Controlling the Speech Controls the Mind
HHBVPS_Unknown
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Prabhu: Mahārāja, unless we control speech we can't control mind?

HH BVPS Mahārāja: Because what you speak about is what  your mind will dwell upon. I mean, they go together, but speech is... Because the mind is controlled by intelligence. So, basically what we are getting here is: we are dealing with the various coverings on the soul. So the covering of the mode of ignorance is the body, right? And that is what we identify with. Do you understand the eight material elements? Right? So the earth, water, fire, air, ether - that's what the body is made out of, and that is coming from, that is manifesting from ignorance. Also then the ego, the identification is manifesting from ignorance, that's the eighth or the... How you say? Yeah, when we go from the bottom up, it is the eighth element. So these two go together, the first five and the eighth, they go together. Those are both expanding from ignorance, is the gross body and identification with it.

Then from the mode of passion comes the intelligence and the senses. So the intelligence is actually the controller of the senses, they are directly connected there. But the senses and the intelligence are engaged by the mind to fulfill its desires. Therefore then the mind much of the time becomes what is associated with the senses. So if you can control... And so of all the senses, the most important is the speech. If you can, if the speech is engaged properly, then we will see: all the other senses we can bring into line. We can control what we speak about, so that means, the intelligence is controlled, so then we can bring everything into line. So the intelligence can control the mind, therefore speech will be first, then the mind, because the intelligence is higher than the mind. So our process in the Gītā is given this buddhi-yoga, or the process of the yoga of intelligence. So by intelligence we understand what should be done and we do that. Otherwise the mind does what it likes to do. See, the normal thing is, is that what the mind wants, that's what you endeavor for, but it may not be good for us. Therefore, what is intelligent, that is what must be endeavored for. And then the mind has to be retrained on what is good for it, what it should desire? So if the speech is proper, then you can control the mind. If the mind is peaceful, it doesn't get angry. It gets angry if it can't get what it wants. Does that make some sense on why that order is there? Yeah. And the mind is then...

Prabhu: Yeah. How does that make thinking, feeling and willing?

HH BVPS Mahārāja: Thinking, feeling and willing? Means the mind... How you say? Thinking means that you are attracted to something, but you haven't decided whether you want it or not. Like you walk down the street and you see something in the window in the shop and it attracts your attention, so you think about it. You know, you try to connect if yourself and that item in the window have some connection. If we find there is a connection, then the next thing is is we want it. So that's feeling, so that's our goal. And so, then once we have attained established, fixed in the goal, then there is activity. Until there is a goal, there is no activity. So therefore you find, many times there is people, their life is listless, directionless, like that, therefore they don't do nothing. A lazy person has no goal. Someone with a goal works. Because once the goal is attained... That means, the goal is a need, what you need, then you endeavor. So this is the process, is that how to become attracted.

So you can't become attracted to Kṛṣṇa if the senses, mind and speech are uncontrolled. If those are controlled, then you can become attracted to Kṛṣṇa, then you can become a pure devotee. That's why it says, first you become a gosvāmī, then you can become a pure devotee. Because if the mind is thinking of other things, it won't become attracted to Kṛṣṇa. And from that attraction, then following in the footsteps of the devotees, then that becomes a need, then when that need is there, then one can perform those activities. So on this platform then by intelligence we control the mind, we see what is good. So we see that this, we should want this, we should consider about Kṛṣṇa and His devotional service, we should desire pure devotional service, and that is what will make us happy. We want to become happy, okay, so therefore we say, 'I need it,' so that is the feeling. So then next is willing, 'Then I will do!' So that is for the starting of devotional service. Then the next stage is that when you are purified and on the platform of pure devotional service, then you go to the next stage. Because now it's, you are not battling so much with the material world, as with the... You have a taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But it is still the same same framework, is that then more deeply you have to desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, you have to need that and then you endeavor for that. So that's  how that thinking, feeling and willing works.

From Seminar on Nectar of Instruction, Part 1, given in Perth, Australia
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