SB 11.23.48 – Be not sucked in by mind-triggered relationship conflicts

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you tam durjayam shatram asahiyavegam the davanti brahmana is continuing the analysis of the mind and describing that the mind is durjayam it’s extremely difficult to conquer Krishna uses the word durataya for his maya similarly durjayam tam durjayam shatram asahiyavegam hmm it’s very difficult to conquer because when it influences us other enemies attack us physically and there is a physical contest of power or there is a contest of power based on skills in weapons or whatever but the mind’s attack is internal and it attacks us by inducing urges within us come on eat this touch this enjoy that and those are asahiyavegam, the urges that it creates are intolerable, irresistible almost unstoppable and then if we try to stop them, what does the mind do? aruntudam aruntudam means it tortures the mind, the heart it tortures us internally it codes us, do it, do it it’s as if we are being tormented from within nobody has conquered the mind failing to conquer the mind when we are tormented within what happens because of the asahiyavegam when we give in to the asahiyavegam then so the mortal living beings who are here for a very short time they are martir all of us, we are soon trying to die, but we create useless quarrels with each other so for example people fight over property over possessions they are going to be here temporarily, the possessions are going to be in their possession only temporarily but there are useless quarrels which come up because the mind is vague, such as greed or anger and then what happens because of this those who are bewildered by the mind thus they treat some people as enemies some as neutral and some as friends so all these relationships which we have at the material level with others those relationships are largely shaped emotionally by the mind now there may be people who are trying to do harm to us and we have to be careful in dealing with them so that they don’t harm us further but fundamentally our material existence wherein we are subjected to harm by others that material existence is due to the influence of the mind and within that material existence also many of our perceptions especially negative perceptions another person is my enemy because that person is not letting me act if I am if I have greed that person is not allowing me to act according to my greed so to a large extent most of our enemies and our conflicts are created because of the filtered and distorted and prejudiced vision of our mind the mind perceives certain things in certain ways and based on that shapes our emotions and actions so the relationships which are based on the perceptions and emotions induced by the mind they are not substantial not substantial doesn’t mean that the emotions that we feel are not real we feel friendship towards some and strong vengeance and enmity towards others but these emotions have no connection with reality with the reality of who we are as souls as parts of Krishna meant to rejoice eternally in relationship with him and we will see that these perceptions and emotions that often act as the greatest distractions in our attempts to chant because when we are chanting we may be dogged by thoughts how dare that person speak like that to me I’ll show that person I will get back at that person we may or may not voice such thoughts but such thoughts do run through our mind and often we will see that the same mind that has made us think think these think this way about others that same mind is now continuing its rule on us by distracting us during chanting so if we recognize the mind’s tricks in this way that actually even if somebody has done some injustice to us that has to be dealt with in the right way at the right time at the time of chanting seething over it sweating over it and tormenting ourselves over it is of no use so putting it aside if we focus on the holy name then later on we will get the right intelligence we will have the calmness the clarity and the composure to deal with that situation later and along with that we will also move closer to Krishna through attentive chanting thereby coming free in the long run from the asahya vega arantandam from the irresistible urges and the inner torture of the mind otherwise even if we succeed in solving the specific problem we still remain within the arena of the mind and we will suffer in some way or the other the mind will create problems and create suffering for us thereby therefore by remembering that many of our problems are mind created and only by going free from the arena of the mind can we become free from those problems we can neglect the various distractions which the mind creates and focus on the holy name