Vedanta Psychology - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

that’s intelligence. In other words, the Sankarsana aspect where you are dealing withthe field and analyzing it and the intelligence part of application in abhideya, inVasudeva, these are what the intelligence does. But the attraction to the field isPradyumna and the attachment or need is Aniruddha, that’s the mind. So we see youare dealing with this element and where they are overlapping like this, but thatcommon point is abhideya, that’s where the mind and the intelligence are functioningtogether at the same time. Otherwise it’s more prominently one or more prominentlythe other.Means a man is alone, he thinks masculine he does masculine. A woman is alone,she thinks feminine she does feminine. You put the two together, then they have towork together and find a common ground. So that’s abhideya. Abhideya is where theintelligence and the mind cooperate together in a balanced way to effectively getsomething done.Devotee (7): Maharaja, you mentioned that devotees may be fixed up…and goaway. So I was thinking that this vaidhi-sadhana-bhakti, one could argue that it’sgiving more focus to this external regulation of the mind than…Maharaja: External regulation of the mind, but how would there be an externalregulation when the mind is internal? You can externally regulate the body, but themind you have to direct. What we are saying is, be effective in your direction.Otherwise the mind will make up what it wants to do. Because it has some ideas, themind wants to be happy, or wants to feel the security of control and the satisfactionof enjoyment. So now it either has worked out its own things, or heard from others,or experienced things. So through whatever it is, then it has some idea of what itwants to do. Then it’s a matter of directing that in a favorable way towards Krsna.Means ideally it’s favorable towards Krsna. At least initially it’s towards Krsna, it maybe still more favorable to yourself, but it’s directed at Krsna. Then as that becomesestablished, then you start directing it finer that it’s actually for Krsna’s happiness. Sothat’s what you are trying to do.So it’s not a matter of externals here. This word external and internal, that’s verynice but that’s in relationship to the internal process of the mind being absorbed inKrsna. So this thing of external and internal it’s not something that like it’s these wehave heard these words and now we have our little stereotype way of applying them,and as soon as it’s external then it’s bad. Because basically speaking probablyeverything that you do in a day is all has an external aspect. Even if you say, we arejust going to do be absorbed in the internal, we are just going to hear about Krsna inHis pastimes, and what are you going to do that with? You are going to get out abook, quite external. Knock on wood, it’s like solid, made out of a tree. Then you aregoing to use your hands, external, your fingers, you are going to use your eyes,external, you are going to use your tongue to read it and ears to hear it. You aregoing to have a place to sit down, external. So what’s not external? External is theunderstanding that something that has an internal aspect and you are not recognizingthat. (end of lecture) (end)