We can’t replace the mind but we can re-place it
[Talk to IIT Kharagpur students, Kharagpur, India]
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so I’ll summarize I spoke on the topic of we can’t replace the mind but we can replace it so across all wisdom traditions there has been an understanding that there is something inside us that works against us when we call the Satan, the bad dog, the demon now the Bhagavad Gita explains that this negative force resides in the software, in the mind so it’s like anger is temporary insanity so anger is when the gods want to destroy, they make them angry so what happens is, it’s like the software getting corrupted by some ransomware which just takes hostage of everything that is there in the computer so the software is the mind, the hardware is the body, the soul is the user so when anger comes up, it takes hostage of our intelligence and just impels us to do destructive things now, the software is indispensable for working in the computer, but at the same time we can’t let the software do our work, not that we do the software’s work so if the software is opening up some auto-complete of some website which you don’t want to go to or it’s opening up something on the homepage where you don’t want to, it’s installing some program which you don’t want to, then we need vigilance we have to be vigilant, so similarly like that, the mind, based on its past conditionings it may come up with certain desires it may come up with certain ideas it may push us towards doing certain things but if we are vigilant it will pull it back and the mind is inside us, because of which we evaluate if somebody gives a suggestion, outside us because when the mind inside us gives a suggestion, we think, it’s my idea we immediately want to implement it but if we remember that we are the soul and understand the mind is also outside so then we will evaluate the ideas that come in our mind with as much criticality as we would evaluate the ideas given by somebody else and for for managing the mind we need to do redirection and purification so if a wrong homepage is opening up, then close it close it whenever it opens, so like that our mind a homepage, an alcoholic as soon as they wake up, the first thought is alcohol that’s a wrong homepage, I don’t want to do this cross it, so along with that, there is purification that means we connect our consciousness with Krishna and Krishna is all attractive, Krishna is all powerful connection will gradually pacify the mind whatever I am excited about that doesn’t give as much happiness as focusing on Krishna and then when the mind becomes mind’s undesirable forces that are there within the mind, they get curved, when its healthy tendencies are established, then the mind will become our friend and it will aid us in bringing out our best in service to Krishna both spiritually and mentally thank you very much, Hare Krishna