Five States of the Mind and Chanting the Holy Name
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2020
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Mangalacharana and introductory invocation
Namam Vishnu Padaya Krishna Prastaya Bhutale, Srimati Bhaktividanta Swami Nitinamini, Namaste Saraswati Devi Goravani Pracharini, Nirviche Sunyavadi Pascheta de satipa sindu bevacha patitampavana bhyovaisnava bionamon maha, ja sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunita Nanda Sjadva Sivasi Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hari Rama Hari Rama Rama Rama Hari Hari.
Yantah pravi mamavachimam prasuptam Sanji Vayata kila Shakti Darah Swadam nanyam shahastacharana sravanatva Gadim Panranamamobhavate Purusha Tubim, Svasyastu Vishwasya Kalah Prasidatam deyantuputani Shivam Mitudya, Manaschavadram Bajatata Doksaj, Adeshitam Nau Matir Abyahaitukim Hare
Krishna, dear participants of this holy uh name week retreat. It's a big huge honor for me to speak in front of all of you.
And I will try to say a few words regarding chanting Jappa from the perspective of both Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Muni, which describe very essential psychology of meditation and this psychology of meditation is of course common for any spiritual practices which are based on meditation.
And the philosophy of Sankhya based on the teachings of Kapiladev in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In regard to the chanting of the Holy Name.
So, my specific topic for today is the five different stages of the mind, how to discriminate the stages, how to see which the what is the condition of your mind at this moment, and how to gradually, gradually by practice to improve the condition of the mind, making it more conducive to the spiritual practice or to the chanting of the holy name.
And in particular, we will also speak about this topic in relationship with the qualities of our consciousness specifically of our chitta, which is the reflective mechanism of our mind.
So, first these five stages of mind, which are described by the commentators on the very second sutra of Yoga Sutra Patanjali, where Patanjali Muni gives the definition of yoga, yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ.
So in the commentaries, commenting on this sutra, the acharyas of yoga, and specifically notably Śrīla Vyāsadeva, who is the first commentator of Yoga Sutra, whether it's Vyasadev whom we know or somebody else called as Vyāsadeva, it doesn't really matter.
It's a very famous commentator of Yoga Sutra who speaks about five different conditions of mind starting with ksipta: Ksipta, Muda, Vikshipta,
Ekagra, and Nirodha. Niroda is the highest stage of the mind when the mind is completely totally under control and this is the mind which is totally absorbed in the object of meditation.
But the conditions of the mind starts with kshipta. Kshipta means distracted mind. Mudha means stupefied mind, the mind which is absorbed in tamas.
Vikshipta means the mind, uh, which is, uh, very rajasic, full of passion, uh, and, uh, very active. Uh, ekāgratā, ekagra, ekāgratā, the state of the mind, this is one-pointed mind, sāttvik mind.
So let's first consider this and see how practical it is how
Unfavorable lower mental states for meditation
this particular model is very practical for our changing of japa.
So, what is the first, the lowest condition of the mind? That's actually when we analyze it very carefully, we will understand that this is the condition of the mind which we usually are.
Kṣipta means the condition of the mind with predominant influence of rajas and tamas. And basically it's distracted mind, the mind which is you know scattered around and which is not really satisfied with anything.
Kshipta is the specific condition of the mind when you always want to change into something else. And we all know as soon as we start something, immediately the mind says, no, no, this is boring. Let's do something else.
But as soon as you start something else, the mind will say the same thing, no, this is also boring, let's do something else.
And in this way, the mind is jumping from one engagement to another engagement to another engagement without any end.
And this condition of the mind, scattered, distracted condition of the mind is actually the condition of unhappy mind. And this is naturally so because rajas and tamas are predominant in this condition of the mind.
And basically, in any situation, the mind is not satisfied. And therefore, he is always changing the engagement and the only satisfaction which the mind derives is in this process of change.
No steady condition or no steady engagement will give any satisfaction to this mind, basically because the mind is not happy.
In extreme cases, when somebody is depressed, it's a very sick condition of the mind where the mind cannot really be steady for a split second.
He always wants to change something, change something else, change something else.
And basically we can see that this is the, uh, condition of the which prevalent in everyone uh uh Of humanity, especially because of this different gadgets and different devices which facilitate this flickering of the mind.
You know we this ship the state of mind is the mind which checks every ten seconds the WhatsApp messages and answers WhatsApp messages, one WhatsApp message after another WhatsApp message and then you know he's not satisfied and then he has to check some other messenger, Skype or Telegram, or email.
And then, when there is no messages and there is no distraction, then he will try to find some other distraction by going to internet and surfing in the internet.
Actually, this ADD attention deficit disorder is a big, big, big disease nowadays,
and it's becoming more and more prevalent in the people who are totally absorbed in this weapon of mass destruction when the mind is constantly distracted.
So we have to understand that this is a very inappropriate or how to say not conducive state of mind because in this state of mind we cannot really concentrate on anything what to speak about chanting of the holy name.
Even if we pretend that we chant the holy name, it's not meditation at all.
Actually, the commentators of Yoga Sutra say that the first three stages of mind are totally completely unfavorable for any kind of meditation because in this mind the meditation is not possible, the mind is too contaminated.
The next stage of mind, stage of mind is called mudha. Mudha means stupefied mind, the mind which is slow, sluggish, the mind which is about to go to sleep.
What I want to say, a very interesting thing, is that in any of these conditions of the mind, the mind is trying to derive some happiness.
And whether it's kṣipta, the mind is not satisfied, but still, he is trying hard to derive some happiness by engaging in these jumping activities, switching from one engagement into another.
And we know uh what it means to uh derive happiness uh in these kind of activities.
We know what it means to uh uh you know constantly uh be bombarded by all the external messages and try to answer these messages, try to answer all the emails and etc. so on so forth.
The next stage of mind, mūḍha, is this condition of the mind uh by which we derive uh satisfaction or so-called happiness uh in this uh dullness.
Actually, what happens? Uh the soul is the witness of all these conditions of the mind. And the soul is more or less ordering the mind to take a particular shape because the soul wants to enjoy certain kind of happiness derived from this condition of the mind.
So the soul is witnessing this condition And we all know this very pleasant condition of the mind when the mind just wants to go to sleep.
It's called Laya. Laya literally, when you translate it from Sanskrit, means the destruction of consciousness.
The consciousness becomes completely, totally covered, and this This sick covering of ignorance is a sort of enjoyment for the soul which wants to enjoy the complete forgetfulness and goes into sleep or into this very sluggish and dull condition when nothing really happens.
And then Vikshita, Vishesha-kṣipta means the mind which is infected by rajas, by the mode of passion, where one is kind of concentrated, but this concentration is full of rajas.
This is a higher condition of the mind, and we can see that people bring them into this state of mind when they engage in some computer game or when they see movie, especially when it is a horror movie.
The mind is concentrated on what is happening and it's running into this and occasionally experience this state of concentration, but basically it's a very uh how shall we say uh very turbulent state of mind?
When the mind is just raging and trying to uh be all over the place. So this is the three conditions of the mind which are not very conducive for meditation, totally not conducive for meditation.
And unfortunately, we spend most of our meditation in these conditions of the mind.
Either we try to concentrate for a split second on the holy name and, then immediately something comes to our mind, and we start playing with this thought,
and this thought is changes into another thought, and then we take our smartphone and we uh answer some messages and then this meantime uh we say Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and uh Krishna doesn't really understand what's going on? What is what we are doing actually? What is the point of doing all these strange sorts of activities?
Or we go into a peaceful uh state of oblivion oblivion uh while chanting the holy name and then you know nasta prayeshwa badrishu everything which is disturbing in the mind is being removed
and we become completely peaceful and go into deep ignorance, or we become frantic and in this frantic condition. We try, you know, like you know we try to very hard to concentrate.
Sometimes you know I can see how people in this rajasic condition of And
uh sometimes they do very strange kind of expression in the uh in the face, you know and uh the whole body is completely uh totally tense uh and uh somehow or other they think this is meditation But again, the
very important point which I wanted to stress or emphasize at this point of my description is that this is all states of the mind by which the soul who is the witness is trying to relish this sort of condition.
And this happiness which we derive from these three conditions of the mind is known to us. We know how to be quote-unquote happy in distracted state of mind.
Cultivating sattvik peacefulness in ekagrata
We know how to be happy again, quote unquote in stupefied condition of the mind, we know how to be happy in frantic condition of the mind. The next stage, which is the preliminary stage of meditation is
called ekagrata, and ekagrata is the completely peaceful state of mind, completely translucent, very serene and very peaceful condition of the mind where we don't have to endeavor. We just you know very peaceful.
And the problem is that we don't really know how to become peaceful and how to become happy being peaceful. We don't know what it means to be happy in this peacefulness condition, in this peaceful condition.
It's boring because we are too much programmed into another conditions of our mind. So the first point which I wanted to make is that we have to learn How to derive happiness from peacefulness?
What is this condition of ekagrata when the sattva-guna is prevalent? What is sattva? Sattva is very light condition of the mind. When we take Rajas, Rajas is very passionate.
When we take Tamas, Tamas is very heavy, it's just really kind of puts you down. But sattva is a very light condition of the mind. And you know, if we fix ourselves in this condition of the mind. Here it is, I am peaceful.
And we say to ourselves, this is nice. I don't need anything else. I can be in this peaceful and light condition for a very long time because that's nice.
Sattva is this condition of the mind where when we are present at present, when we're not running towards future, when we're not lamenting about something which was there in the past, but when we are here and now and we like it.
The main point which I want to emphasize here as a technical point, or not technical point, but practical point. Practical point of application is that we have to really practice it and to learn to be happy.
To say that this is the happiness. One can argue that why do we have to convince ourselves that this is happiness if it's uh if it's happy.
No but what I want to say is that we are too used to program to experience the other conditions of the mind.
And therefore, when the mind all of a sudden, without any other endeavors, conscious endeavors, becomes peaceful, we think that something is wrong.
Instead of fixing ourselves in this condition and saying, this is nice, this is what I mean, this is what I need, we say something is wrong, something is unusual. I'm usually not in this condition of the mind.
So we have to really see how this sattvic condition, which is ekāgratā, which is very serene, and at the same time one pointed how it is nice and how we should try to bring ourselves again and again to this state of mind while we are chanting.
So, and then of course the next stage is nirodha, and nirodha is completely controlled mind when the mind is totally completely absorbed in the object of meditation. This is the transcendental state of mind.
Steady focus and stage of Nishta
We don't we will not even change we will not even describe this kind It's too high. But what I want to say, let's examine a little bit more what is this ekāgra state of mind.
This is as I said, the sattvic state of mind, which is in our more habitual terms, is called Nishta. Nishta is the sattva condition of the mind when the mind is not distracted.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, while describing niṣṭhā in the commentary to Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu gives the definition avikṣiptena satyam, when the mind is totally not distracted at all.
So this condition of the mind uh it's not boring condition uh it's uh it's a very rhythmic condition. Sattva is this uh condition where there is a constant internal rhythm. And we have to really learn or even force ourselves to appreciate this condition of the mind.
Because we are completely, it's completely foreign to our nature.
You know, we can program ourselves to everything, but unfortunately, at the present moment of time, we're mostly programming ourselves to be in this lower stages of the mind.
So the sattva condition of the mind is actually yesterday I had a conversation with one devotee and he mentioned very beautiful thing about this sattva condition of the mind or the condition of the mind and the stage of Nishta. He says, this is the enjoyment of being insignificant.
This is the enjoyment of being humble. This is the nectar of insignificance. You know, in our present condition of mind, we are programmed to derive happiness by being something very big.
Like I was listening with great satisfaction, the introduction which was given to me, you know, about this medal and this and that. So this is how we usually uh try to derive happiness by being something
significant, this medal or that medal. It's really ridiculous because this is all upādhis of the mind. But when we are in the sattva condition of the mind, we understand that actually I don't need anything else.
I am what I am. And I don't need to run anywhere else. This is where I am. I'm here and now and I am doing the most important thing which is there in the creation. I am chanting the holy name.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. And I don't need to run anywhere, I don't need to do anything, I don't need to check my WhatsApp messages.
They can wait for a couple of hours while I'm chanting the Holy Name. And maybe when I chant the Holy Name properly, I forget about all these WhatsApp messages and will continue to chant the Holy name.
So, again, the important point which I want to make at this stage of our description is that we have to learn to be happy by being peaceful. And we have to unlearn to be happy by being disturbed.
We have to deprogram ourselves from this habit of being again quote unquote happy in this other not very good conditions of the mind.
And again speaking about the practice, what we should do in practical terms, it basically means that we have to say to ourselves: this is the time when I'm not distracted. I don't want to see any messages.
And what is the most important, please, please, please, if you can try to do it, don't look in your smartphone before you chanted 64 rounds, well, at least 16 rounds, then you know everything else can wait.
And uh don't be in a hurry. It's very important not to be in a hurry when we chant the holy name.
You know, because Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura calls this mentality when we chant the holy name and at the same time always look and watch and see when when it will end.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in Jaiva Dharma says that this is a very base mentality, very mean, very low class mentality when we chant and just to finish this.
Because we again approach the chanting uh from a different perspective. We don't approach uh the chanting that this is the most important thing which we are doing during the day or in our life, but we just want uh this is the tick exercise. We just want to put the tick. That's done.
16 rounds is done. Now I'm free to do whatever I like. So and this is uh this learning how to become happy in being satvik is basically what meditation means.
When you go to and in other spiritual disciplines when you you learn what meditation means, they really work hard and force you to derive some happiness from this state of mind.
Like if you do vipassana, for 10 days you just have to do nothing. And this is the hardest thing which you have to do by doing nothing. You just have to watch your mind.
And at one point, the mind becomes peaceful and says, yeah, okay, fine. So this is what Krishna calls vairāgyābhyāsa, when and Patañjali Muni gives the same advice to his readers.
He says that you have to do when it comes to sadhana, sadhana means the constant endeavor to steady the mind and not only to steady the mind but to derive happiness from this steady condition of the mind.
And what is most important again to discriminate between this sāttvik ekāgra state of mind and rājasik vikṣipta state of mind when you are just, you know, forcing yourself to concentrate. It has nothing to do with meditation. Meditation is not a forceful state, it's a very relaxed state of mind. The mind is completely relaxed and completely happy, and in this happy state of mind,
when he is not hearing anywhere, uh, he is just chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare, Hare, Rama, Hare, Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare. So
Reflective qualities of citta in Sankhya
the most important thing I want to say now what should happen when we learn or train our mind to be in this state of in this condition. To be in this condition. In this state of Nishta, when we are witnessing.
The miracle which will happen on this stage is described by
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the third verse of Śikṣāshtakam, where he says, Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ, the miracle which happens at this stage is that we, Yasadahari, the miracle which happens at this stage is that we,
the soul, being witness of the states of citta, will all of a sudden witness the descent of the holy name in our citta.
Instead of forcing ourselves to do some sort of meditation of the holy name, we will enter into this flow of meditation.
And this flow of meditation will automatically carry us closer to Krishna and gives us a lot of satisfaction.
Actually, what happens in the state of mind is explained by Lord Kapiladev in the 26th chapter of the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where Lord Kapiladeva describes the qualities of citta.
He says the qualities of citta, which is the most subtle element in our antaḥkaraṇa. Antaḥkaraṇa, or internal sense, internal organ consists of four elements: citta, manas, ahaṅkāra, and buddhi.
So before explaining ahaṅkāra, manas, and buddhi, Kapiladeva explains the qualities of citta, which is by nature a very transparent element full sattva. This citta has three qualities. First is, first is um how it's called?
Uh, Bhagavad-bimba-grāhitvam, the first, what is this? This is the explanation. It's uh, it's basically reflective quality of citta. What is citta?
Citta is uh uh The most common example for every modern man: if you take your telephone, smartphone, and put the smartphone into the camera mode, then you will see camera mode. Then you will see the reflection of everything which comes close to this camera into the screen of the camera.
So the citte is this reflective element which reflects the reality, and the soul is witnessing the condition of our chitta. Actually, the soul cannot contact the material world.
The material world is reflected in the chitta, and the soul connected with the chitta, sat-tattva, witnesses the content of the chitta. And when the chitta becomes very, very clear,
then according to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura and Śrīdhara Swami, the commentators of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the chitta will start reflecting the form of the Lord.
Oh, first, not the form of the Lord, but the name of the Lord. Actually, what happens with the chitta, as I said, this is the mechanism of perception when we see something that the chitta takes the shape of what we see.
And when the chitta is disturbed, then the chitta constantly absorbs all these images from the external world and constantly takes the shape of different images.
But when the chitta becomes steady, when the chitta becomes very clear, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, then the chitta will take the shape of the object of our meditation.
It basically means when we bring this mind in this condition,
the in peaceful condition, and the steady condition, then the holy name of the Lord, which is transcendental object of our meditation, itself will reflect in our chitta and we will see or witness the holy name reflected in our chitta.
Experiencing nama-samadhi through steady consciousness
And this witness of the holy name, or rather, the flow of the holy name, is the first stage of samadhi, nāma-samādhi. I'm sure every one of us has some experience of this when during
the kirtan goes on and on and on, at one point when the mind becomes peaceful and kind of accepts this condition, then we witness how the holy name is not really coming from outside, but it's more or less manifest from inside. How the holy name becomes one with the mind.
But this miraculous condition of unification of the mind, complete unification of the mind with the object of meditation, very amazing and very blissful condition, when the mind becomes the holy name.
When there is nothing else but the holy name in the mind, this is only possible when the mind is somewhat purified.
When the mind is not purified, when the mind is in this lower stages or in lower conditions, then any endeavors of ours to bring the holy name or to kind of connect the holy name and the mind, they are unsuccessful. Why?
Because the tamasic element is prevalent in the mind. And tamasic element in the mind is ahaṅkāra. Ahaṅkāra, according to Kapiladev, is very tamasic. It's a dark cloud of tamoguṇa with all the saṁskāras.
So again, the chanting is this or the practice of chanting is uh the constant endeavor to chant outside of our ahaṅkāra, beyond our tamasic ahaṅkāra, to feel uh this transparent condition of our mind and try to change in this condition, bringing it again and again and again, trying to steady the mind, trying to eliminate any disturbing elements from the mind.
And when this condition of the mind is there, then as I said, the holy name becomes one with the mind. And because the holy name is non-different from the Lord, we start experiencing the qualities of the Lord, which is Sat-cid-ānanda. When the holy name and the mind merge together, then these three qualities of the Lord, Sat-cid-ānanda, eternity, knowledge, and bliss become the quality of our mind. And we feel a very elevated state of consciousness.
And two other qualities of citta when it's brought back to its original state. One is this reflective quality, another one is avikaritwam, that it's not it's not changed, there is no Vikar.
It basically means there is no laya and vikṣepa, there is no tamas and rajas. And another one is rāgādi rahitvam. It's free from attachment, free from anything else.
So these three qualities of citta very very important qualities of citta they give us the real spiritual experience. This condition of the mind when the mind is totally merged with the object of meditation is
is called samāpatti. Samāpatti means that the mind, the object upon which we meditate become very very clearly imprinted in the mind. And in this samāpatti, the absorber and observed become merged with each other.
It may sound little esoterical, little even non-devotional, so to speak, little too mystical or yogik, but actually it's not because we we all know again we all know this condition when uh the kīrtana is going on and when the kīrtana really becomes the internal state of our mind when we only hear the sound of the holy name in the mind, then we forget about ourselves.
We literally become merged with the Holy Name.
It's not the merging with the Holy Name in a bad sense, it's not the impersonal merging, but it's a blissful merging into the flow of the holy name which is really meditation. And when we do it, we experience bliss.
When we try to do it, even though it's uh it may be a little difficult in the beginning, but then if we understand how different conditions or different things which we do affect our mind and distract our mind and how we should cherish and appreciate this sattva quality of the mind, how we should protect the sattvic quality of the mind.
If we really understand and discriminate, then we will conduct our life in such a way that we will only bring more and more sattva within our mind, and we will try to eliminate the elements of tamas and rajas from our mind and in this way will become happy.
Of course, it means very many things, you know, getting up early, eating very sattvic foods, so on so forth. But first, we have to really understand how blissful it is. And how the meditation is only possible.
Disciplined practice for gradual spiritual growth
I cannot stress it more. It's only possible, the meditation is only possible when the mind is in this Nishta stage or ekagrata stage.
And we have to strive for this to make it very clear goal do whatever is necessary to achieve this sattvic state of mind which is called ekāgratā, when we have only one goal.
And for that, of course, we know we should practice humility, we should practice tolerance, we should respect other people, we should not blaspheme the devotees, we should not try to establish our ego.
This again all these activities which are counterproductive to the meditation, they all belong to the area of tamasic false ego. And we have to really understand that this is tamasic false ego, which gives me suffering.
And I have to get rid of this tamasic false ego and try to re-establish this original transparent condition of the mind.
Śrīla Prabhupāda in this commentary to the 26th chapter of the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam compares this original state of mind with the original state of water.
The state of water originally it's very very pure, transparent, and therefore it can reflect accurately even transcendental objects such as the holy name of the Lord.
It's very sweet and therefore it doesn't have any other tastes, the tastes of tamas and sattva. And it's it's very, very peaceful and it brings you a lot of satisfaction.
So again, the main point which I want to make is that we have to discriminate between these states of mind and try to eliminate the unwanted states of mind, and this is what sadhana or abhyasa means.
Abyyasa means to get rid of other conditions of mind. And it's possible, but it has to be done very consistently every day of our life. Patanjali Muni explains what really practice means.
Practice means dīrgha-kāla for a long time, without any break, every day we have to do it.
And sat-kāryam, it means we have to do it in a very reverential mood again and again and again, again and again and again, to bring the mind into the peaceful state, into this
And that's within our purview if we know that we are supposed to do this. We should not be satisfied. We cannot be satisfied. It's suicidal to be satisfied, to chant in the distracted condition of mind. It's a mockery.
It's not meditation. And for that we should sit down. Many people I know they uh they they chant while running, jogging, you know, doing exercise or whatever it is. But this is not an ekāgratā state of mind.
Well, maybe if the mind is not so used to this peaceful condition, then for some time you can do it, but still this is what we should learn.
How to bring more and more sattva within our mind and how to make our mind really proper instrument for meditation. Then first the name of the Lord will be reflected in the mind.
Then the form of the Lord will make its appearance in the mind, when the mind is steady. And when the form of the Lord in the form of spurti in the flesh will appear in the mind, then after that it will become steady.
Not as a forceful state of meditation when we try to force the form into our mind.
No. The form Himself, the form of the Lord, Himself will come into the mind. The mind will take the shape of the Lord. We don't need to do anything else. The only thing which we should do and the only thing which is our obligation is to steady the mind.
Everything else will be done by the mercy of the Lord. And when the form of the Lord will come after that, the qualities of the Lord will become very very prominent and very tangible within our mind.
We will literally see how Krishna smiles and we will feel His kindness, His mercy, we will feel His genius mind, we will hear His words and so on so forth.
And then, uh, Kṛṣṇa's eternal associates will be reflected in the mind according to this sequence
which is described by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in Bhakti-sandarbha. And finally, the līlās of the Lord will be reflected in the mind. Everything is possible when the mind is clear.
But what we should do, we should understand what is the dirt in the mind, how this tamasic and rajasic condition, muddle, make our mind muddy, how they are not good, how ultimately, even though we derive some perverted happiness from them, they ultimately don't bring any happiness to us.
And how we should strive again and again and again to this peaceful meditative condition of the mind, being happy and being present right now. And by doing so, ultimately we will achieve the success.
Ultimately, one after another, all these transcendental objects by the influx of spiritual energy will enter into our mind which we brought into the proper condition, making it proper receptacle of the transcendental experience.
Before that, there is no question of transcendental experience. Before that, it's just a preparatory stage for meditation.
But if we don't clearly understand how it goes, then we will never be able to uh really bring us to this point of meditation. I'm speaking for too long, so thank you very much.
Questions on practical mind cultivation
I don't know what we should do. Should we chant one round in this state of mind or should we ask uh answer the questions? Please guide me. Uh, Aja Krishna, would you would you be willing to take a few questions about Okay.
Um, there's one question that I will start, and then, Ajay Goranga Prabhu, you can go next. The This is I think it's Mukunda Madhav Prabhu who says that, uh, how to come to that sattvic condition of mind?
Um, again, first we have to, you know, this is simple question and at the same time very difficult question. You know, we have to follow rules, regulations, we have to be very sāttvika in all our dealings.
But the most important is that we have to appreciate the sāttvika condition of mind. Our problem is that we don't really kind of value this this condition of mind.
And we're too much practicing other unconducive conditions of our mind. We hoping that by bringing our mind into this of the flux of uh rajas and tamas, we will derive any happiness.
So if we are very very clear, that's the most important condition in the beginning, that we have to understand that I can only be happy when my mind is peaceful. This is what really happiness means.
Other things which may think like which may seem to be happiness, which may uh feel happiness, which uh uh may cheat me as uh m appear to me as a happiness is actually not happiness, it's actually my misery.
If we understand that this is what I should strive for, if we put this goal very clearly.
You know, because what happened with theoretically we know this, but we practice these other conditions of the mind for too long, and we still hope that they will bring some satisfaction to us, and we don't stop them.
So we first have to learn how to stop these other conditions, how to kind of put them to rest. You know, like for example, it's it's actually very simple.
We take the beads and we look, what is the condition of our mind now? We have to make a little inventory, little check and see. And if the mind is very disturbed, if the mind is jumping from one object
and to another object, we have to say to ourselves, just be peaceful, you know, don't be in a hurry, uh let's let's do one mantra Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and let's do one more mantra.
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare. Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.
Just just bring consciously bring peacefulness into your mind. And one more thing I wanted to tell, but somehow rather I didn't mention when I was talking.
In this peaceful condition of the mind, it's very important also to bring some emotion into this condition. Because we are emotional beings. We are basically by our nature, we are not rational.
Ration is something on the top by our deep nature. We are emotional beings. So we need to enjoy some emotions. Why people are enjoying by this rajas and tamas because there is some sort of emotional content into this.
So sattva initially may appear lacking this emotional content. You know, you're sitting there, you're peaceful, but there is no there is no pronounced emotion. We are not yet capable of experiencing spiritual emotions
and material emotions are not there because there is no sattva in rajas, sorry, rajas and Tamas. So this emotion of sattva-guna is the emotion of gratitude.
If in this peaceful condition of mind we also experience some gratitude internally. Oh, thank you, Krishna. Thank you. You came to me, you came to my life uh in this form of the holy name. You're so kind.
You're present in my life personally.
In the form of this Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama... Then in this peaceful condition of mind and at the same time full of gratitude, we will chant for a long time and derive immense happiness.
But again, we should learn how to derive happiness from this because we are too programmed for other types of happiness.
Uh, Hare Krishna. I it's I have one minute left and I've got a lot to say to thank you, but I'd rather cut my thank you short and um put forward a request from many devotees who want to know how can they connect with you?
They have so many questions, so they want to reach out. How can they connect with you? Oh, how they can connect with me.
I I have a YouTube channel and uh if uh uh you have questions you can write on this YouTube channel and uh we can make a question uh I it's in English. I don't know the what is the exact address of this YouTube channel?
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami. Bhaktivinoda Goswami. In this there is a YouTube channel. And if you have questions you please write there and we can have a question and answer session on this YouTube channel in English.
Usually I speak in Russian because uh that's my mother tongue. But every now and then I speak something in English. Thank you, Mataji. Thank you. Thank you. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.