Positive Thinking 17 – Unearth the treasure within

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
talks. Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Welcome back to our discussion on positive thinking series. We are now discussing about how to regain our willpower.
We discussed about reinforcing the intelligence in our previous talk by sharpening and strengthening the intelligence and now we will discuss about tapping our spiritual power about unearthing the treasure within. The Srimad Bhagavatam states 7.7.21. An expert geologist can understand where there is gold below the earth and extract it from the gold ore. Similarly, a wise person can understand the spiritual dimension within the material body and by spiritual excavation attain fulfillment in life.
So here we see that spirituality helps us understand that at our core we are pure, we are potent and we can uncover that spiritual potency by steady purification. Just as in the surface any ground might look like just any other ground but when one digs below then one finds a treasure and unearths the treasure and relishes the treasure. Similarly, when we dig below the surface we learn to come and come out or to bring that treasure out.
So there are just as there is earth which covers gold similarly there is darkness, there are worldly impressions that cover the spiritual potency of the soul and to the extent we become purified to that extent we can organize and relish the potency of the soul and thus move onwards beyond this world, beyond the struggling and sufferings of this world. And now if we move onwards we can see that there is a process of alchemy. Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, a 16th century philosopher says, he compares selfish desire with iron and selfless desire with gold.
So selfish desire with iron and selfless desire with gold. Alchemy has been a much fantasized field of study or at least a dream field of study where many people have wondered if they could just find some means by which they would convert iron or some base metal into gold. It would enrich the world phenomenally and many attempts have been made and few if any few and none of them have been successful as far as known but beyond such outer change of metals there is an inner change and that inner change, that inner alchemy is what transforms our desires from selfish to selfless, from impure to pure, from negative to positive, from material to spiritual, from weak and disempowered to strong and empowered.
How does this happen? If there is a shining white light, that white light can illumine a room but if it is covered by a red film then that same soothing white light will instead appear as a jarring red light and similarly we at our core are spiritual beings and the spiritual being is in a sense pure. We are parts of God. Just as God is pure, we are pure but when we get covered by worldly impressions then not only is our spiritual purity lost but it also gets misdirected just as when we recognize that there are challenges in life that we have problems to face externally but suppose there is a weak person so now for any person to lift say a big weight of 20, 30, 40 kg is not going to be easy but if a is already weak and for such a person to lift 20 kg is going to be much more difficult than for a person who already has strong, who is healthy and has strong muscles.
Similarly for us if we are internally weak, if we have been internally compromised by negative desires then the same weight which is relatively easy for others to lift or which is not so difficult for others to lift it becomes much more difficult for us. So we need to lift, we need to build our inner muscles and building those muscles doesn’t happen overnight. It needs steady cleansing of our inner being just as a person’s muscles have been atrophied because of lack of use or because of disease then that person cannot exercise, cannot lift weight.
Similarly when we are weakened we cannot actually relish things, we cannot do things constructively and whenever anything challenging comes up the struggle becomes too much. So the process of spirituality is of unearthing the treasure within or getting out of our way so that our spiritual potency can be channeled outwards. Negative impressions, self-centered impressions just like a student and the student wants to study but then if the mind is distracted oh maybe I should watch this TV, maybe I should watch this match, maybe I should go to that movie, before that movie, maybe I should surf this channel, maybe I should just check on what is there on Facebook.
So the power of intention is dissipated by the fragmentation of desire. So there is an intention to study but there is fragmentation of desire. So the power of intention is sabotaged by the fragmentation of desire and when that happens then we can’t function properly.
This fragmentation of desire happens when we are impure. When we are impure, the word impure can have many meanings. One of the meanings is that we are not able to judge what is desire worthy and what is not desire worthy.
We have the power of desire and there are many things which we can desire but there are certain things, some things which are worthy of desiring. A small child may desire a toy but if a young person with a bright career ahead or a middle-aged person desires to spend all time playing with a toy that is definitely undesirable. So what is desire worthy, what is not desire worthy, that needs to be discerned and when we do that, when we learn to discern not based on external propaganda, the culture, the advertisements, the commercials, they all have a very vigorous propaganda, forceful propaganda which makes us I want this, I want that, I want that, I want that and when we feel that we want such things at that time our attention gets fragmented and dissipated and we can’t function effectively.
So when we talk about losing of willpower or lacking willpower and we talk about reclaiming what it essentially means is that we have fragmented and dissipated our desires over too many things. So we want too many things and then we feel so burdened by the pursuit of too many things that we feel I want nothing, just leave me alone and both these are undesirable phenomena, undesirable mental phenomena. So to the extent we practice meditation, we practice purification, we discuss methods of meditation and purification in our later sessions but meditation means learning to fix the consciousness on one thing and purification means cleansing our consciousness of unwanted things.
It says there’s garbage in our house, we’ll clean out the garbage. Similarly, when we understand that there are unworthy things in our consciousness, we clean them out. So the key to reclaiming our mental, our reclaiming willpower, what is the treasure within? The treasure within is the power of pure positive desire.
The desire doesn’t have to be given up but selfish desire needs to be given up. So uninformed desire, ignorant desire, that is what needs to be given up. So how do we give that up? By concentrating our desires on something higher, on something more purposeful and what that will be, we will discuss in our future sessions.
Just as we learn to uncover the pure potent positive desire within us, then that will put aside whatever obstacles are there and enable us to move purposefully and successfully towards doing whatever we need to achieve. So by meditation and purification, we can concentrate and select our desires and we can prevent the fragmentation by our desires and we can achieve the concentration of intention which will eventually lead to success. Thank you.