The Power of Habits

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. So, today we will be discussing on the topic, The Power of Habits. It’s a very ironic feature of the struggle for existence within this world that living beings are destroyed by what they try to get.
That means, everybody is struggling to live. Not just humans, but even the subhuman species. So, when a tiger is chasing a deer, the deer tries its best to save its life.
So, there is a struggle for existence in which everyone is struggling to protect their lives and enhance their organism. But, a strange feature is that the very living creatures who struggle to protect themselves destroy themselves by their own desires. For example, a fish.
It can swim freely in the ocean. And there are so much weeds and other forms of foodstuffs that are available in the ocean. But, the fish sees a small piece of flesh dangling somewhere, apparently motionless, just waiting to be eaten.
What is it? Yeah, it is a fisherman’s bait, a trap. So, the fish is free. But, by its own free will, desires to eat that bait.
And as soon as its mouth catches the bait, the hook within the bait catches its mouth. It comes out. It is tossed onto the boat, flutters and dies.
Similarly, a mouse. It is moving freely around in the house. It has so much food available if it searches around.
But, suddenly, it sees a small piece of cheese. Apparently, they are just waiting to be eaten. So, it goes towards the cheese, nearer and nearer and nearer.
And as it nears the cheese and is about to eat it, just behind it, the door of the cage closes. The mouse is trapped. Either thrown away or killed.
The mouse is free. By its own desires, it wanted to eat the cheese and it got trapped. That means, all living beings desire to protect their life, but by their own desires, they destroy their life.
But still, the mouse and the fish have excuses. First is that, they did not know in advance that the bait or the cheese is a trap. And secondly, the bait and the cheese look like their sustenance, their food.
So, in one sense, it appears that this is necessary for our survival and they do not know that it is a trap. So, they have excuses for falling prey to the bait or the cheese. Contrast this with the human beings.
So, contrasting this with the human beings, all of us are also struggling to survive and succeed. When there are floods in Mumbai, we all become fearful. May be some similar floods will come here and people try to make arrangements for security.
So, we are all struggling for existence and of course, prosperity beyond existence. So, can you give examples of how, although we desire to protect ourselves, by our desires, even human beings are destroyed. Can you give any examples of how we by our own desires destroy ourselves? Is my question clear? So, we are desiring to be happy and protected, but by our own desires, we also destroy ourselves just like the mouse or the fish.
So, how do we do that? Yes, Anand? By taking intoxicants. Very good example. So, when we take intoxicants, it is very pathetic that we don’t even have the excuses with the mouse and the fish has.
Does intoxicant look like food? Is it that we need intoxicant to live? No. And do we not know that the intoxicant is a trap which is going to destroy us? That every cigarette ad and pack has a statutory warning on it. What is that? Cigarette smoking is injurious to health.
When the first time cigarette was introduced, at that time it was not known that cigarette smoking was injurious. And when the research discovered this, the tobacco companies tried to lobby as much as they could to suppress the facts so that their sales would not decrease. But when the reality of the harmful effects of smoking became unavoidable and unescapable, then they were forced to have this warning.
But surprisingly enough, after the warning was put, cigarette sales increased. Can you imagine? After people came to know that this is going to harm us, they started taking more cigarettes. Can any of you think why this might have happened? There is no good reason actually.
It is just foolish dead evolutionists. Okay, cigarette smoking is injurious but it won’t injure me. So, cigarette, alcohol and drugs they are actually very habit forming.
Like the psychological word used for them is addictive. So, once the word addiction comes from the Latin root which has add and dict. Dict is dictator.
Just as when a dictator dictates, nobody can disobey. Like that when an addiction is formed, no one can escape the addiction. So, I guess how alarming the addictions are.
This is World Health Organisation statistics. Tobacco kills nearly 10,000 people worldwide. Can you think how frequently? Per day.
10,000 people per day. Can you imagine? Here how many? Around 100 boys will be there. In one day, suppose everyone dies.
In one day, in Bombay, maybe 1000, 2000, 5000 people died and we got so alarmed. But tobacco is killing 10,000 people every day. It is predicted that by 2020, tobacco use will cause over 12% of deaths globally.
That means 1 out of every 10 persons will die because of tobacco. This is more deaths worldwide than from suicide, homicide, HIV, tuberculosis, maternal mortality and motor vehicle accidents combined. Half of those who start smoking in adolescence, that means the age which most of us are in or have just crossed, will die in middle age, losing around 22 years of normal life expectancy.
And add the fact that an average cigarette contains 401 poisons and 43 cancer causing chemicals and that there are around 1.1 billion smokers in the world. 1.1 billion. That means about one third of the global population age 15 and over.
We have a really sobering picture of the world around us. And not only that, smoking is a relatively mild form of addiction as compared to drug addiction or intoxication. So what exactly happens? How do people embark on this path of self-destruction? Do you think that anybody who starts smoking, he wants to get addicted to it? No.
So how do we get trapped in this way? So we will discuss some quotes about the nature of habits. Can we start? Somebody can switch off this light also. He will do that.
So what is a habit? Oxford dictionary definition. Yes, someone would like to read? Please. Yeah.
Settle. Settle means it doesn’t move. It becomes a tendency for us.
That means whenever we have a particular stimuli, then we tend to behave in a way in which our habit is. Next. Yeah.
How many of you have tried to give up some bad habit that you had? Others that means they didn’t have bad habits or they didn’t try to give up. It is possible that you are only there. How many of you tried to give up bad habit that we had? Practically everyone, isn’t it? So is it easy to give up a bad habit? Actually habit, H-A-B-I-T.
You remove H, what remains? Habit. You remove A, what remains? You remove B, what remains? Like that it never goes away only. So habit is like that no matter how much we try, it just stays on and on.
Next. Next please. So this is going a little subtler.
It is not just a behavioural pattern, but it is a mental attitude. That means when a certain stimulus comes, in our mind we start thinking in a particular way and that exhibits or manifests as a particular behavioural pattern secondly. Next please.
Yes. Continue. You can give others also a chance to read.
So we can go sequentially whenever the slides come, we can move backwards. Is that okay? So old habits die hard. It is very ironic because generally if a thing gets old, it is very easy to destroy.
Isn’t it? If you have an old cloth, it is worn out, you can easily tear it off. But the older a habit becomes, the harder it becomes to destroy. Next.
That is what we discussed. Yeah. Have any of you experienced these ultra luxury beds? When you see them, it is so nice to sink into.
And when you sink, they are almost this thick and you go this much down into them. So comfortable. My God.
I have never sat on something so comfortable. But then when we try to come over, what happens is we put our hand and the hand also goes down. We try to lean.
Then wherever we lean, we go down. So it is very difficult to come out. So habits are like that.
When we start forming them, we do not feel any pain. In fact, we feel the joy. Yeah, I am enjoying.
But then difficult to get out. Next. Yes.
Yes. When we plough a field, we sow a seed at that time. And when we sow a seed, it is going to fructify sooner or later.
Like that. Once we start doing a particular activity in a regular manner, then it grows into addiction. Isn’t it? So, no smoker starts with the feeling that I am going to become a smoker.
Initially, we do not feel it at all. But then, once we start feeling it, it is too late. The chain of a habit is very soft.
You feel it only when it has shackled you. Next, please. Got the habit.
Yeah, exactly. That means we do not understand that we are getting trapped, but the habit traps us. We first, we make our habits, then our habits make us.
Next, please. Yes. So now we will do a little bit discussion.
Would any of you like to say what are the causes of habits? How do we form habits? Look back at your own life. Somebody can be sitting here and they can turn on the light when required. You can switch on the light.
Do we have a second mic? First, you can switch on the light. Yeah, thank you. So, when the mic comes to you, kindly tell your name and then tell the point which you want to make.
Yes, please. Quickly, quickly, please. Is it working? Quickly.
You can raise your hand those who would like to say the causes of habits. Yes. It’s like a passion.
So, a feeling of enjoyment, that’s what you mean to say? Yeah, we feel that we will enjoy. Thank you. What is your name? Big Vijay.
Okay, thank you. Yes. Deepak, yes.
Okay, okay. That means it begins with a desire and the desire goes stronger and stronger and we get the pleasure and then it becomes a habit, yes. So, it begins with a desire and the desire for enjoyment, as I was told earlier.
Yes, thank you. Yes, very interesting observation, Shekhar. We follow others.
Can you imagine some person in a village where no one smokes? Will he start smoking? Of course, now there is practically no village where no one smokes but a hypothetical situation. So, we see others and not only we see others, we think that they are doing a fashionable thing to do, the cool thing to do. Why is it? People smoke and they say it’s cool, they are a fool.
That’s the truth but they don’t realise it. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes.
Yes, Gopal. To impress others, yeah. That means if somebody does something which is not good, say smoking or drinking, our social value system is so perverted that self-destructive things, stupid things are considered glorious and so in order to impress others, we end up doing this sort of things.
Thank you. Anyone else? Habit is formed because of repetition of the act. Yes.
We do it once, second, third, fourth. Yes. Then the desire keeps growing stronger and stronger.
What is your good name? Ashish. Thank you, Ashish. Ramnath.
Yes. Oh, another very good reason. That means when we are having mental tension, then we want some immediate relief.
So how do I get that relief? So there is some pleasure which gives a kick, a feeling of going up, going high and to get the relief from the tension, we take shelter of the habit. Very true. Some devotees on this side will have three more devotees.
So some devotees on this side would like to speak. You can pass the mic. My name is Kiran.
Kiran, yes. From my point of view, some people take the habit as they take it as an extracurricular activity. As an extracurricular activity, yes.
Okay. Actually, I don’t think any university prescribes bad habits as a syllabus. Isn’t it? Yeah.
So this is a part of something extra to do in life, they start doing it. But they don’t know what is happening. People just think that it’s a change.
They don’t realise that it will change their life completely. Thank you. Yes.
Where is the mic? Yes. Sachin. Fear of someone.
Can you explain, Sachin? Yeah. So now you are talking about good habits. Most of us are talking about bad habits.
Talking about good habits. That’s true. Often it is because of fear.
Especially which child wants to go to school in the beginning. So the fear of the parent that he has to go to school. Who wants to study? So conversely, bad habits are also formed because of fear.
The fear of being inhibited. Being considered like an outcast in the peer circle. Everybody is doing something.
If I don’t do it, then I feel fearful. I feel insecure. Fear.
Very good. Yes. One more.
Yes. Sorry. Yes.
Yeah. Media. Media.
Very important. The media portrays something as stylish. And you know there was one actor in Europe.
I forget his name. This person, his patent pose was always having a cigarette in his mouth. Always he would be having a cigarette and he would smoke the cigarette.
And that was how the fall of the cigarette started. And eventually this actor, he died of lip cancer. Not lung cancer.
Lip cancer. he would keep a cigarette, he would not even smoke it, just chew it. And before he died, he chewed the tobacco company.
He never told me that this was so disastrous to my health. So at that time, it was not known. So because of the media.
The media imposes some ideals which are actually foolish and self-destructive. But because they are portrayed as glamorous, we accept them. Yes.
These two hands are raised. Two more. You can have over here.
Okay. Whoever has the mic is in control now. Yes, Krishna.
Yes. Association. Yes.
Very good. So what are the first three words of association? So actually the kind of association we get nowadays, we become ass because of that. Thank you.
Association. Yes. Thank you.
Yes. Yes. Something new.
Something different to do. Because life essentially is boring. There is a survey done by I think the Gallup survey agency.
They found how people spend their lives. If in 5% of the time of their life, this is Americans, not Indians. Americans who have the best technology, the best entertainment, the best media, the best facility for enjoyment and so on.
The 5% of the time of their life, people are happy. 5% of the time of their life, people are miserable. And 90% of the time of their life, people are bored.
They are so bored with life. Because what to do? They have to study. Study is not interesting.
It has to be done. Work is not interesting. And when there is no study or no work to do, what to do? Life is boring.
That is why the whole entertainment industry is in one sense a boredom industry. There is not much positive pleasure in entertainment. Entertainment means you somehow forget the boredom and the emptiness of your life.
That’s all. And that’s why as the boredom is becoming more and more, that’s why the entertainment also becomes more and more passionate. Now earlier the entertainment was some nice, soft, soothing music.
But now we are so bored that that will not entertain us. So, we have to have rock music. Then we come out of our inner emptiness.
People are so bored with their lives that they are ready to go and watch horror movies. Now horror movie, the name itself tells that when you go to the movie you will be horrified. Now is horror a pleasant emotion? Very unpleasant, fearful, it is an emotion of fear.
But their lives are so boring that they want some emotion in life. Even if it is an emotion of horror and fear, it doesn’t matter. That is the extent to which life is boring and empty in the modern time.
And that’s why they want to change. Yes. Thank you very much.
We can go ahead and switch off the light. So, let us see if we have got any causes more than ours. Okay.
So, here instead of going into the specifics, we have focused on the principles. So, on the left what we see is the objects. For example, the object in our case of smoking may be the cigarette.
So, the object may come to us in various ways. It may be through the media. It may be through the friend circle.
It may be through the style which is considered to be fashionable. So, essentially, the habit, how it is formed is we get the object within our sense perception. A thought in the desire of the object enters our mind.
And when it enters our mind, it stays there. It is said a thought is the ancestor to the deed. What we think about now, we will do in the future.
And what we are doing now, we have thought about it in the past. So, from the thought comes the desire. That means first we see something and we think about it.
Oh, that’s nice. I would like to have it. Desire.
Krishna explains this in the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2nd verses 61, 62 and 63. dhyayato vishayan pumsa sangas teshu pajayate sangat sanjayate kama kamat krodho bhijayate dhyayato vishayan the object, we see it. sangas teshu pajayate association comes and then sangat sanjayate kama the desire comes and eventually it goes on till we do the action.
And then once we do an action, things don’t end over there. It’s not that a person smokes, he feels nice and that’s over. No, the pleasure is only one part of the story and only a small part of the story.
After that comes the reaction. The reaction is in two forms, physical and mental or psychic. The physical reaction is that we get a temporary pleasure and followed by followed by a little misery.
Can you move it a little bit upward? Okay. Temporary misery, temporary pleasure ultimately leads to misery. So, Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita, you can repeat this verse after me.
Vishayendriya Sanyogad Yathag Agre Amritopamam Pariname Visham Iva Tat Sukham Rajasam Smrutah So, Krishna explains the nature of passionate pleasures. So, he says Vishayendriya Sanyogad by contact with the senses and the sense objects. So, all pleasures are basically cigarette is coming in contact with the tongue or whatever.
Contact with the senses and the sense objects. So, what happens there? What is the nature of that pleasure? Yathag Agre What is the meaning of Agra? Anyone knows? Little bit Hindi or Sanskrit? Agrasar ho rahe hai. Yeah, front side, beginning.
So, in the beginning Yathag Agre Amritopamam What is Amrit? Nectar. So, it tastes like nectar in the beginning. Pariname Pariname means result.
Ultimately what happens? Visham Iva It becomes like poison. So, same thing. Physical level, there is a temporary pleasure.
You may get some relief. But then after that there is cough and there is bronchitis, lung cancer and death. Now, these effects are serious.
The physical consequences of indulgence in bad habits. But even more serious are the psychic consequences. So, this loop is being completed over there.
So, this arrow moves right, then it moves up and then it comes back. So, because of the action which we have done, a reaction is that the desire becomes stronger. And because the desire comes back and only comes back, comes back in a stronger form, then the action takes place again.
That is why many of us who have had some habits for a few years now, we will find it almost unbreakable. Because it is like every time we act, it is like putting one more strand around the rope. You know how a rope is made? Take thin strands and tie them together.
So, they become unbreakable. So, every time we indulge in the bad habit, we are putting one more strand in the rope. It is becoming thicker and thicker and thicker.
So, it becomes more difficult to resist and it may become impossible also. So, some of you said habit is because of the desire. That is true.
By the desire, we do the activity and then some of you said that it happens because of repeated actions. So, that is what we said. Initially, it is not a habit.
It is just an action. But, a reaction to that is the desire becomes stronger and of course, the psychic reaction does not come automatically. There is association which presents as the objects again and again.
That is how the desires keep growing. So, now, the reason that all of you told are any of them missing over here? In this cycle, some of you said fear. Fear also causes us to experience the thoughts and desires.
So, in association, we get the thoughts and desires. Are there any causes remaining? Next please. Yes.
So, the result is poison. What is that poison? Continue please. It affects one’s destiny.
Little do we realise it. Continue please. Yes.
You can continue. Somebody would like to read over there who has not read till now? Yes. Show a thought.
What is the next person? You can continue right wise now. What is the result of showing a thought? Yes. You can send a mic over there.
Keep passing the mic towards the right please. You can start from the right side the Keep passing the mic towards the left side. can pass the You can pass the mic towards the left side.
and eventually what happens, the person who could have been upright citizen, he ends up in the jail. So, his destiny could have been a promising career but it is a dark, dreary prison term. This is the destiny, continue, yes, financial, we said a cigarette causes holes both in your pocket and in your lungs, we lose money and we lose our lungs also, so people become indebted because they are so addicted to wanting to enjoy that they take loans and often they have to spend their whole life to repay the loans or they have to lose all their life savings and their families come on the streets, so it is a heavy price, next, yes, there is no habit which gives immediate pleasure but which does not cause any loss of health, yes, initially, it may be in the society fashionable to smoke or to drink but do you think a person who becomes an addict will be respected in society, no, he loses social respectability, one of the main causes of divorce in the east and the west apart from adultery, adultery means say, one of the spouses, he or she engages in illicit relationship with some other man or woman, that is the main cause but apart from that the main cause of divorce secondarily is bad habits, if one of the spouse has bad habits, the other person just gets rid of him, continue, yes, in America, they have observed that the juvenile delinquency rape, juvenile delinquency means crime among the teenagers, so that has rapidly spiralled in the last half century, and conversely they have also found it is a third world country, within two years of the introduction and the propagation of television, the crime rate has increased 10 times, because the TV promises and allures people towards quick pleasures and people get addicted to the pleasures and they need money, and third world countries, third world countries people don’t have much money, that’s why crime, just two years of television, 10 times crime rate increased, continue please, yes, generally when people get into habit, there are most people who want to give up the habit, but some people just sort of brazen defiance and ego, they say I don’t have the habit only, a smoker he thinks that I am free to give up smoking whenever I want, and a smoker who thinks like that has given up smoking many times till now, what does that mean, if a smoker has given up smoking then how is he a smoker, means he has given up, and he has fallen free again, so people unless they are absolutely egoistic they become helpless and they want to change, so what does it mean when we say we want to change a habit, what does it involve, continue please, actually you’ll have to move a little bit to the, yeah, continue, stimulus, yes, thank you, response, yeah, thank you, continue, yes, freedom of choice, this is the key how we can be become free from habits, between the stimulus and the response is the freedom of choice that we have, and to the extent we tap and utilise this freedom of choice the same stimulus may come, but our response can be different, that means a drunkard he sees a bottle of beer, that is a stimulus, and if he is a habituated drunkard what will be his response, drink, pick it up, pay for it and drink, so the stimulus creates a particular response, but there is a freedom of choice, if we can learn how to tap this freedom of choice then we can become free, continue please, yeah, some people feel that actually there are certain behavioural patterns which are genetic, in America this is how wealthy people use lawyers to get themselves off the hook, they say a wealthy person commits a crime and then it’s a crime which is totally proven, there is no way that the person can claim innocence, so what he does is he gets his lawyer to prove that this is in my genes, so my genes are like this what can I do, I’m forced to behave like this, and that’s how many criminals get off the hook, or they say I’m a product of my genes, what can I do, this is hereditary, my genes force me to behave in a particular way, habits like homosexuality they are justified on genetic grounds by many people, continue, psychic association of upbringing that means here what we are talking about is what determines the response when there is a stimulus, some people say the genes, by the genes I’m forced to be in a particular way, some people say that no, it’s not from the genes, it’s from this life only, how our surroundings are, our mind becomes moulded in that way, the upbringing or the association determines that.
Next, environmental, if everybody around us does the same thing, we don’t even question it, if you go to the American countries, nobody questions eating flesh or smoking or drinking because that is the way of life, in fact they have a philosophy or a phoolosophy, what is that, you need proteins, and so you need to eat a lot of meat, and after we eat a lot of meat, we need to digest that meat, so we need to drink a lot of wine, and after we drink a lot of wine and we have a lot of proteins, then we need to enjoy illicit sex, and then after we do all this, we need to get the mental energy of our minds by gambling, so everybody does this, meat eating, intoxication, gambling and illicit sex, it’s a part of life, so everybody gets habits like that. Next please, yes, so now we will come a little bit to the Vedic perspective, how do we get habits and what is the hope for us to become free from bad habits, so in the previous figure you remember, there is this freedom of choice, there is a stimulus and there is a response, so there is the mind and there is the intelligence, now these two are different, the mind basically function in terms of instincts and feelings, as soon as I see it, I want to do it, just do it, and then just suffer it, they don’t tell you that, that is the mind, just do it means the mind, mind is the king, don’t even think, just do it, but intelligence means look before you leap, think what is going to be the consequence, so we have a mind and we have an intelligence, and the soul, the real person, we, we are constantly caught up, whom should I follow, mind or intelligence, a simple example from material life, say you are doing your college studies, and suddenly you see a couple of friends gossiping, intelligence is saying, I have to study, mind is saying, come on, they are talking, they seem to be talking very interesting things, they are enjoying, so enjoy, it is a tug of war, what should I do, so I have all of us experienced this sometime, there seem to be two voices inside us, one voice is telling us, you do this, other voice is telling us, you do that, is there anyone who has not experienced this anytime in his life, all of us we have this duality, this dual forces, and somehow we choose one or the other, so if we act based on the intelligence, there are good actions, and if we act based on the mind, there are bad actions, it leads to the formation of bad habits, next please, yes, so intelligence is not measured by the IQ, they call it intelligence quotient, but actually the people who are supposed to be intelligent, they do not have actual intelligence, let us see how, actual intelligence has two aspects to it, one is discrimination, means the ability to distinguish and differentiate, this is beneficial, this is harmful, this is good, this is bad, this is virtuous, this is vicious, this is temporary, this is eternal, this is material, this is spiritual, so that is discrimination, the second is determination, if I understand that this is good, then I will do it, no matter whether I like it or not, that is determination, and if it is bad, I will not do it, no matter how much I feel like doing it, I feel like doing it means the mind feels like doing it, so that is determination, so real intelligence has these two aspects, discrimination and determination. If we see our modern education system, it glorifies only one aspect of the intelligence, not actual intelligence, it just glorifies the information processing ability with intelligence, what IQ measures is the information processing ability, how much can we memorise and recollect, how much can we group or segregate, how much can we reason in these terms, that even a computer can do, last year the world health organisation send a circular to all the medical professionals all over the world, this circular stated doctors stop smoking, so the circular said that it is very surprising and disappointing to know that doctors are among the highest smoking professionals in the world, why is it disappointing? Yes, why is it disappointing? It’s a question, why is it disappointing that doctors smoke loudly, they, you can turn on the light actually, just one minute, are the drama devotees ready? Smoking, okay, see you can come on top, yeah, very shocking isn’t it, who more than doctor knows the bad effects of smoking, they are supposed to protect the health of others, but they are not able to protect their own health, now is it that a doctor doesn’t have intelligence? They have intelligence in terms of information processing ability, but they have to memorise so many big, big text books, but that is not real intelligence, that is just information processing ability, so they have information processing ability, but they don’t have discriminatory ability, so to get discriminatory ability our material text books will not be enough, we need to hear from the spiritual sources, Bhagavan Gita, Ashwamedha Bhagavatam and other Vedic literature, which gives a clear understanding of what is beneficial and what is harmful, and only then we will get the vision by which we can know what is right and what is wrong, so most people don’t suffer from a lack of discrimination, they know, but they suffer from a lack of determination, even after we know it, we can’t stop doing it, Janan api atmano ahitam, I know it, but still I do it, why is that, so we get determination by devotional service, so we will have a drama now, and then after that we will continue the remaining part of the class, are you ready? How much?