Understanding the mind QA

[QA session at London, UK]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
comments? When the mind gives us an illusion of freedom, how do we know that we are trapped? We can’t know till we know that there is something outside the trap. It’s like if somebody is living in a prison, but they don’t know there is any world outside the prison. And they can’t know that there is anything outside the prison at all.
So, that’s why the material world is poornam, it’s complete. That means, if the soul wants to be in illusion, then the soul can be completely in illusion. You may have heard about movies like Matrix and others.
Somebody is in an illusion, virtual reality. They just get completely captivated. They just don’t even know.
But if somebody thinks deeply and they ask that question which was neglected, where did everything come from? Then maybe there is something more. Not just maybe, probably there is something more. So, it’s reason can’t take us beyond this world.
But reason can point to beyond this world. By reason alone, we cannot go to the world beyond. But reason, there is something beyond this world.
So, that way, by that spiritual enquiry, gradually it starts. Now, Ramavacharya and his Vedanta Sutta commentary is almost like a hundred page commentary on how this Brahma Jigyasa will start. How will this spiritual enquiry start? So, broadly speaking, he says it can start.
Does it start from punya? Does it start from purva karma? So, basically, there are two ways. If somebody has already practised some spiritual life in the past, then because of that, they naturally get attracted towards spirituality. The other is that if in this life, they associate with somebody who is spiritually inclined.
So, that’s how it will start. And of course, it can also happen that in some ways, we may become more receptive when our existing reality starts crumbling. That means, this world is so terrible.
What is the point of living? There must be, is there something better? So, either from past inclination or from present association or from disruption of our present people. And sometimes, for most people, it’s a complex combination of all of these. Thank you.
Yes, please. Just building on that, sometimes, mind is completely in control. Say, chanting, for example, where just doing it for doing’s sake, and the mind is completely in control that it is okay to just finish the dance.
There’s other times where you, like, maybe it is the environment, like early morning or you are in association with devotees and it’s not as much in control because you, so, is it more? Yeah, that depends on the modes. Say, okay, so, is the mind more in control at times and less in control? Yeah. It’s basically, it’s like a horse.
If you’re riding on a horse, sometimes the horse is riding so fast that you can feel as I’m going to fall off from this horse. And it’s panicking. Sometimes the horse is going comfortably, it’s trotting along.
Then, okay, I’m just enjoying this ride. So, we’re still on the horse and the horse is in charge, we are not in charge. But sometimes, the horse is so wild, although the horse is in control, the horse, horse level of speed also varies.
So, like that, when we are in the modes of passion or ignorance, then nothing seems to be in our control. And Krishna says that when we are in goodness, there is jnana and there is sukha. Tattva sattvam nirmalatvat, prakashakam anamayam, so, prakashakam, there is illumination.
But then significantly, because Krishna says, sukha sangena badanati, jnana sangena caanagha badanati. We are bound by the feeling of happiness and by the feeling of knowledge. That means, if all of us, everybody is riding on horses, and the horses are taking wherever they want to go.
But if I see my horse is going comfortably, smoothly, and that person’s horse is just going so wildly, then I feel I’m better. So, comparatively speaking, even in goodness, there is greater happiness than passion or ignorance. And that feeling that I am happier, that can bind us.
Now, the goodness can be a platform for going towards spirituality, and it’s conducive platform. But goodness can also become like a comfortable way of being bound in this world. Not comfortable in terms of sensual, but comfortable in the sense that it’s not much, the senses are not troubling us so much.
And we don’t have so many, we don’t have, we’re not so affected by worlds ups and downs also. But still we’re not going towards transcendence. So, there are times when the mind’s control can appear much lesser.
And that’s how the modes go along. So, now, does this mean that we are like slaves of the mind? As I said that because the mind gives us options, so it doesn’t appear like slavery. And it also depends on how forcefully we are pulled towards something, and how much of how what how much what we are pulled toward is either against our social structure, then we start feeling say, generally, whenever we act, our social circle acts like a first level moderator for the mind.
And right now, I can do hundreds of things. Now, I might, I might be, conceivably, I could be so frustrated that I might want to scream in frustration. But when there’s so many people around me, that option out of question.
So, the mind can present hundreds of options, but our social circle itself moderates. Right now, if I’m speaking, and if I speak something, everybody starts frowning at me. There’s maybe something wrong, because I should not speak in that direction.
So, basically, the mind can provide many options. But when the mind starts pushing us to do something, which society will frown on, and then we experience the tension at that time, yeah, I should not be doing this. But all the people are frowning at me, still I’ll do it.
So, I feel impelled to do it. That’s when we start sensing that the mind is actually controlling us. What happens for most of us, based on the way our mind thinks, we also gravitate towards the social circle like that.
And then within that social circle, whatever my mind tells us to do, we do it. And we don’t get any disapproval. Somebody likes to drink alcohol, and they go into the social circle of alcoholics.
And then, let’s go, just drink, enjoy. That’s what life is meant for. So, that’s why we don’t, if we start feeling the oppressive control of the mind, that either the mind starts doing something which is against our values, and we need to have a well-developed value system for that, or the mind makes us do something against our social circles, acceptable norms.
That’s when we sense it. Otherwise, we don’t sense it also, that the mind is controlling us. None of us, at this stage, are in any way that the mind can control the mind.
So, I think that option is almost for us, living souls, at this stage, and that we are Paramhansa level, we should almost forget that that actually exists for us. So, having said that, we can’t just accept that we are living with an enemy. We know that we are living with the worst non-devotee, who is actually living with us, which is our mind.
Now, we accept the mind as an enemy to him, a separate enemy to us. So, I’m proposing the solution of neutrality. And what I’ve tried to work out this concept that we are never going to be a friend to, because then there are three types of people in the world, who are our friends, who are our foes, our enemies, but there are people who are our friends, we are in a friend to them.
We are neither friends nor, but we live with them. So, if we have a third category here for the mind, and that’s the best I think I can achieve, or I would suppose you can achieve, is to be indifferent to it. Now, what does indifference mean? Indifference doesn’t mean ignoring it.
Indifference means acknowledging the presence, talking to the mind, trying to rationalise, and applying the Kaabha formula. Either change, accept, or remove. So, very often, the point is that there has to be a dialogue in terms of acceptance of certain points the mind is making, but at the same time, only give that much value that the mind deserves.
As we were discussing yesterday, the mechanism that I have developed is that I give tendencies to my mind every morning, and bring out all the issues, talk to it like a friend, or not a friend, like a regular person, and get through those issues, and then they close the box, lock it away, not to be opened the next morning, unless there’s an emergency. Now, the mind keeps coming back to us and biting us, because it’s an enemy. So, we have got an option either to recognise the presence and not subdue it, because we can never subdue that, or we can have the option of recognising it, talking to it, agreeing to disagree, or using all those techniques.
So, I just don’t like the word that the mind can be a friend. I just don’t accept that. I try to recognise it, and it just doesn’t work for me.
So, maybe I’m completely wrong, but I mean, we can discuss this all night, because I’ve got so much of things to say about this point. But it’s the way I think we perceive our mind. And I think what mistake we make is that we get ruled, we let ourselves be ruled by the mind, because the mind will do that, unless we actually recognise the fact and act on it.
Yeah, it’s a good point. It’s a very solid point. But let’s focus on this point.
Can the mind be our friend at this stage? Okay. Basically, from inside us, sometimes good ideas come, sometimes bad ideas come. Now, we could say that the good ideas come from the super soul, or the good ideas come from the intelligence, the good ideas come from the conscience, and the bad ideas come from the mind.
Now, there are no convenient boxes with labels inside us. This is the mind speaking, this is the intelligence speaking, this is super soul speaking. So basically, how do we know what is coming from whom? Generally, it is phalena parichayate.
The phalena parichayate means we can’t know where something is coming from, we can only consider where it is taking us. So, if I do this, this will take me towards adharma, this will take me towards foolishness. If I do this, this is good for me.
So now, of course, sometimes we can say, initially, we can’t even process the idea. But broadly speaking, we can process it. So, when it is, so basically, there are two categories of inputs broadly, or two categories of propositions or ideas, suggestions that come from inside good and bad.
And we could say that the bad come from the mind, the good come from wherever else, conscience, intelligence, super soul, whatever. If we use this nomenclature, then clearly, the mind can never be our friend. Because we are defining the mind itself as the source of the negative ideas.
But to make this a little more nuanced, when Krishna said the mind can be your friend, broadly speaking, Krishna is using there, the mind as the reservoir of impressions. And if you consider the reservoir of impressions, then if we have impressed good things in the mind, then good options also come as propositions. Say, for example, if we made a habit of regularly waking up in the morning, then maybe it’s my four o’clock, five o’clock, six o’clock, whatever is morning for us, then we just feel like waking up.
If you made a particular, so that the mind, you could say, is a creature of habit. Okay. So then we’re just using different terms.
But let’s focus on how Krishna uses the word manna. So the very fact that Krishna is saying that elevate yourself with the mind and don’t degrade yourself. So he’s giving, he’s talking about the mind in both terms.
And also he’s talking about the mind can be the friend. So now what does it mean? Okay. Let’s see that the mind.
So at a functional level, the mind is the software. The user cannot use the hardware without the software. So in that sense, we need the mind.
So if we are using here the mind simply, mind to refer to simply as a tool with which the soul interfaces with the body, then the mind is essential. Functionally, it’s essential. Now, within that tool, one metaphor I find helpful is like a horse.
Suppose somebody is like a big farm owner, field owner, and they have got a ranch and big ranch, they cannot possibly walk across, they need a horse. But the horse is wild. The horse can throw them off anytime.
This is the same example comes in the fifth canto also, Jain Bharat section, that the horse, at one level, they need it. But at another level, the horse can be very dangerous for them. The horse basically dangers in many ways.
First is the horse may just take them somewhere where they don’t want to go. Second is the horse may just knock them over, they may get injured. Third is the horse might actually stamp on them.
And the horses are dangerously strong. So there can be multiple dangers. But they need the horse.
And if they were to walk themselves, and if they go on the horse, then they can go much, much faster. So in the sense first that they need the horse, and the second sense that the horse can take them where they want to go much faster than if they went alone. So in that sense, the horse is their friend.
But in the sense that the same horse, which they need to go along where they want to go, that same horse can also stop them from going there. It’s not always the training, sometimes you just get absorbed, even without, sometimes you get absorbed in it. So here, I think, there is a, it’s like, let’s take the example of the software or the horse as an example.
So what you’re saying is the horse needs to be tamed, or needs to be trained, or needs to be controlled. So yes, that’s true. And for us, if our mind were like a completely wild horse, and there are people like that, they just can’t function at all.
They probably have to be put in mental homes or something like that. They just can’t function. So basically, it’s like the soul is here, the mind is here, and the body is here, and the world is here.
So the soul pursues the world through the mind. But sometimes, the mind starts creating its own picture and absorbs so much that we can get a distorted picture of the world, or we don’t get any picture of the world at all. So let’s say people become mad, they might just laugh and talk and there’s nobody there, what are they doing? So they are just dealing with their mind, and their mind has disconnected them from the world completely.
Or sometimes some people have very opinionated, very strong opinion, they’ll take one point, and they’ll build a whole picture, you’re like this, no, it will not be like that. So what has happened over there, their mind is distorting their picture of reality. So just building on that, say, cooking, right? Say, someone has to cook for people who they don’t like, right? They’re not doing it with their mind, and the mind will give lots of reasons why you should not cook.
Whereas a mother wanting to cook to please their son because it’s their birthday, you want to do it. The desire is there, you’re not fighting against the mind, because the desire is there, the mind is there, everything is all aligned and you’re cooking. So you don’t have to fight the mind then, because desire, mind, everything is well aligned, I don’t know if that makes sense.
So we need to fight our mind sometimes, but you don’t have to fight it all the time. No, I totally agree. Of course, there are good things coming out of the mind also, otherwise it will be completely all negative.
But what I’m trying to say is that it is much easier to recognise mind as an entity which is often referred to as an enemy, because then you’re on high alert. Otherwise, what happens is that the danger of not knowing this is that you get distracted, because the mind convinces us that that is the right entity. I agree with that perfectly.
In fact, I’m writing a Gita Delhi article, when we think of our mind as our friend, we become our own enemy. So it’s true that the mind, we have to be alert, we have to be very alert. But I think what you said neutrality is, we can’t have a hostile relationship with the mind always.
It’s neutral, but cautious, cautious. So that’s true. And if the mind gives something good, we accept it.
But we don’t uncritically, just because the mind has given me one good thing, second good thing, third good thing, therefore, now what is going to do, it must be good. Each thing I have to, whatever the mind is suggesting, I have to evaluate based on merit. And also not to suppress the mind.
Because that’s the biggest mistake of forget it now. It never gets forgotten. It keeps coming back like a boiling water.
So if we recognise it, then only we can… It depends actually. Sorry to interrupt you. The mind is such a fickle thing, that it is not, it is sometimes the same weapon may not always work for the mind.
Some weapons may work, but sometimes we may have to use a different array of weapons. So it’s like some sort the mind says, you can just neglect them and they go away. Sometimes some ideas come up, just do it and it’s over.
It’s not a harmful thing. Like we use the example that if you scratch an itch, it will become worse. But it’s not always so.
See, I’m right now talking and I get a scratch over here. I scratch it, it’s over. Now what happens is, if there is already a rash over here, and then I scratch it, it will be worse.
So like that, sometimes the mind might just do some small trivial things. I don’t want to eat this food. I don’t want to do this.
I want to wear this dress or something like that. These are not like, these kind of, the mind might come up with some desires, which are not going to take a lot of effort to do them. And there is no trouble in doing it.
Just do it and go along. Sometimes the mind might say something, suggest it. Say no, it’s okay.
Like sometimes I get the urge to scratch, but maybe if I’m alone, I might just scratch it. But if I’m with people in front of me, it will not look good. I won’t do that.
And okay, it’s over. Sometimes some urges come, which you can satisfy and get over with. Sometimes some urges come, which we might just neglect and they go away.
Sometimes some urges, they come and they come. And then what you have to say is, we can’t keep neglecting them. We have to process them, talk with them, like you said.
After talking sometimes we may say, okay, let’s do it. So there is no one strategy that will work always for the mind. Yeah, we have to have like an array of weapons, array of strategies to see what works.
I think it’s a very safe position. Maybe we are using the word mind also in a different sense. Like I, the way the manna buddhi, hanka, that system comes up, the mind is the reservoir of, is the place where all impressions are stored.
And from that good impressions also come up. In fact, I think last time when I had come, I had spoken about this, that our impressions can be of two types. There are instincts and there are impulses.
So impulses are usually short-sighted. So let’s eat this. Let’s watch this.
So impulses are short-sighted, they are anti-intelligent. But instincts are like programmed intelligence. So basically, usually when we think of intelligence, we think of calmly deliberating and then deciding, let’s do this, let’s do that.
But for some people, they just say some people, they may be very good at say, home keeping, maybe interior decoration or whatever. They come to a particular place as soon as you move the sofa here, you move this picture here, you do this, it looks so good. And somebody might have stayed in that house for six months and they didn’t think about it.
So this person doesn’t have to think about it. It just comes to them. So now, where do these instincts come from? We could say that’s intelligence, but usually intelligence, we talk about in terms of analysis, deliberation, then decision.
But this is just, you just get it, just get it. And this is not exactly inspiration. Inspiration, we could use, and ultimately terms are just terms.
But inspiration is something which is, we just didn’t know and suddenly it came up. So inspiration is usually used in terms of something which is a, like a dramatically new insight or something like that. But instinct is, some people are just good at some things.
Like somebody is good at writing, just give them a passage, we write this word, use this word, shorten this, lengthen this, it’s so good. So there are different people who are like that. And some people just spend one hour looking at the sentence and looking at that phrase and nothing comes to them.
So we all have these instincts. Now, where are these instincts coming from? These are like programmed intelligence. And that is also in the mind.
So the mind, if we consider it as the reservoir of impressions, then the more positive impressions we store in the mind, then the more it will also give us positive proposals. So in that sense, the mind can be our friend. But the challenge, what you said, is a safe position.
Because it’s like a friend who suddenly turns into an enemy. And then the more it has been a friend, the more we will lower our guard. And then when it becomes an enemy, then the more damage it can do.
So in that sense, we can never lower our guard to the mind. So that’s why the default position to consider that it can be an enemy is a safe position. When we live with our friends, we are never on our guard.
If we are on guard, we can’t be open and joyous. Because if we are on guard, we are always tense about it. So I’m just always thinking that we talk about this thing, but actually we should be on guard.
So I think rather than saying that the mind can be our friend, what we can say is that the mind also gives us positive inputs. And because the friend gives us positive inputs, in that sense, the mind is a friend. But not a friend in the sense that we lower, we can’t be at home with the mind.
It’s giving friendlier options, but it’s not a friend. Yeah, I think it’s good to… Again, is it giving friendlier options because it has a bigger strategic mind? That’s possible, yeah. And that’s even more being more cynical about it.
That’s possible, yeah. It’s a good point. We lower our guard, and then it massacres us.
It’s possible, yeah. Just one more question. How can we influence… See, in case you want to start, if you want to continue the questions, we can also do that.
Or we can finish, and then we can talk one-to-one. Last question, yeah. Can we influence how mind can give us friendlier options? Can we influence our mind so that it gives friendlier options? Yeah, if the switch is off, it will make noise, so you… Okay, sure.
It’s causing quite a bit of noise, so just switch it off. So, can we influence the mind so that it gives us friendlier options? Yeah, it’s… Broadly, if we just expose it to more and more positive impressions, then that itself… The mind reflects the impressions that are put over there. So if we keep giving it more and more positive options, then the more positive impressions we give, it will give positive options.
Apart from that, when the mind gives us options, or from inside also, which option do we choose? The more we choose a particular option, the more that will come. It’s like, say, A, for my computer, if once I visit a sports site, then if Google is tracking me, the next time, more and more sports sites will come on top. If I visit one spiritual site, then more and more spiritual sites may come on top.
So, like that, if we choose a particular option, we increase the likelihood of that option coming, as well as related options coming. That’s why initially, our bhakti practise has to be conscientious, effortful. But if we consistently do conscientious bhakti practise, then gradually our bhakti practise will become spontaneous.
That’s when… That means spontaneous means, like, all naturally we gravitate toward Krishna. But initially, we have to push ourselves toward Krishna. Yeah, yeah.
No, no, it’s fine. You can continue. Because… So, at some stage, I don’t know when, but you did talk about flexing the muscles of the mind.
Okay. I can’t remember where you spoke about it, and I quite like the expression, so I kind of head on to it. So, do you apply that? Yeah, I mean, what was in your mind? Okay.
See, flexing the muscles of the mind, I myself don’t remember, but I can tell from broadly what it could mean. So, basically, our mind, just like our muscles, there is a certain capacity that we can lift. Or say, if we are lifting weights, a certain amount of weight we can lift.
But if we exercise it, it will increase. So, same way, for all of us, there is a certain capacity which is possible, certain things we can do. Say, if I give an example of fasting.
I can’t fast nirjan, but maybe I can fast with water. I can’t fast with water, but I can manage with one meal. So, okay, let’s fast with one meal.
So, if we exercise ourselves to the capacity that we can, gradually that capacity expands. So, if I decide that, when I sit down to study Shastra, if I sit down for one hour, I’m just yawning, I’m falling asleep. Then maybe I’ll decide, when I study for Shastra, I’ll just study for 15 minutes.
When I study for 15 minutes, if I do it for a week or two or three, then gradually what will happen? Capacity will increase. So, with respect to the mind, there’s one significant thing, that the impressions are formed not so much by the quantity of how much, quantity of what we do, but the regularity with which we do it. That means, if somebody reads even 10 minutes every day, that will form a deeper impression than reading 60 minutes a week.
Of course, in terms of intellectual comprehension, somebody might decide 60 minutes reading is better comprehension for me. That may be true. But in terms of the impression forming on the mind, just doing 10 minutes every day.
Even if I read 10 minutes, at least I’ll pick up the Bhagavad Gita and open a page. I’ll read one line. If I do that, that itself creates an impression.
And gradually, so within the constraints that our mind puts on us, if we push it to the full, as much as we can, gradually that capacity will increase. That’s how we can flex our mental muscles. And what’s the direct relationship of anarthas with the mind? What’s the direct relationship of anarthas with the mind? I think the anarthas are basically the negative impressions in the mind.
Broadly speaking, like I said, we can have instincts and impulses. So the impulses come from the anarthas. And so the negative propositions, whatever the mind presents, they come from the anarthas.
And also, depending on how deep is the anartha, that much wild or forceful the impressions come out. So everybody gets angry. But when people get angry, some people might just yell at each other.
Some people might pick up things and start throwing at each other. Some people might start physically beating someone. Some people might take a stick and try to beat someone.
Somebody might take a knife also. Somebody might take a machine gun. So you can have all extremes.
So based on how deep the anartha is, like I talked about the flexing of the mental muscles. Similarly, what is just unacceptable for us, that is also by our culture, by our conscience, by our intelligence, certain things are decided. So the mind’s impressions, how strong they will come, that will depend on how deeply they are impressed.
How strong the impressions are, that much forceful or that much wild the propositions will come. So we are washing off these anarthas, because if we push them deep, there is no nirviti. It is just waiting to come out.
The process of anartha nirviti, and we were talking about the bhajanpriya and talisandra before that. So is the spiritual way the only way of having anartha nirviti or do we need to complement with something else? Yeah, that’s a big question. So is the spiritual way the only way to learn anartha nirviti or can we complement it with something else? Definitely, there are people who are non-devotees.
They’ve also given up bad habits. Somebody, there are people, alcoholics, there might be people who are, they give up, many people have given up bad habits. So basically, the mind is like a programmable device.
Programmable device. It has a particular programme and we need to reprogram it. So now, it depends on what programme we put on it.
What is the new programme we try to put on it? Sometimes some people believe that if they are drinking, they give up drinking and they take up smoking. Or they’re smoking and they give up smoking, they take up drinking. So now, they might feel, maybe in their situation, their health condition or whatever, smoking is more dangerous and drinking is not that dangerous.
So they did reprogram but maybe that was not, it’s not really getting them out of bad habits. It’s just replacing one bad habit with another bad habit. Similarly, somebody might replace one bad habit with a good habit also.
So some people succeed, some people don’t. Now, why is that? It also depends on the strength of the impressions. It also depends on regularity.
It also depends on what is it that prompts them to go in that direction. So for example, if somebody is basically a social drinker, then if they change their social circle, that’s all that they need to do to give up the bad habit. Just hang out with more sober people, the drinking will go.
Because they were not so much interested in drinking, they were more interested in that sense of belonging and acceptance. If they got it elsewhere, then their drinking just disappeared. Somebody might be drinking so that they get relief.
There is a break from life’s worries, a little bit of break and relief. Now, even if they change their social circle, they might not give up their drinking because their need was different. Maybe then they start playing, maybe start hearing some music and that gives them some relief, that gives them some break.
And then they give that up. So in terms of specific extreme expressions of anarthas, by certain practises, which may not necessarily be devotional, people can give up those habits. But in terms of a complete anarthani vritti, that is difficult to do.
That is difficult to do because in the condition stage, often the anarthas are what are seen as sources of pleasure. So to give them up completely is, what am I doing with my life then? That’s quite difficult. So now that is with respect to, can people change it? Now in our practise, should we complement say our practise of bhakti with something else? It depends on what we are doing.
Say many devotees in the chanting, if the mind is just wandering too much, maybe just stop and take a few deep breaths. Then what happens, the deep breathing itself calms the mind down. The slowness of the breath slows it down.
And then we can chant. So that might help. But if somebody says, okay, actually chanting, actually deep breathing calms my mind, chanting doesn’t calm my mind only.
So why do I do chanting? I’ll just do deep breathing for two hours. Well, no, because there are two things. There is pacification of the mind and there is purification of the mind.
So deep breathing will basically just pacify the mind. It is not really removing the anarthas. It is just distancing us from them at that particular time.
So it is just that at that particular point, that anarthas are no longer trouble. So it’s more like a painkiller. It’s not a curative medicine.
So if somebody is in a balanced programme, they might use painkiller and curative medicine also. But if the temptation would be the painkiller offers immediate relief, and somebody says, why do I need the curative medicine at all? In general, painkillers are not that expensive. Curative medicines are much more expensive.
Antibiotics or whatever. So similarly, when we do something to just, which will bring us temporarily to satva guna, that might seem easier. Like there are people who do laughter therapy.
Now we might laugh at it, but those who do it, they get some relief by it. It’s not that they are just being foolish. But the thing is that if they start thinking, this is all I need to do, then that is a problem.
So it’s a painkiller. And now with respect to these, it’s best to do what one needs to do. Don’t campaign for it.
Don’t campaign against it. Because each person’s pain might be different. So a painkiller that works for me may not work for you.
And that one may not work for you, may not even need it. But I need it. So but if I start campaigning for it, then I’m just burdening people with something which they don’t need.
But if you campaign against it, then you are depriving me of something I need. So it’s best that if there are certain practises which calm my mind down, then we can adopt them. It’s not that it’s only when we start seeing them as alternatives to bhakti.
That is when it becomes a problem. Staying on this, sorry. Yeah.
So just trying to remind my audience, but in terms of replacing it by spiritual practises, by alchemy, how does these actually get off? Is it replacing? Is it putting them deep? Or is it making them insignificant? Or is it forgetting them? What actually happens when you replace good with bad? And how does the bad actually go away? It’s a… So how do the impressions go away when we practise bhakti or negative impressions of anathas? There are two, three different things over here. At the first level, it is just that it’s like graffiti is written on the wall. Then there are some ways you could actually bring a eraser and try to erase all the graffiti.
Sometimes you might just decide that it’s overpainted. Sometimes you might decide that, no, we will have to wash it all away. Whatever.
Basically, you can either overwrite it or you can wash it, remove it. There are two broad ways. So now with respect to our mind, there is no eraser, practically speaking.
Now, initially, it’s overwriting. Just bring in so much positive impressions that it just feels so fresh, so new, so attractive. We get attracted to it.
But over a period of time, you could say that within the soul also, there is a potential for bhakti. Now, Prabhupada used the word dormant. Now, it is basically like, the dormancy is more like potentiality in the sense that there is a certain ground that is fertile.
So now the fertile ground itself will not give any yield unless some seed is put in it. Now, every metaphor has some limitation. So dormancy indicates that everything is there, all that you need is to just wake up.
Whereas fertility indicates potentiality is there, but something else also has to come in. So now, if we consider, Prabhupada did use the word dormancy. But then Prabhupada also would often quote, ब्रह्मान्द ब्रह्मिते कोन भाग्यवान जीव। गुरु कृष्ण प्रसादे पाए भक्ति लता बीज। So something else has to come from outside.
So basically, in this case, we could say there is both, there is the potentiality from outside and there is also the activating principle, which is injected. It is not just one time, okay, you just wake up and then everything is back. No, the potentiality has to gradually develop.
So you could say the potentiality or the fertility is there. So in this case, it’s like you have a graffiti on the wall, you put some paint, it’s like you put the bijou inside. But what happens if we develop the metaphor, it’s like from within the wall also, something comes up which cleanses.
It is not just over painting. So like the fertility, that there is the potentiality within. So I have to put something from outside, but it is not just putting something from the outside.
That putting something from outside, activates something from the inside. So it’s almost like a two pronged attack. So the impressions are removed by cleansing, by you could say by over impressing from outside.
But this also, there is overpowering from inside because something from inside comes out. It’s a switch from inside also. Yeah, it needs to be activated.
Yes, otherwise there is no difference between say some sattva guni impressions, sattva guni outer perceptions, and bhakti outer perceptions. So what is the difference between say somebody who just develops a good reading habit, not necessarily bhakti habit. And by developing a good reading habit, they give up some bad habits.
Maybe they are just over addicted to watching TV and they develop a reading habit and they give up the TV habit. But then what is the difference? The difference is that whether it is TV or whether it is reading, both are external only. There is nothing intrinsic in either watching TV or reading books.
But with respect to Krishna, it’s coming from outside, but it’s also activating something from inside. So it works out both ways. Well, of course, how does the switch inside get activated? It’s a mystery.
I’m not saying mystery in the sense that you can’t understand it. But let’s look at a few examples in Shastra. Brutrasur is fighting against Indra.
And it’s amazing. He is so angry. He says, Indra, you are the killer of your brother.
You are the killer of a Brahmana. You are the killer of your guru. And you deserve to die.
I will kill you and I will offer, I will satisfy my brother with your blood. He is going on in an angry expression. And suddenly at one particular moment, if however, you kill me in this battle today, then I will offer this body to Narayan and I will attain transcendence.
And then immediately after that, he starts off and all his prayers are pure devotional. So till that point, till one point, it’s like the prayers are all like the statements, not that they’re not prayers at all. They’re like a warrior’s exhortations for fighting.
One moment it changes and it’s something different entirely. So what’s happening over there? It’s that he comes there in completely. So there is no indication in the Brutrasur pastime that Brutrasur in his normal conduct till then is remember that he was Chitraketu in his previous life.
See what happens even if we have some spiritual impressions. Say somebody has a, as a, somebody has a, somebody, they’re very great, the couple is a very great devotee and they have a child. And the child also is a very spiritually evolved soul.
But no matter how evolved the child may be as a soul, when the child comes from the womb, the child is not going to say Hare Krishna. The child will cry. So to a particular point, we function according to the body.
To a particular point. But at certain situations, certain junctures, the body’s pushes are transcended by the soul’s previous spirituality getting activated. So now when, that is basically the switch, you could say turning on.
When it will happen? Here in the case of Brutrasur, he just comes to fight with Indra. And when his soldiers go away, he starts chastising them. What cowards are you? Come and fight.
But then he sees the weapon of Vishnu. The weapon has been blessed by Vishnu that, what is that? Dadhichi, the Vishnu Astra. He sees that and this, I can’t be against this.
And seeing that Vishnu Astra stimulates his spiritual memory. So that switch opens over there. Now in the case of Gajendra, so in the case of Gajendra, it is when he recognises his powerlessness.
That’s when the switch opens for him. So that switch can open for us a different situation. Now for, we could say at one level, because we are all practising bhakti, so the switch has opened for us.
But it’s not like, you could say it’s at one level, it’s like a digital switch. It’s also like an analogue switch. So sometimes that switch is fully open and that is just slightly open.
So for us, it’s not completely off now, but it’s dim. So it has become on, but after on, it’s dim or it’s full, it varies. So thank you very much.
Shri Prabhupada ki Jai Gaur Bhakta Vrinda ki Jai Gaur Premanande