Meta-thinking is vital for fruitful thinking Gita 14.23

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
वैराज्य thank you Meta thinking is the is critical for fulfilling the purpose of thinking. Meta thinking refers to thinking about thinking thinking about our thoughts so we always are invariably thinking even when we say let’s say I spoke thoughtlessly or when we say that somebody acts thoughtlessly it’s not really thoughtless there is just there are thoughts which are not well considered there is some impulse which comes in the mind and immediately we act on that impulse.
The impulse also comes as a thought, it becomes a desire an intention and impels us to an action but we have not thought adequately about it so when we use the word thoughtless and thoughtful actually in a sense we are always full of thoughts and we are never divided of thoughts but some thoughts are well considered, some thoughts are unconsidered and this capacity to think about our thoughts that is a significant human attribute which enables us to differentiate between our thoughts at the level of our thoughts sometimes we act and after doing an action we think whether what I did was right or wrong whether it was worthy or unworthy whether I should have done it or I should not have done it I am thinking of that at least at that time is better than never thinking about it but it is much better if we can do this thinking evaluation before the action rather than after the action and before the action means what comes before the action thoughts, that’s how they enter, there are emotions thinking feeling, willing that’s what happens in the inner world so now thinking about our thoughts means becoming an observer of our consciousness understanding how our consciousness is moving in different directions and then making the appropriate choices based on what would be the best in that particular situation Krishna talks about this kind of meta thinking in the 14th chapter and he is talking about how we can counter the effects of the modes so there in he states that Prakasham cha pravattim cha Moham eva cha pandava Advaishtisam pravattanina nivruttani kankshateen Uddhaseen avadhaseenam gunayo na vichalyate gunavartan dittyeva yo vatishthati nengate so he says that different thoughts they will come in their mind and we understand that they are simply coming by the effect of the modes gunavartan dittyeva sometimes we feel illumined Prakasham other times pravattim we will feel impelled to action Moham does it not feel like doing anything at all so when this happens when we feel illumined we may feel delighted that oh I am feeling so thoughtful and other times and we may feel resentful oh why am I thinking like this but we understand that these thoughts are coming they are going is simply the result of the modes so we could treat them like the weather some of us may like warm weather some of us may like cold weather but irrespective of our likes the weather is what it is so there has to be a certain level of acceptance it is what it is as we say so if we are in a place where it’s usually very hot like say India many parts of India sometimes become extremely hot or if we are in the northern part of America where things become extremely cold now it is what it is there is no point in resenting it complaining about it it is just wasted mental energy because it is not going to change so by accepting that it is what it is we can move on and then we can deal with other things then we can take care of things as they grow in our life things as we can decide once we have accepted that this is the way the weather is then that doesn’t mean that we become passive or fatalistic what is that? it gives the foundation it’s cold over here I should have adequate warm clothes if it’s hot over here I should arrange for fan or air conditioning whatever so like that if we understand just like there is outer weather which is not so much under our control similarly there is inner weather, there is mental weather which is not in our control but that does not mean that we let the weather determine our actions if there are certain important things which we have to do then we do them irrespective of the weather but we take the weather into account and then do the necessary to adapt so that we can do it amidst that weather also so like that once we recognize that the weather is simply a fact of life then we prepare appropriately to deal with it then we can move on and whenever certain kind of thoughts come some of us may be more impulsive so once we understand this is the way my mind works then we create for ourselves mechanisms for impulse control I decide when I am angry I will never speak if I get angry about something I will not speak anything for 24 hours I will wait for that much time to pass only after that I will speak there are certain times when I feel lethargic then I will let those times then I will not give in to that because lethargy will also go so by thinking about our thoughts we can prevent those thoughts from prevent unworthy thoughts from taking over our life from gaining inordinate control over our life and making us do things which we shouldn’t be doing and which we wouldn’t want to do also if we were in a better frame of mind by the practice of bhakti when we try to fix the mind on Krishna what that does is it gives us a further direction for our meta thinking it gives us a further impetus for moving closer to Krishna it gives us a further impetus for a higher object for our consciousness and with that higher object for our consciousness so when the mind starts moving here and there we if it is trained to be fixed on Krishna then it can be withdrawn from all those directions and then it can be stabilized by fixing on Krishna and then we can return towards more constructive, creative, productive thoughts. Thank you.