Why our moods keep changing – and what we can do about it

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Perth, Australia]

Video:

I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you today at the Lotus Feast of Shishigar Nithay. And I’ll speak today on the topic of our moods, how, why our moods keep changing and what we can do about them. Sometimes we feel cheerful and joyful.

Oh, life is so wonderful. And sometimes after a few hours, we feel dreadful. I just don’t feel like doing anything.

My life is a big mess. Sometimes this may be just about life in general. Sometimes it may be about something specific.

One day we feel, oh, my job is so good, it’s so promising. The next day we go, oh, my job, such a big burden. Why did I ever take up this job? Sometimes we choose a particular career when we are in deciding during our education.

Yeah, this is such a great career. And sometimes we feel that this is stupid. What am I doing over here? And sometimes this can happen even with respect to our relationships.

Oh, this relationship is so good. This person is so good. And other days, what did I see good in this person at all? So the mind keeps going through various emotions.

And the Bhagavad Gita states that our moods arise from our moods. The moods are subtle forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness. The way we look at things, the way we process things, that is shaped by the moods that we have.

So suppose we are in a theater, in a movie theater and we’re watching a movie and suddenly there is the news. There’s a fire broken out. We see some flames somewhere.

Some people may just get totally petrified. Fire, frozen like stone. Most people will just run towards the nearest exit.

And if anybody is slow, we’ll push them down. They’re stampede. We’ll try to charge out.

Some people will try to find a way. Where is the fire extinguisher? We go against the crowd, go to the fire extinguisher and take it and turn off the fire. So what do these three categories of people represent? The person who just gets petrified, unable to do anything, that is in the mode of ignorance.

That is tamoguna. That is, Krishna says, aprakashopravattischa. In general, there is internal contemplation and there is outer action.

So in the mode of ignorance, there is neither contemplation nor action. There is simply delusion. Aprakashopravattischa, pramadomohaevacha, tamasyetanijayante, vivrddhekurunandana.

In 14.13 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that there is neither contemplation nor action. That is the mode of ignorance. Then, in the mode of passion, so the second category, people just run towards the exit.

They are in the mode of passion. Yes. In the mode of passion, there is action first and contemplation later.

Lobha pravrttirarambha, karmanam asyamaspruha, rajasyetanijayante, vivrddhebharatarshabha. So pravrtti, immediate action, to do something. Do it and then you, I should not have done like this.

We do one thing to solve one problem, but because we don’t think properly, I have to do this also, I have to do that also, I have to do that also. So third category is sarvadvaareshu dehesme. So third category is the people who are in the, who think and then they find a fire extinguisher and extinguish the fire.

They are in the mode of goodness. Yeah. In goodness, there is first contemplation and then action.

sarvadvaareshu dehesme, prakasham upajayate, jnanam yada tada vidyad, vivrddham sattva mithyutam. That when all the doors of the senses are illumined with knowledge, I will be able to think properly how I should act, how I should speak, what I should do. Prakasha, illumination is there.

That is in the mode of goodness. And Krishna says that these modes, three modes, they are competing with each other. tamascha, vibhuya, sattvam bhavati bharata, rajah sattvam tamaschaiva, tamah sattvam rajas tatha.

In 14.10, Gita he says that sometimes the mode of goodness dominates, curbing the modes of passion and ignorance. Sometimes passion takes over. So curbing ignorance and goodness and sometimes ignorance takes over.

And accordingly, which mode is dominating at a particular time, our feelings vary accordingly. Some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen.

And some people wonder what happened. So those who are in goodness, they think, okay, they do this, do this, okay, you do this. They delegate, they make things happen.

Those who are in passion, they try to do one thing, but in one thing, they upset this person, they forget that, they make a mess out of that. What is happening? Some people watch things happen. And some people are so deluded.

What happened? So these are the three modes of material nature. And they are constantly acting on us. And because they are acting on us, they pull us in different directions at different times.

And depending on which mode is influencing us when, we have different feelings at those times. And we act in different ways accordingly. So these modes are not just conceptual constructs.

They’re actually real but subtle forces that act on us. And they shape our consciousness accordingly. That means that when these forces come, when you start feeling bored, when you start feeling angry, when you start feeling depressed, those feelings are for real.

And we can’t just wish them away. But at the same time, we can’t let ourselves be whisked away by those feelings. I feel like this, that’s what I’m going to do.

I feel bored, so I’ll not do this. So we can see these moods very much in children. One moment the child is very joyful, playing and happy.

And next moment the child starts crying. Mother looks, what happened? It’s difficult to find, what happened? What provoked you? One moment the child is studying sincerely. And the mother thinks, okay, let me go and do my work.

And after some time she comes back, the child has gone away to play somewhere. So the children are especially governed very much by their mind. In us, we have three levels of our existence, the body, the mind and the soul.

So if somebody ties us with physical ropes, we could immediately say, oh, you tied me? How dare you tie me? And if you are tied, somebody would come and free us from it. But there are invisible ropes that tie us. And they tie us at the level of the mind.

In 14.5, Krishna says that these three modes, sattva, raja and tama, they nibananti, they tie us all. Mahabaho, oh Arjuna, you are very powerful, but even you are not powerful enough to resist the bonds of these modes. They tie everyone.

And they pull us in different directions. Dehe, dehinam avyayam, dehe is the body, dehinam is the soul. Essentially the soul becomes tied to the body through the modes.

And become tied to different objects. So an alcoholic may appear to be free. I have my own car, I can catch this plane, I can go to this park, I can do whatever I want.

Alcoholic is free physically, but is not free mentally. Alcoholic may go from Australia to the other part of the world, may go to Europe or America. But even when they get there, alcoholic will get the desire.

I want to drink. And will be pulled over there, pulled to a bar to drink. So the modes bind us at the subtle level.

Addiction is bondage and it is not physical bondage. It is bondage at the level of the mind. Now we may not be addicts to anything, but we also have our moods.

And when the moods come upon us, they are basically some subtle ropes are pulling us. We may want to study, but I just don’t feel like studying. Feeling is pulling me.

I want to go and maybe watch a movie. I want to go and play some sports. I want to go and chit chat with somebody.

You feel a force pulling us in some directions. These ropes are for real. They are not physical, but they are still real.

And because these ropes fall on us in different ways at different times, accordingly we get pulled in different directions. So some of you may have seen some western or cowboy movies. There is some victim, some person is trying to run away and this cowboy may have a lasso, a rope with a noose around it.

And they throw it. And this person is running freely at one moment and next moment. Just stopped and the rope falls on their body and then pulled.

Not just stopped, but pulled in the opposite direction. So similarly, we may be doing one particular thing. We may come to a temple and we may have a very spiritual, peaceful, sweet, devotional consciousness.

And then suddenly we see something, we remember something and suddenly some negative desire comes in. Anger comes within us, hate comes within us, lust comes within us, greed comes within us. And you just get pulled.

You say, what happened? Just now I was thinking about Krishna and such sweet devotional emotions. And thak, now what happened? What happened to my consciousness? So, it’s not that we are bad just because such desire has come within us. It’s that we are in a territory where the lasso of material desires can fall on us at any moment.

And depending on the kind of habits we have cultivated, the kind of desires we have nurtured, sometimes different lassos may fall on us at different times. I hope all of you understand the word lasso. Is it pronounced as lasso or something else? Lasso.

So, different lassos, they fall on us. Sometimes the lasso of boredom may fall on us. Sometimes the lasso of anger may fall on us.

At one moment we are peaceful and suddenly next moment we explode. We are pulled by this. So, when our moods change suddenly, it is because we are in a vulnerable territory.

As long as, say, if a person is trying to run away from the clutches of somebody who has abducted them, they are trying to run away, as long as they have lassos, the abductor, the kidnappers have lassos, they throw it, let me get caught at that moment. So, like that, while we are in the material world, while we are in material consciousness, we are vulnerable. Now, which lassos will catch us will depend on which desires or which emotions we have indulged in in the past.

So, a person who has not drunk alcohol, that person may pass by a bar and no desire will come over there. May not even notice there is a bar over there. But for a person who is alcoholic, as soon as the bar comes, I want to drink.

No, I got a lot of work to do. No, I want to drink. No, I got a lot of work to do.

Okay, I’ll do the work later. Let me go and drink. So, what has happened? The lasso has fallen and the lasso is pulling, pulling, pulling.

So, because the alcoholic has drunk many times earlier, that’s why the lasso has become very strong. The lasso is present and it is strong. And just as this can happen to addictions, it can also happen with respect to emotions.

If we habitually cultivate a critical attitude, whoever we see with, we find faults with them. Then fault finding becomes our disposition. Now, whenever we see anyone, the first thought that comes in us is negative.

This person, so lazy. This person, so forgetful. This person, so arrogant.

This person, so quarrelsome. Oh, what happens? This critical mentality just becomes our habitual disposition. Now, everybody has faults.

In fact, Bhagavatam says, in Kali Yuga, there is an ocean of faults around us. Kaler, dosho, nidhe, raj. It is an ocean of faults around us.

Now, in this age, to find faults, our mind says, oh, you are so clever. Now, everybody thinks this person is so good, but you can find faults in this person. You are so clever.

But actually finding faults in this age, in Kali Yuga, in the present time and place, is, it requires as much cleverness as is required to find water in an ocean. Water is everywhere. If at all we want to do some benefit, we have to look for the land.

Then we can get to the land and we get some stability and safety. So, if you want to look for faults, it is just everywhere around us. So, whatever we do repeatedly, whether it is action or whether it is emotion, if we engage in it, we entertain it repeatedly, that becomes a pattern.

And a pattern means, it is like a lasso that is formed and that will pull us. So, now, how do we deal with this? I said, I will talk in two parts. Why our moods change suddenly? Because we are all pulled by these lassos, which pull us here, pull us there.

And what can we do about it? How can we overcome it? So, at one level, a person is caught by a lasso. And they try to pull, the tighter, the further they pull, the tighter the lasso becomes around them. Instead of that, what they need to do is, you see, I have a knife here.

We take that knife and cut off the lasso. Cut off the lasso, then that is what will free that person. So, this knife, which can help us cut off, what can that refer to? The Bhagavad Gita refers to knowledge and detachment.

In the fourth chapter, in the 42nd verse, Krishna says that that Oh Arjuna, now arise, and with the sword of knowledge, cut off the ignorance that is there and arise. So, knowledge, when we understand, See, the trick is that when a certain feeling comes within us, when a certain desire comes within us, when a certain thought comes within us, if we identify with that thought, then it catches us. Means, okay, if I say that, okay, now anger is coming within me.

Yes, this person is behaving in a particular way. This has happened in this way. So, anger is coming within me.

That I observe. But if instead of saying anger is coming within me, if I think, I am getting angry now, or more than that, I will act angrily now. So, as soon as we think that the emotion within us is our emotion, the mood that is there within us, it is my mood, then we get caught by it.

Actually, the lasso falls on us, not just when that emotion comes within us, the lasso falls on us when we identify with that emotion. Now, what is the difference between the arrival of the emotion and the identification with the emotion? It is the difference, say, we are doing some studies, and we have an assignment or exam coming up soon, and then the friend comes and says, Hey, there is a new movie. There is a new movie.

Let’s go and watch the movie. Now we think, okay, should I go? No, I have got some studies to do. When somebody comes and proposes to us, we evaluate the proposal.

And then we will decide, no, I can’t go now. No, I will not go. Hey, come on, no, no, not now, maybe in future sometime.

So, what is happening? We see that person as external to us, and then we evaluate. Should I accept it or should I not accept it? And then based on that, we decide. So, when somebody external to us proposes something to us, it is easy to evaluate, because we don’t immediately identify with it.

Now, we normally think of external and internal from the reference point of the body. So, if somebody else outside us speaks something to us, we evaluate. That’s external.

But we are not the body. We are the soul. And from the soul’s perspective, even the mind is external to us.

What if the outer world is external to us? But even the mind is external to us. So, just because a desire or an emotion has come in the mind, that does not necessarily mean it is our emotion. Just a visitor has come, a friend has come to our room, saying, let’s do this.

That doesn’t mean it is our desire. So, Krishna says, we need to become the observer of our emotions. In 14.22-25, he talks about how to deal with the different moods that come within us.

He says, Krishna says, In the shorthand ways, he refers to goodness, passion and ignorance. Prakasha is illumination. In the mode of goodness, there is clarity.

In the mode of passion, there is hyperaction. I want pravrtti. And in the mode of ignorance, there is delusion.

So, when these different emotions come, What is this? Sorry. When these emotions come, we don’t resent why they come. Or, we don’t crave for them.

Okay, they have come. That means, we stay as if detached. We observe them.

Now, It is as if detached. We cannot be completely detached, because those emotions are coming inside us. We have to observe them, we have to evaluate them.

The moods when they come, we don’t get agitated by them. We understand, this is happening because of the moods. By knowing that we are souls, we are spiritual beings, where these emotions are coming within our mind.

We stay situated on the spiritual platform. Then, we can resist these moods. The key is to be To be detached.

In English, there are two words, disinterested and uninterested. So, although they sound similar, they have different meanings. Disinterested means impartial.

Not taking sides. Not having any vested interests. Uninterested means having no interest at all.

Not caring for it at all. So, And Krishna is saying that we should be We should be detached. He is talking about being disinterested.

Not uninterested. It’s like, to understand the difference, consider a cricket match. In a cricket match, at the center is the umpire.

The umpire has to be disinterested. The umpire should be impartial. Not that the umpire favors a particular team and lets all the other team players get out even if they are not out, declares them out.

The umpire should be disinterested. Be impartial. It’s not that the umpire should be uninterested.

The players appeal. How’s that? The umpire says, you know, I had gone to sleep. Or I was looking elsewhere.

The umpire has to be interested. But the umpire has to be disinterested in the sense that, be impartial. Similarly, we need to be like that.

So, we can say, just because some players appeal, hey, that’s out, out, how’s that, how’s that? Now, that just because a player has appealed does not mean that the umpire is going to grant the appeal. The umpire has to evaluate. Okay, is this really out or is it not out? What exactly happened? The umpire evaluates and then the umpire decides, gives a judgment, gives a decision.

So, similarly, we can see that these various emotions that come within us, they are like players who are appealing. Hey, how’s that? Come on, let’s eat this, let’s watch this, let’s touch this, let’s do this. Alright, come on, this is so boring, just stop it.

You will never do it, you know, just give up. It can be desires, it can be emotions. When they come in, we need to become like an inner umpire and observe them.

Okay, I am feeling bored right now, I am feeling angry right now. What does that mean? Not that I identify with that anger, but rather that feeling of boredom has come within me. The feeling of anger has come within me.

Now, how do I respond? So, the umpire responds, umpire acknowledges the player’s appeal but doesn’t decide simply based on the appeal. The umpire uses one’s intelligence to evaluate the situation. Similarly, the emotions and the desires are going to appeal within us.

But we need to have our intelligence. That’s why I said earlier that Krishna says that use knowledge to cut off the lasso. When the rope of desire falls on us, use knowledge to cut off that lasso.

And later on in the 14th chapter, Krishna talks about another weapon. He says that असंगशस्त्रेनद्रुधेनचित्त्व He says that तःपदं तत्परिमार्गितव्यम् He says that रूपमस्येहत तोपलभ्यते नान्तोणचाधिनचसंप्रतिष्ठ अश्वत्धमेनं स्विरूदमूलं असंगशस्त्रेनद्रुधेनचित्व असंग is attachment असंग is detachment With the weapon of detachment, cut it off So detachment here means that we don’t get infatuated by the pleasure We don’t get carried away by the emotion Observe Okay, I am not interested in this So with detachment, we cut off that And Bhagavatam it is said that this is both ज्यान and वैराज्य Knowledge and detachment both result from the remembrance of Krishna वासुदेवेः भगवति भक्तियोगः प्रयोजितः जनयत्यासुवयाशुवयिराज्यम् ज्यानं जयदायतु कम् When we cultivate the remembrance of Krishna At that time, that remembrance of Krishna it removes the fog in our consciousness And because of that, knowledge arises दामि बुद्धि योगम्तम् येनमाम पयांतिते Krishna says, I will give you the knowledge of what to do and what not to do And then, when we see Okay, this is higher, this is lower This is better, this is short-sighted Then that वैराज्य, that brings detachment So both knowledge and detachment come from the remembrance of Krishna This is 1.2.7 in the Bhagavatam And 80 verses later, in 1.2.15 The Bhagavatam says, the best weapon to cut off the noose of desires is यद अनुध्यासिना युक्तः यद अनुध्यासिना युक्तः कर्मग्रंथी निबंधन चिन्दंति कोविदास्तस्य कोनकूर्यात कथारतेम् It says that यद अनुध्यासिना आसिना is a swore यद अनुध्या remembrance of Krishna that is the swore with the remembrance of Krishna with that swore, we cut off कर्मग्रंथी निबंधन the desires that have come because of our past karma we cut them off चिन्दंति कोविदास्तस्य that is what wise people do and for doing this for remembering Krishna we need to hear about Krishna if we don’t hear about Krishna how will we remember him so कोनकूर्यात कथारतेम् who will not be eager to hear about Krishna so the more we cultivate the remembrance of Krishna what happens that becomes like the swore with which we can cut off the moods, the desires which come within us now cut off doesn’t mean that we reject all our moods or all our emotions some of our emotions are valid sometimes when we are angry that other person has behaved in a provocative way and that inappropriate behavior needs to be acknowledged and it may need to be corrected but the thing is that we don’t act simply on the impulse we with knowledge we evaluate this is how this is what has happened just like an umpire evaluates the people and then decides what to do so the remembrance of Krishna is the greatest stabilizer of our moods one mood will pull us this way one mood will pull us that way but if we keep remembering Krishna two things happen first is that we become purified when the more we become purified that means say some kidnappers are trying to catch a person who is running away so we are trying to run away from the shackles of our worldly desires worldly moods worldly habits so if the captor has a lasso but that is of only a finite length and we go beyond that reach then the lasso will not catch us so we can see in our own lives if we practice bhakti steadily there are certain things in which we may have indulged in the past but those desires no longer trouble us so many devotees in the past may have been say eating meat but now if we start practicing bhakti prasadam is really higher taste and even if we are travelling in a train or a plane and we see somebody eating meat even if that person is eating an item which we used to enjoy earlier we hardly feel any desire for it now some of us might have been doing some we all can think of some activities which we might have been doing in the past but now it’s not that we have to resist those activities resist those desires those desires don’t come only now so this indicates that the power of bhakti has taken us beyond the reach of that lasso so this is purification purification means that the desire itself is no longer present this happens gradually but till that happens even when the desire comes when the lasso falls on us at that time the remembrance of Krishna is what? becomes like a sword which cuts us off yes I am feeling bored right now I don’t feel like doing anything but still Krishna I’ll try to chat I’ll try to pray I’ll try to read something we somehow or the other try to connect with Krishna and when we do that then that creates a channel that becomes like just we are trying to remember Krishna we are trying to reach the sword the lasso has caught us and we are just being pulled back but somehow we reach reach down to the knife which was there in our pocket we pull it out and slash cut it so sometimes we don’t feel like remembering Krishna at all now when we chant Hare Krishna we do japa sometimes we feel so good now this japa is so powerful I feel so absorbed I feel so pure the sound is so resonant I just want to chant more and more we feel like chanting should never end but on most days we feel chanting never ends sometimes we have our beads and we take out the beads with the bead bag has somebody changed the beads instead of 108 beads has somebody put 1008 beads over here so sometimes we just don’t feel like doing it now when this happens at that time somehow or the other we have to connect with Krishna now Krishna is an understanding God he knows what we are going through and Krishna sees not just our feelings he sees our feelings about our feelings what does that mean? he sees our feelings about our feelings that means I am feeling bored yes I am feeling bored but I pray to Krishna Krishna I don’t want to feel bored you are so merciful you have manifested as the holy name please I want to chant please give me strength Krishna please give me intelligence Krishna I don’t want to feel angry I don’t want to feel envious I don’t want to feel like this please help me to overcome these feelings so rather than identifying with those feelings we observe those feelings and we identify those feelings the difference between identifying with those feelings and identifying those feelings rather than saying ok I am becoming I am angry now say ok anger has come within me now and Krishna I don’t want to become angry please help me to calm down please help me to deal with this situation calmly so we even when those feelings come within us sometimes they may overwhelm us but if we try to pray to Krishna if we try to connect with Krishna that will calm us down even in the small connection with Krishna Krishna we chant Krishna’s name we all have to find out how best we can connect with Krishna that means that the mind is very unpredictable and we cannot have any rule by which we control the mind the mind is like a child I said earlier so when the child starts crying the mother cannot have one formula that works all time I just give the child some milk sometimes the child may just toss the milk bottle away and keep crying give the child a toy sometimes the child tosses the toy away and stops keeps crying so the mother has to see what works what works once I saw a youtube video of a small boy a boy was crying loudly and you know the mother was there some of her friends were there relatives were there they were all trying to pacify the child and the child was not getting pacified at all then finally the mother took the child and the mother screamed loudly and the mother screamed loudly the child just looked at her and his mouth fell open and he forgot to cry I don’t recommend that the point I am making is that when a child is crying the mother cannot apply one standard formula to pacify the child yes some things may work more some child just like to talk like to play with toys some child just talk with them little bit they become calm some children swing them around there may be different ways to deal with different children but it’s not one formula for all children nor is it one formula for the same child at all times we have to see what works similarly our mind is like a child and we have to find out how to pacify the child it’s a child like mind so some things will work more than others for us and we have to find that in the in the Bhaktirasaamrit Sindhu which is a book a manual for devotion which Prabhupada called it so and a further advanced book which Rupa Goswami has written is called Ujjwal Neelamani and there he talks about a concept called Uddhipan I’ll conclude with this point Uddhipan is spiritual stimulus spiritual stimulus means that we all have sensual stimuli we see certain thing and immediately desires come up within us we so we all have certain stimuli that trigger us so for an alcoholic it may be alcohol bottle for a drug addict it may be drugs for a movie for a person who watches movies compulsively just some sight of a theatre or a poster of a movie for somebody who is mad after say some sports just a sight of a some news of the sports that may captivate them so we all have our worldly triggers when some stimulus comes from that direction it agitates us but similarly we all have our spiritual triggers spiritual stimuli so we do we practice the standard process of bhakti but while practicing that standard process we observe what connects us with Krishna most easily most effectively for some of us it may be kirtan just hear the soothing kirtan ahh and we’ll be relieved for some of us it may be just taking darshan of the deities we keep the deities we come to the temple and take darshan or we just look at the picture in our phone and we feel ahh this is Krishna it is so beautiful let me play to Krishna for some of us it may be reciting Vaishnava songs songs infuse a devotional mood within us for some of us it may be reciting verses for some of us it may be hearing some classes or just remembering some passages some points from within the classes for some of us it may be just contacting some particular devotee just talking with the devotee for a few moments for a few minutes let me calm us down so we have to find out what is the what is the word what is uddhipan uddhipan means spiritual stimulus so what is the spiritual stimulus that works most effectively for us and we need to keep that spiritual stimulus ready with us constantly that means whenever that spiritual stimulus whenever we go feel agitated we try to connect with Krishna through that spiritual stimulus we strive so whenever the whenever the lasso of say anger falls on us of greed falls on us of negativity pessimism falls on us of critical mentality falls on us at that time we try to immediately let me chant Krishna’s name let me recite a verse let me take some darshan and that way we redirect our consciousness towards Krishna and as we do this we find that the pull of those that lasso on us will decrease and gradually we will become stabler we will become stronger so it is not that just because we have some feelings that means we have to act on those feelings it also does not mean that we suppress all our feelings we evaluate those feelings and for evaluating those feelings we need to have something which will calm us down something which will act like a break so our spuddhipan our spiritual stimulus can act like that break and then once that acts as a break then we calm down and after that we evaluate normally we think of our emotions only in two terms expressing them or repressing them if somebody provokes me I get angry I get angry and blast at them or I think I repress or not get angry I repress them neither of them is healthy now if I express it I will speak words which will hurt the other person terribly and which I will regret later but if I repress myself then that will choke me from within and eventually all those repressed feelings will come out in ugly burst ugly blast afterwards so we need to go beyond expressing and repressing to processing processing our emotions and processing requires intelligence just like the umpire processes the appeal so similarly we process our emotions and this requires strong intelligence so the more we study the Bhagavad Gita the more we understand how our inner world works then we can evaluate ok this is what is happening and let me act in this way let me not act in that way ya this is a valid concern ok let me express it but express it in a sensitive way not an aggressive way so we learn to deal with our emotions we can’t wish away our emotions but we can acknowledge them and appropriately respond to them so in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita which Krishna analyzes the three modes of material nature Prakruti Trayaguna Vibhaga Yoga it is called 14th chapter it concludes one of the concluding verses is Krishna says practice bhakti unflinchingly maam cha yogya bhicha re na bhakti yogena sevate sa gunan samatit yaitan brahma bhuyaya kalpate Krishna says if you practice bhakti with determination unbreakably bhakti we practice then we will go beyond the influence of the modes we will come to the spiritual platform and the more we come to the spiritual platform the less the moods of the mind will trouble us and the less the moods of the mind trouble us the more the joyfulness of bhakti will become accessible to us suppose say this glass contains sweet rice it contains water right now suppose it contains sweet rice and say I am trying to drink it but while drinking as I drink it suddenly somebody just pushes my mouth off then all that sweet rice will fall on my mouth I try to get my mouth back to drink it and somebody pushes my mouth in this direction then maybe one or two drops of the sweet rice go in my mouth but most of the time I was being deprived of the sweet rice why? because the sweet rice flow is coming but I am not my mouth is not there my mouth is elsewhere so similarly for us the remembrance of Krishna is like a flow of sweet rice it’s a supreme sweet Saras Janaya Nesha Shankha Chakra Muru Bidhi Maa Virama Swachit Tarantum Sukha Tarama Param Na Jaatu Jaane Hari Charana Smarana Amrute Na Tulyam the great saint Kula Shekhar in his prayers in Mukunda Mala Sutra says that I don’t know any joy that compares to the joy of remembrance of Krishna Kula Shekhar was a great king in the past so all the pleasures of the world he had in abundance no pleasure compares to the pleasure of remembrance of Krishna so the pleasure of remembrance of Krishna is profound it’s profuse it’s wonderful but presently our mind is restless and the mind makes us while we are chanting Hare Krishna the mind makes us hey look at what this person is doing while we are chanting Hare Krishna you know what that person spoke like that you know what about this what about that our mind keeps going here there and everywhere and that’s why we don’t connect much with Krishna and because we don’t connect much with Krishna we don’t get the taste of Krishna Bhakti so much but as we keep with whatever capacity we have we practice Bhakti steadily by that the force that is pulling us our consciousness here and there that force subsides weakens and then when the sweet rice is coming our mouth is there we can drink it and relish it so as the as the mind becomes peaceful the heart becomes joyful as the mind becomes peaceful the heart connects with Krishna who is the source of the greatest joy and thus we become joyful so we in a committed way no matter how I feel right now I’ll keep practicing Bhakti I’ll process my feelings but more important is I’ll keep trying to connect with Krishna by that connection we will sukhasya aita antikasyacha the Bhagavad Gita’s 14th chapter last verse says in this way we’ll experience we’ll relish the ultimate happiness so I’ll summarize what I spoke today I spoke about how our mood why our moods change suddenly and what we can do about it so with respect to our job our life our career our relationships sometimes we feel very good sometimes we feel very bad so good so bad these flickering of our moods happens because of the moods the moods are subtle forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness these moods are invisible ropes which catches and pull us so in goodness in ignorance there is neither contemplation nor action there is simply delusion in passion there is first action then contemplation and in goodness there is first contemplation then action example of how when a fire breaks out in a movie theater different people respond differently so these moods they are internally fighting within us and depending on which mood which mood dominates us accordingly our emotions fluctuate so these moods are like invisible ropes when we are trying to move in a particular direction the lasso falls on us and pulls us and that’s why at one moment we are feeling devotional and other next moment we start feeling sensual grossly sensual the lasso is pulling us in another direction so when the lasso is pulling we need to take out a sword and cut off cut off the lasso so the sword is three things it’s knowledge it’s detachment and ultimately it is remembrance of Krishna by knowledge we understand that the emotions that come within me are not me just like a if a visitor comes and tells us come on let’s go to a movie we evaluate we don’t identify with that proposal so from the soul’s perspective even the mind is external so when an emotion comes within us don’t identify with the emotion identify the emotion ok anger is coming within me and then we evaluate so we need the knowledge of that in our inner world every emotion that comes within me is not my emotion and then we need detachment detachment is also a sword I don’t get involved in it I am not going to get into this so which lasso falls on us and pulls us depends on what kind of desires we have become attached to in the past alcoholic will feel the lasso when passing by a bar non-alcoholic will not feel any lasso so both knowledge and detachment come from the remembrance of Krishna so the remembrance of Krishna is the sharpest sword so rather than trying to fight with the emotion I don’t want to feel angry I don’t want to feel like this rather than fighting with the emotion fighting with the emotion like pulling against the pull of the lasso that will only tighten the room instead of that we strive to remember Krishna and remembrance of Krishna clears the inner fog gives us knowledge and then it gives us higher happiness because Krishna is a source of higher joy and thus the lower desire we can resist its pull below so Krishna says we become udhaseena we become detached we become disinterested not uninterested like an umpire in a cricket field we we don’t reject the appeal we don’t accept the appeal we evaluate the appeal similarly we observe and rather than expressing or repressing the emotion we process the emotion so when sometimes while practicing bhakti itself the mood interrupts us mood obstructs us then we need to find out some udhipan something within the activities of bhakti by which we can easily connect with Krishna there is no one formula that works at all time or for all people just as there is no one formula by which a mother can pacify mothers can pacify children so we have to find out what works for us and at udhipan our particular way in which we connect with Krishna we cherish that keep that as accessible as possible to us and by that connection with Krishna we resist the ups and downs of the moods and even the moods take us up and down still we keep holding on to Krishna and by that gradually the mind will become purified so purification means we go beyond the beyond the reach of the lasso the desire itself doesn’t come upon us but before purification comes illumination at least understand I don’t want to do this even if I feel like it so the more we become purified the mind as it becomes peaceful we will become joyful because bhakti is like sweet rice but our mind is not letting us drink it by distracting us but as the mind becomes peaceful we start relishing the sweetness of bhakti and then we become joyful and then we march steadily towards Krishna towards internal satisfaction and towards external contribution doing worthwhile things in his service thank you very much Hare Krishna are there any questions or comments yes ok yeah so what exactly are the modes I said modes are subtle forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness so when I observe something material how that material thing affects me that is shaped by the modes so if I am in if I am in the mode of goodness and I see a forest I will think oh it’s a peaceful place I can sit and I can read and I can meditate over here if I am in the mode of passion and I see a forest I may remember the latest romantic movie that I had seen I think if I had a partner I would enjoy so much over here if I am in the mode of ignorance and I look at a forest such soft grass I could sleep over here so the same material object is there but depending on which mode is present that consciousness will get directed accordingly so the modes are subtle forces that shape the interaction between matter and consciousness ok thank you yes for me is there a transcendental mode also when we are trying to connect with Krishna yes there is what is called Vishuddha Sattva there is pure goodness so at the transcendental level the devotees also have their particular modes there are some devotees serve Krishna in the mode of parent some devotees serve Krishna as a friend but those are all transcendental so right now our primary focus is on going beyond the lower material modes and focusing on connecting with Krishna once that connection with Krishna becomes stable then the specific mood in which we connect with Krishna that will be gradually revealed does that answer your question ok so instead of contemplating and analyzing can we just simply remember Krishna yes can you just call out to Krishna yes definitely again I said if that works because the nature of illusion is that it covers us and then it covers the covering so that we don’t even know we are covered it’s like if a person is blind that person knows ok I am blind now I have to take a stake or I have to ask someone the way but if I I can’t see but I think I can see then I just walk and I bang into a wall I don’t know what happened so for us when we are in illusion it’s not just that we can’t see we get a false vision so that is what is a great danger for us so I am saying this is sometimes when we are overwhelmed by the moods we will not even feel like calling out to Krishna yes if we can call out to Krishna at that time and just keep calling out even if the feeling is there please keep calling out the negative emotion will go out negative mood or emotion will go down but sometimes we will just not feel like calling out to Krishna so at that time we need some intellectual connection it is an intelligence means to know what to do when we don’t know what to do intelligence means to know what to do when we don’t know what to do if I don’t know what to do how can I know well yes if I don’t know what to do what should I do at that time let me pray to Krishna let me chant Krishna’s name let me do something which will calm me down so what that thing will be chanting is extremely powerful but we should be able to access it if somehow we are not able to access it let me be reciting some verses singing some songs looking at deities whatever works Rupa Goswami gives the operating principle for us somehow or the other fix the mind on Krishna does it answer your question thank you any other questions or comments yes thank you Prabhu once we are able to become aware of that we have been connected with the lower modes it can become quite disheartening at times or discouraging so how can we look beyond that that we have already understood that we have been there what will be the next step ok so if we understand that we are now being connected with or we have been pulled down by the lower modes that itself can be very discouraging so what to do after that yes we have to know that the mind is extremely cunning so the mind is like a person say if there is a boxing match going on and one boxer knocks down the other boxer now this boxer has fallen down the boxer wants to get up and again resume the fight the boxer has been knocked down not knocked out fallen down the boxer can rise when the boxer is to rise the boxer should look at the coach the coach says come on get up do this try this but if instead this fallen boxer looks at the coach the so sometimes the mind knocks us down and then after that should I get up and fight we ask the mind only the mind says no don’t get up you are never going to win so we we at that time need to have some devotees some friends who encourage us or we can have something some passage from scripture Krishna says he always cares for us he never leaves our heart and goes away so some passage from scripture some verses which inspire us so we have to consult the right person so the discouragement is unavoidable but how we respond to the discouragement is important if we further consult the discourager only or the person who has defeated us or knocked us down that is the negative emotions within the mind we will not be able to resist so we need to connect with the right source who will encourage us that is the first thing second thing is that even if we fall in the long run in our spiritual life we are not defined by how we fall but by how we rise if we consider our moods if we consider this graph of consciousness versus time so then sometimes our lower desires the lower moods spike up they shoot up and then at that time we feel very angry we feel very greedy very envious whatever very gloomy whatever so now when those when that negative emotion or desire shoots up at that time it may almost be impossible to resist but it is not that that negative mood is there 24 hours a day so ok that mood came and it is gone now what do I do after that it may come again but in between what do we do if at that time ok that happened it is over now let me try to connect with Krishna let me try to serve Krishna not that we minimize the wrong that we may have done at that time but we understand that by valuing by lamenting about the wrong that happened at that time that we did at that time that is not going to make us stronger what is going to make us stronger is how much we connect with Krishna so if we focus on connecting with Krishna right now ok right now I am not agitated right now I am not disturbed so let me connect with Krishna then that connection with Krishna will strengthen us and next time when the desire surges up when the mood goes back goes negative at that time we will be in a better position to resist it we may not succeed again we may fail but each time in between those phases of strong negatives if we are connecting with Krishna then that connection with Krishna will slowly but steadily strengthen us and then eventually we will become strong enough that when the mood surges towards the negative when the lower mood starts pulling us at that time we will be able to fight back and we will be able to resist them so rather than getting too disheartened by specific defeats or reversals specific relapses we can focus on the overall pattern let me connect with Krishna as much as we can so we may fall down but we don’t have to fall away fall down means I am going on the path I fall down fall away means I just give up the path so we never give up the path we keep practicing and gradually we become purified so the greatest source of encouragement is remembering Krishna’s unfailing love for us that no matter what happens Krishna never abandons us he never leaves our heart and goes away Gajendra prays to Krishna in the Bhagavatam 8th canto madhruk prapanna pashupashya vimokshanaya muktaya bhuri karunaya namo layaya he says my dear lord please free me from this bondage muktaya you are liberated my dear lord the lord may say but why should I free you he says you are bound by your own karma by what you did in the past oh my dear lord yes I don’t deserve but you are immensely compassionate bhuri karunaya you are very merciful so you please free me the lord may say I’ve been trying to free you for so long you never turned towards me you never regarded given your attention to me my dear lord you never get tired of helping me oh layaya the lord writes in the purport that Krishna is tireless in trying to help us so our greatest encouragement is Krishna’s unfailing love for us no matter how many times you are turned away from Krishna no matter how many times you have been half-hearted in our practice of bhakti still Krishna is there with us our greatest weakness is not maybe it’s not lust or anger or greed or pessimism or whatever our greatest weakness is our unwillingness to believe that Krishna loves us our greatest weakness is our unwillingness to believe that Krishna loves us no matter how fallen we are no matter how many mistakes no matter how many offenses we may have committed Krishna never stops loving us so we may not feel that love right now because our consciousness is too disconnected but with scriptural understanding we try to connect with Krishna and when we do that gradually the strength of that connection will help us overcome whatever negativities may be there within thank you very much are there any other questions yes okay two questions yes Prabhu in the modern world right now when people have mental issues they go see psychologists they take lots and lots of medicine where does it fall okay so nowadays when people have mental health issues they go to psychologists psychiatrists and they take lots of medicines so what about that yes there are situations the brain is also organ and say if my hand has got fractured I can’t say that I’ll chant Hare Krishna the fracture will not get healed it can but we don’t demand Krishna from that the body is a machine and we take mechanical measures to cure it similarly in two situations if there is some structural issue structural developmental issue or structural damage to the brain or if there is some chemical imbalance in the brain now particular chemical is less particular hormone is less or whatever then in those cases medication is essential and we can’t think that just by chanting Hare Krishna that mood will go away or practicing bhakti so it’s a structural issue it needs to be dealt with however the tendency in today’s world is to try to pathologize all mental problems that means that just by going while going through life there will be difficulties we will lose some loud one there is grief because of that there can be anxiety there can be fear so we can’t find chemical solutions to human problems to try to find that is something which will not work in the long run so we need to grow up internally to deal with our emotions so it’s ok this happened this caused me anxiety this caused me grief let me just go to psychologist it’s not that every single emotion we go to psychologist that is not going to add psychologist at least we just talk and hear and speak but if you go to psychiatrist they prescribe medicines and sometimes those medicines can be addictive so you know before the 1960s there was no kind of medicine what we call today as antidepressants and now the biggest sale the most sold medicine is antidepressant medicines so is it that in the past people were not depressed and now they are becoming depressed or is it that the companies they just market themselves many pharmaceutical companies their promotion budget is more than their production budget so often we are made to feel as if I have this disease and I have to take this medicine there is a book written by psychiatrist called cracked why psychiatry is doing more harm than good and he gives an experiment there is a group of 5 doctors they themselves doctors but they went to psychiatric clinic and they all told that we are hearing some voices in our head and otherwise they behave normally but just based on that diagnosis they were all admitted in the hospital and they were told that you have to stay here they forcibly kept on no no we are just going through a test we are just experimenting they said you are in a big delusion you are thinking like that you have this and they had to stay over there for 15 days and then they were released when they started behaving normally and after that they went and reported back so when they reported back at that time the hospitals they got furious they said you tried to cheat us like this next time if you send people like this to cheat us we will detect it and then this doctor who had conducted this experiment after 15 after one month the hospital said that we found 15 people who were faking mental health problems and we sent all of them back and this doctor said I had sent no one over there so that means that on one side that people who were healthy their diagnosis was wrong and people who were actually sick they said we were faking so basically this is again not to criticize psychiatry psychiatry is also a valid medical branch and some people need it but the tendency to think that every mood dysfunction that is there I will go to a doctor and treat that that is not going to work so we have to grow emotionally grow spiritually and one of the things that helps us grow most effectively is strong relationships the main reason why people get caught by their emotions is because they are lonely so when when we are alone with our mind and whatever the mind says it just becomes overwhelming for us the mind gets us alone and then gets us so if we have good relationships then we will find that the stability that comes from that relationship helps us to resist what the mind is making us go through so it’s not that after 1960 suddenly people started getting more depression but it’s rather after the second world war the way the world shaped itself the whole society started becoming what you can say liberal in double codes and because of that all the relationships started fragmenting and that that inability to have good relationships that is what is causing loneliness and that’s what makes the mind’s moods wide so if we cultivate strong healthy relationships then that will help us to decrease the issues of the mind substantially and of course the most stabilizing relationship is our relationship with Krishna so the stronger we become in our relationship with Krishna the better we will be able to cope with the mind’s moods ok thank you yes go yeah Krishna connecting to Krishna and crying for Krishna so we do try connecting to Krishna and we lose the way we are not into it and our consciousness will not go with it we find that we are not good rest of us we do something wrong something we see that also how we differentiate these two how we really get into Krishna ok yes yeah connecting with Krishna and crying for Krishna sometimes because of our artha’s we are not able to connect so how do we actually connect and eventually come to the level of crying for Krishna yeah I am not at that level so I am not sure I can answer this question with realization but whatever I have heard I will try to speak something the the crying for Krishna can only happen in different ways in the sense that when we are in different modes when when a devotee feels helpless Krishna I have no shelter other than you at that time sometimes devotees think I am so fallen I am so sinful I am so bad now that is they are the exalted devotees when they feel like that actually they are seeing the greatness of Krishna and in comparison with that they feel their smallness and then they feel Krishna please help me when we try to feel helpless sometimes if you know if we say Krishna a great poet great Vaishnava saint he says I am more sinful than the most sinful people I am more fallen than worms in refuse now actually he is thinking in terms of this greatness of Krishna the immense mercy that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is having and in comparison with that he feels I am forefallen many times at our level if I say I am more sinful than the most sinful person I say that apparently with great emotion and then I open my eyes to see how many people are appreciating my humility so the mind is so cunning that it will make us proud of our humility so we cannot artificially act as if we are helpless we have that feeling of helplessness has to come naturally see for us sometimes helplessness comes because of frustration you know I am trying to do this I can’t do this I am trying to persuade this person this person is not listening I am trying to do this I can’t do this so that helplessness that comes from frustration is good that can make us call out to Krishna but when the frustration goes away again the calling out to Krishna will go away so frustration can lead to a connection with Krishna it can lead to an intense connection with Krishna but frustration cannot be a sustainable platform for connecting with Krishna because the nature of this world is frustration comes but it is intermittent so if my connection with Krishna if my crying out for Krishna is based only on my feeling frustrated my feeling helpless because I am not able to execute my plans over here then whenever I start executing my plans then I feel ok Krishna thank you bye bye not literally but we will not feel the need for Krishna so if anyway we can feel helpless and we can call out to Krishna that’s good but it’s not that we have to forcibly put ourselves in frustrating situations and think this will make me call out to Krishna it doesn’t work like that sometimes you may hear of some devotees they get some terrible disease they get some cancer or something like that and then suddenly they become very serious they become very absorbed in Krishna then you may think is it like you know this person got cancer and he becomes a serious devotee so if I get cancer will I also become a serious devotee the cancer is not the producer of bhakti isn’t it mercy is the producer of bhakti so in that situation somehow that person called out to Krishna that’s how they became serious so there is there is circumstantial bhakti and there is transcendental bhakti at the transcendental level the devotee realizes that without Krishna I am nothing devotees understand this material world is such a dangerous place and I am disconnected from Krishna there is the helplessness that comes not from frustration but from realization that this world is such a dangerous place so much distress so much danger in this world Krishna I need you Krishna I have been separated from you for so many lifetimes please help me to come to you Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that I am desperate Krishna I have fallen away from you in this deadly material existence please call me out rescue me from this I call out to you I beg for your mercy so to rise from this I beg for your mercy so to from this beg for so rise for your mercy from this I beg for your mercy to from this I beg for your mercy to rise this I beg for mercy to rise for your to rise from this this this to from this beg for mercy to rise from this I beg for too to beg