Nama Retreat. Session 2

Shri Rupam Sagrajatham Sahaganaravunatam Vitaam Tamsajivam Sadvaitam Savadhutam Parijanasahitam Krishna Chaitanya Devam Shri Radha Krishna Padam Sahgana Lalita Shri Vishakhavidamschat He Krishna Karuna Sindho Dina Bandho Jagat Pate Gophesha Gopika Kanta Radha Kanta Namastute Taptakanchanagurangi Radhe Vrindavanaeswari Vrishabhanu Suta Devi Pranamani Haripriye Vanchakalpa Tarudyaśya Kripāsindūbya evacā Paditanām pavanebhyo Vaiṣṇavaybhyo namo nama Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya Prabhu Nita Nanda Śrī Advaita Gadādhāra Śrī Vāsadīgau Rābhaktavrinda Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Ajanu Lambita Bujoka Naha Vadata Sankirtanayka Pitaro Kamalaya Takshat Vishvambaro Dvijavaro Yuga Dharma Palu Vande Jagat Priyakaro Karunahataro Yantah Praviśyam Amavacim Amprasuktam Sanjivaya Takila Shakti Dharasvadamna Anyam Shkahasta Charana Shravana Tvagadim PRA NAN NAMO BHAGABATE PURUSHAYA TURBYAM SVASYASTU VISHVASYA KALAH PASIDHATAM VIRAYANTU BUTANI SIVAM MITHO DIYAMANASCHA PADRAM VACATATHA DOKSHACHA AVESCHA TAMNAMATI RAPYAHAY TUKI Hare Krishna. 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 Shri 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 a little bit, touch a little bit, 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 explain today the structure of emotions as explained by Shilurupa Goswami and Bharata Muni. Of course, there are some differences between the two. And I will also show that the material emotions are basically a reflection of the spiritual emotions. It's the same thing, 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 emotions, structure of emotions, according to Rupa Goswami and Bharata Muni actually. degradations by emotions, neurophysiological mechanism, little bit of emotions. I will explain the three basic emotions which are there according to Bhagavad Gita. And very important point which will be today's discussion, getting stuck by emotions. Как мы можем застрять? Застревание. 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 emotions 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 immoveri, which basically means to move or to shake, to steer, immoveri. So the idea here is very important because the emotions are the energetic factors which push us to move. So we are being pushed. They shake us, steer us. So that's the idea behind this English word coming from Latin. So basically, emotion is a vivid impression, 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, a 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 of Shilarupa Goswami, 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, they more or less agree what emotion 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 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, yeah, these primary emotions according to them, anger, fear, sadness, joy, disgust, surprise, trust, and anticipation. And they all more or less part of this will, sadness of joy. So that's the will, that's the emotional will. He's very emotional. Very disturbed. Can it be steady? Okay. So that's the emotional wheel which some people promote. 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 can classify it in many, many different ways. Somebody says, no, there are 12 discrete emotions measured by a differential emotional scale. And somebody says there are 27 distinct emotions. So let them do whatever they like. They will never agree with each other. It's much easier to be a devotee because everything is very clear from the beginning. So Srila Rupa Goswami gives a very 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 bhava. You all know bhava. And according to Amarakosha, which is the standard dictionary of Sanskrit language, the word bhava has several meanings. Bhava means satta, satta means existence. Because Sanskrit word bhava comes from verbal root bhū, which means to be, to exist. So it may mean existence, bhava may mean existence. And sometimes in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna uses bhava as emotion, sometimes he uses like bhavasagara, the ocean of material existence. So bhava may mean, and it's very important because the very word bhava 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 svabhava, which means nature. the mood. It may mean abhipraya which means sense or intention or meaning. It may mean cheshta, activity, behavior. So again, the same thing in one Sanskrit word, short Sanskrit word, bava, so much meaning is there and they're all interconnected because emotion defines your behavior, which we will discuss today. Bhava also means the heart, soul or mind, atma. This is one of the meanings of the word bhava. So again, the very nature of soul is bhava, emotions. Again, this equation mark is there. Bhava means also janma, birth, And bhava means vidvan, 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 Amara Koshi definition of the word bhava but more specifically when it comes to emotions Amara Koshi gives a definition of emotion vikaram anaso bhava 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 stirs your heart which shakes your internally, you internally. And the same idea is here, vikara manasso. When manas or heart transforms, undergoes some transformation, then it is called bhava or emotion proper. Before that, it was different meanings of the word bhava. So, and as much as in ordinary psychology, where does they speak about different degrees of manifestation, the same emotions? Emotion may be like mood, maybe feeling, maybe emotion, maybe experience, and maybe passion. In any case, English language is not a very good language to explain all these nuances. So we will use Sanskrit terminology for this. Now, let's look, of course most of you are probably familiar with this structure of bhavas according to Shilarupa Goswami. 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 Srila Rupa Goswami. Stai bhava, vibhava, sanchari bhava, sattvika bhava, and anubhava. what are they? so what is Stai Bhava? Stai Bhava as Srila Prabhupada beautifully translated fervent or continuous ecstasy of course again we are talking about the spiritual emotions in this particular context because we are referring to Srila Rupa Goswami but the same refers to material emotions basically Stai Bhava The idea of Stai Bava is that it's a stable mood or stable feeling. It's more or less stable emotional reaction to the reality. Not stable, habitual, let's say. You know, sometimes 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 a reason, there may not be a reason, but he's anyway angry. So that's Stai Bauer. That's his Stai, something which he very consistently manifests when it comes to react for the stimulus coming from outside. So, and basically Stai Bauer, According to Shilarupa Goswami, here is the difference between Shilarupa Goswami and Bharat Muni. He says there are five mukya, Stai Bhavas, or mukya ratis, and seven gauna ratis. It's actually very genius what Shilarupa Goswami did. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu 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 are so bewildered. Somebody says 500, somebody says 27, somebody says 34,000 or whatever. But what Silla Rupa Goswami did, he took Bharata Muni theory of emotion, who said that there are 11 basic emotions, and he, or whatever, eight basic emotions. Bharata Muni 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 12 stai bavas or 12 stable moods or let us say 12 svabavas 12 emotional natures. There are five main emotional natures which we know Shanta Dasya Sakya, Vatsalia and Madhurya. This is five basic emotional natures and they're main. And there are seven Goa Naratis, seven secondary emotional natures which interact with the main emotional natures. Actually according to Silarupa Goswami, Prabhupada Swami, the seven Gauneratis, which are Vismairati and so on and so forth, Hasarati and Shokarati and whatever, this is the quote from Bhaktivinoda Takur. So, the seven Gauneratis is actually Sanchari Bhavas. Let's 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 Sanchari Bhavas or transitory emotions emotions which are coming and going emotions which are like waves on the ocean of emotions you have the Stai Bhava and Stai Bhava is like ocean Stai Bhava 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, Sanchari. That's why they're called Sanchari. Sanchari means transitory emotions. But among these Sanchari bharas, there are seven which are very special. which Shilurupaga Swami elevated to the level of Stai Bhavas why? What is the difference? The difference is that this Sanchari Bhavas which are elevated to the level of Gauna Stai Bhava they are capable of permanently influencing your Stai Baba. It's basically like this. You may be a friend of Krishna because we are talking about spiritual emotions. And you are in this sakya mood, in a friendly mood. This is your Stai Baba. But there are different friends like Madhu Mangal. Madhu Mangal, what is he doing all the time? He's always time joking. He's engaged in Hatha Yoga. Yeah, you're also engaged in Hatha Yoga now. So his Stai Bhava is not exactly Sakya, but it's Sakya very much influenced by Hatha, Gauna Bhava. So because certain transitory emotions have this ability to influence deeply our permanent mood, they are elevated to this level of seven Goona-ratis. And it's basically like this. Just let me see what is in the next. So there are five main rasas which you all know, Stai-Bavas. which are influenced by these gaunarasas, and they leave permanent samskaras. That's the meaning of gaunarati. Gaunarati leaves the permanent samskara on our stai bavo, our 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 servant, and some servants, they also like to joke, and some servants are very obedient, and some servants are like this. So that's the difference between Gauna and Mukhiaratis. And it's very interesting how Shila Rupa Goswami 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 Shila Rupa Goswami 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 hasya svabhav. And hasya svabhav or humoristic nature. You may be like the only type of, or whoever knows him, he's like this. He's right there. So, anyway, let's give more classical example, Madhu Mangala. But still, again, the main mood is there. and this svabhava, this secondary svabhava produces certain attachment, certain attachment which is called hasyarati, and you're attached to the particular mood. You're always in this joking mood or somebody is always in this sad mood. He's always in the sad mood. You know, he's just, you know, that's the way he is. Whenever you look at him, he's just sad. That's his svabhava. Because again, but at the same time, he may be friend of Krishna or maybe lover of Krishna or whatever it is. Anyway, I think it's more or less clear. So there could be different combinations because of these permutations and combinations of these 12 ratis, these 12 stai vivavas, you can have very wide range of emotional natures which will bring pleasure to Krishna in a very particular way by giving freely their very rich spiritual emotions. That's the idea behind this. And then vivava. Vibhava is a special symptom of causes of ecstasy, as Srila Prabhupada translates it. 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 rehearsement 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 vibhava. So whatever reminds us about this vivava or special symptoms or special ecstasy, sometimes Srila Prabhupada 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 Vibhava. And then Sanchari Bhava. Sanchari Bhava is 33 in number. That's why I said it would be more accurate to say 33,000. if they classified it like this. And 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 the seven special Sanchari Bhavas which leave permanent impression they are elevated to the level of Stai Bhavas because they become our nature and there are Sattvika Bhavas eight in nature we all know this from Romantia from the from the hairs standing on end and tears and being stunned and so on and so forth. Eight sattvic above us. Srila Prabhupada translates sattvic above us as existential ecstasy. 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. Shila Rupagaswami says that the sattvic above us can manifest in smoldering or like smoky situation when they manifest little bit and only one of them or they be jvalita means ignited very strongly externally visible dipta, burning very amazing and then udipta and then ultimately sudipta so this is five different degrees of manifestation of sattvic above us you know sometimes we may feel little tears are coming sometimes tears are coming from our eyes and we want to keep this tear in a special box and displayed in a museum of our devotional achievements but that's very insignificant thing. Lord Chaitanya was crying. 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 consciously continuously controlled. 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 Goswamis of Vrindavan. Raghunad Bhata Goswami was reading this section of the 10th kent of Simad Bhagavatam when Krishna was leaving Vrindavan. And everyone was just crying and crying and falling completely on the ground, losing consciousness. And 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 rolling on the ground. And ultimately he thought, let me also do something. And he took some chili pepper or black pepper and put it in the ice. And sure enough, he started crying too. And he felt quite good. After that I am not so different. But then the speaker, after the lecture, told him, Oh, I heard that when your eyes are not crying when you hear about Krishna, you have to punish them. But I never seen that anybody would punish them. But I saw you punish your eyes. Thank you very much. That was the right thing to do. Anyway, the point here is that sattvic above us is this physiological reactions which you cannot really imitate. And therefore, they are the only correct criteria to measure the extent or the depths of the emotions which you experience. And therefore, only in this particular case, Chilirupagaswami gives this scale of smoky manifestation of sattvic abavas or blazing manifestation or burning or brightly burning or whatever it is. It's very difficult to translate. So that's the sattvic abavas. And ultimately, anubava. Anubava 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. That means you're controlling very tightly your transcendental ecstasy. So basically it means you may feel like singing or you may feel like laughing but you still can control it to a certain extent. Therefore they're called Anubhava. This is something which is happening following the bava, the ecstasy which you experience. So there are different manifestations you can roll in the ground. You can, this you can rehearse no problem. So and then what we see here It's very interesting. Ultimately, what we see here is three main manifestations of emotions. One is subjective experience, another one is physiological response, and another one is behavioral response. Anubhava is behavioral response, sattvika bhava is physiological response, and this is actually external manifestations of the internal mood which you experience, which is more or less stai bhava, which is there. So that's completely in accordance with the modern science, modern psychological science. Silarupa Gosvami, way before, very precisely explained what it means. And we will see. And we see different descriptions of emotional outbursts in Srimad Bhagavatam. This is Daksha who is condemning Lord Shiva. and it is very vividly described in Srimad Bhagavatam how he became totally outraged and how he started yelling and shouting and condemning him and giving offenses and yeah and then in the story of Dhruvamaraj there is also very touching description of the external manifestations of emotions like Dromarach when he was offended by Suruchi 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 Silla Rupa Goswami amazingly, very precisely, classified all different degrees and all different kinds of emotions and how they manifest and explained the mechanisms of this emotional manifestation. 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 Gita, second chapter. Where is the second verse? So these 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. Sangat, from the attachment, from little attachment, comes strong attachment. Kama, desire. Kamat krodhobejayate, from kama comes kroda. From kroda, krodat bhavati sammoha. from Kroda, the emotional physiological reaction, chemical reaction in the brain becomes so strong that it brings Sammoha. Sammoha means complete bewilderment. You're completely bewildered. Actually, it is an 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. Samohat Smriti Vibramah. The Smriti Vibramah, we don't remember who we are, what we're supposed to do, what we're not supposed to do. Smriti Brahmshad Budhi Nasho, and then our intelligence completely lost. We cannot understand what will be the consequences of our actions, and Budhi Nashat Pranashyati, 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 these very complex physiological processes which ultimately 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. Here is the second verse. So, this is how it works. Please listen because it's important 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, Atma, the soul, spiritual entity, has Raga. Atma comes to this material world with this Raga, and Raga basically says, I want to experience, I want to establish the way I want, I want to, you know, I want everything my way, basically. That's what Atma says. And this impulse from Atma, 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 to behave the atma says I just want to control everything and then when it comes to the heart it's being translated in the most 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 wife or husband they're all the same so please don't blame me I'm not male chauvinist. So, first atma, the desire, the general desire of atma is translated into a specific desire within our heart. And then the heart gives the signal to our brain. And when the brain receives this command from our heart, the brain starts working and 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. 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, raga, 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 obstacle, there are two emotional reactions to the obstacle. If the obstacle is very strong, what is the emotional reaction? Fear. If the obstacle is very, very strong, which does not allow us, 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 vita raga bhai akra dha so only 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 obstacle and 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 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 physiological reaction which takes place in our body is being now studied very carefully with all these different chemicals, you know, adrenaline and noradrenaline and dopamine and serotonin and all these 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, limbic system, which is the emotional system within the brain. Again, I will not explain what is septum and olfactory bulb and hypothalamus and amygdala. Although I could, but 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, but ultimately it's all emotional mechanism. How the emotions should manifest in our body. And what we should know about this, very important. As I said, there are two stressful reactions. Fight or flight. When you're angry, you try to fight. And when you are fearful, you try to fly. But basically, there are three emotions which I already said. I will explain it a little 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 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 what most important to understand now is that brain, mind or sorry, soul soul influences mind mind influences body brain and our body physiological reactions but there is a feedback mechanism going from the body back to the soul it's not only one way street how you call it yeah so you're right so there are two directions there are two directions in which we 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 certain mood, certain idea about the reality. He or she is very pessimistic. Everything is bad, everything is bad, everything is bad. So, and he or she becomes so stuck in this emotional reaction that he cannot really break it. Even 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 have you heard this? devotees are so bad you know I look I say very nice devotees but I see bad people but 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. 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 little observant, and it's a 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're getting stuck into this whole thing and this is the you know the explanation of the stress how stress influences the mind, influences body influence our emotions and influence our behavior. So all these different stressful reactions are there. And the stress is coming from what? What is the main cause of stress? Somebody experienced stress here? Five people. Okay. So, basically what is the cause of stress? I already explained what was the cause of stress. Huh? Yeah, the cause of stress is that I see something which I think is wrong, right? I want the reality to be my way, but reality somehow or other works independently on my desires. and when the reality when the reality does not 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 with our desired picture I think 108% 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 weather is wrong 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 so basically that's the thing you know, that's the mechanisms, how we become stressed out because the reality does not match what we want and because we're very stubborn in this desire everything should be my way we are stuck in this situation and it's very difficult to break through I already said to you that this is very important verse from Bhagavad Gita There's a mistake here, not just sana. Very interesting verse, which actually the key for the whole seminar. You know, when we get rid of this ragabaya and krodha, only three basic emotions which are obstacles on our spiritual path, and when we will be able to do it man maya mam upasri taha 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 these emotions of ragabaya and krodha and then by jnana which is coming and by tapasya by doing the sadhana of bhakti yoga we will achieve madbhava maghata what is madbhava here? yeah, we will achieve the pure emotional ecstasy related to Krishna, so that's the process you know we have stressful emotions three of them with wide varieties different manifestations of these emotions we take shelter of Krishna we do Sharanagati and by doing Sharanagati we conquer over the stressful emotions and achieve Madbhava Madbhava Agataha 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 are doing spiritual practice and you are not feeling that you are becoming free from material emotions, you are doing something wrong. You are not doing what you are supposed to do. So, you know, the process of spiritual purification, you get rid of material emotions, you gradually achieve spiritual emotions. And 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 sadhakarupa, 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 like it. Very complex. But the idea is very clear and very important idea. We should turn this body from the instrument of bondage into 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 Bhagavan and ultimately our body will be totally transformed. That's what Sadaka Rupa is. That's what we're supposed to do with this rupa. That's what we're doing. And that's basically what we're trying to teach. So I only have a few more slides to show. Here, the same thing is explained in this verse from Padma Purana, which Shri Lupa Goswami quotes in Bacteria Samritasinda. It's a very important verse. This verse says, how is that possible? Katam. In the mind which experiences shoka and amarsha. And adibhih, all other emotions. Shoka means grief, amarsha means anger. when in your mind you experience grief, anger and all other stressful emotions all these bhavas shoka, marsha, dibir, bhava all these bhavas akrantam, when they attack us when we always feel these attacks of these emotions on our mind akrantam yasyamanasa, katham tantra mukundas yaspurtisambhavunbavet 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 Silarupa Goswami says that this is one very important element of sadhana, to get rid of negative emotions, to get rid of all these anxiety syndromes and 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 in which the chitta 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 cheetah, the mirror of the heart, our heart. And we look at this mirror and we see some distorted image. We will explain this 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, raga and dvesha comes. The emotions in the mind, a very wide spectrum of material emotions. Raga, attachment, and dvesha, hatred. And then we get thoughts associated with these emotions. And then we get reaction in the brain. and then release of hormones and all these physiological reactions. And then you become like this. You are emotionally stuck. This is Staibala. I can have some other... Where is the other one? So many. There was some other nice picture, but anyway, it's not here. Okay, so that's... That's my astrological prediction of your future. unless you take seriously this seminar so very important thing which will be helpful to us soul creates ego ego creates emotion emotion creates thoughts when we have certain emotions it produces certain thoughts, certain patterns. And that it produces some chemicals, neuro-mediators. And neuro-mediators turn on hormones within our body. And the hormones within our body influence our thoughts, and thoughts influence 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 are stuck. You know, it may be, this is how the, you know, undesirable Stai Bauer develops, how the emotional habits develop. Somebody is pessimistic, somebody is hilarious, somebody is, you know, 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 samsara 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, oh, horrible rain. So that's what it is. so this is what we should try to learn yeah I will skip this little part yeah 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 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 we are capable of doing amazing things you know Srila Prabhupada in his old age what he did. Why? Because he was not conditioned by all this material stuff. Because he said impossible is the word from the fool's dictionary. You know, who can say this? Does anyone of you sometimes say that this is impossible? Yeah. There are few honest people here. We always say it's impossible. It's impossible to turn two locks a day. Is it? It's impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible. It means who you are? Okay. Let's call it very politely conditioned soul. Sheila Prabhupada used different terminology. Anyway, so what happens when we become slave of emotions, when we become trained or tamed by emotions. Actually, that's what is happening. We're tamed by emotions. Even though we're very strong, we become enslaved like this elephant. It's a common knowledge that you tie elephant to a very little thing, and the elephant is just sitting there. He's strong enough to smash everything, but he thinks that he cannot do it because he was trained like this in childhood. So the same way is happening with us. We're trained to become weak spirit souls. And this is a very important verse from Srimad Bhagavatam which explains this. This is Maitreya Muni speaking to Vidura in the beginning of the third kanto of Simad Bhagavatam. Say I am Bhagavatamaya. This is Maya of Bhagavan. Look, this is Maya of Bhagavan. Maitreya is amazed. This is Maya of God. Which acts completely against the logic. Ishvara in this particular case means soul, spirit soul who is Ishvara, who is self-willing and who is completely free each and every one of us is completely free each and every one of us is self-willing we are Ishvara and we are Vimukta. Karpaniam utabandanam. We become very weak, and we become completely enslaved. This Maya, which cannot be understood by logic, belonging to the Supreme Lord, is not his Svarupa, is the case of deprivation and ignorance for the Jiva who has the possibility of realizing the form of knowledge and bliss of the Lord. This is how Jiva Goswami translates this. There is different translation. Srila Prabhupada uses different translations. Both are correct but this is important for our discussion. This is how we become very weak because of this attachment of material emotions. And you can see this is how you can become 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 engaged in 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 Saul is doing. The soul which is placed here becomes the slave of the movements of material intelligence. Material intelligence wants to laugh, we think, 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, yeah, it is explained in the 11th Cant of Srimad 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 he basically imitates the soul, which is supposed to be the servant of Krishna, and imitates the movement of subtle nature and becomes the slave of material nature. Unfortunately, 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? Thank you. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, So, this is exactly what the soul is doing. It 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. Anyway, so that's it for today. I tried to explain the nature of material emotions. We went through a long journey. We tried to analyze the emotions from the spiritual point of view. and we saw the Rupa Goswami'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, Baya and Kroda, and why it's only three, and how these emotions are 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 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 Ishvara and I am free and anytime I can get rid of all this stuff anytime I can feel that I am totally free and I don't have to be the slave of this emotions if I understand very clearly these mechanisms then it will give us the understanding what we should do what we are doing wrong in our spiritual practices and how to correct it to become more successful thank you very much Hare Krishna