Stung by the tongue

[Talk to University of Cincinnati students, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Today, I will be speaking on the topic of, as I mentioned, Stung by the Tongue.
So, here, I will be focussing on the theme of how our tongue has great power. And this power of the tongue needs to be channelled constructively. If there is any interruption, please let me know.
Then I will, so I will accordingly adjust then. And I am also available on phone in case you want to call me on phone if there is any difficulty. Am I clear right now? Yes.
Okay, fine. Yeah, I am just, it seems this is open a separate app. Yeah, I can see you now.
Okay. Right. So, I will speak based on the Bhagavad Gita’s 17th chapter.
So, here, 17th chapter, there is 15th verse which states, So, Krishna is speaking here about austerity of the mind. So, austerity of speech, he gives certain characteristics of that. Normally, when we use the word austerity, it refers to doing something which is difficult to do for a higher purpose.
So, in today’s economics, sometimes the government says that we are announcing some austerity measures. That means they may increase the taxes or decrease some benefits as inconvenience. But the idea is for a higher purpose.
So, similarly, here Krishna is telling austerity at the level of speech. So, something which is natural or easy for us to do, we do not do that. We do something else, which is difficult.
But then it has, it serves a higher purpose. So, stung by the tongue, actually, what this means is that normally we use the word stung when something hurts us in a very sharp and painful way. So, somebody might be stung by a mosquito or somebody might be stung by a snake.
So, it is very sharp, it is very pointed, it is very painful when we are stung. So, actually, I had two topics for this title, stung by the tongue and second was strung by the tongue. So, strung means that we have a string and when somebody is hung by a string, that is called, it is said there is a strung.
So, the tongue is such a thing that when we misuse it, actually, we sting others. We can speak so hurtfully that it can be immensely painful to others. And sometimes our words can come back to hang us.
So, we can be stung by the tongue when others misuse their free will, others speak harshly and we can be strung by our tongue when we speak something which is foolish or we speak something which is, which comes to haunt us later. So, strung in that sense, so both ways, the point is the power of speech. If we look at the Bhagavad Gita itself, that is a demonstration of the power of speech.
Arjuna is no ordinary person. He is a great warrior and he is not just a great warrior, but he is the greatest archer of his time. He is the foremost warrior in the Pandava army.
And normally, warriors are trained to conceal pain. Usually, even general people, if they are in pain, if they are in distress, they won’t show their emotions in public. If we may be in pain, we may cry, but usually don’t cry in public, we cry in private.
So, Arjuna, at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, is in tears in full public view. In 2.1 it is said, तम् तथा क्रुपयाविष्टम् अशुरुपूर्णाकुलेक्षणम् विषिदं तमिदं वाक्यम् वाचमदु सूधना तम् तथा क्रुपयाविष्टम् He was overwhelmed by such negativity that अशुरुपूर्णाकुलेक्षणम् His eyes were brimming with tears. So, when this happened, for him, he is in public view crying.
So, normally warriors conceal their emotions, normally people in general conceal their emotions, but if a warrior like Arjuna is crying in public, you can just imagine how much distress he must be in. But by the end of the Bhagavad Gita, what has happened? He has actually been restored in his morale. नश्टो मोहस्मतेलभधात्वत्प्रसादान्मयाचुत सितोस्मिगतसंदेह करिष्येवचिनंतव Krishna says that, सितोस्मिगतसंदेह that I am well-situated, that actually, he says that I am well-situated in the sense that he is actually relieved from doubts, he is situated in calmness, he is situated in clarity and he is happy about that.
So, from a stage or state of being in total tears, he has become completely calm and composed. And how has that happened? That is the power of speech. So, of course, the Bhagavad Gita demonstrates the opposite power of speech.
We are talking about being stung by the tongue or being strung by the tongue. That means we hurt others painfully or we ourselves get the painful consequences of our reckless speech. But the Bhagavad Gita is talking about, is demonstrating how a person in great distress can be freed by appropriate speech.
Of course, here it is Krishna who is God himself speaking. But still the point remains that actually it is the power of speech which is transformed in from distress to confidence, from confusion to determination, from indecision to resolute conviction. So, some thinkers, some people try to explain the Bhagavad Gita as a psychotherapy session.
In psychiatry, when a person is in distress, the doctors prescribe medicines. In psychology or in psychotherapy, which is one particular strand in psychology, there are no medications that are given. But the treatment is primarily through words.
So, the Bhagavad Gita demonstrates the power of words in healing. Our thrust is the power of words in hurting. But either way, words are extremely powerful.
Chanakya Pandit, one of the greatest diplomatic thinkers of mediaeval India, says that if a king wants to rule the world, more than the skill of the sword, the king needs the skill of the world. The skill of the sword is important for fighting a war. But the skill of the word is needed for invoking a fighting spirit, invoking confidence, invoking determination among people.
Without that, the king may be a good warrior, but the king will not be a good leader. The king will not be able to inspire others. So, there is the positive power of speech and there is a negative power of speech.
So, in this verse, in 17.15, Krishna tells us what kind of speech we should try to do. He says, speak in a way that does not agitate other people’s minds. Sometimes, in order to please others, we may just simply flatter them.
Krishna says, no, don’t flatter them. Speak truthfully. Priya means speak pleasingly.
Speak that which is pleasing to the heart. Hitam, beneficially. Speak that which is beneficial.
Satyam priya hitam chayat and then svadhyaya besanam chaiva. Svadhyaya besanam chaiva means study scripture and not just study in an intellectual or internal sense. Study especially by reciting scripture.
So, verbal recitation of sacred sound is also an important austerity of speech. In fact, as we will discuss in the course of the talk, that this last point which Krishna says, svadhyaya besanam chaiva, that is critical for implementing the previous points. Now, in today’s world of interconnectedness because of social media, people may not speak so much, but people message a lot.
People send messages on Twitter. They send messages on Facebook. And sometimes, some people can get literally roasted if they make some tweet which is inappropriate.
Then hundreds, thousands, millions of people can sometimes see the tweet and that can cause havoc for that person. So, that power of speech is not just what we verbalise, but it is basically what we communicate. So, we may say a particular thing by typing it out on our devices and we can go to the world.
Not only that, we can have a private conversation with someone and that might be recorded by someone else. Everybody has their phones. Phones has a recording devices.
Sometimes, we have a phone conversation with someone and many phones have called recording facility. So, they may record what we are speaking. And later on, that can be used against us.
You spoke like this, you spoke like that. So, in today’s world where technology has made speaking so easy, it has also made speaking extremely dangerous. Why? Because one set of words that we may speak in the past without so much technology being there, we might just speak to some people and that is how it would stay.
And they will say that we have forgotten. So, we are caught in a double bind. A double bind means that both ways we find ourselves in trouble.
Just like more commonly a double bind is seen with respect to food in today’s world. On one side, there is almost a compulsive manic emphasis on maintaining a slim figure. On the other hand, there is aggressive advertising of foods which are fatty.
So, on one side, it said, you know, look like this, have a figure like this. And on other side, you know, eat this, eat this, eat this. Now, those who eat this cannot have a figure like this.
Those who want to have a figure like this cannot eat like this. So, there are two kinds of desires which pull us in two different directions. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says in the 14th chapter that sometimes the three modes of material nature themselves compete with each other.
In 14.10, he says, Sometimes these different modes, they pull us in different directions. So, one mode may say, come on, you know, I should look healthy. I should be healthy, look healthy, look fit.
One say, come on, eat now. And we get pulled in two different directions. So, it’s torment to have two strong desires pulling us in two different directions.
Similarly, with respect to food, we have two kinds of desires. With respect to speech or communication through words, whether it be speaking or by typing, communication is never so easy. In the sense that we have our devices, we can communicate with anyone.
So, and because there is so much glamorisation of social media that people often base their self-esteem on how many Facebook friends they have or how much their posts got likes, how much their posts got views. So, there is on one side the urge to post things which will be, to post a lot and post things which will be attractive. And other side, we can, for one thing that we may post, we may get roasted by that.
Something which may turn out to be inappropriate or later we realise this is inappropriate. There are politicians who have lost their career because of one inappropriate tweet. So, here we see that in today’s world, regulating the senses, in terms of regulating the power of speech has become even more important.
Our devices can become vents for our voices. Our devices can become vents, can become gateways for our voices. If we are not regulated, if we are not careful in using our devices properly, then if I have an urge to speak rashly and I speak something which is reckless, then the device becomes a vent for my voice.
And thus, I end up speaking things which not only are inappropriate, but they reach far, far more people than what they would have reached in the past. So, devices can give vent to our voices. And thus, the voices grow in quantity and they grow in effect.
Every time we indulge in something, at that time, the desire for that becomes stronger. So, alcoholics, the real consequence of alcohol is not just that alcoholics may get some labour problem, or they may lose a lot of money, or they may be drunken driving, because of which they may lose their driving rights. All these are serious consequences.
But even if none of these consequences come, one consequence that always comes is that each time a person indulges in alcohol, the desire for indulgence becomes stronger. And in that sense, we may not be caught for our wrongdoings, but we will be caught by our wrongdoings. We may not be caught for our wrongdoings.
That means there may be no consequence of, I may drive under intoxication and nothing may happen. And then, oh, I got away with it. I recently saw a traffic joke.
So, there was a cop who was asking a person, did you not see the speed limit? So, the person says, yes, cop, I saw the speed limit. I just did not see you. So, the idea is, people think that if I am clever enough to get away without being caught.
So, the point of the speed limit is not to follow the speed limit, but the point of the speed limit is to not get caught. That is the idea people have. So, we think that if we can do something wrong and not get caught for that, then things are fine.
But what such an attitude overlooks is that we may or may not be caught for our wrongdoings, but we will be caught by our wrongdoings. That means, each time we do a particular activity, the tendency to do that activity increases. And over a period of time, that activity becomes instinctive.
It becomes a reflex response. It becomes our default response. So, now, all of you are sitting on a table.
Now, if that table, say, were inclined in a particular way, say, inclined towards the last person who was sitting. All your books, you just keep the books over there, the books will start sliding in that direction. And you would not have to push the book in that direction.
The book will automatically slide in that direction. Why? Because the floor is inclined. So, similarly, when we do a particular activity again and again, we can say that our mental floor becomes inclined in that direction.
And doing that activity becomes immediately very, it becomes not only easy, it becomes not only natural, it becomes almost subconscious. We do it without thinking about it. In fact, that is, at one level, a definition of habit.
Habit means that which we do without thinking about doing it. That’s a habit. Some habits can be good, some habits can be bad.
But we are talking right now about the principle of speaking. And to the extent we give in to impulsive speaking, to that extent, the habit of impulsive speaking becomes stronger and stronger. And as this habit of impulsive speaking becomes stronger and stronger, it becomes more and more difficult to resist the urge to speak.
So, some people, they think before speaking. And some people think after speaking. And when they think after speaking, what did I speak? So, it’s almost as if the mouth works faster than the brain.
Now, it’s not that the mouth works faster than the brain, but it’s that the connection between the usage of the mouth and the brain has become so strong that it becomes a default action for us. Say, for example, if there was a fly on my head. Now, I don’t have to consciously think that there is a fly, but just my hand will flip it away.
So, this often, when we are default actions, we don’t think about them, we do them automatically. So, with respect to speaking, what happens? People can’t see what is in our hearts. We live in, as I said, a very interconnected world.
And we can come to know about others, and others can come to know about us, not by looking at each other’s hearts. They can only look at externals. And from the externals, they can try to infer our internals.
And what do they look at externally? Broadly, we can say four things. First thing is, they look at how we look. Not just in terms of looks, but basically how somebody is dressed, how somebody is groomed.
That indicates what kind of person that is. So, how we look. Second is, what we do.
What we do means, at a particular moment, what we are doing, and what is our profession, what are we actually doing. We come to know something about the person by that. Third is, what we speak.
And fourth is, how we speak. So, what we speak indicates, okay, this person is interested in this. We meet somebody and that person immediately starts talking about cricket.
We come to know, okay, this person is a cricket fan. That’s what we speak. But, when a person speaks, how they speak is also important.
Some people speak in a very cultured way, where their English and their grammar is fluent. We understand this person is well-educated. Some people speak in a broken way.
Then we understand, okay, maybe this person is not so well-educated. But how is not just about the grammar. How is the mood with which you speak, the tone with which you speak.
If a husband and a wife are quarrelling, and the wife tells the husband, you don’t love me. And the husband, I love you. Now, the words may be, I love you.
But the tone says something entirely different. Our tone may speak some, our tone may completely contradict our words. So, as I mentioned, these four factors, by which we come to know about others and others come to know about us.
How we look, what we do, what we speak and how we speak. Among these, two relate with speech. That’s how important speaking is in interpersonal dealings.
And to the extent we are able to tap the power of speech, to the extent we can have healthy relationships and in an interconnected world, to that extent, we can move towards progress and success. And in the yoga tradition, especially in the bhakti yoga tradition, sound is considered to be an extremely powerful means for spiritual realisation. Sound is a prominent director of consciousness.
Say, for example, right now you are sitting and suddenly from the door behind you or in that direction, you hear a scream. Then immediately all eyes will turn in that direction. The whole attention will go in that direction.
So, among our various senses, if we see some of the senses, we have basically, as far as we interact with the world, there are knowledge acquiring senses and there are working senses. So, the knowledge acquiring senses are our eyes, our ears, our nose, our tongue and our skin. We interact with the external world and get information.
Oh, it’s cold over here. This looks good. This smells great.
So, we get information out of it. And now among these senses, if we consider the ears, the nose and the skin, we cannot automatically close them. We cannot automatically close them.
Of course, the skin practically we can never close, but we can cover the skin so that if it’s very cold, we can protect ourselves. The ears, if there’s a loud noise, you may have to physically close. Similarly, if there’s a foul smell, physically we have to close the nose.
Among the remaining two senses, all of which are knowledge acquiring, among the other two senses if you see, our eyes are normally open and our mouth is normally closed. What that means is that actually we take in information through the eyes and we take in food and nutrition through the mouth. But through the eyes also we send messages.
Sometimes a person raises their eyebrows, a person frowns. Now through that also we are sending messages. Now by nature’s arrangement, the eyes are more for taking in information than for sending out information.
The mouth serves both functions. The mouth takes in not exactly information, but there is sensation which also contains information. That means if somebody has cooked some item, then when we eat it, at that time, hey, this is good.
This salt is a little less. So we are taking in information even through the mouth. But also through the mouth we speak.
So the fact that by default our mouth is closed whereas our eyes are open, it indicates that the natural arrangement is that speech is by bodily arrangement to some extent regulated. Of course, we need to open our mouth to speak. But when we speak by nature’s arrangement, we can keep our eyes open for say 16 hours, 18 hours and look at things.
But we can’t speak for 16 hours, 18 hours. If we speak for a few hours, we get tired. And of course, different people have different speaking staminas.
Some people can just keep speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking and don’t get tired. Then other people who are hearing them get tired now. Little silence.
Stop now. Stop. Some people, they don’t speak at all.
And then other people feel they are very uncommunicative. What are you thinking about? Why don’t you speak? But basically, the way nature has endowed us, the power of speech needs to be used in a regulated way. So for such regulated use, what we need is that thought needs to precede speech.
Now, whenever I speak, even when I am angry, there is definitely some thinking that is happening. But there is conscious thinking and there is unconscious thinking. So when we are impulsively acting, when somebody shouts at me and I shout back at them, I do think, but I don’t think with my intelligence.
I think with my mind. Within us, there is a mind which is short-sighted and impulsive. And there is the intelligence which is farsighted and contemplative.
And when we think with the mind instead of thinking with the intelligence, that means that we look only at short-term consequences. Or not consequences, we only look at the short-term. There are different temptations which allure us in different ways.
Anger allures us by promising us a sense of power. When we are trying to stay calm and when we are getting angry, at that time, anger which comes from within our mind, it tells us that people are just treating you so badly. It’s time you show them who you are.
So you have been so weak for so long, now is the time to be strong. Just speak it out. So at that time, we are allured by the promise of power.
But all these weaknesses inside us like lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion, they rarely if ever deliver what they promise. So anger promises power but actually it delivers, it makes us powerless. Because it makes us speak and do things that we regret later.
Just like now the power is very valuable. Like we have electric power, we have nuclear power, now all these powers are very important. But power is useful only when it is regulated.
When electric power is going through its proper wiring to the proper devices, then it illuminates. But if electric power say leaks through a wet wall, then it can electrify and it can kill. Similarly, nuclear power, it can also, when it is regulated, it can be used constructively.
When it is not regulated, it becomes destructive. So similarly, the power of speech, it is a great power. But anger, we could say, anger removes the regulator on the power of speech.
So as soon as the regulator goes off, say if we have some device which needs to function at a particular voltage and the regulator is removed in such a surge that the device gets damaged. So often devices have spike guards to protect them from electrical spikes. So anger removes the regulator on the power of speech.
Anger, when it is expressed physically, that is aggression. People attack each other. Sometimes people have fistfights, some people have gunfights.
Their anger is expressed physically. And the physical expression of anger is usually considered very uncivilised. Now when people get into fistfights with someone, people get into physical warfare, physical kind of fights, then it is considered very bad.
It is disapproved. It is often considered criminal. It is very dangerous.
And most people who are trying to live in a cultured, regulated way, who have long-term ambitions in their life, they won’t let their anger come out at a physical level through aggression. But many people, we let our anger come out at a verbal level. It is said that the tongue has no bones, but the tongue can break bones.
How can the tongue break bones? We may speak something which can make people so angry that they may break our bones. Or sometimes the tongue can actually break people’s hearts. We may speak something which shatters other people.
In the Ramayana, most of you know the basic storyline of the Ramayana? So in the Ramayana, there is an incident about how when Ravana makes a conspiracy to abduct Sita, he has the demon Maricha impersonate as a deer and take Ram away. And then later on, he calls out in the voice of Ram to attract, calling out Sita, Lakshman, help. And then Lakshman suspects that this is a demon and refuses to go.
But Sita, what does she do? She becomes frantic with worry. She says, Lakshman, why are you not going? And when Lakshman says, no, actually, this is not Ram. Ram cannot be in any danger.
He is extremely powerful. But when he stays unmoving in order to goad him in a state of frenzy, Sita accuses Lakshman of having ulterior motives towards her. And Lakshman has never had any intention like that.
In fact, Sita, under the spur of the moment, she says, actually, you made a great show of service attitude towards your brother when you left the kingdom and came. But throughout, your intention was you had an evil eye on me. And you were just waiting for an opportunity.
Now that your brother is in danger because of a demon, now you are grabbing your opportunity. But no, you wicked one, that I would rather die than be touched by you. Now, each of these words, every one of these accusations was heart-wrenching for Lakshman.
Lakshman realised that Sita was so overwhelmed with anxiety that she didn’t know what she was speaking. And that’s what he told her. You are like my mother.
You don’t know what you are speaking. But I cannot bear your words. And he moves from there.
So here, what has happened is, Sita’s anger, it is more of a anger, you could say, worry which comes out of the anger, whatever it is, she feels, why is Lakshman not going out to help Ram? And in order to push Lakshman to go out to help Ram, she just speaks something in a frenzy at that time. So anger allures by giving us a sense of power. Sita feels, you know, by speaking something like this, somehow or the other, I’ll get Lakshman to move and Lakshman will go out.
But then what happens? Anger promises power but delivers powerlessness. When Lakshman has gone off and Ravana comes, Sita is found defenceless at that time. So for us, when we are going through our daily lives, we, once we recognise that anger, that speech is a very great power, and it needs to be regulated.
So how do we go about doing that? Svadhyaya Abhyasanam Jai Vasakrishna says, that the more we connect our consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness, the more we use our tongue specifically to connect with the Supreme, the more we say, chant Krishna’s holy names, the more we study and speak about scripture, the more we say, memorise and recite verses, the more we let Krishna, the Supreme Absolute Truth, manifest through our tongue. Then that Supreme’s presence changes the inclination of our speaking faculty. So instead of the tongue going in a, as I said, impulsively we speak rashly, we speak angrily, but the more we speak about Krishna, the more we chant His holy names, His divine presence shifts the inclination within us.
And then we start becoming more sensitive, more cautious. We start becoming more careful because we become more aware of the consequences of our speech. So this happens both at a subconscious level and a conscious level.
I’ll conclude with this point and we can have some questions if there are any. So when we chant Krishna’s names, when we speak about Krishna, how does it actually relate with, say, next time when I get angry with someone? How is it that my chanting is going to, or my studying the Bhagavad Gita, my reciting the Bhagavad Gita, my speaking about Krishna, how is that going to help me in regulating my speech when I’m angry? The connection is that Krishna, He acts to purify us. Suppose I have to lift a heavy weight, say I have to lift some 30, 40, 50 kg weight, it is quite difficult.
But if I have a lever and 50 kg weight is placed on one side of the lever and then I go to the other side and just press it at the right point, then even with a little force, I can lift up that lever. Why? Because there is a mechanism over there. There is a mechanism by which even a little force at one point can lift a big weight at another point.
Similarly, when we use our consciousness to speak about Krishna, we use especially our tongue to speak about Krishna, then that use is like pressing the lever at the right point. So, we gain access, there is a mechanism by which, by the practise of Bhakti Yoga, we gain access to the omnipotence of Krishna. We don’t become omnipotent by that, but rather His omnipotence helps us to overpower our default instincts, our default habits.
And thus, the things that we earlier wanted to, earlier we struggled to overcome, we will be more easily able to overcome. So, this happens just at a subconscious level itself. Now, just we keep chanting, next time we are done, this is not worth exploring.
We calm down. Within ourselves only, we will get that strength. And secondly, at a conscious level, when we start practising Bhakti, when we start connecting with Krishna, that clarifies and elevates our consciousness.
Sattvaat Sanjayate Jnanam. Krishna says, in the mode of goodness, knowledge emerges. So, the more we practise Bhakti, the more we come to the mode of goodness, the more we can see things from a broader perspective.
In the mode of passion and in the mode of ignorance, we are too caught in our own world. In the mode of ignorance, we are caught in our own imaginary world. One way to describe the three modes is that, some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, and some people wonder what happened.
So, the people who make things happen are in the mode of goodness. They think, oh, I press the lever over here, this big weight will get lifted. Some people watch things happen.
They pick up a big suitcase and they want to make it move and they have not locked the suitcase. The suitcase opens and everything spills and rolls everywhere. What is happening? And then some people, they just watch things happen.
Some people wonder what happened. They are living in a daze. They are not even aware what is happening around them.
So, similarly, with respect to our power, so the people who make things happen are in goodness. People who watch things happen are in passion. The people who wonder what happened, they are in ignorance.
So, when we are in the modes of passion and ignorance, at that time, when we are in the mode of ignorance, we don’t even know what we have spoken. Sometimes we speak some things and we forget that we have spoken it. I know one friend who was very short-tempered and he would speak things, terrible things, he would speak in a spell of anger and afterwards, it would be like, then anger would go away, he would return to normal and he would forget even what he had spoken.
Among the Greeks, they had a saying that anger is temporary insanity. Anger is temporary insanity. So, one day, one of his friends, when he got angry, his friend started recording his speech and afterwards, he presented him.
This is what he spoke. So horrified, I spoke this, how could I have spoken this? I can’t even imagine myself speaking such a thing. So, here what has happened? Anger, when coupled with the mode of ignorance, it makes us speak things we don’t even realise what I’m speaking.
When we are in a mode of passion, we realise what we are doing but we see things only from our perspective. We are so caught in our desires, in our world, in our ambitions and our frustrations, the mode of passion reverts us only to our perspective of things. And thus, when we get angry, we become very self-righteous.
How could you do this? You are so foolish, you are so insensitive, you are so irresponsible. We just, it’s like a fusillade, one after another, like a machine gun shooting. But there is entirely another perspective which we may not be aware of.
So, just by the practise of bhakti, we come to the mode of goodness. And when we are in the mode of goodness, then at that time, we are able to better regulate our situation. We are able to see things from a broader perspective.
So, seeing things from a broader perspective means three things. First is, it means seeing not just the action but the consequence of the action. So, that means if I am driving under intoxication, then I may think nothing is going to happen.
But if something happens, it can be disastrous. So, seeing from a broader perspective firstly means seeing not just the action but seeing the consequence. Secondly, seeing from a broader perspective means that seeing from the other person’s perspective.
Okay, this seems so unfair from me, but I know this person. He is not, he or she is not that bad a person. So, why did they do like this? Now, we are open to hear.
At least, let me get the information before I judge. We need to seek understanding before judging. So, that is another part of seeking from a broader perspective.
And third is that seeing from a broader perspective means that seeing what will please Krishna in the situation. But He is our Lord and nothing can happen without His sanction. So, if somebody has behaved in an unreasonable way with me and He has allowed that to happen, there must be a purpose for it.
So, we may feel angry and we feel like lashing out at someone. But if we think that, okay, and this person is speaking unreasonably, if I also become angry, then I am always at the same level of consciousness. Now, what will help me to grow spiritually? What will be in a way in which I can speak by which Krishna will appreciate it? Suppose there is an attendant in a cloth company, in a cloth shop, and some customers are very, very fastidious.
They will look at 100 dresses and not purchase even one afterwards. And then the attendants have to sort all the dresses. So, normally when a customer comes, all the attendants want to come and serve the customer because they will get some commission.
But when such difficult customers come, all the attendants go away. Nobody wants to serve such a difficult customer. So, now suppose there is a difficult customer, an attendant is being courteous, polite, respectful, and the customer is complaining, this is not good, this is not good, this is not good.
Now, the impulsive tendency within the attendant may be, if it’s not good, then just get lost. Why are you wasting my time? But the attendant will not do that. Because the attendant knows there are cameras here, and my boss is watching.
And if, suppose after being very courteous, still the customer doesn’t purchase, but the boss watches, and then the boss comes and appreciates. He says, you are a cool guy. You know how to deal with difficult customers.
And although that attendant did not make the sale, the boss may promote the attendant because you know how to deal with difficult people. So, similarly for us, we all have difficult people against whom we may feel like lashing out with our tongue. But we should know that Krishna is watching.
He is there as the Paramatma in our heart. And he is watching. And when we stay cultured, we stay polite, not that we let the other person trample on us, but that we respond intelligently, not impulsively, then we will please Krishna, we will advance.
And we will not only grow spiritually, but by exercising self-control in such situations, by regulating the power of speech, our power to our capacity to regulate our speech will improve much, much more. And thus, instead of stinging others with our tongue or getting strung by our tongue, we will actually be able to channel the power of our tongue for our own benefit and for the benefit of others. So, I’ll summarise what I spoke today.
I spoke on the topic of being strung by the tongue. And in that, I spoke primarily about how the Bhagavad Gita 17.15 talks about austerity of speech, means speaking without, speaking not impulsively, but thoughtfully. And in today’s world, because we have interconnectedness through social media, what we speak at one point, we may write in one point, it can go all over the world.
It can go to people, there is practically very little privacy. And thus, there is far greater need to regulate the speech, which is always there, it has increased in today’s world. And we are caught in a double bind.
Just like on one side, the media says, you have a figure, thin figure, slim figure like this. Other side, it says that, you know, eat this, eat this, and always put the fatty. So like that, on one side, there is a pressure, speak something, put something on your social media.
Other side, if we speak something wrong, we’ll get roasted. So we need to be able to regulate our speaking capacity. So speech is a great power.
The Bhagavad Gita itself demonstrates how a person who was a formidable warrior, was so distressed as we’re crying in public, became composed by hearing the words of the Gita. And actually speaking, if you look at the 700 verses of the Gita, hmm, that is less words than what is present on one page of New York Times. So, that’s the words only of the 700 verses of the Gita.
In that much, Krishna demonstrates how the Bhagavad Gita is a spiritual psychotherapy, that just by spiritual words of wisdom, Krishna transforms Arjuna’s disposition completely. And all of us have this power of speech. If Chanakya says that if a person is to rule the world, they need to rule, not just be expert at the sword, but expert at the words.
And then, any power, if it is used appropriately, then it is positive. Otherwise, it can be negative. There’s electric power, nuclear power, similarly power of speech.
And the tongue is impelled often by anger. Anger promises power but delivers powerlessness. It’s like Sita thought that by goading Lakshmana with harsh words, with angry words, I’ll have the power to move him.
But then she ended up powerless when Ravana came to abduct her. So, when we are trying to regulate our power of speech, how do we go about doing that? I talked about how? By speaking about Krishna, by chanting about Krishna’s names, that gives us greater control over our power of speech. Why? Because connection with Krishna, speaking about Krishna is like the lever that controls, that helps us to lift big weights.
So, speaking about Krishna in a devotional way gives us access to his omnipotence by which we can change the inclination of our mental floor. Instead of speech going impulsively in harsh, insensitive ways, it will become more thoughtful and sensitive. The inclination can be changed.
And this happens at a subconscious level through purification. And at a conscious level, it also happens through increased awareness. In the mode of ignorance, we are just lost in our own head.
In the mode of passion, we are caught in our own ideas, our own desires, our own perspectives. In the mode of goodness, we have our view broadens. That means, we can see not just the actions but also their consequences.
That checks us from impulsive speaking. We can also see things from other people’s perspectives. That helps us to give them benefit of doubt and not lash out at them verbally.
And we can also perceive Krishna’s presence. So, when unreasonable people are there, we don’t just respond, you are unreasonable with me, so I’ll be unreasonable with you. Like an attendant whose goal is not just to make a sale, but whose goal is to please the boss.
Like that, when we work in a mood of service to Krishna, then even with the difficult people, we can be dignified, we can be cultured and thus, we can gain greater and greater mastery over this great power of speech that every one of us has been endowed with. So, by default, our eyes are open, our mouth is closed. It indicates that by default, we don’t speak automatically.
So, we need to regulate our power of speech learning from nature and learning from devotional culture and thus, we can tap this power effectively. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
So, are there any questions or comments? Do we have time for questions or comments? Yes, please, we have about 10 minutes. Okay, yeah. So, does anyone have any questions? Let’s say we don’t have any oil offer.
Sorry? Yeah, his question is, could you say a few lines about stung by mind? Okay, okay. So, can we, what happens when we get stung by the mind? Yes, that can also happen. So, for example, when we get say, and somebody is an alcoholic, and at that time, the desire for alcohol comes within them, and say the doctors are told that you should not drink, your health is dangerous, a relapse into alcoholism can be harmful for you.
So, still, the person may drink. There are some countries, especially European countries, which are welfare states, where if a person is unemployed, the government provides some dole, some unemployment support for the people. Unfortunately, many young people who have got into drugs or into alcoholism, they take the money, which the government provides for their subsistence.
And instead of they may be starving, but they take drugs. So, the uncontrolled mind can be an enemy not just of the soul, but also of the body. The body’s basic need is food.
But if the mind gets infatuated with a particular thing, with say drugs or drinks, then even at the cost of basic bodily needs, a person may crave for that and may use one’s limited resources for that. So, we can get, in a sense, stung by the mind even at a physical level. So, when we take in substances that are harmful for us, when we take in, it cannot be substances, it can be even ideas, we may take in, expose ourselves to certain desires, certain, by ideas, I mean, unnecessary criticisms, offences, then they can poison our consciousness.
So, one of the most common ways in which we may get stung by the mind is by resentment. When things go wrong, quite often, resentment of reality hurts more than reality. Say, if we are supposed, we are planning to go for an outing, a picnic with our friends and just the night before the outing, we get fever, we get a flu.
Now, flu itself is not very painful. It’s weakening and we may just have to lie in our bed. But inside, there is almost like someone whipping.
Why did this happen? Why did this happen? Everybody else is enjoying. Why am I suffering? Why did this happen? Why is life so unfair to me? So, at a physical level, the reality of having a flu is not that painful. But the resentment of that reality is far more painful.
So, resentment can be one way in which the mind can sting us. And it’s alcoholism or drug addictions may be extreme, but resentment is quite common. And I recently gave a talk on how we can’t be grateful for all situations.
But we can be grateful in all situations. That means, I can’t be grateful that I have flu. Yeah, that’s bad.
But even when I have flu, I can be grateful. At least, I am in a city where there are doctors. I got the appropriate medicine.
There is an environment where I am taken care of. If something goes wrong, there are people who will care for me. We can look at the many things that are right in our life, and we can be grateful even in that situation.
So, resentment is a way in which our mind can poison us. And cultivating a grateful attitude is one way in which we can counter that poison of resentment. In general, that the remembrance of Krishna is the antidote for the poison that is present in the mind.
So, whatever negativity that is present in the mind which poisons us, if we can repeatedly expose ourselves to Krishna, we can take in more and more devotional impressions into our consciousness, then that will serve as an antidote to the poison within the mind. And not only will the poison not sting us, but the poison will gradually stop being there also. So, sometimes we may be going through a territory where there are rattlesnakes.
If we have to walk through that territory, then we have to be cautious and alert that we keep a distance from rattlesnakes. So, like right now, our mind is like a rattlesnake infested territory. And there is poison in it.
There are agents of poison like snakes in it. We just have to be cautious right now. The poison of resentment can come in.
The poison of, we could say, even anger can come in. But gradually, if say, by using certain means, the rattlesnakes are moved from the territory, then there is no poison. So, like that, first of all, when we bring in the remembrance of Krishna, even if we have been poisoned, we can cure that poison.
That poison effect can be curbed by the antidote of remembrance of Krishna. And further, if we keep invoking Krishna’s presence, in fact, if we establish Krishna’s presence in our consciousness, that means we become convinced that we are meant to be, that we are souls who are servants of Krishna, and whatever happens, I am meant to serve Krishna. Then that can remove the rattlesnakes from the mind entirely.
So, then the mind will stop poisoning us. And then Krishna said, at that stage, the mind will become our friend. Right now, our mind is our enemy.
But when we learn to purify the mind by fixing it on Krishna, when the mind becomes permeated with the presence of Krishna, then it becomes our friend. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Happy to be of service.
Hare Krishna.