Why do movie songs stay in our memory much more than devotional songs?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if we hear a Hindi song and we start humming it, so catching the tune we just remember it immediately and we remember it for a long time other than we hear the Hare Krishna Mahamantra for so long but still we don’t remember it so we don’t keep forgetting it it doesn’t stay within us why is that? See, that is the very meaning of the word inclination if I say that the flower is inclined this way then naturally as soon as water will fall water is going to flow this way if I want it to flow in the other way I’ll have to make a conscious effort or I’ll have to reconstruct the flower, so the flower is inclined this way so similarly when we use the word inclination for the mind I have an inclination for this it’s almost like physical flowering, the mind is not physical but still there is a whatever the mind is inclined to the thoughts naturally flow in that direction so if say we were attached to particular songs so I have seen that before I was introduced to Krishna Consciousness I was attached to cricket so even now somehow I forget devotees names but I remember cricketers names I don’t know how it is sometimes I used to think that I am not good at remembering names but it’s not like that I still remember somehow the mind has become habituated to that so inclination is there so when inclination is there the mind naturally flows our thoughts, our desires, our consciousness naturally flows in that direction there are two different things already see inclination is one thing but along with that there is another thing that is actually in Krishna Consciousness when we do certain things certain things we connect with easily but certain things we don’t connect so easily so now I will give an example of what I mean say within the realm of bhakti if we compare if we want to compare something we have to compare within bhakti also there might be something which we are attracted to something which we are exposed to then immediately our thoughts go towards Krishna it may be darshan, kirtan some creative presentation of philosophy or whatever it is so now in a particular material thing our mind may be attached to worldly things and in a particular corresponding spiritual thing the mind may not be attached like say movie songs the mind gets attached but in kirtan the mind may not get attached but we can see something else within bhakti where the mind might be going it may be detail dress it may be philosophy, it may be something else it may be cooking or whatever so the mind does go towards Krishna mind has some inclination towards Krishna some inclination towards maya so when we want to see we always have to look at things in a way that encourages us if I start thinking that for 20 years also there is no change then we can look at when we feel discouraged we need to look back and see how far we have come look at some condition which is gone now look at some attraction with Krishna which we have developed which we did not have earlier it has also happened so if we look at some when we are feeling discouraged we need to look at the things which have changed in our life, we have to look at how far we have come if we become proud then we can think of how far we need to go but so the whole point is just as we understand that say anger is temptation, greed is temptation, lust is temptation like that discouragement is also temptation some temptations tempt us by making us feel good like lust promises us pleasure anger promises us power some temptations tempt us by making us feel good some temptations tempt us by making us feel bad but if either feeling is taking us away from Krishna in a very generic sense anything that takes us away from Krishna is a temptation so in that sense discouragement is also temptation then we are in the full class resist the temptation to be discouraged this is the class resist so basically what happens is that the mind sometimes if I have to go towards Krishna the mind may discourage us mind may trick us by alluring us in the opposite direction towards pleasure but another way it may stop us from going is slowing us down this path is too difficult so one way is it doesn’t take us away from Krishna but another is it slows us down going towards Krishna so the discouragement is also a form of Maya and there are various ways in which we can deal with it but first of all we understand this if any thoughts are making me discouraged then that, yes there might be a problem which I need to deal with, it might be an external problem it might be an internal problem but just becoming discouraged is unfavorable to bhakti therefore I need to shift my thoughts to something which is more encouraging in nature and then move onwards forward so now having said that going back to the earlier point about the mind being inclined towards some things so rather than just getting disheartened oh after 20 years also the same music is agitating my mind you can actually see that same thing in a different way that means you know when something really enters into the mind how long it will stay how long it can stay so once Krishna will enter into my mind right now Krishna may not have entered so much once Krishna enters then Krishna will be there for a long long time to come so it’s not necessary that we have to be discouraged what is important is that when that stimulus starts coming we will be prepared ok this is what is going to happen at that time I have some I have some picture of or I have some I have some reflections some thoughts which help me to disinvest to disconnect myself a little bit from that we all have our we all have our pet pitfalls you know our small weaknesses now sometimes you don’t have to worry too much about them this is as compared to the overall change in our life that has happened just become a little attracted to some movie songs unless it’s obsessing our mind and it’s we keep craving to give up everything and keep hearing that sometimes some small things happen sometimes we find somewhere some dirt has come in the house now if I can find a source for that dirt if I can close that window close that door otherwise it doesn’t matter just sweep that dirt out so like that don’t worry too much about this yeah the inclination is there but the inclination can be changed just like the physical flooring is changed when the water will flow in a different direction the process of practice of bhakti is about changing the flooring till the flooring’s direction is not changed floor’s direction inclination is not changed till that time physical force is going to be required so in some cases for some particular desires for particular kinds of attractions change in inclination happens quite rapidly see most of us even if say we had been eating some non vegetarian food earlier very few if any devotee is attracted to non vegetarian food even if devotees fall back to their old ways very few actually fall back to vegetarian that inclination is literally removed by the prasadam’s higher taste so in some cases the floor’s inclination changes rapidly in some cases it takes time so if that thought is still going in that direction that means in this particular inclination has not changed but over a period of time that inclination will also change just keep practicing bhakti it is going to change the inner architecture