Nama Retreat. Session 2

Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Govardhan · 2024

Chapters

Invocation prayers and opening mantras

Sri Chaitanya Mano Bishta, Stopi na Bhutal, Swa Mrupa, Da-Dati Sapadantikam Vandeham Sri Guru, Sriutapadakamalam, Sri Ghurun Vaishnavams Shri Ruam Sagrajatamatamitam Sachivam Sadvaitam Sadhutam Parijana Sahitam Krishna Chaitanya Deva, Sri Krishna Pada, Saganalita, Sri Shapidamsat, E Krishna Karuna Sindho, Dinabandho Jagatpate, Gokesa Gogikatanta, Radakantamostude, Taptakurangi, Rade Vranishwari Vishabanu Sudadevi, Pranamari, Vancha Papatarudas Kripasindubia, Paditana biod, Vaisnaviam, Shri Krishna Chaitann Prabuniand, Sri Advaitadar, Srivassadhi Guru Bhakta Vṛnda. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Ajanu Lambi to bujoka na kavadatu, Sankirtanaika Pitaroka Malaja taksa, viswambaro Djawaro, Yuga Dharma Palu, Vandeja Jagat Priakaru Karnavatar, Yandah pravisy Mamavachima Prasuptam Sandivaya te kila shakti darah svadamna, Anjam, Charna, Shravanna, Twagadin, Pranan Mo, Bhagavad, Puru Shay Dubia, Swastu Vishwa, Sekalah, Prasidaam, Viayan Tutani sivam mitodiyamanas chapadrampacha ta doksha chat awesha tamati rapja ki.

Overview of material and spiritual emotions

Hare Kṛṣṇa. So welcome again for our second session. And yesterday I was trying to explain a little bit about the place of emotions in our life. Oftentimes emotions are looked down, oftentimes emotions are condemned.

And rightly so, there is definitely a very important factor of degradation and emotions contribute to the degradation of the human beings. But before Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came, nobody actually knew the nature or nobody scientifically knew the nature and the magnitude of emotions.

So you have to be very quiet. Okay. This stuff still works.

So today we will discuss little bit, uh touch little bit the mechanism the material mechanism behind emotions and how emotions actually can be a very strong factor which contributes to the degradation of the soul. How the degradation is taking place due to emotions and how the soul being absorbed in the material emotions loses its original nature.

But I also explained today the structure of emotions as explained by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Bharata Muni. Of course, there are some differences between the two.

And I will also show that the material emotions basically reflection of the spiritual emotions. It's the same thing, uh it's just perverted reflections of the same thing.

So we'll talk about material emotions, which is always very interesting. And we'll talk about spiritual emotions, which is always even more interesting. So that's the little topic for today. Yes.

Okay, so I will talk about the definition of emotion, structure of emotions according to Rūpa Gosvāmī and Bharata Muni actually, degradations by emotions, neurophysiological mechanisms, little bit of emotions.

I will explain the three basic emotions which are there according to Bhagavad-gītā. And very important point which will be today's discussion: getting stuck by emotions. Can we be zastria? Getting stuck by emotions.

And how emotions keep us attached to this world.

And then a little bit, if the time will allow us, I will touch the mechanism of emotional conditioning, how it works, how the spiritual by nature soul identify itself with the material things.

And emotion play very important role in this identification process. Okay, let's go here. First English word emotion which comes from French word emotion. Written in the same way but it's emotion.

So and ultimately it all comes from Latin verb imoveri, which basically means to move. Or to shake, to steer, imoveri.

So the idea here is very important because the emotions are the energetic factors which push us to move. So we're being pushed.

They shake us, steer us, so that's the that's the idea behind this English word coming from Latin.

So basically, emotion is a vivid impression as a disturbance of an emotional state of stillness and equilibrium. That's according to standard definition.

Of course, we have slightly different idea because according to us equilibrium is also an emotion. We'll explain about this a little later.

So very important part of this definition is that in psychological lexicon, emotion means an intense affective reaction also accompanied by physical and psychic reactions.

So this is more or less, the common understanding and, we will see how the understanding

is of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, which he formulated 500 years ago, is even very accurate according to this definition, but much more detailed. So now when it comes to the scientists or the psychologists

who study emotions, they have very wide ideas of uh they more or less agree what emotion uh means, but they have very wide ideas of how many emotions are there. Some say there are 500 emotions. But basic emotions are less.

You know, this is the basic emotions. You can see it. as expressed in the face. Some people say there are 34,000 emotions. I don't know how they did they count, why not 33? Actually 33 would be much more accurate.

But at the same time, they say there is only eight basic emotions of primary emotions. And then uh yeah, this primary emotions according to them: anger, fear, sadness, joy, disgust, surprise, trust, and anticipation.

And they all more or less part of this uh will uh sadness of joy. So that's the will, that's the emotional will. He's very emotional Very disturbed. Okay.

So that's the emotional wheel which some people promote, that here is the spectrum of emotions of different emotions, which are all between the two ends of the spectrum of sadness and joy or grief and exhilaration.

So, and of course, you know, you can classify it in many, many different ways. Somebody says no, there are twelve discrete emotions measured via differential emotional scale and somebody says there are 27 distinct emotions.

So let them do whatever they like. They will never agree with you, with each other. It's uh much easier to be a devotee because everything is very clear from the beginning.

So Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives a very, uh, interesting and profound definition and explains the structure of emotions. And he's very, very definite, and he agrees with other authorities in this area, in this science.

So first of all, the most common word for emotion in Sanskrit is bhāva. You all know bhāva. And according to Amarakosha, which is the standard dictionary of Sanskrit language? The word bhava has several meanings.

Bhāva means sattā, satā means existence. Because bhāva comes Sanskrit word bhāva comes from verbal root bhū, which means to be, to exist.

So it may mean existence, bhāva may mean existence, and sometimes in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa uses bhāva as emotion, sometimes he uses this like bhāva-sāgara, the ocean of material existence.

So bhāva may mean, and it's very important because the very word bhāva defines the foundational nature of emotions. The existence by its nature is emotional. Existence and emotion, they are more or less synonymous.

It's different sides of the same coin. So it may mean svabhāva, which means nature, the mood. It may mean abhiprāya, which means sense or intention or meaning. It may mean ceṣṭā, activity, behavior. So again, the same thing.

In one Sanskrit word, short Sanskrit word, bhāva, so much meaning is there and they're all interconnected. Because emotion defines your behavior, which we will discuss today.

Bhāva also means the heart, soul, or mind, ātmā. This is one of the meanings of the word bhāva. So, again, the very nature of soul is bhāva emotions. Again, this uh equation mark is there.

Bhāva means also janma, birth, and bhāva means vidvān, learned man. So you can only call yourself rightly a learned man if you are emotional.

Again very interesting and very different definition from our present rationalistic Western cultural context. So this is the Amarakośa definition of the word bhāva, but

more specifically, when it comes to emotions, Amarakoshi gives a definition of emotion, vikāra manaso bhāvaḥ, which means the disturbance or transformation of the mind or the heart.

The same idea is there as in the word emotion, we said emotion is something which is steers your heart, which shakes your internally, you internally.

And the same idea is here, vikāra manaso, when manas or heart transforms, undergoes some transformation, then it is called bhāva or emotion proper. Before that, it was different meanings of the word bhāva.

So, and uh uh as much as in uh uh ordinary psychology, uh as they speak about different degrees of manifestation the same emotions.

Emotion may be like mood, uh, maybe feeling, uh, maybe emotion, maybe experience, and maybe passion.

In any case, you know, English word is not a very good English language is not a very good language to explain all these nuances. So we will use Sanskrit terminology for this.

Five components of emotion in bhakti

Now let's look. Of course, most of you probably are familiar with this structure of bhāvas according to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. Please listen very carefully.

I will explain the spiritual meaning of these terms, but it also, as I said, completely reflects the nature of material emotions. So there are five components of emotions according to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.

sthāyi-bhāva, vibhāva, sañcāri-bhāva, sāttvika-bhāva and anubhāva. What are they? So, what is sthāyi-bhāva? Sthāyi-bhāva, as Śrīla Prabhupāda beautifully translated, a fervent or continuous ecstasy.

Of course, again, we're talking about the spiritual emotions in this particular context because we're referring to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, but the same refers to material emotions.

Basically, sthāyi-bhāva, the idea of sthāyi-bhāva is that it's a stable mood or stable feeling. It's a more or less a stable emotional reaction to the reality. Not stable, habitual, let's say.

You know Sometimes we we say that this person is very angry. Why do we say that he is very angry? Because that's his habitual reaction. He's angry without any reason.

You know, there may be reason, may not be reason, but he's anyway angry. So that's sthāyi-bhāva. That's his sthāyi.

Something which he very consistently manifests when it comes to react for the stimulus coming from outside. So, and basically sthāyi-bhāvas, according to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.

Here is the difference between Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Bharata Muni. He says there are five mukhya sthāyi-bhāvas or mukhya-ratis and seven gauṇa-ratis. It's actually very genius what Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī did.

Gave him the mission to explain something which is totally unexplainable. He's supposed to explain the emotions which you cannot really touch, you cannot really dissect it, you cannot really deal with it.

And that's why material scientists they're so bewildered. Somebody says 500, somebody says 27, somebody says 34,000 or whatever. But what Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī did, he took Bharatamuni's theory of emotion.

Who said that there are uh uh 11 basic emotions. Uh and uh uh uh he uh or uh whatever, no, eight basic emotions. Bharatamuni says there are eight basic emotions.

And he took Puranic version of it which speaks about five emotions and he combined them.

So as a result, he says that there are twelve sthāyi-bhāvas or twelve stable moods or let us say twelve svabhāvas, twelve emotional natures.

There are 5 main emotional natures which we know: Śānta, Dāsya, Sākhya, Vātsalya, and Mādhurya. This is five basic emotional natures. And they're main.

And there are seven gauṇa-ratis, seven secondary emotional natures which interact with the main emotional natures.

Actually, according to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, these seven gauṇa-ratis which are vismayā-rati and so on so forth, hāsā-rati and śokā-rati and whatever. This is the quote from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

So these seven gauṇa-ratis are actually sañcāri-bhāvas. This listen very carefully. It may be a little bewildering in the beginning, but when you understand it it will be very rewarding.

So the difference why there are 33 sañcāri-bhāvas or transitory emotions. Emotions which are coming and going, emotions which are like waves on the ocean of emotions.

You have the sthāyi-bhāva, and sthāyi-bhāva is like ocean. Stheyi-bhāva is your permanent mood and on the surface of this mood of this permanent mood of this ocean there are different waves

and these waves they're coming and going. This one second the wave is there, this next second it's not there. So it's not something permanent, sañcāri. That's why they call sañcāri. Sañcāri means transitory emotions.

But among these sañcāri-bhāvas, there are seven which are very special, which Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī elevated to the level of sthāyi-bhāvas. Why? What is the difference?

The difference is that these sañcāri-bhāvas which are elevated to the level of gauṇa-sthāyi-bhāva they are capable of permanently influencing your sthāyi-bhāva. It basically like this: you may be a friend of Krishna.

Because we're talking about spiritual emotions. And you are in this sakhya mood, in a friendly mood, this is your sthāyi-bhāva. But there are different friends, like Madhu Mangal.

Madhu Mangal, what is he doing all the time? He's all the time joking. He is engaged in haha yoga. Yeah, you also engaged in Haka Yoga now so

so his sthāyi-bhāva is not exactly sakhya, but it's sakhya very much influenced by Hāsa-gauṇa-bhāva. So because certain transitory emotions have this ability

to influence deeply our permanent mood, they are elevated to this level of seven gauṇa-ratis. And it's basically like this. Just let me see what is in the next.

So there are five main uh rasas which you all know, sthāyi-bhāvas, uh, which are uh influenced by these gauṇa-rasas and they leave permanent samskaras. That's the meaning of gauṇa-rasa. Of gauṇa-rati.

Gauṇa-rati leaves the permanent saṁskāra on our sthāyi-bhāva or permanent mood. And because of this, our mood slightly changes.

So it's basically a combination of five moods: you may be relating like mother, or like friend, or like uh servant, and some servants they also like to joke and some servants are very obedience and some servants are like this. So that's the difference between gauṇa and Mukhya Ratis.

And it's very interesting how Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains this. Why the material psychologists so bewildered, why some say that many, some say that many. They cannot really understand how it works.

But Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains the main mechanism. And when you understand this main mechanism, you can produce as many emotions as you like, or classify the particular manifestation of emotions in a very exact way.

So he says: for example, you may have this Hassya Swabhav, and Hassya Swabhav uh uh or humoristic nature. You may be, you know, like the El Nitai Prabhu or whoever knows him he's he's like this he's right there So anyway

let's let's give more classical example Madumangal or so but But uh uh but still the again

the main mood is there and uh th this uh this Swabhava this secondary uh Swabhava produces uh certain attachment, certain uh attachment which is called uh Hasyarati uh and you're attached to the particular mood.

You're always in this joking mood or somebody is always in this uh sad mood. He's always in the sad mood. You know, he's uh just you know that's the way he is. Uh you know, whenever you look at him, he's just sad.

So that's that's his swabhava because because again, but at the same time he may be friend of Krishna, or maybe you know lover of Krishna or whatever it is. Anyway, I think it's uh it's more or less clear.

Uh so there could be different combinations because of these uh permutations and combinations of this uh twelve ratis twelve staja bavas you can have en very my range of emotional natur to Krishna in a very particular way by giving freely their very rich spiritual emotions.

That's the idea behind this. And then Vibhava, Vibhava is a special symptoms of causes of ecstasy as And when you understand this main mechanism, you can produce as many emotions

It's basically emotional stimulus or triggers which gives the foundation of emotional experience. What vibhava means, vibhava means that you rehearse your attachment.

You have an object of your attachment, and when you rehearse your attachment, and we will see today how this rehearsment of attachment takes place.

We constantly relate with a certain object in a particular emotional way and ultimately this object of our attachment when the attachment becomes very strong he becomes vibava. So whatever reminds us about this vibhava or special

symptoms of special ecstasies, sometimes Śrīla Prabhupāda translates it like this. Whatever reminds us about this object of our attachment triggers the emotional reaction. For example, you may be attached to.

it sometimes happens not to Krishna but to some drugs. I don't know if any one of you had this experience.

So whatever reminds you about the object of your attachment ultimately will bring very strong internal emotional reactions in you. So that's vibhāva. And then sañcāri-bhāva, sañcāri-bhāvas is 33 in number.

That's why I said it would be more accurate to say 33,000. Uh if they classified it like this. And uh they start from despondency, jubilation, fear, anxiety, concealment. I already explained what Sanchari means.

Sanchari means something transitory. All these little waves on the ocean of our permanent mood, which actually makes it very interesting and very variegated. They are coming and going without leaving permanent impression

on the mood, but, uh, the seven special sañcāri-bhāvas which leave permanent impression they are elevated to the, uh, level of sthāyi-bhāvas because they cause our nature. And there are sāttvika-bhāvas, eight in nature.

We all know this from Romancha, from the hairs standing on it and tears and, uh you know, and uh uh being stunned and so on so forth. Eight, uh, sāttvika-bhāvas.

Śrīla Prabhupāda translates sāttvika-bhāvas as existential ecstasies. But basically, it's physiological reactions.

And it's very interesting, as I said, both material scientists and spiritual scientists which study emotions they agree with each other that there are different degrees of manifestation of emotions.

But spiritual scientists they only attribute the degrees of manifestation of emotions to this particular part of emotional kingdom of emotional realm.

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that these sāttvika-bhāvas can manifest in smoldering or like smoky situation when they manifest a little bit and only one of them or they be dīpita means ignited very strongly externally visible dīpta, burning very amazing, and then uddīpta, and then ultimately sūddīpta. So this is five different degrees of manifestation of sāttvika-bhāvas. You know, sometimes we may feel little tears are coming.

You know, sometimes tears coming from our eyes, and we want to keep this tear in a special box and display it in a museum of our devotional achievements, but that's a very insignificant thing.

Lord Chaitanya was crying, you know, he was crying as if syringes were there inside his eyes. So strong and overwhelming the emotional ecstasies were there.

And it's not without a reason because by this involuntary, it's physiological reactions, it's something which you cannot really, you cannot really consciously control.

So by these uncontrollable physiological reactions you can really understand how strong the emotions are, how strong emotions you experience. Everything else you can imitate, but this you cannot imitate.

There is this famous story how one very neophyte Bhakta came to the assembly of

six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana and Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī was reading the section of the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam when Krishna was leaving Vṛndāvana.

And everyone was just crying and crying and you know, falling completely on the ground, uh losing consciousness, and uh this guy was sitting there and he didn't feel anything. He was just sitting there and looking at everyone, and everyone is crying and crying and uh rolling on the ground.

And ultimately he thought: let me also do something. And he took some you know chili pepper or black pepper and put it in

the eyes, and sure enough he started crying too, and uh he felt quite good after that—I'm not so different.

But then the speaker after the lecture told him, "Oh, I heard that, you know, when your eyes are not crying when you hear about Krishna, you have to punish them, but I've never seen that anybody would punish them. But I saw you punished your eyes.

Thank you very much. That was the right thing to do. Anyway, the point here is that sāttvika-bhāvas are these physiological reactions which you cannot really imitate.

And therefore, they are the only correct criteria to measure the extent or the depth of the emotions which you experience.

And therefore, uh only in this particular case Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives the scale of smoky manifestation

of sāttvika-bhāvas or blazing manifestation or burning or brightly burning or whatever it is. It's very difficult to translate. So that's the Satvika Bhavas.

And ultimately Anubhava, Anubhava means emotional manifestations, external emotional manifestations which can be controlled. You may feel like dancing, but you will force yourself to sit.

I'm sure somebody now feels like dancing but still you're all sitting and it means you're controlling very tightly your transcendental ecstasies.

So basically uh means you may feel like uh singing or you may feel like uh laughing, but you still can control it to a certain extent. Therefore they're called Anubhava.

This is something which is happening following the bhāva, the ecstasy which you experience. So there are different manifestations you can roll on the ground. This you can rehearse, no problem.

So and then what we see here, it's very interesting. Ultimately, that's what the okay uh ultimately what we see here is uh three main manifestations of emotions.

Uh one is subjective experience, another one is physiological response, and another one is behavioral response.

Anubhava is behavioral response, sāttvika bhāva is physiological response and uh this is actually external manifestations of the internal mood which you experience which is more or less sthāyi bhāva which is there.

So that's completely in accordance with the modern science, modern psychological science. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī way before very precisely explained what it means.

So and we will see, and we see different descriptions of emotional outbursts in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhagavatam. This is Daksha who is condemning Lord Shiva.

And it is very vividly described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam how he became totally outraged and how he started yelling and shouting and condemning him giving offenses.

And yeah, and then in the story of Dhruva Mahārāja, there is also a very touching uh description of the external manifestations of emotions. Like Dhruva Mahārāja when he was offended by Suruci he felt completely dried up.

He started burning from inside, and then when he came to Suniti, Suniti she became pale like a dry leaf. It is explained there.

So, this is what I want to say is that it's a common experience, but Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī amazingly very precisely classified all different degrees and all different kinds of emotions and how they manifest and explain the mechanisms of this emotional manifestation.

Degradation of the soul through emotions

So, but now we're coming to the main topic of today's discussion: how the material emotions can become the cause of our degradation.

And of course, the description of it is very famous. It's from Bhagavad-gītā, 2nd chapter.

Dhyāto viṣayān puṁsaḥ-saṅgas teṣūpajāyate, saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate, krodhād bhavati saṁmohaḥ where is the second verse?

So this two verses they explain this emotional chain reaction, which starts very innocently. We start contemplating on the objects of the senses. And the contemplation of the objects of the senses creates some

attachment, saṅgāt teṣūpajāyate, saṅgāt, from the attachment, from little attachment, comes strong attachment, kāma, desire.

kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate, from kāma comes krodha, from krodhād bhavati saṁmohaḥ, from krodha the emotional physiological reaction chemical reaction in the brain becomes so strong that it brings saṁmohaḥ.

Saṁmoha means complete bewilderment. You're completely bewildered. Actually, it is uh explanation or description of the chemical processes in the brain.

The neurotransmitters or neuromediators become so strong that they completely bewilder us and we forget who we are.

Saṁmohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ. Smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśaḥ. Smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo, and then our intelligence completely lost. We cannot understand what will be the consequences of our actions, and buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati, actually the soul is losing itself.

So this is how emotions bewildering us completely hide our spiritual nature. That's what is going on.

In these two verses, Krishna very beautifully describes all this very complex physiological processes which uh ultimately uh bring about the complete bewilderment of the soul. Soul does not remember anymore its spiritual nature.

That you all know I will not really explain. Yeah, here is the second verse. So uh this is how it works.

Please listen because it's important. Uh if we know the mechanism of bondage, if we know the mechanism of enslavement by emotions, we will also know how to use emotions to free ourselves.

So basically, ātmā, the soul, spiritual entity, has rāga.

Ātmā comes to this material world with this rāga and rāga basically says I want to experience I want to establish the way I want, to, you know, I want everything my way, basically. That's what ātmā says.

And this impulse from ātmā, from the spiritual atom, from the atom of consciousness, comes to the heart. And when it comes to the heart, the heart translates it into very specific desire. This is what I want.

This is how I want. This is how I want my husband should behave. Datma says: I just want to control everything. And then when it comes to the heart, it's being translated in the more specific terms.

I want my husband to behave this way and I don't want him to behave that way. Or, you know, my wife it doesn't really matter. Uh wife or husband, they're all the same. So please don't blame me, I'm not male chauvinist.

So first ātman, the desire, the general desire of ātmā, is translated into a specific desire within our heart, and then the heart gives the signal to our brain.

And uh when the brain receives this command uh from our heart uh the brain starts working and uh uh produces certain chemicals and these chemicals come to the body, and actually we start working to achieve our goal or acting in a certain way.

Three primary material emotions and mechanics

So that's the chain reaction which is there. Initially we soul emanate this impulse of desire and then the heart translates it, brain translates it, and ultimately it comes to the body.

And that's how these three components of emotion take place.

As I said, you know, emotion is some experience, but this experience manifests externally as a physiological reaction, and then this experience also pushes us to act in a certain way. So that's what it is.

So when desire, rāga is there, this is the first chain which you see on the slide. But as soon as there is some obstacle, I want to do something, I want to achieve something.

As soon as there is an obstacle, there are two uh emotional reactions to the obstacle. If the obstacle is very strong, what is the emotional reaction? Fear.

If the obstacle is very, very strong, uh, which does not uh allow us uh does not give us the chance to fulfill our desire, then we become fearful.

And if the obstacle is not very strong, then what is the emotional reaction to not so strong obstacle? Anger. Fear and anger. Basically, there are three emotions only. It's raga attachment when it comes to material things.

Fear and anger. Vīta rāga bhaya-krodha. So only three basic material emotions. Raga attachment, I want my way, or when the obstacle is there, then we manifest either fear or anger.

So if somebody is weak, then we manifest anger. So when you're angry, basically means that you're dealing with weak uh obstacle. And we when you're fearful, it means that you're dealing with very strong obstacle.

So that's basically what it is. And there is a very complex mechanism. I'm I'm not going, please don't be afraid. I'm not going to explain all these things. But what I want to show here on this slide

is that this uh physiological reaction which takes place in our body is being now studied very carefully with all this different different chemicals, you know, adrenaline and noradrenaline and dopamine and serotonine and all this uh kinds of stuff and how it works. But ultimately behind this is the emotion, emotional impulse.

And we should only know, and there is this whole brain mechanism, uh, limbic system, which is the emotional system within the brain again.

Uh I will not explain what is septum and uh olfactory bulb and hippotalamus and amygdala all that I could but I I I I will spare you from this. That's not the point.

The point is that there is a very elaborate, amazing mechanism which is being studied, uh, but ultimately it's all emotional mechanism. How the emotions uh should manifest and uh manifest in in our body.

And uh what we should know about this very important, as I said, uh there is two stressful reactions. Fight or flight.

Emotional habituation and karmic conditioning

When you're angry you try to fight, and when you are uh fearful you try to uh fly the uh uh so but basically uh we are there are three m emotions which I already said I will I will explain it little a later.

But here what I want to say is that here is a very important thing which I want to say. As I said, the emotions which we experience due to our past karma tend to be repetitive. We develop certain svabhava.

Listen, it's very important because sometimes people ask, you know, after practicing Krishna consciousness for 20 years, 15 years, or 25 years, you know, why I'm still angry, or why I'm still this or that.

We have to understand very clearly how it works. When there is a habitual emotional reaction which is produced by our karma.

And there is this elaborate, very complex mechanism which I just showed to you of emotional reactions, then it becomes a very strong mechanism of our enslavement because we repeat the same thing again and again and again.

And every time we repeat it, every time we repeat the same emotional reaction, we reinforce our karmic nature. We become stuck with this situation.

You know, the hormones are produced by our brain, they influence our body, and the body with the mechanism of the feedback loop influences our thoughts.

I will explain a little later this complex mechanism of feedback loop.

But uh what most important to understand now is that uh brain uh mind or sorry soul soul influences uh mind. Mind influence body brain and our body physiological reactions.

But there is a feedback mechanism going from the body back to the soul. It not only one way uh street. How you call it? Yeah. So uh you're right. So there are two directions. There are two directions in which we uh move.

It's bad and it's good. It's bad because once we got into some emotion which we repeat again and again and again, it's very difficult to break this vicious circle.

You know, like sometimes I have a lot of experience of this. Somebody has a certain mood, uh certain uh uh idea about the reality, uh he or she is very pessimistic. Everything is bad, everything is bad, everything is bad.

Uh So, and uh he or she becomes so stuck uh in this emotional reaction that he cannot really break it, even if if everything is very good, he still sees as everything is very bad. And he really finds the reasons in reality to explain it the same way.

Everyone is bad. All devotees are bad. All the have you heard this? Devotees are so bad. You know, I look, I say very nice devotees. Whether you see bad.

But uh because you rehearse again and again, same emotional reaction, your vision of reality becomes distorted.

You see the reality through this emotional lens or through this emotional prism, and you cannot really get free from this vicious circle of emotional enslavement.

You cannot really react in a different way because you rehearsed it so many times and because your body becomes habituated to this sort of reactions.

More or less, the level of the hormones within your body, of stressful hormones, are so high that it influences your way of thinking and your way of seeing the world.

And basically, we will use it in Krishna consciousness. That's a good news. So we will produce hormones of the emotions of Sharanagati. I will explain to you how to do it.

But that's that's more or less the idea of the whole thing. But what we have to understand is that every emotion has some physiological effect.

Usually, oftentimes, we don't really understand what is happening within our body. We are so overwhelmed by different emotions, by the different waves in our mind, we don't understand what's happening in the body.

But if we become a little observant, and it's very important point, if we become the observers or witnesses of this emotion, we will be able to distinguish what is going on within our body and ultimately we will be able to produce favorable emotional response to certain situations.

We can change unfavorable karmic emotional response to situations into favorable response according to the principles of devotional service, which we will explain a little later.

Anyway, this is how we get stuck into this whole thing. And this is the, you know, the explanation of the stress.

How stress influences the mind, influences body, influences our emotions, and influence our behavior. So all these different uh stressful reactions are there and the stress is coming from what? What is the main cause of stress?

Somebody experience stress here. Five people. Okay. So uh b basically what is the cause of stress? I already explained what was the cause of str Yeah,

the the cause of stress is that I see something which I think is wrong, right? Uh I won't the reality be my way, but reality somehow rather works independently on my desires.

And when the reality when the reality doesn't match with the desired picture which I have in my mind, the stress is coming. And in how many percentage of cases the reality does not match uh with our desired uh picture.

I think hundred and eight percent it's always different It's always not the way I want. It's always something wrong.

Somebody is wrong, something is wrong, government is wrong, and you know, weather is wrong, and there's so many causes of stress. So we are all in constant stress. Congratulations.

Of course, when we are laughing, we are laughing out the stress, so it's good.

Transforming material emotions through devotion

So uh basically that's the thing, you know, that's the uh mechanisms how we become stressed out because the reality does not match what we want and uh because we very stubborn in this desire, everything should be my way, we are stuck in uh this situation and it's very difficult to break through.

I already said to you that this is very important verse. From Bhagavad-gītā. Vita Raga Bayakra Tha, Manmayama, Mupashrita, Bhagavow, Jana Tapasa. There's a mistake here, not justana. Vyanatapasa putamat bhava magataha.

Very interesting verse. Which actually is the key for the whole seminar. You know, when we get rid of this Raga Bay and Croda, only three basic emotions which are obstacles on our spiritual path.

And when we will be able to do it Man Maya Mamu Pasritaha when we take shelter of Krishna. And taking shelter means Saranagati, right?

When we become Saranagata Bhaktas, then we will be able only to get rid of this emotions of Ragabha and Krodha. And then by Jnana, which is coming, and by tapasya, by doing the sadhana of bhakti yoga.

We will achieve madbhava magatha. What is madbhava here? Yeah. We will achieve the pure emotional ecstasies related to Krishna. So that's the process.

You know we have stressful emotions, three of them, with wide varieties, different uh manifestations of these emotions. We take shelter of Krishna, we do Saranagati, and

uh by doing Sharanagati we conquer over the stressful emotions and achieve Madbhava, Madhbhava Gataha, we come to the realm of spiritual emotions. That's the process.

So, and that's why and how we should do spiritual practice. Spiritual practice involves gradual purification from material emotions. That's what spiritual practice is.

If you're doing spiritual practice and you're not feeling that you are becoming free from material emotions, you're doing something wrong. You're not doing what you're supposed to do.

So you know the process of spiritual purifications, you get rid of material emotions, you uh gradually achieve spiritual emotions,

and um the first goal which we should achieve is to extinguish the false sense of self attached to the material psychological complex by reorienting all aspects of the Sadakarupan, mental faculties, sense organs and organs of action towards Bhagavan, thereby transforming the body from an instrument of bondage into an instrument of devotion.

Very nice phrase. I I like it. Very complex. So but the idea is very clear. And very important idea. We should turn this body from the instrument of bondage into an instrument of devotion.

At this moment of time, the body is the instrument of bondage. It puts something to bondage. It forces us to be attached to this material world, to be attached to material emotions and everything else. It keeps us here. It repeats itself again and again and again through this vicious circle of karma.

But sadhana bhakti means we are reorienting all the faculties of our body by taking shelter of Krishna and you know emotionally reacting to this material world according to the principles of Saranagati.

And then mental faculties, sense organs and organs of action, they will be directed towards Bhagawan and ultimately our body will be totally transformed.

That's what Sadaka Rupa is. That's what we are supposed to do with this rupa. That's what we are doing. And that's basically what we are trying to teach. So I only have a few more slides to show.

Yeah, the same thing is explained in this verse from Padma Purāṇa which, uh, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī quotes in, uh, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. It's a very important verse.

Śoka-marṣādi-bhir-bhāvair-ākrāntaṃ-yasyamanasaḥ, kathaṃ-tatra-mukundasya-sphūrtiḥ-syānmamābhavat. This verse says, How is that possible? This verse says, How is that possible?

Kathaṃ in the mind which experiences śoka and amarṣa and ādibhiḥ, all other emotions. Śoka means grief, amarṣa means anger. When in your mind you experience grief, anger, and

all other stressful emotions, all these bhāvas, śoka-marṣādi-bhir- bhāvair, all these bhāvas, ākrāntaṃ, when they attack us. When we always feel these attacks of these emotions on our

mind, ākrāntaṃ yasya manasaḥ, kathaṃ tatra mukundasya sphūrtiḥ sambhavan abhavat, how the beautiful face of Mukunda will manifest within our heart. Not possible. Not possible. Not compatible.

When the mind is not clear, when the mind is still contaminated by these material emotions, we will never be able to see the reflection of the beautiful form of Lord Krishna within our heart.

So it's important to get rid of them, and that's why, uh, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that this is, uh, one very important element of sādhana to get rid of negative emotions. To get rid of all this anxiety syndromes and uh depressions and everything else.

So that's what it is. And I already explained this mechanism of stacking, but I will repeat it very quickly again how it works. You know, soul desires to enjoy.

As a result of desiring to enjoy, the soul is covered by avidya, by ignorance. And then the mirror of this in which the citta, the mirror in which the soul looks, she sees the distorted image of it. False ego.

And then false ego sets some goals. It's a very detailed explanation of everything which I explained yesterday and today.

The soul wants to enjoy. As a result, the ignorance is covering the soul, and then we get citta, the mirror of the heart, our heart, and we look at this mirror and we see some distorted image.

We will explain this uh tomorrow. And then false ego sets goals. This is what I want. I want to be like this. I want to become like this.

And as a result, rāga and dveṣa comes, the emotions in the mind, very wide spectrum of material emotions, rāga, attachment, and dveṣa, hatred. And then we get thoughts associated with these emotions, and then

we get reaction in the brain, and then release of hormones and uh all this uh physiological reactions and then you become like this you are emotionally stuck. This is sthāyi-bhāva. I can have some other no

where is the other one? Oh so many there was some other m nice picture but anyway it's not here. Okay, so that's uh that's that's my astrological prediction of your future. Unless you take seriously this So

very important thing which will be helpful to us. So soul uh creates ego, ego creates emotion, emotion creates thoughts. When we have certain emotions, it produces certain thoughts, thought patterns.

And that it produces some chemicals, neuromediators. And neuromediators turn on hormones within our body. And the hormones within our body influence our thoughts, and thoughts influencer our emotions.

You see this vicious circle? You know, first you produce hormones and then hormones by your thoughts. Thoughts are produced by emotions.

So then hormones will influence your thoughts and thoughts will reproduce the same emotion. And you're stuck.

You know, it may be this is how the you know undesirable sthāyi-bhāva develops, how the emotional habits develop.

Somebody is pessimistic, somebody is hilarious, somebody is stressful all the time, somebody is something else. So that's the vicious circle.

Emotions, thoughts, hormones, thoughts, and again emotions, and so on and so forth. That's the cycle of saṁsāra.

So, and we will try to break it. So this is different different descriptions of this: self-doubt, criticism, anxiety, envy, despair, fear, anger, greed, and so on and so forth.

And you can see, you know, there are two souls, and they react on reality in a completely different way. One is very happy, oh such a nice rain and the other one was horrible rain. So that's what it is.

So this is what we should uh try to learn. Yeah, I will I will skip this little part Yeah,

Spiritual weakness caused by emotional enslavement

no, I will not skip this little part. What will happen actually when we become the slaves of our emotions? Just a few more minutes, I will finish very soon.

When we become the slaves of our material emotions, uh even though we are very strong. As a spirit soul, we are very strong. Each and every one of us is extremely strong, very powerful.

Because we are parts and parcels of Krishna. They're capable of doing amazing things. You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda, uh in his old age, what he did? Why? Because he was not conditioned by all this material stuff.

Because uh he said impossible is the uh word from the fool's dictionary. You know who can say this? Does anyone of you uh sometimes say that this is impossible? Yeah. There are few honest people here.

We always say it's impossible. It's impossible to chant two lux a day. Is it? It's impossible, it's impossible, it's impossible. It means who you are? Okay. Let's call with very politely conditioned soul.

Śrīla Prabhupāda used different terminology. Anyway, so what happens? When we become slave, when we become trained or tamed by emotions, actually that's what is happening. We are tamed by emotions.

Even though we are very strong, we become enslaved like this, you know, elephant. It's a common knowledge that you tie elephant to a very little, you know, thing and the elephant is just sitting there.

He he's strong enough to smash everything, but he thinks that he cannot do it. Because he was trained like this in the childhood. So the same way is happening with us that trained to become weak spirit souls.

And this is a very important verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which explained this. This is Maitreya Muni speaking to Vidura in the beginning of the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śāyaṁ bhāgavatam. This is māyā of Bhagavān.

Look, this is māyā of Bhagavān. Maitreya is amazed. This is Maya of God, Jan Nayana Virudya te, which acts completely against the logic. Yannayana Viru Dyate. Īśvara-sevimuktasya kārpanyam uta bandhanam.

Īśvara, īśvara in this particular case means soul, spirit soul who is Ishvara, who is self-willing, and who is completely free.

Each and every of one of us is completely free, each and every of us one of us is self-willing. We are Īśvara and we are vimukta. Kārpanyam uta bandhanam. We become very weak kārpanyam and we become completely enslaved.

This māyā, which cannot be understood by logic, belonging to the Supreme Lord, is not his svarūpa, is the case of deprivation and ignorance for the jīva who has the possibility of realizing the form of knowledge and bliss of the Lord.

This is how Jīva Gosvāmī translates this verse. There is different translations. Srila Prabhupada uses different translations. Both are correct, but this is important for our uh for our discussion.

This is how we become very weak because of this attachment of uh of material emotions. And you can see this is how you can become, you know, very weak and enslaved by this.

And yeah, the story of King Puranjana explains this.

Being thus entangled in different types of mental concoction and engaging fruitive activity, King Puranjana came completely under control of material intelligence and was thus cheated.

Indeed, he used to fulfill all the desires of his wife, the queen. We become the slave of our wife, which is material intelligent. And this is the continuation of the same section.

When the queen drank liquor, King Puranjana also engaged in drinking. When the queen dined, he used to dine with her. When she chewed, King Puranjana used to chew along with her. When the queen sang, he also sang.

Similarly, when the queen cried, he also cried. And when the queen laughed, he also laughed. When the queen talked loosely, he also talked loosely. When the queen walked, the king walked behind her.

When the queen would stand still, the king would also stand still, and when the queen would lie down in bed, he would also follow and lie down with her, and so on and so forth.

That's the description of what soul is doing. The soul which is placed here becomes the slave of the movements of material intelligence.

The material intelligence wants to laugh with saying, I am laughing. The material intelligence wants to stand still. We think, yeah, we should stand still. We become the slave of this queen. Even though we are the king.

We are in control. The intelligence is supposed to be our servant, but instead we become the servant of our material intelligence and we become completely affected by this.

I will uh yeah uh it is explained in the 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhagavatam.

Just as one may imitate persons whom he sees dancing and singing, similarly the soul, although never the doer of material activity, becomes captivated by material intelligence and is thus forced to imitate its qualities.

The soul is looking into the movements of material intelligence and completely identifies itself with the movement of material intelligence.

And you know, he basically imitates the soul which is supposed to be the servant of Krishna, imitates the movement of subtle nature and becomes the slave of material nature. Unfortunately, there is no there is no video.

Can we show the video? It's a very interesting just two minutes video, very short video, you will love it. How it helps. Can you show the video I make it snow, I make it snow So So this is exactly what the soul is doing.

Looks somebody is singing and somebody is dancing and then the soul looks and he thinks, oh yeah, let me also dance. This is of course a very good case scenario.

Summary of emotion in spiritual practice

Anyway, so that's that's it for today. I tried to explain uh the nature of material emotions. We uh went through a long journey, we uh tried to analyze the emotions from the spiritual point of view.

And we saw the Rūpa Gosvāmī's analysis how emotions come to be, and how emotions have these components of mental experience and then physiological reaction and then subsequent actions of the body, and then we explain the three basic material emotions: raga, and krodha, and why it's only three, and how these emotions are uh the cause of stress and how ultimately we have to get rid of the stress and how we become enslaved by the stress how we become habituated to the stress, how we cannot really live without all these stressful hormones because we are so used to it.

And this is how we become enslaved and become weakened.

But ultimately we have to understand, I am the spirit soul, I am very powerful, I am Īśvara and I am free. Anytime I can feel that I'm totally free and I don't have to be the slave of these emotions.

If I understand very clearly these mechanisms, then it will uh give us uh the understanding what we should do and what we're doing wrong in our spiritual practices and how to correct it uh to become more successful.

Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.