What does “our inner desires are not me” mean?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, when I said that the internal desires are not me, what does it mean? Are you talking about the difference between the soul and the mind? Yes.
See, one way to understand this difference is, the mind is maya’s internal advertising agent. So, what does it mean? Suppose, you know, if in the past I have been purchasing some product and now I decide I don’t want to purchase the product. Just because I have decided not to purchase the product, that does not mean the advertising agents are going to stop advertising it.
Isn’t it? But, so, just because they are advertising, it doesn’t mean I have to purchase it. But just because I am not purchasing, it doesn’t mean they are going to stop advertising it. So, if you understand, the mind is the internal advertising agent.
So, in the past, whatever the mind was advertising, we were purchasing. The mind says, do this? Yeah, I’ll do it immediately. So, but now we have decided I want to stop purchasing.
But just because we have stopped purchasing, the mind is not going to stop advertising. So, basically, just as we understand, this advertiser is a different person, I am a different person. And I have to decide whether to purchase or not.
Similarly, when the mind advertises, you see, we have certain values, we have certain resolutions, we have certain aspirations. This is what I would like to become. This is how I want to be.
So, if we study Shastra regularly, if we do sadhana nicely, then we are reminded of our values. And then when certain desires pop up within our consciousness, which are contrary to our values, then we understand, okay, these are coming from the mind, these are not my desires. So, if you are not hearing Shastra regularly, if you are not connecting with Krishna regularly, then we don’t remember our values.
And when the desires come, then immediately, we just accept those desires. So, by studying scripture regularly, especially, we are reminded of our values, the values that we, even if we don’t have those values, the values we aspire towards. And then we can differentiate between those values and those desires that are coming up.
And then we can resist those desires. Does it answer the question?