Managing the mind 3 – Understanding inclination, infatuation and intention

[Seminar at Govardhan Eco-Village, Wada, Mumbai, India]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So they say that… Hare Krishna.
So today we come to the third part of our discussion on managing the mind. In the first part I talked about how the mind is indispensable and irreplaceable. Just like a computer monitor that integrates the inputs coming from various security cameras for the security in charge to observe.
Similarly the mind integrates the inputs coming from the senses. And the mind, based on the way we have desired and acted in the past, has certain default settings. So those become our conditions.
Yesterday I talked about how the mind is like a wild but trainable horse. So, we talked elaborately about how the difference between humans and animals is primarily in the mind. So, the learning capacity of the mind in the animals is much lesser.
Because most of their behaviour is determined by their inherited characteristics. Whereas in humans, also we get inherited characteristics. But we also have a significant portion of acquired characteristics.
And our free will is essentially our capacity to act differently from the default promptings of our body and mind. And I talked about how our mind has particular triggers each of us. And we have to stay safe from them.
So, today I’ll talk about four ways of dealing with the mind. Saam, Daam, Ved and Danda. So, Saam is harmonisation.
Daam is accommodation. Daam is give some reward to the other person. So, when we are discussing with some person, try to show how our interests are common.
So, why should we fight? Somebody says, no, no, I want something good. Okay, you take this but let’s stay in peace. So, Daam is, you could say accommodation.
So, I’ll today talk primarily about the difference between inclination, infatuation and intention. So, in the Bhagavad Gita, a third chapter, Krishna talks about two distinct things. First he says in 3.34, 35 that there seems to be a contrast between 34, 35 and 36.
Say, 34 and 36 are saying one thing and 35 seems to be saying something else. So, 34, 35, 34 talks about how there is attachment and aversion situated in the mind. Raag Dvesha.
Indriyasya Niyasya Arte Raag Dvesha Vyavastha Tau Payor Navashama Angadshet Tau Yasya Paripandhinau It says that attachment and aversion are situated in the senses for the sense objects. So, now when the word senses is used in the Bhagavad Gita, sometimes senses is used as separate from the mind or sometimes senses is used as inclusive of the mind. So, for example, when it is said Indriyani Manobuddhir Asya Adhishthanam Akshati Kama, selfish desire, where is it situated? Senses, mind and intelligence.
So, here the mind is differentiated from the senses. But, this is in 3.40, but if we consider 15.7 Manah Chashtani Indriyani Prakrti Sthani Karshati Six senses which include the mind. So, if we consider, if we are doing an analysis where we are going to analytical detail, then we may say for a specific purpose the mind and senses are different.
But if we consider the mechanism by which we interact with the outer world, then the mind is also a part of that. So, this inclusive aspect Krishna also uses Indriyanam Manah Chasmi In the 10th chapter when he is talking about the Gutis, that is among the senses, I am the mind. So, in this particular verse that we discussed, the mind is said to be separate from the senses and the mind is said to be in control of the senses.
so when here it says that attachment and aversion are situated in the senses. Indriyasya Indriyasya Aate Raga Dvesha Urvastha. This attachment is situated we could say in the mind coupled with the senses.
So, there are three levels of senses which we can say we have. The soul has spiritual eyes. The mind has its subtle eye.
And then there is the physical organ eye. And for perception to happen, all three have to be there. If my physical eye is closed, I can’t see what is out there.
But still in my mind’s eye I can see something. Now, when some people love each other, they may not be close to each other but they close their eyes and they can see each other very clearly. This person is like this.
So, a mother may be able to see a child. Child looks like this, looks like that. So, that we are seeing in the mind’s eye.
Now, if the eye is here, the eye is open, the soul is also conscious. But if the mind is absent minded, then sometimes when we are here in a class, sometimes our mind likes to go for a walk. Enough now.
I just want to enjoy. You go for a walk and suddenly there is a joke. What is it? So, what happens if there is some humour, the mind thinks maybe there is more enjoyable here.
So, let me come back in here. So, perception happens when the soul, the mind and the sense, particular sense involved, they all three have to be in the same line. So, if the mind is not there, when we say absent minded, it is not that the mind is absent.
The mind is always there. It is always present. But it is not present where the body is present.
It is not present where the senses are focused. So, now, in that sense, the senses may perceive but if the mind is not present, there is no perception that happens. The eyes may see something.
The ears may hear something. But if the mind is not present, then no perception will happen. On the other hand, even the senses are not seen, still if the mind gets caught with some desire, then the mind can start fantasising and craving about it.
So, basically if we consider, we may get tempted in two different ways. One is from outside in, the other is from inside out. Outside in means that we see a tempting object and then from that perception through the senses, the mind’s imagination gets triggered.
And then we get captivated by the temptation. The other is, there may be no tempting stimuli around us, but the mind starts imagining on its own. And the mind’s imagination then pushes us to go towards the sense object.
So, suppose somebody is an alcoholic, that person may be passing by a bar and say, let me go and drink. From outside in, the temptation comes. But, at the time, the person may be working and gets an urge to drink.
And that urge becomes so strong that the person goes to a bar. This is inside out. Now, in both cases, just the presence of the outside doesn’t necessarily have to trigger what is inside.
The perception doesn’t have to trigger imagination. So, in that sense, the mind is central. If the senses may perceive something, but if there is no contemplation by the mind on it, then the agitation will not be there.
So, Krishna is saying, तयोर इन्द्रियस्य इन्द्रियस्यार्थे रागत् द्वेशव् यवस्थिताँ So, there is certain attachment and certain aversion that is already situated in the senses, for a particular sense object. वयवस्थिताँ, it’s well situated, already there. So, as I said, for an alcoholic, the attachment to alcohol is already there.
For a non-alcoholic, it is not there. तयोर नवशमागचे Krishna says, it is there, but do not succumb to it. तउर्य अस्या परिपन्धिनावु These are thieves on the path.
पन्थ is path, परि is thieves. So, on the path of spiritual growth, these are thieves which will plunder our consciousness. So, here, Krishna is telling that there will be some default attachment stored in the consciousness, in the senses-mind combination, but don’t succumb to it.
This is 3.35. The next verse says, 3.35 is, श्रेयान् स्वधर्मो विगुणा परधर्मात् स्वरुष्ठितात् स्वधर्मेनिधनम् श्रेय परधर्मो भयावहम् So, here, I think what I spoke earlier was 3.33. 3.34 and 35, 3.33 and 3.37 talk about this, that we have to control our senses. But 3.34 and 3.35 says that we all will act according to our nature. We can’t repress it.
And trying to act according to someone’s nature is not good. But another verse before says this, that निग्रह किम करिश्यसी How does it start? सद्रुष्यम् चेष्ट ते स्वस्या प्रकृतेर ज्ञानमानपी प्रकृतिम् यान्ति भूतानी निग्रह किम करिश्यसी It says, all living beings act according to their nature. And even the people who are in knowledge, ज्ञानमानपी Krishna says, even knowledgeable What that means is that knowledge cannot stop us from acting according to our nature.
Our nature is what we’ll act according to. And therefore it says, निग्रह किम करिश्यसी. What can repression accomplish? There was a Indian teacher who, so called spiritual teacher, who said that the essence of the Bhagavad Gita is निग्रह किम करिश्यसी What can repression accomplish? And his slogan was just, Indulge! His slogan was from indulgence to transcendence.
So the more you indulge, the more you indulge, the more you indulge, then eventually you’ll realise that this indulgence doesn’t lead to anything, then you’ll transcend. But that doesn’t happen so easily. Because the more we indulge, the more we become attached.
So, if you see, the Bhagavad Gita is not simply in this verse, or by this verse, giving a licence for indiscriminate indulgence. So, because as I said, just the verse before that is talking about तयोर् नवशमा अंगच्य। Don’t control, don’t succumb to their attachments. And the verse after that, 3.36, Arjuna is asking, something makes me act badly, what is that? अत केन प्रजुक्तोयं पापम् चरति पुरुषा अनिच्छन पिवार्षने लिया बलादिवनी उजिता I am forced to act.
And the whole section after that, 37 to 43 is about how to restrain the force which impels us to do wrong things. So, that means, Krishna is not licencing, just acting whichever way the promptings come from within. So, here, there is स्वभाव and there is वासन.
The two are different things. स्वभाव is our nature. So, both स्वभाव and वासन are stored in the mind, in the subtle body.
स्वभाव is our nature. So, nature, we can say, it can be classified in different ways. In the Vedic context, it was classified in terms of Varanasi.
So, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisheshwarya. Any system of taxonomy, taxonomy is analytical classification. It is never watertight.
Say, for example, on a map, you measure, this is India, this is Pakistan. But if you go actually to the border, it’s not that everywhere along the border there is a clear line demarcating, this is India, this is Pakistan. Some place may be here, some place may be some may be in this part, some may be in this part.
So, taxonomy is a system of classification. So, in concept, taxonomy is watertight. But in reality, there are always porous boundaries.
So, why I’m mentioning this is that the system of classification can be different. So, for example, in modern psychology, people may classify it as introverts and extroverts. Introverts are people who get strength while they are alone.
And extroverts are people who get strength when they are with people. Say, if there is a big party, extroverts go for the party, the more people they meet, the smile becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. Introverts, they go with a smile, but the more people they meet, the smile starts becoming a frown and a grimace.
And you just want to run away from there. This is just nature. So, what a nature is, that we can understand from different ways.
But the point which Krishna is making is, the swabhava which we have is something which we cannot very much go against. So, Krishna is saying, don’t act against your swabhava. So, when he is saying, that is with reference to swabhava.
So, what is the context from the Bhagavad Gita’s perspective? That Arjuna was thinking, let me forgive the Kauravas. Whatever they have done, let us have peace. So, he says that forgiveness and peace, peacefulness, non-violence, non-aggression, this is a characteristic of Kshatriya.
In the 18th chapter, Krishna talks about the qualities of Brahmanas and Kshatriyas. So, there he says about how one of the characteristics of Brahmana is So, shanti, peacefulness, forgiveness, non-violence, that is a characteristic of a Brahmana. But the next verse, he says, the characteristic of a Kshatriya is he says doesn’t just mean not running away from a battlefield.
If a fight is there, a Kshatriya doesn’t become fearful and run away from the battlefield. It also means that if a confrontation is required, not necessarily a martial confrontation, but any kind of confrontation is required, then a Kshatriya doesn’t back out from the confrontation. Kshatriyas are ready to be confrontationalists.
Brahmanas, not so much. So, Krishna is telling Arjuna, you are a Kshatriya. Don’t try to act like a Brahmana.
Your swabhava is of a Kshatriya. Don’t try to act like a Brahmana. So, with respect to swabhava, Krishna says, don’t repress it.
But with respect to vasana, Krishna says, certainly I do control it. There are a few verses later, Krishna says, therefore, beginning with the senses, control, control calm, control selfish desire. So, the point is that within our mind, there are two distinct things.
There is swabhava and there is vasana. The swabhava is something which is not to be suppressed. That is to be accommodated.
The vasana has to be regulated and transcended. So, going back to what I said, differentiating inclination and infatuation. So, inclination is our swabhava.
So, we all are inclined to certain things. So, Yantra Rudhani Mahayoga, Krishna says that, all of us souls are situated in this material world in a particular machine which is made by the material energy. So, if I have a if I have a bike, a bike cannot function I have a motorcycle, it cannot function like a car.
A car cannot function like a truck. A truck cannot function like a train. They are all vehicles, they are all meant for transportation, but all of them will function in their own ways.
So, similarly, there are different body types. So, normally if you use the word caste, which is sometimes used for translating varna, is inappropriate. Because caste is something which is a social division.
Whereas, varna is a psychological disposition. A psychological disposition that is reflected in a social division. It is not just a social division.
Gunakarmabhava dasa So, we can say that the four varnas are broadly, not four castes, they are four body types. The kind of bodies that are there. Krishna says the kind of body you have, that’s the way you will act.
You can’t change that. That’s with respect to inclination. But then there is infatuation.
Infatuation refers to vasanas. So, when we have particular desires, when we see a particular sense object, and then on seeing that sense object, hey, that’s nice, I want it. Who can stop me from getting it? And as the craving becomes more and more, it becomes infatuation.
So, in the same Bhagavad Gita, which tells, don’t contemplate on the sense objects. That if you contemplate, then you will be captivated. So, that same Bhagavad Gita also is a part of the Mahabharata.
The Mahabharata describes how when the Pandavas were incognito and they, Arjuna won the hand of Draupadi. So, at that time, Drupada, the father of Draupadi, wanted to know who are these young men who have won my daughter’s hand. They were claiming to be brahmanas.
They were dressed like brahmanas. But he felt that the kind of martial expertise, the archery expertise that Arjuna had displayed and the mace expertise that Bhima had displayed, he felt these are not brahmanas. So, he invited them for a banquet, for a dinner, for a meal at his house.
And in the house where they were having a meal, at that place, they had kept, they had a long table on which one side was scripture, some Vedic boutiques were there, and there were some weapons in between, and then some farm equipment was there, and then some tools of artisans were there. And the Pandavas came and straight, they walked to the table and they went to the weapons. This weapon, this weapon is like this, this weapon is like this.
And just by seeing that, they understood that these are Kshatriyas. So, it’s just naturally we get attracted. So, to understand our nature, one way is to note consciously what we notice unconsciously.
To note consciously, say for example, now I am a writer, so as soon as I come to any room, I look at all the notices, and I look at the spellings of all the words in the notices. So, even if somebody gives me a big magazine with a huge picture, first my eyes go to the caption, then I look at the picture. That’s just the way I am.
So, we all, in our particular situation, we notice consciously, we notice subconsciously certain things. As soon as we come to a particular place, we may notice how this person is dressed. And that’s something we all notice, but some people have a more aesthetic sense.
This is not proper, this is not proper. Some people are very sharp music. So, some people just absorb and keep, just a little bit is off tune, many people will not notice, but some people will notice it.
So, this is a matter of inclination. So, the Pandavas are great devotees, but even while being great devotees, their natural attraction was not towards Shastra. Their natural attraction was towards Shastra.
So, their natural attraction was not towards scripture, but towards weapons. Because our defining relationship with Krishna is through our service to Krishna. And our service is determined by our Swabha.
So, some of us may be brahminically disposed, where scripture, maybe our studying scripture and sharing scripture may be our primary service to Krishna. For others, it may be different. But whatever be our Swabhava, we use it to serve Krishna.
So, the whole system of Varanashram is about accommodating people according to their nature, so that they can serve Krishna. So, there is our material nature and there is our spiritual nature. The material nature is the nature of our body-mind machine.
And the spiritual nature is the soul’s nature to serve Krishna. At a transcendental level, we just reject the body and the nature and focus on serving Krishna. So, he says that I am not a brahmin, I am not a brahmachari, I am I am simply a servant of Krishna.
So, this is his mood when he is seeing Lord Jagannath coming out in his chariot. At the same time, while functioning, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did function as a sannyasi. Functioned as a, quite strictly followed the rules of sannyasi.
He was a brahmana, he quite strictly followed the rules of a brahmana. When he was in Jagannath, he was in Varanasi. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed at the house of Tapan Mishra.
He had two followers, Tapan Mishra and Chandrashekharacharya. So, he actually I think Chaitanya Mahaprabhu So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in principle, he talked about how he is not a brahmin, kshatriya, vachashudra. In practise, he acted according to his varna and ashram.
Now, sometimes, when it was required, he did not stick to those regulations. For example, he embraced Sanatana Goswami. So, but the principle was that there is a material nature and a spiritual nature.
And in exceptional situations, we may reject our material nature for serving Krishna. But in normal situations, we use our material nature for serving Krishna. So, sarvadharman parityajya mamekam sharanam vraja.
This is the conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita. I was at a I was at a Gita Jayanti programme at a Hindu temple and there they were reciting the Gita verses and one of the verses they recited was sarvadharman parityajya mamekam sharanam vraja So, I asked him afterwards, why are you reciting sarvadharman parityajya? The verse is sarvadharman parityajya. So, so this person, he told me, he was quoting some Gita scholar.
He said, actually Krishna has come to establish dharma. Dharma samsthapanarthay. So, if Krishna has come to establish dharma, how can he tell Arjuna to give up dharma? He said, over the years, this is his theory, over the years, when the Gita was written down repeatedly, somebody forgot to put a. So, that’s why what was actually sarvadharman parityajya became sarvadharman parityajya.
Now, we are correcting that. And we are adding the a. Now, if you see, this might seem sensible at one level, but actually if the Gita’s context is that Arjuna had a dharma sankat. The question that Arjuna asked Krishna is prachamitvam dharmasamudjeta.
What dharma should I follow? So, what does this mean? What is my dharma? What is my duty that I should follow? Actually, Arjuna had to choose between his kshatriya dharma and his kula dharma. His kshatriya dharma, his duty as a martial guard in a society was that those who are aggressors, he has to punish them. But his kula dharma, his duty as a member of the kula, of the Kuru dynasty was that those who are his relatives should protect them.
Now, what does he do when the opponents are of his own kula? So, should he follow his kula dharma and just not attack them? Or should he follow his kshatriya dharma and attack them? This was his conflict. And the Bhagavad Gita’s answer is that when there is this kind of dharma sankata. So, for Arjuna, a dharma was not a question only.
Arjuna was a very dharmic person. So, it is not that Arjuna had to give up a dharma. Arjuna’s question was, among these two dharmas, which do I follow? So, Krishna replies over there, maam ekam sharanam vraja, surrender to me.
Now, in Arjuna’s specific context, the way he surrendered was by following his kshatriya dharma. Krishna told him, fight the war. So, Arjuna, when Krishna is telling Arjuna, sarva-dharman parityajya, that is not a call to give up dharma and become adharmic.
Rather, it is a call to give up any dharma that comes in the way of maam ekam sharanam vraja. So, the essence of all dharma is to surrender to Krishna. So, the word dharma is multivalent.
It can have different meanings in different contexts. So, dharma can refer to our material duty. Dharma can also refer to our spiritual duty.
So, Krishna is telling, we have various material duties in the world, but if any of these material duties come in the way of your spiritual duty of maam ekam sharanam vraja, then give that up. Arjuna, at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, embraces his kshatriya dharma of fighting a war for the service of Krishna. So, essentially, when I was talking about inclination and infatuation, the Gita’s consistent message is, the inclination cannot be given up.
Arjuna is kshatriya, he has to act as a kshatriya. So, our swabhava is what it will stay as it is. Infatuation, on the other hand, is what comes up because of our contemplation on sense objects.
So, infatuation is related with vasana. In modern psychology, there is also two terms which are there. There is impulse and there is instinct.
In both, there is a common element, that impulse and instinct, the common element is that there is no rational, conscious thought. Say, for example, if I touch this laptop and I find that there is an electric current over here, then immediately my hand will go. Now, I don’t consciously think that, oh, if my hand stays over here, I’ll get electrified and I may get wounded, I may die.
It just moves off. If our hand touches fire, it just moves off. So, this is instinct.
So, instinct, biology says, is programmed intelligence. It is something which is there within all of us. And instinct is based on the body type.
Say, for example, we human beings can tolerate a certain level of cold. So, it becomes too cold, then our body starts trembling. That trembling is an instinctive reaction which creates some motion in the body, which creates a metabolism by which the heat increases.
And that also is an indication, oh, I should put some warm clothes. Now, some other animals, which are extremophilic, extremophilic means they love extreme temperatures. Some animals just come out in cold.
So, for their body, as soon as it becomes, as soon as it becomes cold, then instinctively their body gets attracted towards that. So, Rakshasas are called as Nishachara. Nishachara is, the normal way of human beings is that in the daytime they are awake, night they go to sleep.
But the Rakshasas, they become active at night. Nishachara, they like to move a lot. That’s the time when they get energy.
So, the point here is that instinct is programmed intelligence. So, it is as per the body style, every body is attracted to certain things, which are conducive for its survival and functioning. And it is not attracted to certain things.
So, an extreme example of instinct could be that, say, when humans we respond to nature and when the human waste comes out, we humans are repelled from it. But, say, hogs are naturally attracted to it. The hog thinks, hey, this is nice.
This is instinct. So, now, instinct is also intelligence. Like, say, when birds migrate, sometimes birds can just migrate over long distances far more accurately than what even planes can.
And planes have far better navigational systems assisting them. So, instinct is also intelligence. But it is programmed intelligence.
That means we don’t think about it, just naturally do it. In contrast, the word impulse is used for unintelligent action. Unintelligent, unreflexive action.
So, impulse means that suddenly a desire comes within us, it may not be good for us, but still we unintelligently do it. So, for example, somebody is an alcoholic. That alcoholic sees a bottle of alcohol, immediately the impulse pops up and he drinks it.
So, in both cases, in both impulse and instinct, the conscious thinking is not there. But in impulse, the unthought action is often for our harm. Whereas in instinct, the unthought action is for our good.
So, impulse is programmed intelligence which is there for our body, for its survival. So, for example, when we see food. So, naturally, if we are hungry at that time, our tongue starts aggravating, our body starts secreting digestive enzymes.
And then we are prepared for taking that food. So, that is impulse, that is instinct. But, if we see some very delicious food and we already ate enough, but still the desire comes, I want to eat it.
So, then that desire to eat some delicious food even when we are not hungry, that is impulse. So, yesterday I talked about the difference between acquired and inherited characteristics in animals and humans. So, now, in humans, the impulses are much more stronger than animals.
Animals will usually, if they have eaten enough food, after their stomach is full, they will not eat anything more. So, if a tiger sees an animal of prey, but if it is eaten, the tiger may not attack that animal also, unless it feels threatened because of some reason. So, for animals, their bodily drives are largely a function of their instincts.
In humans also, the bodily drives are there. But, we human beings have something distinct, that is that our consciousness is much more developed than that of animals. And what does this developed consciousness mean? Everybody has associated with it a certain quantum of pleasure.
So, for example, each species, it eats, say a cow eats grass and a cow is happy eating grass. So, each animal, birds eat some worms and insects and they are delighted eating insects. So, based on the bodily nature, certain kind of diet is what gives nourishment and pleasure to that particular body, the soul in that particular body.
But in human body, because the soul is more awakened, because the soul’s consciousness is more developed, that is why the soul seeks more pleasure than the soul seeks more pleasure than what the body can naturally offer. The body offers a certain amount of pleasure, but the soul seeks more pleasure. And that is the reason why the souls in human bodies can indulge even in bodily pleasures more than the animals.
So, a cow, year after year after year, eats the same grass. But we human beings will create hundreds of quizzes, thousands of quizzes. And so, we want more pleasure from the body than what is naturally available.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a bad thing only when we seek that more pleasure only at the bodily level. The soul in the body wants more pleasure than what the body can offer.
And this is meant to prompt the soul to look for pleasure beyond the body. The body can give a certain amount of pleasure and that is not enough for the soul in the human form. Then where should I look for pleasure? Let me look for something beyond the body.
And that’s how Athato Brahma Jijnasa, spiritual enquiry starts. Where can I fulfil my longing for happiness? But, if there is no knowledge about life’s spiritual side, then the soul starts seeking more and more pleasure at the bodily level. And that is what is our impulse.
So, seeking survival and to some extent some basic pleasure at the bodily level, in terms of what is required for survival, that is instinct. But seeking pleasure beyond the body’s natural equation, that is impulse. And many of our impulses tend to be counterproductive.
So, our impulses often lead us to do things which are wrong not just for the soul, they are wrong even for the body. In many countries, say like UK, Europe, these are welfare states. And in welfare states, if a person is not able to get a job, actually it’s not just a job, if you don’t get a job that you like, then you can say you are unemployed and the government gives you money.
So, many young people, they often become drug addicts. And if the government gives them money, they use the money to get stoned. They stay hungry, but they take drugs.
So, what has happened over here, there is the body’s need for food. So, the body has an actual instinct by which the body needs food. But, because they have got hooked to drugs so much, the impulse to take drugs becomes so strong that it overpowers the instinct to eat food.
And thus, the uncontrolled mind, the impulsive mind can become an enemy not just of the soul, but also of the body. So, the mind which is uncontrolled can become an enemy of the body because this can go in both ways. One is that we may deprive the body’s needs because of some pleasure.
In Thailand, there was one boy who 72 hours continuously was surfing on the internet. And surfing, surfing, surfing, and he was so caught in watching videos and things like that, he forgot to eat, forgot to drink. And then, he just had a stroke and he fell unconscious over there.
His room partner came and took him to the hospital. That’s how he survived. So, at the now, food and water are so important.
Basically, when the mind gets infatuated by something, then that infatuation can become so consuming that even the body’s needs may be forgotten. What to speak of the soul’s needs? So, here, the Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna talks about these two things, that what can repression accomplish, there he is talking about the nature, which cannot be controlled. But, the vasana, the cravings, the impulse, they have to be controlled.
And, this, when we live in a culture where impulses are very much stoked, impulses are triggered, then it becomes very difficult for a person to even live so healthily at a bodily level. What to speak of healthily? At a spiritual level. So, one reason why the mental problems are so much in today’s world, there are many reasons and it’s a complex issue.
One reason is that the impulses are stoked so much in today’s world. The whole culture is triggering people’s impulses. It can be lust, it can be anger, it can be greed, it can be envy.
So, when these impulses are triggered more and more, then the mind becomes wild. And, when the mind goes wild, people just can’t be peaceful, people can’t be joyful. I met one devotee in America.
That devotee is a divorce attorney. And, this devotee is telling that every time after vacations, our business goes up. So, this is sad, but what happens is that people who can’t get along with each other, they mostly stay busy in their work.
And, they try to live separate lives. But, when they come together on vacations, that is the time when they are meant to enjoy. They are meant to be happy.
But, they just can’t get along. Both of them, their minds are wild. They just start fighting with each other.
And then, by the end of a vacation, they say, we can’t live together. So, in general, it has been found that the time when people’s mind gets most agitated is the leisure time. When we have to work, the mind is engaged.
Do this, do this, do this. But, when we have nothing to do, during our spare time, our mind works overtime. So, during our spare time, the mind starts craving for this, craving for that, craving for that.
And, because of that, as the impulses get stoked more and more, we start feeling more and more dissatisfied. More and more agitated. So, the infatuation that happens is largely because the impulses are stoked more and more and more.
And, when this infatuation is there, then it leads to dissatisfaction. So, with respect to we are talking today about accommodation. So, our nature is something which we all have to discover and use in Krishna’s service.
But, at the same time, there is the impulses of the mind, which we have to carefully avoid. So, in the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about the austerity of the body, the speech and the mind. And, in 17.16, he says, manah prasad saumyatvam maunam atma vinigraha bhavasam shuddhrityetat tapo manasam uchyate he So, he says, tapo manasam, austerity of the mind.
And, he says, one austerity of the mind is satisfaction. Manah prasad. And, Sri Prabhupada writes in the parpot over there that, the more we contemplate in the sense objects, the more we become dissatisfied.
And, therefore, it is best to contemplate on scripture. Scriptures have many satisfying stories about Krishna. And, we meditate on that, we’ll get satisfaction.
So, now, it’s interesting here when the word austerity is used in associating with satisfaction. Normally, when we think about austerity, what does it mean? Today, the word austerity is used in terms of economics. Austerity measures.
So, the government, the economy has gone down. So, they say, we will cut down this supply, we’ll cut down this. That’s the austerity measure.
In the spiritual context, we use the austerity, say, to refer to fasting. So, austerity usually means that there is something which we would naturally do, but, as a conscious intention, we choose not to do that. So, naturally, we feel hungry and we want to eat.
For an ekadashi, we choose I will not eat. So, austerity means we go against that which is that which would be what we would automatically do. So, satisfaction of the austerity of the mind means that naturally our mind will crave for many things in the outer world.
And our mind, I want this, I want that, I want that. But, we refuse to contemplate on those things. We refuse to crave for those things.
Satisfaction is not just an emotion that we feel. Satisfaction can also be a decision that we make. So, in every situation in our life, there are certain things which are right with us and there are certain things which are wrong with us.
Certain things which are right in our life, certain things which are wrong in our life. So, to the extent we look at the things that are wrong in our life, to the extent that we look at the things which we don’t have, which others have, so if we look at that, there will be dissatisfaction. To the extent we look at the things that we have, there will be dissatisfaction.
So, austerity of the mind means, satisfaction of the austerity of the mind, that means we consciously focus on the things that we have. We consciously focus on the things that are right in our life. And, to the extent we do this, to that extent, we will be satisfied.
Even in the practise of Bhakti, if we don’t cultivate this austerity of satisfaction, we have the path to Krishna, which is a great, great blessing, the greatest blessing in material existence. But, our mind will, oh, you know, this devotee speaks like this, this devotee acts like this, this is not there, that is not there, that is not there. And, our mind will tend to become dissatisfied.
So, it is important for us that within Bhakti, we focus on the essentials. And, to the extent, we stop looking at the things that are wrong. Now, certain things are wrong and need to be set right.
And, we can work to set them right. But, if we are constantly dwelling on those things, then we can never be satisfied. So, we can’t be grateful for all situations.
But, we can be grateful in all situations. We can’t be grateful for all situations means that sometimes bad things happen in life. Sometimes, a terrible relationship disrupture happens.
Sometimes, we get some bad disease. Sometimes, there is a huge financial upheaval. And, these things, at least at our stage, it is very difficult to be grateful when things are going wrong.
But, even when things are going wrong, we can’t be grateful for all situations. Or, rather, even if we can’t be grateful for all situations, still, even when things are going wrong, we can choose to look at what is right. And so, we can be grateful in all situations.
Suppose, I get a terrible disease. Now, that disease causes me pain, causes me weakness. That’s something which is difficult for me to be grateful for.
But, if that disease is treatable, I am under the care of a good doctor who is treating that disease, then I can be grateful for the presence of the doctor in my life. I can be grateful for the presence of the treatment in my life. So, even when something big has gone wrong in our life, we can focus on what is right.
And thus, we can be grateful even in those situations. So, in our in our practises of spiritual life, we all our mind, because it is passionate, the passionate mind Krishna says, So, he says that greed is a characteristic of the passionate mind. So, we are practising bhakti which is, of course, transcendental.
We are trying to live a lifestyle which is largely sattvic. But, our minds tend to be passionate. And, when the mind is passionate, but the lifestyle is in goodness, that causes an incompatibility.
So, we have to, the mind will have this tendency to crave, I want this, I want that, I want that. Now, we may not want gross sense objects for enjoyment. But, we may want, this should work out this way, this person should act like this, this person should do like this.
So, we may have, for us as devotees, the enjoying mentality often comes off as a controlling mentality. Controlling means, we may say, I am controlling for Krishna’s sake. This devotee should do like this.
Why is this devotee not doing like this? Why is this person not doing like this? But, we are meant to be servants of Krishna. So, if things are not working out right, the mind will naturally contemplate. But, consciously, we get it to focus on that which is right in our life.
And, the biggest thing right in our life is that we are on the path to Krishna. And, although we are on the path to Krishna, we have to also find our path to Krishna. That means that we have to all have in our Krishna bhakti, a sense of purpose and a sense of urgency.
That, okay, I am serving Krishna. My life’s goal is to attain Krishna, to develop love for Krishna. But, how am I going to do that? We need some practical service in our life.
And, that practical service is what we get by the blessing of Sri Prabhupada and his representatives. Our spiritual guides, they tell us to do certain services. And, those services can sometimes look like burdens.
But, while doing those services faithfully, we observe ourselves and we see what is the service that we are comfortable with? What is the service that we are good at? And, gradually, we gravitate towards that service. So, you know, we have to have a sense of purpose and an urgency in our life, in our service to Krishna. This is what I want to do, and this is what I want to do now.
If we have that, if we have that sense of purpose and urgency, then the many things that are wrong in our life, we won’t bother about it. Just like if we are going for a casual stroll, we may notice, this is wrong like this, this is unclean, this is this, this is wrong, this is wrong. But, if we are going for some urgent work, we won’t notice what is wrong where, because we are going for our work.
So, like that, if we have a sense of purpose and urgency in our service to Krishna, then there will be many things wrong in the world around us, even in the devotee community around us. But, our mind won’t obsess over that, because our mind has got a purposeful engagement in Krishna’s service. So, there are many lost souls in the material world, whom we try to rescue, whom we try to get them to come to Krishna.
But, if we are not careful, we may be lost in Krishna’s movement also. That means, we are in Krishna’s movement, but if we don’t have a service, then, oh, this devotee said this, you know, this happened over here, that happened over here, that happened over there, we may just be buffeted and our mind will stay agitated. So, our service is our shelter.
So, to the extent we take shelter in our service to Krishna, to the extent our mind’s problems will go down. So, accommodation of the mind means, that at one level, we resist the temptations which come from the impulses and the infatuation. At another level, we understand our nature, we understand our natural inclination and we engage ourselves in a service, which is in harmony with our inclination, with a sense of purpose and urgency.
And once we have that, then, even in this life, although there is so much dukkha in this world, still that sense of that service, connection will give us satisfaction and it will help us progress steadily towards life’s supreme satisfaction, which is pure love for Krishna and absorption in Krishna. So, I will summarise what I spoke today. I was speaking about control with this, about managing the mind.
I talked sama, dama, bheda and danda. So, they talk about dama, accommodation. So, I started by talking about how Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita at one level says, what can preparation accomplish? At other level, he says, regulate the senses.
So, in the mind, there are two distinct things. There are the vasanas, which are the lower desires like lust, anger, greed and there is the swabhava, which is our nature. So, Krishna is saying the swabhava, the nature cannot be suppressed.
But, the vasanas have to be regulated. And, I discussed about how the Bhagavad Gita uses the word dharma in different contexts, in different things. So, the material dharma is what is the harmonious action according to our material nature.
That is to be given up. But, the spiritual dharma that has to be given up, if it comes in conflict with the spiritual dharma of surrender to Krishna. But, normally, we surrender to Krishna, we follow our paradharma through our aparadharma.
According to our material nature, we serve Krishna. So, we have inclinations within our mind, which can indicate our nature. So, what we notice subconsciously, if we note consciously.
So, that will give us an indication of what our nature is. And, our thoughts will naturally flow and we can engage ourselves productively according to our nature. Infatuation refers to when we contemplate a sense of object, the desires become overpowering.
So, our inclinations correlate with our instincts, whereas infatuation correlates with our impulses. Instinct and impulse, both are common in the sense that without intelligence, without conscious intelligence, there is action. But, instinct is programmed intelligence, which is necessary for our survival, which is good for us.
Impulse is the programmed desires, the programmed conditioning which have come up within us by our actions, which are harmful for us. I explain sometimes when the impulses, the mind which is impulsive, can work not only against the soul, but even against the body. It’s like drug addicts may neglect their body’s need of food and take drugs.
Internet addicts, they forget to eat and drink and just keep surfing on the internet. So, we need to curb our impulses and we need to channel our nature. So, the impulsive mind tends to be dissatisfied because it keeps craving as per the mode of passion for that which it does not have.
So, satisfaction is not just an emotion that we feel. It is a decision that we make as austerity of the mind by choosing to focus on the things we have, the things that are right in our life. Even when things go wrong, even when we can’t feel grateful for the bad things that happen in our life, we can still be grateful for the things that are still good in our life.
We can’t be grateful for all situations, but we can still be grateful in all situations. And for that gratitude to come, for that positive emotion to be there, we need to have a stable service connection with Krishna. So, we find the soul can be lost in the material world when one doesn’t know the goal of life.
But the soul can be lost even in devotee circle if one doesn’t know how can I march along towards Krishna. So, we need a service and we need to have a service that gives us a sense that is accompanied with a sense of purpose and urgency. And that purpose and urgency will protect us from getting distracted and agitated by things around us and we will focus on our service to Krishna and thus we will find satisfaction through that service and we will make constructive contribution through that service.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. So, are there any comments or questions? Yes.
You have said that we can save the universe. My question is that people take up to devotional service, spiritual life after sometime their initial euphoria is over. They have been carried out of their lives.
It again creates some rest in the spiritual life, even in communities also. What you shared with me is it’s almost like a lot of the psychotherapy and self-help practises have similar understanding of how our life works. There is a understanding of self within our body.
So, what is your view on using them to help people? We could use medicines for physical therapy but there is a lot of resistance for using them. So, there are some self-help teachers who talk about some principles which can help cultivate a positive attitude or deal with the mind’s negative patterns. So, can they be used in Krishna’s service? Ultimately, our principle is Yukta Vairagya.
That without attachment, if we can use something for Krishna’s service, that’s fine. So, there are the challenges that when we use something in Krishna’s service, how much, what is our conception of that and what is our conception of Krishna’s service to Krishna? So, for example, if I am sick and I take a physical medicine, then we very clearly understand that the physical medicine is not for the soul. The body is a tool and I have to take care of this tool and that’s why I am going to this doctor and taking this medicine.
But for us, from an operational perspective, it’s very difficult to differentiate between the mind and the soul. So, anything that makes us feel good, we tend to think that many people come to spirituality to feel good only. So, if something helps us to feel good, we’ll start thinking that is spiritual.
So, what happens is when we take help of any self-help teachers or we use some techniques like mindfulness or whatever for trying to calm the mind, then we may start thinking of that itself as spiritual. So, there is pacification of the mind and there is purification of the mind. So, when the mind is agitated, we bring it to goodness.
It becomes pacified. But when we connect the mind with Krishna, it becomes purified. So, the connection with Krishna through chanting the holy names, participating kirtans, through hearing Krishna katha, that is what will ultimately take us to Krishna.
That is what will give us the supreme satisfaction in life because our heart ultimately longs for love. So, nothing apart from bhakti can bring about complete purification. Now, as far as pacification is concerned, we can, if required, use some other practises.
For example, one way to pacify is simply deep breathing. Sometimes we may be trying to chant and our mind is wandering here and there. Just pause, take a few deep breaths and then try to chant.
We may find that we are able to chant better because the breathing is connected with the mind. Now, breathing is not purifying. Deep breathing is not purifying.
But it can be pacified. So, if we don’t mistake pacification to be purification or if we don’t mistake that the goal of spiritual growth is pacification. So, sometimes we may say that if some devotee has spoken very hurtingly to us and then our mind is going wild at that time, then ultimately we know for all problems the solution is taking shelter of Krishna.
But we may not be able to take shelter of Krishna at that time. So, if we just talk with some other devotee and that devotee speaks some sweet understanding words to us, understands our emotions, helps us to come to terms with the situation, then that calms us down. Now, that devotee may not even offer any spiritual solution.
He is just there as a human being to help us cope with that situation. That pacifies the mind. So, pacification is also important.
The one extreme is to just focus only on purification and say pacification doesn’t work, not required at all. So, you know, just chant Hare Krishna everything will be alright. But my mind is so wild that I can’t even focus on chanting.
What do I do at that time? Just keep chanting. But the mind is so wild that I can’t chant. So, we can’t say that pacification and purification are interchangeable.
We need pacification so that we can peacefully and joyfully pursue the path of purification. So, to say that there is no need for pacification is wrong. But the other extreme is to say that pacification allows enough.
Oh, you know, I did this mindfulness exercise. I felt so peaceful. That’s what I want to do.
Chanting doesn’t make me feel so peaceful. So, no need to chant. I’ll just do this.
So, then what is happening? We are mistaking pacification to be purification. So, one example to understand this is like painkiller and curative medicine. When a patient is in pain, is sick and in pain, then the doctor’s primary purpose is to cure the patient.
But if the pain is too great, then the doctor may also give some pain medicine. So, the pain medicine is not curative. And both the doctor and the patient have to clearly understand which medicine is for what purpose.
So, today we live in a very agitated world. In a very agitating world. One of the characteristics of Kali Yuga is Upadrutaha.
The mind is extremely agitated. So, now how to deal with the agitation of the mind? In an ultimate sense, it is by the practise of bhakti, which will bring purification. And through purification, the forces that agitate the mind will themselves go away.
But that is a gradual process. And in the intermediate process, what do we do? We have to find out how our mind gets pacified the best. There is one senior disciple of Sri Prabhupada, spiritual master, he told me that he journals every day.
And then I asked, are there any precedents in our tradition of journaling? So, he said that the principle of dealing with the mind is there in our tradition. How we do it, that is up to us. So, if journaling helps somebody to process, and then, after we practise bhakti for some time, we come to the mode of, Prabhupada writes in the lecture of instruction, introduction, that once we come to the mode of goodness, how to advance further will be revealed from within.
So, what does this mean? That means that initially, we follow the standard process of bhakti, focussing on the practises of bhakti. And as we come to the mode of goodness, we understand over a period of time that that which helps me to focus my mind on Krishna, that is favourable. And that which agitates my mind away from Krishna, that is unfavourable.
So, some practise like journaling is a devotee can maybe do it for a few days, one week, ten days, fifteen days, one month, and observe. If that helps my mind to become more peaceful, and then I can chant better, I can do seva better, then that’s perfectly fine. And as a devotee, what are we going to journal about? We are going to journal about our bhakti life itself.
So, if we can understand that this is a painkiller, and I need to take it circumstantially, then that is okay. So, two things, we shouldn’t start thinking that that will take the place of bhakti, that that will take the place of remembrance of Krishna. And we shouldn’t we shouldn’t advertise that to everyone.
Because each person’s mind is different. And journaling may be very good for me, but for somebody else, journaling may just be a waste of time. Because journaling also requires some amount of processing.
If I am simply indulging in myself by journaling, you know, I felt like that, and I felt like that, and this person did like this, and this person did like that. See, when we look at the past, we can look at the past in goodness, we can look at the past in ignorance. We can look, when we look at the past in goodness, we learn from the past.
When we look at the past in ignorance, we simply lament about the past and we stay locked in grief and lamentation and misery. So, we need to use any of these principles, any of these practises, you know, we need a certain amount of goodness. So, we have to evaluate whether it works for us, and we don’t have to assume that just because it works for me, it will work for others.
So, we have to see what helps us to pacify our mind, and if something helps us in pacifying our mind, we can do that as an addition to our process of bhakti, not as a substitution for our practise of bhakti. Does that answer your question? Thank you. Yes.
You can speak. I’ll repeat the question. Thank you.
I have two parts to my question. When you were giving the story of Pandavas, I was expecting that had I been there, I would probably want to check out all the four religions. So, the idea is that many times in today’s age, what is our nature itself is a very confusing concept.
So, are there any objective, analytical ways to find it out? And a second deeper question is that many times our impulsive behaviour is very closely associated with our instinctive behaviour. Our vasanas are very closely related to samadha. The vasanas of a Kshatriya or Vaishya are very different from the vasanas of Ramana.
And many times in our spiritual messaging, like in the technique that you told today of trying to develop the samkrishti satisfaction, is it very much a gravity technique? I got your question. So, many times a person with Kshatriya or Vaishya tendency may tend to break down, unable to… Is there scope for the other more and more people to take our pure shuddha bhakti movement? Okay. What was the first question? Understanding our nature.
So, are there any practical ways in which we can understand our nature? The first thing is that we have to develop some distance from our mind. If we ask our mind, what is your nature? The mind will say, whatever you are doing now, that is not your nature. Whatever service I am doing now, that is not my nature.
So, the search for understanding our nature can actually put us in greater distress. It can go greater in the control of the mind. The mind will say, this is not your nature.
This is not your nature. So, to some extent, we just do whatever service we are told to do. But while doing that service, we observe ourselves.
So, guna karma vibhag as it is said in the Bhagavad Gita. My understanding of guna karma is guna is that which is more internal. How we feel while we are doing something.
Karma is how good we are at doing it. So, guna we can say our inner comfort while doing something. And karma is our outer competence while doing something.
So, if we can look while doing our services what it is that we are comfortable doing and what we are competent doing. Then that comfort and compatibility are broad parameters which we can use for discerning what is our nature. And in general, the mind is fickle.
So, the mind wants the path of least resistance. So, even when we are doing something according to our nature, we will face difficulties. And the mind will not want to face those difficulties.
So, even people who are writers, who are professional writers, they like to, that is their nature of writing. But even they have something called writer’s block. Just sit and you can’t write anything.
It is simply the mind coming in the way. So, it is that the mind will obstruct us even when we are acting according to our nature. And the mind will obstruct us even when we don’t know what is our nature.
Because it will say this is not your nature. So, what we have to do is, we have to, whatever we are doing, we have to do it with commitment. So, if I take up some service, if I don’t like it, I will do it with commitment.
Say, maybe if I am doing something, if I am told maybe for 6 months, 1 year, some good amount of time, we keep doing it. As an austerity. And then, when we observe ourselves, we try to put aside whatever negativity, resentment of the mind is and just do it.
Then gradually, we will get better self-understanding. Okay, I don’t like this service. Okay, what is it that I don’t like about it? What exactly is it that causes me so much irritation or agitation? Then, by this, rather than just acting according to our emotions, we can try to understand what is causing those emotions.
For example, I feel so good doing this service. Now, okay, what is it that I am feeling good about? Somebody may give class and they may just love giving class. But is it because I like to share scripture or just like I want to be the centre of attention? Now, it’s not necessarily wrong to want to be the centre of attention.
That’s also a human desire which gradually has to be purified. But, I have to see if we keep doing the service regularly, even if it causes attachment or aversion. We like it or we don’t like it.
Rather, simply say that I don’t like it, so I’ll not do it. I like it, I’ll do it. We try to observe and analyse even those emotions.
Okay, what is it that I like about this? What is it that I just can’t stand about this? And so, our attachments and our aversions can actually reveal, can introduce us to us, can help us to better understand ourselves. Rather than simply saying I have attachments or I am averse to this, we can just, okay, what is going on over here? And then that can give us a better understanding. So, it’s a matter of introspection associated with some guidance from others.
So, our spiritual guides, our spiritual friends, they can also tell us, yeah, you are really good at this. Sometimes something, maybe sometimes you are very good at something, but you just take it for granted. And don’t realise it.
A lot of problem comes because we are very vulnerable to we could say social pressures. So, social pressures can come in material circles, but they can come in also in spiritual circles. Social pressure means in every social circle certain things are glamorised.
So, everybody may want to do that which is glamorised. So, say maybe in mundane circles everybody may want to become an engineer or a doctor because that’s what is glamorous. Everybody may want to become a business magnate or whatever.
Now, in devotee circle also certain services may get glamorised. Say preaching may get glamorised. And everybody wants to become a preacher.
Now, yes, everybody can do some amount of preaching, but preaching doesn’t necessarily mean one has to do a programme and give classes. In many different ways. So, sometimes we may be good at one thing, but because something else has been glamorised, or at least in our mind we think of it as glamorous, so we will be craving so much to do that that we don’t even notice what we are actually good at.
So, to some extent when we come to goodness, then we can see what is our inherent inclination or aspiration and what is coming from social pressure. So, some social pressure will just make us conform to do certain things. But somebody in a social circle may help us better understand ourselves.
You are trying to do this so much, but if you do this so much, you are already good at this. So, both through introspection and through association, we can better understand our nature. And a second question about we, our instinctive desires are related to our impulsive desires.
A Brahmana can cultivate satisfaction, but a Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra cannot. No, it’s not necessarily like that. What is required for the satisfaction for a Kshatriya will be different from what is required for a Brahmana.
But, a Kshatriya is also meant to cultivate some own satisfaction. So, when I was in America in January, I gave a series of classes on understanding what is our Kota. What is our Kota? So, take what is your Kota and don’t go beyond that.
Now, how do we know what is our Kota? So, the metaphor that I used was of food. That food is essential for survival. But, how much food who need that will vary from person to person.
Some people may have very strong digestion. They may need a lot of food. In fact, Bhima is glorified as Vrukodara.
Vrukodara means one who has a very voracious appetite. You may say, is that a praise or is that an insult, you know, to say somebody has a voracious appetite. But he is glorified for that.
There is a name which is given for him for that. So, just as different people will have different need of food. Now, how much is the need whose need for food? That is something which one has to individually decide.
We can consult others, but we have to decide. So, it’s like the basic point is when we are practising Bhakti, food should not become a competitor to Krishna. Now, what does that mean? That if I eat too little, then if I am fasting, I am chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, I am chanting Krishna Krishna externally, but my mind is chanting Prasad, Prasad, Prasad, Prasad, Hare Krishna, Prasad, Prasad, Krishna Krishna, Prasad, Prasad.
So, what is the use of that chanting? Better take some food and then come and chant. So, if we eat too little, then the food becomes a competitor to Krishna. On the other hand, if we eat too much, then we become too attached to the food, we become infatuated by the food, again the food becomes a competitor to Krishna.
Because we are craving, when will I get this, when will I get that, when will I get that? But, if we take food, what is needed for our body, and it’s not that, it’s not wrong to take delicious food also, but just take it in proper proportion, then the food serves our body, serves our mind, then we move on towards Krishna. The food, if it becomes a competitor to Krishna, either because of too little or too much, then it is a problem. Krishna says, that one who eats too much, or eats too little, can’t become a yogi.
So, we can use food as a metaphor for material things, in general. So, different people may say, need different levels of material comforts, or financial security, or social harmony, or say relationships, so that’s just their need. So, for some people who live in a rural setting, all the time, for them, they don’t need much comforts.
But for somebody who has lived in comforts in cities throughout their life, we tell them to go and live in villages, sometimes that itself, that itself may cause so much agitation, that that absence of material comfort becomes too much of a problem for them to focus their mind on Krishna. So, say for example, when it’s hot, all of us sweat. But some people sweat too much.
Some people don’t sweat so much. So now, if somebody is sweating too much, and they need a fan. So, for them to chant Hare Krishna, if there is no fan, and they are feeling so uncomfortable, they can’t chant.
Somebody else, they don’t need a fan. They can just, okay, sweating doesn’t matter. So then, the point is, okay, if you need a fan, use a fan, but continue chanting Krishna.
So, somebody may have a body which is more resistant to cold. Some people’s body is less resistant to cold. So, with respect to food and temperature, it’s easy to understand that different people will have different needs.
But with respect to, say, financial security, with respect to relational security, with respect to material comforts, these may be, these can also be different for different people. And whatever is needed, we have to, that has to be taken care of. If it is not taken care of, then people will be very agitated.
Some people, for them to practise bhakti, they need a certain amount of financial security. And they have that much security, then they can focus on bhakti. Some people, Krishna will take care of things.
Now, it’s not necessary that the first person has less faith in Krishna, and the second person has more faith in Krishna. It may be, but it can also be that the first person is a person whose need for security is greater. For the second person, the need for adventure is greater.
And what they are calling as dependence on Krishna, it’s actually their sense of adventure. It’s not necessary, it can be spiritual advancement, we don’t want to judge others. But I’m saying that, even in material life, there are, there are, what do you say, the psychologists talk about risk compatibility.
Let’s say people who can take, who have a tendency to take a lot of risk, they go into business. People who don’t want to take so much risk, they may go into jobs. So, that is just an individual nature.
So, somebody who has a greater caution for taking risks, they may take more risk for Krishna. They may appear to be more dependent on Krishna. But that’s not necessarily out of spiritual advancement.
So, just as we say that somebody has more intelligence, somebody has less intelligence. Intelligence is one opulence of Krishna. And we, as souls, get some of Krishna’s opulences based on our past karma.
So, somebody has more intelligence, then they may be able to do more intellectual services for Krishna. But their intelligence is not necessarily a sign of their spiritual advancement. It can be, it need not be.
Now, with respect to say wealth or with respect to looks, it’s easy to understand this. Somebody looks very attractive, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are spiritually advanced. We easily understand that.
But with respect to knowledge, there is so much knowledge, must be very spiritually advanced. Maybe, may not be. And it becomes most problematic with respect to renunciation.
See, renunciation at one level can be because of our practise of bhakti. वासु वेवे भगवति भक्ति योग प्रहिञ्यो जनैत्य आशु वेरागिन् यानं जय रहे तुका The practise of bhakti can lead to renunciation. But at another level, you also understand that renunciation is also an opulence of Krishna.
And renunciation can also be a result of past karma. So, some people, there are many, there are people who just, you know, stay single throughout their lives. They have no spirituality.
And not that they are having affairs or anything like that. They just stay single. So, they are renounced.
But that is not as if they are spiritual. So, by our past karma, we all may be endowed with different levels of renunciation also. So, somebody who is more renounced than another person, that just as wealth, if somebody has a lot of wealth, then they don’t have to worry so much about earning money.
And they can use that wealth in Krishna’s service. Or the pursuit of wealth doesn’t distract them from Krishna’s service. Similarly, somebody has renunciation, then that is a resource which they can use in Krishna’s service.
But renunciation itself is not necessarily a sign of spiritual advancement. It can be, but it need not be. So, that’s why different devotees, based on how much renunciation they have from their past karma, may have different amount of needs.
And accommodating those needs is not considered pandering to the senses. So, the point is, whether by doing a particular activity, does my mind become more peaceful so that I become more focused on Krishna? So, peacefulness of mind can come in two ways. One is just purely by absorption in Krishna.
But the other is, when our material situation is not too agitated. Let’s say, if we are sick, and we are in pain. Now, at that time, if there is no cure for the pain, we may helplessly call out to Krishna.
And we may really take shelter of Krishna at that time. But that is not the way we can lifelong take shelter of Krishna. We want a certain level of health.
So, when the physical health is reasonably good, then the mind is not so irritated or agitated by bodily pain and focus on Krishna. Similarly, just like the soul is in a particular body, soul is in a particular society also, in a particular environment also. The soul has these three coverings.
The bodily, the social and the environmental. And, we all need a certain level of harmony in the soul’s coverings. The physical, the social and the environmental.
So, some weather is just so difficult for people to be here. They are constantly agitated. They may need to emigrate to some other place and then they can practise bhakti peacefully.
We don’t just want to keep travelling from one place to another. We are talking about the principle that our peacefulness of the mind can come ultimately by absorbing Krishna. But circumstantially also, if there is too much agitation, then we can’t be focused on Krishna.
In modern psychological terms, we talk about comfort zone, stretch zone and panic zone. So, we don’t want to be in a comfort zone where we are seeking only for peace at the material level. We want some amount of peace at the material level so that we can focus on spiritual practise.
So, we want to be in a stretch zone. In panic zone, we are overwhelmed by the problematic situations around us and we can’t do anything. So, what comprises a stretch zone and what comprises a panic zone and what comprises a comfort zone? This will vary from person to person.
And each of us has to find out what is the need that we have by which we can practise bhakti. So, somebody may be satisfied by eating say one chapati. Somebody eats five chapatis.
So, for a person who is eating one chapati, two or three chapatis may be excess. This is satisfied with chapati. If somebody is eating five chapatis for them, seven, eight chapatis are excess.
So, what is it that is required for satisfaction will vary from person to person. But the principle that we shouldn’t crave beyond what is our need, that is universal. So, we have to have this recognition that we cannot apply one formula for everyone at the material level.
Spiritual level, everyone wants to love Krishna. That’s the ultimate aspiration. But materially, different people will need different things.
Materially, it is said that the shoe that fits one leg bites another leg. So, similarly, one situation may be like a stretch zone. They feel excited to be in that situation.
For somebody else, it is a panic zone. So, we have to accommodate different people’s different needs and each of them with their own sincerity and honesty find out what is the level at which they can be satisfied. And then they practise Krishna.
Do you want to ask a question? Yeah, I think it’s a little over time. We can talk privately or we can talk in the evening class. Thank you very much.
Thank you.