Bhagavad-gita 17.16. Austerities of the Mind
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2021
Chapters
Invocational prayers before the class
śrī-caitanya-mano-‘bhīṣṭam sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam vande ‘haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gūrūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca
śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitam taṁ sājīvam sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca
he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sīndho dīna-bandho jagat-pate gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo ‘stu te tapta-kāñcana-gauṅgīrāṁ rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari vṛṣabhānu-sute devi praṇamāmi hari-priye vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaḥ ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिне
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe hi śrī-mahārāja Okay. na maste sarasva dive, gurani, pracharny, nirvisnava Ashatyade Shatarin. Hi Shnamaj. Okay. Thank you for agreeing to this class.
These are all the youths staying here at the base and some of them are students, some of them are working in companies here, some of them are teachers,
some of them are software engineers and some are pursuing their engineering, mostly all the engineering background. How many students can you residents? They are still studying in college and working devotees?
So they are all working. And there are a couple of devotees on Zoom also who are joined today. So they are also mostly working and some of the students.
So we thought you can enlighten us with knowledge relevant to the earth and also take some question answers. Okay. So I'll speak a little bit for half an hour or something. For how long this program should last? Okay.
Omnamo bhagavatam Bhavatevaya, Omnaho Bhavatevaaya seva, narayanamas kritya, mas Devim saraswati, tato jayamudi, Hare Krishna. I'm very happy to be with you today. I mean it.
I'm very grateful to all of you for your services which you do. Various services in this temple and And sometimes some of and some other people, like Yasoda and some other people.
So thank you very much for your uh hospitality and your uh you know your good attitude I'm
Overview of mental austerity in scripture
of not much use here, but at least I'll try to say something which may be worthwhile.
So Subhanagor Hari asked me to speak on the verse from the 17th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, which is entitled Divisions of Faith and text number 16, which describes the austerities of the mind.
Lord Krishna is describing austerities and food and And faith in charity in different modes of material nature.
And while coming to austerity, he says that there is a standard division: austerity of the body, austerity of the speech, and austerity of the mind. So the 16th verse describes what it means to be austere in the mind.
And austerity, of course, in Sanskrit is called tapah, which literally means uh fire or uh heat. And the idea is that if you perform austerity, you acquire some energy, shakti.
We all need shakti to do something in this world. When you're sick or when you're old, you feel completely useless and morose because you cannot do anything.
The joy in life of any human being is to do something. To do something which is worthwhile, to do something nice.
You know, even little child, when little child is running here and there, he just feels energy and he feels happy. Even even animals.
I live in Govardhana and we have rabbits there. In the place where I live, there's a lot of rabbits.
And I once watched, you know, the rabbit was running in the lawn without any reason. He would run at the one end of the lawn to another end of the lawn with full speed, you know, putting all his ears here.
And then he would reach the end of the lawn and and run back and then again run there and then again run there. Because the point which I'm trying to make is that we enjoy using the energy. Everyone.
We want to acquire energy and then we want to use. That's the enjoyment. When we have energy and we use it somehow or other, it gives you some sort of very pleasurable feeling.
So when the Vedas speak, or in Sanskrit, when they speak about austerity as tapaha, it basically means that by performing certain activities you acquire energy. More energy than you already have.
And we all actually want to have more energy. We want to acquire more and more energy accumulate to spend it in a proper way. So tapasya or tapa austerity is a very amazing way of acquiring energy.
Usually people try to grab energy. They try to encroach, you know, they they try to steal energy. By stealing money, by stealing energy. By different means.
You know, I'm living in Govardhana, and in Govardhana people, they just put something on the electric wires and steal the energy from the government.
So that's usually people trying to get the energy by some illegal means. But tapasya is the way to get energy by legal means. This is how you acquire energy in a proper way.
Everything else is just stealing and ultimately it will not bring you benefit. So tapasya is the bona fide method of acquiring energy.
So let us read how Krishna defines the austerity for the mind or certain qualities or activities which help to make our mind powerful. And we all want, somebody wants to have powerful mind.
You know, those who are working in computer companies, they need powerful mind. Everyone needs powerful mind. So this is the way how to make your mind powerful. And it's very practical.
Recitation and translation of text sixteen
Although you know Krishna gives some advice which may be difficult to execute, but nevertheless, it's a very practical advice.
Manah prasadah som yatvam sada som yatvam. Manah prasada somya tam prasada som yatvam tapo mānasam ucyate. Vinigraha, Ma Vega, Bhavasam Sudhir Ityaam de tiera, Bhava Sam Sudhir ittat, Basam Sudat, Tapomana Samuchate, tapomoma sam uchate.
Manaḥ-prasādaḥ saumyatvam, maunam ātma-vinigrahaḥ, bhāva- saṁśuddhir ityetat, tapo mānasam ucyate, manaḥ-prasādaḥ satisfaction of the mind. Someyatva. Being without duplicity towards others.
Being without duplicity towards others Monam Gravity Atma of the Self Vinigraha Vinigra Control Bhava of one's nature. Some shuddhi purification. It thus this tapaha austerity manasam of the mind uchyate is said to be.
And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self control, and purification of one's existence are the austerities of the mind. Purport. To make the mind austere is to detach it from the sense gratification.
It should be so trained that it can be always thinking of doing good for others. The best training for the mind is gravity in thought.
One should not deviate from Krishna consciousness and must always avoid sense gratification. To purify one's nature is to become Krishna conscious.
Satisfaction of the mind can be obtained only by taking the mind away from thoughts of sense enjoyment. The more we think of sense enjoyment, the more the mind becomes dissatisfied.
In the present age, we unnecessarily engage the mind in so many different ways for sense gratification, and so there is no possibility of the mind becoming satisfied.
The best course is to divert the mind to the Vedic literature which is full of satisfying stories, as in the Puranas and the Mahabharata. One can take advantage of this knowledge and thus become purified.
The mind should be devoid of duplicity, and one should think of the welfare of all. Silence means that one is always thinking of self-realization. The person in Krishna consciousness absorb perfect silence in this sense.
Control of the mind means detaching the mind from sense enjoyment. One should be straightforward in his dealings and thereby purify his existence. All these qualities together constitute austerity in mental activities.
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya.
Manah Prasadakh Somya Twamatma Vini Gra And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one's existence are the austerities of the mind Antak Pradeshi Mamavachima kasub sangi vayati kila shakti daraswadana anyam schahasta charana savanat baga Mathi Rathya Duki.
Mental satisfaction as a key austerity
So here it's very interesting how Srila Prabhupada wrote this purpofe to this verse several times at least three times he repeats in different way the same things.
He takes the list of the qualities which are described here by the Lord Krishna and explains them again and again and again to drive back the point: what does it mean to perform the austerity with the mind?
And Krishna starts with Manah Prasada. The first thing which distinguishes somebody who is austere in the mind from somebody who is not austier, not so austere, is this feeling of satisfaction.
If you always feel dissatisfied and that's that's a practice. You know, I know many different people. Some people are very rich, some people are normal, ordinary people, some people are very poor.
And the satisfaction of the mind really inversely dependent on the richness of a person. The more one has, the more he needs. It's an amazing quality of the mind.
There was one person, I don't exactly remember his name, but believe me, it's a real story. He was the richest man in the world.
He was an American multi-millionaire in I believe in the 60s or 50s of the last century. So he was by far the richest man.
Can somebody get rid of this echo? Who's likeft the and le left with that? So don't sound like a little bit of side. So he was the richest man in the world, and he was quite old, and just the day before his death.
Of course he didn't plan to die, but it so happened that a journalist came to take an interview from him. And the journalist asked this man, can you encapsulate?
You are such a great man, you achieved so much in this world. Can you encapsulate in one in a few words what is your what is the essence of your life? For what you live? And the man said, yes, it's very simple.
Just one word is enough. More. This is what I live for more.
So the point here is that uh uh manas Prasada the satisfaction of the mind doesn't really depend or if it depends on what you have, it depends invertly of what you have.
It doesn't depend, you know, some times people think, you know, I don't have much, and therefore how I can be satisfied. You know, you have greater chances to be satisfied because you have nothing.
The more you have, the more you will want. You will always want. It's an illusion. Sometimes people think I will achieve this level of richness, I will become, you know, this rich and then I will be satisfied. Forget it.
When you achieve this level, you will have some other goal, you know, and there is no end to it.
Illusion of satisfaction through sense gratification
So the point which Krishna makes here and Śrīla Prabhupāda repeats as I said several times is that you know if you have this strange idea that you will become satisfied when you have something, you are grossly mistaken.
Śrīla Prabhupāda says that the satisfaction of the mind doesn't come from what you have or doesn't come from sense gratification. The more you gratify your senses, the more dissatisfied you become in the mind.
Because this is the nature of the mind. If you start gratifying the senses, then you implant saṁskāras. And when you have saṁskāras in your mind, the saṁskāras will demand from you more and more and more.
You know, it's never like this that you get something, you get some very pleasurable feeling, and this pleasurable feeling will sit there for the rest of your life and say, Oh, so nice. You were successful in your life.
You had this experience once. No, this pleasurable feeling, experience which you have, it will cry. It will outcry. I need more.
Repeat it again. Repeat it again. And then you repeat it again. And when you repeat it, it doesn't bring you the same satisfaction as it brought for the first time.
And then you want to repeat it again to see what's wrong with it, because for the first time it was so nice. And next time it was not this nice. And then it goes without end. It's how the mind works.
So if you want to be satisfied in the mind, Prabhupāda is very scientifically saying there. Please understand that this is not just a sectarian you know feeling or sectarian thoughts of an old man.
You know, like I have a disciple. He is a head of uh some mobile phone company in some country of the former Soviet Union. I don't know how he gets these things, but you know, and he likes to give public lectures.
He sits and there are few dozens of people who come and he explains the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He loves to do it.
And he told me once a story that uh he uh because he has this mobile phone company he is privy to you know he probably can read all these SMS messages or whatever somehow or other.
So he said he was giving lecture and he was telling this sort of things. You should be a little austere, you should control your mind, you should not drink wine, you should not do this, you should not that.
And he said, one young girl was sitting in the audience, and while she was giving the lecture, the young girl was typing an SMS message to her boyfriend.
The boyfriend is asking what's going on, and she's saying, you know, there's one old man. When he was young he was doing all these things and now he is old and he's saying not to do these things.
Now he's useless, he cannot do it. So now he's teaching that you shouldn't do it. So what I want to say that the point which Prabhupāda make is not because he's old. You know, and now he's teaching everyone not to do this.
When he was young he was doing it and he became old and it's the time. No, but he's he's saying a very profound truth.
The very profound truth, which if you don't believe, you can you can try it, but better if you believe, then you'll save yourself from a lot of troubles.
So if you try to satisfy yourself, satisfy the mind, by satisfying senses, you will get exactly the opposite result. Yes, you will get satisfaction of the senses, but senses they They're insatiable.
As Kṛṣṇa says in the third chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, that you know, Mahāśana Mahāpāpmā, that this kāma, this desire for sense gratification. It's Mahāśana. Mahāśana means it's ferocious eater. You know, you put more into this kāma, and kāma says, Yes, give me more, give me more, give me more.
Mahāśana, Mahāpāpmā. You know, you try to satisfy the desires in your mind, by satisfying your senses, you get the opposite result. You become more and more and more dissatisfied. That's a fact, that's a scientific fact.
Programming the mind through spoken words
And on the contrary, Śrīla Prabhupāda says here that if you try to, you know, if you say, you know, I'm I'm I'm happy, I'm satisfied. If you just say this, it will have an effect on your mind.
Because the mind is a very interesting mechanism, and you can program your mind. And in fact, that's what we always do. We constantly program our mind.
Unfortunately, you know, as as the programmers, all this, all these, you know, IT engineers, they know how to write programs, how to program computers. In a similar way, we always program the mind.
And as much as the IT engineers they need to know the language how to program the mind, we also know the language how to program the mind. We should say something. This is how we program the mind.
If we say I am satisfied, the mind will immediately think, really, maybe. It's very well maybe it's it's not bad. So and if you repeat it you know enough times the mind will become satisfied. It's it's a fact.
You know, and if you always say, no, no, I need more, no, I'm not satisfied, no, I need this and that and this, and you you repeat this, then you will not be satisfying. So satisfaction, happiness is achievable right now.
You don't have to wait for 50 years when you become a millionaire and you have a villa in Hawaii and you know and you remain unsatisfied. You can become satisfied right now.
And for that there is a certain programming and there is a language for this, we have to say, y I need what I you know what do we need? Śrīla Prabhupāda said, yes, a rich man he sleeps in a very luxurious bed.
In his air conditioned bedroom. And you know, poor man is sleeping in the street on the ground. But when they sleep, the experience is the same. And most probably the poor man has more sound sleep
than the rich man, because the rich man has so much anxiety during the day and it's all running in his mind while he's trying to sleep and he's just, you know, he's not really satisfied. But the point is that the experience which we have, we don't need so much.
We don't really need much. It's just the imagination of the mind. The mind always imagines something. It's just, you know, kalpana. The mind is always depicting some pictures, this is what I need, this is this, this is that.
You know, but this is a misuse of the mind. You know, mind is a very amazing mechanism.
Mind influence on physical body condition
I wanted to tell you a little story in this regard. This is again true story from India from probably the beginning of the last century or the end of the century before, when the kings were still there.
So there was one king and he caught some criminals, some serious criminal, and there was a death penalty for this criminal. And the death penalty for this criminal was supposed to be the snake bite, the cobra bite.
So, yeah, this criminal was taken to the execution room and he knew that what's going to happen, that the snake will be brought, and he would put the blinder over his eyes and then
you know the king or whoever the executor or whatever came was a little needle. And pinched or you know prick this man whatever place there was, there was this little needle? And the man died immediately.
Not only he died, his body became black, as if he was beaten by the cobra. The man was completely, he was convinced, this is this is 100% true story.
The man completely believed that the cobra beat him and he died because of cobra bite and his mind generated cobra's poison within his body.
There was another story, you know, like one engineer he was somehow rather locked in a big refrigerator.
You know, he was working in the in a company and you know there was this refrigerator in the railways uh there are these trains with big refrigerators and he was locked there and you know, next morning he was found dead and he was frozen.
But the point was that the free refrigerator didn't work. It was normal temperature. There was no point for him to freeze to death, but he was he was frozen to death.
Why? Because in the mind he thought, I will be frozen to death. As much as this man who was bitten by this cobra, which was just a little needle, you know, he thought that this is the snake bite and I will die.
So this is how the mind, the mind is completely controlling the body. Whatever you have in the mind will happen in the body. Therefore, the mind is called desire tree.
Whatever you desire, how you program the mind, it will happen to you. You know, if you always say, oh, if you are afraid, I will get cancer, for sure you will get cancer. No problem.
Because you always think about it, you meditate on this. So you will get it. Because this is how the mind works.
Cultivating contentment in changing circumstances
And if you if you say to the mind, I'm happy, then you know the mind has no chance to think otherwise because you programmed him in a special way. So when Krishna says, uh, manas-prasāda, uh, first
thing when he says that the you know the austerity of the mind is that, you know, whatever you get, uh whatever you have, you should say, that's good. That's enough. I don't need more.
You know, and if you get more, you say, yeah, it's also good. And if something bad happens to you, you also say that's okay. You know, I'm getting it. Everyone gets something good and something bad.
You know, and uh in the Shastras in the Vedas it is said today I read it that you know if if you have something bad now something good is coming and if you have something good now what happened next something bad will come so in all the situations you know it's always repeats. There's no, you know, everyone has this experience. You just say it's okay, it's fine.
You know, Tatanu comes with Samikshamana, you know, it's Whatever is coming to me is the result of my past deeds and be satisfied.
And that again, coming back to the my initial point, is that that will bring you a lot of positive energy within your mind. That will make your mind strong.
Whereas if you always you know dissatisfied, you dissipate your energy.
Whatever energy you have, it will be wasted in a very useless way through this dissatisfaction. Because what this dissatisfaction means, dissatisfaction means you always try to fight with the environment you are in, you know, this is not wrong, this is not good, this is wrong, this is it how it can be, it should be different.
And you're wasting your energy every second of your life. Whereas if you say I'm happy, all your energy is there, and you can concentrate your mind on Krishna.
And if you are dissatisfied, your energy is dissipated, uselessly, dissipated.
Like recently, I got a letter from one lady and she said, I cannot, you know, I uh Guru Maharaj I I please don't ask me to chant. I I cannot do this.
And then she writes, you know, uh I I just can't, I put my mind into there. It's just the more I chant, it's you know, I I I have such an unpleasant experience.
I love ISKCON, I love the devotees, I love everything, but I cannot chant. Don't ask me to chant. So and then she writes, you know, this is bad and this is bad in my life and this is bad.
And I, you know, what is the what is the disease in this case? She cannot put her mind and get satisfaction by chanting the Holy Name because she doesn't have energy for this.
Her whole energy is dissipated, wasted, because she's dissatisfied. She just programmed herself. I I don't mean to say that she completely whimsically programmed. There are some serious problems in her life.
But nevertheless, it's a program. And if you are intelligent enough, you have to use, you have to know how to program yourself properly so that it's productive. You know, don't put virus programs in your mind.
There are so many people who are planting viruses in your mind anyway. You know, all these people in the internet, they are planting viruses in your mind. You need this and you need that.
All these people who do advertisement. What is it? It's just viruses. You need some special program to purify your mind from all these unlimited viruses which are there.
Because when virus is there, what virus does, when the virus is there and the hard disk, it it destroys the hard disk.
So when the strong desire which is planted in your mind by some you know crooked people, by some clever people, you know it it basically destroys your mind.
Developing goodwill and overcoming envy
Therefore, Krishna says the first point is Manach Prasadha. And then the next point is also very interesting. Somyatvam. Somyatwam, it's from Soma. Soma means moon. And moon is very pleasing, moon is very generous.
Somyatvam means this attitude towards others. I want to do good to other people. This is what Somnyatvam is. Somnyatvam is this this this
sort of feeling that I you know I I'm not I'm not competing with others. There's no point of me competing with others. I just want to do something good for others.
And then again, if you do something good to others, you become satisfied immediately. Isn't it? Do you have this experience? You did something good, you you you you get satisfaction yourself.
So this again somnyatva makes your mind peaceful. Whereas if you skimming or if you know, if you're trying to inflict some pain and if you're, you know, if you're evil in mind, you will not have peace in mind.
You will always be agitated in the mind. Like Duryodhana. Duryodhana was always agitated in the mind. He was constantly. Why? Because this, you know, why people want to inflict pain to other people because of mazzary.
And what is mazzary? What is the meaning of mazzary? Matsarya means this competitive spirit. We usually translate it as envy or whatever, you know, jealousy sometimes.
But in reality, from the etymological point of view, you know, you see that somebody is ahead of you and you become envious. You have this competitive spirit. I should be the first one. I should be the best one.
How dare he be better than myself? And what you do when somebody is better than yourself, you just drag him down to your level. You try to degrade himself or whatever, you try to inflict some some problem to him.
And this is matsary, this is the matsary is the complete opposite, 180 degrees opposite of Somyatvam. Somyatvam is this again this attitude. You see somebody and you see, what good can I do to him?
You know, and you always can do something good. You can smile to him. You know, and he will become happy by seeing your smile, and you become happy. It's so simple, it's that simple. Just smile.
Just smile, now it feels good, isn't it? And if you if you see somebody and you kind of wish good to him, you may not be able to do something substantial, but you can do something.
Just by smiling, just by saying something good to him. Because we can always say something good to somebody else. And we should be very generous in this regard. Sometimes we're stingy, you know, you know no no.
No, but uh, Kṛṣṇa already said that you should say something which is pleasant and this is the austerity of the mind, or of the speech.
And you know, saumyatvam is this attitude in the mind which actually makes your speech proper and makes your behavior proper. So everything starts from the austerity of the mind.
You cannot really be a steer in your speech or in your body unless you are steed in the mind. So therefore saumyatvam is the next point. Then Prabhupāda says several times, he says the same thing.
He says that a few times he repeats this that you should you should have, yeah. It should the mind should be trained that it can be always thinking of doing good to others, for others. And then he repeats it.
One should be straightforward in his dealings, and they for pure no, that's purification of existence. Anyway, it's before that.
Practice of silence and saving energy
Few times Prabhupada repeats the same thing. So you know that's saumyatvam, and then maunam, maunam is of course a very powerful way to save the energy of the mind. You know the mind it
the mind the weight of the mind is only 5% or 4% of the weight of the body, depending on how healthy you are. If you are very healthy, then it's only 4%.
If you are a little skinny, then it may be 5% of the weight of your body.
But this little thing, the brain, I'm talking about the brain, not the mind, mind of course doesn't have any weight, but the brain this little organ only five or four percent of the weight of our body takes normally in a normal condition even when you sleep. It takes 20-25% of all the energy which you which you have. It gets all the energy when you eat, you know, at least and this is in a normal condition when you're kind of relaxing. If you're working, if you're really concentrating your mind, if you do some computer
programming or whatever, if you're really, you know, using the energy of your mind, then the brain, all the dealings of the brain, take up to 50% of the energy. And when you sleep, it's only 20%.
And it's never, it's never completely, you know, when you meditate, it can go up to not up to, but down to maybe 10%. So what is Mauna? Mauna is the way to save the energy in the mind.
Because when you always agitate your mind in different thoughts in different in different ways, in different, you know, verbal sort of things, or when you speak nonsense you spend your energy.
You spend very valuable energy of your body and of your soul ultimately. You know, in all these pursuits.
Therefore, those people who are really who know the science, who know how to concentrate the mind, who know how you know how the powerful mind can give you great achievements, they call munis. And what is Mauna?
Mauna is something which munis do, which wise people do. They're not wasting time in useless talks. They are trying to really save the energy for something good, because you need the energy of the mind.
You know, the mind, the human mind is such a valuable mechanism which is given to us by God.
Self-control and purification of existence
And, you know, not to waste it in useless talks is a very significant and important way to you know accumulate the energy for something which is good. And Ātma-vinigraha means, you know, self-control.
You really have to control yourself because it's important, and bhāva-saṁśuddhiḥ, you should purify your existence. And this is all tapasya, and this is the tapasya of the mind.
This is the ways to make your mind powerful and concentrated and peaceful.
You know, if you do this, bhāva-saṁśuddhiḥ means that you have to, uh, as Prabhupada explains here, as I already read, control of the mind means detaching the mind from sense enjoyment, that's Ātma-vinigraha.
And one should be straightforward in his dealings and thereby purify his existence.
If we really understand that this This bhāva-saṁśuddhiḥ, that this purity of my existence is something which is very, very valuable. You know, purity is an amazing thing. Pur purity, you can lose very very easily.
You know, like you know this clothes or whatever, it's very easily gets stained. You know there is no problem. But then to get rid of the stain you really have to work hard.
So easily it gets stained, you put some, you know, some whatever, you know, so many dirty things are there. Especially if it's some oil, you know, you put some oil. And it's so easy, you know, oil is there.
But how hard you have to work to get rid of this oil. And you will have, you know, after so many, after so many attempts and many, many days, you will still have a spot, oily spot in the clothes.
So the same thing with the mind. It's so easy to make our mind dirty. Easy, you know you get something on the internet and the mind you know goes into it. And it stays there.
It's easily comes in and it's very difficult to get it out. It stays there for a long time and it actually contaminates your mind. So therefore, you know, Krishna says here, try to be very careful in this regard.
Bhava-saṁśuddhiḥ. Bhava means our existence. And Krishna very aptly and appropriately says, Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ. bhavitaha.
You know, if you have purified bhava, then yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ, whatever bhava you remember at the moment of this, you will achieve this state of consciousness in the next life.
But it's not whimsical, it's not sometimes people think, okay, this is a great secret, now I know it. At the moment of death I should think about Krishna.
Forget it, you will not be able to think about Krishna at the moment of death if you didn't think about him during the lifetime. Sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ.
Whatever bhava you are training your mind for, this only bhava you will achieve at the end of your life, at the death.
And therefore, Krishna says here, very appropriately that you know the mind should be busy with the thoughts of how to purify my existence, how to achieve this very beneficial state of existence. Because what is bhava?
Bhava is the state of existence. Sometimes we translate it as emotion, sometimes we translate it as ecstatic emotion, but really bhava is from the Buddha, and Bhu Dhatu means the existence. So this is the state.
And Bhava Sam Sudhih, you should be in a pure state of your consciousness. And you can only do it if you really do it you know diligently all the time.
Don't think that now I will get dirty and then you know when I'm 50 years old I will try to get rid of it. It doesn't work like this. No. Try to do this now. And it's so simple and it's so pleasant actually.
It's actually very pleasant. If you do this, you will appreciate it. It's good. Whereas if you contaminate your existence, it doesn't bring any good to you and to anyone else.
So Bhava Sam Sudhir is a very important point of the whole thing. And Prabhupāda beautifully says that you know the best ways to purify the existence is to help others, is to serve others. You do something for others.
And you're pleased, and he is pleased and everyone is pleased and Krishna is pleased and you know everyone is pleased. And you have this pleasant state of existence, pleasant state of mind as a result of it.
This is a certain vriti, certain function of the mind. If you do it properly, then everything is fine. So anyway, I'm talking to too much. It's already too long. So maybe we should stop at this moment of time.
And you know I and think meditate on this verse how to how to make our mind strong and concentrated and amazing things will come as a result. Really amazing things. Okay. That's it.
Addressing emotional versus rational thinking
Maybe there are some questions? Yes. But if the visual thing is think that is the mean for the emotional thinking, like satisfaction, contentment, all those things.
But mind is part of the rational thinking and thinking, feeling and readings are for the mind.
No no the rational thinking is is just uh cherry on the cake. Rational thinking only occupies very little percentage of your mind. You know, in reality, all the so-called rational thinking is rationalizing our emotions.
You feel the emotions which are little hidden, which are not on the surface of the mind, and then on the surface of the mind, which is supposed to be rational, you rationalize your emotions.
You know, like you feel some anger towards somebody else. And what your mind does, your mind always thinks why you should be angry at him.
It explains to you, it proves to you that you are right and he is wrong, and this and that, but it's nothing but justifying the emotions which are there. It seems to be rational because you're using the you know logic
and whatever the capacities of the mind, but deep down where irrational feel, we are irrational beings. Because we are emotional.
People, on the surface they are rational, but they are driven by emotions, not by the rational thoughts. Rational thoughts occupy very little place in our life in reality.
But nevertheless, rationality and you know intelligence is very important uh but ultimately we have to be honest with this we are emotional we are not rational. Emotions are more powerful than all rationale.
You may, you know, sometimes you you feel so emotional, so angry or so whatever, you know, morose, and you preach to yourself, you shouldn't be this, you know, how you can be your devotee, you cannot do this.
Does it really work? No, it doesn't work. Maybe a little bit it works. But the predominating feeling is still there, the same feeling is there. You're morose and you know you can preach to yourself.
Maybe if somebody else preaches to you, it may reach a little deeper.
Function of intelligence in mind control
But in reality we should not overestimate the ability of our rational thinking. Yes, Malati, Proti had asked about the flashlight so but you are also understanding that intelligence control the mind.
Supposed to control the mind. In reality, in reality, the know the intelligence just serves the mind by justifying everything which is there in the mind.
It's supposed to control the mind if the intelligence is strong and the mind is very well trained. But that's not such a common thing. Yes, you know, if it is properly, if you somehow rather train yourself properly, yes.
But see that's why Vedic culture is so glorious because the Vedic culture trains the mind. When the mind is little set little trained, disciplined, then yes, intelligence has a chance to really control the mind.
But before the intelligence will be able to control the mind, the mind should be trained and disciplined.
And usually it's disciplined not by one's own intelligence but by the higher intelligence, by the intelligence of those who are superior to you, of elder people, of the society, everything.
You know, if there is this if this discipline is there, then the mind is trained, and then your own intelligence will be able also to deal with it. If this discipline is not there, if the mind is not trained, forget it.
Your intelligence will not be able to do anything with the mind. It will be just a very obedient servant of the mind.
And that's unfortunately the situation for the majority of people, vast majority of people in this day and age. In India it may not be so bad, but it's coming it's very quickly to the same condition. Yes. Yes.
Without association the mind it's just it's a wild beast. It's really wild. I had no question about that.
Balancing material contentment and spiritual ambition
Okay.
So uh first one is uh as we discussed about the satisfaction of the uh spiritual terms, we apply satisfaction only after putting out 100% effort because we always are anxious and dissatisfied that I am not served enough.
So uh it otherwise it will interfere with our spiritual activities. See the Yeah okay. So what's the question?
So is it that satisfaction should be applied Yeah, the satisfaction which we are talking about is the material satisfaction. You should never be satisfied with your spiritual achievements.
You should never become complacent. This is what Chanakya Pandit says. Chanakya Pandit says you should be always satisfied with your lunch, with your wife, and with your money.
And you should never be satisfied with your japa, with your charity and something else. I don't remember. Maybe they yes, studying the scriptures, yes.
So you know the satisfaction we are talking about is to put the limit to the material propensities of the mind. Whereas spiritual propensities of the mind we should always feed and increase.
So we should never be satisfied without japa, or finally, I am chanting japa so nicely, Hare Krishna.
We should never be satisfied with our you know with our several or what with whatever we're doing, you know, for others. And we should never be satisfied with our knowledge of the shastras, we should always study.
Now the question comes that this spiritual aspiration as an individual, he has a limit of himself. Not everybody is a great body.
Not everybody so everybody has his hundred percent which Krishna has given to him. So now how he will judge his own level? Otherwise, if he doesn't know then he will be dissatisfied motivated.
So is that the spiritual pastor's role will be very crucial because he can judge what is the level of his disciple and according to his guidance we can be satisfied. Spiritual and new I'm dissatisfied, I need some water.
So So um so your point is that uh how should we know are we doing uh everything which we can uh or we are a little lazy or we should we try more or should we uh you know be happy with what we're doing Maybe
this animal love would let us make one time. And even now I I don't see that I'm uh reaching that pure devotional and uh how I should be and I feel that I'm not reaching anywhere and I can miss the bus, etc.
And we have to this is a symptom of becoming a paramahamsa mind. That why not be satisfied and grateful that we have got japa? in this we should always aspire for something higher that we already have.
And sometimes we may become even desperate that we don't, you know, I'm not fulfilled like you know taking the very crucial example of Madhavendra Puri who was lamenting at the end of his life I I didn't achieve what I am supposed to achieve.
So this this sort of lamentation is a spiritual emotion which is there. But we should be careful to distinguish this spiritual emotion from the material sort of similar emotion which is material.
Shridhara Maharaja put it, Paramahamsa overnight, you know. So the the lamentation, there is a room for lamentation in the life of a devotee.
I'm not fulfilled, I haven't done much. So that's good if it uh if it uh generates an enthusiasm for you to do more and to be more serious.
But if it becomes just self-pity or sort of useless uh you know uh emotion which makes you paralyzed, you know, what is the use?
You know, I I was trying to do this devotional service and here I am in the same place, you know, I'm fifty plus maybe I should go to some other place to do something or whatever.
You know, so it's uh as Prabhupāda says phalena parīcīyate, you should judge according to the results. If this emotion makes you more serious, that's good.
If the same emotion kind of makes you morose and paralyzed in the spiritual path, then it's just trick of your mind. Material trick of your mind, which disguised itself under some spiritual pretext.
The spiritual thing, you know, if it's spiritual emotion, it gives you energy. It gives you impetus to do something more so it
Managing sense attraction during prasadam
could be different ways. Yes, yes, manjine. Like uh you are telling me starting with a lecture that uh sense pressure once you get it, it will stay in mind and it will matter afterwards.
So I see uh in a theoretics like majority of this uh sense of acquisition goes through prasāda. I have heard in lecture also, I have seen my whole life also.
Suppose some rajoguna is here, sādhana is easy, but some tamoguna is here, You know rasagullā, how much it is. And there is rasagullā and it is very difficult to control, everybody knows, and uh then sense control is going and bhoga-vṛtti is coming. What bhakti-sevā-vṛtti is coming so much and sevā-vṛtti is going. It is very nice.
So how to. And it affects later also. I have seen in my daily life also two, three times when I have taken prasāda like that. After some time I will feel that so much taking mentality is coming. Yeah.
Yeah, your observation is right. Even though prasāda is a bona fide way to gratify our senses, Nevertheless, sense gratification is sense gratification. Therefore, Ikadesh is there and so on so forth.
But see the satisfaction
is coming to us when we gratify the senses, and the satisfaction is coming to us, different kind of satisfaction, but it's coming to us when we do some sevā, when we see that somebody else is happy with us.
And these are two different tastes. One is very gross and very pronounced. You know, it's very obvious. Another one is a little more subtle.
And the tendency of the mind is of course to go for the gross. You get something tangible. And uh, but uh, what I want to say, very important point, a little subtle.
You know, if and the mind when it gets some satisfaction, you know, if it is concentrated on the satisfaction, it gives uh it stays.
You know, the st what stays in the mind is the experience which is upon which you are concentrated.
If you take rasagulla and your mind will be somewhere in the pariksha in your exams, which you're supposed to do. You will not even notice this Rasagula. So, mm, you will just, you know, your mind is somewhere else.
But if your whole mind is in this rasagulla, then of course rasagulla will go in the mind and it will stay there, and the mind will be, you know, you will have a special place in your brain which is called Rasagula experience. Heavenly Rasagula experience.
But what I want to say is that when you serve others, you say that you know, sevā-vṛtti is gone and bhōgā-vṛtti replaced sevā-vṛtti. Only because the saṁskāra from the sevā-vṛtti is not strong enough to counteract the saṁskāra from this rasagulla, rasagulla Vritti, which is there.
So, uh, so if you do something for others then try also to put your mind in what you're doing and uh you know register the experience which you get. You get pleasure.
But the problem is that it's more subtle pleasure, and therefore, mind tends to kind of overlook it or neglect it a little bit.
But if you make this satisfaction of like mother, when mother is feeding you rasagulla, she's, you know, sitting you down and she made lovingly rasagulla, and when she is feeding you rasagulla, her mind is completely into the satisfaction of feeding you.
She doesn't think about rasagullas. She doesn't think, you know, when he will finish eating these rasagullas, I want to eat them myself. She doesn't think like this. She is her whole heart and her mind is in this pleasure
of giving rasagulla to you. Why? Because she has this particular samskara or this attitude of this Bhava.
So the point is that if we train our mind, not train our mind, but just you know kind of being attentive how happy I become when somebody else becomes happy because of me.
When somebody else is eating rasagula and I'm giving this rasagula and I'm a very generous man, and I'm asking, we want more rasagulas and more.
And if you concentrate on this feeling, then the saṁskāra of it will become very strong.
And next time, when you start giving rasagula, this saṁskāra will be very joyful, and the other samskara will say, okay, okay, I will wait, no problem.
So that again the point is that if we want sevā vṛtti to overcome bhōgā vṛtti, then we should pay attention to the experience, to anubhava of sevā vṛtti.
Light conversation and internal self dialogue
Yes. You told that by speaking the topics which are not related, a lot of our energy will be spent. So to make friends with other devotees, like, uh, to be happy always.
So we, I try to say some jokes or something. So uh what is it? It's okay. Not a big deal. You know, if everyone in the session will become a moonie, it will become a very boring place to stay. So it's bona fide.
What if someone has a habit of speaking to himself in a drry like I don't standing? Like we have a fight with someone making them experience
When the person is taking the student and in such a situation what we should do and how to tie it with these people, we have a You know, when people
are speaking with themselves in Russian, they say it's always pleasant to speak with an intelligent person. You're speaking with somebody whom you consider to be very intelligent, that's yourself.
You know, this dialogue, internal dialogue, it's it goes on in everyone's mind.
It's just some people little exaggerate it and it becomes, you know, especially if then they're a little lonely then then, you know, they only have a dog to speak with, so some, you know, cactus growing you know, s they may sometimes say, but what to do?
Your question is what to do in this case when you're too habit habituated to speak for yourself. Eventually it takes the form of the speech and then finally it goes for action. So that's the dangerous form, danger. What?
So after that it will take the form of the speech words, you want to do act going and ac. So
just try to you know it's this internal dialogue is going on, just try to have the internal dialogue about Krishna. And then it will not be harmful to anyone. It will be beneficial.
Just speak with yourself about Krishna, what's the big deal. Preach to yourself. It's a question of training. Again, we are programmable.
We could be programmed and we should use this ability or this uh you know feature of our mind for the benefit, for our benefit. And Krishna consciousness is nothing but programming our mind properly which
will be beneficial for everyone and now chanting one here by chanting what art we should have like like I heard just chanting here and workuru Khan Sandara says that you keep the foot of the TV for a question and then chat.
Utilizing scriptural verses to focus chanting
So but it actually doesn't work with the and I'm just getting calling it goes after that again, same thing doesn't have what See it really depends.
I don't think there is a universal recommendation which can be applicable, equally applicable to everyone.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he explained on or he writes the whole book, Bhajana-rahasya, and Bhajana-rahasya is nothing but a stream of verses appropriate to the stages of spiritual development which are surfacing in the mind of a practicing devotee while he is chanting.
You know, like it is explained here that we should how what is the way to train the mind? The way to train the mind is to read the scriptures. Because when we read the scriptures, we give the material to the mind to think about.
And ultimately, there is even more powerful and more subtle way to train the mind is to learn by heart Sanskrit slokas describing different aspects of devotional service or different points of philosophy and this and that.
So this is how we're training the mind. We're training the mind with or by the higher intelligence which is accumulated in the scriptures.
We're training the mind by reading Bhagavad-gītā, Prabhupāda's books, training the mind, Prabhupāda says Mahābhārata told these nice stories, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, nice stories.
So you know and it's a fact, you know, for how long the mind can concentrate just on even on a picture of a deity, so on the you know, so for that, the scriptures are there.
You meditate on a verse and you chant with the same feeling as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura suggests.
You know the sometimes verses describe different emotional conditions and you if you know very well this verse, what is it all about, then you will get the proper emotions which will carry you through the chanting, which will help you to concentrate on on the chanting. Or you concentrate on certain point of you know which you heard and bring your mind back to the chanting how important it is.
So this this this way so we should put the content uh within our mind the proper content and this proper content is the you know scriptures which is there. Otherwise you cannot just empty the mind.
There is no empty space in the in the universe.
Effects and limits of positive thinking
Any empty space will be filled with so many others. If somebody really got the cancer, but they are thinking like it will be okay, it will be okay. So it will help by things. Yeah, it will help.
Uh it will help, but there is some limitations definitely because there is karma, the forces of karma, this and that, but the mind is really powerful.
The point is that see, the mind is created in a certain way, it's very easy for the mind to be concentrated on the negative things and the positive things, you know, it's very difficult to concentrate on positive things with the same level of intensity.
Usually we tend to concentrate our mind in the negative things.
And therefore, when people are afraid of cancer and they try to counteract this fear of cancer with some positive thinking, it's usually you know it's not equally not equally significant or important.
And there is another thing is that there is conscious mind and there is subconscious mind. And the conscious mind is something 6% and 94% of whatever is subconscious mind. It's like the tip of the iceberg.
You know, the most part of the iceberg is somewhere down there. So when you try to program yourself, it's and between these two parts of the mind, the conscious mind and subconscious mind, there is an intelligence.
Intelligence is on this fine border between the two things. And this intelligence, what it does, it doesn't really allow us our rational think to influence the subconscious mind.
So if you really want to have a tangible effect, there's no doubt about it that you know the positive thinking uh will have a tangible will have an effect.
But if you want to have tangible effect, then you need to use special techniques to kind of uh to put this positive programming deeper.
Because you know usually people you know they they really don't do the good job in this positive thinking. And therefore it's it's less powerful.
Whereas, you know, just imagine that you are destined to die and you know that the cobra will bite and then you feel this, you know, prick of the middle, and then the mind, the chain reaction and the mind immediately, the whole drama immediately is enacted.
But full concentration. You know, it's it's amazing mechanism. So it's a question of concentrating on it or getting it deeper, being absorbed in in this sort of thoughts.
Not just little you know casual wishful positive thinking, you know, oh yeah yeah everything is not going to work Okay, I guess we should okay so you also not want you to know what you are so I am what I am, I'm here.
So what do you want to know about me? I already told you for one and a half hour who I am. About your initial days and how you came to Krishna business. That's a separate program.
Maintaining mental purity in modern times
That's that's and regarding this topic, we I guess we can do a separate one of class and schedule that with congregation also. And today's topic like you said about Bhawasam should be should do in existence.
But uh now in the current age where the distractions are too much as I said about the gadgets and internet and all this thing. I mean and the surroundings are also very passionate.
The kind of atmosphere which was there in our time there was no internet, there's no TV, there was no mobile phones also at the time. So it was much easier to practice and stay very satisfied and happy.
Because we we're not exposed to the other world. We are just within our own world and we are just happy. But now so much of information, so much of bombardment, so much of messages, so much of activity, passion.
So how to uh make it this uh cuity of the heart all this impossible. But but you know if you try a little bit. It's just, you know, putting some certain hygiene, you know, we should be. What is purity?
Purity means you have to be hygienic, you know, when you put all this how you call the sanitizer in your hands. So there should be some hygiene for the mind also, some sanitizer for the mind.
Basically you should limit these things. Like uh all these gadgets. You I mean you really if you want to avoid them, you can avoid them.
But uh Sometimes it's impractical, you know, these mobile phones. You know, twenty years back or whatever time was there, we lived without mobile phones and everyone was happy, but now you know it's just impossible to live without mobile phone.
You know you wake up and the first thing you get it's it's the m you know you know uh I'm sure you know when Sanvnyasis comes here the first thing they ask what is how's the internet connection?
They don't ask for water, they don't ask for food, they ask for internet connection It's it's internet is the most basic necessity of life. There is this, you know, Ahara, Nidra, Bhaya, Maithuna and Internet.
This is the so you cannot really avoid this. So just try to limit it by some reasonable things. You just like don't do it before you chant that your japa. This is the greatest austerity which you can imagine.
Mahadridhavrata. I'm not looking at my smartphone before I chant 16 rounds of my japa.
Or you know, switch it off after some time and you know, try to listen some nice lectures and bhajans and and and actually if you are satisfied internally then the need for this is less and you you can be happy without this, believe it or not, okay? I think we should stop.
Thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!