Understanding how our mind makes us misunderstand 1 – Misunderstanding ourselves

[Retreat on Instincts, Impulses, Intelligence at Melbourne, Australia]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
change in society. So shall we stop here? Thank you very much.
I am grateful to be here amongst all of you. Thank all of you for also coming. And I will speak on this topic of understanding how our inner world works with looking at instinct, impulse and intelligence.
I will first, in this session, I will clarify some terms and then I will give an overlay of how we are going to, there is a lot of echo, how we are going to cover the territory that we will do in the next three sessions. So let us start with some terms first. What do we mean by instinct, impulse and intelligence? First these three things.
So instinct is basically a bodily response for self-preservation. All living beings have instincts. So if I touch my hand over here and say by chance there is electricity over here, I feel the current, so I will move my hand away.
If I feel hot, I will move my hand away. So in these cases, in the case of instinct, we do not think, just act. And this sort of action is actually good, it is a bodily response for our protection.
At the same time, there are some situations in which we unthinkingly act right. A body is prompted or programmed to act in the right way for protecting itself. But there are other situations where we unthinkingly act wrong.
So for example here, when we get the second example, I will give in both ways. Say when we smell food, immediately we survive it. That is just the body’s mechanism by which the digestive fluids are generated and we can digest the food properly.
But the impulse is more of the mind’s pushing us towards things if things are enjoyable. There also, when we act impulsively, there is not much thinking that is done. An alcoholic, as soon as the alcoholic sees a bar or a bottle, immediately undrinks.
So here, it is not needed for survival. But it is just automatically done. And based on the kind of life we have lived, all of us will have different impulses.
So in both, the commonality in instinct and impulse is that we act without thinking. But instincts are often protective and necessary for the body. Whereas impulses are often counterproductive.
They are just, the mind, I have to do this, redo it, and then it turns out not so good. Now at one level, intelligence means to understand the difference between the impulse and the instinct. We have to act instinctively on many occasions.
But we do not want to act impulsively. So which actions to do by default, which actions to do without, with due deliberation, that discernment is what comes by intelligence. So for example, when we see food, at that time, it is a natural bodily reaction that our tongue salivates and our body gets ready for receiving food.
Food is necessary for the body. So in that sense, the salivation is an instinctive response. But sometimes, say if I have got diabetes, and I see some sweet item.
Now at that time, when my tongue starts salivating, my mind starts craving, that, acting on that is undesirable. So that, food is itself a necessity. But a particular choice of food may not be necessary.
So impulse, when it comes, it pushes us towards certain things. And intelligence means to understand, okay, what is the difference? What is coming from the impulse? What is coming from the instinct? And then to choose properly. So again, with respect to, one could be with respect to the choice of food.
Another could also be with respect to the quantity of food. Food is necessary, but our impulse, if good food is available, just keep eating, keep eating. And then, that may be unhealthy.
So in that case, to be able to discern, that is intelligence. So now, another way, so now, in normally we talk about the mind and the intelligence. So the, we can say broadly speaking, the mind is the source of the impulses.
And the mind often makes us misunderstand things. So if there is one carry home message from this whole retreat, that is this next sentence. Intelligence means to understand how our mind makes us misunderstand.
So, our mind makes us misunderstand many things. And this misunderstanding which comes, how to spot it, and how to avoid it, how to correct it. That is the role of the intelligence.
Sometimes, say some people are trying to learn car driving. And then, in many cars, if you see the accelerator and the brake is just next to each other. And say, if at a particular point, you come to a red signal, and the next people are slowing down.
And the trainer next to you says, slow down. And then, instead of pressing the brake, the person presses the accelerator. Zoom, the car moves forward.
So there is an immediate response that is required. But in this case, the immediate response turns out to be wrong. So the instructor may have given the instruction, slow down.
But the instructor may even say, press the brake. But somehow, my foot goes to the accelerator, I press the accelerator. So that may happen because I panic.
That may happen because I am not thinking clearly for whatever reason. So normally, when we see some danger, we will press the brake. And anybody who presses the accelerator says, what are you doing? Press the brake.
But actually, the mind does this opposite thing whenever we come close to an object of attachment. We may resolve, I am not going to do this. But as soon as we come close to the object of attachment, instead of pressing the brake, we press the accelerator.
Zoom, we move forward towards it. And this is how, in our inner world, the mind makes us act wrongly. So the intelligence means to understand how the mind is making me misunderstand.
Just saying, oh, I don’t have willpower, I am so foolish, I am fallen. All that is okay at one level. But we have to understand how the mind is making us misunderstand.
And then we can correct it. And we are having three sessions. So we will be talking about three aspects.
How the mind makes us misunderstand ourselves, how the mind makes us misunderstand others, and how the mind makes us misunderstand Krishna. So this misunderstanding can be with respect to all these things. And we have to learn to deal with it.
So the first session will be about ourselves. Although in the first session, I will be having a significant part where we will be laying the conceptual framework for the discussion. So when we understand how the inner world works, then we can make it work for us instead of against us.
So before we look at how the mind makes us misunderstand, let us try to understand more how our inner world works. So why does the mind misunderstand anything at all? That is because the mind chooses the path of least resistance. In every situation, whatever is the easiest way out, the mind wants to take that.
So if I want pleasure, it will look for the quickest pleasure. What is available? If it wants to understand something, what is the easiest explanation? Take that. If you have a problem, okay, what is the fastest solution? Go towards that.
So the mind wants to solve, deal with things quickly. And when there is resistance in a particular path, then going along that path will require more time, more energy. And that is how the mind resists going along that path.
Whichever path, quickly. I am hungry. Okay, whatever food is readily available, just let me eat it.
If that is healthy food, I will eat healthy food. If it is unhealthy food, I will eat unhealthy food. So when we understand that this mind chooses the path of least resistance, then if we can either create resistance on this path of least resistance or we can decrease the resistance on the other path, then in both ways, things can be slowed down.
I just came from America about 15 days ago. So I gave a talk in Google there in Silicon Valley. So there in Google itself, I was quoting an experiment that was done in Google.
So, or rather a psychological study. They found that most of the people have sedentary jobs and they tend to eat a lot and they get obesity and medical insurance of the company itself goes up a lot. So they, on the advice of some experts, decided that in their cafeteria, in the company which they had, they had chocolate, sugar candies, various sweet items, which would be there in transparent containers.
And people would come to the cafeteria to eat something and they would order these candies, chocolates and eat it. So they decided to just cover those sugar candies, all sweet items, put them in opaque containers, not containers which have advertisers promoting water in it. No, just make them opaque.
So if somebody wants a sweet, yes, give it, then they will go to that box, take it out. And they found just by doing this, almost 35% of the consumption of sweets decreased. And of course, correspondingly, the obesity issues also went down, the health issues also got less complicated.
So there is something as simple as this. When we see an object, it seems to be readily available for enjoyment, let me go and enjoy it. But if it is not visible, then okay, I get a desire, where is it available? I’ll go and take it.
If the desire is very strong, anyway, we’ll go and indulge in it. But this I’m giving as an example, that if even a little resistance is created on a path which we don’t want to go, that can check the person from going in that direction. So the mind chooses the path of least resistance.
Your pleasure is available easily, the mind will go towards it. Later we’ll talk about how when the mind is often ready to go through great difficulties to get a pleasure also. I’ll come to that later.
But right now, this is the principle we’ll focus on. And the mind goes towards the quickest pleasures. So what does this mean for us? Why does it happen like this? Why does the mind go for quick fixes? I want this right now.
This is the easiest pleasure, let me go for it. So actually, we are souls who are evolving through many species. And we have all been in the lower species, the animal species.
And then we go from one species to another, this body is left behind, but the mind remains the same. And the mind, which is carried from one species to another, has the same tendencies from the previous life. Now, in animal forms, most often, there is a matter of survival of the fittest.
It is might is right. At any moment, death can strike. At one level, it’s true for human beings also.
But in animal life, it’s much more vivid. So survival in the animal world often depends on speed. If a deer is eating some food, and a deer just smells, oh, there’s a tiger over here.
Even before the deer looks back, it has to run. It just takes the time to look. In that much time, the tiger may spring and catch it.
So in the animal world, we need to have very fast responses to survive. Life and death can depend on one moment’s hesitation or one moment’s prompt action. And animals, in general, function in two broad modes.
Okay, before I go to this, psychologists have also observed some similarities between default human behaviors and animal behaviors. Psychologists have a different explanation for this. Not all psychologists, but psychologists say that, actually, we have come from the animal species.
And they are referring to physical evolution of the body. Our past ancestors were ape men, and this and that. And because of that, our brains have evolved in a particular way.
Now, if you look at the brain structure itself, there is a significant or a dramatic difference between simian brains and human brains. So it’s not that the brain has evolved. It’s more that, actually, the mind is the same.
So yes, there are similarities between the way humans and animals function. But that’s not so much because the body has gone physical evolution. But rather, while the soul has gone from one body to another, the mind has remained the same.
And in the human body, we carry over tendencies from the animal species. And when the mind is the same, it has those same tendencies. So when we come to the human form, our mind broadly functions in two modes.
There’s two default modes of function, fight or flight. If there is any kind of danger, can I stay here and fight off? And if I can’t fight it off, just get out of here. Just flee.
So we can, in terms of the three modes of material nature, we can say that the fight response is the result of the mode of passion. I want to fight, I want to control, I want to dominate, I want to win. And the flight response is the mode of ignorance.
I can’t deal with this. Let me just get out of here. So now the modes of passion and ignorance themselves are not necessarily or entirely bad.
They are also required for functioning in the world. They are also required for us to do various activities. But if they become the controlling modes in our life, that is when it becomes a problem.
When we sleep, to some extent we go into the mode of ignorance. But it is, no, there is one thing is falling asleep and second thing is falling for sleep. That means, falling asleep means I am tired and I need to sleep.
Fall for sleep means that I sleep because life is so boring. Because life is so frustrating, then I just want a quick escape way. So I just go to sleep.
So the modes are basically when the mode of passion or the mode of ignorance becomes dominant, then we either choose the fight or the flight response. And we can see this in various situations in our life. So for the mind, if it feels that I am strong enough and I can beat up this person, I can tackle this problem, then fight.
But if I can’t, then flight. So again, the mind is choosing in this case the path of least resistance. Now, we human beings need to go beyond fight and flight.
We need to go towards sight. Sight means I have to see things clearly, understand things and then make a decision. If I make a decision instinctively, then yes, it may sometimes be necessary for bodily survival.
But if we see the way we humans exist in civilized societies, most of our issues, most animal needs can be resolved through fight or flight. But most human needs, most human issues need us to rise beyond fight or flight. Now, if I have some, I am angry with someone for some reason, somebody has done something wrong, then fight or flight is not going to resolve the issue.
But to say, either explain our concerns, to hear their side of the story and calmly discuss and then arrive at a resolution. Either they may be mistaken, we may be mistaken, whatever it is. But simply, fight or flight as a default response pattern will not work for most of the issues that we human beings face.
There are of course dangers, there may be fire and we must have to run from there. But even then, for us, for animals, there is fire, just run from it. We human beings, we say congregate in one place and say, many times people say, are watching a movie or a play or something, the fire breaks out, often the casualties are not so much because of the fire, they are because of the stampede that happens when people try to run away from the fire.
So, in this case, when there is danger, the flight response can cause greater problems. So, we need to be more thoughtful in making our decisions and this is where our intelligence comes into the picture. Let us look at the modes a little bit further.
So, there are three modes of material nature. Krishna says that all living beings are bound by the three modes, this is 14.5 and then 14.11, 12, 13, he talks about how the three modes function, how do they affect us in our functioning. So, he uses the word prakasha and pravrtti.
Prakasha is illumination, it is capability to see things clearly and pravrtti is action. So, in the mode of ignorance, Krishna says, he says aprakasha, there is neither illumination nor apravrtti, neither action. There is intoxication, there is delusion.
So, in the mode of ignorance, we just become, some people just get paralyzed, sometimes some people live like almost in a state of daze. He said that some people make things happen, some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened. So, those in the mode of ignorance, they wonder what happened, what is going on, what happened, what happened.
So, they are just in a daze, there is neither action nor contemplation. And nowadays people may just spend a lot of time say watching video games, playing video games, watching movies. And sometimes the digitally created world can for many people become an alternative to the real world.
In America, an increasing social problem is that many young people, they grow into adolescence, they go into youth and still they do not feel any need to take any responsibility. Just live on in their parents’ houses and there is social security, the government will pay for you. They just stay in their homes, play video games, watch movies, surf on the net and they are basically living life second hand.
Just watching someone do it and think that I am doing it and enjoying it. When we watch movies, it is basically the Bhagavatam talks about how there are eating, sleeping, mating, defending, the basic bodily drives. And all human beings, all living beings crave for it and human beings also crave for it.
But when we are caught in watching movies, it is say in movies there is a romantic scene, the hero and heroine are embracing and people start whistling over it. So now what are they doing? It is not even mating, it is second hand mating. Somebody else is doing it and I think, oh, if I was there, it would be so enjoyable.
That is why most of the time when people watch movies, they take something like popcorn and they keep popping it in. Why? Because everything is imaginary, something has to be real. So, entertainment as a part of life is fine.
But when entertainment becomes a substitute for life, then it becomes a major problem. So, when in the mode of ignorance, that becomes facilitated. Now, the technology by which movies are made, the creativity with which a movie is made, that may not be in ignorance, there may be intelligence used over there.
But the product which is consumed by people, that is often increasing the mode of ignorance in them. So, in the mode of ignorance, one does not want even to eat, sleep, mate, defend, it requires some energy, some effort, some work. But in the mode of ignorance, one does not want to do even that.
So, when one does not want to do even that, then the result is one goes into an illusory world and tries to just get some kind of enjoyment in that illusory world. This is the mode of ignorance. And in the mode of passion, Krishna says, लोभः प्रवृत्ति रारंभः कर्मणामश्यमास्त्रुहा प्रजस्ये तानि जायंते युरुद्धे भरतर्शभा He says, अम्प्रवृत्ति, there is a strong desire, greed, there is passionate action over there.
And that kind of action is there, that means, people just running around, do this, do this, do this. We normally speak to express our thoughts. Some people speak to discover their thoughts.
They speak, I should have spoken that, I am sorry. So, in some cases, there is, in the mode of passion, there is first action and then contemplation. Should I have done it? Should I have not done it? Why did I do it? Maybe I should, I should not have done it.
So, in the mode of passion, there is a strong inclination to try to fix it. But whether I am fixing it or I am worsening it, I do not think about it at that time. This is the mode of passion.
And in the mode of goodness, Krishna says, सर्वद्वारेशु देहेष्मिन् प्रकाष्यमुपजायते ज्यानं यदातदा विद्यारि विवृद्धं सत्वमित्युत He says, when all the doors of the senses, doors of the body, which are the senses, they are illumined with knowledge, that is the mode of goodness. Now, what does this mean, the doors of the body are illumined with knowledge? Is it that person in the mode of goodness, light comes out of their ears, light comes out of their nose, light comes out of their mouth? Not exactly. Here, Prakasha is not used in the literal sense of light.
Prakasha is used in the sense of knowledge, that there is knowledge about how to process what comes in and what goes out of the senses. Let us say, if there is a door over here, the door is locked. If the door is open, and we will observe who is coming in, who is going out.
But if there is a distant door, and around the door there is complete darkness, then some lawbreaker, some thief may come in, we may not even notice. Or we may have a child whom we take care of, the child flips out, not even notice. So, if the door is dark, then who is coming in, who is going out, you may not realize.
So, similarly, in the lower modes, the doors of the body, that is the senses, there is no brightness over there. That means, we do not understand, okay, what should I see, what should I not see? What should I eat, or should I not eat? What should I hear, or should I not hear? So, basically, how to channel, how to process the inputs that are coming in from the world, that illumination comes in the mode of goodness. And when there is a mode of goodness, then, okay, if somebody is coming in, we have the door bolted, and then we have a security camera.
Okay, this person is a familiar person. Okay, let them inside. This person does not look familiar.
We ask, who is it? They identify, then we let them in. But if they look a little kind of threatening person, we do not allow them in. So, basically, there is first contemplation and then action.
That contemplation comes because there is illumination. There is the light that is there, light of knowledge by which we can process. So, we, when we are talking about understanding our inner world, we need to come to the mode of goodness, at least, then we can process the inner world more effectively.
Now, of course, beyond goodness is transcendence. Now, transcendence can at one level refer to somebody who is excellent in everything, who is excellent in a particular field. Sometimes, there are many good batsmen in cricket, but there is one batsman who is superlative, just rises above the whole competition.
So, in that sense, the word transcend is used, to go beyond the norm. So, some people who are very good at a particular field, they do things immediately, and at the same time, they do things expertly. Just some people, if you give them a computer, there is some problem with it, immediately just, okay, just do a few things, they find what is the problem and they fix it.
Somebody doesn’t know, they spend three hours trying to find out what is the problem. I mean, as a, some people are just very good at things. So, you think and you act.
So, that is a matter of expertise, which different people have different talents in. But here, we are talking about our inner world specifically, and the expertise where the thinking and the action, both happen quickly. They are harmonized, that happens through devotion.
Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, in 10.10, that, I will give the intelligence to make sound decisions, to make the decisions by which you can come to me. So, gradually, from goodness, we would like to rise to transcendence. But before that, we need to be at least in goodness, in one words.
So, now we will, this was the background till now, and it might seem a little conceptually heavy, but I will make this simple as we apply this background. So, I said that we are going to look at three things, how the mind makes us misunderstand. Misunderstand ourselves, misunderstand others, and misunderstand Krishna.
So, let us look at how the mind can make us misunderstand ourselves. So, first is that we all have certain cravings, certain desires, certain emotions. So, when we have certain attachments, every attachment actually fulfills some need.
Now, it may fulfill the need in a healthy way, it may fulfill a need in an unhealthy way, but it is fulfilling that need. So, the desire is often not just about the desire. For some people, for example, they may have a particular habit, and say somebody, some people just, they like to eat meat, but then they get a heart attack.
And the doctor tells them, if you want to decrease the possibility of a heart attack coming again, avoid meat. And before that 20 years, they may have been trying to give up meat, they have not been able to give up, but next one day, no, I am not going to do it. Too much of that steak over here, too much of that steak, meat is not worth the risk of another heart attack.
So, in this case, the meat was just something which they thought is enjoyable, let me eat it. But it was not really a need for them. So, they decided to give it up, give it up.
So, intelligence, we can talk about it in different ways. Intelligence at one level means to learn to see the consequence of the actions. So, initially, people might think, okay, eating meat is just a fashion, it tastes good, I like to eat it.
But when somebody is shown the consequence, this could increase your heart trouble, this could give you a heart attack, okay, forget it. So, if we look forwards, and learn to see the consequences of our actions, then seeing the consequence can help us to get rid of certain things. But there are certain other things, which even if we know the consequence, still we may not be able to give it up.
So, some people, they say eat a lot of sweet foods, and doctors, you got diabetes, you need sweet foods. Now, they know they should not eat sweet foods. So, they’re not able to give it up.
So, we may say, okay, this person got a heart attack, they give up meat, this person has a strong willpower. This person knows that he has diabetes, but still not able to give it up. This doesn’t have any willpower.
No, it’s not only about willpower. If, say the food, that is, all of us have our desires, desires, okay, I would like to watch this, I would like to eat this, I would like to travel here. Now, there are different, we can say our desires are of different levels.
There are some desires which are like superficial or circumstantial desires. Like earlier, I gave the example of Google, where the sweet items were no longer visible. And when they’re not visible, people, a large number of people stop consuming them.
So, that was a circumstantial desire. If it’s available, enjoy. If it’s not available, doesn’t matter.
So, when the circumstantial desires come up, if we at that time get, realize the consequence or there is some obstacle, either way, then we will be able to give up the circumstantial desire. So, circumstantial desires can be given up either by awareness of the consequence or by some resistance to the path of indulgence. Both ways, we might be able to give it up.
But there is much more. There are some desires which are very strong, they’re not circumstantial alone. So, they may be serving some other need.
So, for example, there is a whole genre of food which is sometimes called as comfort food. Comfort food means that when I feel distressed, when I feel down, when I’m feeling bad, I eat that food to comfort myself. So, that food I’m eating not just because I want to taste good food.
Yes, the desire is there, but it’s not just because of that. I’m eating that food because I want to pacify the discomfort that is there within me. And if that discomfort is what is causing me to eat, then just making a resolution, don’t eat this.
Don’t you know this is going to cause you diabetes, this is going to increase your weight, this, this, this. That alone will not be enough. Because there is a need over there which needs to be addressed.
That need. So, now the need is for comfort. And as I said, looking for food or some sweet food to address the need for comfort is an unhealthy expression.
It’s not the best way to seek comfort. It may be hurting oneself. But we may sometimes start misunderstanding ourselves.
I have no willpower. I’m so attached. I’m so fallen.
Yes, rather than just affixing labels like this, we can, we can look back. Okay, what is this? Some people may drink, not because they find alcohol so irresistible. It’s because they’re lonely.
And for them, they think drinking is a good way to go and socialize with people, hang out with some people. It just helps me to break my loneliness. So, if that loneliness as a need is, is the need for companionship, if that is not addressed, just telling, don’t drink, don’t you know how dangerous alcohol is? That alone is not going to work.
The mind is actually very, mind thinks it is very clever, but the mind is actually quite foolish at times. The mind thinks that the problem is not the indulgence. The problem is the consequence of the indulgence.
If I can somehow be clever enough to avoid the consequence, then there is no problem in the indulgence. So, I once saw a traffic, traffic joke it was. The person was caught speeding.
And this caught speeding, the cop said, did you not see the speed limit? This person said, yes cop, I saw the speed limit, I just didn’t see you. So, the idea is thinking that actually speeding is not the problem, getting caught while speeding is the problem. So, the principle, so what is happening? The mind is thinking that if I can indulge without getting the consequence, then there is no problem in it.
So, now why will somebody be speeding? Because they have a need for adventure. They want to make headstone, they want to get a sense of admiration. Now, many words which were, which were traditionally negative, now they have got positive connotations.
There is a word which is called speed demon. A speed demon means somebody who drives extremely fast. As a demon possessed, why are you driving so fast? But many young people consider that complementary.
I am a speed demon. They think that I will drive fast and yes, just see how fast I can drive. So, I was in London, I gave a class and some, some tricky questions were there.
So, I answered the question. So, the devotee who had organized the program, he just came out of the program and says, hey, you killed it. What did I kill? I was wondering, did I sit on some creature and kill it? So, actually you killed it is a compliment coming from a hunting context.
Animal is running, you shot it, you killed it. Congratulations. So, now, so you killed it, I did not want to kill anyone.
But the word killing normally has a negative connotation, but in certain contexts, it may get a positive connotation. So, the word speed demon, it nowadays is a positive connotation. Some people, they speed not just because they want to get to a particular place quickly.
They speed because they have a need for adventure. And if that need for adventure is not addressed in some constructive way, then they will keep trying to find some way to fulfill that need. And if speeding is the way to do it, they will do it.
Just telling them, you can meet with the accident and this will happen, that will happen. I will say no, I will take care. I will, I will enjoy, I will not, there will be no accident.
So, there is a dare devilish attitude that comes up. And when the dare devilish attitude is there, then even if the unhealthy expression is there, still somehow the mind thinks that I can get away with it. In the, if you look at the history of smoking, initially, when cigarettes were, cigarettes started becoming popular, at that in the 1920s, 1930s, initially, the harmful effects of smoking were not known.
And when the harmful effects started coming to be known, the cigarette companies tried to suppress those results. Tried to prove that actually, you know, you do not know, this is caused basically by smoking, it could be caused by so many other things. They tried to suppress the results.
But eventually, when the results started, became so undeniable that they just thrust themselves into public domain, then the cigarette companies changed the tack. And they started advertising cigarette as a symbol, cigarette smoking, as a symbol of, of a backo man, of a person who is fearless, who embraces danger, who is, who, who is a hero. And just as a hero takes dangers to do various things, similarly, take the danger of smoke.
And paradoxically, for several years, after the mandatory announcement came, mandatory note that the cigarette smoking is injurious to health, actually, cigarette sales increased. They did not decrease. Yeah, it is injurious, but it would not injure me.
I am a hero. So, that need for standing out, the need for looking cool, that need for being, for being heroic, for appearing heroic, that need was being served by cigarette smoking. And unless that need is addressed, that cigarette smoking, tell them, do not do this, do not do this, it will not work.
So, what happens with us is that when we, our mind can misdiagnose and make us misunderstand in different ways. One way is that even when something is bad, it would not affect you, it would not affect you. And we continue the indulgence.
That is one way the mind makes us misunderstand. We think that, yeah, this happens, but I am an exception. It would not happen to me.
Other is that when we resolve to do something and we are unable to do it, then the mind makes us think, you are so fallen, you are so, you have no spine, you have no willpower, you never keep your word, you are useless. And in this way, the mind beats us down again. So, the idea that I can get away with whatever enjoyment I want to do, and there will be no consequence, that idea comes from the mode of passion, where I think that I am the enjoyer, and if I am just clever enough, then I can enjoy.
The idea that I am good for nothing, I am useless, I have no willpower, I am, I am just helpless, that comes from the mode of ignorance. In the mode of ignorance, I start feeling that I am, nothing is in my control. In the mode of goodness, passion, I feel everything is in my control.
I can do whatever I want, I won’t get the consequence. In mode of ignorance, I have this habit and I can’t give it up. I just, I am a victim.
Sometimes you may think I am a victim of my circumstances, I am a victim of the people around me, or I am a victim of my habits. In all these ways, the mind makes us misunderstand ourselves. So to understand ourselves properly, again, we need to come to the mode of goodness.
In the mode of goodness, we understand first of all, that at our core, we are all pure. We are souls who are part of the all pure absolute truth. And in that sense, purity is our essential constitution.
There will be a lot of impurity around us, a lot of conditioning around us. But beyond that, there is at our core, pure, we are pure. So it is not that we are potentially spiritual.
Actually, we are essentially spiritual. Potentially spiritual means I have the potential to become spiritual in future. But essentially spiritual means, I am at my core a spiritual being.
Even now, even if somebody is very materialistic, even if somebody is very attached, but still, at the essence, they are all souls, they’re all parts of Krishna. It’s like a jewel. Sometimes a stone or rocks under pressure for thousands of years, or millions of years, because of fossilization, some jewels may be formed.
So the stone is not a jewel. The stone transforms and becomes a jewel. It may take a long, long time.
How it happens, science has one explanation. I am just referring to that. The stone is not a jewel.
But suppose there is a jewel that is covered over by a lot of dirt. It is covered over by so much dirt that actually, I cannot even perceive the jewel over there. All that I see is the dirt.
But in this case, what is inside is still a jewel. It does not have to become a jewel. All that has to be done is the dirt needs to be removed.
And if there’s a lot of dirt, a lot of effort may also be required to remove it. But still, the jewel is already a jewel. Just the dirt needs to be removed.
Similarly, for us, there may be a lot of contaminations, lot of attachments, lot of conditionings around us. But in spite of that, at our core, we are souls, we are pure. And understanding this is the beginning of knowledge in the mode of goodness.
In 18.20 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that knowledge in the mode of goodness means to see the same imperishable spirit existing in all living beings. So I am at my core spiritual, and you are, every one of us is at our core spiritual. And we are pure.
Our spirituality is not something which we have to develop by becoming. It is something we just have to realize. So purification is what we seek.
And that purification means the impurities that are above us, we remove that. So this is the basic founding point. If I identify myself with my conditionings, I think, oh, I am an alcoholic, I am a, nowadays there is something called a foodaholic.
People just keep eating, keep eating, keep eating, keep eating. There are different kinds, there are workaholics, there are sometimes, there’s another word which is commonly called deviceaholics. People just compulsively attach to devices, just can’t give up their devices.
So there are different kinds of addictions. Now, they may be strong and they may be real. It will be, it will require a struggle to give it up.
But we are not these things. At our core, we are spiritual. So if we understand this, then we start with a foundation of hope and confidence.
There’s impurity, I can overcome it. But at my, it’s not that I am a fallen person. I am actually a soul who is a part of Krishna.
I may be fallen right now, and I have to work to rise up. But that purity is at my heart. So that purity is something which I simply have to reclaim.
With this understanding, when we move forward, then actually we can work towards understanding what our needs are, and addressing those needs. In the mode of goodness, there is some calmness, there is some clarity. Okay, okay, I’m doing this.
Why am I doing this? It’s not just because of weak willpower or something like that. There is something more happening. And what that is, let me find that out and let me address that.
So when we are practicing bhakti, as we come to the mode of goodness, when we look at certain behaviors, which we want to give up, which we are not able to give up. And we have to look and see what is the need that is being addressed over here. Sometimes we may just like to gossip.
And we may know I should not be gossiping. But still, I just speak this about this person, speak this about this person, speak this about this person. I have a tendency to gossip.
Now I can say this is my uncontrolled tongue. And it’s true. But there is something more going on.
Maybe it is that I have a need for attention. I want people to pay attention to me. And I feel that if I have something sensational to speak, something spicy to speak, something juicy to speak, then people will pay attention to me.
And therefore, to get that attention, I search for gossip, and then I spread gossip. So if I have to get rid of that tendency, I have to not just stop gossiping. Okay, yes, but then I like to speak.
We all have a human need for attention, not in an egoistic sense. But when we are talking with each other, we would like to have something meaningful to talk. So then we have to find out how can I address my need for attention instinctively.
So maybe I may decide I’ll study some scriptures, I’ll hear some classes, and I’ll make notes and I’ll try to share those points. And when I talk about that, I’ll get attention. Maybe not the same kind of attention, but the kind of people who will give me attention will be actually better for me.
And I can share and I can grow, I can help others grow. So we need to ourselves do this introspection by which we will be able to understand what our needs are and address them. Otherwise, we may start developing doubts about whether the process of bhakti works or not.
Because initially, we all experience when we start practicing bhakti, that certain desires, certain cravings, certain attachments, they just go away. We might have been taking meat or drinking this, eating this, drinking some beverages, tea, coffee, whatever. You start practicing bhakti, after a few years, a few months of practice, this goes away.
So we have experienced the potency of bhakti to purify us. But over the years, we find that we are fighting against this, but it’s not going away. It’s coming back again and again and again.
You start thinking, is it that this chanting, this bhakti, it works initially and after it stops working? Or is it that I’m doing something wrong? Yes, if we are practicing bhakti diligently, it’s not that we are doing something wrong. But it may well be that initially, whatever attachments we were able to give up, they were simply circumstantial desires that we had. So once we understood the consequence, once our circumstance changed, no need for it, we gave it up.
But now, if there are some attachments which we are trying to give up, and we are struggling or failing to give it up, then it may be well because of those attachments are serving some need within us. And we have to find out how that need, first of all, identify what the need is, and then address that need in a more constructive way. And when we do that, then that attachment will follow.
So this capacity to introspect, that comes through the mode of goodness. That is what the intelligence requires. That is what we require the intelligence for.
Without the intelligence, we will either be just giving in to the mind and doing whatever the mind tells us to do, or we will give in to the mind in another way by saying that, oh, I’m good for nothing. I’m fallen. So either way, first I just give in to whatever the mind says and indulge, or I beat myself up because the mind says that.
You are so fallen, you are this, you are that, you are that. So I’ll conclude with one point about guilt and bhakti. When we do something bad, at that time, to feel good is good.
Normally, sorry, to feel bad is good. If I do something bad, then to feel bad after doing something bad is good. If I’m just walking along and I just put my foot on somebody’s foot, they say, oh, I’m sorry, I did something bad.
I should not have done that. I should be more careful. But there are some people, I’m just walking along and they see someone and they just rub their shoulder, push the person back and then they go on.
They don’t even notice, or they may feel good. You came in my way, I just pushed you aside. Just see how strong I am.
So some people get desensitized and they don’t even feel bad when they do something bad. We speak sometimes harshly and somebody says, the way you spoke, I felt hurt. Why are you so sensitive? So instead of recognizing, I didn’t want to hurt you.
I’m sorry about it. I’ll take care in future. So if you don’t even feel bad after doing bad, then that is really bad.
So that when we feel bad on doing something bad, that is a protector for us. That helps us to protect from doing something wrong, from repeating that wrong. So guilt is like a protector from bad behavior.
But the mind can distort everything and the mind can distort even this feeling of guilt. So if I consider these five fingers represent five things. So this is, I am here, the wrongdoing is here and Krishna is here.
So now guilt should come between me and the wrongdoing. It should come here. So I am here, Krishna is here, the wrongdoing is here and guilt should come here.
It should come between me and the wrongdoing and it stops me from doing the wrong, from doing the wrong. And that way it protects me. Or even if I do wrong, I feel bad, okay, I’ll not do it again.
So in here, when guilt comes between us and the wrongdoing, it is a protector. But the mind is so cunning that sometimes the same feeling of guilt comes in between here, between me and Krishna. That means that I feel, oh, I’m so fallen.
I’m so sinful. What is the use of practicing bhakti? I met a group of Hindus and they said that, we read the Bhagavad Gita regularly. This is regularly, how frequent? We read it every Ekadashi.
Okay, why only Ekadashi? He said, actually, you know, we can’t touch the Bhagavad Gita on other days. Why? He says, because on all the other days we eat meat. So on that one day, we don’t eat meat.
And that’s why we can’t touch the Bhagavad Gita. I said, okay, it’s good that at least you are reading the Bhagavad Gita on that day. But what exactly happens on Ekadashi? All that happens is, like every day you go to sleep, every day you wake up.
If you have been eating meat, it’s not that you’ve done anything atonement for eating meat. How is it that Ekadashi suddenly you become pure? So here, it’s good to practice bhakti at any level. Our purpose is not to send people on a guilt drive for whatever they are doing.
But the point is that, what the mind is making them feel, okay, as long as I read Bhagavad Gita one day and avoid meat for one day, remain 13 days, whatever I want, that’s fine. So here, the same feeling that, oh, I should not eat meat, that is a good feeling. I know it is wrong, I should not do it.
But that feeling, instead of stopping me from eating meat, it is stopping me from connecting with Krishna. Oh, I have eaten meat, so I cannot read Bhagavad Gita. So that feeling has come not between me and the meat-eating, it has come between me and Krishna.
When this happens, then that negative feeling, which is a protector, becomes a damager. It actually makes us go further into the clutches of the mind. Because if I’m not connecting with Krishna, how will I ever become pure? So when somehow we have some attachments, we are not able to give up, and we are working to find out what is the need that is being addressed, we are working to address it.
In that process, even if you feel bad, yes, feeling bad is at one level good, but there’s a difference between, you know, I acted badly and I am bad. I acted badly is a protector from further bad action, but I am bad. Now that is a judgment which disempowers us, by which I will no longer be able to take shelter of Krishna.
I am so bad that I can’t take shelter of Krishna. It’s as if they’re saying the Bhagavad Gita will become impure because of my impurity. They may say, oh, I am so fallen.
This is not, you may think I am saying I am fallen, but actually this is not humility, this is ego. Because I am thinking my impurity is greater than the Bhagavad Gita’s purity. That if I contact the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavad Gita will become contaminated.
Now, whatever happens, take shelter of Krishna. And yes, we would like to be pure when we want to take shelter of Krishna, but the important thing is to take shelter of Krishna. So guilt should never be allowed to come between us and Krishna.
No matter how fallen somebody may be, no matter how many attachments are holding someone right, still at their core, we are all spiritual. We are all parts of Krishna. We are all meant to serve Krishna.
So our greatest weakness is not the particular attachment we may have. It may be a serious thing, it may be causing problems to us, to others, but our greatest weakness is our unwillingness. Our greatest weakness is our unwillingness to believe that Krishna loves us.
Our greatest weakness is our unwillingness to believe in Krishna’s love for us. No matter how we may be, we are all the children of Krishna and Krishna loves us. That’s why he’s there in our hearts with us.
And he naturally wants us to improve and he will help us to improve. But wherever we are, still he cares for us. So nothing should be allowed to come between us and Krishna.
Even if it is a wrongdoing, okay, fine, doesn’t matter. I will try to give it up, but let me focus on trying to connect with Krishna with what I can. And Krishna is not going to reject us.
Krishna is still available for us. There will be consequences for our wrong actions, but that doesn’t mean Krishna is rejecting us. So in the last part, I’ll talk about this theme more, about understanding Krishna’s love for us and reciprocating with that.
But the important thing is that never should the mind’s bad feeling, even on doing bad things, be allowed to come between us and Krishna. Even if I did something wrong, still I’m a part of Krishna. I am going to serve him with whatever purity I have right now, with whatever capacity I have right now.
With that enthusiasm, when we move on, then gradually we’ll see the transformation and potency of bhakti. Krishna says in 9.30 and 31, even if my devotee does something terribly wrong, but if that devotee is determined to serve me, then that devotee is well situated, and soon that devotee will become purified. And that is my guarantee that I will protect.
So with this understanding, this positive self-conception, that we are parts of Krishna, Krishna loves us, and we all are potentially spiritual. We can, sorry, we are essentially spiritual. We can move forward and overcome whatever negative conceptions might be there about ourselves.
So I’ll summarize what I spoke today, and then we’ll have some question answers. So I spoke today about how, understanding how our inner life works. Intelligence, mind and impulse.
Sorry, intelligence, instinct and impulse. So instinct is a bodily response for our protection. I feel for heat, I move on.
Impulse is a mental pushing based on what is considered enjoyable. I see some sweet food, I want to eat it. Intelligence is what enables us to differentiate between impulse and instinct.
And intelligence helps us to understand how the mind makes us misunderstand. And the mind may make us misunderstand ourselves, misunderstand others and misunderstand Krishna. And with respect to this, why does the mind make us misunderstand ourselves? That’s because it looks for quick solutions.
So we as souls have come from the animal species where life or death depends on the fastest response. So that’s why the mind goes to the easiest explanation, the fastest solution, the quickest pleasure. And in the animal species, most activities can be addressed by fight or flight.
But for us human beings, we live in a different world where we need to go beyond fight or flight to sight, understand the reality and then act according to it. And I talked about this fight, flight and sight in terms of three modes. In the mode of ignorance, there is neither contemplation nor action, simply delusion.
You go into an imaginary world and think that I am enjoying that. Like people watching movies second hand bodily enjoyment and then popping something to have something real. In passion, first there is action and then there is contemplation.
Oh, why did I speak like that? In goodness, there is contemplation, then action. Like the door to the senses are illumined with knowledge and we can understand what to speak, what not to speak, what to see, what to hear. And in transcendence, the contemplation and action happen simultaneously.
They are harmonized together through devotion. Krishna gives the guidance from within. And I talked about how do we misunderstand ourselves.
We, our attachments are often unhealthy expressions of our needs. Some desires, we start practicing bhakti and we give up. What to speak of some indulgences, what to speak of practicing bhakti.
Even without practicing bhakti, some people just understand the consequence of some actions and they give it up. Okay, I got a heart problem, I will stop eating meat. But some of our attachments, we may not be able to give up.
So, it is not that we lack willpower or it is not simply the attachment itself is so strong. It is simply that that attachment is an unhealthy way in which some need is being fulfilled. So, somebody may gossip because they need attention.
Somebody may eat because they need comfort. Somebody may drink because they feel lonely. So, we have to find a healthier way to address that need.
Otherwise, the mind will either make us keep indulging in that need or the mind will simply keep beating us up. You are so useless, you cannot do it. Either way, we will stay trapped.
When the mind starts beating us like this, talk about the difference between guilt and what we would call as a pseudo-guilt. The guilt is normally meant to protect us from doing wrong. So, to feel bad on doing bad is good.
It is a protector. But if that bad feeling, instead of coming between me and the wrongdoing, it comes between me and Krishna, makes me feel, oh, I am so fallen, I cannot practice bhakti. Then, that is not guilt.
That is the mind’s distortion of guilt. It is pseudo-guilt and that needs to be given up. Okay, however fallen I am, still I will serve Krishna.
So, I can acknowledge I acted badly without beating myself up thinking I am bad. We at our core are parts of Krishna. We are pure.
We are like jewels who are covered over by a lot of impurity. But still, we are jewels only. We just need to remove the impurity.
And for us, to fight off and remove the impurities, the greatest strength is that Krishna loves us and Krishna is there to help us. Our greatest weakness is not any specific attachment that we have. Our greatest weakness is our unwillingness to believe, believe in Krishna’s love for us.
And the more we develop this faith in Krishna’s love for us, the faith in our essential spirituality, with this positive self-understanding, we can overcome whatever negativities may be there within us. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.