Why do we sometimes act like mad, doing things that we would normally never do?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna Question Why do we sometimes act Like mad Doing terrible things That we would normally Never do Answer Madness possesses us When Inner weakness Couples with outer Recklessness So if we want to Avoid being possessed by madness We have to Protect ourselves externally Be careful in protecting ourselves externally And we need to Strengthen ourselves internally Let’s look at this In detail Madness possesses us When inner weakness couples with Outer recklessness Now, madness possessing means What? I say sometimes Some spell As if we do certain things that Are so Terribly immoral, anti-devotional Or in other ways Terrible that we basically Are shocked at ourselves, how could I have done something Like this and these are spells Of Irrationality when we can’t recognize Ourselves How did I do such a thing So now, weakness Refers to our own Inner Attachments, addictions Vulnerabilities To which we are Susceptible To which we Have as the word Says weakness And then Recklessness refers to Our carelessness in Keeping readily available Externally The objects towards Which we have weakness Let’s understand this point of coupling of Inner weakness with outer Recklessness Through example of say recovering Alcoholics, now Alcoholics as the name suggests Have a weakness for alcohol So now They are recovering alcoholics Means they have given, made a resolution That I will not indulge in Alcohol again And now They may have a strong resolution but Because of their past conditioning Sometimes recollections of Their past indulgences Will start fully Dominating their head Attacking their consciousness And when this happens At that time They may find their resolve becoming weak And as Their resolve to abstain from alcohol Becomes weak They will feel impelled to drink again Now what will Check immediate relapse One of the most important things will be Non availability of alcohol Easily in the external environment Now If Normally these Heavy artillery Strong attacks of Temptation don’t last Forever, they come in spikes That last for a brief time Like in electric current we have spikes Sudden high Voltage, so like that The spikes of craving Trouble And if they can just endure them And live through them then the spikes will go down And then it will be Then their intelligence and their conscience will awaken And they will be able to Resist and reject the temptation So What is critical is surviving the High pressure Attacks And surviving that Becomes much easier When they have When there is no avenue For relapsing available externally But During those moments of Heavy attack or heavy temptation If they have been Also been careless enough to keep Alcohol available readily nearby Then it’s almost certain That they will relapse And one drink may become Two and three and then Who knows how long it will be before They come to Their senses And before they realize they have been fooled And by that time they will probably Have a Hangover in their head And frustration in their heart So now The problem Problem of alcoholism may not trouble us But we all Have our Own weaknesses Which drive us Like mad Which make us act as if we were mad And This principle of the coupling of Weakness And recklessness together Leading to madness That applies to all our weaknesses Whatever they may be And we may sometimes be also failing And we are wondering why I am failing So this analysis will help us in understanding Why we are having difficulties And what is the solution? The Bhagavad Gita Outlines a two point strategy In 3.36 to 43 Which is a section which Deals with lust And the two strategies are Outlined in 3.41 and 3.43 Now of course This section specifically focuses On lust but the principles In its solution Are applicable to All misgivings All forms of inner enemies So let’s look At these now So initially Krishna talks about In the Bhagavad Gita 3.41 The first strategy is Sensual regulation So 3.41 Is Here it is being said Therefore regulate the senses In the beginning Regulate O Arjuna O Bharata King of the Bharatas In this way this Lust is a symbol of sin Which is the destroyer of knowledge and realization So now What does it mean If we look at our context Our analysis of Weakness and Recklessness With respect to the example of alcohol It refers to Regulating the senses there are many aspects One aspect is to not have Externally Provoking objects Available easily for us So If we Avoid the Having those objects available Then the chance of relapse becomes much lesser Now In most human cultures throughout History and of course In most spiritual cultures definitely There is always been A strong Mandate Strong injunction For minimizing If not preventing Entirely unfiltered Mixing between the genders Thereby this Minimizes the chance of wrong belief Now this This way now the individual Endeavoring for sense control But this cultural Arrangement makes the culture An assistant in the individual struggle But today Unfortunately the culture Is not an assistant the culture is an Opponent In the individual struggle why because the culture Today Depicts so aggressively Sexually Suggestive and explicit images That actually trigger The lust and make it Very difficult for the individual to Gain sense control So of course we can’t change the Whole culture but still we can get Some cultural assistance By situating ourselves in a spiritual Culture that respects And even expects sexual morality So That way we can get some cultural help and further Of course with respect to external Protection we can We can ourselves Put as much distance as possible between Us between the Objects that tempt us and ourselves Now That was a principle in the Past culture and we can apply it in Today’s situation according to our specific weaknesses Now some people may say that this is Fanatical but we should know It’s not fanatical it’s foundational For a Suppose a person is a Recovering alcoholic if that alcoholic chooses To live next to a bar What are the chances That the alcoholic will be able to Stay sober? Near zero Similarly Say if someone Has a weakness For inappropriate Sites on the net The person is a recovering porn user Then for such a person To If such a person keeps Unfiltered internet access Then what are the chances that the person will not Have a relapse if the person stays sober? Zero, near zero If not entirely zero So therefore By ensuring whatever Pathways We have to indulgence We create roadblocks on those pathways We will be able to Minimize the chances of our Becoming mad so even if we have Become internally weak But if there is no external We are not externally reckless Then there will be no avenue for the Weakness to possess and Madden us So therefore we can protect ourselves Even when we are weak By keeping ourselves in a protected environment The second Strategy of the Gita focuses on Spiritual nutrition So that is talked in 3.43 evam buddhe parambudhva samsthabhyatmanam atmana jahishatrum mahabaho kamarupam durasadam So evam buddhe parambudhva Before knowing yourself to be Param, transcendental Parambudhva Know this how? Buddhe With your intelligence Use your intelligence to understand your spiritual nature samsthabhyatmanam atmana And situate yourself On the spiritual platform And by this jahishatrum mahabaho Oh Arjuna you are very powerful You have overcome many great enemies But now You are the greatest of all enemies Overcome that now kamarupam durasadam Very difficult to overcome So Arjuna you have to be careful To overcome this So what is Krishna telling over here essentially That Situate yourself on the spiritual platform And the best way to situate yourself on the spiritual platform is By rendering devotional service to Krishna Because we are At our core souls And as souls We are parts of Krishna As the Gita later tells in 15.7 mamaivamsho jivalokya We are all parts of Krishna Just as the parts become satisfied When they cooperate with the whole So we become Satisfied when we Render service to Krishna Just as the hand automatically gets nourished When the hand feeds food to the belly Similarly we get nourished When we serve Krishna So Service to Krishna is the Higher non-material enrichment Which frees us From the Craving for the pleasures That are promised by lust Now even if we don’t get that higher non-material Enrichment whenever we are practicing devotional service Still The connection with Krishna purifies us And over a period of time The worldly pleasures Lose their viewer Now When we move forward This essentially is a matter of Spiritual nutrition When we start feeling weak that means Our inner connection with Krishna has weakened And we strengthen that connection We nourish ourselves once again By contemplating on Krishna Just as food gives us nutrition Physically similarly Contemplation on Krishna, His message His glory, His holy name That gives us nutrition At a spiritual level And by that we can combat and curb Our lower nature So When we nourish ourselves regularly And especially when we nourish ourselves when we start feeling weak Then that weakness will be countered and cured And then we will be Happily situated in Krishna consciousness In this life and also in the next Eventually So basically two points How do we avoid acting like mad Firstly By not Letting our particular Weak points Our Sense objects that tempt us by not keeping them readily available Externally and secondly by Taking measures To cure our inner weaknesses By rendering steady devotional service Thank you Hare Krishna