulses, that will be adharmic. But right now if you fight, that will be dharmic.
So, I talked about the circle of material happiness and the circle of devotional happiness. These two are non-intersecting. Certainly, there is some divergence.
There is some happiness which will be non-devotional, which will even be anti-devotional. Like, say, the pleasure that you might get by the breaking of the four irreducible strings. So, that we avoid.
But within these two circles, whatever is our svabhāva, whatever is our nature, if we don’t tell it in Kṛṣṇa’s service, the happiness that we get, we don’t have to bother too much whether it is material or spiritual. What we need to focus is, you draw strength from that to persevere in everything. Now, it may, for all of us, when we say our svabhāva, it is not that our svabhāva is just one thing.
Because there has been intermixing for so many generations between the different varṇās. So, our svabhāva may be a combination of various things. And finding it out, exact what is our nature, what is our specific interest and talent, may take time.
So, whatever we find as giving us satisfaction, giving us happiness, giving us inspiration in the process of bhakti, we start doing that. Now, in this circle, there is devotional happiness and there is material happiness. Then, there is some happiness which, or there is something in the circle which does not intersect.
So, for example, we may find chanting to be an austerity. The mind just does not like chanting. Not always.
The mind does not like chanting just when we want to chant. When we are preaching about chanting, we also start doing, holy name is the only way. All the force with which we preach the glories of the holy name, all that force disappears when we are chanting the holy name.
So, this does not fall in this, may not fall in that circle. When it does not fall in that circle, that is where discipline and determination are required. So, if we completely, one extreme is, everything that the mind says, that means everything that we find likeable, if everything we start rejecting, we will start feeling choked.
But on the other hand, if we start rejecting everything that the mind does not like, then the better side of us will never be developed. So, what the whole system of bhakti is, there are certain things which the mind likes, which are bad, which are immoral, which are sinful. So, that we avoid.
There are certain things which the mind dislikes, which are good for us. We do. But bhakti is not only about these two things.
If we think it is only about rejecting the things that we like and doing the things we don’t like, then we will feel again choked. But there is a whole big circle where there is an intersection of everything. That what we like to do and what is also within the jurisdiction of devotional service.
When we start doing that, we will feel nourished and enlivened in bhakti. Actually, Prabhupada, when he was in, did in the last class, did I tell about the story of Ishana Prabhu making bridangas? So, I’ll conclude and I’ll talk about rasa. I’ll just mention that afterwards.
So, the Ishana Prabhu, was a disciple of Prabhupada, was in London. And at that time, London was like the European headquarters. So, in the European headquarters, the devotees from all over Europe had assembled and Prabhupada had come there.
And Prabhupada was asking all of them, the reports. So, Bhagwan, how is the preaching in Paris? How is the preaching in Germany? He was asking all of them. How is the preaching in London? And they were all giving reports of it.
Ishana Prabhu thought, you know, everybody has some service portion of Prabhupada, but I don’t have any service. So, he went to Prabhupada. And he said, Prabhupada, please give me some service for me.
And Prabhupada looked at him and said, what do you want to do for Krishna? He said, Prabhupada, whatever you tell me, I’ll do. He said, that’s all right. But I’m asking you, what do you want to do for Krishna? Now, he said, I want means sense gratification.
So, that means Prabhupada is testing me. You know. So, he said, no, Prabhupada, whatever you tell me, whatever you tell me, I’ll do.
So, Prabhupada became gleeful. He said, understand our philosophy. Our philosophy means to find out what we want to do and to do it for Krishna.
To find out what we want to do and to do it for Krishna. He had never thought like this. What do you want? He said, I’ll think about it.
Then, he went back. The next day, he came. He said, Prabhupada, we have these Mrudangas which you bring from India.
Often, they fall and break. As they break, getting a new Mrudanga from India is very difficult. So, I’m thinking of using locally available material over here to make Mrudangas which will be unbreakable.
So, that’s why he said, yes, your western godbrothers are very passionate. So, make the Mrudangas so strong that even if they throw it down, it will not break. And, Prabhupada fully endorsed it.
And then from that, not just making Mrudangas, making various paraphernalia using the locally available material. That whole became like a lifelong service for him. So, Prabhupada said, find out what we want to do and do it for Krishna.
Another time, the devotees who were doing book distribution, some of the devotees were very good book distributors. So, they went to Prabhupada and they said that, Prabhupada, we have found out certain techniques by which we can persuade people to take books. Now, how we should speak, what we should speak, how we should gesture with our hands, how we should approach people.
Now, we feel that if we just go temple, temple and give seminars of teaching people these techniques, then the book distribution can increase enormously. And Prabhupada became very clear. Prabhupada said, devotional service is individual, voluntary and spontaneous.
Devotional service is individual, voluntary and spontaneous. When a soul feels inspired to do something for Krishna, then devotional service is performed. When a soul feels inspired to do something for Krishna, then devotional service is performed.
So, Prabhupada told, don’t tell them what to speak, inspire them to serve Krishna and then they will serve in their way that is natural. So, individual, voluntary and spontaneous. Individual means each of us is an individual and to some extent there are similarities in that we are all souls, we are all parts of Krishna and there is one book I was reading about individuality.
So, there they give an example, very interesting example. They said, every particle of sand is an individual. Every leaf is an individual.
Third example, every Hare Krishna monk is an individual. Externally, all Hare Krishna monks, they look the same, they have the same dress, they all have the shaved head, but everybody is an individual. So, everyone of us is an individual and this individuality is something which is innate to us.
So, devotionalism is individual, voluntary. Nobody can force us to serve Krishna. Sadhana Bhakti means to some extent we force ourselves.
But as I said, we force ourselves it is not we are forcing ourselves but there is a side of us which is misrepresentative of us. So, we force it down and we bring out the best in ourselves. We control the mind so that our real self can express itself.
So, largely it is voluntary. We cannot drag others for very long. Sometimes, when we are say, introducing Krishna consciousness to new people, sometimes we have to push them a little bit.
Come for a programme, come for a programme, come for this festival, come here. So, now one day I devoted to Ashila Prabhupada. How much can we push people to take to Krishna consciousness? Prabhupada said that we can inspire people.
So, he gave the example that suppose, I don’t know whether it happens with cars in Australia, it happens often in cars in India that the car doesn’t start. So, then people come out and they push from outside. So, now if the car is not starting and its engine needs to be stimulated, so then other people they come and push.
But imagine others are pushing from outside and the person inside switches off the engine. Then how long will the people outside keep pushing? The people outside can push only if the person inside wants to move. So, similarly, we can push others, but only when they are also willing to some extent.
If they are not interested at all, then it’s a waste of time. It’s like people from outside are pushing and the person inside is not only switched off the engine, but is also putting the leg on the brake. So, ultimately, devotional service is voluntary.
So, it has to be performed because the soul feels inspired to serve. And then it is spontaneous. Now, spontaneous here does not refer necessarily to Raghatmika Bhakti, which the Bhaktiriya Samaj Hindu talks about.
It essentially, Prabhupada is meaning, spontaneous in the sense that it’s according to our nature. There are certain things which are spontaneously attracted. So, that is voluntary, individual, voluntary and spontaneous.
And the whole art of sustaining ourselves in Bhakti is to first of all find out that zone where what we like to do and what is within the service of Krishna, what is that? And gradually situate ourselves in that. It’s not that, you say, I don’t like to do this, I’ll never do it. No, not like that.
Surrender also means that we do sometimes when things are required, which we may not like to do, we may do it ourselves as an expression of our surrender. But overall, for our own stability in Bhakti, we need to be self-motivated. We need to be ourselves inspired.
The association of devotees will inspire us, no doubt. But there has to be some core desire to move towards Krishna. And that desire will be steady when we can find this zone.
So, it’s not that, first of all, it’s not that when we talk about rules and regulations, it’s not that we are rejecting everything about ourselves. There is a peripheral side of us which we reject. And there is a core, even material side, not to speak of spiritual side.
So, the Vasana we reject, but the Bhakti or the Swabha, that is material. But we accept that and we move onwards. Now, regarding the concept of Rasa, I’ll just mention it briefly in a few minutes.
And maybe in a future class, we’ll talk about it. The word Rasa, at least before coming to Krishna Consciousness, the only time I had heard the word Rasa was Amras. Mango juice or sugarcane juice or some other kind of juice.
Rasa means juice. The Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition, actually among the various Vaisnava traditions, there is Sri Vaisnavism, there is Marga Vaisnavism, there are many different Vaisnava traditions. It is the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition that first showed the relevance of the concept of Rasa in the process of Bhakti.
So, Rasa Shastra or Natya Shastra, Rasa is a concept that is primarily developed within a whole tradition of literature or the tradition in India, that is called the Natya tradition, Dramatics. Like a Nata. So now, Natya Shastra was the first book written by Bharat Muni.
And in that, he describes how certain situations can stimulate certain emotions. So, there is elaborate terminology. There is Karya Karana Sahakari.
And in developing that, it talks about Parakya Bhav, about Vibhichari Bhav, Thai Bhav. All the technical terms, I won’t go into it. But simply, I’ll explain the concept.
What Natya Shastra centres on is, that when we are performing a drama, the purpose of the drama is to induce certain emotions in the audience. And those emotions can be induced when appropriate actions are done, appropriate expressions are there, or the character is dressed appropriately, the character acts appropriately, and the setting is appropriate. So, for example, if there is suppose, if the drama involves a ghasti murder scene, and then the character comes over there, dressed like a joker.
This is a example of Ras Abhaas. Ras Abhaas. The mood was supposed to be, not a horror, but the mood that ends up induced is human.
So, this is, Natya Shastra is basically about how to induce the right emotion in the audience. And that emotion, which is induced in a educated audience. So, Bharat Muni also talks about Rasika.
One has to be, the audience also has to be refined. So, why a refined audience? For example, say, if a person is very Tamasic or Rajasic, and then some dance performance is going on. Like the person is very Rajasic or Tamasic, that person may just, if it’s a woman dancing, it’s a man watching, the only emotion that the man may get is lust.
But if the person has some knowledge of Bharat Natyam, and this woman is dancing very expertly, then, that woman is depicting some pastime of Krishna. Then, when there is some level of maturity in the audience, there’s the Rasika. Bharat Natyam says, So, it says in third verse that, Oh, Rasika, relish the rasa of Bharat.
Then, rather than just the mundane emotion of lust that a man may feel on seeing a woman, in a Rasika audience, they see, okay, the hands are moving like this, which pastime is being depicted over here? And then, as they understand the pastime that is being depicted, then the appropriate emotion gets induced. So, if it is, say, Trunavartha has stolen away Krishna, and Yashodamayi is in great panic, and the dancer is acting like Yashodamayi, where is Krishna gone? Then, for the Rasika audience, the appropriate emotion is induced. So, that appropriate emotion that is induced is called as Rasa.
Now, this is a big tradition in India. What Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and based on his instructions, Rupa Goswami did was, he brought a synthesis of the Rasa tradition and the Bhakti tradition. That means, in Nadi Shastra, the concept of Rasa was used primarily for inducing some emotions in the performance of drama.
But Rupa Goswami explains in Bhakti Rasa Amritsindhu, and later on in Ujjwala Nilamani, that Rasa is not just an emotion that is temporarily induced in an audience while drama is being performed. He says, Rasa is also the eternal emotion that the soul has in relationship to Krishna. And, the way Bhakti Rasa Amritsindhu explains Bhakti, it says that Bhakti is the art of inducing the right emotion in the audience.
But here, the audience is not just spectators who are watching a drama. The audience is Sadhakas who are living the life of a Sadhaka. So, the whole process of Bhakti is what? To induce Rasa in us.
Rasa here means devotional emotions. So, I was talking about, I said, I’ll talk about three kinds of emotions. One was the mind’s peripheral emotions, the Vasana we reject.
Then, our material Sobhav, which we dovetail in Krishna sense. And then beyond that, there is the spiritual Bhavana, the soul’s attraction to Krishna. And that is to be invoked.
And the whole purpose of Bhakti, when we come to a temple, there are the Deities. And there are various pictures of Krishna. And there is the Kirtan.
All this is meant to invoke Rasa. It’s meant to invoke spiritual emotion in us. And the emotion, once our spiritual emotion is awakened, then that will propel us towards Krishna.
Rather than at our stage, because most of the emotions that are evoked within us are mundane. So, the emotions often pull us away from Krishna. But even in our Sadhaka stage, we do find that there are times when we feel spiritual emotion.
We feel emotionally strongly attracted towards Krishna. Sometimes when there is a very sweet Kirtan, sometimes a very beautiful Darshan, sometimes there is a very moving narration of some Krishna Leela, or we go to Holi Dham and we feel some potent presence over there. So, we all at different times experience some spiritual emotions.
So, the process of Bhakti as explained by Rupa Goswami is to surround ourselves with spiritual stimuli that will awaken Bhakti Rasa within us. To surround ourselves with spiritual stimuli. So, the spiritual stimuli in Bhakti Rasa is called as Uddhipan.
Uddhipan means spiritual stimulus. So, just like the example of Rupa Goswami, this is again an elaborate subject. I will give a simple example to illustrate this.
Yashodamayi has natural maternal emotion for Krishna. But yet, at the end of the day, Yashodamayi is constantly thinking of Krishna. Krishna comes back and she is peering at the pathway from the Vrindavan forest back to the home.
And then she sees Krishna running towards her. And then Krishna is a small Vashi stall. So, instinctively her hands open and she comes down on her knees and Krishna runs into her arms and he embraces.
And the milk starts flowing from her hands and she experiences emotions. So, here what has happened? The site of Krishna is the Uddhipan. So, there is Vatsalya Prema that is there within her.
But a particular stimulus makes it, heightens it. So, this sort of heightening of devotional emotions is what happens repeatedly and eternally in the spiritual world through different situations. So, in the different Leelas, there are different Uddhipanas that different devotees experience and those Uddhipanas heighten their spiritual emotions.
Now, at our level, we also can find out what is our Uddhipan. So, for example, if we are chanting and we just don’t feel like chanting, then we can find out, okay, maybe if I am going to take a listen from a spiritual master, if I have taken a listen from a spiritual master, if I have the photo of my listening, I have taken a vow, I will be chanting 16 rounds. So, keep that photo in front.
Or we can, if there is some prayer to Krishna which really touches our heart, we can put that prayer in front. If there is a particular deity, that way that deity is dressed and decorated, which really attracts us, we can keep that. So, all these are our spiritual Uddhipan.
And this is significantly different from what I was earlier talking about. What we want, what we like to do at the material level, we do it for Krishna. Here we are talking about something squarely in the realm of devotional service.
We find that out and do it for, and maximise those Uddhipan, surround us with those Uddhipan. So, in the early days of the movement, when Srila Prabhupada introduced Jagannath for the first time, at that time, the devotees had very little idea of the deity of Jagannath and the proper way the deity could be, deity should be treated. So, what they did, when the first Jagannath came, they all made small replicas of Jagannath and they started wearing it in their neck.
And then when Prabhupada told them, Prabhupada taught them this prayer and what they would do is, they would go out from this tuition and anywhere they would see Maya, Jagannath, please become manifest before my eyes. So, rather than my eyes getting caught by Maya, let my eyes be caught by you. So, this was, they were treating, they may not understand the whole philosophy behind it, but they were treating Jagannath’s image there as a Uddhipan.
So, now, if we can find out whatever is our Uddhipan and tap that, then our emotion, our emotional energy will be used to move towards Krishna. See, we did a lot of analysis in this class and that analysis will sort of, will generate intellectual energy to move towards Krishna and intellectual energy is important because at the Sadhaka stage, our emotional energy will not be constant. Sometimes we will feel like serving Krishna, sometimes we may not feel like serving Krishna.
So, we do need intellectual energy to maintain steadiness in our Bhakti. But, just doing something because it is the right thing to do, that, yes, we will do it, but we will not be able to sustain it for long. We also need Rasa, we also need happiness.
So, if we channel the emotional energy by finding out our Uddhipan and then triggering that, then our Bhakti will become much more easy and much more joyful. Just like, in the ocean, there are currents and there are often, if we look at the nature of the water flow in the ocean, in the same ocean, there may be different currents which are moving in different directions. So, for example, say, in a very broad sense, India is here, Australia is here.
So, one current may be moving from India to Australia and another current is moving from Australia towards India. So, if a person is in a boat and that person wants to go towards the Northwest, so at that time, if that person, that boatsman places oneself in the current that is coming from Australia towards India. The current is coming this way and the boatsman wants to go this way.
It will be Herculean amount of effort. On the other hand, if the boatsman situates oneself in the current which is going in the same direction, then that journey will become much easier. So, similarly, within our consciousness, there are different emotional currents which go in different directions.
So, some emotional currents go towards various forms of sense gratification. Some emotional currents also go towards Krishna. So, when we talk about Uddipan, we are talking about situating ourselves in the emotional current that moves towards Krishna.
So, when we situate ourselves in that emotional current, then moving towards Krishna will become much easier. But, if we situate ourselves in the emotional current that takes our thoughts away from Krishna. So, for example, if I sit down to chant and I keep myself in front of one glass full of sweet rice, and I say, I will keep my eyes on the sweet rice for all the two rounds I am chanting and I will not touch the sweet rice.
Well, I might succeed and it will be a feat in willpower. But, whether it will be a feat in devotional advancement, no one knows. Because, the whole emotional energy is yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no.
There is no focus on Krishna over there. So, Mayanukle Nabhasvate Ritara Puman Bhava Pinnatire Atmaha So, in the Bhagavatam, when it talks about, a metaphor is given, of the human body is compared to the boat. When the human body is compared to the boat, it is said, scripture is like the favourable wind.
Why is scripture the favourable wind? Because, scripture gives us the philosophical knowledge. Scripture gives us the devotional experiences, the devotional realisation, the devotional pastimes, which all generate the intellectual and the emotional energy that will move us towards Krishna. On the other hand, if we expose ourselves too much to material things, all kinds of sense gratificatory books or sense gratificatory programmes and things like that, then they are the opposite current.
And when we place ourselves in that opposite current, then moving towards Krishna will be much more difficult. So, the whole concept of Rasa, maybe in a future, I will talk about that elaborately, but I will summarise what we discussed today and I will give one conclusion. So, we talked primarily about in managing the mind, how the mind is like a ventriloquist, which projects its own ideas onto us.
And then we discussed the stages from contemplation, attraction, infatuation, irritation, delusion, stupefaction and self-destruction. So, essentially the mind projects its own idea onto us. And we need to, that’s the mind speaking, distance ourselves from it.
Everything that is inside me is not me. Because I am not the body, I am the soul. So, the mind is inside the body but is outside the soul.
It’s outside me. And that connection we discussed about how when we say that everything inside me is not me, that doesn’t mean we are doing self-repression. Just like in music, self-expression requires discipline.
Similarly, to bring out the best within us, we need to discipline. That means reject some things which are peripheral and bring out those things which are core to us. So, we discussed about, just like a shopaholic purchases things, similarly the mind purchases and just gathers desires.
So, those desires we say no to. That is the vasana. The vritti is our sabhava, our nature.
We use it in Krishna’s sense. That is what lies in the realm of what the mind likes to do. So, I think rather than calling it material happiness, we call this circle as what the mind likes to do.
And we can call this as a circle of devotional service. We can find out what it is which lies in the intersection of the circle. And Prabhupada said our philosophy is find out what you want to do and do it for Krishna.
Devotional service is individual, voluntary and spontaneous. And then we discussed about the concept of rasa. How Rupa Goswami has redefined rasa as not just an emotion that is stimulated in a audience in a drama but it is the emotion of the soul for Krishna that can be stimulated by exposure to appropriate stimuli.
So, all of us can find out even at our stage, what is it that stimulates our spiritual emotion? And then expose ourselves to that. Then, we will place ourselves in the current of emotion that moves towards Krishna. And thus, we will have not only the intellectual energy to move towards Krishna, which comes from our philosophical understanding and our intellectual analysis, but we will also have an emotional energy because we will be doing the things which we like to do materially and we will also be exposing ourselves to things which trigger our attraction to Krishna.
And then with the emotional energy supporting us rather than opposing us, our progress in bhakti will become much easier and faster. Thank you very much. Are there any questions?