Psychology
Lecture
22 October 2004 – Riga, Latvia
at the
International High School of Practical Psychology
vande ’ham sri
guroh sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri–gurun vaisnavams ca
sri rupam sagrajatam saha-gan-raghunathanvitam tam sa-jivam
sadvaitam savadhutam parijana-sahitam krsna-caitanya-devam
sri-radha-krsna-padan saha-gana-lalita-sri-visakhanvitams ca
Thank you very
much, ladies and gentlemen, for coming today to the third
presentation on the new, enlightened psychology. Today, as I
promised you, I will be revealing the secrets of what is the
perfection of psychology.
Psychology is the
science of the mind. The controlled mind is the best friend - and
the uncontrolled mind is the worst enemy. So if you can master the
art of controlling your mind, you will achieve the perfection of
psychology. Today we want to give you those inside secrets on how
to perfect your mind.
Krishna explains
in the Bhagavad-gita, Chapter Nine, Text Number Two:
raja-vidya raja
guhyam
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyaksavagamam dharmyam
su-sukham kartum avyayam
“This knowledge
is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the
purest knowledge because it gives direct perception of the self by
realization. It is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting,
and it is joyfully performed.”
This is what we
are teaching you today.
There is a
supreme consciousness that is aware of everything. That is called
Krishna, or God. “O Dias”, they say in Latvian . . . that Supreme
Consciousness, or Dias, knows everything that’s going on
everywhere. We are conscious of the pains and pleasures of our own
body; but we are not aware of the pains and pleasures in someone
else’s body. But Dias, or God, is aware of the pains and pleasures
in everyone’s body. So the perfection of psychology is to fully
connect your individual consciousness with the Supreme
Consciousness. That’s what we want to teach you how to do today.
Your hand serves
your entire body, doesn’t it? When you eat, every part of the body
requires nourishment; without eating, your body will wither away and
die. Every part of your body requires nutrition - the hand requires
nutrition, the brain requires nutrition, and the legs require
nutrition. So the hand serves the entire body by putting the food
in the stomach, through the mouth. And by feeding the stomach, the
hand automatically gets the nutrition it requires. Similarly we,
the individual living beings, are like the hand, and God is like the
stomach. If you give your loving service to God, the Supreme
Consciousness, then you will become fully satisfied. You will have
a good, friendly mind. But if you try to remain greedy, like a hand
that refuses to feed the stomach – simply trying to squeeze the food
in the fingers, without giving it to the belly – you will not make
God happy, you will not make yourself happy, and you will not make
anybody happy. Your mind will be a mess – it will be your enemy.
So the perfection
of psychology is to engage the mind in serving the Supreme Being.
That is the perfection of psychology: when your mind becomes
peaceful by being engaged in the service of God. You’ll become very
happy; you’ll become very peaceful; you’ll become very intelligent.
And you’ll be healthy also, because one of the major causes of
physical disease is a disturbed mind. So this is the perfection of
applied psychology - to engage the mind in serving the Supreme.
This is actually
natural. Don’t you prefer light over darkness? Don’t you prefer a
bright, sunny day like today over a dark, gray day? Therefore you
should illuminate your mind by the brilliant sun of the words of God
and the words of great, saintly teachers. These words have the
power to totally illuminate your heart and permanently destroy all
anxiety, all fear, all illusion, all lamentation, all bewilderment,
and all confusion.
So the question
would be, then, how do you do it? How does one fully absorb the
mind in serving God? Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita
[9:34]:
man-mana bhava
mad-bhakto
mad-yaji mam namaskuru
man evaisyasi yuktvaivam
atmamam mat-parayanah
“Engage your mind
always in thinking of Me; offer obeisances and worship me. Being
completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.” Krishna
also says [BG 9:14]:
satatam
kritayanto mam
tatantas ca drdha-vratah
namsyantas ca mam bhaktya
nitya-yukta upasate
He says, “Engage
your mind always in chanting My glories, and always bow down before
Me. In this way become a person of great faith, who always worships
Me.”
So if you will
chant the holy names of God on your lips, you will immediately
illuminate your consciousness and bring yourself to the platform of
the perfected mind. The best names to chant are these:
Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Rama, Hare Hare
This is called
the maha-mantra. Maha-mantra is a Sanskrit word.
Maha means “great”, and mantra means “that which delivers
the mind”. Man means “mind”, and tra means “deliver”
– so mantra is a sound vibration which delivers the mind.
Is not this the
goal of psychology? To deliver the mind from anxiety? The
psychologists are missing the very easy method – that simply by
chanting “Hare Krishna”, all psychological problems are solved. The
teachers at this school should all become aware of this science, and
teach all the psychology students to chant Hare Krishna in order to
become perfect masters of their own minds and to be real
psychologists, to help other people with disturbed minds. This Hare
Krishna chant should now be taught in all psychology textbooks, in
all the universities throughout the world. All the crazy people on
this planet would become sane and happy by chanting these names:
Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Are there any
questions?
Q1
[Why are teachers of psychology not interested in this
science/method?]
A1 - It’s pride.
They think they know everything. Therefore when a bona fide
spiritual master comes to their school, instead of coming here to
learn how to be a proper teacher, they just go somewhere and smoke
cigarettes.
So who would like
to perfect their mind? Who would like to become free of all
anxiety? [hands raise] Oh, very good . . . Anyone else like to
become free of all anxiety? We’ve got one, two three, four, five .
. . what about you? – ah, everyone would like to be free of
all anxiety. Very good.
Q2
[How does this
process work?]
A2
- When you
water the root of a tree, all the leaves and branches are
automatically nourished. When you feed your belly, every part of
your body receives nutrition. When you become Krishna conscious,
every aspect of your life becomes perfect. Everything, material and
spiritual both, becomes changed in a positive way - your mind, your
intelligence, your ego - even your material body and everything
that’s happening to you in the material world. It all changes in an
amazing, incredible way. It’ll make you kick yourself for not
starting to chant earlier - you will say, if only I had started
chanting Hare Krishna earlier in life, I would be much better off
now; why did I wait until so late to start chanting Hare Krishna?
We also have
these wonderful books, which give this science in full detail. We
have just enough books for everybody in this classroom. We’d like
to give them to you as a gift, but we have to ask you to give enough
that we can cover the printing cost, because we had to pay for the
books. So give some donation to help cover the printing cost. When
the lecture is over, everyone can come forward and see which book
they would like to take home. Any more questions?
Q3
[Once we take up
this practice, how do we keep from falling down?]
A3
- Right
now we’re going through so many difficulties all the time. When we
start to take up Krishna consciousness, we can feel immediate
relief. And the more you surrender, you get more and more relief.
So even when you begin, you immediately feel some reciprocation from
Krishna. And that reciprocation simply deepens and deepens as time
goes on. So the way to not fall down is that you have to pray to
Krishna, “My dear Lord Krishna, please protect me from falling
down.” That’s the key. Never think that on your own you have the
strength to protect yourself from falling down. Every minute you
have to beg Krishna, “Please protect me from falling down.” If you
pray from the innermost depths of your heart, with great sincerity,
then you will never fall down. The key is to humbly beg Krishna for
His mercy upon you.
Q4 [What is the
validity of the other knowledge?]
A4
- There
are two kinds of knowledge. There is absolute knowledge; this is
knowledge of God and our relationship with God. And there is
relative knowledge, like how to open a door, how to walk up the
stairs – this is called relative knowledge. We require both types
of knowledge as we go through our daily life. But relative
knowledge can change. Just like when you drive in Latvia, you drive
on the right side of the highway. In Great Britain you drive on the
left. Which side of the road you drive on is called relative
knowledge; it’s not absolute. But knowledge of the self in relation
to God, the Supreme Self – that is absolute knowledge. It doesn’t
matter whether you’re in Latvia, Lithuania or Fiji, the knowledge
remains the same: that Krishna is God, and you are His eternal
servant. And by chanting His names, you will reawaken your love for
Him.
Q5
[How long does it take to achieve this perfection?]
A5
- It
depends on the quality of your chanting. You can achieve the
perfection of psychology within one second. Or it can take you
millions of lifetimes. It’s simply up to you, how purely you
chant. The mood of chanting is like that of little child crying for
her mother in a state of total helplessness – like a little baby
crying for Mother. If you can chant in a complete mood of
helplessness the name of Krishna, then you can achieve the highest
spiritual enlightenment immediately. The problem is that we keep
thinking that we have something else that will protect us besides
God. We’re thinking, “My parents will protect me; my job will
protect me; my insurance policy will protect me; the Latvian police
department will protect me” (that’s a joke). There is no protection
in this material world. There is only one Person Who can actually
give us full protection, and that is God. If you put your faith in
anyone else, sooner or later you must be disappointed - because no
one else but God can give you perfect protection. That’s a fact.
So instead of putting our energy and our faith in so many other
things, let us focus our energy on devotion to the Supreme Person,
and experience the perfection of psychology.
__________________________________________
Transcribed by Her Grace Labangalatika devi dasi
