You Are Not Your Mind You are Better Day 1 By HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhu

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
both yeah we will talk about that true and then what does it do so we could say broadly speaking the soul is here the mind is here the body is here so if we consider our existence to be three level this is the self soul, mind body so basically to continue to reiterate the metaphor which one of you had used the body is broadly like the hardware the mind is like the software the soul is the user now within the body there is the brain so we could say the brain is like the CPU so the brain is a physical organ just as the CPU is a physical unit within the hardware now if you see in this structure I am using a minimalist model there is a subtle body in the subtle body you can talk about the ego and the intelligence let’s not get into that right now in software you can have a virus in software you can have operating system you can have user installed apps you can have varieties of software but here I am using the mind generically to refer to the part of us which is the link between the soul and the body Krishna also uses in this sense say for example he says we have to control our mind or if we control our mind it is our friend otherwise it becomes our enemy so there he is not bringing you have to use your intelligence to control your mind just use a straight we and our mind so the minimalist model so this is Krishna is broadly talking about 6.5 and 6 in terms of the flashlight so this is the light source and from this light source a beam of light is coming out so like that the source of light is the Atma and what that is the soul and what comes out from the Atma is the Chetana it is the beam of consciousness so we could put it this way that the consciousness comes out the consciousness comes out from the soul is this color visible so the consciousness comes out from the soul and goes through the mind through the body to the outer world and that is how the processing of information happens now in this conceptual model the soul is the root of consciousness the mind is the root of consciousness so one is the root is the source the other is the root or the route which is the pathway so normally consciousness has two functions it is the light of awareness it is through consciousness that we are aware of things so this light of awareness function is associated more with the inflow of information it is associated with the Gyanendriyas Gyanendriya what does the word mean knowledge acquiring senses so it is the beam of light that is coming out so right now say you are looking over there so through your eyes your consciousness is coming out and it is taking in the information and then the consciousness also plays the role of energy for action so for example if you read something which seems to be interesting so that information comes in and that information comes hey this is interesting I want to note it down then the consciousness as energy is going to your fingers and you are noting something down so there is this part is associated with the Karmendriyas that we could put it another way that the mind is like the center point and into the mind the Gyanendriyas bring in information and through the mind the Karmendriyas receive our intention for execution so the mind is the interface in the 15th chapter Krishna talks about this Shrotram chakshu sparshanam cha rasanam grana meva cha adhishthaya manashthayam vishayanupasevate so if we consider the mind to be like a screen then there are 5 inputs coming in over here which are those 5 inputs the 5 knowledge acquiring senses which are these eyes, ears nose so tongue and skin so we get various kinds of information and then there are the 5 action senses from there our intention flows out so our hands, our legs and what else our voice we get things done through our speech and then the reproductive and the excretory organ so so basically through these our intention flows out and all of these are centered on the mind so it’s important to understand that the mind is functionally invaluable it is indispensable it’s like the center point where everything comes in and while we do consider that the mind can be our enemy but Krishna’s approach itself to the mind is nuanced if say something is an enemy then like say right now there was a war going on between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah so the Hezbollah had a leader Nasrallah who was the enemy and Israel just bombed and killed him so now if you have an enemy you can just kill the enemy but does Krishna say kill the mind no what does Krishna say sorry control it but control for what purpose make it a friend it is not destroy the mind it is not control it to make it your slave it is not to make it your slave also so it’s a very interesting dynamic it’s an enemy but it is an enemy not to be destroyed and not even to be enslaved Krishna is not recommending any of this it is the enemy that is to be converted into a friend in other word befriended is could be a misnomer it is more not that we become the friend of our mind which is there but it is more that we make the mind our friend so it is to be transformed so the idea here is that the mind itself is not our enemy it is what is inside the mind is our enemy what is inside the mind there are impurities lust, anger, greed so what is inside the mind and it is also who is the enemy not the mind itself we would say it is to be destroyed it is what’s inside the mind and that means it’s not everything that is inside the mind it’s like say a few years ago Kashmir was maybe a decade ago, Kashmir was a place of immense violence, great danger and the Indian government could have said you know this is such a big trouble we will just bomb Kashmir and destroy everything well we don’t want to control a massive graveyard we want Kashmir so what they do so those elements which were completely hostile not ready to negotiate compromise at all those were liquidated those people those terrorists were eliminated but after that the other people their trust was won over still there are disruptive elements over there but to a large extent at least in Jammu, not in Srinagar Jammu things are fairly peaceful international conferences were held over there and so the idea was that there was control used, there was military power used but the point is we don’t want Kashmir to be enslaved we want Kashmir to be happily integrated with India like that our mind has to be happily integrated with us and that’s why it’s important how we approach our mind see there are two extremes in dealing with the mind, so first till now I talked about the concept of the mind the concept is that the mind is basically a tool and it is tool the mind is a tool it is necessary for functioning we need the mind that when we interact with the world we need the mind for interaction now of course there are parts of the mind which are against us and we will try to understand those but let me just complete this point about we need to have a healthy relationship with our mind now there could be two extremes, now we could say our mind is a part of ourselves so we could take it forward and say we should have a healthy relationship with ourselves, we often talk of relationship with others but what about our relationship with ourselves you know if there is too much control if there is too much control then there will be suffocation every single aspect of our life we try to rigidly discipline then it’s like if India gives no space to Kashmir, people will rebel over there, if every single decision in Kashmir is taken by the central government and people there have no say at all it’s not going to work so after the first world war, now Germany was defeated and the allied powers made a treaty called the Treaty of Versailles which was extremely humiliating for Germany and the result of that treaty was that basically that people felt so suffocated, frustrated enraged that they ended up basically laying the ground for Hitler’s National Socialism movement and the Nazi movement came up eventually and that led to the second world war which was much much worse so too much control will lead to suffocation and suffocation will eventually lead to explosion so somebody tries to have too harsh a discipline it won’t work we’ll talk about what too harsh a discipline means but let’s look at the principle over here and then if there is too little control that will also not work because our mind is very unsteady today I want to study, tomorrow I want to play next day I want to be a movie star fourth day I want to be an IPL player fifth day I want to do it first is change our relationship with our mind and second is change our mind first is change our relationship with our mind Krishna talks about this in 14.22 to 25 and change our mind, he talks about this in 14.26 we’ll discuss these verses but before we go into this developing a healthy relationship with our mind let’s try to understand why does the mind work against us so like if India has to improve its relationship with Kashmir, now what has gone wrong why are the relationship bad right now so there is a part of us something inside us which works against us so why does it work against us now basically till now I talked about how the mind gives information information goes in and then intention goes out but the point is the mind is not just a transmitter of consciousness it is a transmitter means like information goes in and intention comes out so it is a transmitter but that’s only one part of it along with that it is also a transformer transformer means what say for example right now if this is the mind so some data comes from say I am speaking some words so this is just some sound some audio data is coming now inside the mind is your memory of the English language if some of you don’t know English then whatever I am speaking it is just sound which is coming in and that sound will just be noise isn’t it it just makes no sense so the mind is not just a transmitter of data it transforms and sometimes it transforms in a constructive way that’s the place where our memories are stored and so the memories so what you are hearing right now that is linking with what you have heard in the past and that’s how the comprehension happens so the sound may go in but that sound expands when it passes through the mind and then what happens is meaning is what goes to the soul what exactly it means how to evaluate it that’s up to the person but the mind is also a transformer say for example if I am sitting here right now and say suddenly from behind a giant snake comes up and it’s moving its fangs over here now if you see that what is going to happen you know hey that’s a snake either you will run away or you will warn me why because it’s not just some visual information coming in that visual information couples with the memory in your head that snakes are dangerous so we have to protect ourselves we have to protect each other what do we do so the mind contains the memories now here I am using the word mind generically for the subtle body for the entire software setup let’s not get into the difference at this stage between mind intelligence and all that basically there is something inside us which transforms the simple data that is coming in it is transformed into more meaningful information so now the mind is a transmitter and a transformer so with respect to these two functions so this is the proper functions of the mind but the same aspects the mind can malfunction now when the mind malfunctions there is a difference between malfunction and dysfunctional dysfunctional means it just stops functioning but malfunction means it functions wrongly so instead of being a transmitter it can lead to distraction it can become a distractor now what is a distractor mean let’s say the soul is here the body is here but the mind has gone here so what happens is in the consciousness some of it is coming through the body most of it has gone to the mind and then say for example when there is a long talk the mind goes for a walk and if there is some humor the mind comes running back hey what was the joke I also want to laugh so the idea is when distraction happens then like we use the word absent minded so what is happening the body is here the soul is here but the mind is not here so then the consciousness gets split so nowadays a lot of young people are being diagnosed with ADHD so attention deficit hyperactivity disorder so what happens for them is they are reading but they are just not reading their eyes are there their book is there but their mind is everywhere except there so the distraction is the consciousness gets split and sometimes the mind may take 10% of the consciousness and the body may still have 90% sometimes the mind may take 90% of the consciousness and the body may just have 10% so it can vary the degree of distraction but distraction is what can lead us to malfunction now when there is distraction the result is that we it leads to we under perform we were hearing something we go to a class we are hearing the class because we are distracted we get only 10% of it if we have to give some exam afterwards then again we have to spend the same time to read it all again to try to understand so the mind can be a distractor but the more damaging aspect of the mind is it can be a distorter distorter means what that when some stimulus comes into the mind something small comes in it just becomes huge within the mind it just becomes so huge that it consumes the consciousness so for example say somebody is an alcoholic and they go to some very important meeting it’s a hotel and it’s a big contract that is supposed to come in and while they are passing by they see so many different alcoholic drinks they see and they stare and they just get lost somehow their colleagues pull them and they go and now they are talking with their boss and in their mind their boss body changes into a bottle of alcohol so what has happened is the alcohol is just one small stimulus that has come in but the mind has made it huge so distortion means that a small stimulus becomes very large say if there is someone behind me and they want some attention they want my attention so they tap me on the shoulder and as soon as they tap me if I scream what happened and I say actually I have a sprain over here if you touch me it causes a lot of pain so the idea is if there is an injury over here or injury in the body from appearance we don’t see the injury but the one sign of an injury is a small stimulus a huge response or it can be the opposite sometimes some parts of the body can get numbed, almost dead end so somebody touches and touches and then slams and then punches and nothing happens what’s wrong with you so in both these cases there is some disease over there so basically distractor means sometimes there can be a small stimulus and there is a huge response or sometimes so like one small side of alcohol and there is a huge response or there is a friend of mine who is in Russia, he was telling me in USSR formerly they had one alcohol awareness campaign so there was an ad on TV the alcohol awareness video was an ad basically, it was shown a family watching TV and on TV the announcement comes, the prices of vodka have skyrocketed shot up so there is a father sitting on a big couch, drinking vodka and a small child, the son asks his dad a little fearfully dad, will you drink less now? and the father immediately replies no, you will eat less now so now, can you imagine what is the monstrous level of insensitivity there that for my drinking I am ready to make my own child, whom I am supposed to protect and care for, starve so what has happened is there is a huge stimulus oh, we won’t have money to feed my child but the response is there is practically no concern at all isn’t it? so that person is so caught in the grip of alcohol, he doesn’t care only so both of these are examples of distortion so if you see this distortion and distraction is the way the mind causes us to malfunction now, when I said when there is distraction then we underperform but when there is distortion then we can become unproductive, our actions we do but nothing happens or it can even become counterproductive we end up doing the opposite of what we are meant to do say, if a doctor is very much gripped by lust and the doctor is in the emergency department and there is a patient who is about to die and the doctor is flirting with the nurse over there okay lust is there in everyone and the male-female attraction is the actual principle but if you are a doctor you know, for you the patient’s life must be more important than flirting with the nurse isn’t it? but lust can lead to distortion so where just having some sexual stimulation becomes more important than saving the life of someone so any of the anarthas, lust, anger greed, they all cause distortion so the mind basically malfunctions in two ways instead of being a transmitter it becomes a distractor instead of being a transformer it becomes a distorter so now, why does this happen? this happens because inside the mind there are impressions the impressions are there inside the mind some of you mentioned how the mind is a reservoir of memories, desires so these impressions are called samskaras now the word samskara has two distinct meanings one is positive and the other is negative the positive meaning is generally associated with the ceremonies that will create good impressions like say there is there is there are various ceremonies so those ceremonies are meant to create impressions in our mind so that is the positive connotation of the word samskara and many times when important activities are to be done there are elaborate ceremonies associated with it, say for example if we get initiated, then there is a fire sacrifice there is a spiritual master present, senior devotees present and in all their presence we take our vows so the gravity of it gets impressed in us so the word impression that is an impressive person that means ok, maybe that person is talented that person is charismatic, whatever but we could say an impressive person creates an impression inside us oh you are so impressive I have forgotten you already it doesn’t work like that, is it? so anything that is impressive it creates an impression so the one meaning of the word impression is that it is the ceremonies that create impressions inside us and these ceremonies have value so every year we take a group of Americans American yoga students on a tour of India we take Rishikesh, Vrindavan, so most of the yoga students are women and when they come to India they want to experience India so in the west one of the things which people hear about as India is the big fat wedding see America, the wedding culture is very different if a friend calls you for the wedding you have to pay for yourself you have to arrange for your accommodation and you attend the wedding in India it is not like that you arrange for the transportation, you arrange for the accommodation you go and receive them so weddings are very big so there were some of these young women who, in Radha Gopinath temple we had a congregation devotee’s wedding daughter’s wedding, so they went for that wedding and then at the end of the tour we had a reflection about what part of the yatra they liked some of them said we liked the Kusum Sarovar in Vrindavan it was actually more beautiful than the Taj Mahal some of them said they liked the Himalayas in Rishikesh, the side of the Himalayas so, but 3-4 of those young women, they said we liked the wedding very much so then I asked them ok, what did you like about the wedding so two of them said something very striking, they said the wedding was so huge, there were 600 people over there and they only went for about half a day, but they said the wedding itself was 3 days and they said that after attending a wedding like that you can never forget that you are married if you are married, how can you forget that you are married, it is a serious thing, but you know if a man and a woman just go to a court and there are two witnesses and you sign something over there, you know that gravitas of that commitment, it doesn’t get impressed on the mind, isn’t it so sometimes the wedding can just be for a big show off, for the families to flaunt their wealth, but all that, those rituals and ceremonies, they have a purpose in front of all these people, we took our marriage vows we circumambulated the fire there is a gravity to it so samskara at one level, refers to the impressions, it also refers to the ceremonies that create the impressions so for example, now if you have come for this camp, now you will be staying here for several days, you will be attending classes, you will be doing kirtan you will be going to various places so this is going to create some samskaras, this is going to create some impressions so in a negative sense, samskaras also refer to the unhealthy or unwanted impressions that are there inside us so you know my past samskaras are troubling me in this sense, you could spell the word in English as samskars so we all have some samskars inside us we all have had some experiences and because of those experiences we may be afraid of something we may be angry about something say somebody in their childhood was bitten by a dog, then as soon as they see a dog even if the dog is a small cuddly little poodle but still for them that dog becomes reduced to its teeth those teeth bite, I want to be away from it, so that’s a samskar, the sight of a dog creates fear like that we all have certain samskars inside us and those samskars, what do they do? they lead to distortion distortion so healthy samskars will lead to transformation say before marriage, a man and a woman might just interact with each other freely, there also there should be regulation but they might just flirt a little bit but if a man remembers that I am married the woman remembers I am married then that itself creates some gravity I cannot fool around now so that is the impression in that case there is a transformation the samskar is there, there is a transformation, I have to be careful how I deal with people but if there is lust, there is especially uncontrolled lust then as soon as there is some sexual stimulation the person just forgets everything sarva dharman parityajyam maya mekam sharanam vraja so what happens is there it is distortion so basically we all have certain samskars those are impressions inside the mind and because of these impressions the mind can distract and the mind can distort both of these can happen so this is how our mind is currently our enemy because of the unwanted impressions within it at the same time it’s important to understand that if we consider the impressions within the mind not all the impressions within the mind are negative some impressions are negative but there are some positive impressions also now terms can vary but I will use terms in a particular sense over here so the negative impressions can be called as vasanas these are our impulses the positive impressions are our vrittis these are our instincts so now the impulses are generally anti-intelligent anti-intelligent means say somebody has an impulse to over eat then what happens is even if they know this food is not healthy for me, still the urge to eat comes and they keep eating, keep eating, keep eating like there are alcoholics, there are foodaholics there are just people who just can’t stop eating it’s no laughing matter for them it’s just that they have a very unhealthy relationship with food so that is an impulse even if they know janan apyatmanohitam karotibhuyo vivashaha even if I know this is bad for me the impulse is overpowering sometimes we know that if I get angry right now, I’ll explode if I’ll explode, it’ll cause a lot of trouble we know it but still that impulse comes up very forcefully in contrast the vrittis are like programmed intelligence these are we just know what is the right thing to do say some people may have musical instincts that means they just pick up an instrument and start playing it and they play so wonderfully on youtube sometimes you see this India has got talent or Britain has got talent there are these talent shows there are small kids, 4-5 years old and they can play a flute they can play a harmonium they can play a sitar it’s stunning how well they can play so that is some instinct that they have got they just know how to do it now of course they can be trained and they can become better but there is some starting point itself which is amazing that they have some people may have mathematical intelligence some small kid he asks them some complex mathematical sum the teacher asks the sum and the student gives the answer and the teacher has to use a calculator to check whether the answer is right they are just math prodigies so we some of us may not have that level of extraordinary intelligence but we all have something which we can do well we can do it faster than others some people may have linguistic intelligence they just know the right word to use and we are trying to express a thought in a particular way and when they say that’s the word I wanted to use we know the word but we just don’t get the word at that time so on the other hand they just get it so these are instincts now some people just don’t have the instincts some people say some kids they pick up kartal and start playing or they pick up a dhol and start playing and people say it’s amazing and people say more some other people start playing and people say no more so what’s happening is some people just don’t have the instincts now where do those instincts come from that is also from the subtle body so basically inside us there are some things which are good and the whole varanashram dharma varana is based on the development of the vrittis so actually the vrittis need to be discovered and developed each of us have certain gifts and these need to be discovered and developed in contrast the vasanas need to be reduced and removed before that of course they need to be regulated so regulated so that they can be reduced and removed say somebody has anger that needs to be regulated so that it can be reduced and removed the two opposite things like going back to the kashmir example if there are some insurgent elements they have to be either imprisoned or they have to be liquidated but those who are resourceful, those who are talented see most people they are not really interested in very few people want to make religion their cause or patriotism their cause or communism their cause most people just want to get on with their life they want to get on with their life, to get on with their families they want to take care of their children and if they are not able to do that then they try to find some cause bigger cause which they hope will eventually help them to take care of their life so if I become a communist I will bring the communist to power and then this communist will take care of me the idea is most people are not ideologues most people just want to get on with their life so if there are people who are responsible say if there are people in kashmir who can become good teachers who can become good administrators who can become good law enforcers then we discover them we develop them so the idea is inside our inner world also both these aspects are there and these two require opposite treatments almost so in the bhagavad gita in 3.34.35 krishna says that what is natural for us in terms of the vrittis he says he says that everybody acts according to their nature that sadrisham cheshtate swasya prakriter jnanavanapi and even the jnanavan, even the wise people act according to their nature prakritim yanti bhutani nigraha kim karishasi and what can repression accomplish so now there are some people who they read the bhagavad gita not to understand the bhagavad gita but to use the bhagavad gita to propagate their understanding so prabhupada says this is not bhagavad gita as it is, this is bhagavad gita as you are so there is one commentator whose whole philosophy was sambhog se samadhi and for him this verse 3.34 is the essence of the bhagavad gita nigraha kim karishasi what can repression accomplish therefore he said every man who is attracted to a woman he should enjoy with that woman every woman who sees that a man is attracted to her, the woman should let that man enjoy by that the woman and the man are helping each other go toward enlightenment the only enlightenment that is going to be there is entanglement there is no enlightenment that is going to happen over there when krishna is saying nigraha kim karishasi if you see just before and after that 3.34 is nigraha kim karishasi that is what can repression accomplish but 3.33 is that krishna is saying the senses and the sense objects there is a natural attachment inside them don’t succumb to this regulate yourself and in fact just after this 3.36 to 3.43 is an entire section which is all about controlling lust arjuna is asking there is something inside us which makes us act sinfully what do we do about it krishna says you have to control it so even arjuna understand that nigraha kim karishasi is not a license for just indulging whatever we want what krishna is specifically telling arjuna is with this nigraha kim karishasi is that you by nature are a kshatriya you are a warrior you are a protector right now you may say oh these are my relatives and i don’t want to fight against them and you may say ok let them go but in future when you hear that they are committing atrocities they are victimizing innocent people at that time the protector within you will rise and if you have renounced the world then you won’t have any opportunity, any role to play by which you can actually act as a protector therefore if you are an actual protector then what is the point of repressing your nature nigraha kim karishasi and arjuna himself asking yes i am a protector but a protector also can very easily become a exploiter because protectors by nature are powerful they have power, they have more physical power, they have more martial power so he says ok if you say i am a protector duryodhana is also a protector but instead of being a protector he has become a predator so what happened, what went wrong so krishna is talking about the vritti he says don’t repress it but just because somebody is a good at music they may be a good musician but that doesn’t make them a good human being isn’t it they may be a good musician but they may use their musical ability to become very popular and then to exploit people to cheat people, to seduce people from the opposite sex and exploit them so even if somebody has a vritti and they develop it still they have to deal with their vasanas so krishna, arjuna himself is recognizing yes i want to krishna what can repression accomplish but there is something inside me which works against me and i need to deal with it ok so inside our mind there are multiple elements some elements need to be discovered and developed that’s our vritti and there is our vasana which needs to be reduced and then removed so now i will come to the last part of this session that how do we go about doing this this is going to be a little technical so if you find it difficult don’t worry, i will make it even more difficult not really so i said that when we are dealing with our mind see the enemy metaphor has its utility have you heard of this term called shakha chandranyay who has heard it shakha chandranyay, what does it mean as you can see my drawing vritti is not very good so if there is a chandra over here and there is some small child over here now the child is to be shown the moon then the mother may show, can you see this branch can you see this branch and yes, can you see the shining object in between the two, yes that is the moon oh now i see the moon the child says ok i will climb up the tree and catch the moon no the moon is not there, the moon is far away so the shakha chandranyay refers to what that the shakha is the branches and the moon, chandra is of course the moon, nyaya is logic so what logic means that which is far away that is very difficult to access we can access that which is very close so any metaphor, any analogy that we use, so the metaphors are like branches and the concept actually is like the moon so no one metaphor is sufficient to understand a philosophical concept so one metaphor that is often used is the mind is the enemy so now it is true it is the enemy but then we nuanced it it is not supposed to be killed, it is not to be enslaved there is something inside the mind which is the enemy, so it is not entirely an enemy, like Kashmir is not the enemy of India in Kashmir there are people who are enemies of India, so enemy is one metaphor we could use so we will talk about two distinct other metaphors to understand how to deal with the mind so mind management I mentioned earlier there are two approaches to it does anyone remember the two approaches change our relationship with our mind and second is change our mind so which is easier all of you are very confident neither of them is easy but yeah my question was which is easier, both of them are difficult but relatively speaking this is easier, this is tougher so now Krishna talks about this in 1421 I will explain the meaning of this verse and then we will recite this this is 1422-23 it is a long series but I will just explain so prakasham cha pravruttim cha so prakasha is illumination sometimes inside us there is clarity we feel very peaceful, we feel very clear headed, this is important for me I am going to focus on this, all these things are not important I will neglect them, so prakasha is there sometimes prakasha is associated with satvaguna, sometimes pravrutti is there, come on I want to come first in my class I want to be better than this everyone I want to do this, I want to do that we have lot of urge to do things pravrutti then sometimes moha is there, come on you know, so many people have come, so many people have died I also come, I also die, let me just sit peacefully and watch TV laughing laughing so sometimes moha is there so these are all what we call our moods so these are all various moods which come prakasham cha pravruttim cha prakasham cha pravruttim cha moham eva cha pandava moham eva cha pandava so Krishna says, these will come on their own, if they come na dveshti don’t be jealous of them don’t be irritated with them, don’t be frustrated na dveshti sam pravrutti, if they come don’t get, sam pravrutti they will come, don’t get caught up in them and they will go away so na nivruttani kankshati if they go away, sometimes you feel clear headed sometimes you don’t feel, oh if only I would feel clear headed I would have been able to do so much more na nivruttani kankshati they will come, they will go na dveshti sam pravrutti na nivruttani na nivruttani kankshati na nivruttani then what happens, how should you do Krishna says, udaseena vadaseeno aseeno is be situated earlier in the Bhagavad Gita there is a question sita pragyasya kaabhasha samadhi sthasya keshava siddhi kim prabhaseta kim aseeta vrajeta kim how is this person seated, so aseeno, Krishna says be seated as if udaseena be detached like detached, situated like detached and gunair all this comes because of the three modes gunairyo na vichalyate don’t be shaken by them udaseena vadaseeno gunairyo na vichalyate gunairyo na vichalyate so guna vartantya vartantya ityevam this is just a result of the modes sometimes the mode of passion is high, I will feel all this I have to do this, I have to eat this, I have to watch this, so many things I want to do sometimes the mode of ignorance is there I just don’t feel like doing anything at all, this is just the modes they will come and they will go guna vartantya ityevam yo avatishthati na ingate remember that you are the soul you are not the mind the modes influence the mind don’t be shaken by that guna vartantya ityevam guna vartantya ityevam so avatishth so let’s look at what this means practically speaking so so what we could do is that to understand this first is change our relationship with our mind so we and our mind so what happens is our mind is like a child Krishna says the mind is chanchala and we are meant to be like our parent but sometimes what happens is this is a healthy situation but the unhealthy situation is that that our mind becomes a parent and we become the child so what happens is whatever the mind says we start doing that this is a unhealthy situation we don’t want this situation so now what does it mean say if you have a child or if you have a younger sibling small sibling you are taken to a park for playing and then you are sitting and reading something on your phone and then suddenly a small child comes running to us and says mummy daddy bhaiya go and beat that boy what? come on go and beat that boy ok yes I will go and beat that boy if the parent says that then the people will say you need a parent now isn’t it? so now it’s our child who is agitated we should be concerned but does that mean we immediately do whatever the child is telling us no what do we need to do is what happened go and beat that kid no first tell me what happened so first we need to pause and then analyse what is the child saying and after we analyse then we decide ok that child teased you that child slapped you let me go and ask the child or let me go and ask his parents what actually happened because whenever there is some conflict there is one side of the story and then there is a the other side of the story and then there is the story even two sides of the story don’t actually make the full story so let’s find out what actually happened so like that if we treat our mind like our child our mind may say come on just go to sleep just eat this, just watch this so our mind may come up based on its impulses with many things so Krishna is saying over here if we understand that the mind is like a child it’s affected by the moods see the moods are often associated with our moods the child based on the mood one day may say I don’t want to study at all next day may say I want to study many things so if this is the soul and we are very attached then the mind becomes very close and in this situation what happens is if we are attached whatever the mind says we immediately do it so in this situation the mind becomes the the mind becomes the master the controller the slave driver of the soul this is how the person becomes bound but what we can do is if this is the soul we can create a distance between us and the mind Krishna explains to deal with the mind there are two formulas Abhyasa and Vairagya now these two can be understood in many different ways that is Abhyasa is practice Vairagya is detachment now one way to understand is we create some Vairagya by creating some distance distance between us and our mind so this distance could be created say if something is very close to us then we can create a pad a pad now say if something very uncomfortable if we are wearing a bag which belt is very sharp then we may get some padding so that the belt doesn’t cut into our skin so PAD is the three steps pause, analyze and then decide so just like if our child say come on go and beat that boy no let’s pause wait what happened tell me no no go and beat first tell me what happened and the child starts telling just being able to tell also that will calm the child a little bit down because he has to think what actually happened he has to express what has happened so analyze what is being said and then decide now this is not very easy to do in the heat of the moment but if we can plan in advance then it can become possible we can start with one area where we do need control may be say we may decide when I get angry when I get angry I yell at people so whenever the urge for anger comes when does it come in my life ok with this person I find it very difficult to deal with this person so ok then whenever I am dealing with this person may be I will prepare in advance may be I will have somebody else with me when I meet this person I will take a few deep breaths and we can prepare in advance so this is more of a sattvic method it requires sattva but planning can also create some sattva so we use analytical method the mind is the same we are also the same right now but what we are doing is we are changing our relationship with our mind instead of simply obeying our mind we are creating a distance the vairagya is ok vairagya doesn’t mean that the parent doesn’t care for the child I care for the child but that doesn’t mean I am going to immediately listen to and do whatever you want to tell me to I am going to evaluate so create a little distance so this is now just learning to pause learning to bring some sattva guna into our life learning to do some introspection can help us so now how exactly details about doing this we will talk in our future sessions when we will go to the 9 stages of bhakti but at this stage this coming to sattva will bring some introspectiveness with us and thus we can learn to pause, analyze and then decide this is how we change our relationship with our mind but what we also want to do is that parenting is first about monitoring the child so that the child is regulated but it is also that we want the child to grow up isn’t it? the parents cannot always be there around the child to take care of the child isn’t it? so parenting has these two aspects one is monitoring to see what the child is doing but then the other is mentoring guiding the child so that the child grows up so that is changing our mind and changing our mind it is so vairagya is distance and abhyas is diligence diligence means what? that we change the impressions in our mind the mind has certain impressions within it but we would like to change the impressions so we want to make the mind fit so fit is an acronym for how we can actually improve our mental fitness so here let’s go back to the starting example of a software specifically let’s take the example of a browser so suppose somebody on their browser has visited a particular website have any of you heard this small thing in Mumbai? say somebody has visited a website called bollywood.com they come to a spiritual talk and then they hear about Bhagavad Gita and they want to know what is Bhagavad Gita so they open their browser and start typing Bhagavad Gita let’s type B and what happens? bollywood.com comes why? because their browser is their enemy is it? no, the browser just has that past history stored over there so although they don’t want to go to bollywood.com but that just comes as autocomplete so our mind is like a browser say you know something goes wrong maybe somebody disrespects us or maybe somebody makes fun of us or maybe some project we did doesn’t succeed maybe we didn’t pass the exam get an interview and then we feel depressed we feel a little down, we feel negative and in our past whenever we felt negative, we just watch some TV just go to insta and watch some reels one after another sometimes people just watch so many reels that they start reeling after that what happened? what are you watching? what am I watching? I don’t even know what I was watching so it’s like people get space out so space out means what? that the space is so much out there that you don’t know where you are in that space so it is completely spaced out so it happens sometimes so that may be our default response so whenever we feel a little down that’s what we want to do but now maybe we have heard some chastra now we have learned about some spirituality and say we do some kirtan and whenever we sing some kirtan we hear some kirtan, we feel good and we know that maybe you know hearing some soothing spiritual music, singing some devotional songs that’s a better way to deal with negative feelings and we may want to do that but as soon as we feel negative ok I want some relief so we type B and what comes as autocomplete is Bollywood so like that as soon as relief now I may want relief now one could be movies I just watch some movie scenes other could be meditation now both can give relief and maybe meditation can give actually better relief than movies but because the browser history, the mind’s record the mind’s samskaras are what in the past whenever we needed relief we watch movies so immediately what comes up in our mind is watch movies ok that’s how things work so when people ask why do I do something which I don’t want to do well that’s because of the impressions stored in the mind now how do you change the impressions well there are two things or rather one thing but two parts of that one thing so all that we need to do is when you type B although Bollywood.com comes we still have to Abhyasa Bhagavad Gita you type 12 letters that can feel like running 12 miles you know but just do it now if you just do it once we visit Bhagavad Gita.com next time we type B still Bollywood will be the first autocomplete but Bhagavad Gita will also come as a second autocomplete if you visit Bhagavad Gita twice thrice, five times what will happen that will come more and more so if you visit Bhagavad Gita 25 times Bhagavad Gita.com and then before that you may have visited Bollywood.com 50 times but if the recent 25 visits are Bhagavad Gita.com then what will happen as soon as you type B Bhagavad Gita.com will come as autocomplete so all that is required for changing the browser the browser’s autocomplete is to just change the choices that we do right now don’t worry about why Bollywood.com is there in the past, why it is coming as autocomplete, ok it is there but right now we don’t have an option in our mind to delete our browser history there is no incognito mode surfing in the mind none of those options are there but what we can do is the mind may be a programmed device but the mind is also a programmable device so what we need simply Abhyasa Abhyasa can mean practice, it can mean repetition repeatedly we do something, practice essentially means do it again and again and again, so that’s why I tell it diligence diligence means do it again and again do it diligently and in that I was talking here about we want to make our mind fit so F I T F is how do we change the impressions in our mind, first is frequency how often do you visit bhagavidya.com, the more we visit bhagavidya.com the faster the browser history will change so like that the more often we do mantra chanting the more often we hear kirtan then what will happen is that impression will form faster inside us it’s not just the frequency it’s also the time duration so if we do this for more and more time, say every week you come for a for a youth program in your youth center, that’s good every week you are doing 3 hours in a year, 2-3 hours you are coming to the youth program, in a year that’s a substantial amount of time but say you come for a camp where 3-4 days 3 days, 4 days, 1 week you are here, then the time duration is also large, that also creates a deeper impression, generally with respect to the browser, there are only 2 things, I said that no metaphor is complete, so the browser metaphor breaks over here coz you know the browser doesn’t really care after we visit a site how interested we are in what is there on the site, isn’t it how eagerly are we watching what is there on the site all the browser is to record is how often have we visited, how long have we visited that’s all but with respect to our mind the impressions are also determined by the intensity how much are we involved in what we do how much are we interested how much are we emotionally engaged so if when we are doing kirtans, we are trying to focus our mind on the holy name, when we are doing japa we are trying to be attentive when we are hearing class, we are not just doing it mechanically we are getting ourselves involved the point is to create an impression within us so frequency, intensity time duration if we just do these things every mind can be changed no matter how dark the impressions might be, those impressions can be changed just now somebody might have visited Bollywood.com 50 times and they visit 25 times and Bollywood goes down in their autocomplete but somebody else may have visited Bollywood 500 times and visiting 25 times may not bring about the same change that doesn’t mean that 25 times is not having the effect it’s having the effect but the past effect is more so the time required might be more but this is the process and the process works depending on how much work is there to be done, more time may be required now we all may have experienced some samskaras, some vasanas get reduced and removed also so maybe some of you were eating meat before you came to bhakti and then you start practicing bhakti and then if you are going in a train or a plane and say the person next to you is eating meat now very few devotees will feel tempted oh I want to eat meat maybe if you are going in a plane and the person next to you is watching some TV, some movie is there you may get tempted, my body is there in the movie, let me see but very few people will get tempted to eat meat because what happened is, prasad is the higher taste and you know when we take prasad, frequency intensity, time duration all three are very much there, isn’t it? so no matter, we may not be very much intensity when we are sitting in a class, but when it comes to prasad everybody has intensity so the positive impressions are being created and those impressions can and will overwrite the negative impressions, so this is the abhyas, so don’t worry if the other inconditionings keep coming up the best way would be that if you want to change your browser history is just always visit bhagavad gita.com and never visit bollywood.com, then bollywood will just go completely in the background and it will get so much into the background it will go away completely, reduced and removed, but suppose somebody visits 10 times bhagavad gita.com and then once in a while they visit bollywood.com that’s not the best, but just because they visited bollywood.com doesn’t mean they have to become so disheartened that they stop visiting bhagavad gita.com no sometimes the past impressions may lead to relapses, later on we will talk about anarthani vrutti and how sometimes we may struggle during that, but don’t worry even if that happens just make sure that that happened, now I want to visit bhagavad gita.com apichetsu duracharo bhajate mam ananyabhag even if durachar happens, doesn’t matter bhajate mam ananyabhag so even if there is a relapse pick yourself up and continue forming the new impressions and the healthier impressions that we form will lead to a transformation of the mind so in our future sessions we will talk about the nine stages of bhakti till now we have talked about the mind only, largely as a mechanical unit, like a browser but we have not talked here about the dimension of a personal relationship with Krishna, I just indicated then when I talked about intensity but the personal relationship with Krishna and the role of Krishna’s mercy in transforming our mind there are many subtleties over here which are involved but these are the broad principles and by these principles if you understand that then each one of us can transform ourselves so I will summarize what I discussed today our broad topic was about mind management so we talked about it first in terms of the concept of the structure of the mind so the mind is like the intermediate link between the soul and the body so for the consciousness the mind the consciousness is like the light of awareness and the energy of action for the karmendras and jnanendriyas and for the consciousness the soul is the root and the mind is like the route the pathway so the mind we discussed about its functioning and its malfunctioning so functioning is the mind acts as a transmitter of consciousness but when it malfunctions it becomes a distractor of consciousness so transmitter means the mind allows the stimuli from the body to go to the soul but when it is a distractor then the mind goes off somewhere else and the consciousness gets split between the mind and the body and it is meant to be a transformer by which what happens is the raw data that is coming in becomes transformed into comprehensible information ok so like you are just getting some audio data but it becomes information based on the language that you have learned, the concepts you have learned in the past but it can become a distorter distorter is because sometimes large stimulus tiny response or sometimes a tiny stimulus a huge response so essentially this happens because inside the mind there are impressions so we discussed two different kinds of impressions so the impressions I talked about these as positive they are the samskaras they are the ceremonies that create impressions and the negative sense they are the samskars there are things inside us which make us respond in unhealthy ways so the positive impressions are the vrittis these are to be discovered and developed the negative are the vasanas these are to be regulated and to be reduced and removed and if you want to manage our mind management of the mind it involves two aspects first is change our relationship with our mind that we don’t let the mind be our boss understand that we are like the parent and the mind is like the child so we put a pad in between us pause analyze and then decide so we can do this methodical approach analytical approach we can adopt more if we come to sattva and then change our mind so the mind we discussed here the example of the browser so if the browser has its history the way to change the history is FIT what is it? Frequency Intensity and then time duration so how much how often do we do it, how long we do it and how interested are we doing it so if we do this every mind can be changed and even before the mind is changed at least its negative impact on us can be reduced in this way each one of us can eventually move towards making our mind our friend as the Bhagavad Gita urges us to do thank you very much Hare Krishna are there any questions or comments do we have a mic Hare Krishna Guruji so as we saw that we have a lot of bad impressions generally which are troubling us so there are multiple bad impressions which are there to take care of so how to deal with that if multiple impressions are continuously attacking us if its one we can just have a solution for it we can use FIT methodically and all but if there are multiple things which are troubling us how to deal with those its tough sometimes we have to choose our battles so basically for example say India has had issues with Pakistan India has had issues with China so when they have cross-border terrorism India did some targeted attacks on Pakistan at least something has stopped over there now India has not done something similar with China right now we are not big enough they have taken some area that doesn’t mean we are just letting China take whatever area it wants we have taken a stand but we have not taken the fight to China till now so we are choosing our battles we are waiting while we become stronger China’s population is becoming older India has a younger population so the demographics will change with time India now has a bigger population than China’s so China has far more hostility with America India does not have that things will change so we have to when we have to fight multiple enemies then we choose our battles so some battles we may decide ok I can’t fight this right now so it’s not that every single battle we have to fight right away so we choose I want to sleep less, I want to eat less I want to get angry less I want to indulge in sensuality less many things may happen I may decide what is important for me right now ok you know if I get angry I speak terrible words and then I don’t want to ruin my relationship regulating my anger is the most important thing for me right now ok if I’m sleeping 8 hours I can come to 7 and a half, I can come to 7 maybe coming to 6 hours may take a lot of time for me, that’s ok so eating, as long as I’m taking prasad even if I eat a little bit more it’s not such a big deal we can’t, it is we would like to regulate ourselves but we have to decide which is when we choose our battles we do it based on two criteria which is winnable and which is essential we can say every battle has to be fought but which needs to be fought right now and which is what we can win right now some battles may just not be winnable right now that doesn’t mean we just keep losing that battle but we create some situation where we can protect ourselves where we are overall protected thank you yes please Hi Krishna Babuji, thank you for this amazing lecture like we see some people who takes drugs or indulge in some activities like that they know the negative impacts of those activities but even they do it and on the other hand we also see that people know the negative impacts and therefore they don’t do it even they are not practicing bhakti yoga so my question is that is it correct methodology to tell our mind that ok this may be not helpful for our mental health, physical health as well as relationship with others so like in somewhat degree we have to captivate our mind at least not to be somewhat stringed ok good question see there is there are multiple stages if you have to win the war you can never win the war unless you are first realizing you are in the war isn’t it that if I don’t realize that this person is my enemy if you are thinking that we are friends like India in 1965 India was the Panchsheel we had signed with China and India was in the notion that actually 1960s thinking China is our friend and one fine day, not so fine day actually China just attacked India India was completely unprepared so at that time whatever we don’t want to talk about political aspects, the point is that if you don’t realize in real world politics there are no permanent friends there are only permanent national interests so in the second world war America and Russia joined together to fight against a common enemy Germany but after that they divided Germany and both started fighting over Germany, isn’t it so things change so the point is that we have to first have that knowledge not just the knowledge in it conviction that this is a war and I need to fight this war without that there is no chance of victory but just by understanding also is not enough say Bhutan or Nepal may understand that China is encroaching on their territory, China is the enemy but they are so small, what are they going to do against China, isn’t it after conviction that is very important but after conviction there has to be some strategy there has to be some plan that has to be made there has to be some analysis to come up with some kind of strategy, some kind of plan without that it is not going to work so after this conviction then there is a process so whatever the process after the process if the process works then there is victory so like that what happens is first there has to be conviction of intelligence then there is process is focusing the mind on Krishna and after that process is followed then their victory is there is purification of the mind purification basically means that the mind becomes attached to Krishna right now the mind is attached to worldly things so first I need to understand many alcoholics they may think alcohol is not good but it is not all that bad also you may make a person cry about it yeah Krishna is good but Maya is not all that bad so first there has to be conviction and that’s why hearing is important so sometimes like you said sometimes we may know and not do it and sometimes some people may not even know but still they may not do some things because they don’t have those impressions like some people may consciously know drugs are very bad so I don’t want to do it but still they may do it some people may not have read about drugs heard about drugs there is no inclination to try it maybe because their parents raised them in a particular way maybe they have some good samskaras from the previous life there is no attraction towards them at all so if there is no impression in that direction then there may be no battle at all over there so yes it is possible that for some people they just don’t need the knowledge because there is no temptation over there but for us if the temptation is there knowledge is required so don’t downplay the knowledge but at the same time don’t make the knowledge the sole factor the knowledge gives us the conviction that I have to fight this war and then we can find out the means to fight the war and then we win the war ok thank you any other questions Hare Krishna Prabhuji Prabhuji does intelligence comes from the soul means I have read somewhere does intelligence come from soul there are two ways of looking at it one is everything comes from the soul the second is nothing comes from the soul see what I mean by this is that the soul is the source of consciousness the soul is the sole source of consciousness consciousness is the energy and nowhere else is the source of energy so if you want to complicate this it’s the software now in the software there might be a virus there might be an antivirus software now both of these will work only when the user turns on the power if the power is off neither the virus works nor the antivirus works isn’t it so the soul and the soul’s consciousness is like the power being turned on by the user without that nothing will work so in that sense everything comes from the soul now having said that in our condition stage the subtle body the soul is almost like asleep not fully asleep but the soul’s spiritual desires are very little activated right now say somebody may say that oh I am very attracted to Lord Ram I am practicing Krishna Bhakti but I am attracted to Lord Ram does that mean that actually my swaroopa in the spiritual world is that I belong to Ayodhya and I have eternal relationship with Ayodhya maybe or maybe it is just that in our childhood we grew up in a place where Ram Bhakti was there so our attraction to Ram that is there may be much more cultural rather than spiritual cultural means from the culture that we experienced in our childhood spiritual means coming from the soul so now from where it is coming really doesn’t matter if you are attracted to any form of the lord that is auspicious so at our stage if somebody gets the buddhi the buddhi oh maya is angel I should stay away from it Krishna is my well wisher I want to stay connected with Krishna if you get that buddhi that is auspicious from wherever it comes doesn’t matter can it sometimes come from the soul in the sense that maybe from previous life’s practice there is some spiritual inclination that is activated and that’s what draws a person towards Krishna that’s possible is it that it could just be sattvic buddhi that has come from our upbringing that has come from what we have read and learned it’s possible could it be that it has come from our present hearing and our association with devotee that’s possible so doesn’t matter buddhi is a good resource wherever it comes from we just use it in Krishna sense that’s why at our level somehow or the other fix the mind in Krishna thank you ok where is the mic intense thank you for the class bro intensity comes by default in negative things like you were giving example that as soon as we write we bollywood comes automatically but to write bhagavad gita we have to do austerity so for that you told fit analogy that you give so that intensity part of fit how do we get it in this intensity in positive things and that too consistently mainly by association in association desires develop so we associate with intense devotees that’s what creates intensity within us that’s the easiest way stay in association the intensity will keep say if you are alone and chanting we may look at our phone we may go to sleep we may go here there they sitting with devotees and doing japa really seriously trying to chant seeing them ok so associated with intense devotees that the easiest way also developing our intelligence intelligence has many aspects but one aspect of intelligence is to see the consequences so if you see the consequences then intensity comes up like say somebody may know ok meat eating is bad I should give it up but you know I like meat too much but then they get a heart attack and doctor says if you don’t want to get a heart attack again you must avoid meat and immediately that person becomes serious ok I have to give up meat although I have craving for meat maybe I will find out some substances which can give a taste similar to meat and I will eat those substances but I will not take meat so they will find something so intensity can either come by association which is relatively easier or it can come by regular nourishing of the intelligence this is important this is vital this is indispensable for me so at our level especially in youth that level of intelligence is very difficult to sustain because at our level the whole world seems to be like a playground for us yeah the world is but you know maybe yeah it will become when I get old right now there is so much potential so it is very difficult in youth to sustain us philosophy is very important but to sustain ourselves by philosophy alone is not very easy we need association which inspires us with positive desires a positive drive and that’s what will keep us moving forward anything else yeah Harikeshna Prof. thank you for the class Prof. sometimes we will be in a situation where we have to act very fast we have to act but we are not able to understand how means is it good or bad means how to act so at that time what we can do our best life doesn’t always give us that luxury to put a pad at that time we just do our best and after that we learn in life there is no guarantee that we will never make mistakes but we can learn from our mistakes that means say we look back at ourselves by self observation can understand in which situations when we take decisions in the moment our decisions turn out to be right sometimes people say there is a gut feeling a sixth sense and it works at times some captains in cricket say they take a decision let’s give the ball to this bowler and that bowler just bowls so well at that time those kind of decisions may not always work but many times they work so now for all of us we may by self observation learn in these situations I seem to have that instinct by which the decision that I get is right but in some areas you may realize I don’t have good instincts over here so some people may be very good in handling money should I invest money over here or not but those same people may not be very good in deciding who is trustworthy in terms of who is speaking truth who is not speaking truth this person is speaking very sweetly but there might be some ticks in their personality which should cause a red signal to go off so maybe we are not very good at reading people then if we know that then maybe in those areas we consciously endeavor to create a pause if that person says let’s make a decision right now no no not now let me think about it, maybe talk with some other people get some other people to talk with that person so like that we learn what our strengths are and there we can take decisions in the moment and we understand where our weaknesses are and there we consciously try to slow things down Hare Krishna Prabhu ji you said like we have to need to discover the Hare Krishna Prabhu you said like we have to need to discover our vrittis need to discover our vrittis discover our vrittis yeah so why why those are gifts given to us by Krishna paurusham dhruchu Krishna says I am ability in people so like if our parents or our grandparents have kept a treasure hidden for us buried in our backyard somebody asked why do I need to dig that out it’s for us isn’t it, see Arjuna had some great talent for archery but still he had to develop it one reason his name was Gudakesha was that day time he would learn archery and late into the night he would practice that archery that’s how he became so good another question can I ask bad impression can be implanted in our mind by a single thought also what Barry bad impressions can be implanted in our mind by a single thought also I think can a single thought create impressions possible but it is that once that thought comes in are we replaying that like Ajamil saw something you know now he had not gone out just to see something negative he was actually going on his work only his service but then he saw something now he didn’t intend to see it but he saw it and that was a sight for a few moments maybe a few minutes he was caught by it but even after he came back that kept replaying in his mind and that replaying just created so much force of impression that’s how he got caught so how should we cautious enough to avoid that thing well for every one of us there are boundaries in our life there are some boundaries that are individual and there are some boundaries which are social so individual means that we ourselves know I should not do like this say for example we all may get angry and to get angry is human but when we get angry we may raise our voice that’s not very good but some people may not just raise their voice they may raise their voice and speak obscenities use foul words that’s even worse than just speaking bad words just getting raising your voice so now some people may go further and maybe raise their fist and slap or punch someone so now each of these are boundaries now if a person is very cultured and disciplined say I may raise my voice but I am never going to use obscenities we all have that sense now that in certain settings say if you are talking with our boss in office, you are talking with a college professor, no matter how much angry we get, we are not going to use foul words over there isn’t it so we have a sense of boundaries ourselves so for us if we have cultivated a sense of boundaries that even if a thought comes in, even a thought that wrecks havoc inside us, impels us to do certain things but still some amount of boundaries will keep us regulated and if we are in a cultured society especially where we are within a hierarchy not that we are at the top of the hierarchy so if we are within a hierarchy then there will be people above us so they will stop us that’s why if somebody is at the top of the hierarchy and they are not on top of their impulses then that’s a dangerous thing you know that is a very high outer power and very low inner power yeah that’s a deadly combination to be in Ravan was like that in Lanka he was at a very high outer power nobody could challenge him and very low inner power at last when Sita came in he had no control over it, no desire to control it that’s deadly so there are no social boundaries there are people who want him but there is no one more powerful than him to stop him completely so that’s a deadly situation to be in somebody has no individual boundaries somebody has no social boundaries then they will be ruined one or two last questions just a small curiosity to like you mentioned the one aspect or the component of the mind which is the vasanas and the vrittis like the samskaras so is there other components also see the mind is very complex it’s like a universe in itself and depending on the framework that we use for analyzing it can be analyzed in different ways so for example modern psychology talks about subconscious mind so now it is just a different framework like if you have a computer we have a screen a small amount of data is there on the screen and there is some folder in which we see all the files are there but there might be so much data that is hidden we don’t even know it is hidden because unless we find out the way to unhide the folders we don’t even know about it so like that there is a subconscious mind so sometimes we may have certain impressions deep inside which unless they are triggered we don’t even know that they are there so like somebody may have fear for dogs but if they live in a place where they hardly ever see any dogs they may not recognize that they have fear for dogs so like that we may have something in a subconscious mind that is you could say that it is placed within the vrutti and vasana category only but it might be so deep inside that we don’t even know it is there like some people may discover that they have talent for music when they are 40, 50, 60 till that time they had no serious encounter with music so that’s possible it happens sometimes but broadly speaking we can say that whatever is there inside the mind some of it is positive some of it is not so positive so that’s the categorization that we are using at this point thank you ok just those two questions behind there are three now we will try to finish this in 6.40 we will try to finish all three so whenever there are multiple failures on some particular path two possibilities go in the mind either we need to put more endeavor on the same path or we need to change the path so how to decide when to change the path and when to put the more endeavors it’s a difficult decision generally speaking what we need is that there is winning the war that’s one aspect of it but the other is sustaining the spirit to fight the war like if there is a big cricket tournament before that only mental games start each team may try to intimidate the other players like Australians are very good at sledging, playing mental games to try to break the spirit of the other side so if that happens then the other side may not be able to fight properly also so for us it is very important to maintain our spirit and modern psychology may use the word self-esteem for it now whatever the word we use, we need to have an overall positive view of ourselves that means that I can change I need God’s mercy but I can change now self-esteem comes only in one way that one way basically has two steps to it have a meaningful goal and take tangible steps towards that goal when we do these two things sometimes our self-esteem may be encouraged by somebody appreciating us somebody patting us on the back hey you did a good job, you have a lot of potential I see some talent in you all those are good things but those are external, they will come and go one person may encourage us and ten people may discourage us so we can’t control those things but for us this is something valuable for me and I am taking steps in that direction when we do these two things that is when natural healthy positive emotion is generated within us we don’t necessarily have to achieve that that human may be very far away but we are taking steps in that direction say for example if you study the Bhagavad Gita feel like this has some wisdom I want to learn it and I want to share it with others if you decide that this is something which I want to do in my life and maybe every day you spend ten minutes studying the Bhagavad Gita, every day spend fifteen minutes hearing some class on the Bhagavad Gita you get one concept understand and slowly you are moving towards that goal that when we have something worth moving towards and we are moving towards it that creates we can say natural or organic positive feeling and as long as we are having at least one area in our life in which we are doing this then we will be moving forward and there are other areas where we may not even be sure whether this is the area I want to move towards like that’s what your question is, is this a meaningful goal for that I should try to move towards, keep trying to move towards or maybe I am not going to move towards this, maybe I have to find some other goal and move towards that, those are decisions which we have to take but before we take that decision it is better to get ourselves in sattva guna because in rajo guna we will take that decision from a platform where we go I can do anything generally what happens is in these three gunas it’s our vision of ourselves that if we are in rajas we operate from platform of ego I can do anything but if we are in tamas we operate from platform of insecurity I can do nothing I am worthless I am good for nothing but in sattva it is that we approach from a healthy platform that this is the platform of humility sometimes we think the opposite of ego is humility no, it’s not two things, it’s three things the opposite of ego ego is thinking too much about ourselves thinking I am better than what I am the opposite of ego will be insecurity if ego is mayavad I am god, I am everything insecurity is shunyavad I am nothing isn’t it so humility is what I am a part of Krishna I am a part and that means if I am a part I can do some things ego is I can do everything insecurity is I can do nothing but I am a part I am not the whole but I am a part of the whole that means I can do some things so let’s find out rather than making a decision whether I should go on in this path or not go on in this path first find out which path is always meaningful for us to go according to and make tangible steps in that direction and once we have done that then we get some level of confidence we get some level of clarity and then we can take other decisions so some devotees get very caught should I become a brahmachari or should I become a grahastha well don’t worry too much about it first focus on becoming a devotee first focus on connecting with Krishna whether we become brahmachari or grahastha we want to become a devotee that is something which is always meaningful for us so focus on that how can I strengthen my relationship with Krishna and once I have taken tangible steps in strengthening my relationship with Krishna then I will have some stability, I will have some clarity and then I can decide should I go in this ashram’s direction or that ashram’s direction ok yes I had a confusion regarding prana so in this puranjana section it talks about prana like snake who keeps on drinking can we talk about this little later if you don’t mind because it is slightly unrelated I am not talking about prana in the class I am here for some days, we will talk later ok Hare Krishna Guruji you wonderfully taught us how do we transform our mind by giving the solution of FIT increasing the frequency, intensity and time duration I wanted to ask so this is like training the mind to be able to transform better so but to be able to apply this solution I feel that there is not enough intensity for the desire to transform so should we also simultaneously work on our spiritual values so that our desire to transform and apply the solution which we hear from senior sangha becomes intense then we apply it properly because we also got to hear from other devotees and from you earlier also but we have failed to apply them because of lack of intensity to transform so should we also parallelly put some effort in this it’s a good question that one thing is having the skill to transform it’s another thing to having the will to transform so both are required and each person has to find out what is it that is lacking and we have to work on gaining that so sometimes the will is lacking and if that is the case then we have to work on the will and the way we work on the will is generally by contrasting, there are many places if you want to strengthen our will to transform there are many places in the Gita where Krishna teaches by contrasting if you do this, this will happen if you become conscious of me, this will happen if you don’t become conscious of me, this will happen so it’s like we contemplate the best positive result we contemplate the worst negative result so we all maybe we spend five minutes we can think of say three positive habits that we already know that if we develop our life will become better we all can probably think of three negative habits which if we don’t work on, they can break havoc in our life so maybe we need to sit down and write things down maybe everyday I spend half an hour on social media maybe out of that ten minutes I am doing something valuable even twenty minutes I am wasting I am using very modestly some people may spend three hours or six hours also but whatever it is so if those twenty minutes I am wasting, twenty minutes daily may not seem a lot of time but twenty minutes in a week twenty minutes in a year twenty minutes in ten years it’s going to be huge amount of time so basically envisioning the consequences of the negatives and envisioning the results of the positives that’s one way we can create the will to change so another way we can create the will to transform is by by associating with or focusing on transformed people, now transformed people does not necessarily mean people who are self-realized like pure devotee is very exalted good thing somebody who is a peer like us but maybe they spend more time in studying Shastra and maybe we started together, we got a lot of other services so we couldn’t study Shastra so much but they are focused and they have learnt so much so you know, hey, I could also maybe not exactly that level, but I also could have learnt more sometimes seeing those who have become transformed also inspires us so now and of course sometimes it’s just a mystery what actually transforms us what actually creates the desire to transform so it requires Krishna’s mercy also, but somehow or the other if it is the will to transform that is lacking then we need to build that will, so the same two things I talked about Buddhi earlier and Sangha so that’s the way generally desire, like intensity is triggered by those two things by intelligence and by association of those who are intense so thank you very much