See pain as a protector and a pointer
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
So, I am grateful to be here with all of you today. And as mentioned, I will speak on the topic of pain. Pain is a protector and a pointer.
So, I was at a Science, Spirituality and Wellness meeting, a conference kind of thing, where I was talking with different experts and I also spoke over there. So, normally if we consider, in all our lives, we experience problems, we experience distress, we experience trouble, sooner or later. Now, if we look at this trouble at different levels, when the body gives us some pain, it indicates that there is something wrong.
If I normally move my hand and if I am unable to move my hand, I feel some pain. Indicate there is something wrong in the body which needs attention, which needs healing. So, pain is not pleasant, but pain is purposeful.
Purpose is, something is wrong in the body, you need to treat it, you need to heal it. There are diseases where people become desensitized. If somebody is desensitized, they don't feel any sensation at all.
So, some people, if they have got paralysis or something like that, then if they become desensitized, a mosquito may bite their hand and they don't feel any pain. And one problem that often happens in old age homes where people have become paralyzed or desensitized, is that if they are in pain, they don't even feel the pain. Say, if some germs are biting them, if some insects are biting them, they don't feel any pain and then the insects just keep biting them, biting them, biting them, and their body may be eaten while they are alive by some insects.
It's quite scary to even think of that. The Bhagavad Gita said that Hiranyakashipu was performing so much austerity that only his bones remained because there were insects and other things which ate up his flesh and only his bones remained. So, in that case, of course, he had some purpose because he was absorbed.
That purpose made him go beyond the pain. But in our case, pain actually protects us because it tells us something is wrong. If we put our hand in fire, we get a burning sensation and that's how we move our hand away.
If we didn't feel that burning sensation, say if our hand were desensitized because of paralysis or whatever else, then if we put our hand in fire, the whole hand would get burned and we would not even realize it. So Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita, states that pain is meant to be a pointer for those who are knowledgeable. janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-dauṣānudarśanam In the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, verses 8 to 12, he talks about the 20 characteristics of knowledge.
And there he states that one of the characteristics of people in knowledge is that they see the distresses of old age, disease, death and birth. And then they try to find a solution, they try to ask, why is this present? What can be done about it? What is the point of it all? So now if we consider, if I have a disease in my body that causes me pain, I take a medicine, the disease gets cured. Similarly, Krishna is saying that at this world, when we see pain, none of us wants to experience pain.
And we all would like to have happiness, but pain inevitably comes. And what purpose is pain meant to serve? If we consider the world, there is a remarkable amount of purpose that is there in the world. Everything that exists, it often serves some purpose or the other.
Sometimes we know the purpose, sometimes we do not know the purpose. The weather is changed, sometimes it's too hot, sometimes it's too cold. But it is the change of the weather that enables the growth of vegetation.
And the growth of vegetation is what provides us food. So things exist in the world and they serve some purpose through their existence. So what purpose does pain serve? If we consider that the Bhagavad Gita is saying this world is Dukhalaya.
In 9th, 8th chapter, 15th verse it says, मामपेत्यपुनरजन्मदुखालेमशाष्वतं नाप्नवन्तिमहत्मान संसिद्धिम्परमाम्गतः Krishna is saying this world is a place of distress. And yet the Bhagavad Gita is spoken so that Arjuna can be free from distress. The Bhagavad Gita's purpose is not, the Bhagavad Gita is not saying that this world is a place of distress, so stay distressful.
Arjuna at the start of the Gita is in distress, he is crying. Stir the flowing from his eyes. In 2.1 when Arjuna is crying and Krishna starts speaking, the purpose of Krishna is to pacify Arjuna.
So Krishna is not telling this world is a place of misery, so stay miserable. Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita to help Arjuna to become free from misery. And by the end of this Gita, Arjuna has regained his composure.
In 18.73 he says, नश्टो मोहस्मते लब्धा तत्प्रसादान्मयाचुतः सितो स्मिगतसदेह करिष्येवचिनंतव That Arjuna, Krishna, I am composed now. Now my disturbance is lost, my disturbance is gone, my doubts are destroyed, I will do your will. So this means that although the Gita says this world is a place of misery, the Gita actually frees Arjuna from misery.
At the start of the Gita he is distressed, by the end of the Gita he has become free from distress. So when the Bhagavad Gita is telling that distress is there in this world, what is the point of it? That Krishna is telling that pain is a feature of the world, but pain is not the purpose of the world. Feature means it exists in the world, but the world's purpose is not to cause us pain.
An example to illustrate it is, say a hospital. In a hospital, pain is going to be there. In a hospital, different people have different diseases, and those diseases cause pain.
But the hospital's purpose is not to cause pain. Pain is present in the hospital, but pain is not the purpose of the hospital. Similarly, this world is a place like a hospital.
And when we understand that this world is a place like a hospital, then we moderate our expectations. Normally, we experience distress in various ways. We consider, we as souls are situated in three coverings.
The covering of the body, the covering of the society, and the covering of nature at large. And through all these three coverings, we sometimes experience pleasure and sometimes experience distress. So the distress that we experience from the body, what is it called? Do you know the Sanskrit word? Adhyatmik pleasure, yes.
Soul is present in the body, and the body causes different kinds of distresses. And the distress from the society? Adhibhautik, yes, people around us. And from nature? Adhidaivik, yes, thank you.
So now these three distresses, they can be dealt with at various levels. First is, why is this distress coming? I want to get rid of it. So we have some pain in the body, we take a medicine, we cure it.
Now if it's too hot, then we try to come to a cooler room or we try to have an AC, we try to have a fan, we deal with it. So the distresses in this world can be dealt with at an immediate level. Some person is very unpleasant, we just move away from them.
And so this is one way we can deal with the distress. And this is also required at a practical level. But at the same time, there are some situations where we may not be able to move away from it.
Suppose the place we live in itself is very cold. And we are sometimes able to stay in a warm room, but we have to go out sometimes. So sometimes the cold may just come.
So if we just focus on dealing with distress only at the immediate level, then we miss out on the bigger picture. The immediate level of distress and addressing it is like treating pain with a painkiller. When a patient is sick, at that time the doctor gives a curative medicine.
But along with that, the doctor will also give a medicine that may address the pain. The Ishopanishad says, विद्यांच विद्यांच यस्तद्वेदो भयंसः That with knowledge of the material world, that is called अविद्या, it's not ignorance, but knowledge about the world which is a place of ignorance, that is अविद्या. And विद्या is knowledge about the spiritual world.
विद्यांच विद्यांच यस्तद्वेदो भयंसः In this knowledge, knowing both, one can attain fearlessness. One can go to the world which is free from fear. अविद्यांच विद्यांच यस्तद्वेदो भयंसः That we can navigate this world by knowing the nature of the world.
विद्यांच विद्यांच विद्यांच यस्तद्वेदो भयंसः And by knowing about the eternal Lord, we can attain His abode. So basically, the Ishopanishad is telling us, have a balanced program. where we deal with both the immediate cause and the deeper cause.
In general if we consider there are eastern civilizations and there are western civilizations. So in western civilization the focus largely has been on dealing with immediate causes. So whatever problem is there, deal with it, deal with it, deal with it.
In eastern civilizations the attitude has been more of acceptance. If there is a problem, just learn to tolerate it, learn to live with it. Now the western approach has led to a lot of progress.
In terms of we developing technology, we being able to communicate better, getting so many facilities. But one western critic of technopoly, you know technology is good. But like we have monopoly where one company gets domination over everything.
So there is a word called technopoly. Technopoly means technology dominates every aspect of people's lives. So one critic is Michael Krish, he says that technology is the art of arranging the world so that we don't experience the world.
We arrange the world in such a way that we stop experiencing the world. It's a cold place, we don't experience any coldness. It's life, there is a survey done of people in the western world, middle class and upper class people.
They found that 5% of the time people are happy. 5% of the time people are distressed and 90% they are bored. Bored.
Now at one level day-to-day life is not very stimulating. So now what do people do? We have so much dependence on entertainment nowadays. This dependence on entertainment is because people feel that we somehow need some pleasure.
We need some stimulation. Otherwise life is so boring. And sometimes people say in the past they had no TV, they had no phones, they must have lived such boring lives.
But now we have so many and still we are bored. So what has happened? We have through our technology deadened ourselves to the world around us. I saw once one video where some kids had gone to beautiful hill station.
Very nice scenery. But instead of looking at the scenery they were all looking at their phones. And on their phones they were looking at scenery.
So even scenery, we are just so habituated to experiencing it through the phones that even when it's all around, no, you want to look something exciting on the phone. So basically we through technology have deadened ourselves and try to just disconnect ourselves from reality. Because reality is either distressing or it is boring.
But the result of this is that we become incapable of facing reality when it intrudes in spite of the technology. That means I may try to be, I may use this technology, I may use this device, I may use this to stimulate myself, that to stimulate myself. But sooner or later the stimulation stops being stimulating and then you become bored.
So then again you want more stimulation, more stimulation. So in this way basically we end up incapable of living with reality. Reality itself becomes so boring and then reality becomes distressing that becomes unbearable.
So at one level, if a patient is sick, if the patient starts taking painkiller after painkiller after painkiller, the pain will go away. But actually the pain has not gone away. It appears as if the pain has gone away.
There is a disease which needs to be cured. Similarly, when we take up entertainment, entertainment can be stimulating as a break. But when we start depending more and more on stimulation just to deaden ourselves to the reality of our situation, then that has a counterproductive effect.
So we all long for, long for peace, we long for joy, we long for love. And we long for these, not just for a few moments, but continuously. We long for this to go on forever.
And yet we are not able to experience it. So this incompatibility is meant to make us point to our spirituality. We say we have innate longing for happiness and not only do we have a longing for happiness, we have a strong conviction that happiness is our right.
I'm meant to be happy, I deserve to be happy. And yet the world around us keeps causing us distress. So this incompatibility, okay, I want to be happy, but the world around, so many things happen which make me unhappy.
So this incompatibility is meant to remind us of our spirituality. But actually we, why is it that I'm not able to be happy? We could ask both questions. First of all, we could ask the question, why do I want to be happy? So what do you mean, why do you want to be happy? Everybody wants to be happy.
Yeah, obviously, everybody wants to be happy. But why do we want to be happy? Yeah, does this mic want to be happy? The mic just exists. So why do we want to be happy? And second question could be, okay, why this world, why do I experience so much distress? Why is life arranged in such a way that I experience distress? So this incompatibility between what we long for and what the world offers, that is meant to make us contemplate deeper.
Okay, who am I really? And what is the way to happiness? So, actually Prabhupada, in a lecture to the hippies in 1968, when he had, in 68, 69, when he had the first Rath Yatra, at that time he spoke that, you hippies are not very much appreciated in America, you are called frustrated people. Hippies were a very unusual phenomenon at that time in American history. People who had fulfilled the great American dream of a good life, that these people had on a platter since their birth.
And they felt that this good life is not such a good life. Okay, we have wealth, we have comforts, we have education, we have facilities, but what more, there should be something more in life. And somehow at that time, the notion came up that you can get more through drugs.
And that's how they started going into drugs. But, of course, drugs did not take them up, they took them down. But at that time, the hippies were considered frustrated.
So, Prabhupada says, people, American society doesn't appreciate you, but I appreciate you. Since human life is meant to be frustrated. Why? Because when you become frustrated, then we inquire about spirituality.
Athato brahma jijnasa. Therefore, inquire about spirituality. When will we inquire? When we feel that whatever I'm inquiring about right now, whatever I'm doing, that something is missing over here.
That's what will make us want to inquire about something higher. How many of us call a doctor to ask, how are you doing? We hardly ever call a doctor for some casual talk. So, we call a doctor because we have some trouble.
We have some distress, we have some… Unless, of course, the doctor is a social friend, it's a different situation. But otherwise, we usually call the doctor when we have some distress. Similarly, this spiritual growth is prompted when we are having some dissatisfaction with the immediate situation we are in.
So, in the Bhagavad Gita, it is said four kinds of people come to Krishna. Do you know which are the four kinds of people? Distressed, inquisitive, the wealth seekers, yes, good. The knowledge seekers, yes, thank you.
Now, you see, in Kali Yuga, we can say four kinds of people come to Krishna. The distressed, the distressed, the distressed and the distressed. Most people, even people who have some inquisitiveness, today with Google and so many things, their inquisitiveness can go in so many hundred directions.
They will not be spiritually inquisitive. So, distress often prompts us to inquire, what am I meant to do? Now, if you consider here, pain is something we are experiencing. Now, if suppose a patient is in pain and the doctor simply keeps giving stronger and stronger doses of painkillers, then the patient is not going to be cured.
Pain medicine may be required, but something more is required. So, when we focus only on developing technology, that is like dealing with the distress of this world simply by giving pain medication. We try to cover up the nature of the world as much as possible, but internally the dissatisfaction is increasing.
If we consider the technology as compared to 30-40 years ago, there is so much entertainment available as compared to the past. Now, entertainment, if you see, it's not a physical need. We cannot live without food, we cannot live without water, we cannot live without air, but it's not that we can't live without entertainment.
So, entertainment, is it a spiritual need? No, of course, we want happiness, but entertainment specifically, it's not a physical need, it's not a spiritual need. Then what need is it? There are three levels of existence, isn't it? Body, mind and soul. So, then entertainment is what level of need? Yes, it is an emotional or psychological or mental need.
The mind feels so bored, the mind feels so distressed, that the mind needs relief and that's why we seek entertainment. And if we consider the sheer magnitude of entertainment available in today's world, it's unparalleled. So many movies and so many movies with so many high-tech effects, so many books, so many channels, so many video games.
So, at one level, we can say that entertainment, which is a need of the mind, is being fulfilled far, far more than in the past. In the past, people wanted entertainment, you know, they would just maybe go out and play themselves or watch a play with somebody in the village performing. Some simple entertainment would have been there.
So, on one side, the mind's need for entertainment is being fulfilled far, far more than in the past. And on the other side, it is the mind that is much more distressed than in the past. The single biggest boost in medicinal sales that has happened in the last 50 years is in the realm of mental health medicine.
Before 1960s, the whole idea of any tranquilizer or any antidepressant, this was not there at all. But now, antidepressants and tranquilizers are the single most sold medicines over the counter. So, what is going wrong here? The mind's need for entertainment has been provided more than ever before.
And yet the mind seems to be more distressed than ever before. So, what does this indicate? If we consider the painkiller metaphor, that means entertainment is like a painkiller for the mind. And the more the painkiller is given, the more the painkiller gets needed.
Because the disease is not being cured, it is being covered. And as it is covered, actually, internally, it is worsening. And that's why we need more and more entertainment.
Earlier, there were five-day cricket matches. Now, we have, after that, we have 50 hours cricket matches. Then, after that, we had these T20 matches.
Basically, if you consider Indian society, it had two main painkillers. One is cricket and the other is Bollywood. And maybe about a decade ago, these two painkillers got married.
And they produced a child. That is IPL. So, Bollywood stars and cricketers come together and they try to provide entertainment.
Now, there is a proposal that we should have T10 cricket, 10-hour cricket. So, basically, what is happening? You try to provide more and more stimulation. And people are ready to spend phenomenal amounts of money for that.
These players in IPL, often, for playing for 50 days, they earn more money than what most Indians would earn throughout their life. They earn crores of rupees. So, what is happening? Why are people paying so much money? Because they feel entertainment is such a great need.
And it's a need of the mind. And yet, the mind is so distressed. So, by this, we can understand that entertainment is like the painkiller.
Then, what is the curative medicine? The curative medicine is enlightenment. Not entertainment, but enlightenment. Enlightenment means understanding the nature of who we are and what can truly make us happy.
So, enlightenment means understanding that we are souls. And as souls, we can find happiness at the spiritual level of reality. So, if we consider, say, now this is a three-story building.
So, the basement is first level and the second level. So, like that, our existence is three-level. The body, mind, and soul.
There are three levels of existence. So, through modern technology, we have made the physical level much more comfortable in the past. Through modern technology, we also provide a lot of facility for stimulation and entertainment at the level of the mind.
But the upper level is completely forgotten. And that upper level is where we actually belong. That is where our longing for happiness can be truly fulfilled.
So, the Bhagavad Gita states that the distresses that we experience at the physical level or the mental level, they are ultimately meant to remind us that we do not belong here. That we belong to the spiritual level of reality. So, we are parts of all attractive supreme.
Krishna is filled with all the attractive qualities that anyone may have. The most popular entertainer, the best sports player, the most attractive person in the world. Whatever in this world promises us pleasure, all that pleasure and more is present in Krishna.
Whatever is attractive in this world, Krishna says, that manifests a spark of my splendor. So, if we are in a desert and somebody gives us a drop of water. We need water.
But that drop is not going to satisfy us. So, whatever things in this world give us pleasure, they give us pleasure like a drop. But it is Krishna who is the full ocean.
And to the extent we connect with Krishna, to that extent we experience happiness. So, the drops of pleasure that we experience at the physical and mental level, they are meant to make us think, oh, where can I experience real happiness? Here there is only a drop and no matter what I do, I cannot increase it beyond the drop. There must be somewhere where I can experience higher happiness.
And where is that? If we inquire about this sincerely, Krishna will guide us through the Gita. And then he will guide us as the Paramatma within our heart. So, he will guide us through the Gita, he will guide us through devotees and then come to know about the spiritual reality.
And as we march towards spiritual reality, then we start experiencing happiness at a higher level. Now, as devotees, as bhakti sadhakas, will we experience problems in our life? Will we experience pain? Yes, of course. This world is a place of pain.
And as long as we are in the world, we will experience pain. But we may have to live with pain, but we don't have to live in pain. What is the difference between to live with pain and live in pain? That means that if I think I am the body or I think I am the mind, then my consciousness is only at that level.
And then if I experience pain, then I am living in pain. Because the pain consumes my consciousness entirely. But if I understand that I am a soul, I have a body, I have a mind, and there is some pain going on over there, then we understand that the part of me is in pain.
It's not that the whole of me is in pain. So, our spiritual knowledge helps us to understand that we are bigger than our situations and that we are bigger than our emotions. We are bigger than our situations.
That whatever problem I may have, we have had many problems in the past in our lives, and the problems have come, they stayed for some time, they've gone. And even the emotion that is coming, we are feeling angry, we are feeling hurt, we are feeling betrayed, that emotion is there. It is one emotion that is there within me.
So, I am bigger than that emotion. This we understand when we experience our spirituality. Let me explain this difference with a couple of examples.
That, what does it mean to be, to live in pain and to live with pain? To live with pain means that the pain is a companion. It is there with us. So, suppose, say, we are traveling in a train and, say, some person next to us is maybe talking too loudly.
And then now we want to do some work, we are not able to do some work. Now, they're talking loudly if we just tell them to be silent, but they don't, they refuse to hear. Then, they're speaking loudly, but if we just keep thinking about it, keep thinking about it, keep thinking about it, what happens is, the mind seems to get filled with it.
Why are they doing like this? Why is this like this? Why is this like this? Sometimes the problem comes, but the mind magnifies the problem. And then, although it's a trouble, many times in our life, it happens that sometimes somebody speaks negatively to us. One time, I was giving a, I was doing a program in America, in tobacco.
So, after that program, there's sometimes some people ask questions to, not to gain knowledge, but to show knowledge. I know this much. I mean, they will ask a question which will go on for seven, ten minutes.
And there's no time for the answer. So, after the program, when somebody was asking a question, it was just going on and on. Now, after having spoken for about 25-30 years across the world, we can make out, you know, who is a person who is really interested in understanding something, or who is just a person interested in just showing their knowledge.
And you would rather spend time with people who are interested in learning something. So then, as I was trying to politely end a conversation with one person, it just struck me that, actually, sometimes in our mind, just before that class, somebody had sent me an email from India. And that email was very irritating to me.
What they had done was infuriating. So, it was just going on in my mind. And then I thought that here this person is right next to me, but I'm not ready to give more time to this person than what is necessary.
But there that person is thousands of miles away, but I'm giving them so much time. Like, what are you doing? Why did they do this? Why did they do this? Why did they do that? So, basically, there, whatever they have written, that is annoying, that is irritating, that is infuriating. But that is one event.
What our mind does is, with respect to unpleasant events, it sometimes puts them on an auto-replay mode. That means, one iteration gets over, again it starts playing. How could they have done like this? How could they have spoken like this? How dare they do this? And then again, how could they have done this? How could they have done this? This goes on and on and on and on.
And then we start becoming furious, resentful, hateful. So, at that time, now that event is an event which is unpleasant. It has happened and we have to deal with it.
But to keep replaying it simply means that we are hurting ourselves. So, to live with pain means, okay, this event has happened and I need to deal with it. I would much rather it not have happened.
This person had not behaved like this, this person had not written like this. It is living with pain. I acknowledge it is there.
It is one event that has happened and it has to be dealt with. But to live in pain means to let that event keep replaying in our mind again and again and again and again. And we just cannot think about anything else.
So, then that event, that painful situation just consumes our consciousness. Now, say the person next to us is talking loudly, loudly, loudly. Now, sometimes we just cannot do anything about it.
We do not have the power to silence them. Then if we just internally become angry, resentful, then we hurt ourselves. But somehow if I decide, okay, this person is talking, let me find some earplugs.
Or if I am not able to sleep, let me see if I can do something constructive. Let me read something. Let me hear something.
Or let me see if I can move away from here. If we decide, what can I do about this? We may be able to find, okay, this person is there. And sometimes after a person keeps talking, talking, talking, talking, their voice also becomes like a monotone.
And then we may not pay so much attention to them. Initially, this voice just keeps speaking. But after some time, this voice goes on, we do not pay much attention.
So, similarly, living with pain is sometimes unavoidable. Because that is just the nature of the world. But living in pain happens because the mind gets obsessed with it.
So, for us as devotees, a primary practice in bhakti is to fix the mind on Krishna. Now, at one level, you want to fix the mind on Krishna, so that we can become purified. So that we can become attracted to him.
And so that ultimately we can become liberated from this world. At another practical level, fixing the mind on Krishna can unfix the mind on Krishna. From its worldly fixations.
The mind gets fixated on many things in this world. And fixing the mind on Krishna can unfix it from its worldly fixations. Now, why did the person do like this? Why are they doing like this? That fixation is what causes greater agitation than even the situation.
But the practice of absorbing our mind in Krishna, of taking shelter of Krishna, gradually helps us find another shelter. The more we become habituated to fixing the mind on Krishna, the more we experience not only relief from the problems, but we also experience higher happiness. I suppose we had a, I'll conclude with this experience, one of my friends, and then you can have some questions.
Last year when I had come to America, I was in Florida. At that time we got the news that the Hurricane Irma was going to hit Florida. So I came to New York side for doing some programs here.
And one of my friends was in Florida, he was on a writing retreat. And because he wanted to write, he had cut himself off completely from the world. So he, he cut himself off from the world completely.
And one day just a morning he woke up and he looked out of his window, and he saw water everywhere. Hey, what is this? And he saw the water, the rains were coming, the water was rising. And then he turned, he had his computer on, but he turned off the internet, activated the internet again.
And then he started looking, started searching, but then he found there was no internet. Net had gone on. Then he tried to call, the phone was not working.
And outside he could see the water level was rising, rising. And then after some time the power went off. Now he started becoming panicky.
What do I do? He couldn't go out. He was looking around, he could see the water level rising, rising, rising. Then at that time he just looked around and he noticed with the flashlight of his phone that there seemed to be, there's a closet and behind that there seemed to be something like a door.
So he pulled the closet aside and he opened the door and he saw there was a narrow fleet of stairs and that led to the attic. He had lived in that house, but he had not known there was the attic over there. Because he had just been there for a short, as a retreat, he was just focusing on his writing.
So he just went into the attic and he stayed over there. The water rose, rose, rose, the ground level was covered. But he at the upper level was safe.
And then after that the water level went down, the power came back, the net came back. He called for help and he was rescued. Similarly for us, most of us we live at the material level of reality, which is like the ground level.
And we don't even know that there is a higher level of reality available. But when problems come and when problems come in such a way that no solution seems possible for them, that is when we are forced to explore and experience the higher level of reality. So the ultimate purpose of pain is to prompt us to experience our own spirituality, to experience the reality of the shelter that we experience by remembrance of Krishna, by devotion to Krishna.
So pain is a protector from a life forgetful of our spiritual side. Pain protects us from living a life forgetful of our spiritual side. And pain points us to some higher level where there will be happiness.
Because we need happiness, but the world somehow doesn't provide us happiness. So where is this happiness to be found? Where is this incompatibility to be resolved? How is this incompatibility to be resolved? That is by rising to higher consciousness. So when we learn to practice bhakti yoga and become devoted to Krishna, then as our mind becomes more and more absorbed in him, then that gives us steady joy.
Because Krishna is always there with us in our hearts. Now Krishna is always with us, but we are not always with him. We are turned away from him.
But as we keep practicing bhakti, we turn towards him. As we are with him, even when problems come in our life, we can deal with the problems knowing the security that Krishna is with us. By remembering Krishna, by connecting with Krishna, we experience security, we experience shelter.
And then whatever problem needs to be dealt with, we can deal with it more calmly. We can tolerate it when it is unavoidable and we can mitigate it to the extent that is possible using the calmness and the clarity that comes from the calmness when we are connected with Krishna. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace.
And pain gives us the opportunity to experience the reality of this promise of Krishna. When pain comes, if we become conscious of him, we will actually experience this relief, this potency of Krishna consciousness to give us a relief. And that will not only provide us relief, but it will point us to the ultimate reality of who we are.
We are souls who are parts of Krishna and we belong to a life of eternal love of him. So I'll summarize. I spoke today about how pain is a protector and a pointer.
Just as at a physical level, pain indicates something is wrong in the body. Similarly, what does pain in our life in general indicate? None of us wants pain. And in the modern world, we try to deal with pain at an immediate level.
The soul may get pain through the body, mind, through the environment, through the society or through the environment. And we try to deal with it at the immediate level. And that is also required.
But sometimes at the immediate level, we can't deal with the pain. So that makes us think, what is the purpose of all this? So at one level, we all long for happiness. But at that very level, this world thwarts our longing for happiness.
So why this incompatibility? Incompatibility is meant to point us towards our spirituality. In today's world, through technology, we try to make more and more of our life physically comfortable. And the mind's need for stimulation, we have fulfilled it more than ever before through greater and greater entertainment.
And yet, we are experiencing more distress at the mental level than in the past. That's because entertainment is like a painkiller. Technology is often the art of arranging the world so that we don't experience it.
But such denial of reality doesn't change the reality. So painkillers may be needed, but the curative medicine is also needed. So entertainment is like the painkiller, enlightenment is like the actual curative medicine.
And enlightenment means understanding that we are souls meant to experience happiness at the spiritual level. So to the extent we realize our spirituality, to that extent we get relief from the distresses of life. The more we focus on Krishna, even when there are problems in life, the more that remembrance of Krishna, that connection with Krishna will give us relief.
Just as a person who is caught in a flood, if they find a higher level in their house, they experience relief over there. Similarly, we experience relief when we take shelter of Krishna. And even if we have to live with pain, we don't have to live in pain.
With pain means we understand pain is a part of my life. But in pain means the pain is there, but our mind keeps replaying the pain again and again and again and simply worsens our situation. But if we have habituated our mind to focus on Krishna, to become absorbed in Krishna, then we won't let the mind keep replaying the negative, just as we don't give unnecessary time to a person who is wasting our time.
Similarly, distressing stimuli, we won't give unnecessary time, rather we'll direct our mind towards Krishna and thus experience relief even amidst the pain. So pain ultimately is meant to protect us from a life forgetful of our spirituality. And pain is meant to point us to the reality that in our spiritual connection with Krishna is our longing for a pain-free and a joyful life ultimately fulfilled.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? What is the meaning of fixing our mind on Krishna? Okay, what does fixing our mind on Krishna mean? So the Bhakti Sambhu Sindhu says that there are four broad ways in which we can do dhyana on Krishna. That is called as Nama Dhyana, Rupa Dhyana, Leela Dhyana and Seva Dhyana.
So we can remember Krishna's names, His form, His pastimes and His service. Now among all these are equally important, but usually for us the service is what we can absorb ourselves in. And service can include a lot of things.
Even our whole life can be redefined as a service to Krishna if we infuse it with a service attitude. That means, generally, whatever we are doing, we have to focus our consciousness on that. But there is always a purpose why we are doing it.
Remembering Krishna doesn't mean that we have to be always absent-minded. Now we are in a class and we are hearing a lecture by the professor and we think of Krishna. Don't pay any attention to the professor.
That's not remembrance of Krishna. Remembrance of Krishna means remembering Krishna. That our purpose is to serve Krishna.
Vishwanath Chakra Thakur gives the example that suppose a person is working at a job and for that job they have to go away from their family. Now they may be away from their spouse, their children and they may be doing various things in their job. Meeting these people, meeting this deadline, getting this done and they are paying the due attention to do that.
But at the same time, they are aware at the back of their mind, I am doing all this for my family. My spouse is there, my children are there and I am providing for them. So there is a foreground awareness of what one is doing but there is also a background defining awareness of why we are doing it.
So similarly for a devotee, fixing the mind on Krishna means ultimately fixing the mind on our purpose of serving Krishna. So whatever we do, we do it for serving Krishna. Now sometimes, say in a relationship, say we may like someone.
Then we have these three kleshas, adhyatmik, adhibhautik and adhyayvik. So one devotee, one of my friends, he says, what are the examples of these three kleshas? So if you want to, adhibhautik klesh, since we could have mosquitoes, Mujahideen and mother-in-laws. Mujahideen, terrorists.
Now sometimes, it is almost universally everywhere in the world, the husband and wife may get along with each other but their mother-in-law, they may not be able to get along. But for the sake of someone whom we love, we may tolerate someone whom we can't get along so well also. Now that person's behavior may be not so pleasant but because we love someone else, we tolerate that.
And we try to be pleasant over there. Similarly, in our life, sometimes it may happen that some people are unpleasant. It's said that some people bring happiness wherever they go.
And some people bring happiness whenever they go. So what happens is that if we are remembering that ultimately, I am not just serving this person, I am serving Krishna. And Krishna is observing that how am I behaving.
Am I behaving in a cultured way? Am I still being polite? Am I still being courteous? So yes, this person is being disagreeable but I don't have to be disagreeable with them because I am not just responding to them. I am acting in a way that I will please the person whom I love. So that way, remembrance of Krishna means remembrance of our purpose to serve Krishna.
And that purpose shelters us by giving us the strength to even tolerate difficult situations. So for that, of course, we need some time where we conscientiously fix our mind on Krishna. So hearing the philosophy, chanting the holy names, worshipping the deities, associating with devotees where we discuss about Krishna, that slowly convinces us that the purpose of our life is to serve Krishna.
And once that conviction has entered into us, then in every situation that conviction will be an awareness that is there. So for us initially that, oh, I am serving Krishna is the awareness right at the very back of our mind somewhere. But gradually, as we keep practicing bhakti, that conviction starts coming to the foreground.
So initially, say, when I started giving classes first 25-30 years ago, I was very conscientious, you know. Are people paying attention? How am I looking? How am I speaking? Very self-conscious. But now, I focus more on, I have to share Krishna's message.
Yes, I am still conscious about other things, but the primary focus becomes, let me serve Krishna. So initially for us, Krishna may be in the background and the world is in the foreground. But as we start practicing bhakti more and more, as Krishna becomes more and more of a realized reality for us, then Krishna starts becoming prominent in our consciousness.
So Shrila Prabhupada, whether he was speaking to a few people in his room or he was speaking to thousands of people in a Pandal program, whether it was in India or America, he was enthusiastically glorifying Krishna because he was not just looking at the people there, he was looking at Krishna and trying to please Krishna. So that way, fixing the mind on Krishna basically means fixing our awareness on the reality that we are servants of Krishna and that we are meant to serve Krishna. And that awareness can guide us through all the activities that we are doing in our life and we can do them attentively and competently while at the same time having the purpose of serving Krishna in the mind.
Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Okay, how do we know how much we are progressing in spiritual path? And we feel we might be progressing but we don't know exactly that. Okay, so how do we know if we are progressing in our spiritual life? There are broadly two indications.
Bhakti is a process that gives us the experience of Isha, God, which cannot be experienced in any other way. And the result of that experience is we no longer become dependent on other experiences. That means that as we start practicing Bhakti at a level of day-to-day experiences, now we may all go through distresses, we may all be annoyed sometimes, irritated sometimes, we may have certain unwanted desires sometimes.
We just keep coming and going. But overall, the graph of our consciousness start moving upwards. So that means, say, we all are sometimes happy, sometimes distressed.
That is just the day of life, even when we are devotees, even when we are serious devotees also. But there is beyond the stimulated emotions or the triggered emotions from external situations, there's a level at which our consciousness returns by default. Like some people are habitually irritable.
You know, that means normally only they are complaining, this is not right, this is not right, this is not right, this is not right. Some people, they're always wearing a smile on their face. Sometimes they become irritated.
So we all, now just because somebody's habitually smiling doesn't mean they're habitually happy. But I'm just giving that as an example, that we all have a, we could say we all have a happiness level or a consciousness level. When we are not stimulated by anything externally, either too positive or too negative, then where does our consciousness normally return to? So that happiness level will slowly increase.
That means, say, 25 years ago, before we started practicing bhakti, our habitual state might be, we'll always be worried, this may go wrong, this may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong. Now also worry will come. But our habitual state may not be the state of worry.
Habitual state may be the state of peace. Habitual state may be the state of contentment. Still, we may also have some ambitions, some desires, but they won't be agitating us as much as they would earlier.
So basically, if you consider the graph of our consciousness with time, overall, the graph moves upwards. That means, the default level of happiness increases. And secondly, the oscillations will keep coming.
The mind will always have its mood swings. Sometimes we feel good, sometimes we feel bad. But their amplitude and their frequency will decrease.
When bad things happen at home, we are completely down in the dumps. Yes, we will feel bad. After all, we are human beings.
If things go wrong, we will feel bad. But we will not be that affected by it. It will become a little steadier.
So basically, why does our consciousness move upwards like that? Because we are connecting with Krishna. We are experiencing Krishna. That experience of Krishna may not result in constant… We are not dancing in ecstasy all the time.
It's not that we are always smiling or laughing also. But overall, we feel contented. So bhakti, pareesha anubhava.
We get to experience Krishna. And that leads to inner contentment. And then, along with that, external stimulations that are there.
Viraktiranyatra cha. Whatever ups and downs come, we don't get so disturbed by them. So basically, spiritual advancement is a gradual process.
And on a day-to-day basis, we may not experience it also. But if you look at it overall time, say, sometimes some small children don't like to eat food. Then the mother may tell them, if you eat food, then you will become a bodybuilder like this.
Your hero, cartoon hero or some TV hero. I say, you drink this milk. The child, they may drink a glass of milk and then take a tape to measure.
It has my muscles improved. And the mother will say, it's not like that. You will have to keep drinking milk daily and gradually your muscles will improve.
So like that, the growth of spirituality, our spiritual growth is gradual. So how do we experience that growth? It's like if you take a photo of a child on a daily basis, you may not see the difference. But six months later, you take a photo six months earlier and compare now.
You've grown up. So like that, in our life, when difficulties come or some unusual situations come, at that time, what is our response? Our response will be much stabler, much healthier. And that will indicate that we are growing spiritually.
Thank you. Yes, please. Thank you.
Yes. So, you know, actually, we all can antrospect. Are we living in pain or living with pain? And one example we can contemplate about how Krishna Consciousness can help us to do this, to go from living in pain to living with pain, is that, the Bhagavad Gita gives the example that, आपूर्यमानमचलप्रतिष्टम् समुद्रमापः प्रमशन्तियद्वत् तद्वत् कामायं प्रमशन्ति सर्वे पशान्तिमाप्नोति नकामकामी That if rivers flow into an ocean, the ocean is not disturbed.
Now, if the river flows into a small puddle or even a pond, that will get disrupted. So basically, the worldly stimuli, the distresses from the world coming in, the distresses are like the rivers. They are going to come.
Now, if our consciousness is attached to small things, then our consciousness becomes like a puddle. But if our consciousness is attached to the biggest reality, Krishna, if our consciousness is attached to some bigger purpose, the purpose of serving Krishna, then our consciousness expands to become like an ocean. We all have a capacity to tolerate pain.
Sometimes we feel, I just don't want pain. But it is not that we are averse to pain. What we are really averse to, what we really trust is purposeless pain.
You know, if say my hand gets, if I'm just doing some work and suddenly if I'm doing some cloth work and a needle cuts my hand and blood comes out, I feel irritated. But if I go to a hospital and there for taking some blood, needle is put in my body. That's also pain, but I don't feel irritated.
So, what actually annoys us is not pain itself, or it's purposeless pain. So, when there's a purpose, then I may willingly put my hand forward, okay, put a needle over here, take the pain, take it out the blood. So, when the purpose is there, then pain becomes manageable.
When there is no purpose, then the pain becomes unmanageable. So, bhakti gives us a big purpose. So, if our consciousness is connected with Krishna, with the mood of serving him, then because Krishna is the biggest reality, then our consciousness expands.
And then we can, okay, this problem has come, but Krishna is in control and Krishna will bring some good out of this. Let me keep serving him. So, on the other hand, if we are attached to some things in the world, then our consciousness shrinks.
And if anything goes wrong with that, it becomes unbearable. It's like, a few months ago, there was this cricket tournament where India played Pakistan in the finals of the Champions Trophy. So, one boy came and told me after that, that India was expected to win, but India lost and lost quite badly.
So, he said, after that, for three nights, I couldn't sleep. So, I told him, the cricketers themselves went to sleep. So, the consciousness was so caught in that, cricketers just couldn't think, how could this happen? How could this happen? How could this happen? So, actually, to be able to live not in pain, but live with pain, our consciousness has to be attached to something bigger than the pain.
If we are attached to say, if we attach to person X, and that person X starts hurting us or start behaving in an unfavorable way, then we will just become, if I'm fine, unbearable. We'll have to live in pain. So, our bhakti is not just about chanting Hare Krishna or say, coming to satsang or going to a temple.
All these are good. But bhakti ultimately is meant to redefine our identity and our purpose. Redefine our identity means, first and foremost, I am a soul who is a servant of Krishna.
And my purpose is, whatever I am doing, I am doing it to serve Krishna. So, if I define myself as a software engineer, and I get the pink slip. Who am I? What is I? What is my life? What am I meant to do? If I define myself, say, as the parent of someone, and if my child starts going on a wrong track, I feel my whole life is a failure.
But if I understand that I am a soul who is a servant of Krishna, as a servant of Krishna, I am working as a software engineer. As a servant of Krishna, I am a parent. And yes, sometimes a particular thing that we are going to do in this world, that may not work.
It is important and we would very much try our best to make it work. But if our purpose gets reduced only to that, if our identity gets reduced only to that, then it doesn't work, it will become unbearable. But when our identity and purpose are bigger than the specific roles and responsibilities we have in this world, then we can actually do those roles and responsibilities with greater maturity.
We do our best, but we don't get caught in them. So at a conceptual level, understanding that I should be, I can be with pain, but not in pain. At a conceptual level, that exercise is good.
But at a practical level, to apply it, it's important that we develop our attachment to Krishna. We conceptualize our identity as I am a servant of Krishna, and we redefine our purpose. Everything that I am doing is for the service of Krishna.
To the extent we do that, to that extent our consciousness will become like an ocean. And then we will not be living in pain, even when we have to live with pain. Thank you.
I really want to hear your comments, what you found. Yes, ma'am, please. Sometimes the replaying goes a little too strong.
Then how to control our mind and not to think of… When the replay starts going on and on, what to do? Generally, you see, the mind is at the mental level, then the spiritual level of reality, then the physical level of reality. So, when the mind gets carried away at the mental level, the best solution is to take it to the spiritual level. But sometimes you just have to get out of the head.
That means even if we come to the physical level, that also happens. Physical level means, basically, we could say that our thoughts are like a train, and the train just shoots off. So we have to interrupt that thought train.
So sometimes, just something simple as, okay, when I'm just getting overwhelmed by worry, I'm getting overwhelmed by resentment. Okay, just let me do deep breathing. You know, breathe in, breathe out.
Just breathe in, breathe out. And just try to become more aware of the breath. Now, what happens by that? That is not a solution, but that's an interruption.
The mind's train that is shooting off, just breathe in, breathe out. Just sense how my stomach, chest is going in, coming out. I'm inhaling, exhaling.
So by that, we interrupt that train of thoughts. And once we interrupt, then we understand, okay, I'm getting carried away by this. I don't need to get carried away.
So sometimes, we live too much inside the head. So get out of the head, get into the world. Do something practical.
You see, when we are driving, say, through a crowded area, then we are very attentive. Okay, who's coming from here? Who's coming from there? But it's a clear, express way. Sometimes, we may drive for half an hour, and we may not even remember, okay, I drove through all this area.
Because if the physical level of reality doesn't require immediate attention, then we get caught in the mental level of reality. So usually, it is found that when do people start worrying or when does people's mind trouble them the most? It is usually when they have leisure time. It is during our leisure time that our mind works overtime.
We've done our work, you know, whether it's office, home, we completed the work. And then, now I'm going to sit and relax. But then, the mind says, what about this? He said this.
He did that. And that happened. That happened.
So now, we, of course, do need to relax at a physical level. But the mind, we have to see, is it also relaxing, or is it just wandering here and there? So deep breathing is just one example of getting off the thought train, of interrupting it. Sometimes, our purpose is not just to interrupt the thought train, but to actually direct our thoughts in a more constructive way.
That thought, those thoughts may still be going on. But we don't have to, that train may still go on, but we don't have to enter the train. Then the train will stop on its own.
It's our thoughts, our investment of consciousness that fuels the train. So sometimes, if there is something which we like to do and something which is also constructive. Say, suppose, we like singing or we like kirtans.
Then, we keep some sweet kirtans right close to us, in our phone or something. And whenever the mind starts getting agitated, at that time, the replay is happening. Just start that off.
We can't fight against the replay. Whatever thoughts come in the mind, we can't fight and get rid of them. If some unwanted person is there in our house, we might get the police and push them out.
But thoughts are not like that. The thoughts can't be pushed out. The more we try to push out a thought, the more we are focusing on the thought.
And the more you focus on the thought, it will grow. So, we can't say, I will not let this replay. No, it's already that replay is already happening.
So, what we need to do is have something ready where we can redirect. Say, if I sometimes compare the mind to like a computer screen. Sometimes, on a computer screen, some pop-up comes up.
A new software update is available. Do you want to update now? Now, we may say, now, okay, remind me after an hour, remind me after a day or later. I don't want to update.
We can have options. But sometimes, some pop-ups come, which there is no cross to remove them only. They're just there.
Now, initially, the pop-up may come and it may be there. But we don't want to do anything with it. So, as soon as, okay, this is a pop-up.
As soon as I understand this, what I do is, even if I can't remove it, I just catch it and put it aside. I drag it aside and continue my work. So, like that.
So, if we consider our mind to be like a computer screen, in which many windows can be opened. So, some window might just open up on its own. And we can't close it.
At the same time, we can drag it aside. Okay, this is there. It will be open, but I'm going to focus over here.
And as we start focusing on the other window, then this will become not so prominent. And over a period of time, gradually, if we pay lesser and lesser attention to it, the replay will stop. The mind is basically like a, you could say, a self-learning software.
Say, if somebody has visited some website, say, Bollywood.com, repeatedly, again and again and again. Now they come to a spiritual program, they hear about Bhagavad Gita. And they want to know what is Bhagavad Gita.
And they go on their Google and type B for Bhagavad Gita. But what happens? Bollywood comes up. So, now, it's not that the software is their enemy.
The software is simply reflecting what they had done in the past. Now, if they again and again keep selecting Bhagavad Gita, then gradually Bhagavad Gita will become a preferred search, preferred auto-complete. So, basically, our mind keeps whatever impressions we have put in the mind, the impressions become the mind's propositions.
So, if something, we have invested our emotions in a lot, and that person, suppose, disappoints us, hurts us, then naturally, because we have invested our emotion in it, so any thought associated with them will come quite forcefully in the mind. But at that time, if we direct our thought elsewhere, gradually, that replaced force will become lesser. So, we have to find out these two things.
How can I interrupt that thought flow at an immediate level? Okay, just deep breathing. Sometimes, another way to do it is, that instead of, if we can just identify it, say, I am angry, I am furious. So, instead of that, just say, the mind is saying, I am furious.
The mind is saying, oh, I am depressed. The mind is saying, I am depressed. Sometimes, if, say, we have to give some unpalatable message to someone, you know, say, A has told us to tell B. So, right at the beginning, we say, these are not my words.
These are that person's words. So, we may have to convey them and they may have to deal with it. So, like that, you just understand that this is, just because these emotions are within me, that doesn't mean they are my emotions.
Say, I am tired. The mind is saying, I am tired. Now, it's not that when the mind is saying something, it is necessarily false or it is necessarily true.
It can sometimes be true also. The mind may say something which has to be taken into consideration. But just by saying, the mind is saying, what happens is, we create a situation for evaluation rather than identification.
Evaluation means, okay, the mind is saying, I am tired. Am I really tired or can I do some work more? The mind says, I am angry. Okay, well, is this really worth getting angry about? Or even if I am going to get angry, what is the best way to express my anger? So, just as if somebody else says something to us, we evaluate it.
We don't necessarily dismiss it, nor do we necessarily accept it. Similarly, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that learn to become an observer of your mind. प्रकाशं च प्रवत्यं च मोहं एवच पाण्डबनु वेश्टि संप्रवत्तानि न निवृत्तानि कांक्षति। उदासीन वदासीनं गुणैरियोन विचाल्यते गुणावर्तन्तित्येव योपतिष्टतिनेंगते। 14.22 and 23, it says that different emotions will come within the consciousness.
And you become like their observer. उदासीन वदासीनं. उदासीन means detached.
वद means like. It's not that we are completely detached because they are coming within us and we have to deal with them. But we deal with them in an objective way.
So we tend to, we become like an umpire for our emotions. If a cricket match is going on, the umpire has to be impartial. In English there are two words.
There is uninterested and there is disinterested. Disinterested means impartial. Uninterested means uncaring, apathetic.
So the umpire is meant to be disinterested, not uninterested. The players appeal, how's that? And the umpire says, I was not watching the match. What are you doing? You have to be watching the match.
That's why you're umpire. But just because the player is appealing, doesn't mean the umpire has to accept the appeal or the umpire has to reject the appeal. The umpire has to evaluate the appeal.
So similarly the emotions within us are like players appealing. I'm angry, I'm angry, I'm angry. Okay, the mind is saying I'm angry.
The player within us is saying I'm angry. Okay, now is it valid? Is it not valid? Sometimes the appeal may be valid and it may require appropriate action. Sometimes the appeal might just be exaggeration.
So basically, especially if we understand the Bhagavad Gita and we practice bhakti more and more, then that Bhagavad Gita's knowledge becomes like an inner torchlight by which we start understanding more and more that everything inside me is not me. If we just, if we just can get this habit, okay, the mind is saying, instead of, the mind is saying you're, I'm angry. You just get that kind of habit established, to a large extent we'll be able to stop the replay.
Understand, this is, okay, this replay is happening with the mind is put on this pop-up. Okay, it'll be there. It'll be focused on something else.
So that way we can learn to stop fueling the replay of the mind by focusing on something else that is more immediate as well as more constructive. Thank you very much. So let us thank Prabhuji, loudly chanting Hari Bol three times.
Hari Bol! Hari Bol! Hari Bol! Thank you very much. So those of you who want, we have some books here. Okay.
Prabhuji books are there in the, yeah. I have it. We have a list of rights and… Maybe I can tell a little bit about the books.
Yeah, Prabhuji can introduce it. So… At least sit down for some time. Books are in the back side.
They're very interesting.