Fix Your Mind, Fix Your Life – Shree Krishna’s Key to End Anxiety and Suffering | Swami Mukundananda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKKeoZ9Jq9E This video, based on the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad (Mantra 7) and the Bhagavad Gītā, explains that Divine Knowledge is the sole source of changing perception and eliminating suffering. Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad: The Power of Divine Knowledge # Time Salient Points 1 0:02 Arjun's Condition: At the beginning of the Gītā, Arjun laments that he cannot fight, listing physical symptoms like his bow (Gāṇḍīva) slipping, his mouth drying, and his knees shaking. 2 0:19 Surrender: Arjun surrenders to Shree Krishna, declaring, "I am your surrendered disciple. Give me knowledge." 3 0:27 Krishna's Rebuke: Krishna's first message to Arjun is sharp: "While apparently speaking words of wisdom of a pundit, you are actually behaving like a fool." 4 1:39 Perception is Key: Our perception is the major factor determining our happiness and distress, not the external circumstances themselves. 5 1:47 Relativity of Suffering: What one person considers a "shabby home" could be the dream home of 98% of the world's population. 6 2:05 Relativity of Health: A person worried about high cholesterol could have the dream health of genuinely sick people. 7 2:25 Changing Perception: Happiness is fundamentally a matter of perception, which is changed by knowledge. 8 2:53 Knowledge Transforms: When you know the world to be non-different from God—meaning fully connected to the Divine—your perception changes completely. 9 2:59 The "Here vs. Her" Analogy: A simple error in knowledge (a typo changing "I wish you were here" to "her") can instantly change a spouse's perception from love to cursing until the misunderstanding is clarified. 10 4:02 Defective Knowledge: Many times, the way we see things is skewed because of defective knowledge about the situation or the world. 11 4:23 The Subway Story: A man in the New York subway was irritated by a sloppy man and his chaotic children until he learned the truth: they were returning from the hospital where the mother had just passed away. 12 5:34 Knowledge is the Fix: The moment this knowledge was revealed, the passengers' entire perception changed from irritation to sympathy. 13 5:46 Source of Suffering: We create defective perceptions which are often the true reason for our negative thinking and suffering. 14 6:14 The Harm of Resentment: Keeping resentment (durabhāvanā or ill will) is described as one of the worst things for the mind. 15 6:40 Unclean Heart: A person whose heart is unclean will see bad everywhere, even finding fault with God (e.g., criticizing Krishna’s stance or Jagannāth's eyes). 16 7:27 Sign of Goodness: A sign of goodness is the absolute reverse: challenging oneself to not keep ill will toward anyone. 17 7:38 Test of Sādhanā: When someone hurts you, you must take it as an opportunity to practice sādhanā (spiritual discipline) to overcome the resentment. 18 8:03 The Sovereign Recipe: The mantra provides the sovereign recipe for overcoming resentment: change how you look at the world. 19 8:30 The Dual Picture Analogy: The world is like a dual-picture puzzle (old man vs. young man); both images exist. What you see depends on what you choose to focus on based on your prior conditioning. 20 9:26 God vs. Māyā: This world contains both Māyā (illusion) and God. The goal is to train yourself to see God in everyone and everything. 21 10:44 Six Divine Qualities: Scriptures teach six qualities of God: He is the world, its creator, the material cause, the maintainer, the law-establisher, and the annihilator. 22 11:31 The Shoes and Dollar Story: A professor demonstrated that giving is a far more joyous activity than taking by having his student put money in a poor farm worker's shoes instead of stealing them. 23 14:27 Knowledge and Life Transformation: Knowledge is a very powerful means of life transformation and helps in developing EQ (Emotional Quotient). 24 17:48 Lamentation Caused by Moha: The mantra states that the one who truly knows (vijānatā) will never be attached or lamenting, because moha (delusion/ignorance) is the root cause of lamentation. 25 21:36 The Best Service: The best service one can offer to people is to give them right knowledge, as knowledge and understanding are the link that fuels bhakti (devotion). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKKeoZ9Jq9E Full Transcript: The Power of Divine Knowledge Time Transcript 0:02 Arjun was lamenting in the beginning of the Gītā. "Oh, Shree Krishna, I cannot fight the war." 0:08 "What happened? Oh, this, this, this, this. My Gāṇḍīva (bow) is falling from my hand. My mouth is drying up and my tongue has become like leather, and my knees are shaking." 0:17 "Oh, Shree Krishna, I'm your surrendered disciple. Give me knowledge." 0:22 So, the first message of Shree Krishna to Arjun: 0:28 "While apparently speaking words of wisdom of a pundit, you are actually behaving like a fool." 0:38 Why did He say that? 1:13 This [Mantra] is packed with wisdom. 1:22 The previous mantra's first line was very similar. It said, "Those who see Me in all things and see all things in Me." 1:35 Their perception changes. 1:39 Perception is such a big thing in determining your happiness and distress. 1:47 You may think, "What a shabby home I have." But do you think it could be the dream home of 98% of the people on this planet? 2:02 You may think, "Oh my god, my health, my cholesterol is up." But it could be the dream health of the sick people. 2:15 Your job, which you think is all crappy, could be the dream job of other people. 2:23 So, likewise, it is a matter of perception. 2:28 In the previous mantra, He said, "How do you see this world? Do you see God in it?" Now He has changed it. 2:43 He says, when you know this world to be non-different from God, things will change. 2:53 Knowing changes your perception. 2:59 One husband went in the winters to Cancun. Out there, he loved the environment, the atmosphere. 3:12 So, he wrote a love letter to his wife. "It is so wonderful here. I wish you were here." 3:23 But in "here," he left out the last 'e'. "I wish you were her." 3:34 The wife read it. "Oh my god." Everything changed. 3:41 She cursed her husband, "How dare you?" etc., until the misunderstanding was clarified. 3:50 And when she came to know it was a mistake, the way she saw the situation, all changed. 3:59 So many times, the way we are seeing things is because of defective knowledge. 4:07 Stephen Covey wrote this story in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. 4:19 A person was traveling in the New York subway, and there was a sloppy man in front. His little children were as disoriented as him, creating such a ruckus, which was a source of great irritation to this person and the other passengers. 4:46 Ultimately, this person could not handle the irritation any further and said, "Sir, if you don't mind, your children are disturbing us greatly; can you please take care of them?" 5:02 The man responded, "Ah yes, I think I need to take a better grip. I don't know how to handle the situation. We have just come; we are on our way back from the hospital. Their mother has passed away two hours ago, and they are unable to handle it, as I am unable to handle it." 5:23 The moment the passengers heard that, their whole perception changed. 5:34 So, how did perception change? Through knowledge. Knowledge changed the way you look at things. 5:43 If we don't have the proper knowledge, we create defective perceptions, and those are so often the reason for our negative thinking. 5:57 So, how do you create positive perceptions? 6:05 How do you remove resentments? How do you get rid of hurts? 6:14 Keeping resentment is one of the worst things, as Shree Kripalu ji maharaj has written. 6:28 "Oh my dear mind, even in your dream, even by mistake, don't keep ill will towards anyone." 6:40 A person whose heart is unclean keeps a bad attitude even towards good places. 6:50 "Krishna is there, but why does he not stand straight? Why does he stand crooked?" 6:58 "The Ratha Yātrā is coming. Yeah, but why does it take so long to come? Why can't it come faster?" 7:04 "Jagannāth is on the chariot, so royal and majestic. Yeah, but why does he have so big eyes?" 7:14 So, people who have that negative perception will see bad everywhere. 7:22 And the sign of goodness is the absolute reverse. 7:27 The sign of goodness is you challenge yourself: "I will not keep durabhāvanā (ill will) anywhere." 7:38 "Somebody has hurt me? Take it as a test. Here comes an opportunity to practice sādhanā (spiritual discipline)." 7:47 "Will the situation win, or will I win?" 7:52 So, how do you overcome resentment? 7:58 This mantra is giving us a sovereign recipe. 8:03 It is saying, "How do you look at this world?" You can look at this world in different ways. 8:12 As little children, we used to have these puzzles. There were jumbled lines in the puzzle book. 8:22 One person, if you look from here, sees an old man. And you look from here, there's a young man. 8:30 Now, what do you wish to see? Both are there in the picture. 8:37 One teacher did an experiment. He took a jumble of two pictures. Now, it had the old man and the young man. 8:47 He divided the class into two and showed these people the young man's picture, and then he showed them the old man's picture. 8:58 And then he showed them all the jumbled picture and said, "Which one do you see?" 9:04 This half of the class was willing to swear, "It is the young man," and that half was willing to swear, "It is the old man." 9:15 The fact is both the pictures were there. 9:18 They were being affected by what they had seen in the past. 9:24 Likewise, this world is the world of Māyā (illusion), and God is also in this world. 9:33 Now, what do you want to see? Do you want to see Māyā or do you want to see God? 9:39 If you start seeing God, you'll say, "God is in everyone." 9:44 And when you see God is in everyone, the person towards whom you are keeping resentment, God is in that person as well. 9:54 So you want to keep resentment? If you want to go ahead... but that mere thought will change things. 10:04 When you change your knowledge, when you understand God is everywhere, it will automatically change your perception of things. 10:19 So the scriptures have told us time and time and time again... 10:41 In one mantra, six things are being said. God is the world. He is the creator of the world. 10:52 He is the material from which the world has been created. He is the maintainer of the world. He has established the law and order of the world, and He is the one who shall annihilate the world. 11:08 So now if we decide that this is the knowledge we will believe, based on that knowledge, we start training ourselves to see God. 11:22 And when you see God, you naturally change the way you look at people. 11:31 One professor was known for his kindness. He took his student on a field trip. 11:39 When they were outside the city, they were on the road. A poor farm worker, having slogged it out in the sun, completely exhausted, was under a tree. 11:54 The student was a little naughty. 11:59 So he said, "Sir, let's have some fun. Let's make this guy's shoes disappear and hide behind the bush." 12:10 "And then we will see his reaction when he sees his shoes missing." 12:17 The professor said, "Why not do it my way?" 12:22 He gave this student money and said, "Slip it into his shoes." 12:32 All right? He put it in his shoes. 12:35 Now this farm worker, poor man, he woke up. 12:43 He was about to put his shoe on when he discovered something hard. So he took his foot out and he put his hand in, and he saw a full dollar. 12:58 The expression on his face... he was thinking, "Oh my god, here is the money for my sick wife's medicine." 13:08 And then he saw the other shoe also had a dollar. 13:14 Now the professor and his student were sitting behind the bush and watching. 13:21 What did they see? This man, he fell on his knees. 13:27 He lifted his hands up towards the heaven and started praying. 13:34 The words of his prayer were, "Oh God, today I really believe in you. My little children didn't have to eat. My wife didn't have medicine for her sickness." 13:49 "How in the world have these come? If it is not for your grace, how could it have come?" 13:57 He walked off. 14:00 The professor looked at the student's face. 14:04 The student said, "Sir, thank you so much for teaching me that giving is a far more joyous activity than taking." 14:19 He understood; that understanding changed things. 14:27 So, knowledge is a very powerful means of life transformation. 14:35 If we can have knowledge of the connection of the world with God, if we can have knowledge of our connection with God, and thereby our connection with others, we will automatically develop our EQ (Emotional Quotient). 15:03 Look at the Buddha teaching EQ. 15:08 In his time, there was a dacoit (bandit) called Angulimāla. Everybody's heard the story in their childhood books, right? 15:18 Angulimāla had zero EQ, zero SQ (Spirituality Quotient). 15:27 He used to kill people and then take their finger as a trophy and keep increasing the garland that he was wearing around his neck. 15:37 Now the Buddha happened to be going by. Angulimāla looked at the Buddha and he spat at him. 15:50 The Buddha, his EQ was beyond the roof. He said, "Do you have anything further to say?" 16:00 And Angulimāla said, "I said nothing." He said, "What you did was tantamount to saying." 16:08 So Angulimāla was impressed. 16:14 The Buddha said, "You know, what you are doing has got no bravery. What I'm doing has got bravery." 16:23 Angulimāla said, "How do you say that?" 16:26 The Buddha said, "Here is a leaf on a twig on this tree. Break it." Angulimāla broke it. 16:37 Buddha said, "Join it back." He could not join it back. 16:40 So likewise, said the Buddha, "What you're doing is so trivial. You're breaking people. I am joining people. That is bravery." 16:52 The Buddha walked in front, and as 200 disciples walked behind him. Angulimāla realized that Buddha may have been physically weaker than me. But if he had just given an instruction to his disciples to overpower him, he would have fallen flat. 17:17 Angulimāla became his surrendered devotee. 17:22 That epiphany (a moment of sudden and great revelation or realization) moment, that understanding, changed the way he looked at things. 17:31 So in this mantra, vijānatā has come for knowing. 17:39 And then the second line is very interesting. 17:48 "One who knows will never be attached and will never be lamenting." 17:57 Actually, the word moha (delusion) comes from mudha, meaning to make unconscious. 18:08 So Shree Krishna has said, "Look, if you get anger, what happens? Your intellect becomes sammūḍha (bewildered); it becomes unconscious." 18:26 "And then you lose memory, and then the intellect is ruined." 18:31 So Arjun was lamenting in the beginning of the Gītā, and finally in Chapter 2, Arjun surrendered. 18:48 He has first given his whole philosophy to Shree Krishna. 19:19 But then he says he got this bit of wisdom: "Oh Shree Krishna, I'm your surrendered disciple. Give me knowledge." 19:28 So, the first message of Shree Krishna to Arjun: "While apparently speaking words of wisdom of a pundit, you are actually behaving like a fool." 19:56 Why did He say that? Because one who is a true pundit never laments. 20:02 One who has got knowledge never laments. 20:06 So what causes lamentation is moha or ignorance. 20:13 And at the very end of the Gītā, Shree Krishna says, "Arjun, has your moha gone? Has your ignorance gone?" 20:25 Shree Krishna does not ask, "Has your lamentation disappeared?" 20:29 He only says, "Has your moha gone?" because if moha goes, lamentation will go automatically. 20:36 So Arjun says, "Oh Shree Krishna, my moha has gone." Chapter closed. 20:47 "My moha, my ignorance, is gone." So Shree Krishna gave him the knowledge. His ignorance disappeared. Arjun is now in knowledge. His lamentation is gone. 20:58 So the mantra is telling us that if you are able to actually know that God is everywhere, the moha will disappear, the lamentation will disappear. 21:12 This is the power of knowledge. 21:19 Many years ago, literally 30 years ago, I asked Maharaji, "What is the best service we can do to people?" 21:33 He said, "The best service you can do is to give them right knowledge." Knowledge makes such a difference. 21:43 So that is the mission of JKYog. 21:48 What is the link between knowledge and bhakti (devotion)? 21:54 Bhakti is based on knowledge and understanding. 21:58 Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is considered a preacher. He said, in cultivating your knowledge and understanding, don't be lazy. 22:15 Don't think just śraddhā (faith) is enough. You need to understand. 22:20 The biggest devotee of Ram, Tulsīdās Mahārāj, you read his Rāmcharitmānas, but he says... 22:38 If you come to know that this stone is worth $10 million, then your love for it will be worth $10 million. 22:47 That is the link between knowledge and bhakti. 22:52 That is why in JKYog, we have chosen the slogan: "Transforming the world through wisdom." 23:02 So in this power-packed mantra, we are being told that learn to understand the connection between God and the world.