Why does the mind suddenly get agitated sometimes?

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Transcript

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thank you irrational ways during chanting, but those irrational ways are also repeated there are irrational repeated patterns, so what causes them and what can we do about them so firstly the mind we don’t have to bother too much about the content of the mind we simply have to cleanse it it’s like if you have got a trash can, we don’t have to see all that is present in the trash just throw away the trash so that way what all the mind is thinking about, we don’t have to think too much about it because from where certain thoughts may be coming in the mind we just can’t see, in general the agitations of the mind can come from two sources one is external and the second is internal external means we may see some horrific accident and then that gets stuck in our mind and we start complaining constantly people get what is called panic attacks by that or we may see some sexually agitating stimuli and then that, the mind starts replaining, so one is external stimuli external stimuli we can try to avoid as much as possible it’s not always possible to avoid entirely but surely we can minimize the exposure but apart from external stimuli which to some extent are controllable the mind can get agitated even by some internal stimuli like there is a puddle, the puddle of water which is calm can get agitated from two sources, one is that somebody throws a stone in it from outside the other is deep within there is some fermentation that happens and suddenly bubbles come up so like that what all is happening in our mind it is very difficult to find that out so why certain desires come up suddenly certain images come up suddenly we can’t really say that and at one level we should understand that the mind’s agitations are also karmic reactions karmic reactions don’t just come at the physical level they can also come at the mental level so we may go through phases when suddenly for no reason the lust increases suddenly for no reason anger increases so if we observe our life and we see that I have not done anything to increase the lust, I have not done anything to increase the anger I have not done anything to cause the increased anxiety levels then if we have not done anything then we don’t have to worry too much about it so it’s just the bubbles come up suddenly in the water similarly certain desires may come up, they are just coming because of karmic reactions now all that we need to do is to talk about it so our spiritual life is not defined by what the mind does it is defined by what we do what the mind does is it may come up with certain thoughts, it may get agitated with those thoughts but what we do is go along with those thoughts or we try to talk about those thoughts in general if we observe the mind is not constantly agitated it is not like 24 hours the mind is agitated yes there is some level of agitation on 24 hours but the difficult agitation is intermittent say if this is normal electricity level, sometimes the electricity has surges power surges are not constant, so like that the mind also has surges of passion sometimes it just goes off, so that surges of passion can be in terms of increased lust increased anger, increased greed or it can be in terms of certain appeals of stimuli which cause agitation so the point is that those stimuli when they come we just need to endure them sometimes the stimuli may come so forcefully that they may impel us to do something also yes sometimes lust may attack so much and at that phase we may do something wrong and think why did I do that so now if we obsess too much why did I do that why did I do that all that we are doing is the time when we had things under control when we could have done something to strengthen ourselves so the surges, the time of the surges it may be that things are not in our control but in between the surges things are in our control so instead of worrying too much about what happens in the surges we focus on what we can do between the surges and if between the surges we are constructively engaged in the shelter of Krishna then we will be able to gradually become purer, stronger and then we will be able to resist the surges also so if certain images come up during chanting or for that matter during any other time also right so the surges don’t really matter ultimately Krishna doesn’t hold what happens to us he doesn’t hold us responsible for what happens to us we are responsible for what we do in response to it so even if there are certain images come in the mind don’t bother too much about it just try to create some mechanism that you can tolerate them more and they will just pass and as they pass their frequency will go down and gradually they will disappear as they become more and more purified so trying to analyze too much about what causes some surges there is a whole branch of psychology called as psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud pioneered that people try to go back and focus on their past childhood memories and find out what caused certain psychological patterns that may be of some help but ultimately even if you find out some childhood shocks which caused certain thought patterns still we live in a world which can always give us other shocks in future so rather than trying to retrace the past shocks in order to free ourselves from their consequences it is far better that we purify ourselves and raise our consciousness to a spiritual level where we will get the wherewithal to endure all shocks those from the past those from the present and also those which will come in the future so our Krishna consciousness will toughen us internally and whatever shocks come in they will not affect us so much so when the mind starts oscillating if we habituate ourselves in between the surges if we are taking shelter of Krishna if we are holding on tightly to Krishna when the surges come, the mind just goes off in some other direction if we have habituated ourselves to holding on to Krishna then we won’t just blindly go off in that direction, rather we will hold on to Krishna still and in the mind itself we say okay, this person is not coming with me the mind will come back and gradually the mind will stop going in that direction so the mind in that sense is like a pet dog if we encourage some behaviour it will do it more and more but if we neglect it, it will stop that behaviour so when the mind starts coming up with strange ideas and as to the best of our observation we have not caused anything to come up for it to come up with those images then better don’t pay any attention, just focus on taking shelter of Krishna and dominating them and then they will be bored