Understanding the mind through tech metaphors

Talk to University of North Florida students at Jacksonville, USA

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna So I am happy to be here Thank you for coming today And the program I did last year Dharmesh Kumarji That was my first college program in America So I have fond memories of that That way also one more reason I am happy to be here To see that program in a college Now metamorphosing into a youth center Where you have a much more conducive atmosphere For understanding and applying spiritual principles So it requires a lot of dedication To open up one’s house Not just having a program But also having many other young people coming and staying there So you are fortunate that they are there near your college Where they are giving you some opportunities For understanding and experiencing spiritual wisdom And I will try to assist them today And speak to some things So they asked me to speak on this topic of Your enemy is inside you And so is your friend So I will start with The mind is something which is Very illusive and mysterious John Milton said that the mind is a universe And can make a heaven of hell Or a hell of heaven So a person may be in a perfectly comfortable situation But if their mind is disturbed Then they will be comfortably miserable They will be comfortably miserable So the mind can make a hell out of heaven And fortunately the number of people Who are afflicted by mental problems Is ever increasing Now mental problem just doesn’t refer to something like Depression or other such problems It actually boils down into physical problems also The psychosomatic problems which come up Originate from the mind and then manifest in the body So the mind can literally make our life Into a distressing experience So what is this mind? And how do we understand it? How do we deal with it? How does it function? So if you look at the materialistic world view There is this materialist philosopher A.J. Iyer So he said that I won’t study the mind Because the mind has no locus No locus means Where is the mind? If you look at the physical structure of the body The brain is here But where is the mind? Because the mind is not a physical object So within the materialistic world view The mind has no room practically And yet the mind’s reality Is undeniable for all of us We all don’t just experience the mind We experience everything through the mind We experience everything through the mind That means that say If we are going to have a delicious feast But just before the delicious feast Somebody insults us Then We can’t experience the taste of the food All that we are experiencing is the taste of anger inside our mind The taste of anger The taste of revenge fantasies So whatever we experience Actually we experience through the mind And the mind can distort our experience of this world So that even if I am tasting delicious food I am not tasting that food It is because I am angry That means the mind is real It is something which does exist And does shape our experiences So what is the mind? There are different sources of knowledge in the world And Today science is considered To be a prominent source of knowledge And science works primarily By looking for material explanations For material phenomena It means Newton saw a fruit falling When he saw a fruit falling Thousands of people before him Had seen fruits falling Most of them just picked up the fruit and ate it Newton asked why did this fruit fall And then he asked the question and for the answer He came up with the theory of gravity Gravity is a material principle So science basically looks for material explanations For material phenomena But then what if something is just not traceable By science Because it is not gross material So we need to be open To alternative sources of knowledge Albert Einstein said that we can have We can talk about the ethical foundation of science Whether science has been used for ethical purposes or not But we can’t talk about The scientific foundation of ethics Because ethics is something much more fundamental So there are different branches of knowledge And he said that the arts, the religions and the sciences Are all fruits of the same tree Of the human quest for knowledge So just as the human quest for knowledge Has led to the development of sciences Similarly it has manifested as the arts Similarly it has manifested as the religions So to understand the mind we will draw from The wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita Which is an ancient yoga text And it gives us a three level model of the self Three level That means that just like we may have Three levels in a building So like that our self, we exist at three levels right now There is the body, there is the mind and there is the soul So now to understand This three level model We can compare it to another Three level system that We regularly interact with and that is a computer In a computer There is the hardware, there is the software And there is the user The hardware is what is visible, it is gross, it is physical The software is invisible But it is not inconsequential It is not seen but it has enormous consequences In fact if the software gets corrupted Then the hardware will be fully functional And yet the computer will be fully dysfunctional And we will not be able to turn it on So the software, although we can’t see it But it affects very seriously What we see So the mind is like the software The body is like the hardware And this whole system works with the user So I as a user I turn on the machine and then I use it For various purposes So that user of the Body-mind machine Is the Bhagavad Gita states the soul So the soul is The activator Of the body-mind machine Just as we may Activate and use our computers Now within this model We can correlate that as I said earlier People can be comfortably miserable If their mind is not functioning properly Similarly we can see the same point If the software is not working We will not be able to function with the computer So in that sense the mind and the software can be correlated Now moving forward There is a difference between the soul and the mind The soul is the root of consciousness Root origin Whereas the mind is the root That is the passage way, the channel for consciousness So in western intellectual circles Often the mind and the soul Are equated Often there is the discussion of Mind-matter duality That means there is matter and beyond matter there is the mind And then does the mind exist or not, what is the mind These questions have been discussed There is this understanding of these two levels of existence The word mind itself has many meanings So we may say Einstein was one of the greatest minds of the last century Here when we are using the word mind Here we are referring to it as an intelligent person A thoughtful person So the word mind is used in various senses in different contexts Put your mind into it That means focus on it The Bhagavad Gita uses the word mind In a specific sense And that sense refers to the Channel through which consciousness Connects with the body Channel through which the consciousness connects with the body So I will explain this further in the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9 It is stated that Shrotram chakshu sparshanam chanasam Ghrana devacham adishthah Himanishchayam vishayanupasevate So Shrotra chakshu rasa ghrana All these are the senses The eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the skin Through all these we get Information about the outer world They are the sensory pathways From which we acquire information If we compare these five senses to the five fingers of the palm Then The palm is like the mind The five senses are centered around the mind So the five fingers are centered around the palm So the Inputs from the various senses come to the mind And after coming to the mind they are received over there As I said earlier the mind is subtle So that’s why no one metaphor Is enough to convey The reality of the mind Any metaphor that we use to convey spiritual truths The metaphor acts like a rubber band Is it called rubber band in America also Or there is some other word Rubber band okay So when I have a rubber band So if I have this cell phone I put a rubber band around it Now the rubber band gives me a grip on the cell phone But the rubber band is not the cell phone If I have to just hold it I can hold it but if I have a rubber band I can get an easier grip on it So just as a rubber band can give us a grip on an object Or it can hold an object Similarly any metaphor that we use That gives us a hold on a concept But if I stretch a rubber band too much Then the rubber band breaks So like that any metaphor if we stretch too much it breaks So every metaphor is for a particular purpose And the purpose is to point our direction Towards the highest spiritual truth So now I will use another metaphor within the same system of technology To illustrate how the mind works Say some of us may have at our doors Say some security cameras Which come to the home And especially if it’s a big office Then there are multiple entrance points And there will be security center So at the security center the displays Show what all is happening at the various entrances So those are say a house has 5 entrances Or a complex has 5 entrances And all the inputs are coming at a central monitor In the security center So now the person who is there The security in charge They can observe what is happening at various places So the inputs from all those Doors whatever is seen over there That comes to the camera to the monitor So similarly the inputs from the various senses Comes to the mind And the soul is the observer So the mind gives the patterns For display and the soul observes And the soul responds after that So now taking this example further Say if there are on a screen There are these 5 windows on the big monitor Sometimes you have a split screen That you can have 2 things on the same monitor So say if you have 5 small screens So you can split the screen into 5 parts And then all the 5 inputs are coming The 5 gates you can see Now if I click on one of them they expand And when they expand at that time I can see what is happening at that door In expanded view But when I see what is happening on that door in expanded view I cannot see what else is happening elsewhere So our mind works similarly So right now we are getting information From all the 5 senses So from the eyes you are seeing me From the ears you are hearing me Now if at this moment say Say after this program They have made some very delicious dessert And the fragrance of that starts coming Laughter Then It’s a very attractive fragrance Say we are not able to figure out what it is We are thinking about it So what has happened That fragrance is coming through the nose And as it comes in that window pops up And that window becomes big and then the class may be going on But you know the mind is elsewhere Laughter So Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita 2.68 That Indriyanami charatam Janmano anumidhiyate Tadasya hrati pravya vayurnavam vambhasi He says the senses are wandering Indriyanami charatam We are all pleasure seeking constantly So all our senses are like pleasure seeking radars So they are looking where can I find pleasure And wherever it appears pleasure is there Janmano anumidhiyate The mind focuses on that And when the mind focuses on that Tadasya hrati pravya The intelligence gets caught over there And the example is vayurnavam vambhasi Vayurnavam just as if there is a boat A small boat on a water body and a sudden wind comes Like a few days ago we had a hurricane So if somebody is there in a boat And a hurricane comes along the boat gets swept away So like that We all can get swept away Say suppose Somebody is dieting And then they are studying Studying for exam or studying for some work or whatever And then say a friend Or a neighbor or someone Gets some very delicious item And then I may have resolved no I am not going to eat But then I am looking at the book And I am sensing this crunchy item they are chewing And I am thinking oh I should take this So all the thoughts go there Yes, no, yes, no And the thoughts go on like that So the mind Can either focus on the study Or I can hear them chewing So the mind can focus over there And if the mind focuses over there So the mind works on a principle Whatever catches our attention catches us Whatever catches our attention Catches us So once our attention gets caught by something After that the desire for that starts growing And the desire as it grows and grows It pulls us It pulls us towards that object and it pulls us so forcefully That we may not even realize what has happened And then we may end up saying what did I do I was planning to be on a diet and then I have eaten In one evening or I should have eaten in three days And I have taken that much calories So I just get a Holding my head, what happened, why did I do that So what happens here is Two things, first I explain that Any one window pops up then other windows go off So like that when the mind focuses on one thing Other things get forgotten And other things get forgotten, our resolutions get forgotten Our plans get forgotten and we get caught We get caught in that particular activity So the Bhagavad Gita also says That the mind often acts as our enemy When the mind Can be our friend if it is controlled It will be our enemy if it is uncontrolled So now Our mind The way the mind functions Is something similar to A software program Say if we use Google For searching something Now if I type IND and in the past I have searched for India Repeatedly and as soon as I type IND Google will auto complete India But now I might be searching For Indonesia But because I have typed India repeatedly So it does a auto complete, IND And sometimes I may want to type Indonesia but it comes India And if I am not careful Then I might go to a wrong search Despite my not intending to go there So how does this happen? This happens by the track record Of our past searches So just like any intelligent software Will track the Track the behaviour Or track the functions of the user And customise itself To make those functions easier The mind too does something similar So whatever We do repeatedly The mind makes it Very easy for us to do that Now this It is easy to do but it may not be beneficial So for example Obesity is a huge concern In today’s world So according to one survey People in the world Actually spend 60 times more money On avoiding obesity Than what is required for feeding the whole world So Now this is Now it is not that anybody Deliberately wants to overeat Yes we all need food and we want to Have a good experience while eating food So that itself is not a problem But somehow While eating there is some urge which comes within us And it makes us eat more than What is desirable So researchers found that they asked people How many food related decisions do you do every day Should I eat this or not Should I eat this much or this much So they found that on an average People said around 12-15 decisions But then actually they went over the day Conscientiously They found on an average they made 215 decisions 215 That means There are so many opportunities Or allurements for eating all around us So actually this whole Earlier talked about Whatever catches our attention catches us So to a large extent the advertising industry Functions on this principle Now all the advertisements whether they be commercials or billboards or whatever They are all designed to catch our attention And once they catch our attention Then our desire for that becomes very strong And we are almost pulled towards that And this advertising actually It misleads us in many ways Sometimes making us purchase things that we don’t want But with respect to food It pulls us into this And that’s why it’s a double torment Why double torment? Because on one side the advertisement shows Eat this food, this food, this food, this food And so many foods are advertised And usually we will see that Nobody advertises fruits and vegetables Healthy foods are not advertised Usually the foods that are advertised are fast foods, fatty foods And so there is one kind of advertisement Eat this, eat this, eat this, you will enjoy And then there is a whole Advertising industry is filled with Or the media itself not just the advertising industry It’s filled with depicting People who have Super slim figures So there is one advertisement that says eat this, eat this There is another advertisement that says look like this, look like this Now both are incompatible If we eat all the things that are advertised We cannot look like what is attractive And if we want to look like that we can’t eat like this So we are torn by these two desires In two different directions So when the mind starts working As I said whatever catches our attention catches us So now how is it that People are making almost around 215 decisions But they might be making less than 15 decisions Because most of these decisions Were subconscious decisions Subconscious decisions means That these decisions happen Without our consciously deciding to make those decisions Or consciously deciding to do something A simple example of this Say I want to read the daily news So I go to google news And then I just glance over the headlines And then while I am doing that When I went to look at the news I went consciously with the intention of looking at the news But say based on the kind of news I have clicked earlier Or whatever certain headlines pop up On the side maybe That can be customized So then say another window pops up Now if I am not very careful I will just click that window Once I click that pop up window I go to some other article And there there will be 10 more article links And sometimes we start Surfing on the net and then In 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours we go This happens more than news often it happens in videos People start watching videos 1 video, 2 videos, 3 videos Then afterwards why did I waste so much time So surfing on the net ends up becoming Suffering on the net So here what has happened The first site which we went to was consciously chosen But afterwards things just came as pop up Came as pop up If in YouTube we are looking at a playlist Then after 1 video gets over sometimes there is a setting That the next video will automatically start It is not that I have to click to start Actually I have to click to stop it from starting So like that The mind when it works Based on the way we have functioned in the past Certain programs are set And if we keep doing the same things again and again Those programs become like Default programs And when something becomes a default program It opens automatically So rather than we clicking to open it Often we have to click to stop it from opening So like that say If I have Formed an equation in my mind That say happiness means Say hamburger If that is the equation that I have formed Then say I am doing some work At that time I feel some hunger Now in front of me I might have some salad or some healthy snack And I might have some fast food Now if I am conscious That I want to regulate my food Then I would choose the healthy food But if I am not consciously aware I just pick up something and start eating So when the decision is unconscious At that time the decision is made Based on whatever is our default program So if in the past I have repeatedly Taken some fast foods Then as soon as I feel hungry Automatically I will go towards the fast food And this is how the mind Misdirects us So the mind misdirects us by making us Act according to certain default programs Even when we may not want to act accordingly So if we are not alert The mind misleads us And when that happens that is when we end up Doing things which We do it and we wonder why did I do it So there are some people who become Say compulsive drinkers, they become alcoholics And quite often these people They know what I am doing is harmful for myself I make a fool of myself when I become drunk And what I talk, the way I behave Or I get splitting hangover after that Or I am getting liver diseases So there are some medicines Not exactly medicines Actually these are drugs If somebody takes that And after that they take alcohol Then they become sick So the idea is Sometimes people self-prescribe this, this is not a healthy practice But they self-prescribe that drug to themselves So that I think afterwards I will not take alcohol Because I know if I have taken that drug Then I take alcohol Then I drink, then it is going to cause me health issues But still The force of the habit is so much That even knowing That I am going to be miserable Because I have taken this medicine, still they end up taking it They end up drinking And then it is miserable So it is not that here lack of knowledge is the problem So almost everyone knows That any habit, if you indulge in it too much It becomes a problem But the Knowledge May be there But once a program is formed in the mind It becomes a default program Then it pushes us forcefully In that direction And once we are pushed in that direction Resisting it requires conscious effort So in the first time It requires conscious effort to do something But once that becomes a default pattern Then it requires conscious effort To avoid doing it And the whole process Of managing the mind Is foundational For managing our life If we want to be Productive, if we want to be successful We all have certain talents And we would like to do justice to those talents We would like to make a constructive contribution in our life And if we are to do that We need to manage our mind In sports they say that achievement Is a function of talent and temperament Talent is required in any field to succeed But talent alone is not enough There has to be temperament When talent plus temperament it leads to achievement So now to some extent We cannot change the level of talents That we have dramatically We can all improve our talents by practice But a person who is Say Who is musically deaf That person cannot become a Mozart They can develop some musical sense So the amount of talent that we have We can hone them by practice But we cannot change them dramatically But what we can change is the temperament Even a person with lavish talents If they don’t have a good temperament They will choke under pressure And when they choke under pressure They will just not be able to achieve anything substantial And we see this happening in sports quite often The talented players under pressure Just choke and they lose On the other hand a person even with moderate talents If they can develop a solid temperament They can translate that talent into achievement Substantial achievement Our temperament is largely A function of the kind of programs That we have in our mind The kind of programs that we have cultivated in the past They determine our temperament So if we can learn to Examine the programs that we have And then change those programs Then we can Improve our temperament And thereby enhance our achievements So our spirituality Spirituality is a means Spirituality is the means By which we can change the programs of our mind And spirituality Enhances our ability To tap our ability Now I have certain abilities But if I don’t have the right temperament I cannot tap my abilities Now a student may have very good memory But if they are very distracted Then even with their good memory they will not be able to function well So we have certain abilities but we need the ability To tap our ability And that ability to tap our ability Can be enhanced by our spirituality So I talked about the mind I talked about the body I did not talk so much about the soul So spirituality is largely about the soul So we talked about the programs in the mind And now how do we change these programs For that the first step is to understand That I am different from those programs I am different from my mind See usually We define inside and outside From a particular reference point Say with respect to this house Somebody comes in through the door And I will say they have come inside But I could define that inside and outside Not from the door of the house I could also define it from the door of the premises So somebody may have come from outside Into the premises, they have not entered the house So now are they inside or are they outside It depends on what is my reference point So for the house The main security is at the outside gate And if a thief has come inside and there is not much security here Then although they have not come inside the house Still they have for all practical purposes penetrated And there is danger So like that the example I am giving here is We often think of inside and outside From the reference point of the body So this mic is outside And there is some thought inside me Like I am thinking I don’t know if people are understanding What I am saying or not So that thought I think is inside me But that thought although it is inside me It is not necessarily me Just because somebody is inside the house That does not mean they are a resident of the house Anybody else can also be there So everything inside me is not me Everything inside me is not me And that means that there are programs in our mind Which are different From our core identity and our purpose So the understanding the difference between the mind And the soul is important To understand how Within us there can be things which are different from us Inside me there can be things which are different from me So the topic was Our enemy is inside us and our friend is too So the enemy that is inside us is the mind Or more specifically the unhealthy programs That are there in the mind Under influence of those programs when the mind functions Then the mind acts as an enemy So if the intruder has come inside They have not come inside the house But they have come inside the premises There is danger Similarly there are desires inside us There are cravings inside us There are longings inside us Which are not necessarily our own longings They are inimical to us They are harmful to us And to the extent we can recognize this To that extent we can Function in a way that is Helpful for us not harmful for us So the soul exists At a higher level than the mind And the soul Can control the mind It’s like I the user I can actually direct the functioning of the computer In the computer there might be some default settings It’s like if there is a auto update Then even if I don’t click it will start updating But then I can go inside and If I don’t want to update a particular software constantly I can go and find the settings and turn off the auto update When I turn off the auto update then it will not update anymore So like that we When we understand that I am different from my mind Then we can evaluate the settings of the mind And after evaluating those settings We can correct those settings That means At that time we can work for Choosing those things which are Helpful for us not harmful for us So for this We need two Distinct aspects One is we need to Realize ourselves to be different from the mind Intellectually I might understand this But I need to experience it And then I also need to be able to discern What is what inside me That brings us to two aspects Let’s talk about the Friend, there is meditation And there is education Education in terms of spiritual education So meditation is what Gives us experience of spiritual reality So for example we are doing Now If I look at this from a purely materialistic Material perspective There is some nice sounding music And this nice sounding music when I hear it I feel good about it But if we keep hearing this music There are different kinds of music And we may all find various kinds of music Pleasant But spiritual music has the capacity To raise our consciousness to the spiritual level And The peace, the joy The calmness That comes through Just taking in spiritual sound That is not comparable To what we experience from any other music So meditation can be musical meditation Meditation can be Individual meditation in japa By this meditation we start getting glimpses Of our spiritual nature We start experiencing There is some higher reality Some higher peace, some higher joy And once we experience this Then after that We can Realize that ok The mind has so many programs This will give you enjoyment You have to avoid this, this is trouble Mind has all these programs But when we experience spiritual sound Through meditation we get a happiness We get a peace, we get a joy That transcends the mind’s Conceptions of pleasure The mind has, you eat, you go and watch this movie You go and go for this, you enjoy Yes all those may give you some enjoyment But here we get a qualitatively Different kind of enjoyment And that Gives us some understanding That there is some reality Beyond what the mind has got Do this, do that, do that There is something higher beyond it all And when we get that experience through meditation Then we can evaluate Ok The mind has an equation Enjoyment means eating Or enjoyment means Playing Pokemon Go Or Whatever it may be The mind has definitions, this is enjoyment Yes there may be some enjoyment in all these things But when we experience A much higher enjoyment Then we can evaluate these equations Are they really true? Is it worth my time? Is it every activity that we do It often brings some complications It consumes some time, it has some consequences Is it really worth it? When we experience something higher Then we can evaluate whether other things are really worth the time We are investing in it Now It’s not that we have to turn away from everything else But we can at least get the option by which we evaluate So meditation That way it gives us experience of a newer reality Beyond what the mind promises us And thus we can distance ourselves from the mind And The education that The Bhagavad Gita offers us Is of a qualitatively different nature From the education that we may get Through the newspapers, through the colleges Through the various books that we study What is the difference? The Bhagavad Gita’s knowledge Of spiritual wisdom That offers us an inner torchlight Inner torchlight It’s like if there is a dark If the whole room is dark And then I hear someone moving I don’t know Whether it is my friend or my relative Just come to give me a surprise Or whether it is a thief who has come to rob me When it’s dark I don’t know who is who But then I have a torch Oh welcome! You see it’s a friend So when there is a light we can see who is who So presently our inner territory Is shrouded with darkness That means we get many desires We get many longings, we get many thoughts Now which of them are good and which of them are not so good We are often unable to evaluate The desire itself comes, yes I want to do it And then after doing why did I do that So initially we are not able to evaluate And that is because Our inner territory is shrouded with darkness When we study the Bhagavad Gita’s wisdom Then it helps us To identify Which desires are in what category Which are short term, which are long term Which are helpful, which are harmful And with that inner torch light Then we can make healthy choices The Bhagavad Gita is not a book of commandments Do this, do this, do this The Bhagavad Gita is more a book of choices and consequences Make this choice, this will be the consequence Make this choice, this will be the consequence In 18.58 in the Bhagavata Krishna says that If you become conscious of me You will pass over all obstacles by my grace If however you don’t act out of consciousness of me If you act out of ego, you will be lost So Krishna is simply giving choices And then he ends the Bhagavad Gita in 18.63 By saying As you desire so you do But before that he says Deliberate and then decide what you want to do The Bhagavad Gita Offers us a vision Of a God who respects Human intelligence and human independence God acknowledges we are all independent You decide what you want But he appeals to our intelligence Deliberate on what I am saying So in that sense the Bhagavad Gita’s approach is not at all dogmatic It is exploratory Explore this, find out This is a choice and this is what will happen So now with this inner torch light That we get from studying Yoga wisdom that is given in the Bhagavad Gita By that we can make healthy choices And If we look at life If we look at our life As a review We will see our life is often defined More than by anything else It is defined by choices I made a particular choice in this particular time Choice of a particular career, choice of a particular relationship Choice of a particular place of stay, choice of a particular house And our choices Have enormous consequences Choices determine the trajectory of our life And if we could get some wisdom Which could enable us to make healthy choices Then that would be enormously empowering And the mind often makes us Choose unwisely Choose imprudently And to the extent we can turn Away from the mind’s default choices Turn away from the mind’s default choices And we can make Deserving choices, intelligent choices It is not that our choosing goes away It is still we who choose But we choose intelligently instead of choosing Impulsively I want to surf the net, I want to read something important But I will choose based on what is important for me Not simply whatever pops up on the screen So that way we direct our choices And when we direct our choices Then our life can move in directions Which will be worthwhile And for this purpose I just talked about the Bhagavad Gita I talked about meditation and education And in both these The Bhagavad Gita talks about the element of bhakti Yoga The Bhagavad Gita talks about yoga but it also recommends a particular form of yoga And that is bhakti yoga So bhakti itself means devotion Or spiritual love And the Bhagavad Gita describes That there is the mind inside us And that is our inner enemy Presently it acts as our inner enemy But inside us there is our friend That is God himself In 5.29 the Bhagavad Gita It is said that That God Krishna He is our greatest well-wisher And we understand that he is our friend That he is our benefactor It is said We can attain peace So how does that work out What does it mean when we know God We know peace Actually suppose Say we are going on a dark road at night And then we see somewhere there A person who looks like a thug A robber, a thief Hugely built And still feeling insecure What’s happening I have to run away or what do I do And then when we see that person And just behind that person We see an even bigger built policeman What happens, we see this person, we see that person If we see the police person over there We feel some security So similarly Inside us there is a mind Which is often acting in a mental universe And the mind is not physically large But it is very forceful Very forceful Once you start desiring When some desire catches us It is almost impossible to resist it So it is very forceful But greater than the force of the mind Is the power of God’s grace So Sometimes We see in a movie A person is driving a car Or driving a big vehicle The car is racing forward And maybe they want to knock down somebody And then maybe a big well built hero Suddenly comes in between And holds the car back In real life it is very difficult to do that But actually the car is moving forward And this person just holds the car back The longer it has been going The faster it has been going The more difficult it is to stop it So our mind has been going in a particular direction For a long time And that’s why it has acquired a momentum And stopping it is very difficult We can use our intelligence, we can use our introspection We can recognize that this is an undesirable direction But still stopping it will be difficult But If we can focus Say the car is going in a particular direction Very fast And if a very firm wall comes over there Then the car cannot move forward, the car will stop So like that when the mind has acquired a momentum Towards going in a particular direction To stop it is very difficult But if we can invoke Krishna’s presence in our consciousness Then Krishna becomes like That unmovable wall And the mind’s momentum Can be checked by that So when we may feel a particular craving Becoming intolerably strong Or we may start feeling very stiff Maybe a panic attack starts coming Whichever way the mind can go in the way of desires It can go in the direction of worries Whichever way it goes, at that time to intellectually Stop it is not so easy Certainly we have to use our intelligence But the intelligence alone is not enough If at that time we can invoke the presence of Krishna In our heart, then that has a Tremendous calming effect And that presence can be invoked By chanting his names By the mantras, we sing the Hare Krishna Mahamantra So the mantra when we chant It is not just the utterance of a sound It is not just the singing of some nice music Yes it is, but it is much more It is a call to invoke God in our heart And when he manifests in our heart Then the forceful momentum Of the mind can be checked And it can be countered And that’s why the Bhagavad Gita concludes The sixth chapter in the Gita in the chapter on yoga It talks elaborately about the process of yoga And how one can grow by that path And it concludes in 6.47 by declaring That the best yogis are those Who focus Their minds on On the indwelling supreme, on the friend within Yoginam kisarvesham Madhgatena antaratmana sharindhavan bhajate yoma Same yukta mama taham The best yogis are those who fix their mind on him And actually if we can learn this art of invoking God’s presence in our heart We will be internally Protected and guided Protected from unhealthy choices And guided to evaluate which is this choice Is this a healthy choice or unhealthy choice And thus our ability to tap our ability Will be enormously enhanced The Bhagavad Gita concludes with an imagery Of victory The imagery is that the Bhagavad Gita says Arjuna who was a warrior who had become Dejected at the start of the battle By the end of the battle after hearing the Bhagavad Gita He became enthused again ready to fight And the Bhagavad Gita predicts his victory And similarly in our inner battles Sometimes we may get dejected I need so many resolutions and I am not able to stick to any of them And so again fall back to the same things But if we understand the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita Then we can actually attain victory In our inner battle The Bhagavad Gita concludes with So wherever there is Krishna and wherever there is Arjuna There is victory So Krishna is God and Arjuna we all Are represented by Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita We all have an inner war to fight And when we join forces with Krishna By fighting this inner war Then there is Vijaya, there is victory So I will summarize and you can have some questions I started by talking about how The mind can make Hell out of heaven, the mind can make us Comfortably miserable So what is this mind which is Which has such an effect on us As in the mind is Mind shapes all our experiences And I can’t experience tasty food If my mind is burning with anger So the mind within the materialistic world view There is no such thing as the mind because there is simply the brain and there is the body But the mind is real.
So what is it? We discussed about how there are different sources of knowledge And we can draw from various sources. Einstein said that And sciences, religions, arts all of them are They are fruits of the same Tree of human quest for knowledge So especially for understanding the subtler realities We can turn towards the yoga texts So the Bhagavad Gita uses a three level model of the self The body is like the hardware, the mind is like the software And the soul is like the user So when the software is corrupted The hardware cannot function. When the mind is disturbed Then it cannot function Then I talked about a metaphor being like a rubber band So every metaphor serves a particular purpose In conveying a spiritual truth that is otherwise Not easily concealed So it conveys a particular point about that truth So the second metaphor I use to explain the mind is It is like a display center So just like in a In a building there may be different Doors from which People may come in and at the control center or the security center There is a monitor where inputs from all of those Come in at one place And the observer of that Central monitor that is the soul And when we click on one window All those five windows are there It pops up and other windows go out So like that when we focus on one sense We are hearing something But then we get some fragrance Focus on that fragrance and we stop hearing afterwards So like that one sense carries away our attention When we talk about the advertising industry How it focuses on the principle of whatever catches our attention Catches us And we discussed especially this with respect to obesity They pull in two directions Eat this and look like this, they are incompatible And because we have so many Default programs that are set inside Just like a computer if I use it in a particular way repeatedly That particular choice becomes automatically selected That becomes a default setting So like that we have our equations Enjoyment means eating so and so food And so people think that they are doing about 15 decisions in a day about food But they are actually doing 215 decisions 200 decisions are subconscious And unconscious decisions are often unhealthy decisions Just like a person if they are thinking They are aware they will eat a healthy food But if they are not aware then just pick up something and eat a fatty food Something like that So we need to be aware of what we are doing And we need to change the programs of our mind And that connection Discussed about how everything inside me is not me So to understand that inside me There is a force that is hostile And I have to protect myself from it It’s not that anybody who is inside the house is automatically a friend An intruder, a thief might also be there Just because some thoughts are inside me It does not mean that they are my thoughts Just because some desires are inside me Doesn’t mean that they are my desires They can alienate positions within us They come from outside So to protect ourselves from this inner enemy We talked about meditation and education Meditation means We experience a higher spiritual reality Which is beyond the options the mind offers And when we experience this peace This joy through mantra meditation We feel there is something in life better than what the mind is offering And we become a little distant from the mind And education here refers to The education of the Bhagavad Gita which offers an inner torch light By which you can understand Which desires are helpful, which desires are harmful So in this way we can identify our inner enemy And protect ourselves from it More important than this is This is all effort on our part But far more empowering is If we connect with our inner friend It’s like if a car is moving very fast And if a wall suddenly comes in between The car has to stop, it can’t move any further So our mind has acquired a momentum by which it moves in certain directions To stop it is not easy But if we can invoke God’s presence in our heart Then it becomes much easier to check the mind’s momentum And correct it if it is going in the wrong direction The Bhagavad Gita is not a book of commandments It is a book of choices and consequences So its approach is not dogmatic but invitational And if we explore its wisdom We will find ourselves becoming empowered Talking about how talent plus temperament leads to achievement And we can improve our talents in some limited way But we can improve our temperament enormously And learning the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita Can improve our temperament, that means it can improve Our ability to tap our ability And thus we can fulfill our potentials in life So are there any questions or comments? So what about Sita Prajna? Sita Prajna is basically a person whose intelligence Is fixed, that means Prajna is intelligence Sita is fixed So presently Our intelligence itself is fickle Sometimes we feel this is good, sometimes we feel that is good And not only we feel After feeling we rationalize Rationalize means once I start thinking this is right I justify that So once there was an anti-alcoholic campaigner He came and he said that I will demonstrate to people how drinking is dangerous So he had He had brought a glass A transparent bottle in which he had some Some alcohol and he had brought a small box In which there was an insect, a fly So he opened that box and put that fly inside that bottle And the fly fluttered So in a few words it sank down He said what do you learn from this? All of them started looking down One of them was very cheerful I said what do you learn from this? He said when we drink alcohol all the germs in our stomach will die So what has happened here? The intelligence is being used to rationalize the desire So when this happens then rather than the intelligence Helping us make wise choices The intelligence is used to justify the unwise choices So when we say At present that is what happens with our intelligence sometimes So when we study the Bhagavad Gita’s wisdom then our intelligence becomes strong And even if the mind pulls in that direction The intelligence will not be able to We can stay fixed in the right choice How about like this meat eating thing People say there is a protein in meat Usually it is meat How do you correlate intelligence with this? How do you correlate? They think we are intelligent We just eat protein We want protein People say we should eat meat because that gives us proteins Yes See meat is a source of proteins But that is only a part of the truth Second part is that meat is not the only source of proteins And third is often meat Is often a source of Proteins of the kind that we may not need What I mean by this is That there are proteins And there is If you go into medical diet There is a protein conversion factor Now how much of the protein that I take in can my body assimilate So the human body If we look at the alimentary canal And the overall digestive tract It resembles herbivores far more than carnivores Now the alimentary canal is much longer Almost 10-15 times the body length Whereas the carnivores body canal is around 3-5 So I won’t go into that whole thing But the point is We can get proteins through meat But because our body is designed more For eating vegetarian food So even if we get in the proteins we cannot assimilate as much And lot of the proteins They just get either passed out Or they get incorporated as fat rather than getting assimilated as energy So milk and there are other food items Which can also give Proteins in a far healthier way So it is not that meat is necessary for getting proteins It is one source of proteins And it is not necessarily the healthiest source of proteins So when See whatever we want to do We will often come up with Reasons to do it And somebody wants to eat meat they will come up with reasons And there is validity to that point But it is not the only reality There are many other factors involved So we can get proteins in healthier ways from other sources And of course those who don’t eat meat They have to take care that they get proteins from other sources But if you look at the natural diet of people who are vegetarian Quite often milk is an important part of their diet And there are other items by which Vegetarian food also gets the proteins See historically if we see Meat may have been a part of people’s diet But it was always a small part of the diet Say in the past if we look at the history From the mainstream perspective In the past people didn’t have slaughterhouses So if they had to eat meat they would have to themselves go and Kill animals or cultivate animals So at that time meat was never Never a part of everything Which is how it is now So in the past people would not get The kind of proteins that they are getting now from meat Meat was one part of the diet But it was never a major part of the diet Because to hunt animals or if you are cultivating animals To have enough animals to eat everyday It’s not easy, you have to cultivate a huge amount of things If somebody is cultivating animals So it would be a small part of the diet And in the past people had alternative sources from which they got proteins I was just going to say that broccoli Has more protein per gram than steak And I thought that was interesting to know Broccoli is very healthy Good point, thank you Any other questions? So you were mentioning about The analogy you gave with the car and the wall And it’s easy to put that wall When we are doing care time When we are chanting our japa Because we are in direct contact But sometimes when I am at work, the mind is flickering I know that I should be more focused at my work But my mind is flickering At that time how do I put that wall How do I connect with that wall When I am doing things that are not directly spiritual So how do we put a wall on the mind When we are in situations where we cannot directly chant When we are working in a professional setting The more we connect with Krishna Due to the direct devotional practices The more Krishna becomes At least a background presence in our consciousness So I talked about the default programs So when we start practicing chanting regularly Then Krishna becomes more and more More of a latent presence in the background Even if we are not aware That’s the first thing And that’s why even if I am not able to chant In the way I do kirtans But if we are habituated to invoking Krishna’s presence Then even through our prayers When in our mind we try to remember We will be able to invoke his presence Not as forcefully as we would say By verbal chanting but still we will be able to do So broadly speaking The more we connect with Krishna Then we have the opportunity directly to do The more Krishna will reveal himself Even when we don’t have the direct opportunity So rather than worrying too much About those situations We can worry about a situation when we have direct opportunity So if we show Krishna that we want to be Spiritually minded Then he will give us the facility That’s the first point So we try to be as attentive In our direct devotional practices as possible And second thing is Within our professional setting also We can find out What are the ways or what are the situations What are the activities that are relatively common And those which are relatively agitated Say Even if we are in a particular profession Where we have to go to particular kind of activities But within that also there is variety Say somebody is a professor Within that also they can go into research They can go into teaching, they can go into administration The Vedic idea is that there are People of different human types And the more we are engaged according to our human type The more we can be peaceful So if somebody is intellectual and they get intellectual engagement Then they can be peaceful, they can be joyful in that If somebody is of managerial orientation And then they are given intellectual work It will be like a constant burden for them They can do it but it will be a constant burden for them Same way if an intellectual is to do constant managerial work That will be a burden for them So as we live with ourselves We start understanding what our nature is And within our profession itself When we start feeling a little irritated or agitated or disturbed Within that itself we can shift focus and do some things Even if we can’t do something which is directly devotional Within that if I am feeling disturbed I can read something or I can plan something I can do something So something within the sphere of our professional activities Which we can relatively more easily Absorb ourselves Then that absorption It is not necessarily spiritual But it is material which is more comfortable for us More natural for us It’s not that everything material is undesirable Even within the material There are things which are beneficial And there are things which are not so beneficial So if we find that those things Within our profession also we can absorb ourselves relatively easily They can also act as a As a safety measure for us And overall If we are vigilant We can learn These are the situations in which I do become stressed Or I do become agitated Say if I am going on a road I have not seen it here in America But in India often the roads have potholes So now if there is a pothole And if I am going along the road If I know there is a pothole Then before only I will move my car in a way that I can avoid the pothole So like that if we observe ourselves We can find which are the situations in which We get too much pressure, we get too much tempted We get too much agitated And we can plan in advance for that So that way by direct Focusing on direct devotional activities whenever we have the opportunity By finding out within our profession things which Are relatively more absorbing for ourselves And by planning in advance how we can deal with Tempting situations or troubling situations Preparing for them in advance We can check the momentum of the mind Thank you What’s the healthy way to digest that reality That sometimes the mind makes these choices What’s the healthy way of understanding that Yeah See so how can we understand or respond In a healthy way when we end up making wrong choices The first thing is that There are Phases in our consciousness Say if I consider my consciousness to be like a graph Then within that graph sometimes Desires spike up Normally even say if somebody is an addict Of something, somebody is an alcohol addict or somebody is a drug addict It’s not that 24 hours They are having the craving with the same Intensity constantly There are times when the desires spike up And at that time it seems intolerable So Similarly with us also We have certain times when the desires become very strong And sometimes they become so strong That it may be almost impossible to tolerate To resist them and we may succumb at that time But The mind is so tricky that First it makes us a criminal And then it becomes a judge who punishes the criminal That means First it makes us do this Drink this, watch this, do this, enjoy this And then after it makes us do this And the mind becomes, you fool Why did you do it So many times you have seen that it leads to misery Don’t you have any intelligence So it just starts beating us from within So now This way we get basically caught in the web of the mind First we do its bidding And then we endure its beating And Neither of them is actually strengthening us Neither of them is elevating us So It may happen that during the spikes we fall But the spikes are not there constantly So what we do in between the spikes Will determine Whether we change for the better or change for the worse If during the period between the spikes I am simply lamenting Why did I do that And I am not doing anything to strengthen myself I am not doing anything to purify myself The next time when the spike comes, again I will fall And sometimes I will fall more because already I have weakened myself So instead Once the spike has come and gone Even if I did something bad Now let me make a healthy choice Let me try to connect with Krishna Let me try to purify myself as much as I can Through constructive, devotional activities And when I do that, it will strengthen me And next time the spike comes, I am better equipped to resist it Even if I may not be able to resist it next time also It may take some time But if in between the spikes I am strengthening myself Then eventually I will be able to resist the spikes So we have to We should not get too obsessed Or too depressed If we have some relapses In doing things Which we had planned not to do Of course when the relapses occur We can also check When the spikes happen, at that time we can do things Which can help us Which can help us Avoid acting on the impulse Acting on the spike Say if somebody has The tendency to binge eat Or eat a lot Then one thing that is told is Don’t keep food next to you If you want to keep food, keep only healthy food Don’t keep any fatty food Then when the desire has become very strong, the spike has come If at that time I have food readily accessible, then I will eat a lot But if I don’t have any food readily accessible Then by that time I have to go and procure the food By that time the spike has come The spike is overwhelming me, but after sometime the intelligence also comes back Why am I doing this? I shouldn’t do this So in one sense, if we can create some obstacles between us And that indulgence Then that obstacle can also protect us When the spike comes Of course, if the spike becomes very strong And if I am overwhelmed, I can knock down the obstacle And I can go and purchase and eat also But that obstacle also helps us In giving ourselves some more time To reorient ourselves So quite often it is very helpful To create some obstacle between ourselves And whatever is our weakness That obstacle is not a permanent protection It is not a sure shot protection But it is at least a delay And that delay itself is quite often enough For us to regain our bearings And then we can protect ourselves And from our devotional perspective We should know that Krishna’s love for us is unconditional Krishna is not a God who is waiting to catch us, do wrong and punish us Krishna is a coach.
He is not a critic He wants to help us rise So Krishna is present inside us as our friend He is present inside us Not to catch us when we do wrong He is present to catch us when we fall To catch us when we fall and to help us rise once again So we should never, no matter whatever happens No matter whatever undesirable thing we do We should never become disenthused in our service to Krishna We should not think that because I have done something now Now I cannot practice bhakti, now Krishna is rejecting me There is nothing that we can ever do That can make Krishna stop loving us We don’t have that power to do anything Because of which Krishna will say I am fed up with you, I am leaving your heart and going away There is nothing that we can do which can make Krishna do that Therefore Krishna’s love for us is always there And by knowing that, no matter whatever happens We never become discouraged in our practice of bhakti So firstly by recognizing that the spikes are temporary And not getting discouraged by what happens in the spikes But focusing on strengthening ourselves between the spikes Secondly by creating obstacles so that we don’t indulge during the spike Or at least we delay indulging in the spike And never becoming disheartened in connecting with Krishna By that gradually we can overcome those relapses One of those graphs you were describing about spikes One of the graphs up and down, up and down, up and down You said you may be up and down, up and down But you may not see what I see That if you simply stay practicing Krishna consciousness The graph may go up and down But if you look at the weekly and monthly graph It’s going up It’s continually going up Even though on a daily basis it may go up and down But if you look over a long time If you simply stay in the practice of Krishna consciousness The graph will show an upward trend Yes, you made a good point Not only it shows upward Also the amplitude itself decreases And it goes down also, it doesn’t go so down That also indicates that we are becoming stable I had another thought That you were describing to me It sounds like this very complex multifaceted thing But the thought comes to mind That the problems of the mind’s function is two Sankalpa and Nikulpa But then we have the intelligence To help us, you know Sankalpa means accepting And Nikulpa means rejecting So, in the default setting as you described it We accept those things favorable for sense gratification And reject those things unfavorable for sense gratification But it’s a very simple solution To accept those things favorable for our Krishna consciousness And reject those things unfavorable This has to come from Krishna though You’re saying sometimes it’s hard to make that discernment What to accept and what to reject Especially at certain times of the spike Like Amitamma used to say Krishna gives It’s Amitamma who gives Yeah Actually ultimately it’s Krishna’s mercy That we are able to make right choices So the mind’s function is to accept and reject But the problem is When it is misprogrammed It doesn’t know what to accept and what to reject And not only that It takes control of the intelligence also Then the intelligence also becomes misled And as I said earlier We use the intelligence to rationalize the mind’s choices Prabhupada says in one lecture that Now we are meant to use our intelligence To control the enjoying mentality But our problem is that We are habituated to enjoy intelligently Enjoy intelligently Enjoy and then I try to use my intelligence to figure out How do I say I serve some websites And I don’t want anyone to come to know I serve the websites Then I go and delete the history So I’m using my intelligence So then the intelligence right now is controlled by the mind And that’s why we need to connect with Krishna very strongly And that connection happens at multiple levels The inner guidance from Krishna is That comes at the same time Krishna’s guidance comes from scripture also When we associate with devotees and study scripture That guidance is what will stabilize our intelligence And the more we act according to that guidance The more we enjoy this Then Krishna sees that This person wants to come close to me Then I will guide that person Because before that There is So we need to serve him with some affection Or at least some favorable attitude Then that intelligence comes So our intelligence alone is not enough But when we use our intelligence to study Krishna’s message So there are As you said the mind is very simple But The In the present age Our mind Simple is not simple for us It’s like a simple living you may say But if you actually go to a village and try to live simply For those of us who are used to the comforts and the gadgets of modern times It’s not easy It’s quite difficult So like that Just if I say some kalpana kalpana That’s the mind Except Vijay That’s all the mind is We just do We can’t connect with it But then we give some contemporary examples You know default program The pop-up windows And all that Then we can connect with it So Srila Prabhupada would also do that all the time That he would give contemporary examples You know in the seventh canto When Prahlad is offering his prayers So he says that The The tongue is attracted in one direction The ears are attracted in another direction The nose is attracted in another direction So Prabhupada writes over there that The ears are attracted to radio songs Now he is writing that in the translation Now somebody will say At Prahlad Maharaj’s time there were no radio songs So what is Prabhupada doing? Prabhupada is making that concept accessible You know Prabhupada if he had written the parpot today He might have said The ears are attracted to jukeboxes Or to whatever So we have to make the concepts As contemporarily intelligible as possible And then Then the concepts Hit into us They register within us And then we can We feel more inspired to apply them Underlying my principles So thank you Should we stop now? Any other questions? Prabhupada said You cannot Maya cannot touch you Until you reach out And accept her Yeah One last question For Anyone Who has any questions? You said something? So thank you Can I also include something? Yeah 500 So I have a website TheSpiritualScientist.com There you can ask questions Or even if you have some questions There are You can always search in the answers You may find them also over there So thank you very much For your attention and participation