​When anxiety distracts us during chanting, should we try to counter those thoughts or just wait for those thoughts to go?

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Question from Sanjeev Chandnani Prabhu That during chanting Is it better that If anxieties come We just passively Hope for them and pray for those thoughts To go away rather than to try to Actively suppress them And strive to hear the holy name Answer Actually When we are fighting in a war We cannot have a stereotype Strategy because depending On how the enemy is attacking What strategy the enemy is adopting We have to be flexible And change our strategy accordingly So the same applies In battling with the mind We cannot go with one stereotype formula About how we will deal with the mind Because the mind is so Wily that sometimes The same thing that works very well today It may just not work at all Tomorrow Sometimes we may find that Whenever my mind gets very distracted I’ll take deep breaths And just by taking deep breaths I’ll calm down Then I’ll be able to focus on the holy name That may work one day And the next day when we try to take deep breaths We just find that the time when we are taking deep breaths That is increasing the distraction of the mind Or during that time we feel calm Afterwards we don’t feel calm Or even while we are chanting Sometimes we find that chanting a little louder Helps us to concentrate more But the next day when we chant louder We just feel like this is so noisy And it’s not helping us to concentrate It’s only agitating us further So it’s a war And what will work or what will not work We can’t say We have to try out different weapons To find whichever works Now ultimately it is our connection with Krishna Which works It’s our remembrance of Krishna that works But to come to be able to connect with Krishna To be able to connect with Krishna May require some exploring Of what is the way I can best connect with Krishna So when we are faced with anxieties At that time Is it possible that While trying to control the thoughts of anxiety We develop a controllership mentality And that controllership mentality Stems over to Carries over to other activities in our life Yes it’s possible As I just recently wrote Yesterday I wrote an article about How don’t let self-control Fuel the illusion of the self as the controller So When we are able to control things inside us We may think that Similarly I should be able to control things outside us And I expect that I should be able to control people also And when I am not able to Control people I become angry The fact is that Self-control Is not like a Is not meant to be like a Foundation for controlling the world Some people may Treat self-control like that Just like Hiranyakashipu wanted to practice severe austerity So that He could get dominion over the universe But We know that Sincere devotees, serious devotees They want self-control So that they can take their consciousness Beyond this world to Krishna So the attempt to control our thoughts Itself is not bad The attempt to control our thoughts Doesn’t necessarily lead to controllership Of the kind that is negative It can also lead to controllership Which can We want self-control so that We can better surrender to the supreme controller Of the self The supreme controller of all living beings including the self That is Krishna So now With this principle in mind How best we can connect with Krishna In different situations That can vary from person to person From situation to situation for the same person also So certainly We should strive the best to connect Ourselves with Krishna And sometimes just Just like Draupadi She raises her hands in surrender And Arjuna, he picks up his bow And he raises his bow To fight and that is his surrender Because the Bhagavad Gita also ends with a call for Arjuna Surrender to me And Arjuna says yes I will surrender But the way he surrenders is Not by raising his arms in helplessness It is by Taking up his bow in determination So both are forms of surrender Similarly When some undesirable thoughts Such as anxiety Start troubling us Our principle is that we want to surrender to Krishna Now which way we surrender to Krishna One is that we raise our bow And get ready to fight That means we try to Aggressively, actively, assertively Connect with Krishna and Try to push away the other thoughts Or we just Beg for Krishna’s help And wait for Krishna’s mercy Whichever form works That is what we have to do The point is that Surrender means passivity Rather Passivity May be in some situations The best way to surrender So we shouldn’t equate the action With the emotion The emotion is important and whichever action Can help us to develop the emotion that is the best So We always know that I am dependent on Krishna And I need Krishna’s help Now the way I beseech Krishna’s help May be by telling Krishna Krishna I just can’t do anything help me Or We may seek Krishna’s help by showing Krishna That Krishna I am doing everything I can But it is not enough so therefore please help me Both are modes of surrender to Krishna And whichever mode works best We can adopt that And which mode will work best That can vary according to time, place, circumstance We have to explore and find out How to connect with Krishna In our particular situation