Self-control Strategies – Contemporary analysis of Nectar of Instruction Text 1

[Brahmachari class at ISKCON, Chicago, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, I’ll discuss today on the specifics of the first verse of the Nectar of Instruction, where I’ll talk about some general principles about the book and the position of this verse in that book. So, the Nectar of Instruction is in Sanskrit, Upadesha Amrit.
Now, the Goswamis of Vrindavan, they were the primary disciples of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he provided his teachings primarily to them. And we are all a part of the Gaudiya Vaishnava unit, which comes from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
And in this particular book, he gives the practicals. So, it’s interesting when he’s giving the practicals, how does he manage it? So, you can envision them living in Vrindavan. And Vrindavan is the capital of devotion.
It is the abode, which is the place where Radha Krishna’s pastimes are being eternally discussed, eternally relished, eternally enacted. And at that place, they are charting out a pathway for people in general, especially devotional seekers, to enter into that topmost realm. So, the books of the Goswamis were actually team members.
The Goswamis would every day come and discuss. There’s a place in Vrindavan Maham where the Goswamis would usually discuss. And then they would go separately to the Vajraputi, their places of solitary meditation.
And there they would contemplate, pray, chant and write. Now, they themselves are at the very elevated levels of consciousness. And from that elevated level of consciousness, they are outlining how we can attain that level.
So, at one level, they talk about Vrindavan, they talk about Vrajya Bhakti, just now Radha Krishna, you absorb and that. And they begin with something which is very basic, very primitive. वाज्यो वेगं मनसः त्रोधवेगं। जिव्भावेगं उधरोपस्तर्वेगं। एतान्नेकान्यो विशेहेत धीरः। सर्वापिमान्तु तुम्हीं सशिक्षार। So, those who can control their tongue, जिव्भावेगं। All of us have urges.
Sometimes we strongly feel we should speak something. There are people, they are like babbling brooks. That means, whatever enters their eye gate and ear gate, has to come out of their mouth gate within 30 seconds.
30 seconds won’t pass. Just keep babbling, keep babbling, keep babbling. So, there are people who just keep talking, keep talking.
We call them chakra boxes. So, now, speech is an important means of communication. But speech can also be a major factor for distraction.
So, when we speak chakra in, chakra in, chakra in, and often it’s not of consequential subjects. Then our attention gets distracted from consequential subjects. Either it’s internally, or externally, or the important thing that they are supposed to do.
In today’s world, this वाच्चोवेगं, the urge to speak, comes out through text messages. I saw one video, where 500 people are sitting on a platform, sitting on a real platform, and not one of them is looking at anything else. Everyone is at their homes.
So, what is happening is, the same urge to speak, is now being verbalised through text messages. So, of course, there are many text messages which are valuable, which can evade important communication. But many are not.
So, this is the urge which distracts us. वाच्चोवेगं, मनसा है क्रोज है, the mind wanders here and there. And that can just make us so restless.
And then, क्रोज है, क्रोज है, is fury, anger. You see today, everywhere in the world, some men, there is road rage. People get angry, and on the roads, they just run over someone, they shoot someone.
You know what sort of crazy things? Birds of anger. जीवा वेगल, जीवा वेगल, इधरो पस्तवेगं. So, जीवा, that is your tongue.
So, that is people. People are often caught by their tongues. And one of the problems, I read in the US Army, is that the young people, children, are eating so much, that they are so obese, and the US Army don’t even let enough fit people to join their army.
Because young people are so obese. Just keep eating, keep eating. That’s what happened in China also.
China had the policy of one or none. They had only one child, or no child. So, then one child they would have, because China has a traditional culture, and the whole family would pamper that child.
And the child would become so obese. It’s a big problem. So, in a sense, with technology, what is happening is that the devices, the devices are becoming smaller and smaller and smaller.
And the people using those devices are becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. So, that is Jeeva Veda. Earth is eating, eating, eating.
And Udara Upastha Veda. Now, Jeeva and Udara is belly. The difference between the urge of the tongue and the urge of the belly is, the tongue is to speak deliciously.
And the urge of the belly is to eat a lot. Now, what is the difference? In one, it’s excessive selectivity. In the other, it’s excessive quantity.
So, people just go, I just want to eat this. And otherwise people go from, literally one part of the country to another part of the country, just to eat one item. That’s what the Jeeva Veda is.
Udara Veda is to gorge. Some people feed their tongue like a conveyor belt. Lots of things go inside that.
So, Udara Upastha Veda. Upastha is, of course, genitals. Sexual urges.
That is something which is… And today, through the internet, all sorts of images are so easily available, that often, you know, reaching out for a piece of bread requires today more effort than reaching out to see some obscene images. Or at least to get a bread, you have to go up and walk to the fridge. To see some obscene images, just click a few buttons right over here.
Wow. It’s gone. I found that, I wrote an article about this pornography, that the money in pornography is actually five times more than the money in food volume, bed volume, and bathroom volume, all combined together.
It’s astounding. People are caught. Caught by the urge for sexual urges, especially sexual urges.
And in time, you know, a black-white person who can control the urges, can tolerate the urges, can say, Sarvam Atmanam Kutum. Such a person can actually become have disciples all over the world. Now interestingly, in this world, it’s for seekers.
Why are the qualifications of a spiritual master you can have all over the world? Multiple reasons. First is that the seeker also has to search for an appropriate spiritual master. And a person should have these qualities.
Secondly, the seeker also should know that I have to become like this spiritual master. And these are the qualities which I need to develop. And for me, that the seeker needs to know that these are so important.
Because on the path of devotion, sometimes people think that actually what is important is devotion. I love Krishna. That’s the thing.
I chant Krishna’s name. I dance in front of him. I love the devotees.
And I am a devotee. But these are very important things, no doubt. so you can have basically there is in the process of bhakti there are two aspects.
So if you have Krishna and Maya. Maya is a form of beauty. So K is attached.
So now there are four possibilities here. Consider somebody can be somebody can be attached to Krishna and attached to Maya. These are the materialists.
They don’t care about Krishna. They care only about worldly enjoyment. Now, the second kind of people are those there are four categories of people here.
You can see the devotees. What is that I like to see? Attached to Krishna and attached to Maya. and attached to Maya.
And there is another category of people. They are the impersonals. The impersonals are those who have an impersonal conception of God.
They have an impersonal conception but the impersonal has it. And it is going to go beyond the personal to attain the impersonal. So I saw one of the teachers I was an atheist.
Till I discovered I was God. So they think that the conception of God is there. They will go beyond that to merge into the infinite Absolute.
So they think they have to go beyond God. Some of the impersonals they are detached from the material world. So they are detached from Maya but their problem is they are detached from Krishna also.
They will go beyond Krishna. Then the last category of people are called Sahajiyas. Sahajiyas are the sentimentalists.
Sentimentalists they are attached to Krishna but they are attached to Maya. Such people they may chant Krishna’s names and they may actually have a lot of devotion to Krishna. In the sense that they very effusively do devotional activities.
When they chant they pray, they do the same thing. If they hear about Krishna they say, yes, come from that place. So many of them may have some attachment to Krishna.
And certainly there is some emotional connection that they have with Krishna. But they don’t follow the process to connect with Krishna. And because they don’t follow any process what happens is their emotional spurts sometime come.
Sometime they feel so connected to Krishna. Otherwise they feel dragged by Krishna. They don’t follow any discipline.
They don’t follow any designated principles. They don’t try to cultivate a detachment from the senses. They think that Sahajiyas are also open and Bhaktis also.
So they are attached to Maya, they are attached to Krishna. And especially in Vrindavan we find a lot of people of this category. So Rupa Goswami right in the beginning of this world is differentiating.
This is not the kind of people you want to be. It’s good to be attached to Krishna in whatever way is possible. But the serious devotees they also cultivate detachment from Maya.
And this verse highlights that point. What are the ways in which we get attached to Maya? There are two to six forces I described. The speech, the mind, the anger, the tongue, the belly and the hands.
And these are the ways in which we get attracted to the form, the illusory objects in this world. And that’s what we get attached to. So as we move forward in this text we will see that it goes to exalted levels of spiritual devotion.
It begins with the sunlight. So in a sense, our growth in Bhakti is generally like this. You know, we get attached to Krishna, we want to become attached to Krishna.
So while, not our journey, actually the NOI, the network of instruction is going like this. It begins with verses that describe detachment from Maya. And eventually it will describe verses that talk about great attachment to Krishna.
Where, constantly absorbing Why? He says, This is the essence of the book, the essence of the instruction that I can give you. So the point is, that attachment to Krishna is important. At the same time, attachment from material things is also important.
And to differentiate between serious devotions and surajya, sentimental things. The focus here is on Now, Srila Prabhupada, and before him, the spiritual master Srila Prabhupada, when they presented the book, they focused a lot on the attachment because the surajyas had probably permitted and the surajyas, they were doing all kinds of immoral activities and at the same time, they were claiming to be devotees. In that way, they were giving devotees a bad name.
Now, anybody can practise devotion. Doors of devotion are open to everyone, no doubt. Somebody might be smoking, somebody might be drinking, somebody might be taking drugs.
They can also come in the temple, they can also keep to kirtan. The doors of bhakti are open for everyone. At the same time, they have to know, people have to know that this is not what devotees are.
Even these people can become devotees. But what are devotees? Devotees are people who are morally exemplary, spiritually pure. Srila Prabhupada said, how can people know it’s a they are perfect people.
That means, all these unhealthy behavioural patterns, they are not healthy. And the corresponding stress is that we need to break free from this. So, how do we go about breaking free from this? The important thing is that, again, it is the process of kirti that enables us to break free from this.
So, the more we start connecting with Krishna, the more that connection gives us intelligence and taste. So, what does devotion give us? You start practising bhakti, devotion gives us intelligence and it gives us taste. Now, intelligence enables us to know what is right and what is wrong.
What is beneficial and what is harmful. So, by this it becomes clear. This is not good.
This is good. This will help you grow. This won’t help you grow.
And taste enables us to become attracted to that which is good and to avoid that which is bad. And generally, intelligence comes first. The taste will take some time to come.
So, while the taste has not yet come, during that time, we have to act on the level of our intelligence. And that is why scriptural study is very important. When you study the scripture, understand the philosophy regularly, then our intelligence is sharp.
This is short-sighted. This is far-sighted. This is mundane.
This is transcendental. The capacity to differentiate is the characteristic of intelligence. In general, how do we know that any person is intelligent? Whichever field it is in.
Now, if it’s a good doctor, it will be a doctor. The doctor sees some symptoms. Oh, this symptom is not really a disease.
It is a disease. This symptom is a disease. Basically, by seeing certainly, the doctor is able to discern.
So, discerning is the scientific intelligence. And that is in every field. Somebody is an expert car repair person.
Now, the car makes a particular kind of sound. And this indicates that the problem is in this car. The car is making a point of noise.
The problem is in this car. A, if our laptop is not working. When we go to an expert, we may look at the laptop, they may look at the laptop.
What do you understand? Oh, okay. You are operating very slow. If it is very slow, you are running this, this, this programme.
That means this is the problem. So, basically, this is not disease. That capacity to discern is required in every walk of life.
And intelligence, intelligence in any walk of life means the capacity to discern, to discriminate, to understand what works and what doesn’t work. Now, this is what is developed by by studying the philosophy of Maharishi. In the Chetan Charita Amrit, it is said that, this is philosophy, I am not interested in this.
Don’t think like this. Philosophy will help us to know what is the reality and what is not the reality. And that way, you will be able to fix this is the Maharishi.
So, philosophy actually means feeling is love. So, what is truth? Love of truth. And Krishna is the ultimate truth.
So, therefore, if we consider this point, that philosophy is love of truth and Krishna is the ultimate truth. Then, philosophy’s perfection is in love for Krishna. And, that’s how… So, the topmost philosopher will be a guru.
Krishna says, This is after many lifetimes of doing some kind of spiritual activities, the wife also comes to understand that Krishna is everything. Krishna is your embodiment. Krishna is the embodiment, the fulfilment of everything attractive in this world.
And, therefore, I wholeheartedly devote myself to Krishna. So, this understanding is what comes as a practise of devotion in the form of nourishing our intelligence through spiritual study. So, here, once the intelligence is strong, we can seek to the right, seek to the right and avoid the wrong.
And, gradually, when the taste comes, then, with that taste, we can move on and actually gravitate toward that which is beneficial and stay away from that guilt. So, let’s quickly look over these six characteristics once again and then we can have some question and answers. So, I started with vārcho, the urge to speak.
There are, in this set of verses, the tongue is actually mentioned twice. First it is mentioned, vārcho, the urge to speak, and then jihvā. The tongue is mentioned as eating.
So, both these are functions of the senses. So, basically, we interact with the world through this. We take in information and we bring out action.
For example, if I see an insect moving along the road, coming towards me, then, I’m taking that information to my eyes. And then, afterwards, if I don’t want the insect to come, I might just take some broom or something and start with it. That’s the action.
So, we interact with the world through taking information and then bringing out action. So, there are five senses which deal with taking in information. They are called the jñāna-indriyas.
And then the knowledge acquired in senses, which are the brāhmaṇa, eyes, ears, nose, touch, tongue. So, we take it. How is it? There are five knowledge acquired in senses.
And then there are five executive senses or action senses, karma-indriya, which are the hands, legs, the two excretory organs, the genitals and the penis, and then speech. Something we do with our hands and legs. Something we get done through speech.
So, a judge may say, let this person be hand. Let this person be compensated. That speech itself, something that is action.
We need to act. So, now, Yuga Goswami here talks about some of the senses. So, first of all, vāchavakam, urge to speak.
So, this is how we interact with the world in terms of making our one’s world, making our presence felt, making our opinion manifest. Now, it is important. Actually, speech is one of the important activities we all humans have.
And it is remarkable how much transformation can be done to people by the power of speech. If you consider some of the greatest leaders in the world, if you consider Hitler, what did he do? Just by speeches, he changed the world view of an entire nation. And he had them filled with ambition of conquering the whole world, notion that they were the greatest of all by themselves.
And he incited them with hate from the Jews and others who he considered primitive racists. So, all that happened by the power of speech. So, when it is said you control the urge to speak, that doesn’t mean that we don’t speak.
It simply means that speaking is a great power. And therefore, it needs to be carefully used. If somebody has a very powerful bomb and they want to construct a road in a mountainous area, then they have to blow up some boulders.
And then they use that bomb to blow up that rocky area so that they can create a road. But if instead they blow up that bomb somewhere just on a normal road, normal ground, all that they do is they create a crater over it. They create a big hole in the ground and it serves no purpose.
It doesn’t fulfil the purpose of constructing the road. Worse still, if they blow up that bomb in a civilian area, it will kill people also. So, a bomb is a power and it needs to be properly used.
Similarly, speech is a very great power. And we need to properly use it. So, we could just fritter it away in just idle chit-chatting or we could harm ourselves by speaking.
Harm others and harm ourselves by human moaning, by gossiping. Later on, I’ll talk about pyjama. So, speech is a great power.
And that power of speech, like the power of a bomb, needs to be used to dismantle our own illusions and the illusions of others. When we are not careful about our power of speech, then we use it. We don’t use it.
We dissipate it. So, just because I feel like speaking, I don’t necessarily have to speak. Most often, we can just regard our speech and it can save us from a lot of trouble.
It can actually be nice. You know, it’s said that the town has no bones, but the town can break bones. Laughter You know, you speak some things, they make people so angry, they can’t beat us up.
You know, they break our bones. Or sometimes, the town can also break hearts. When you say something, people can shatter their hearts.
The town has great power. And here, we are talking about the town’s power of speech. So, watch your word.
And Shri Prabhupada explained that the best way to tap the power of speech is by speaking about it. Krishna is all-powerful. He is all-pure.
When we speak about Krishna, we become purified and we help purify others. So, some people tell you that you should just be silent. That’s how we curb the power of speech.
But that is very difficult to do. On the other hand, some of us may like to speak a lot, some of us don’t like to speak a lot. We may be by nature a little bit more reserved.
Whatever it is, the important thing is that we channel our nature towards Krishna. So, if we like to speak a lot, rather than speaking about mundane things, we read a lot, we hear a lot, we will speak a lot about Krishna. Like we speak a little, whatever little we say, we speak about Krishna.
When we start speaking about Krishna, we start getting taste in that. And once we get taste, then we begin to speak more. So, watch your word.
Manasa This is the verge of the mind. Imagine if you see somebody driving a car at high speed. Suddenly, you may see movies or something, a superman kind of person just suddenly comes down in front of the car and pushes the car.
And the car is going high speed in one direction. Suddenly, it starts going in an entirely different direction. It starts going backwards.
And that person will get muscles bulging out. How powerful they are. Similarly, the mind has so much power.
We may be directing our thoughts in one direction. We are thinking about one thing, we are doing one thing. Suddenly, the mind says something, it starts going in an entirely opposite direction.
At one moment, we are thinking, I am going to do this. I made a resolution. I am going to do whatever it is.
I am going to do this. And then next moment, it is going in an entirely opposite direction. So, the force of our intention is completely overpowered by the force of the mind’s momentum.
And when this happens, the force of our intention is overpowered by the force of the mind’s momentum. That indicates how powerful the mind is. It is like it can turn a vehicle in the opposite direction.
Pass from a vehicle. When this happens, how do we deal with it? The important thing is to know that we need to fix the mind on something. Fix our consciousness.
Fix our thoughts on something which is bigger than the mind. People can be very cheerful and happy one moment, and the next moment, the next moment, I am palpitating. I get high blood pressure.
I just come out to punch someone with fists. What happened? What changed? That is the power of the mind. We have to be very protective in the mind.
And the mind’s force is the first thing we as seekers recognise when especially we try to chant, we try to meditate, we try to fix the mind on Krishna and immediately realise, what happened to the mind? All the focus of the mind is going here, going there, going everywhere. What do I do? So, be careful. Just try to bring the mind to Krishna gradually in the context.
It will take a gradual process and every day it will change. What is happening is, we are purifying the mind and the mind’s energy will be redirected to Krishna. So, the same energy if the mind is going off in the opposite direction, it will start going in a irreversible direction.
It will be a sleep practising of the consciousness. And it will grow all the way. Growth is anger.
Now, they say anger is just one letter short of danger. And anger is danger, it is only one letter, D. And, what is that D? That D is disturbance. As soon as we are disturbed by something, we become angry.
And then the disturbance makes us it is going to be angry. So, we can’t avoid disturbances. Disturbances are going to be there.
People will act in a certain way. Life may give us a lemon, as we say. Life may give us a rodent.
Sometimes, we may ourselves act in stupid ways. But when these things happen, then what do we do? If we just give in to the force of anger, then we often make things worse. Normally, see, how does anger delude us? Anger deludes us by giving us a sense of power, a promise of power.
Lust, for example, deludes us by giving us a promise of power. Come on, do this, you will enjoy. Anger deludes us by giving us a promise of power.
When you become angry, you know, you beat beat everything out of this person. You know, just give him a piece of your mind. I’ll put that person in that place.
Anger, actually, anger deludes us by giving us a promise of power. But, anger is not a sign of power. It is a sign of weakness.
Because when we become angry, we are letting circumstances control our emotions. There are certain situations which require strong actions. But those strong actions should be consciously chosen by us.
They should not be impulsively triggered within us by circumstances. So, when you become angry, anger is actually a sign of weakness. That means this person does not have the capacity to process one’s emotions properly.
That person does not have the capacity to choose one’s actions properly. That’s why there’s a problem. So, when we become angry, we end up making things worse.
Now, I’ll give one example. If you can remember that, you can avoid anger for a little bit. Suppose, you are walking along the road in a forested path.
And suddenly, we find that BANG! The stung us. You look down, and you see a snake wriggling about. And you think, how dare this snake bite me! I will kill it! I start running after the snake to pounce on it and to pound the life and to crush it.
Now, even if I catch the snake, even if I kill the snake, what am I doing? I’m killing myself. Because the more I’m running like that after the snake, the more the poison is going to my blood, it’s going to reach my heart, it’s going to reach my brain, it’s going to kill me. So, at that point, you know, saving myself is more important than getting evil.
So, sometimes, we think that getting evil is the most important thing in my life. That person did like that to me, I’m going to do like this to that person. The snake has bitten me, so I want to go and beat the snake.
But I kill myself in the process. The first thing that I need to do is save myself. So, save myself.
I have to get the poison out, cut something, I have a cord tied around my leg, get the poison out. Now, if the snake is in danger, you may have to kill it. You may have to change the bait, or you may have to trap it and send it to some reserve territory or whatever.
The snake has to be dealt with. But, dealing with the snake is not the first thing that you need to do. Similarly, when somebody hurts us, getting evil is not the first thing you need to do.
It is important to do that. Not just get evil, but basically, make sure that the person doesn’t make it a habit to hurt others. Hurting others.
We have to make the person recognise the danger of harm for them and prevent them from hurting others. But that’s not the first thing. The first thing to do is save ourselves.
And saving ourselves means that we don’t let anger control us. So, that poison that has come into our system, we have to get it out. Similarly, we need to control our anger.
And one of the best ways to control our anger is with ignorance. Actually, anger deludes us by promising strength and inducing weakness. If you recognise the way anger works, then you will not succumb to it.
Ultimately, we chant Hare Krishna, we start practising bhakti. We start understanding that Krishna is in control. And then that ignorance is not my job.
There is God, there is a system of karma. People will get their peace. So, understanding Krishna’s control and shield helps us to not overreact and people act wrongly.
When we think that we have to set things right. This person did wrong. I have to set things right.
Basically, I am putting myself in the position of God. And I am trying to give retribution to justice. Retribution.
Punishment. As a compensation for having hurt. Now, that is we are basically thinking we are God.
We understand God is in control and everybody will get their dream. Then, our focus is on choosing the best response. Not on getting hurt.
That’s how the practise of bhakti will actually, at a subconscious level also, at a conscious level, in the intellectual understanding of God’s control and shield, we won’t focus on making that person right. We focus on our right response. At a subconscious level, again, anger is an impurity.
And the more we become purified, the more anger will stop from us. Now, jivhavidam is the urge of the tongue. That is, here we are talking about what? Eating.
Now, eating is a biological need. But, sometimes, eating becomes also a psychological drive. That means what? We often overeat because something is eating us.
Something is eating us. It’s eating is non-human. It’s anxiety is non-human.
It’s loneliness is hurting me. It’s emotions are hurting me. Something is eating us up from within.
Internally, we are having uncomfortable sensations. And, we counter the inner discomfort of something eating us up with outer comfort of eating something. So, just telling people, don’t overeat.
Just make a resolution. I won’t overeat. Yes, that helps in the sense that that resolution at least is the beginning.
But often, we overeat because there are some unresolved emotional issues. And those unresolved emotional issues need to be dealt with. So, sometimes, food becomes like our comforter.
We eat what is called as comfort food. Comfort food means whenever I feel uncomfortable. This is going wrong in my life.
That is going wrong in my life. I am eating this chocolate. This is right in my life.
This chocolate tastes great. One thing is right in my life. So, when we eat food like that as a source of emotional comfort, then at that time that food becomes a food is actually meant to be the nourisher of the body.
But when, so food is the nourisher of the body but that same food can become the damager of the body. Then, we use it as an emotional comforter. Without addressing underlying emotional issues, when we seek to comfort ourselves internally through the food we take externally, then we keep eating a lot.
Because we want to get that comfort. Now, how do we deal with this? At one level, at a practical level, making sure that food, especially opulent, fatty food is not easily available for us. That is difficult.
If I keep a fatty, opulent food and easily access it. It’s just there in my drawer. It’s just there in my pocket.
It’s just there nearby. Then, even without my realising it, I’m talking on phone and just maybe typing something on my laptop. My hand goes down and it takes the food and eats it.
Hey, I suppose a lot of people feel it. What happened? So, that happens because if something is tempting us, we know how it tempts us. It’s better to keep it at a distance.
Better to not keep it nearby me. So, in a sense, the more we can regulate access to food, the more it becomes easier to regulate and think of food. So, the more we regulate access to food, don’t keep fatty food in the environment.
Then, the easier it becomes to regulate the intake of food. So, now, actually, one thing, the big advantage with respect to food is that unlike other sense objects, food doesn’t naturally flow into the senses. That means what? That, say, information constantly flows into the eyes.
Sound flows into the ears. Smell flows into the nose. But food doesn’t flow into the stomach.
Food doesn’t flow into the mouth. We have to go physically into it. So, that is the advantage.
So, it’s not so easy to cut off access to other things. We can’t move around with closed eyes. We can’t move around with closed ears.
We can’t live with closed nose. But we have the capacity to regulate it with closed nose. Regulate access, regulate the entry of items into nature.
And therefore, when we do that, then we can make it much easier. It’s actually, although the term is very difficult to control in its urgency, in a sense, nature has provided the capacity to actually control ourselves by the capacity to choose. Regulate access.
So, that’s what you will do. Ultimately, when you take Krishna Dasa, you have to keep it like this. Put the rope astray from the earlier samatha.
There is an old Egyptian saying. It says that one-fourth of you live on one-fourth of what you eat. On the remaining three-fourth, you lose your physics.
The idea is more superior, more glorious. So, I will quote a traditional Ayurvedic saying that whenever you feel doubtful, should I eat or should I not eat? At that time, it’s best not to eat. Because when we are hungry, we won’t even get the doubt.
What do you mean? Do you want it? I want it, of course. But, when the body is in an ambiguous state, should I or should I not? That means, the body is already gone. And basically, you are debating with the mind.
So, what is happening? Whenever in doubt, say no. That is a safe way to deal with the urge of the body. And, over a period of time, we ourselves learn how much we should eat.
There is no need to artificially deprive ourselves of food. We need energy. And, whatever it takes to get energy, some of us may have huge appetites.
And, even if after eating, we get energy and we are working, then others should not consider such a person as an over-eater. The point is not how much we eat. The point is what we do after we eat.
Yeah. So, the point is not how much we eat. It is what we do after we eat.
So, if I eat a little, but after that, I go to sleep. Then, that means, maybe even a little is enough for me. And, we have to go to sleep.
Because, generally, eating may cause a little thirst. But, it is not that we need to sleep for hours after we eat. Somebody may eat a lot, but still they do a lot of work.
That means their body has a capacity to use that much food. Their body is using that much energy. So, there is no need to compare how much food we eat.
The important thing is what is the effect on me of what I eat. Does it energise me? Or, does it exhaust me? You know. So, eating should energise us, not exhaust us.
So, the quantity that will energise us and not exhaust us, that will re-encompass into us. Upastha Veda is the urge of the human beings. The sexual urge is innate in man.
The sexual urge is essential for the propagation of the human race. And most species, there are few species that reproduce asexuality. But, most species reproduce asexuality.
So, sex itself is an actual biological process. The problem happens when it becomes a psychological obsession. You like it.
You like it. And, to some extent, just the hormones which come in you, they make it a psychological obsession. But, it is not just that.
That natural adhesion of the hormones, which makes a male attracted to a female or a female attracted to a male, that causes essential drive for some time. But, in today’s humanistic culture, we are constantly bombarded essentially. And, that is what keeps provoking us.
Now, what happens is, the way we get provoked also changes. It means, say, in conservative cultures, where, say, people cover their eyes, there you will see a little flesh can agitate people. In cultures where people dress simply, people may see a lot of flesh and still not get agitated.
That does not mean that the people in a culture where people dress simply, they are sense controlling. It is just that the stimulus for agitation is so common that the stimulus isn’t called agitation. Then, though, when a stimulus for agitation becomes common, that stimulus doesn’t cause agitation.
Then, those people get agitated by something else. It is not that they are not going to get agitated. But, the agitation may come from something else.
So, the agitation is always there. What happens is, the more we are exposed to sensuality, some people may get agitated by this much exposure. Some people may get agitated by much more exposure.
But, the principle is not the kind of exposure. The principle is the point at the agitation. And, so, the exposure to sensuality is what causes agitation.
And, we have to find out how we can regulate that. Actually, Krishna is very specific that we cannot blame others. Krishna had often heard a chapter about where lust is situated.
He says, it is situated in the senses, the mind and the beings. He says, That means, he is not saying that lust is situated in the sense objects. He is not saying that we cannot blame others.
Because of you, I became lust. You can’t do that. Why? Because, even if that person is in a particular way, but it is the lust that is present within us that is agitating us.
Now, you say that, if that person is a mother and that person is carrying a baby on their body or a child on their body. Child is touching their private parts. Child is not getting agitated.
So, the lust is within us. So, we can’t blame others. Now, lust is situated within us and we need to purify ourselves.
Now, purification takes place. And, during that period, what we need is regulation. If I find out that a particular stimulus agitates me, then I keep a distance from the stimulus.
As we discussed. And, in this way, as we regulate ourselves more and more, then I am attracted to something. At the spiritual level, we understand that whatever is attractive in this world, is attracted to something else.
So, instead of getting attracted to the form of this world, we treat that for attraction. The urge for the urge for sensuality, for sexuality specifically, it is the urge which needs to be, it needs to be a free form that can devastate. If it can devastate a person, it can devastate others.
It can break society. Because, a man or a woman is attracted to a particular woman. It is extremely powerful.
At an individual level, how do we deal with it? So, what happens is, we have to change our conception of dealing with lust. Sometimes, when temptation comes, we say, now that the desire has come, now I want to fall. So, we see temptation as a precursor of defeat.
Now that the desire has come, now I want to fall. But if we redefine temptation as an indicator of attack, now I am defeated. Just because I am attacked doesn’t mean I have to be defeated.
I can come for attack. I can fight. So, I can show you this example.
Suppose, we are going on a road. Many of the roads, if you see, on their sides, they have something like bumps, speed breakers. So, what happens is, people may just, while driving, they may not ask.
So, the bumps on the side of the road, when we go on those bumps, what happens, people are not at all scared. They wake up. They pull back.
Now, just because they have gone on those bumps on the side, doesn’t mean that they have to fall off the road. Just as the jaws indicate that they need to come. Similarly, when we are going on the path of moral and spiritual integrity, sometimes we just veer off course.
And then, as long as we are well situated in Krishna Bhakti, we won’t feel agitated by sensual desires. Because we are busy in Krishna’s service. But when we stop being busy in Krishna’s service, then we become agitated.
So, basically, what happens, we are going off course. So, when we go off course, we jolt. So, like that, when we get jolted by sensual desires, rather than thinking, Oh, now I have to fall.
We should think that, Oh, this means I have gone off course. Let me come back on course. Let me come back on course.
So, rather than seeing the jolt as a sign that now I have to fall off. You see, the jolt is a reminder that I have to turn back. So, if we redefine, re-envision temptation, not as a precursor to defeat, but as an indicator of destruction.
As an indicator that something in me is now pushing me off. Let me come back. And if we come back on track, we will find that we have come back on course.
That the desire doesn’t stick for long. Desire comes, we tolerate it, it stays for some time, but it goes away. In the same way, we can deal with sensual desires also.
In the process of bhakti, although I talk about detachment and this word’s focus on detachment, detachment from the materialistic drive is important. But our focus should never be on detachment. Our focus is on detachment.
This is what I am going to do. And while doing this, I will avoid this, I will avoid this, I will avoid this. If we focus too much on saying no to things, it becomes very difficult.
Because we feel deprived. So, let’s say yes to Krishna. Then we can move onwards happily.
So, selection of Krishna brings satisfaction. It brings gratification. It brings liberation.
So, I’ll summarise. So, I spoke about the first words of the lecture of instruction. How all of these are manuals for devotion written by the old swamis who were themselves initiated with the highest sweetness of devotion, in the highest abode of devotion.
They, while charting the pathway, start with the basics. The reverse, which is for seekers, talks about controlling the six urges. In which a person can be qualified to be a guru.
We talk about qualifying for guru because the seeker needs to search for a person like this. The seeker needs to know, this is what I need to become like. And the seeker needs to differentiate between authentic devotees and superficial or pseudo devotees.
So, we discussed about how materialists are attached to maya, detached to Krishna. And the journey to a devotionalist is that you got to become attached to Krishna and attached to maya. But there are other venues that we have.
If you have a person who requires an impersonal conception, then you become attached to Krishna, also attached to maya. But that doesn’t lead to devotional liberation. The other thing is, that you stay attached to Krishna while imagining that you are attached to Krishna.
So, this misconception is shattered by having right in the beginning the emphasis on detachment. So, the journey in the Vrindesvara starts from detachment in the initial verses and then goes on to exalted levels of attachment to Krishna. And it is just about the six urges.
So, the urge to speak. Some people like babbling to keep speaking and messaging culture that has given way to continuous talking. So, speech is like a power, like a bomb.
It needs to be used to explode illusions, like a bomb used to explode boulders by building a road. It is just dissipated uselessly simply create a crater. Or it is exploded in a crowded area.
It destroys people’s speech. It is used properly to speak about Krishna and Krishna’s message. When you create it, it destroys illusions.
Otherwise, it just perpetuates illusions. Or sometimes it can aggravate illusions. Our focus is always on the practise of bhakti.
And in practising bhakti, we need to nourish our intelligence So, bhakti practise gives us intelligence and taste. Intelligence helps us to understand what is right, what is beneficial, what is not. If I have any kind of intelligence, be it mechanical intelligence, computer intelligence, medical intelligence, it is basically about differentiating.
This is indicated, this is indicated. This is to be done, this is not to be done. So, taste means that it is healthy, we naturally want it.
And that is unhealthy, we don’t want it. That it is, we understand. But, we can definitely progress towards it by using our intelligence.
And, jiva vachorekam that is our code in the mind. I will give you an example of a fast-moving car moving in the opposite direction. Like that, our attention can completely be reversed by the mind within one moment.
And the way to control the mind is to fix it on something bigger than the mind. That is Krishna. And, every day that we fix the mind on Krishna, even if the mind doesn’t focus on him, we are redirecting the mind towards Krishna.
Gradually, it’s energy will move towards Krishna. Then, anger, anger allures us by a sense of power. But, it is actually harmless.
So, the way to avoid anger is to first recognise it’s a porous apparatus. And then, to recognise that when I’m getting angry, the important thing is not to get angry. The important thing is to get saved.
The snake has bitten me. I don’t have to get saved. I have to get the poison out myself.
And then afterwards, I feel it’s appropriate. So, if you understand Krishna’s controversy, then we don’t think vengeance is my duty. And, that also makes it easier to give up anger.
When I talk about jiva, like the urge of coming to eat. So, we often overeat because we think that’s food. So, food is a biological necessity.
But, when we become psychological comforters, then, we overeat and the food, instead of being an erection of the body, becomes a damage of the body. So, by addressing our biological issues, connecting more with Krishna, we can seek comfort in Krishna instead of food. That’s why we urge to overeat.
Then, we tend to overeat per se. So, I talk about tongue seeks delicacy. Tongue seeks special items.
Tongue is about selectivity. And, the belly is about quantity. So, each of us, we decide what is the right quantity, not by comparing with others, but by seeing the effect of eating.
Eating should energise us, not substance. We discussed about upastha, the genitals. Today, because of the media, people are being caught literally by their sexual urge.
It’s easier to serve nasty food than even to get some bread. We all have certain agitators. We need to regulate the exposure to sleep.
And, then, we need to direct our love towards Krishna. Knowing that whatever we attract to in the form of sleep, that is causing an extremist irritation. So, when our love tends to attack us, rather than saying, now I have got this desire, therefore, I have to do it.
Simply indicate, I am doing upastha. It’s like, I was running on a road, and I veered off course, hit the bumps, the side bumps. If you have that attitude, then you won’t get carried away.
You won’t succumb to it. By becoming connected with Krishna, by becoming absorbed with Krishna, you become purified, you become satisfied, and you become enthroned. It’s very interesting, I don’t know how many matajis we should tell you, because it’s very interesting.
I got a few signals. He also wanted to meet me, and he might meet me, or he is going to meet me. Let’s see if that works out.
Satsang is open. Where does the information about Shaktis come from? There is a Guru, there is a Parashakti, and there is a Kshatriya in between, which performs the activity, which does karma. So this is from the Vishnu Purana.
You find in the Veda base, if you have, if you search for, you’ll find this verse. Vishnu Shakti. Just search for the name Vishnu Shakti.
I was imagining that first we should direct it to ourselves, and we should direct it to others. Like I said, it is very important. And also, Bhagavan uses the anger in serving the Lord.
At the same time, if a person is dead, personally if I get married, I should not, I should not be able to protest, I should be dead with my own skin. And if Vaisnava is dead, somebody blackmails Vaisnava, and we should not keep quiet, either we should blackmail, or we can leave that place. So it does not matter dealing with other person.
the person has another Vaisnava. So how to deal with that situation? Like he is blackmailing the Vaisnava, we should present our anger. Correct? To deal with the person.
How to manage that situation? Like we will get overwhelmed by that person, how can you say that this person is dead? If we are to get angry when a Vaisnava is blasphemed, so how exactly does that anger work? See, any principle has to be seen in the light of the ultimate principle. The ultimate principle is always Vrindakrishna and Sarvajna Vishnu. Sarvajna Vishnu is also Vrindakrishna and Sarvajna Vishnu.
So, when say somebody is blasphemed, and at that time it is said that you should become angry. It is also said that you should remember Krishna. So we have to see what basically the whole idea is that how can I best serve in this situation.
So when a Vrindakrishna is being blasphemed, we should not think that nothing matters. We should think I should have a mood of service. But now how specifically to act in that mood of service, even when I am to serve a particular devotee, who is being criticised I want to defend that devotee.
But how do I do that exactly? Sometimes our intervention will make things worse. So, we have to use our God-given intelligence to find out what is the best way to serve. The two examples that Prabhupada gives, Arjuna fighting the Kurukshetra war and Hanuman burning Lanka.
In those two cases, the moral boundaries were very clear. This is wrong, this is right. And also, in that particular situation, it was very clear how they should be acted.
But in our cases, sometimes the moral boundaries themselves may not be very clear. Is this really wrong? Is this really right? Yes, this devotee is criticising this devotee. But maybe this devotee has done something wrong.
To resolve the issue is important. Without doing that, we may not act in a way that is truthful. And secondly, even when the moral boundaries are clear, even after that, we have to clearly understand what value it is.
Otherwise, we just make an altercation bigger. So, that’s what happened in Dakshinagiri. When Lord Shiva was disrespected, the assistants of Lord Shiva, they started burning the sacrifice.
They started destroying the sacred sacrifice. And then, they cursed the other party. The other party cursed them.
The whole thing became a mess. So, our reaction should be such that it is a service to Krishna. Sometimes, in the service for Krishna, service to Krishna calls for it.
We can even use anger in Krishna’s service. But we shouldn’t automatically think that my anger is in Krishna’s service. Or I am defending the devotee and I am very angry for that purpose.
Now, defence also has to be done intelligently. Sometimes, when there are soldiers, soldiers, they may have a lot of heroism. They may have a lot of patriotism.
Soldiers also need discipline. They may see some enemy attack in a particular place. They just rush over there.
But that might be a trap and they may die and their whole regiment will be destroyed. So, they have to defend the country. But the defence also has to be done not impulsively.
It has to be done strategically. So, when you talk about defending a devotee also, how to do it has to be decided intelligently. And then, we act appropriately.
The principle is that there is something called, there is the possibility of using anger in Krishna’s service. But we should not assume that my anger is being used in Krishna’s service. We have to see whether Krishna’s service is assisted by my anger or it is impeded by my anger.
Very interesting. Yes, sir. Probably, it is more like my anger.
Because I feel that there is something supposed to be done to resolve the problems. Is there a solution? Yeah, good question. So, if some emotional, unresolved issues, I don’t think has happened.
That’s why we are always looking for a solution. The ultimate solution is that we need to get emotional fulfilment through our connection with Krishna. We, by practising bhakti, we connect with Krishna and we feel sheltered in our relationship with Krishna.
And that’s how we will unresolve emotional issues. Ultimately. Now, immediately or intermediately, we may need to do something appropriate.
So, it is a solution to loneliness. Okay. It is fully a solution to loneliness.
What other solutions can I have for loneliness? Maybe I can talk with a friend. Maybe I can call someone. Maybe I can write my memories of a friend who is no longer here.
Whatever. We need to find out, basically as an introspection, what are the unresolved issues. Before I suddenly feel an untimely hunger urge, the word arises of snack attack.
Snack attack. When I get a snack attack. You know.
So, we can look back and what were the emotions before that? And by that we understand, this is the emotions. Where did the emotions come from? These are coming from here. So, how can I deal with it? So, the specific unresolved emotional issue, we may have to take some practical steps to deal with it.
And if you find that similar unresolved issues are what are troubling us again and again, then we can make a plan. When this happens, I can do one, two, three. And this way I can deal.
So, using our introspection and our intuition, we can come up with steps for dealing with an unresolved emotional issue. And thus we can avoid the temptation or urge to overact. Did I answer the question? Yes.
Both. More connection with Krishna and more addressing of that issue practically. So, next one.
Well, I have a question. I don’t want you to dislog from here and talk about this. You can have two minutes.
Yes. I was wondering about you mentioned many things, like some tips to deal with these six cultures. And can you speak a little bit about your experience in temples, seeing different devotees and starting different cultures.
Where are the main of those some or dangers in the understanding of this verse? Because sometimes we… to explain in terms of eating, you mentioned that it’s not about the quantity, how much you eat, but what you do after eating. Because sometimes we just start judging. Oh, the devotee is eating too much.
We take a verse from the scriptures but then it hamper us. Because our understanding, the way we apply it, it makes us offend devotees. We have the stereotypes of what should be an ideal devotee, but not necessarily the reality.
Correct. So what are the ways in which the metrosexual first verse can be misapplied? It can become an obstacle. Just say, judging devotees by the quantity of food that they eat.
Yes, see, the main danger is making renunciation the standard of devotion. That means this devotee is so renounced, therefore the devotees don’t look like devotees. Renunciation is a fruit of devotion.
It is not a standard of devotion. So sometimes for renunciation, the purpose of renunciation is that when there is renunciation, we can look up undistractedly at Krishna. But sometimes that same renunciation can make us look down at cow breeders.
So if I am fasting nirjan or ekadashi and I go to the kitchen and see who all are eating what, it’s like hopeless. See like that, what happens? Our body fasts but our ego is eased. So basically, when we become renunciation centred instead of Krishna centred, we just get distracted.
We become proud, we become judgemental towards others. So now we have to understand that renunciation is helpful in the practise of bhakti. Renunciation is important in the practise of bhakti but the essence is that.
And another important thing to understand is that some people believe that they live by their past karma in this life or the other life. It may be very simple. And for them, the conclusion is we get rid of everything.
And so renunciation is not necessarily because of ego. It’s like we have six options of Krishna, beauty, strength, faith, knowledge, renunciation. If somebody is very beautiful, does that mean that they are great devotees? They can be but beauty does.
Beauty comes by past good karma. Strength can come by past good karma. Similarly, by past good karma renunciation can also come.
So some people have got renunciation in the past good karma. That’s good because if somebody has wealth, they can use that wealth in Krishna’s service. They don’t have to worry about earning it.
Just similarly, somebody has renunciation, they can use that renunciation in Krishna’s service. But that renunciation alone itself is not enough. It’s a sign of one.
It’s not necessarily a proof of one. So sometimes this doesn’t mean that some devotee is renounced. This is just by their past karma.
We should always think in a way that helps us to see. If we see a devotee is renounced, should we know? I don’t know. Maybe because of his past karma, past good actions, or just because of his devotion.
But the point is, we don’t have to make that devotee renunciation as a standard value as we compare our devotion. We use it for only 5 hours. I use it for 7 hours.
I am using this. No. What my value is, I have to follow that value.
So, when we set our values, that we recognise that I am going to serve Krishna, and I am doing whatever is going to serve Krishna. Then we use it regularly at our level and we move towards Krishna. Does that make sense to you? Yes.
Great. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.