What is the easiest way to control our emotions?

Podcast

Transcript

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Which is the easiest way to control our emotions? I don’t think there is any one way that is the easiest so yeah so basically each of us has to find out what works best for us because all of us have a particular body and a particular mind and based on that certain kind of emotions will be triggered naturally within us so I will give an example to illustrate this broadly speaking say now this is the floor on which some of you are sitting now if this floor is inclined in this way then water will naturally flow in this direction now if you decide with your will power water should not flow in this direction when will power is not enough gravity’s power is much bigger isn’t it? if the floor is inclined water will naturally flow in that direction just as there can be the inclination of the floor we all have inclinations of the mind and if we have particular inclinations our emotions will naturally flow in that direction so now if say there are some expensive electronic items over here we don’t want the water to flow over there then what do we do? broadly three things restriction, we might build some protective wall over here by which although the emotion comes but we don’t let it move forward so similarly if we know that there is some thing which triggers my emotions say if somebody is an alcoholic and they want to give up alcoholism and their home is right next to a bar then it is almost impossible to give it up you have to create some barrier between them, one barrier could be distance so if we don’t want the emotion to flow in a particular direction create some barrier whatever it may be restriction is one, second is redirection that means you get some mop or a rash or something and push it in the other direction and that pushing is the practice of bhakti yoga as a sadhana sadhana means right now it is conscientious devotional service we may not feel like doing it but with conscious intention we do it so when we are chanting Hare Krishna as was recommended or we are worshipping the deities or we are hearing classes like this, what are we doing? we are consciously pushing our consciousness away from the unhealthy emotion towards Krishna so that is redirection and the best way is reconstruction if you don’t want water to flow this way, just reconstruct the flow side like this, then the water will automatically flow in that direction so reconstruction is what happens by purification when we become pure, by regularly when we practice bhakti we become purified and once we are purified then our inclination goes towards Krishna so that is when that happens, then our bhakti becomes spontaneous naturally we think about Krishna, naturally our thoughts go towards Krishna, so right now how do we control our emotions? we have to see what level we are at for some things, the reconstruction might already have happened and we will naturally be moving towards Krishna, for some things reconstruction is far away, so right now we need restriction, at least let it not go in this direction and we have to find out, how can I redirect so when the emotion starts going in a particular direction, we have to we can’t just say, I won’t do this, I won’t feel like this, I won’t feel like this that doesn’t work very well we have to, instead of saying I won’t feel like this we have to direct our emotion our thoughts, our consciousness somewhere else and we start feeling something else start feeling something in relationship with something else then we won’t feel so much in this direction so we have to find out, what will redirect our thoughts so for some of us it might be just deep breathing for some of us it might be chanting for some of us it might be reading and reciting some verses or some wisdom quotes, for some of us it might be hearing spiritual music so we have to find out, which is the which is the which is the mop, by which I can effectively push the emotions, push my consciousness in a healthier direction so broadly by restriction redirection and reconstruction we can control our emotions thank you thank you everyone for your participation