Positive Thinking 31 – Complement diagnosis with prescription

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Welcome back to our discussion on positive thinking We will now discuss about how the principles of energy E-N-E-R-G-Y Expectations, cultivate smart expectations N-Nip comparing mentality in the bud Compare, compete with yourself E-R-G-Y E is I fix your eyes, fix your eyes on real success R is be resolute, avoid worldly passions and opinions and G is gratitude, be grateful for God’s gifts and Y is say yes to God So we discussed these principles in our previous talks Now we will discuss about how we can apply these principles in our life So let’s begin, someone might say that Ya all this sounds like good wisdom, I know it and I have heard it before It is nice hearing about it but I can’t apply this So what to do in such a situation? That we will discuss in today’s talk So let’s see here, we have the Greek thinker Seneca says It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare It is because we do not dare that things are difficult So here we see that the point is we all need courage Now we often think of courage in terms of maybe some big hooligans attacking someone and then we think I will go and intervene in between but this is a big bulky person, I am so small, how can I deal with such a person You may think this requires courage taking up, fighting against some big person Yes it requires courage but actually even greater courage is required for taking on our own inner demons the forces within us that weaken us that attack us and that choke us So challenging and countering them requires far greater strength than does fighting outer demons, fighting outer problems So when we understand there are certain empowering principles which can help us become better and then we hesitate, we don’t apply those principles in our lives then we understand, what is it? There are some inner demons which are preventing us from applying those principles So we have the courage to fight against them It is they which make us think that this is too difficult to apply So it is not because things are difficult that we don’t dare It is rather because we don’t dare that things remain difficult and we don’t have the courage then any obstacle seems like an insurmountable obstacle and to go beyond these obstacles we need to move upwards, onwards towards attaining the inner fulfillment and outer achievement that comes through holistic development So holistic development we can compare to a recovery, a spiritual recovery We discussed how at our core we are spiritual beings and as spiritual beings we are meant to be potent As God’s parts, God is all pure, he is potent and we are pure and we are potent So just as a jewel which is covered by grime may not shine but when its dirt is removed, dirt around it is removed, it starts shining Similarly the spiritual effulgence of the soul shines forth as virtues and we can do wonderful things once our spiritual essence is uncovered So currently we are in a diseased condition and the way out of this diseased condition is twofold Suppose we go to a doctor, the doctor gives us firstly some diagnosis The diagnosis tells us that this is wrong, this is that You have some deficiency, you have some iron deficiency in your body Now the doctor says you can go now So what? What should I do? Just giving a diagnosis is not enough Along with the diagnosis the doctor needs to give a prescription and the doctor says ok, you have iron deficiency and these are pills which will increase the iron content in your body Take these twice a day and then that prescription is what enables us to use the diagnosis A diagnosis without prescription is purely theoretical and conversely a prescription without diagnosis is not very persuasive Suppose say if we go to a doctor and we have tried out the doctor’s medicine that has not helped us much and say if we have been to a dozen doctors because of some malady and we have not found anyone’s medicine of much help Then if we go to a doctor and the doctor tells us ok take this medicine Now why? What is this medicine going to do? What is wrong with me? I say don’t bother about all this, just take this medicine We will not feel convinced, we will not feel inspired to take that medicine because we would like to know what is it that this medicine is going to do A prescription without diagnosis is also unpersuasive There has to be diagnosis and there has to be prescription combined together So the diagnosis satisfies our rational intellectual side which helps us make sense of what is happening and the prescription is what enables us to test out the veracity of the diagnosis by observing the effects of the medication on ourselves If the medicine cures us then we understand ok this prescription was for this diagnosis and this prescription has worked therefore the diagnosis must have also been correct and in that way we can move onwards towards further health as our confidence in the accuracy of the doctor’s diagnosis and therapy increases So spiritual life quite often is focused only on diagnosis Some people they just do a lot of oh the mind is like this oh you have got this weakness, oh this is a particular tendency you have this habit you have, there are many not just in spiritual life but even in the social life there are many people who find faults saying that this is wrong, that is wrong, that is wrong but they offer very little if any practical correctives and we need practical methods for self-improvement without which we will not be able to do anything substantial about whatever knowledge we acquire Suppose we find that ok my will power is poor so what do I do that’s the diagnosis the will power is poor but what do I do, how do I improve my will power for that a practical method has to be given and the Bhagavad Gita tells us that it doesn’t just give theoretical knowledge it doesn’t just give diagnosis it also gives prescription so the 9th chapter 2nd verse in the Bhagavad Gita states राज्य विद्या राज्य गुहियं पवित्रमिदमुत्तमं पर्तेक्षावगमं धर्म्यं सुसुखं कर्तुम अवेयं so here the first part talks about the theoretical knowledge राज्य विद्या राज्य गुहियं the stop most knowledge, confidential knowledge but then पर्तेक्षावगमं धर्म्यं that this can be practically applied in our lives and सुसुखं कर्तुम अवेयं सुसुखं कर्तुम this is joyfully performed so when we can experience higher spiritual realities in our life and we can also experience happiness that results when we live according to the principles of bhakti so this is an example of how there can be a harmonious blend of prescription and diagnosis and prescription combined together so we did the diagnosis till now and we discussed the prescription at the metal level in terms of the energy sutra in the future talk based on the acronym PAIS we will discuss about how these principles can be applied what the prescription is in specific terms and how we can check out the prescription in our own lives that we will discuss in our next talk Thank you