Understanding the mind – Unpacking the Puranjana allegory

[Talk at London, UK]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. So today, I’ll speak about the mind based on a story from the fourth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam. How many of you have heard the story of Puranjana? Anyone? Okay, thank you.
The Srimad Bhagavatam has different kinds of stories. Stories in the sense that there are some stories which are about things happening on the earth. There are some things, stories which are happening at another level of reality.
And there are some stories which are non-literal. Hare Krishna. Thank you.
Hare Krishna. So some stories are non-literal, they are metaphorical. That means those stories don’t literally happen, but they are used to illustrate some things.
So this story falls in that category. Now of course, from every story, we can derive some non-literal meaning also. Okay, this symbol means this, this means that.
But here, it’s primarily symbolic. So we will look at the story in two parts. We’ll look at the story itself and we’ll look at the symbolism from the story.
And we’ll see how that can teach us something practical about how our mind works and how we can make it work for us instead of against us. The story starts with a king, Puranjana, who is traveling around hunting and he comes to a magnificent palace. And there’s a beautiful princess in that palace and there are many servants over there.
And he’s surprised, it’s such a beautiful palace. He says, where did this come from? He says, where did you come from? Who are all these people? What are you all doing here? So when this question is asked, naturally, whenever we see anything orderly, generally our attention is attracted either by something which is very orderly or something which is very disorderly. If we come to a house and we see everything is spick and span, neat and tidy.
Who is maintaining this house? Very well done. And if we see how everything is disorderly, that also catches attention. Generally for us, the world offers so many stimuli that we can’t possibly take in all of them.
So we take in those stimuli which are out of the ordinary, primarily in terms of something that matters to us. So there may be things which are out of ordinary also. But say, if that out of ordinary especially matters to us.
Say if we come to a library and we want to search for a book. And everything in the library is very well ordered. I say, very good, now I can search for the book easily.
If in that same library, maybe chairs might be disorderly. But if you are not planning to sit on that chair, we may not notice it that much. So basically when we look at the world, we look at the world not in terms of what all exists but what all matters to us.
So basically our vision of the world is always purposeful. What do I want? What will get in my way? And what will get me along my way? Say for example, if you come here for this program. Now if you have some special gardening or botanical interest, then you might want to notice which specific plants are over here.
How long each needs to take care of? What kind of flowers and fruits do they give? But if you don’t have botanical interest, then your primary interest will be, is there a good place for me to sit? Isn’t it? And if you want to sit here, is it a comfortable place? Is it too warm? Is it too cold? I need a chair, is there a chair? So now in this area itself, we can study a lot of things if we want to. But our knowledge is limited by our purpose. Or you could say it’s not limited, it’s focused both ways.
So basically, because the world is so complex, so we look at what we want. And then what will get us along the way? Say if you come here to hear this class, then you would like a comfortable position. What will get you along the way? Now if you know, say somebody, when they are hearing the class, they often get distracted.
They look at, they return answer message on the phone, they pick up the phone and answer calls. Then you may want to sit away from them. So what gets us, what comes in our way? So here, when this king, the king’s name is Puranjana.
So Pura means city, Anjana means enjoy. So he is a person who wants to enjoy a city. So the name itself indicates what his purpose is.
And that’s why when he asks them, where did you come from? Where did the city come from? What are you doing here? So his questions are two parts. One is, what is the origin and all that. The second is, what all are you doing here? So she, the princess, who later becomes his queen, she answers, Actually, I don’t know where I came from.
I don’t know who is my origin. I don’t even know where this palace came from. But I just know that it exists.
And I can see that you, you have a desire to enjoy. So we also are here. And let us both of us enjoy.
We all here are to enjoy. Let us start enjoying. And as soon as he answers this, we are all here to enjoy.
Puranjan stops asking questions about origin. Where did you come from? What are you here for? And then he asks a little bit more. He says that we have this big snake over here.
And this snake is my protector. And under this snake, we are all safe. So here, what is happening? The question is asked.
And he says, we are all here for your enjoyment. So similarly for us, basically in this metaphor, in this story, symbolically speaking, the city represents the body. The princess, the queen, she represents the mind.
Basically the subtle body. The mind, intelligence, all of it combined together. And Puranjan is the soul.
So he is questioning her. Where did you come from? Where did all this come from? It is like the soul asking the material mind or the material intelligence. Here we will use all of it as composite, one thing.
The soul asking, I use the word mind to refer to the whole subtle body. We will talk about subtleties later. But the soul asks the mind, where did this world come from? Where did everything come from? So I wrote a book on reincarnation.
We have a few copies here. While I was studying the book, I found that Science magazine, on its 125th anniversary, it published a special edition about 125 questions that science does not have answers to. So the second question was, where did consciousness come from? Normally the second question was, immediately the question comes in our mind, what was the first question, isn’t it? The second unanswered question in science is, where did consciousness come from? And the first unanswered question is, where did the universe come from? So, now science itself focuses on studying, how do things work inside this universe? When Newton saw the fruit falling, and he said, how did this fruit fall? He came up with the idea of gravity.
But he is not asking the question, where did this fruit originally come from? Where did this tree come from? Where did gravity come from? So those, when we look at science, when we study with scientific world view, we focus on certain questions. And those questions are primarily operational questions, functional questions. If you see questions about origins, they are largely beyond science.
Although there is, sometimes science tries to answer those questions. But there is a scientist who wrote, how everything came from nothing. He said, I explained that.
But if you look at his book, ultimately what is he doing? He is actually redefining nothing, so that it is something. And then from that something, how everything has come, he is explaining. He is nothing, he is, what he says is nothing, it requires 11 pages of complex quantum physics to describe.
So that certainly is not nothing. Isn’t it? So he says, this is nothing italicized. It is italics nothing.
So basically what happens, the point I am making over here is, that just as this princess, this princess does not answer Puranjan’s questions. Similarly, the material mind, the material intelligence does not have any satisfactory answers for life’s fundamental questions. Where did I come from? What is the purpose of life? But, when she says, actually I can see you have a desire to enjoy, let’s start enjoying.
And when he, she offers that proposition, he forgets everything else. So let’s start enjoying. It’s like say, at a simpler level we could say, we come to some unknown place, maybe we are going trekking and we see a big palace over, big house somewhere, and then while we are trekking we are tired and we come to the house and we see a nice big TV over there.
Now we may ask, where did this TV come from? But then if you press a button over there and the TV starts playing on, sports is going on, we just get caught in watching that, not worrying where this has come from. So similarly, what happens is, Puranjan forgets. He doesn’t ask any questions, where did everything come from? Where did all this come from? And then, after that, it’s very interesting.
As they start living together, it is described that when this princess, Puranjan got up, when she started walking, he started walking. When she sat down, he sat down. Whatever she did, he did.
Now at one level we could say, this is simply that, he has become so attached to her. But at a deeper level, what it means is, that the soul completely identifies with the mind. And the soul doesn’t think or do anything else.
That means, the mind proposes, let’s eat, let me sleep, I want to sleep, let me do this, let’s do that. So now there are times, sometimes when we talk with people and say that, maybe chanting mantras or practicing bhakti can control your mind. I don’t need to control my mind, my mind is already in control.
Yes, your mind is in control of you. The mind is in control of your mind. The mind is in control of you.
See basically, tension occurs, we may, if somebody is in a horse and they are going wherever the horse is going, then there will be no tension over there. There is no tension because they are not trying to resist it. It is only when the horse wants to go in a particular way and they don’t want to go in that way, then they try to fight, then they may realize how strong the horse is.
So for most of us, now we may say, ok, I have controlled my mind, but actually it is not that we have controlled the mind, the mind has controlled us. Sometimes people say that, they make a resolution, ok, you know, maybe I am not going to do this, this, this, something which they decide, sometimes they decide maybe for this next one week, I am going to go on a digital detox, no more social media. And the next day, they are again surfing social media.
This is what happened. I changed my mind. Well, did you change your mind or did your mind change you? So what has happened over here is, just as he got very attached to her and he didn’t do anything apart from her, apart from what she was doing, similarly, we get caught in the spell of the mind.
Now we may say, no, actually I am not caught in the spell of the mind. I do what I want to do. But basically, the mind, freedom is most effectively taken away by giving the illusion of freedom.
What do I mean by that? Suppose there is a naive car seller, maybe inexperienced, so they make the whole pitch and they say, so ma’am, would you like this car? And somebody is a very experienced car seller. He will say, what will he say? This car is for you. Yeah, something better.
We are talking about the illusion of freedom. So, would you like your car with the red seat or the green seat or the blue seat? What is he doing over here? I didn’t say I want the car. He is presuming you want the car.
So, what is he doing is, there is apparently an illusion of freedom, but the freedom is within a particular domain. You have to buy the car. Which car do you want to buy? So, similarly, when our mind controls us, it does not take away all our freedom.
It gives us the illusion of freedom, but the illusion of freedom is in a particular domain. That means, ok, do you want to eat this or this or this? Ok, but do I really need to eat right now? No. So, the mind gives us pseudo-freedom.
And so, we don’t really think we are controlled. And this pseudo-freedom is given through the modes. The three modes of material nature, sattva, rajas, tamas.
They often create various desires within us. I want to eat this. I want to watch this.
I want to go here. I want to do that. I want to sleep.
Now, when we have all these desires, we may choose one among those. We think we are choosing, pseudo-freedom, and then it is controlling us. So, based on this metaphor, if we consider, what is the mind? So, here what is happening? Now, it is interesting before I explain what is the mind.
There is also one twist in this story that while Puranjan is living with his wife and exactly doing whatever she is doing. At one point, he suddenly leaves her and goes to the forest for hunting. He goes for quite some time and when he comes back, she is wild with him.
She is furious. And then, he has to go to great trouble to pacify her. So, what this means is that sometimes if we reject the mind and do something else, we may think I am the boss but after that, the mind just goes wild.
Sometimes you may have noticed that if you try to not do something, if you try to control the senses, control the mind, sometimes the mind starts becoming stronger than before and it opposes, it rebels. How dare you defy me? And that way, the mind completely dominates us. So, when we try to break free from the mind, after that, it comes and dominates us much stronger.
And in the same way, the king has to go to greater trouble to pacify her and satisfy her because he has gone away from her temporarily. So, here, if you want to understand this in terms of a metaphor, we could say that it is like a computer. The software is what helps us interface with the hardware.
So, it is interesting in this metaphor what is said, although he is the king, he does not command any of the servants over there. This queen, she has primarily ten servants and all of them have many wives. So, what do these ten servants represent? Ten senses.
And their many wives, what does it represent? Yeah, many desires. In the desires, the objects come. The desires are associated with the sense objects.
So, what is happening? In this case, even the soul wants to enjoy something, the soul cannot enjoy anything directly. It is always through the mind. It is through the mind.
Everything that we experience is through the mind. Now, when this is going on, at this point, he is living like this but something else is happening. There is one more person who is called the avijnatsakha.
Avijnatsakha means the unknown friend. So, with Puranjan, there is this unknown friend, avijnatsakha, but this friend tries to catch the attention of the king but the king pays no attention to him. The king keeps neglecting him and then finally, there is, whenever there is a kingdom, what happens? There are people who want to plunder the kingdom.
There are attackers. Normally, if somebody wants to attack, they usually want to attack a place which is very poor and which is having no wealth unless of course, they have enmity against those living over there. Then they attack to destroy them.
But normally, if somebody attacks, they want to plunder the place that is wealthy. So, this is the kingdom and then there is an attacker and it is chanda vega. Chanda vega refers to the speed with which time comes and attacks.
In the Bhagavatam, an example is given that time moves all of us just as the wind moves the clouds. This is a very interesting example when the wind moves the clouds because what happens that time is invisible. Similarly, time is invisible.
But when the wind starts moving the clouds, the clouds have no power to fight against the wind. The wind comes and the cloud may appear very big but when the wind comes, the clouds are moved. So, the mover is invisible.
Now, to some extent, you could say the movement is also imperceptible. That is, if I am constantly looking at a cloud, I don’t really see the cloud moving unless it is moving very fast. But if I look now and if I look after 5 minutes, oh! that cloud has come here.
So, like that, time is moving all of us. Time is moving all of us but we don’t notice the movement of the time. It is imperceptible.
See, we are all conscious of time in terms of minutes and hours and we use that as a working reference. But often we are not so conscious of time in terms of months and years. Time is passing and I am growing older.
So, now when Chanda Devi attacks, initially, the snake fights with him and the king doesn’t even notice. See, normally, there is always aggression going on. Now, even now, there might be some people who might be wanting to rob or steal or launch terror attacks.
But there are security agencies which are protecting. And as long as the attackers don’t penetrate too far inside, the general people don’t even come to know that there is a danger. But if the terrorists or somebody penetrates in, then the government has to give alert.
Oh! Terrorists are over here. Stay in your home. Do this.
Don’t do this. So, like that, when Chanda Devi is attacking initially, nobody, the king, Puranji, doesn’t even notice it. Because the king, he thinks the snake is fighting.
Yeah. It’s not clear? Is it better now? Sorry. Better? Okay.
Thank you for telling me. I didn’t realize it. Okay.
It’s just moving away from me. Okay. Is this better? Yes.
That’s okay. Better? Thank you. So, now, as this Chanda Devi attacks, then what happens? Slowly, the attackers start gaining the upper hand.
So, when we are young and we are healthy, we don’t even notice that I am growing old. Prabhupada, in a Hindi lecture, says that nobody wants to grow old, but nature makes everyone old. Nobody wants to grow old, but mother nature silently, helplessly makes everyone old.
So, then, gradually, as Chanda Devi starts attacking more and more and this serpent is not able to defend, then the king starts noticing, hey, what’s happening to my fortress? This is falling, this is falling, this is not working, what is going on? So, we normally take our body quite for granted. For example, we eat food and then we get energy. And, normally, just take it for granted.
I eat the food and get the energy. But in between, there is a complex process of digestion. And, the only thing, only time we think about our digestion is when it doesn’t work.
We normally take it for granted. But, when it doesn’t work, what’s going on? So, like that, actually, sometimes we get irritated, we feel resentful, when things don’t work in our life. But so many things can go wrong at any time.
Actually, when things work, it is amazing. Not that when things don’t work, it’s frustrating. It requires a complex level of organization at an individual for things to work properly.
So, anyway, when these things start collapsing, Puranjan starts becoming helpless. Now, Puranjan, although he is supposed to be a king, and earlier it is said he has gone for hunting, but, against this Chandavik, he is a king, but he has no weapons. He doesn’t know how the attack is coming and how to fight it.
So, like that, as time creeps upon us, time starts making us older, we have to fight. If the enemy is with weapons and we don’t have any weapons, how do we fight? We become helpless. Somebody is with a gun and we don’t have anything.
What can you do at that time? So, he is helpless, and then the serpent fights, fights, fights, fights, and finally the serpent is defeated. When the serpent is defeated, the invader, Chandavik, pounces on this king So, this Puranjan is in the city trying to enjoy, but suddenly he is dragged out. So, like that, for all of us, we as souls live in the body, but suddenly, time comes and drags us out.
Sometimes it comes suddenly, sometimes it may come slowly, gradually, but it comes. So, here, basically, there is also a further story of what happens to Puranjan in the next life. We’ll see if we get time to go to that part.
But let’s focus on here right now, on our point of the mind and how, as I said, how it works and how we can make it work for us. So, basically, the mind offers us propositions. It’s like this queen she had these servants and they had many wives.
So, now, when the king wanted to enjoy, they were all there, whatever he wanted they were providing. But, when we have, say, a big menu, so, we may either get caught in seeing what all is there in the menu, so that we can choose, or we might notice what is not in the menu. I’m not talking about menu in terms of what is served on the like a buffet system, but in a hotel menu in the card, what all is not there.
But, in this case, what happens? We don’t even think what is not in the menu. That means, the material nature offers us so many allurements and especially as science and technology are advancing, what is happening? We have so many options for material enjoyment that we don’t think of any enjoyment beyond the material. And thus, we stay in illusion.
And in this, the Bhagavatam describes that the mind, when it describes how things originate in the third canto, the fundamental principles of material nature, it says that the mind comes from the mode of goodness. And it says that the intelligence comes from the mode of passion, which can seem a little strange. Normally, we associate intelligence with goodness.
But the point here is, it is not talking about intelligence alone. It is talking about material intelligence. And this differentiation, we see in the Bhagavad Gita also that Krishna uses the word intelligence in two senses.
In 3.40 and 41, in the Bhagavad Gita, that whole section is talking about kama. Kama is self-destructive desire, which means that actually, kama has occupied your intelligence also. Indriyani mano buddhir asyadishtanam uchyate etai vimohayatyesha jnanamavratyadhenam This is the intelligence also occupied by kama, by self-destructive desire.
And then, after saying this in 3.40, then 3.43, Krishna says that evambuddhe parambuddha atmanam atmana yahi shatrum mahabaho kamarupam durasadam With your intelligence, understand your transcendence and situate yourself in your transcendence, situate yourself spiritually and therefore, you overcome self-destructive desire, overcome kama. Now this is interesting. First Krishna says that your intelligence is overcome by kama.
You overcome kama. So, what is going on over here? Yes, there is material intelligence and there is spiritual intelligence. Now, what do we mean by, are there like, in the intelligence department there are two departments, you know, intelligence there is, there is material, there is spiritual.
No, see, intelligence basically means that the whole intelligence or the subtle body is subtle. That is like a tautology. But the point is that subtle body is different from the physical body.
With respect to physical elements, we can differentiate them based on their location. We can specify, this is the earth, inside this glass there is water, there is air over here, maybe there is fire somewhere. So, we can localize them, specify them.
But if we consider, say, the mind, intelligence and ego in terms of a computer metaphor. I said earlier the software. In a software, you might have the operating system, you might have the pre-installed programs or apps that come, say, in your phone and then there are user-installed apps.
Now, each of them, you could say, function differently. The OS functions in a particular way, there are pre-installed apps which are fundamental and there are user-installed apps which function in particular ways. Their structure or their constitution, all of them are just codes.
If you look at the, at what is present in the digital data, it is just 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1 combinations, just codes. So, the difference between, say, the operating system and a software and an application is not in structure, there is no structural difference, there is no constitutional difference, there is application difference. The way the OS functions is different from the way the operating system functions, different from the way some apps function.
Similarly, between the mind, intelligence and ego, there is no structural difference. Like the earth and water, they are structurally different. But, between the mind, intelligence and ego, the primary difference is in terms of functionality.
So, what is the reason we are analyzing? I do not want to go too much into technicality and if this part seems a little technical, you can just overlook it. We are moving to a practical point over here. That, why is it said that the mind comes from goodness and the intelligence from passion? So, this differentiation between material and spiritual intelligence indicates more functionally, what is that intelligence being used for? Say, for example, now, between, in India, Kashmir is like a disputed territory.
And, so, the Indian government has decided to completely integrate Kashmir into India. And now, it is not that all of Kashmir is hostile to all of India. It is, say, Kashmir is divided into Ladakh as one area and then Jammu and Kashmir as another area.
So, the idea is that Ladakh is not that much hostile to India. So, we can manage it in a different way and Jammu and Kashmir can manage in a different way. So, we may need more force over there.
We can have less, more harmony over here, like that. So, we could say, similarly, within our intelligence, there is a part that is, that is spiritually inclined. That may be very, very small.
And within our intelligence, there is a part which is very materialistically inclined. And that part may be large. So, when Krishna is saying, first your intelligence is overcome, overcome by calm, by self-destructive desire.
And then he says, use your intelligence to overcome that desire. What he means is, that don’t treat the intelligence only as one monolithic unit. That, especially if we hear from Guru Sadhu Shastra, our intelligence becomes spiritualized.
And then we can use the spiritual intelligence to subdue the material intelligence. So, now, if we consider, by default, most people’s intelligence is material intelligence. That’s what we said earlier, when Puranjan asked questions to this, to this queen, she had no answers.
So, the material intelligence has no answers to life’s fundamental questions. So, for, so for functional purposes, we can say the intelligence is mostly material. So, then what does the material intelligence do? The material intelligence actually comes up with newer and newer ideals for enjoyment.
And, if you see the mind, mind’s function is, yeah, accepting, rejecting. What are Sanskrit words? Sankalpa, Vikalpa, yes. So, the mind has these two functions.
I accept it, I reject it. Now, when you accept and reject, somebody has to offer something for which you can accept and reject. If nobody’s offering, then what are you going to accept and reject? I don’t accept this food.
There’s no food here, what are you not going to accept? I don’t accept this, but it is the word, the intelligence. Yes, maybe you can try this, maybe you can try that, maybe you can try that. So, basically, goodness, it maintains things.
Passion creates things. So, the mind basically maintains us its material existence. Like I said earlier, the mind gives us the illusion of freedom.
Illusion of freedom means, choose this, this, this, this existence. And goodness is associated with maintenance. So, in that sense, the mind is said to have emerged from goodness.
Because goodness maintains and the mind keeps us in material existence. However, the material intelligence, like the passion, passion creates. So, the material intelligence expands, it creates new, new plans, new, new schemes.
Let’s try to enjoy this, let’s try to enjoy this. Let’s create this facility for enjoyment. And that’s why all the science and technology, they involve a lot of, lot of intelligence.
But most of this intelligence is actually material intelligence. Because the greatest fuel for scientific progress is primarily the consumer industry and the defense industry. So, the consumer industry is primarily about, you could say about eating, sleeping, mating.
The defense industry is about defending. So, the four animal functions that are there, aahar, nidra, bhai, maithun, eating, sleeping, mating, defending, they are the primary, primary propellers of technological progress. So, much of the internet development, all this broadband technology, that has been fueled by people’s desire to watch high streaming videos, movies and all that stuff like that.
So, it’s entertainment. And what are videos, movies, basically? They are basically showing people eating, sleeping, mating and defending. Isn’t it? So, material intelligence expands the creation.
That’s why material intelligence expands the options for material enjoyment. It creates new, new ideas. So, and the mode of passion is associated with creation.
So, that’s why it’s said the intelligence comes from the mode of passion. Now, in this case, in this way, sankalpa vikalpa, the intelligence offers, let’s eat this, let’s go to this place, let’s go to that place. Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no.
Through all this that is going on, basically the soul stays obsessed. Soul is obsessed and soul just doesn’t think of anything beyond this. So, now, how does one come out of this? Now, it’s described in this, in a sense, puranjan, that puranjan doesn’t have any hope.
So, if somebody is very materially infatuated, then what happens? Then they just can’t, bhogaishvaripasattana taya apahrita chetasam yavasayatmika bhakti samadhau na vidhite. There was one devotee, he had gone for monk distribution and he said that, he was telling somebody, you know, we should practice spiritual life. And I offered the bhagavad gita, he said, I have read the bhagavad gita.
Oh, really? Then we should practice spiritual life. He said, I am a soul, I am eternal. I have so many future lives to practice spiritual life.
So, now, this is like taking the philosophy and just distorting it. So, this devotee said, then I told him, this is what you said in your previous life also. Now, somebody can use the philosophy, say, actually, what is the urgency? The soul is eternal and Krishna is also eternally available.
Whenever you want, you can turn to him. But the problem with that is that I might be thinking like this because I am enjoying right now. But how long am I going to enjoy? The enjoyment will end and the general stress will come.
So, we need to turn towards Krishna. But sometimes some people are so materially obsessed that they just don’t think about spiritual life. That happens to to Puranjan.
And it is described now that Puranjan dies and then he is reborn. Now, all along, his avijnatsakha, his friend is there with him. But Puranjan pays no attention to him.
As he is being dragged away, Puranjan is only thinking about one person. Who is that? The queen. And because he is so so obsessed, so attached to her, so what happens? In his next life, he becomes a woman.
So, whatever we remember at the time of death, that is what we will attain. So, because he is so attached to her, he gets a female body. And then, he becomes the queen vaidarbhi.
Vaidarbhi. The wife of king Malayadvaja. Now, in this case, the Malayadvaja is a very spiritually minded person and they live together and then he also grows old.
And as he is aging, he decides to voluntarily end his life by yogic meditation. So, he sits in yogic meditation and he absorbs his will and trance and he leaves his body. And in spiritual absorption, he departs.
And at that time, Vaidarbhi starts lamenting, Oh, what has happened? My husband has died. How will I live? What will I do now? And at that time, as she is lamenting beside her husband, then this avijnan sakha comes over there. And then he says to her that you are my friend.
Who is that? That is a super soul. And he says, you don’t know me, but I know you very well. Since we have been together for a long time, but you have neglected me.
So, I have been here for you and now when you are alone, I am there for you. And then he starts giving her spiritual wisdom. And as she starts, her grief starts dissipating.
She starts becoming calm. And as she starts becoming calm, this avijnan sakha, this super soul starts giving more and more wisdom, more and more spiritual illumination. And by the guidance of that super soul, by the guidance of that avijnan sakha, eventually she becomes free from grief and she becomes enlightened.
So, now this is significant. In that life, she is lost or he or she, whatever you want to say. Puranjan is no longer, he is so materially infatuated that he just doesn’t have any opportunity to move forward.
But in the next life, what happens, Malayadwaja is a virtuous king. He is spiritually minded. That association affects Puranjan also.
So, everybody faces grief in life. Distresses for everyone. Now, when those distresses come, if there is some spiritual association around us, then we become spiritually receptive.
If there is no spiritual association around us, then distresses simply make us frustrated. They make us resentful. They make us hopeless or they can make us very angry.
Why life is so terrible? Basically, distress can make us destructive. Sometimes the destructive is towards ourselves. What is the point of my life? What is the point of living? That is what makes people suicidal.
Or distress can make us destructive externally. If I am not happy, what right does anyone else have to be happy? So, this is the kind of reaction that comes when distress is there. But if amid distress, somebody has spiritual association, that makes them spiritually receptive.
And when the spiritual receptivity is there, then that person turns towards the Supersoul. The Supersoul is always there, but the Supersoul is very rarely perceivable. But through spiritual association, just by being in that association, our receptivity to the Supersoul increases.
So, in this Puranjan life, it’s like, what has happened in this story is that in the first part, there is an elaborately built metaphor. Now, in the second part of the story, the metaphor is not going on that elaborately. Because, what is happening in the second part? The general principles of transmigration and spiritual elevation are being depicted over here.
So, that’s why the name is also not Puranjan. The name is also not Puranjani. The name is also changed.
So, what is happening in the story in the next life? Whenever we use a metaphor, the metaphor has a particular context and a particular purpose. There is something called stretching a metaphor. Every metaphor is like a rubber band.
If something is heavy, we put a rubber band around it. It’s held in place. And then, say, if we have a big cloth bag, we put a rubber band, and it gets tightly folded, and we can just pick the rubber band and hold it.
So, a rubber band gives a sort of finiteness and accessibility to something which might be shapeless or very big. But if we stretch the rubber band too much, the rubber band breaks. So, similarly, every metaphor is like a rubber band.
A metaphor helps us to get hold of something which is very big. Something which is not that easily accessible. But if we stretch the metaphor, then the metaphor starts breaking.
And that’s why different metaphors are used for different purposes. Say, for example, if you consider the basic metaphor of the soul and the body, the car, body, and animal. The car is like the body.
The soul is like the driver. In that metaphor, the soul is said to be the driver. But if you consider the chariot body metaphor, in that, who is the driver? The mind.
Wait a minute. What is the chariot? Chariot is the body. Who are the horses? Senses.
What are the reins that hold the horses? Mind. Who is the charioteer? Intelligence. And who is the warrior? The warrior or the passenger is the soul.
So, in this case, the soul is not the driver. The soul is more like the passenger. Driven by the charioteer.
So, what is happening over here? So, the first metaphor is this purpose is to, the car body metaphor, its purpose is simply one, that the animating spirit, the energy, the activation, the life does not come from matter. It comes from something beyond the matter. But the chariot body metaphor, its purpose is something else.
Its purpose is to illustrate the mechanism by which this whole thing works. And that’s why we have the subtle body and the mind and the intelligence coming. So, the soul’s position has shifted from the driver to the passenger.
Now, we can go further and Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that actually it is Krishna who causes the wandering of all living beings. What this means is that actually it is the soul cannot influence matter at all. It is the soul has a desire and the super soul influences matter.
Super soul is in control of matter. We are not in control of matter. So, if you want to talk about how God is in charge, how God is in charge, then we will take another metaphor.
This metaphor is that actually say when I am speaking right now. So, I just desire to speak something. I have a thought and then I start speaking.
So, for me it might appear very straightforward how I speak. But actually it’s not that straightforward. Why? Because if I try to analyze how my voice box moves, what kind of the tracheal nerves and tracheal organs, how it all moves to produce a particular sound, it’s extremely complicated.
I don’t even know how it happens. So, all that I know is that I desire to speak and then all the voice muscles start moving accordingly. So, who is doing it? It is I am not doing it.
It is the super soul doing it. So, Prabhupada says we may desire to raise our hand and our hand may rise. But if we get paralysis, I desire to raise my hand and it doesn’t rise.
So, it is I desire the super soul sanctions and then the body executes. The super soul is in between. So, in that case it is like everything that we are doing.
Say, suppose in the past the computers were very complex and if somebody wanted to operate a computer, they would tell the operator do this, do this, do this. So, I tell and the operator does it all. So, it is like that we are not the direct controllers.
So, basically the point is each metaphor has a purpose. So, the first part of the story is to develop the metaphor and the metaphor is centered and restricted to the first part. The second part is transmigratory principle that I illustrated.
So, the transmigratory principle means how the soul goes from one body to another and what happens. So, in this case basically there is association externally and there is association internally. So, the external association of Malayadvaja makes either be more receptive to the internal association of the super soul.
So, in that sense the spiritual consciousness that is there within all of us it is like a candle. Within the candle the potential to be lit is there. But unless the candle comes in contact with another candle, another lit object the candle cannot light.
So, similarly the spiritual potential within us it has to awaken somehow and that awakens by spiritual association. So, for all of us our mind often gives us certain set of options and initially Krishna consciousness has to fit within the mind set of options. That means why do sometimes people go to a temple or why do people come to satsang.
Because based on their culture, their upbringing this is something which is good to do. Let’s do it. So, initially even the spiritual because we are we cannot perceive anything beyond the mind.
So, even the spiritual has to come within the framework of the mind. But when it comes over there initially what happens by that? Oh, this is good. Let’s do this.
Suppose in the spiritual life if something we just don’t like at all it’s very very difficult to do it for a long time. The mind will just not allow us to do it. But if there is something which we like Ya, I can do this.
I like to do this. And by that gradually what happens? Initially something within the framework of the mind is what we start with. And that is how we have to all we all have to like something in bhakti.
That’s how we will continue it. And Prabhupada when he talks about how shraddha faith is needed for the spiritual journey. Prabhupada translates shraddha simply as favourable curiosity.
These people they seem to be doing something interesting. Let’s check it out. So that within what interests the mind something we find within bhakti that starts our spiritual journey.
And then gradually if you keep doing more and more slowly the mind’s control on us starts decreasing. So Krishna enters into the mind and as Krishna enters into the mind what happens? Krishna starts attracting us more and more. So how bhakti works is Krishna comes first as an option within the mind.
And then Krishna becomes an option to the mind. That means initially we practice bhakti because this is nice I like it. But afterwards Krishna becomes an option to the mind.
That means even if my mind doesn’t like it still I will do it. So we become a little more free from the control of the mind as we keep practicing bhakti. And then as Krishna becomes an option to the mind and we choose the mind is saying this Krishna is saying this what should I do? Those are like choice points.
See if you are going on an express way even if you realize you have taken a wrong turn I think here you call it motor way isn’t it? If you are going on a motor way sometimes if you have taken a wrong turn you cannot immediately change the turn. Like the whole momentum is going in a particular way there are particular exit points there you can go out. So like that for us when the mind takes control of us quite often there are times when we just get pushed along.
We can’t do much about it. But there are choice points just like on express way up to a particular point we have to go but here the exit has come now I will go out. So like that even when we are practicing sadhana bhakti a large part of our life will be controlled by our mind.
But there are certain choice points. Certain choice points means for example we all have our professional obligations we have family obligations and they will control a significant part of our life and we have to do what we need to do. But there are choice points sometimes we can go to temple sometimes we can come for satsang sometimes we can do our sadhana and when we take these choice points the more we take these choice points the more the control of the mind starts decreasing.
So initially we see Krishna through the mind I like Krishna so I will do it but eventually what happens we see the mind coming through Krishna this mind is saying this do I need to do this what does Krishna say ya this is not bad yes we can do it but this is not so good better minimize this so actually when Krishna comes closer to us than the mind then we become spiritually safe we become spiritually steady that is called as Thaimav steadily we start experiencing Bhakti steadily we start experiencing peace and joy in the practice of Bhakti but till now for most of us we are in that journey we are seeing Krishna through the mind so Krishna is an option within the mind and Krishna is also becoming an option to the mind for us that means ya my mind is saying this but maybe I should do this maybe I should sometimes we do this sometimes we do that but gradually as we keep choosing Krishna more and more then Krishna comes closer and the mind starts going further by saying the mind starts going further what does it mean that the mind’s control on us decreases the mind’s proposals will still keep coming let’s do this let’s do that just like Puranjan when his wife got up he got up the queen got up he got up the queen sat down he sat down so like that we are controlled by the mind but the mind’s proposals we just accept without thinking initially but afterwards we start thinking we start evaluating and then the mind is never rejected because the mind is a part of the mechanism that the soul needs for functioning in the world but if the mind is controlled then the mind starts becoming our friend that means when Krishna comes closer to us than the mind see if you look I’ll conclude this point that if you see 6 5 6 and 7 in the Bhagavad Gita 6 5 says that uddhare dātmanātmānam nātmānam avasādayit ātmaiva yātmanubandhara ātmaiva ripurātmanahā it says elevate yourself with the mind don’t degrade yourself with the mind the mind can be your friend and the mind can be your enemy what this means is that if you consider the mind to be like a movie screen which is showing us the whole world so on the movies on the say on television on the internet there can be some educative things there can be something which can illuminate us also there can be something which can degrade us so what Krishna is saying in whatever the mind shows you you cannot have unlimited freedom you cannot reject the mind but in what the mind is showing you choose that which will elevate you and don’t choose that which will degrade you then the next verse he says is bandhurātmanātmanastasya yenātmāiva ātmanājita anātmanasu śatrutve vartetātmāiva śatruvāyāt says if you can control the mind the mind is your friend if the mind controls you it is your enemy what this means is that the mind has various options if the mind determines your choices that means the mind controls you then you will be dragged down but if you control the mind you choose you make the choices then the mind can be your friend because the mind can give us good choices also and the next verse is significant what it says citātmanāprashāntasya paramātmā samāhitaḥ śītoṣṇu sukha-duḥkheśu tathā mā nāpamānayaḥ that for one if you control the mind citātmanā prashāntasya mind becomes peaceful then the super soul is already reached paramātmā samāhitaḥ that means the super soul has come closer to us than the mind that means we use the super soul’s version or rather the super soul the knowledge from the super soul to process the mind and then what happens when the super soul is we are close to the super soul then the world’s dualities don’t trouble us so much Krishna talks about three dualities physical mental and egoistic at the level of the ego śītoṣṇu sukha-duḥkheśu tathā mā nāpamānayaḥ it’s a heat cold like some of you may feel a little cold now it’s a physical duality then sometimes some things feel pleasant some things feel unpleasant that is mental duality and beyond it is the duality at the level of ego honour-dishonour now when Krishna repeatedly says that don’t be affected by these dualities what does it mean? is it that we are meant to be like stoic emotionless don’t be affected by any dualities no, the point is that don’t let the dualities determine your actions determine your decisions it’s like when this happens I said that all this is an illustration for the concluding point that once Krishna comes closer to us in the mind then our spiritual life becomes steady so what it means is that say suppose we are on a journey and on that journey at the end maybe we are going to we have a relative has passed away or relative is going to pass away and they want to give us a big inheritance maybe 5 million dollars or 5 million pounds and then we are going along the road and on the side of the road we see a 5 pound note over there and we think oh let me get this and as soon as we move towards the 5 pound note it starts flying away and then we go after it and it flies further away and it flies further away and what happens instead of going on the road towards the 5 million pounds we seek the 5 pounds and we lose the 5 million or in contrast so the promise of the 5 pound or say we have a 5 pound note already in our pocket and some thug comes and grabs the 5 pound note and starts running away how dare you steal from me we start running after that person and again when running after that person what happens we lose the chance to get the 5 million pounds so when Krishna is saying don’t be affected by dualities what he means is that stay focused in your spiritual purpose this point is later illustrated earlier in 520 when he says that na praharshet priyam prapya no dvijet prapya cha priyam sthira buddhir asamudho brahma vid brahma nisthita brahma nisthita becomes spiritually situated so when we start what happens for us right now Krishna consciousness is good but we don’t think of it as 5 million dollars we think of this 5 dollar to be 5 million if this is getting disturbed I have to fix this right now at all costs and Krishna consciousness that’s always there maybe I’ll do it later so right now our because the mind is too close to us the mind over values the 5 dollars and the mind devalues the 5 million dollars but as the mind starts getting as Krishna starts coming closer to us our evaluation system starts becoming more balanced and that’s how the dualities don’t disturb us that much because we understand if I’m pursuing Krishna if I’m moving towards Krishna then all these things the ups and downs they will come they will go if I can deal with them I’ll deal with them if I can’t I’ll tolerate them but I won’t get distracted from Krishna so the test of a controlled mind is not that dualities don’t come in a person’s life but dualities don’t divert the person so much they will affect us Krishna doesn’t say that be unfeeling and don’t if somebody dishonors you you should not feel anything yes you will perceive it as dishonor but we won’t get so affected by the dishonor that we will be so agitated that we get diverted from the path of Krishna bhakti so that way we can attain that we can steadily practice and ultimately attain Krishna so I’ll summarize I spoke today based on the story of Puranjan how we can manage our mind so I started by speaking about how this is a metaphorical story in the Bhagavatam and it begins with Puranjan asking two kinds of questions where did you come from and what are you doing over here so the queen doesn’t answer the question about origin I don’t know where I came from but if you want to enjoy we are all here we can all enjoy together so like that our material mind material intelligence it bypasses questions about origins and just focuses on let’s enjoy over here and when he starts enjoying with her he just starts doing whatever she does so like that we just keep doing whatever the mind prompts us to and we don’t feel that I am controlled by the mind because the mind gives us illusion of freedom it gives us options but all the options the mind gives are materialistic only so in that sense we don’t really have freedom we just have the illusion of freedom and as long as life seems to be comfortable we often don’t ask transcendental questions so Puranjan keeps enjoying till Chandravegh attacks and he doesn’t even notice the attack of the invader because he seems to be enjoying but as the attack starts penetrating then it becomes alarming so like his life starts going over and then eventually he falls so in between he once just leaves his wife also and goes away for hunting but then when he comes back she is infuriated and he has to pacify her so like that sometimes we might not do what the mind says but then the mind hits back and torments so then we have to go to a lot of trouble to pacify it but eventually he is killed and he is dragged from that body to another body and then he becomes a female and then by the association of her spiritual husband and by the association of the Abhigyan Sakha the super soul whom she has been neglecting for a long time but now the eyes open so what this means is that the metaphor is in the first part in the second part it’s more the transcendental principle being illustrated so here because of spiritual association gradually spiritual receptivity increases for her and then she receives the super soul then how this happens I talk in terms of the mind’s metaphor we consider that we are watching a movie through the mind so initially Krishna has to come as an option within the options provided by the mind so our mind needs to like Krishna and that is important that in association we have presented bhakti in a way that is likeable for our mind in some way and then first Krishna comes as an option within the mind and then gradually Krishna becomes an option to the mind as we start liking Krishna bhakti more and more then our attachment to Krishna increases and even if the mind says no ok this is what the mind says this is what Krishna says what do I want to choose and as we keep choosing Krishna more and more then Krishna starts coming closer and the mind starts going further that means whatever the mind says it doesn’t affect us so much rather than processing Krishna through the mind we process the mind through Krishna and that’s when the dualities don’t trouble us so much because we see the initially the mind makes us think that honour, dishonour this is the biggest thing in life nothing more important this is like 5 million dollars but as Krishna starts coming closer and closer to us we start seeing that my connection with Krishna my progress towards Krishna that is the 5 million dollars and honour, dishonour, pleasure, pain it’s like 5 dollar losses ok if I can protect it good if I not just let me move on and that’s how we become steady and as we start progressing steadily in our bhakti we start becoming more and more joyful thank you very much Hare Krishna yes I think the weather might change so we can move inside so we might start raining and then we can ask questions inside maybe you can wait for a few minutes just wait for if it rains we will go inside because we might finish also now might not have any questions yeah yes an option to the mind ok yeah see as I said there are different metaphors which you can use for different purposes so ultimately the chooser is the soul it’s like in the computer there are many options coming and I am the user computer says maybe your facebook update has come up computer says oh your email has come up whatsapp has come up what do you want to choose now in a computer it doesn’t get Vedabase your time for reading spirituality has come up that doesn’t come as a notification usually so so basically these are the various options they are like coming through the software and we are the chooser we the soul is the chooser soul is always the chooser but in this metaphor if you see broadly the intelligence is not treated as a separate entity basically just have the hardware the software and the user so like that we have the body the mind and the soul as I said earlier it’s more in terms of functionality this difference between mind intelligence ego it’s more in terms of functionality if you want to develop this metaphor further we could say that the intelligence is like sometimes within the software itself like if you want to organize your day or now a days gmail also has this that you can you can put some people as priority and then if you have got 50 mails then those people who are like important people priority mails they come at the top and the other mails will come at the bottom or if we are we are looking at google news if it is at these four things are my interest then what is your interest that comes at the top what is the interest comes at the bottom now in what comes at the interest also we may not read everything we may choose I want to read this I don’t want to read this so basically we could say that the intelligence is like the is like the processor of the inputs coming from the mind the intelligence is also part of the software but like in the beginning also I said that whenever we go to a place the place is so complicated that there are hundreds of inputs that can come in but based on our purpose we focus on those inputs that matter to us so basically similarly the intelligence is like a you broadly speaking it’s not exactly a selector the selection is done by the soul but the intelligence processes this is more important this is less important now that what is more important what is less important that is based also on the nature of the intelligence if somebody is say an alcoholic when they come to a room the first thing they say is there any bar over here are there any bottles over here now that might not be actually important but that’s what they chooses so within the software you could say there is one part which just brings in software all the inputs and presents all the inputs and there is another part which processes so now if this processor if this processing is done properly then that which is really important for us will come on top so that’s why the intelligence is spiritualized then among the complex inputs that come in like sometimes we give a class and some people just catch on to some irrelevant point why is this like this why is this like that that’s not the point focus on this point but what happens they just catch on to some irrelevant point so if the intelligence is properly guided then among the many inputs that are coming in the mind it will focus on that which is important and then among those important we can choose so the intelligence is more like the filter or processor of what the mind is providing ok thank you yeah do we have two types of intelligence no, it’s one type of intelligence but it functions differently so when it is spiritual it is more directed towards Krishna when it is material it is directed towards material things that is why you could say just the kind of input it is given so the intelligence means it is like children they just love playing with toys but the same child as they grow adult they may want to study they value other things what has happened the intelligence has grown if you see Krishna talks about smriti brahmashad buddhi nashad buddhi nashad pranashyati when memory is lost then intelligence is lost he says that means intelligence is based on memory now memory now we can only remember something which we have learnt earlier isn’t it so that means intelligence is founded in knowledge now what in 1820-22 and 1830-32 in the Bhagavad Gita 1820-22 Krishna talks about knowledge in the three modes and 1830-32 he talks about intelligence in the three modes and the difference between the two is interesting he is talking about knowledge more in terms of gyan indriyas taking in information from the world whereas buddhi which is intelligence he talks in terms of the karma indriyas using the intelligence to act in the world sorry using the knowledge to act in the world is the duty of the intelligence so basically our knowledge changes sorry our intelligence changes based on our knowledge and our recollection of that knowledge our memory ok thank you yes do we need to go inside yeah I think we will go inside oh god