No price is too high to possess ourselves – RECAP acronym

[Talk at the Bhakti Center, Gold Coast, Australia]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And I am sorry I got a little late because of the traffic. So, I’ll speak today on the topic of no prize is too big to possess ourselves.
I was just a few months ago in America, in Denver, and I was addressing a group of people connected with Alcoholics Anonymous. And many of these people, sometimes you may have a stereotype of people who are alcoholics, they are irresponsible, they are good for nothing, they are wrecks in society. But what I found was when I interacted with them, very intelligent, competent, good people, but somehow they got caught in this habit.
And once they get caught in that habit, it’s almost impossible to get out. And generally, we don’t make a change in our life till the price of staying where we are becomes greater than the price of changing. So, at a psychological, emotional, physical, social level, we always do a cost and benefit analysis.
Now, of course, when we do the cost benefit analysis, whether it is the value which we are giving to what, that may vary from time to time. We may think this is too difficult and this is okay, this is easy. Whether it’s actually like that, it’s a different issue.
I’ll come to that a little later. But the point is that generally, if the effort of doing something new seems to be too much, and the effort of staying where we are, it seems lesser, then we’ll stay where we are. So, when somebody is addicted to something, giving up an addiction is extremely difficult.
But staying there is also very difficult. So, when that point registers within them, this is not the way I want to live. When the cost of staying where one is becomes unbearable, that’s when they begin the journey to changing themselves.
So, I’m writing a book on spirituality and addiction. And so, there’s this story of an addict, which I tell in this. So, this person was alcoholic.
And the nature of addiction is that the urge can come anytime. And when it comes, it can be overpowering. So, this alcoholic, one in America, in one cold night, suddenly he got the urge to drink.
And then he went to his fridge, he didn’t have any drinks with him. Then he decided to go out. And the urge had taken such strong position of him, he came out and he forgot that he had not worn any warm clothes.
He rushed into his car and started driving his car to the nearby bar. When he went there, the particular brand of liquor he wanted was not there. So, he got frustrated and started driving his car to the other end of the town practically, where the other bar was.
And his anxiety had forgotten that his car didn’t have enough fuel. So, he got stranded somewhere along the way. And then the anxiety was so much, the urge was so much to go that he just got his car, parked somewhere along the way, just literally ran through the cold.
And it started snowing, still he was running, freezing. Finally got the bar, got the alcohol, took a sip, after giving the money, he said, no. He took a sip and he said, no.
He said, no. I spent so much effort, I want to enjoy this. So, he said, I’ll go back and then I’ll sit down and enjoy.
So, he said, oh, my car is there in the middle. Somebody had pulled it, towed it away. So, he started going back.
And as he was going back, the snow had accumulated at a particular place, it was slippery and he slipped. And in his anxiety, he had forgotten to tighten the cap of the bottle. As he fell, the whole bottle’s content poured on him.
And he was lying on the ground, bathed in liquor, with the cold snow below him. And he looked around, all around these big buildings, all the lights were closed. And suddenly it struck him.
What am I doing? He said, I could be sleeping comfortably in bed. What am I doing here? He said, that was the time it dawned on me that I am enslaved, that I am trapped. Most people who are addicted, they live in denial.
They think, I can give it up whenever I want. Oscar Wilde said that, giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I have done it over a hundred times.
So, as long as we are in denial, we can’t actually do anything to cure ourselves. So, that moment when, I don’t want to be a slave, the price I am paying for this addiction is too high. See, most of the time, we may not be addicts, we may not be alcoholics, but the principle applies in the same way.
See, we all have certain desires and sometimes when the desire becomes very strong, then that desire drives our entire life. And if that desire is not fulfilled, we get frustrated. And we think the cause of my dissatisfaction, the cause of my unhappiness is the frustration of the desire.
However, if we look deeper, the cause of unhappiness is not the frustration of desire, but it is domination by desire. It is because I am dominated by desire, I am pulled here, pulled there, pulled everywhere and I am somehow forced to try to fulfil that desire. And if it is not fulfillable, I get frustrated.
So, we live in an age where slavery is more or less universally condemned. Although most people are free from physical slavery, most people are bound in psychological slavery, slavery at the mental level. The Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, Asha, Pashishta, Irbada.
We are bound by hundreds and thousands of desires. Now, the bondage can be of different degrees. Something which is like a drugs, might be lethal.
But the bondage can be of a lesser degree. We are attached simply to our phones. I was in a university in Colorado, I spoke on the topic, do you need to break up with your phone? A good number of students had come and then had quite a good talk.
So, the point is that there can be various things on which you become dependent. And if you are not able to get it, you feel inordinately agitated. And if that object is not very, that dependence is not very destructive, not very damaging, we may not be worried too much about it.
However, the principle is the agitation is caused not so much because we don’t get that thing. It is caused because first of all we are desiring that thing. Say, if two people are staying here, this is their house and this is their office, their colleagues and they are living together also.
So now, one of them is alcoholic and drinks regularly. The other is a teetotaller, doesn’t drink. And along the way there is a bar.
Now, when both of them pass by the bar, the person who is not drunk, who is not considering drinking, that person may not even notice it. This goes along straight to the work. There is no mental energy expended on it.
But for someone who has drunk many times, as soon as they pass by the bar, start thinking, maybe I should take a drink. I know I have a lot of work to do. No, just one drink, it won’t make much difference.
No, no, no, I can’t drink now. No, just take one drink and that tug of war will go inside. And even if they succeed in resisting the temptation, but still the mental energy gets expended on it.
Many of us, nowadays we don’t do a lot of physical work. Our work is usually more, at a more intellectual or other levels. We don’t really physically go and labour like farmers or labourers.
So, we don’t very often suffer from physical exhaustion. But often we suffer from mental exhaustion. Mental exhaustion means, I’m fed up.
I’m fed up. What happens when I’m fed up means, I’m so tired, I just don’t feel like doing anything more. So, when we feel fed up, that is the time basically, all of us, whenever we have to do any work, we need a certain amount of energy.
And when that energy is no longer there, we can’t function. At a physical level, we understand this expenditure and regeneration of energy very easily. We know, every few hours I have to take food, otherwise I’ll get exhausted.
So, the activity of eating at a physical level is something which is an integral part of our daily schedule. And we make time for it. And we know we can’t work without it.
So, as we keep working, we know our physical energy gets expended. But what applies to our physical energy, also applies to our mental energy. And when our mental energy gets dissipated, it drains us.
So, basically when we feel fed up, it’s essentially that our mental energy is so drained, that we have no energy left to deal with the issue. When we are fed up of something, even a small issue seems very big. When we are cheerful, high spirits, even a big problem, come on, I’ll do it.
We feel we feel stimulated to challenge it. So, our mental energy, our inner energy, is our primary asset. And this energy is actually the energy of our consciousness.
Whatever we want to do, we first and foremost need our consciousness to do it. Somebody might be an expert musician. They may have the skills to perform with a musical instrument.
But they can’t perform if their consciousness is elsewhere. If their consciousness is that they had just had a quarrel with someone, and their consciousness is caught in that, they can’t perform. If somebody loves music, you know, they go for a music performance, music concert.
They can’t enjoy the music if their consciousness is elsewhere. So, our consciousness is our most fundamental resource. All other resources, be the talents, be the relationships, possessions, everything else, we can use them and gain satisfaction through them only when our consciousness is in its proper place.
And the topic is that no prize is too high for possessing ourselves. What it means is that we need to have our consciousness in our control. Our consciousness needs to be ours to choose where to focus.
When somebody is addicted, their consciousness is caught in the object of addiction. Depending on the magnitude of the addiction, some alcoholics, the first thing, first thought they get when they wake up is of alcohol. The last thought they have before sleeping is of alcohol.
And many of their thoughts throughout the day are of alcohol. So, when we are attached to something, then our consciousness gets consumed by that thing. And it is no longer available for other things.
So, sometimes this attachment becomes destructive. Now, most of us, we don’t feel the problem with attachment. Yeah, I like it.
I enjoy it. What is the problem? But attachment brings with it something else. In the same verse which I quoted earlier, 16.11, Krishna says that, chintam aparimeyam ca pralayantam upashyatah kama upabhog parama etavaditi nishchitah So, in 16.11 he says that, when we are bound by our desires, then the result is, the next verse says, when we are bound by desire, we are bound to fear.
When we are bound by desire, we are bound to fear. Anxiety, nervousness, stress, worry, all this is a result of attachment. When we are too attached to something, we are constantly thinking about it.
We think it will give me pleasure, but simultaneously if it won’t give me pleasure, it causes tremendous agitation. A few months ago, India was, India is a cricket mad country. In Australia also cricket is there, but maybe not as magnitude as India.
Anyway, there was a cricket tournament, champions trophy, in which India played Pakistan. And everybody expected India to win, but India lost. And lost very badly.
So, after that one boy came and told me, he says, last three nights I have not been able to sleep. He says, how could India lose like this? So, I said, the players have slept, why are you not able to sleep? It’s because when our consciousness is too caught in something, then it keeps us restless. So, attachment promises pleasure, but along with it, it delivers a lot of agitation, lot of distress, lot of anxiety.
And now attachment itself is not bad. Attachment to something positive, attachment to something constructive, that brings out the best within us. But often we are not very cautious about what we are getting attached to, where our desires are going.
And that’s where we get internally dissipated. So, if we understand our consciousness is our most precious asset, then we will recognise whatever I want to do in my life, I cannot do it without my consciousness. And therefore, protecting my consciousness is extremely important.
I had gone to one country, the devotees there told me, please don’t tell the name of the country because other preachers will not come to this country. So, anyway, so I won’t mention the name, but he said that at that country, what happens is when you come into the country, they have a whole organised racket by which the porters, the airport staff, they all somehow steal your passport. And then you know you cannot go out of the country without the passport.
And then often they blackmail people and make people pay a lot of money to get the passport back. And because people are frantic, that country is considered to be like a tourist country. So, people visit for a few days and then going and they have to go back to their work wherever.
So, often they are ready to pay any price that is required to get their passport back. So, actually, similarly, our consciousness is so valuable that guarding it is vital for us. So, possessing ourselves means possessing our consciousness, ensuring that our consciousness is with us so that we can decide where we want to invest it.
So, I’ll talk about, till now I talked about how possessing our consciousness is important. Now, I’ll talk about five broad ways in which we can gain possession of ourselves. Krishna uses the word Atmavan.
Atmavan means one who is a possessor of their own soul. So, how can we do that? I’ll talk about this. I’ll use an acronym, RECAP, R-E-C-A-P.
So, R is regulation. Regulation means that I was in Google, I spoke in Google in Silicon Valley, just about three, four months ago. So, in Google, I was quoting this to Google employees, the experiment study that was done in Google.
Now, Google is a big company, relatively speaking. So, anyway, so many of them did not know about this experiment which was done in their own premises. So, what happened? Because many software jobs are usually sedentary.
So, people tend to have issues with obesity. So, they called an expert and that expert told them that they wanted to cut down, decrease the obesity and all associated health problems in their company. They called an expert and this expert told them that in your cafeteria, whatever candies are there, just cover them in with non-transparent paper.
And they did that and just in next three months, they found that the consumption of candies decreased by 33%. And from Google’s point of view, the health insurance costs also decreased because of that, which is important for them. So, the point here is that many of our desires are circumstantial.
You see something, okay, let me eat it. I watch this, let me do this. So, it is said that the easiest way to maintain self-control is to avoid situations that require self-control.
The easiest way to maintain self-control is to avoid situations that require self-control. Now, this can be in many, many areas. I am a writer.
So, when I write, there is a temptation to do research. Now, maybe read this, read this, read this. And sometimes research is important, but sometimes we have to stop researching and start writing.
So, one way to do that is just to cut yourself off from everything else, just focus on writing. So, when we, otherwise there is a temptation, maybe I can just look this up, maybe I can talk with this person, maybe I can find out some more information. So, cut off.
And then when we avoid whatever the situation that is, we cannot avoid it entirely, but if you regulate it, that helps us in focussing. So, regulation, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, just as the tortoise withdraws its limbs into itself and protects itself from the danger by being in its shell, similarly, avoid distraction. And this regulation helps us to channel our energies.
And here comes the next point, that it is very important that we cannot just say no to things. The second point is engagement. I am going to talk about the acronic recap.
So, engagement means, what are we going to do? It’s very important to keep doing things to be on the move. If we live too much inside the head, then we don’t do anything. Once there were three frogs on the wall of a well, two of them decided to jump into the well.
How many remained? How many remained? Two decided, they didn’t jump. All three remained. So, just deciding is not enough, we have to do.
So, sometimes what happens, we just stay too much in our head. Now, we have to start doing things. Whatever it is we want to do, sometimes we feel that, you know, changing this way, doing this is so difficult, I can’t do it.
I’m like this, I want to become like that. Sometimes I get worried too much, I want to become calm. But then sometimes I feel, okay, I get angry too much, I want to avoid anger.
So, we think that I want to do this, but when we start doing it, we feel it’s too difficult. And then we give up. Engagement means take small steps.
We need to see that engagement is start doing it. Engage yourself in the positive. In the journey towards self-mastery, there is no destination, it is a direction.
That means there is no situation where I can say, I have mastered myself now. Every day is a new day. So, it’s a direction.
And even if we take one step in that direction, that is positive, that helps. So, often our efforts to improve ourselves fail because we get too hooked to some idealistic target. But if, okay, the target can inspire us, but we don’t have to think that if I can’t achieve the target, it’s a failure.
Even if I make a resolution and I stick to it for 30 days, and 31st day I fail. I can look at, oh, what is the use, I never stick to my resolutions. I can think, no, 30 days I did it, that was a success.
So, if we see it more as a direction than as a destination, then we will keep taking steps forward, keep taking steps forward. And generally, the mind exaggerates the effort required for mastering ourselves. We think, I have to do it lifelong.
Then lifelong seems too long. And then the mind says just, okay, from lifelong, maybe not lifelong, maybe for a few months, for a few months, maybe one month, maybe not one month, maybe one week, you already done enough. So, the mind makes us relapse.
So, instead of thinking in two big terms, in general, just start moving. Whatever we can do right now, that is good enough for right now. So, once we start doing something that generates a momentum, and that helps us to move forwards.
And when we are practising Bhakti Yoga, I’ll talk about Bhakti Yoga more later. But here, Bhakti Yoga is a process of ongoing connection with Krishna. Devotion is not just an emotion.
Devotion is conscious, continuous cultivation. Devotion is conscious, continuous cultivation. It means that when we come to a temple, we have behold the deities of the Lord, we chant the names.
It is not one day I do it and it’s done. One day I feel attraction towards Krishna and it’s done. It’s a conscious, continuous cultivation.
And every day that, say, we remember Krishna, every day that we study Krishna’s message, every day that we chant Krishna’s names, we are taking steps forward. We are taking steps forward. And this is the positive which helps us to regulate the negative.
Generally, if we decide I will not do it, I’ll not do this. And any negative resolution is very difficult to sustain. Because the nature of the mind is, as soon as we think I will not do something, the mind already starts thinking about it.
Because to not do something, okay, I’m thinking about that. And if we have already indulged in it, we think about it, desire starts coming for it. So the important thing is to start the positive.
If I tell you right now, for the next 30 seconds, please don’t think of a pink monkey. Except for a pink monkey, you can think of whatever you want. Just 30 seconds, don’t think of a pink monkey.
You may never have thought of a pink monkey in your life. Pink monkey, huh? How does a pink monkey? Okay, I have seen one. The thoughts will start getting triggered in that direction.
So what happens, our resolutions to the extent they are focussing on the negative, they get sabotaged there itself. But we focus on the positive. We focus, okay, what do I want to do? What do I want to do with my life? How can I move forward in that direction? It’s not so much about, whenever we want any kind of self mastery, it’s not so much about giving up something.
As I earlier said that, it’s only when the price for staying where we are seems more than the price of moving, that we start moving. So what this means is, if we are to give up something, then what is it that I’m going to get by giving it up? What is the kind of life that we want to create? What is the kind of person we want to become? What is the kind of contribution that we want to make? When we focus on that, then giving up things become easier. And then take small steps, small steps.
It’s one step that I take in this moment is enough, so engagement. And C is conviction. Conviction means that quite often when we make a resolution and we’re not able to keep it, we may feel that oh, I don’t have enough willpower.
It’s not so much that we don’t have enough willpower. Somebody says that, actually, some devotees sometimes say that, some people say that, I just don’t have the determination to wake up in the morning. I often tell that, no, you have determination.
He says, no, I just don’t have any determination. He says, no, you have the determination to keep sleeping. Isn’t it? See, actually, every one of us has determination.
What do we mean by determination? Determination means even if something is difficult, even if something takes a lot of effort, we do it. That is determination. Now, even addicts have determination, isn’t it? They may say, I have no determination to give it up.
You have determination to hold on to it. Isn’t it? It costs so much money. It leads to disruption of your life.
Maybe relationships get spoiled. You may lose your job. So many things you pay for it.
So, you keep doing it. So, no one can say, I don’t have determination. It is just that our determination is misdirected.
So, an addict’s determination is misdirected towards holding on to that thing. So, it’s not that we lack willpower. All of us have willpower.
It’s just that where is the willpower directed? So, conviction means we, what we lack is not willpower. What we lack is the will to use our willpower. That means, unless I, we may know, okay, this is good for me, this is not so good for me.
But the nature of our mind is, the mind’s emotions keep changing. And when the mind’s emotions change, the same thing I felt, yeah, I want to do it today. The next day, why am I doing this? I don’t want to do this.
So, our emotions tend to be very, very unsteady. So, when our emotions are unsteady, what will make us steady? Above our emotions is our intelligence. And our intelligence can give us conviction.
Conviction means that, at least at the level of intelligence, I accept that this is important, no matter how I feel. So, when, if we decide to do something, it’s important for us to note down, why am I doing this? Why is this important for me? Our knowledge, our intelligence, that is like our weapon to fight against our hostile emotions, against our negativities, against our weaknesses. But that weapon has to be with us.
Now, suppose a soldier is fighting a war and is on the war front. And one night, soldier suddenly goes out for a stroll without any weapons. And the enemy attacks.
The soldier can’t say, wait, wait, let me go back to the tent, let me get my weapons and I’ll fight with you. The enemy will slaughter. So, similarly, just as a weapon in the tent is of no use for the soldier in the fight, the soldier has to have the weapon.
Similarly, whatever is our intellectual conviction, why am I doing this? We know it, but often it is not in the forefront of our consciousness. It is at the background. So, as I mentioned, I’m a writer.
So, I am quite conscious of words. And with respect to vocabulary, it is said that we all have two kinds of vocabulary. One is the active vocabulary and the other is the passive vocabulary.
Passive vocabulary means we know the word, but we don’t use it very often. Sometimes we want to express a particular thought, just don’t get the right word. And if somebody else expresses that thought, this was exactly what I wanted to say.
So, we understand it when others say it. So, in that sense, we know the word, but when we want to use it, we don’t get it. So, if a person wants to become articulate, more and more words have to be brought from their passive vocabulary to their active vocabulary.
And that means they use the words more and more. They watch others using the words more and more. And then by that, those words will be usable for them when they need them.
Similarly, there’s a lot of knowledge we all have. But conviction means that we keep the knowledge in the active part of our brain, in the forefront of our consciousness. So, if we write down, okay, I want to do this.
Why do I want to do this? One, two, three, four, five, and keep that maybe with us in a diary or keep it as a note in our phone. And whenever our emotions start going against us, we look at it. We look at it.
Then that will give us a boost. So, that’s C, conviction. A is association.
Association is the single most important factor in determining the direction of our life. Generally, we think of our desires as linear. Say, as I talk about alcoholic, and they’re here, and the alcohol bar is here.
So, you see the bar, somebody sees the bar and gets the desire. So, we see a tempting object and we get the desire. So, we think of our desires as linear.
But actually, our desires are not just linear. They are also triangular. Triangular means that we see a particular object.
Sometimes we don’t get the desire for it. But we see somebody else enjoying that object. And we see that and then we get the desire.
And several years ago, first time I came to Australia, a devotee invited me to their house for prasad, the food. And then they had made a sweet I had never heard of. It’s called baklava.
So, I said, would you like to have some baklava? Now, the sound of baklava is not very pleasant. Baklava. So, I said, what is this baklava? Maybe later.
Then the devotee also had come with me for prasad. He said, yeah, you give me. And then I saw the baklava.
OK, it looks like some sweet. And then this devotee took the baklava and he was eating it. He was savouring it.
I looked at him, give me one also. So, just hearing or seeing about it didn’t create the desire. But seeing someone else enjoying it created the desire.
And this is, this is the whole principle where many big companies, when they release their products, when they do advertisements, they pay phenomenal amounts of money for endorsements by celebrities. A new phone comes up. And this phone, it’s a new phone, it’s so good.
OK, well, so many new phones keep coming up. But if a celebrity says, this phone is very good, I use this phone. Celebrity endorses it, then what happens? Just seeing the phone may not create a desire within us.
But seeing somebody using that phone, seeing somebody enjoying that phone, oh, I want to have it. And this principle applies especially for spiritual or positive things in life. Because often the positive things in life may not be so visibly attractive.
So, when we have association, when we want to give up something or we want to take up something, if we have some other like-minded people who are also doing the same thing, then their association can give us tremendous boost. Sometimes when, I said earlier, our emotions will sometimes work against us. When our emotions work against us, internally our conviction will push us, externally the association will push us.
I don’t feel like doing it. Come on, let’s do it. We see somebody else doing it, oh, this person is doing it, let me also do it.
So, if we would like to do anything positive in our life, then a very important asset would be find someone else who is doing that and then start that. So, when we are trying to practise bhakti, it’s important to have the association of other devotees. It is association that will trigger our spiritual desires.
It is association that strengthens our positive inspiration. And the last point which I’ll conclude, P, is purification. Purification means, sometimes we feel that, okay, I’m doing this, I’m saying no to this, I’m saying yes to this, it’s such a struggle, how long can I keep doing this? But the fact is that when we are practising bhakti, when we are connecting with Krishna, then that connection with Krishna purifies us.
Purification means two things. See, as I said earlier, inside us, there is a positive side which tells us do good, there is a negative side which tells us do bad. So, the alcoholic is going by a bar, some part says, no, don’t go, focus on your work.
I’ll say, no, let’s go and drink. There is always this conflict within us. The purification works at two levels.
The lower side within us becomes weaker, and the higher side within us becomes stronger. When we connect with Krishna, the higher side within us will become stronger. And although the struggle may be there, the intensity of the struggle will go down.
And this purification is the magic of bhakti. The first four principles they could be applied by someone who is not even practising bhakti. And it can help to some extent.
But generally, changing our desires is not very easy. But when we practise bhakti, then the change of desires can happen in a dramatic way. So, now we may say that actually to practise bhakti also requires determination.
So, where do I get that? Sometimes when we chant Hare Krishna, there is one devotee in UK, he asked me this question. He said, initially, when I started coming to bhakti, devotees told me, chant Hare Krishna and you will be able to control your mind. But now I am chanting Hare Krishna and devotees tell me, you control your mind and chant Hare Krishna.
So, I asked him, what am I supposed to do? Does chanting Hare Krishna and practising mantra meditation, does it help us to control our mind? Or do we have to control our mind and chant Hare Krishna? Is it the cause or is it the effect? Actually, it is both. At one level, to do anything in life, we need some amount of control. We need some amount of concentration.
Even if somebody wants to watch a movie and enjoy a movie, they need to focus on the movie. If they are seeing, if somebody is talking with them, some phone call is coming, this is happening, they can’t enjoy the movie also. So, concentration is required for doing anything positive in life.
But with respect to bhakti, whatever little self-control we may have, whatever little capacity to concentrate we may have, if we use it to serve Krishna, to connect with Krishna, to focus on Krishna, that has a multiplier effect. Why a multiplier effect? Because Krishna is all pure. Even a little connection with Krishna, it is not just we trying to concentrate on Krishna.
When we try to concentrate on Krishna, Krishna reciprocates, He manifests Himself within us. And by that manifestation, we become purified. It is like, say if I lift, want to lift a 20 kg weight, it requires some effort.
Now, if I get a trolley, and I push the trolley. Now, even pushing the trolley requires energy. But the amount of energy required to push a trolley with a 20 kg weight and to push the 20 kg weight ourselves, is significantly different.
To carry the 20 kg weight is significantly different. So, similarly for us, when we practise Krishna bhakti, that has a multiplier effect. The effort required is there, but the returns are much more.
And when purification happens, then we find that the inner battle goes down. Krishna says in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, 27-28 verses that, that by the steady practise of yoga, bhakti yoga, the mind will become peaceful. And the yogi will experience supreme happiness.
Upaiti, shant, rajasam, all the agitation that is there within us, that will get pacified. Because we will realise our spirituality. We realise our spiritual purity.
We will realise and relish our eternal joyful connection with Krishna. So, purification means the transformation has happened. The inner war has ended.
We become absorbed in Krishna. And that is the time when we possess ourselves and we offer ourselves to Krishna. So, for us, the prize of possessing ourselves is, you know, we don’t want to live in isolation.
I am my own owner. We want to do some contribution. We want to have some connection.
So, we want to possess ourselves so that we can offer ourselves. And the process of bhakti yoga is a process by which the more we offer ourselves, the more we get possession of ourselves. And the more we get possession of ourselves, the more we offer ourselves.
Whatever little, we may have many attachments, many anxieties, many distractions, but whatever little capacity of focussing our consciousness we have, we use it and we possess it and we offer it to Krishna. When you offer it to Krishna, Krishna reciprocates by purifying us. Then more and more of our consciousness becomes freed from attachments.
It comes in our possession and then that we offer to Krishna. And by this process of possessing and offering to Krishna, we become more and more devoted to Krishna, become more and more absorbed in Krishna and that absorption provides the supreme satisfaction. I’ll quickly summarise.
I spoke about how best we can when no price is too much to possess ourselves. Started by talking about how alcoholics, till the point they recognise the cost that their addiction is taking, they will not put in the effort to change themselves. Only when the price of staying where we are becomes more than the price of changing do we change.
And then talked about this alcoholic who got caught at night with the desire and fell on the ground with the alcohol all over his body. He says frustration is caused not because of or rather dissatisfaction, unhappiness is caused not because of frustration of a particular desire but is caused by domination by desire. So our attachments, they consume our consciousness and they dissipate our mental energy.
Most of us do not get physically exhausted so much because we don’t have to do so much physical work. But often we get mentally exhausted, we get mentally fed up of things. That is not because life is so challenging but because our consciousness which is our inner energy is distracted in so many different directions that when we have to do something challenging, we have no inner energy left for it.
So if we want to achieve anything in life, the first and foremost thing that we need, our asset is our consciousness. This is a person in a distant country will be ready to pay any price for their passport because that is what they need to move around. Similarly for moving around in life, our consciousness is our basic passport.
So how can we possess our consciousness? How can we possess ourselves? I talked about an acronym. What is that acronym? Recaps. R was? Regulation.
Regulation, yeah. I talked about the Google experiment and just avoiding exposure of the candies decrease the consumption. So the best way to maintain self-control is to avoid situations that require self-control.
We can’t avoid entirely but where we can, just regulation helps a lot. E was? Engagement. Yeah, engagement means that we don’t have to achieve some perfection or think that without achieving that perfection, I will not take it up.
We see success in self-mastery not as a destination but as a direction. Even every small step that we take is enough. It is just what we do right now, every positive connection, every positive step helps us to grow.
And devotion is not just an emotion, it is also conscious continuous cultivation. So if we see this as a journey in which every step helps us move forwards, then we can focus on the positive. Engagement also means that we don’t worry so much about giving something up and giving up a lifelong, we just focus on taking something up positive right now.
Giving up is almost impossible because our mind is already caught up with that. It’s like thinking, saying I won’t think of a pink monkey. Then I talked about C was? Conviction.
Conviction means when our emotions start working against us, our intelligence has to work for us. And intellectual conviction means that the knowledge that we have that is not just at the background of our head, it is the foreground. It is not just like words that are a part of our dormant vocabulary or passive vocabulary are not there for us to use when we want to articulate.
They have to come to our active vocabulary. Similarly, we all have a lot of knowledge of the right course of action. It has to come to the forefront.
And a practical way to do that would be that we regularly hear and note down the specific points while we are taking up a particular solution. Then A was? Association. I talked about how our desires are not just linear, but triangular.
And our positive desires will be stimulated not just by looking at some positive future goal of what we want to achieve, but also by looking at those who also have similar desires and are taking steps in that direction. And last P was? Purification. Sometimes we feel the struggle is too much and will go on lifelong.
But no, when we connect with the all-pure Krishna, by contact with him, our higher desires become strengthened and our lower desires become weakened. Even to connect with Krishna requires some effort. But that effort is much lesser than simply trying to function on raw willpower.
So, I talked about how everyone has determination. It’s just misdirected. So, if we use whatever little misdirection, determination we have to connect with Krishna.
It’s like the little effort required to pull a trolley as compared to pull a whole bag ourselves. So, bhakti is a process of where we take whatever consciousness we have possession of right now, we use it and offer it to Krishna. We offer it to Krishna, we become purified and we get more and more possession of our consciousness.
And then we offer more and more of that consciousness to Krishna and then we become further purified. In this way, we become supremely satisfied by our eternal connection with Krishna. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. So, do we have time for questions? Any questions or comments? Okay. Yeah, I talked about, when I talk about purification, that’s when I talked about bhakti yoga.
Is this a specific question you have about bhakti yoga? Okay. So, how do we practise bhakti yoga? There are two different things in this. First is that there are external actions and there are internal emotions.
So, bhakti yoga has many external actions like say come to a temple. We generally talk about A, B, C, D. Association of devotees, books, study of books, chanting of the holy names and D is worship of the deities. So, these are the externals and just if we keep doing the externals, that itself brings a moment of purification.
And doing this regularly helps us connect with Krishna and internally we try to remember Krishna as much as possible. We remember that he is our well-wisher, even when things are going wrong in our life, he is in control and he will bring good out of the bad. We try to understand, we remember that whatever is attractive in this world, actually its attractiveness comes from Krishna.
So, he is a supreme attractive person. Just as we remember a loved one, we understand that he is our supreme well-wisher, he is the supreme object of our love, even if we don’t feel that love for him. So, increasing the external connection and increasing the internal recollection.
These two are the ways, are the essential dimensions of Bhakti Yoga and sometimes people equate Bhakti Yoga with feelings. I feel devotion. I don’t feel devotion, sometimes you may say.
But in Bhakti Yoga the principle is, we don’t feel our way to actions, rather we act our way to feelings. That means if somebody says, one day some people say that okay, when Krishna calls me, when I feel that call within me, I’ll go to the temple. They are counting too much on their feelings.
Yes, feelings may come, feelings may not come. And for how many other things do we really, when I feel the calling, then I’ll study. Well, nobody will graduate if they do like that.
So, if anything is important, then we don’t leave it at the mercy of our feelings alone. So, Bhakti is sometimes we will feel good, naturally we feel good, that’s wonderful. We see that through those devotional feelings, gifts of Krishna.
But most of the process of Sadhana Bhakti is, we act our way to the feelings. That means, we do the necessary actions and by those actions, we chant the holy name, we study scripture, we come to the temple and by that, we slowly start feeling our way to the divine. We act our way to the feelings, the right feelings start coming in.
Can I answer your question? Any other questions? Sorry? I’m going to Adelaide from here and then from there to, from, sorry? I have two websites where I usually post my content. As I mentioned, Gita Daily is a website, Gita, where I write on the Gita, and there’s the Spiritual Scientist, where my lectures and question answers, almost everywhere, everything that I speak comes over there. Yes, Rajshri? You mentioned that the purification step, we need devotional services.
Quite often, the dilemma for us is that, we have devotional practises like 16 rounds of chanting, and then also, I don’t know, we also have to do something particularly, sometimes it’s like, say, cooking, or I don’t know, sometimes giving classes, or doing teachings, and sometimes it kind of takes over, you know, those basic, you know, the services that we are supposed to do. So, in those kind of situations, how do we motivate ourselves? Okay, so if we have our, so when we have our basic spiritual practises, and also, we have additional services, and there’s a conflict between the two, and how do we continue at that time? See, life is a matter of dynamic balance. That means that there are times when certain things will pull us more.
So, we just understand, at a particular time, this may become more, I’ll stretch myself a little bit for this. But we all need to stretch ourselves sometime or the other. But we can’t stay forever in the stretch mode.
So, if that is happening every day, if we feel ourselves too stretched every day, then we need to do some readjustment of our schedule. It’s like if you are driving a car, sometimes the road is crowded and we’ll move slowly, sometimes the road is clear and we’ll move fast. So, like that, sometimes in our life, the road becomes crowded, and there’s too many things to do.
We can barely seem to be moving forwards. And sometimes the road becomes clearer, and then we can move much faster. So, say that when certain things do come up, extra, that’s perfectly fine.
We don’t have to necessarily get too worried about it. Ultimately, it’s a matter of connecting with Krishna. So, we connect with Krishna through chanting of his name.
We connect with Krishna through doing services, other services. And as long as we’re connecting with Krishna, that’s the most important thing. So, it’s not that we should do one thing so much that the other thing stops entirely.
But we can’t fight too many battles at a time. So, if we stretch ourselves on both sides, if somebody says that I want to wake up in the morning and do my spiritual disciplines, my chanting early in the morning. And okay, that’s a good priority.
But then we’ll have to make the necessary plans so that we can sleep early. If we’re going to sleep late and expect ourselves to wake up early, maybe one day we can do it, we can’t do it regularly. We can’t cheat sleep.
We try to cheat sleep, sleep ends up cheating us. If we don’t sleep at the right time, then we end up sleeping at the wrong time. So, in general, it’s good to fight one battle at a time.
So, we could decide that, okay, for the next one month, let me prioritise my chanting. And in this month, other services come up, I’m not going to do them. Another one, we may decide that let me prioritise my, my scriptural study.
In some month with a big festival again, Maastri Bhi comes up. Okay, let me prioritise in this month. I’m going to the temple and doing services in the temple, helping in the temple thing, whatever.
So, it can be generally one week is too short. And anything like one year is too big. Our minds say it will be difficult for us.
So, we ourselves can learn over a period of time, what is it that should be my foremost priority? How can I best connect with Krishna? And then by that we learn the balance. So, it’s, it’s important that we don’t burden ourselves with too many battles, then we won’t be able to fight even one battle. But that just because there are too many battles doesn’t mean that you have to fight all of them.
And that doesn’t mean we give up fighting all battles also. Sometimes we feel you know, I can’t do this also, I can’t do this also, so better let me do nothing. It shouldn’t be like that.
Just take one, focus on that. And then life always requires us to be a little flexible and change track whenever required. So, overall, we need to have a direction, this is the direction I want to go.
So, sometimes I might be able to go faster, sometimes slower. That variability doesn’t matter as long as we are having basically orientated in the right direction. Okay.
Thank you. Any other questions? Yes. When can we know that the inner war is over? No, you should never assume the inner war is over.
Because temptation can knock us down anytime. Generally, you see Prabhupada in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, in text 71, apuryamanamachalapratishtam samudramapapravasyantiratatvatkamayam pravasyanti sarve sa shanti maapnoti na kamakami. In that purport he says, he talks about two things, desire and inclination.
He says the desires may remain, but the inclination goes away. What do you mean by desire and inclination? So, suppose this floor is inclined in this way. And as soon as water falls on it, automatically the water will start flowing in this direction.
Because that is the inclination. Now, even if I don’t want the water to flow in this direction, the water will flow. So, now, if I don’t want the water to flow automatically in that direction, I have to reconstruct the floor so that it becomes inclined in this way.
Then the inclination is no longer in this direction. So, then water may get spilled, but the water will just stay there. It will not flow in that direction automatically.
So, the nature of the world is that desires will come. We see tempting objects in the world and desires come. But the desire themselves are not the problem, the inclination is the problem.
If I want, when the water has spilled here, even if the floor is inclined in this way, I can push the water in this direction. That is a different thing. But quite often, what happens for us is, we know something is not good for me, I don’t want to do this.
But the desire comes and even before we become aware, the desire grows and we find ourselves indulging in it. That’s because the floor is inclined like that. The thought comes in, the thought starts growing into desire, intention and action.
We don’t even realise it. But when the inclination is no longer there, that means the floor is not inclined that way. So, desire will come, but it won’t start growing immediately.
It will be there, it will be there for some time, it will go away. So, a devotee never thinks that I have won the inner war. But over a period of time, we can ourselves observe that when a desire comes, how much does the desire agitate you? The presence of the desire is not the problem, the dominance by the desire is.
It’s just like, say, there are advertisements. So, we are going along the road and there are a lot of advertisements of things. Now, if we have a strong purpose of where we are going to do, we won’t spend much time looking at this advertisement or this advertisement.
But if we are just bored and walking around, we look at this advertisement, that advertisement, we start fantasising about it. So, now, once we get a strong purpose, just because we have got a strong purpose does not mean that advertisers will stop advertising. But if our purpose is strong, the advertisers may keep advertising, but we will not pay much attention to them.
So, similarly for us, when we connect with Krishna, when we become purified, our purpose to serve Krishna becomes so strong that even if the desires come, they are like the billboards, they are like the advertisements that are there. They come, we note them, but we move on. We don’t focus on them.
It’s there, it is there. It will be there for some time, it will go away. So, basically, by the practise of bhakti, the inclination to go towards the wrong things decreases and the purpose of moving towards Krishna increases.
And that’s why even if the desires are present, they don’t agitate us so much. So, rather than assuming that I have won the inner war, we can ourselves see how much struggle it takes to resist the lower desires. And it’s not that we should put ourselves in a provocative situation thinking to check whether I have won the inner war or not.
No, our focus is not, our purpose is not to prove our self-control by resisting temptation and provocative situations. Our purpose is to simply serve Krishna. It’s better to assume that whatever desire is there, it has not gone away.
It is there, it has become dormant. It’s like, suppose we are passing by a forest and we see a tiger lying over there. Now, is the tiger asleep or is the tiger dead? Now, if I decide I want to fight out, so I go and pinch that tiger.
Now, the tiger may be dead and nothing may happen. If the tiger is alive, then I will end up dead. So, if a tiger is sleeping, no need to pinch it, just let it pass by.
Let’s move on. So, we can assume that if we had some past strong desires, that if they are not agitating us so much now, that doesn’t necessarily mean we have won the inner war. Actually, fully we win the inner war when we go to Krishna’s abode.
But we can say we have won the inner war in the sense that the enemy has become dormant. So, a devotee never thinks that I have conquered illusion. But a devotee does recognise that, okay, the illusion is not tempting me that much.
So, that tiger has become asleep now. So, let me not do anything to awaken the tiger. Let me just keep moving on in my path.
Answer your question. Yes, please. Questioner says, Krishna is not as great as drinking alcohol or half-half, like this, drinking alcohol and seeing.
What I’m trying to say is, which is the best, which is the best, for everyone is different, right? How do you feel? If they connect to Krishna, what if their satisfaction cannot satisfy them so much as drinking alcohol, who do you come back to? Okay, good question. So, if somebody starts practising bhakti, but suppose they feel that through bhakti they are not getting enough satisfaction, they still want alcohol. So, can they do both? Is there a balance or something like that over there? See, it’s not a matter of balance.
It’s a matter of more than balance here. It’s just a matter of our own individual situation. That means that all of us, when we engage in some habits, often there is a purpose why we’re engaging in it.
There is a need that is being served by it. So, for some people, they might just be social drinkers and they come in a spiritual association. Now, their social circle is no longer drinking, they feel no need to drink.
Just give it up immediately. Some people drink because it’s like the taste of it, but then they come and get some other nice drinks, nice foods. I don’t need that taste.
They give it up. Some people may be drinking because it might be their coping mechanism. When they feel stress, when they feel distress, they drink and cope with things.
Now, when somebody connects with Krishna, now they might still have the need to cope with life’s stresses and distresses. And unless they find a healthier way to cope with those distresses, the previous way of coping will keep prompting them. So, when we feel ourselves being pulled by a habit repeatedly, rather than thinking that, oh, I don’t have the willpower to give up this habit or I need to continue this, we should focus more on, okay, what need of mine is this habit serving? And then you can say, okay, can I take care of that need in a healthier way? And when we do that, over a period of time, we’ll realise.
So, in general, the important thing is to never give up the positive. So, even if somebody is drinking, still they can connect with Krishna, still they can practise bhakti. And giving up the negative, for different people, it may happen at different times, based on what particular disposition one has, what kind of conception one has, it may require a different amount of time.
So, the connection with the positive, we always keep maintaining that. And with respect to negative, as and when the realisation, the spiritual advancement, the higher satisfaction comes, we may be able to give it up. So, we can make some effort to give it up, but we don’t have to centre our spirituality on giving up the negative.
We have to centre our spirituality on taking up the positive. To the extent we focus on taking up the positive, to that extent, gradually the negative will go away. It’s like, say, here there is a glass.
Now, if I decide that I want to create a vacuum in this glass, it’s very difficult. First, I have to get a vacuum machine and somehow create vacuum, and then also cover up, cover it with a lid. If it’s small, the lid moves mismatched, air will come out.
If I want to remove air from this glass, it’s very difficult. If I decide to remove it by creating vacuum, but if I take this glass and fill it to the brim with water, then automatically the air will go out of it. So, taking air out is very difficult, but filling water is relatively easier.
So, similarly, we can’t drive out any desire from within us, but we can crowd out the desire. Drive out means, you know, get out, get out, get out. It can’t do like that.
I want to give this up. I want to give this up. But rather, we take up the positive and fill our life with the positive.
And not just fill our life with the positive, but rather, see, like I said earlier, whatever the negative habit we have in there, which is addressing a particular need, how that particular need can be addressed in a more positive way. And then over a period of time, we’ll find that the negative will fall by the side. So, what is a state of balance will vary for different people.
That means, as I said, some people, it’s the first day, they might just be able to give up. I don’t need to do this. Somebody said, they may keep, okay, I can’t give this up.
But I want to, I like this. I can use it for three months, few months more, and then gradually they give it up. It doesn’t matter.
So, balance means, basically, in this context, there is no one balance for everyone, because we all come from different backgrounds. We are all souls. And we are on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution.
And we are all at different stages in this journey. That’s why there’s not much point in comparing others. So, we focus on what is the state at which we can steadily move forward.
And as we keep steadily connecting with the positive, gradually, the craving for the negative will go down. Good question. So, what do we do with the desires? Where are they right now? Means, where are they located? Or where are they situated? Okay.
I got your question. So, where do the desires go when we start practising bhakti? Yes, you could say that desire is one power. And that power is expressed in different ways.
So, desiring is innate to living itself. To be conscious is to be desirous. So, we cannot not desire.
But what we can choose is what we desire. Bhakti yoga doesn’t just purify us of desires. It purifies us by desires.
What do you mean by that? Purify us of desires means get rid of desires. But purify us by desires means it creates positive desires within us. And as the positive desires become stronger, the negative desires, they just fall by the wayside.
So, in that sense, desire itself is never lost. Srila Prabhupada would say desire don’t have to be eliminated, they have to be redirected. They have to be cured.
So, if we consider that this one energy of desire, and that has multifarious expressions, sometimes we may have the same electricity coming in this room. But if we have a light, light, lighting display, then the same electricity comes. But here there’s a red bulb, there’s a green bulb, there’s a yellow bulb, there’s an orange bulb, all these different bulbs, lights are getting illuminated.
The same electricity, but different colour light is coming out. Similarly, there’s the same power of desiring. One power of desiring that we have, and that expresses different desires.
So, the power of desiring can’t be switched off. But we can choose which bulbs get lit. So, similarly, we can choose which desires we focus on.
And as we focus on particular desires, those desires grow. And the other desires become weaker. And as they become weaker, they become more and more less and less prominent or more and more dormant, you could say.
So, a simple example to understand this is, if you consider a computer, say, a mind is like a software. And in the software, say, if you have a computer or you have a phone, and you visit particular websites repeatedly. Suppose, say, somebody has visited a website called sports.com. Now they come to a spiritual programme and they hear about, spirituality seems to be interesting.
And they decide to look at spirituality.com. But they type SP. And what comes up? Sports.com. Because that’s what they have visited earlier. So, now, here, desire can refer to two things.
One is what we desire, what I want to do. And second is what pops up within me. So, Krishna uses the word, nakamakami.
So, he says, don’t be a desirer of desire. What that means is, that certain things will pop up from within. Because we have indulged them in the past.
So, we may not be wanting to go to sports.com now. We may want to go to spirituality.com. But because in the past, we have visited sports, that’s what will pop up. So, Krishna says, don’t be a desirer of desire.
That means sports.com comes up, don’t desire that. So, like that, certain desires will pop up within us from our past. But we don’t pay attention to them.
We focus our attention on what we want to do. And if somebody keeps repeatedly visiting spirituality.com, after some time, the preferences in the computer change. And then as soon as they type SP, what will come up is spirituality.com. So, our desires, they get, in that sense, changed.
We don’t eliminate desire, we don’t suppress desire. We redirect desire. So, the power of desiring when we redirect, then certain desires, or certain channels through the desire expressing, they become weaker and certain channels become stronger.
So, we don’t have to think that to become spiritual, I have to become desireless. Or even that I have to desire less. It’s just that we have to redirect our desires.
In fact, those are great devotees that characterise very strong desires. Srila Prabhupada, who is the founder of the Krishna Consciousness Movement, at the age of 69, he decided to come from India, to go from India to America. And the last 11 years of his life, he travelled across the world 14 times on tours where he shared Krishna’s message of love.
So, it is strong desire to share Krishna’s message. So, in that sense, our desires, the power of desire remains, but it gets redirected by the process of bhakti. Does that answer your question? Thank you.
Should we stop here? So, thank you very much for your thoughtful questions. Thank you, everyone. And thank you, Prabhu, for giving such an intellectual and a very amazing class.
So, there are a few things which I want to mention. There are a few books available